Do you remember back in the early ’80s when a young Swedish guitarist shook the world afresh with his flashy yet technically very accurate and fast neo-classical stylings with mixolydian and phrygian scales and runs? His playing spawned a plethora…
View More Elmo Karjalainen – Age of Heroes / Where We Belong (Acoustic)
Like most “underground” bands of the turn of the ’60s into the ’70s, Patto emerged butterfly-like from the chrysalis of an earlier pop group. Timebox were a band who specialised in dance-orientated Motown and R&B covers, and even had a…
View More Patto – Patto/Hold Your Fire
“Hello, is that the police? I’d like to report some missing guitar. No, not my guitars. They’re not worth anything, especially the classical guitar I bought from Lidl. No, the victim is Jarkka Rissanen and Sons of the Desert. I’ve…
View More Jarkka Rissanen & Sons of the Desert – Hybrid Soul
This Italian band, from Genoa, play a hectic mix containing all the correct prog influences, that on the frantic opening mini-epic Athletics sounds like Yes on a potent mix of uppers and Viagra. With its manic twists and turns and…
View More Promenade – Noi al dir di Noi
Most people might currently know Rikard Sjöblom as multi-instrumentalist with Big Big Train, but he was also the driving force behind the wonderful Beardfish for 15 years before the band unfortunately came to an end in 2016. This has not…
View More Rikard Sjöblom’s Gungfly – On Her Journey To The Sun
I may be using genres to describe music in this review… If you’re not familiar with John Bassett then you are missing out on a prolific and varied output in a number of guises from this talented multi-instrumentalist. Check out…
View More SΔCRED ΔPE – SΔCRED ΔPE
Arcane Atlas are a band from Brentwood, Tennessee in the U.S.A. and this is their second album. It features five songs, the opening Metris Tsemär being a 26-minute conceptual piece about a dictator of that name and his evil ways.…
View More Arcane Atlas – Metris
In my long experience of modern prog I have come to the conclusion that there are three variants that apply in the vast majority of cases when one is presented with the long form piece. “What are they, then?”, you…
View More Pat Mastelotto & Markus Reuter – FACE
Hardly a week seems to go by at the moment without the announcement of a new album from or involving German composer, Touch guitarist and electronica wiz Markus Reuter. In the last few months we’ve had the essential (and free…
View More Markus Reuter feat. SONAR & Tobias Reber – Falling For Ascension
Every now and again in the grind of ‘Real Life’ something special happens and it makes you think to yourself “That’s what life is about… that’s why we keep ploughing on, just for those moments”, whether it is a wonderful…
View More Barock Project – Detachment