After completing the review of Seattle band Odd Logic’s Effigy and discussing interview questions with Sean Thompson, the band’s lead singer, I asked him if he had any other suggestions of bands from the Seattle area that he thought I…
View More A Sense of Gravity – Atrament
If there’s an award for album title of the year, this wins it, surely? Arising like a mutant bastard love child of Guru Guru and Acid Mothers Temple from the putrid swamp at the mouth of the River Mersey, Zen…
View More Earthling Society – Zen Bastard
The Air is Sweet with Hope and Joy These uplifting words come from Mystical Mountain, the opening song of Phillip the Egg, the mystifyingly titled third release by Magic Bus. They sum up the positive and joyful atmosphere of the…
View More Magic Bus – Phillip The Egg
I was not familiar with Marvin B. Naylor prior to catching his set at last year’s Eppyfest in Stroud, and what an enjoyable performance it was, his 12-string guitar and high register voice carrying the audience away on a spacey…
View More Marvin B. Naylor – The Spiral Sky
The Power of One is the latest release from Vancouver-based progressive rock/metal band OmnisighT. Musically, the album has an overall classic ’80s/’90s sound that is melodic with big hooks and technical guitar solos. The album’s strength lies in the band’s…
View More OmnisighT – The Power of One
Another band following in the currently popular minimalist jazz fusion tradition, the Swiss group AKKU Quintet make music that is at one and the same time glacial and precise, yet human and emotional. The plaintive conversation between piano and guitar…
View More AKKU Quintet – Aeon
When it was announced that Swedish progressive music pioneers Isildurs Bane and Steve Hogarth, Marillion’s vocalist, had come together for a musical collaboration my interest was notched up quite a bit. Isildurs Bane have been around in progressive music circle…
View More Isildurs Bane & Steve Hogarth – Colours Not Found in Nature
Nooumena, with their odd name derived from Greek philosophy, hail from Caen in France and Controlled Freaks is their second album, the first, Argument With Eagerness, came out in 2011. They have close connections to fellow Caen avant-prog band Rhùn…
View More Nooumena – Controlled Freaks
This second album from Naryan, a self-described “Melancholic” seven-piece from Finland, is a strange listen. The use of multi-instrumentalists with violin, flute and orchestration makes for a varied and powerful large-scale sound, and they obviously go for emotions and feeling…
View More Naryan – Black Letters
Following on from the pleasant discovery, late last year, of the rather intriguing Cubic album from LITE, I noted that regular touring partners were fellow countrymen and Tokyo based trio, Mouse on the Keys. At the time I remember checking…
View More Mouse on the Keys – Out of Body [EP]