There are some artists who are prolific enough that I sometimes struggle to keep up. I’m not talking about Buckethead levels of releases, where quantity far outweighs quality (the gems in his vast discography lost in a sea of mediocrity),…
View More Ángel Ontalva – Angel on a Tower
Just over six months after the release of their last album, Common Ground, there is another new studio album from Big Big Train, their fourteenth. Maybe a little quick, but the band explains that they wanted to take advantage of…
View More Big Big Train – Welcome To The Planet
Tales From A Misspent Youth is the latest fascinating exploration into rock heritage from Clive Mitten, the former main song writer of legendary ’80s cult progressive rock band Twelfth Night. Following his remarkable 2021 release Suite Cryptique: Recomposing Twelfth Night…
View More Clive Mitten – Tales From A Misspent Youth: Volume I
When I read the announcement of a new album from the Nordic Giants it raised my interest, having previously reviewed their documentary/soundtrack project album Amplify Human Vibration for TPA and also a concert on their 2017 tour. The duo blew…
View More Nordic Giants – Symbiosis
Jonas Lindberg may well be an unfamiliar name to many of you (it was to me), but that should change very soon, because his talent as displayed on this latest album Miles From Nowhere is undeniable. In fact, Jonas Lindberg…
View More Jonas Lindberg & The Other Side – Miles From Nowhere
The name Vast Conduit may at first sight appear somewhat ungainly, but it is appropriate for the fortuitous circumstances in which this new band, built around Enchant keyboardist Bill Jenkins, came into being. Nominally based in California, the sextet are…
View More Vast Conduit – Always Be There
2019 was a year in which a number of legendary bands celebrated their 50th anniversary. For example Yes, Jethro Tull and King Crimson were among the jubilees. The British symphonic rock group Renaissance also celebrated the occasion of five decades…
View More Renaissance – 50th Anniversary: Ashes Are Burning – An Anthology Live In Concert
In late 2020, I reviewed the debut album from Compassionizer. Anyone who read that review will know that the files I reviewed from were not fully titled, so I was perhaps coming to the music from a different angle than…
View More Compassionizer – An Ambassador in Bonds
I wasn’t previously familiar with Sky Cries Mary, a psychedelic outfit from Seattle, but they’ve been going for over 30 years (with a short hiatus in the early 2000s) and this is their thirteenth album, and fourth for Trail Records.…
View More Sky Cries Mary – Wandering in the Vastness
The power of music is a curious thing. Sometimes it takes just one album to open up my mind and ears to something that then consumes me. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it hits hard. Though I’m…
View More Dead Space Chamber Music – The Black Hours