French progressive rock outfit Lazuli has very recently released a new, special album entitled Dénudé, meaning ‘stripped’ or ‘naked’, appropriate for these sixteen unplugged versions recorded in 2020, selected from the band’s first eight studio albums. These ‘undressed’ songs, acoustic…
View More Lazuli – Dénudé
The dearth of live music over the last year has meant many beloved annual events have not taken place. The last gig I was able to attend before the world went tits up was the magnificent 10 Years of Chaos…
View More Various – 11 Years of Chaos
Italian producer, composer and guitarist Corrado Rustici may not be a household name but having worked with some of the biggest names in the music business during a near 50-year career, there is no doubting his calibre. A founder member…
View More Corrado Rustici – Interfulgent
Time is a blurry concept to me after months of a covid changed world. I believe we are now in the year 2021, but I continue to find gems from 2020. After immediately becoming enamoured with Deadburger’s La Chiamata from…
View More Yosonu – Namastereo
1976 – the Drought Year. I was 15, spending my hard-earned paper round money on some of the many interesting albums released that year. A prime one for me was the Gabriel-free Genesis and A Trick of the Tail, but…
View More Al Stewart – The Year of the Cat [45th Anniversary Edition]
‘Blah, Rhubarb, Blah…’, as Clive Mitten used to say in Fact and Fiction. Some performers endlessly regurgitate their most popular moments, living off past glories and memories, and some artists move on, relentlessly exploring new territory, expressing themselves in different…
View More Clive Mitten – Suite Cryptique: Recomposing Twelfth Night 1978-1983
I very rarely quote from a band’s own description, but in the case of this gc / nc album, Deprecated, I feel it is almost unavoidable. I could direct you to look at the cover art, but it doesn’t explain…
View More gc / nc – Deprecated
For some, there’s always time for nostalgia. Some psychologists believe nostalgia serves a purpose, especially in our hectic, connected world. It empowers our belief in “the good old days”. It’s a form of escapism and who doesn’t need a bit…
View More Classix Nouveaux – The Liberty Recordings (1981-1983)
As seems to be the way with a lot of maturing extreme metal bands these days, French duo Crown have toned down the excesses and accentuated the texturing to come up with a work that can be readily enjoyed beyond…
View More Crown – The End Of All Things
You can tell that an unusual mindset is at the heart of this new album. Holes opens with a stream of consciousness sparked off by a hole in a solar panel that was deeply troubling Graham Browning at the time,…
View More Fowl – Humankindweed