My Nektar collection has looked rather like a piece of Swiss cheese recently, but slowly and surely, Esoteric has been plugging the gaps. The reputation of each Nektar album is uncannily similar to that of the Star Trek film series,…
View More Nektar – Down To Earth: Remastered & Expanded [4CD Edition]
Mountain’s imposing, statuesque lead guitarist Leslie West is often mentioned as a key early influencer by musicians, many of whom went on to have much more commercial success, longevity, and ultimately left more of a musical legacy than Leslie himself.…
View More Mountain – Don’t Look Around: The Recordings 1969-1974 (7CD Boxset)
Guy Chadwick, weary voiced romantic songsmith of great repute, was never someone who gave the impression of being “a fucking lunatic” but that’s how Creation main man Alan McGhee affectionately describes the leader of The House Of Love on the…
View More The House Of Love – The House Of Love [Double Transparent Vinyl]
Music cannot be divorced from its context; if Starcastle had released their debut album a decade earlier, in 1966, they would be hailed as prog-rock visionaries and not Yes clones. Procol Harum, named after their friend’s cat’s pedigree name, may…
View More Procol Harum – Procol Harum (Vinyl Edition: LP & 12″ EP)
Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint continues to revive, remix and reissue classic and forgotten prog releases. Amongst them, at the start of 2026, we have IQ’s Live From London release which has circulated in various official and bootleg versions since…
View More IQ – Live From London: Camden Palace 1985 (CD/Blu-ray)
The onslaught of Nektar reissues is incessant, but I, dear reader, will be your faithful companion as we navigate the barrage. Two years ago, I was less than impressed with the group’s live offering Journey to the Other Side, celebrating…
View More Nektar – Fortyfied (2CD Edition)
This is full circle for me. After years of discovering and rediscovering Nektar classics, I’m finally back with the album that began my collection, the band’s symphonic second outing from 1972. It was my starting place because it was the…
View More Nektar – A Tab In The Ocean (Deluxe 5 Disc Limited Edition)
Thea Gilmore has made 21 albums, and counting, across a diverse range of genres we can summarise as folk rock. The first, Burning Dorothy, was released in 1998, and a further six followed before we reach the period covered by this…
View More Thea Gilmore – My Own Private Riot 2008-2015 (7CD Boxset)
Upon its initial release in 2011, Fly From Here, the first of the new millennium Yes albums not to feature vocalist Jon Anderson, received a critical reception that was, shall we say, less than stellar. The only studio album to…
View More Yes – Fly From Here (Return Trip)
Posthumous releases can be a mixed bag. Some are essential for true fans, and some seem rather more like barrel scraping. The newly expanded Sea Dream by legends Spirit is closer to the former, (though it couldn’t be described as…
View More Spirit – Sea Dream (4CD Expanded Edition)