Released in 1989, I was introduced to Slow Dance via the Woolworth’s bargain section where I picked up the cassette for 50 pence. And so, it slipped into my consciousness, well in this case semi-consciousness – bedtime listening. Relaxed, I…
View More Anthony Phillips – Slow Dance: Remastered & Expanded Deluxe Edition
My wife and I have quite opposite views on how one should go on holiday. I like to be up at 8AM, out the door by 9AM, and doing as much as the day allows when I’m in a new…
View More Tim Blake – Caldea Music II
For a few years now, Esoteric has been widening its furrows, letting in much more than what the average fan might consider “progressive rock”. I sometimes worry that they are straying too far from their original grounds, but the results…
View More Michael McGear – Woman
Ouch! Make sure you have your headphones turned down, as the blastoff at the beginning of Departure, the first track on Austrian artist Gandalf’s 1980 debut album Journey to an Imaginary Land, is somewhat deafening. But it’s an ideal starting…
View More Gandalf – Journey to an Imaginary Land / To Another Horizon / Magic Theatre
This rather fabulous box set contains every track that Stray recorded for Transatlantic over a five year tenure with the label, encompassing five full album, various B-sides and a few obscure rarities, generously spread across 4 CDs and with a…
View More Stray – All In Your Mind (The Transatlantic Years 1970-1974)
This is a 2017 Esoteric remastered reissue of three albums that made up the ‘Art in Music Trilogy’ from 1999, these were The Sculptor, The Artist and Sketches, and although each stands alone they are thematically linked in that each…
View More Rick Wakeman – Art In Music Trilogy
A Day in the Life of a Universal Wanderer was Gandalf’s Fist’s fourth album, released in 2013. An enjoyable sci-fi musical romp based on signals from a stricken vessel on the edge of a wormhole and assembled by “the best…
View More Gandalf’s Fist – A Day in the Life of a Universal Wanderer (Special Edition)
With news of a new studio album from Alan Emslie scheduled for late 2018 and with the new re-mastered editions of his first four releases appearing in April this year, it seems a timely opportunity to revisit the early years.…
View More Alan Emslie – Floating | Emotive Bay | Driven Heavy | Dark Matter
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a prog album recorded in the 1970s must be in want of a Steven Wilson remix. Nowhere is that more true than with the Gentle Giant catalogue, in which complex, challenging compositions and…
View More Gentle Giant – Three Piece Suite (The Steven Wilson Remixes)
When searching for your next prog fix, you can never tell when you’ll uncover a true gem. You certainly can’t expect it to come from a tiny record shop in Bayswater priced at a measly £5. And yet here I…
View More Touch – Touch