There is an exhilarating moment of revelation, approximately three and a half minutes into Stars and Satellites, the fifth track on this new album from Threshold, where the building crescendo in the wall of sound abruptly halts, leaving just an…
View More Threshold – Legends of the Shires
White Star Records are currently riding the energetic crest of an impressively creative wave. After the release of Kepler Ten’s blistering debut album Delta-V in February, co-founders John Mitchell and Chris Hillman made the supremely shrewd move of signing ex-Touchstone…
View More Kim Seviour – Recovery is Learning
Victoria and Albert Museum, London Running to Sunday 1st October 2017 A healthy queue greets my arrival at the magnificent Victoria and Albert Museum. Having played around with the online booking system, it was pleasing – and a little surprising…
View More Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains [Exhibition]
‘Haunting’ is a word which is frequently used in relation to a number of progressive albums, signalling a disquieting and lingering sense of presence which inhabits and permeates the music, bringing with it associated feelings of wistful nostalgia, the pain…
View More Bjørn Riis – Forever Comes to an End
The call to arms comes in many guises. None, I suspect, have come with such sublime clarity of vision or such chilling emotional discernment than the passionately crafted debut album On Track from Damanek. The warm embrace of the sumptuous…
View More Damanek – On Track
Javi Herrera’s website contains the rather delightful disclaimer that Kant Freud Kafka is not actually related to these three philosophers but is “just a joke amongst friends”. After all, he says, “throwing a bit of good humor to prog rock…
View More Kant Freud Kafka – Onírico
A graceful serenity peacefully descends as you listen to Through the Fire. The hectic sounds of life’s frenetic bustle gradually fade to a distant murmur, replaced by the gentle embrace of a calming, tranquil spirit which enfolds you with its…
View More Renaissance Illusion – Through the Fire
Sub89, Reading Thursday 28th April 2017 I rather like Sub89 as a venue. Whilst the public image it portrays tends to focus on its use as a thriving night club, it is nevertheless quietly acquiring a growing reputation as a…
View More Lonely Robot – The Big Dream Album Launch
Alan Reed’s enthralling second album takes a little while for the uncomfortably menacing significance of its title to make itself felt and understood. Fiercely passionate and enticingly absorbing, the experience it delivers is brutally uncompromising. Much like the iron fist…
View More Alan Reed – Honey on the Razors Edge
Time and public perception have been neither kind nor entirely fair to Phil Collins. A hugely impressive song-writer, musician, performer and (to a lesser extent) actor, his prolific success in the mid ’90s made him an almost perpetual presence on…
View More Phil Collins – Not Dead Yet