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
Works, Volume 1 [2017 Remaster] By Leo Trimming “Welcome Back my Friends to the Show that Never Ends” is a phrase forever associated with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, the legendary progressive rock supergroup. Apart from being the title of their…
View More Emerson Lake & Palmer – Works, Vol.1 / Works, Vol.2 / Love Beach [2017 Remasters]
Think 1969, and you’ll be thinking of the genesis (pardon me) of many great prog acts, some might even say the progressive movement in general. Unfortunately, Little Free Rock was not to become one of these acts, due to poor…
View More Little Free Rock – Little Free Rock
Prog writer and Whitley Bay enthusiast Sid Smith recently divulged that his desert island Gong album was 1973’s Flying Teapot. Of course, he was wrong to write that, as the best Gong album, from a subjective and objective point view,…
View More Tim Blake – Crystal Machine / Blake’s New Jerusalem
Esoteric have a knack for finding the most obscure records that only bear a passing resemblance or connection to progressive rock. At first glance, The Road seems like an overblown religious folk concept album. And even though this still rings…
View More Quiet World – The Road
Like most “underground” bands of the turn of the ’60s into the ’70s, Patto emerged butterfly-like from the chrysalis of an earlier pop group. Timebox were a band who specialised in dance-orientated Motown and R&B covers, and even had a…
View More Patto – Patto/Hold Your Fire
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