Esoteric certainly know where to look when choosing content to reissue. These two releases from Welsh outfit Eyes of Blue come from 1969 – the dawn of the progressive era – and show the band pioneering the infantile genre. The…
View More Eyes Of Blue – Crossroads of Time / In Fields of Ardath
Remedy Lane has long been lauded as Pain of Salvation’s finest hour, it’s their Close to the Edge, if you like, and as per the latter, there was often the question asked, “why don’t they do something like it again”.…
View More Pain of Salvation – Remedy Lane Re:visited (Re:mixed & Re:lived)
In such strident and turbulent times it perhaps timely to consider this album of gentle pastoral and whimsical calm by one of the founding members of Genesis, Anthony Phillips. Wise After the Event, released in 1978, was Anthony Phillips’ second…
View More Anthony Phillips – Wise After the Event (Deluxe Edition)
… It turns out that Exeter University spawned yet another fascinating prog offering: Principal Edwards Magic Theatre. Forming a little earlier than Fuchsia, this band moved to Kettering, Northamptonshire, in their early years. Astonishingly, I have links to Kettering too,…
View More Principal Edwards – Round One
Fuchsia might just be one of Esoteric’s most intriguing releases! Formed in 1971 at Exeter University, this prog folk outfit was made up of six students in total, three boys and three girls. The boys played on rock instruments while…
View More Fuchsia – Fuchsia
My brother (who has 2 years on me) is the obsessive Yes addict and the copy of Six Wives was his. He was at boarding school and I wasn’t, so much of his record collection stayed at home for me…
View More Rick Wakeman – The Six Wives of Henry VIII: Deluxe Edition
Hawkwind are a band that really need no introduction, but if you’re looking for one, this 5CD boxset ain’t the place to start. Hawkwind – The Flicknife Years (1981 – 1988) is Atomhenge’s rather neat solution to release all of…
View More Hawkwind – The Flicknife Years (1981 – 1988)
“30 years down the line and we’re still hanging on!” is the opening line of Stuart Nicholson’s sleeve notes for this outstanding set encompassing Galahad’s career, summing up their tenacity, commitment and a sense of their own self-deprecating humour. However,…
View More Galahad – When Worlds Collide
New York avant-garde luminary Joe Byrd had been the leader of pioneering ’60s electronica band The United States of America until given the heave-ho by his own creation. His riposte was to create this in turns beguiling and bizarre album,…
View More Joe Byrd And The Field Hippies – The American Metaphysical Circus
A five CD retrospective re-release of the early works of Anthony Phillips; a daunting task for any reviewer made worse by recently having met the gentleman concerned. He was charming, so I will with the music in my ears be…
View More Anthony Phillips – Private Parts & Pieces I-IV