Strange as it may seem memories are not permanent and immutable. We define ourselves by memories, which can be triggered by the seemingly most trivial or incidental of thoughts, such as smells or sounds, and yet the mundane can carry…
View More Cosmograf – When Age Has Done Its Duty (2018 Remix)
They live! They live! Goblin are reborn – hence the name – with the original rhythm section on a fabulous live album that pumps 2,000 volts into the band’s classic instrumentals. Recorded live in Rome in 2010, Alive can be…
View More Goblin Rebirth – Alive
Now eleven albums into their genre defying 20 year career, Umphrey’s Mcgee are a difficult band to pin down. Their live shows have always been the focal point, and with well over 2,000 performed to date, they know what their…
View More Umphrey’s McGee – It’s not us
The fourth album from Norwegian sonic explorers Major Parkinson arrived in November last year on Degaton Records, who seem to have connections with the always interesting Karisma Records label, and that is what attracted me to this in the first…
View More Major Parkinson – Blackbox
You have to be brave and somewhat foolhardy as a band to try and penetrate the world of prog-metal, a genre that is oversaturated with Dream Theater soundalikes and where musical skill, above all else, is valued. It doesn’t pay…
View More Noēsis – The Current
It’s been rather a few years since I last listened to Magnum, a band pretty familiar to me from my youth in Birmingham, where they were a steady fixture and a perennial support, but gradually after many years built their…
View More Magnum – Lost On The Road To Eternity
In November 2015 I reviewed Simon Godfrey’s Black Bag Archive, Volume I, a collection of salvaged tracks from unfinished projects. This was followed in February 2017 by Black Bag Archive, Volume II, a mixed-black-bag of old and new. I liked…
View More Simon Godfrey – Black Bag Archive, Volume III
Schnellertollermeier, house band at the court of the neo-brutalist regime, and makers of music to accompany Salvador Dali’s darkest thoughts, return nearly two years after the fearsome X to punish your ears with another fistful of their precise but punishing…
View More Schnellertollermeier – Rights
There are artists, there are conceptual artists, and then there is Elk Minister, a man on the cusp of a year in which he plans to release 26 albums – yes, that’s one every two weeks! – during a period…
View More Elk Minister – Capricorn
This is an odd but somewhat intriguing album in many respects as this is the latest album from the band that evolved in 1968 to become Yes. They have since reconvened and started to record again, using certain ex-Yes members,…
View More Mabel Greer’s Toyshop – The Secret