“When the world was dreaming There was magic in the air Where thoughts and feelings become reality.” Tony Lowe’s ESP Project is founded on a deceptively simple yet utterly remarkable vision. The lyric above, from the Carier Wave section of…
View More ESP Project – Reverie
O2 Arena, London Tuesday, 6th June 2023 Everything is meticulously planned: nothing – absolutely nothing – is left to chance. From the occasional rumbles of distant thunder echoing around the arena as we entered, to the overt countdown at 15,…
View More Roger Waters – This is Not a Drill
Yes, yes: I know. Please don’t look at me like that. It’s not prog. Allegedly. I blame Graham Norton. It’s all his fault. I only tuned in to his show to see Hugh Jackman, Judi Dench, Paul Rudd, Eugene Levy,…
View More P!nk – Trustfall
Twenty-seven years after their 1995 album, Safe, Poland’s widely revered – even iconic – band Collage return with a fifth new studio album, Over and Out. The engine room of the band remains the same – Krzysztof Palczewski on synthesisers,…
View More Collage – Over and Out
Oh, my goodness me, yes! I haven’t rocked out to an Arena album since the truly magnificent The Seventh Degree of Separation (2011). It’s not that The Unquiet Sky (2015) and Double Vision (2018) don’t have their moments, but The…
View More Arena – The Theory of Molecular Inheritance
Time is not, as popular legend now has it, a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. Rather, time is actually that which is needed for things to change. It speaks of movement from the past, into the present,…
View More Alta Forma – Spatium & Tempus
Framed in the simplicity of a black and white cover, eight gnarled, contorted faces reach out to seize your imagination; gaping mouths silently scream outpourings of unfathomable emotions, inexpressible anguish, frustrations beyond the limits of endurance, indescribable despairs, merciless torments,…
View More Imaginary Kings – Monsters Lament
Sometimes an album simply doesn’t resonate. No matter how ardent a fan of the band you may be, irrespective of the number of listens you give it in the increasingly forlorn hope of discovering the sprinkling of magic which will…
View More Pymlico – Supermassive
There is something irresistibly infectious about Poets of the Fall. I had the pleasure of meeting the band in Berlin in 2012 as part of the Temple of Thought tour, courtesy of my then teenage son who’s fanatical passion for…
View More Poets Of The Fall – Ghostlight
A sumptuous musical feast. In many respects we have come to expect nothing less from ESP Project; luscious layers of exquisitely textured melodies are the hallmarks of the beautifully refined musical experiences with which each release alluringly embraces and caresses…
View More ESP Project – Anarchic Curves