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
A gentle piano intro, and the voice intoning a complex and odd melody, “picking melodies out of the black and fumy air” indeed. Then, something stirs, crashing chords, strident bass and drums, and a synth melody soaring aloft; yes friends,…
View More I Am The Manic Whale – Things Unseen
New music from Green Carnation has long been awaited by many. It’s been twenty years since their debut, and almost fifteen since their most recent release. Leaves of Yesteryear is an absolutely outstanding return to form, and a major statement…
View More Green Carnation – Leaves of Yesteryear
Marco Minnemann has been my favourite drummer for many years now, always exciting, everything he does is worthy of attention, and this debut album with guitarist and songwriter Randy McStine is no exception. The duo take on multi-instrumentalist roles to…
View More McStine & Minnemann – McStine & Minnemann
There is lots to be excited about with classic rock veterans Kansas’ latest effort, The Absence of Presence. First, the album marks a milestone in that it’s been 50 years since the band formed in 1970 in Topeka, Kansas. Second,…
View More Kansas – The Absence of Presence
With a band name like that, it’s easy to get attention, and for all the wrong reasons. Admittedly, I only gave this a once over because of the name, half expecting to turn it off once the Bible-thumping started. The…
View More Revolutionary Army of the Infant Jesus – Songs Of Yearning/Nocturnes