I’m old enough to remember a time when cover art was incredibly important. A time before the Interweb, where walking into a record store, the first thing you might know about an artist would be the impression received from the…
View More Turtle Skull – Monoliths
Stellar pianist Gary Husband was on tour as a guest player with Stick Men (Tony Levin, Pat Mastelotto, and Markus Reuter) in Japan, when, due to the sudden lockdown as a result of Covid-19, the tour was abruptly cancelled. Temporarily…
View More Gary Husband & Markus Reuter – Music Of Our Times
New Zealand band Coridian released their third EP this year, from a series of four – each loosely conceptually based on one of the four classical elements. Each EP has been longer than the previous, so the final one (hopefully…
View More Coridian – Eldur
“The songs were all from very different backgrounds, but because they were played in pubs, it got called ‘pub rock’ by the music press. It wasn’t a specific music, other than that there were no lengthy, tedious solos. It was…
View More Surrender To The Rhythm: The London Pub Rock Scene of the Seventies
Tomorrow is Delayed. Could there be any more appropriate album title this year? The world is on hiatus. Parts of it are coming, cautiously, out of lockdown. Postponements of events are the norm. Even this review was delayed. I received…
View More Professor Tip Top – Tomorrow Is Delayed
The long-running Deutschrock originals celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2018, and on the last day of this merry year, band leader and drummer extraordinaire Mani Neumeier will be a mere 80 years young. In between those two anniversaries, on 19th…
View More Guru Guru – Live In China
One of the more unique and rewarding releases of 2020, Tom Warrior’s long-gestating Requiem finally comes to fruition on this beautifully rendered live recording from Roadburn 2019. Thanks to the sponsorship of Walter Hoeijmakers (founder of the Roadburn festival) and…
View More Triptykon with the Metropole Orkest – Requiem (Live at Roadburn 2019)
Pixie Ninja follow up their highly successful 2018 debut album Ultrasound with this excellent new second album, Colours Out of Space, continuing to strengthen my belief that great music still flows out of Norway. There is a change of personal…
View More Pixie Ninja – Colour Out of Space
Let’s face it, 2020 has been a totally CRAP Year… it will not be remembered fondly by most and will be the cause of much sadness for too many. In times like these we really need special things in our…
View More Abel Ganz – The Life of the Honey Bee and Other Moments of Clarity
Steve Howe – Yes, Asia, guitar legend… no further introduction needed or offered. According to the press release Love Is is his “first solo album since the all-instrumental Time in 2011”, although in the interim period there have been two…
View More Steve Howe – Love Is