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
The original Nirvana were a U.K. psych-pop band built around Irishman Patrick Campbell-Lyons and Alex Spyropoulos, who unsurprisingly came from Greece. They had a couple of minor hits in the late ’60s, most notably with Rainbow Chaser, and had their…
View More Nirvana – Local Anaesthetic / Songs of Love and Praise
Esoteric have released this re-mastered and expanded edition of Barclay James Harvest’s (BJH) album XII, which was the follow up to the successful Gone to Earth. The original release, on the Polydor label in 1978, helped to consolidate their success…
View More Barclay James Harvest – XII (3 Disc Deluxe Edition)
If you’ve ever been bitten by the record collecting bug then you’ll know that certain records on your wants list remain elusive. In my case one such was Death May Be Your Santa Claus by the very underground and rather…
View More Second Hand – Death May Be Your Santa Claus
Another release from rock’s lesser known back pages by Esoteric Recordings, and another raid on my Vertigo spiral collection gives me a chance to wax lyrical over the self-titled album by Clear Blue Sky, which was another of those cut…
View More Clear Blue Sky – Clear Blue Sky
Tim Blake is back! Or at least he was at the turn of the millennium. In fact, besides 1991’s Magick, Blake’s discography had been dormant ever since 1978’s Blake’s New Jerusalem. Nevertheless, it’s not uncommon to see older prog artists…
View More Tim Blake – The Tide of the Century
Patto – Roll ’em Smoke ’em Put Another Line Out Judging by the chaotic, unfocused but nonetheless glorious mess that this album is, it would seem its title was instructional rather than allegorical. Weirdly described by Rolling Stone at the…
View More Patto – Roll ’em Smoke ’em Put Another Line Out / Monkey’s Bum