At the start of 1976, UFO were a band on the way up. Since acquiring the services of the young guitar maestro Michael Schenker in June 1973, they had recorded two well received albums, Phenomenon and Force It, produced by…
View More UFO – No Heavy Petting [Deluxe Expanded Edition]
Japan has been an important part of the worldwide Progressive music scene pretty much since the beginning. You can trace the history back to seminal live albums like Made in Japan by Deep Purple and Live in Japan by Chicago,…
View More Aqanesuss – Aqanesuss
Unless you are a long-time subscriber to Prog Line, a fantastic YouTube channel that posts full albums by obscure prog bands from times gone by, there’s a very good chance you’ve never heard of thisOneness, the Minnesota band who released…
View More thisOneness – The Story of thisOneness
With a couple of years gap, Portland (Oregon) based multi-instrumentalist Daniel Crommie reappeared on my radar in 2022 with Two of A Kind, a collaborative album featuring violinist Leslie Gray. Since then Daniel has released five solo and/or collaborative albums…
View More Daniel Crommie – Perihelion Chronicle / Journey to the Aphelion
Back in the seventies, the epitome of having “made it” (and maybe a bit of self-congratulatory excess) was the release of a triple vinyl live album. Some of the more notable examples are Yes’ Yessongs, ELP’s Welcome Back My Friends…,…
View More The Tangent – Pyramids, Stars & Other Stories: The Tangent Live Recordings 2004 – 2017
Based on the members of this supergroup, I should be a big fan of Transatlantic. Two of the best gigs I’ve ever been to were Flying Colors at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, which was immortalised on record as Third Stage: Live…
View More Transatlantic – The Final Flight: Live at L’Olympia
Some albums surprise and enchant you. Still by Glen Brielle was handed to me at the splendid Abel Ganz curated Prog Before Christmas event, in Glasgow last November, by Hugh Carter with a polite request to review his first solo…
View More Glen Brielle – Still
Every once in a while, reviewing an album presents a conundrum. Richard Dawson’s latest release, The Ruby Cord, is a case in point. Having released his first album in 2007, Dawson seems to have largely aligned with the freak folk…
View More Richard Dawson – The Ruby Cord
Progzilla Radio continues to be ruinous on my bank balance, another recent discovery being Fluctus Quadratum. Formed in 2019 in Heathfield, East Sussex, the sound is centred on synths and other keyboards, courtesy of a young man by the name…
View More Fluctus Quadratum – The First Wave [EP]
I practically leapt at the chance to have an early listen to Making Shore, the latest release by the progressive rock supergroup Damanek. And that leap of faith was thoroughly and satisfyingly rewarded! This is sumptuous, literary, cinematic, compelling, and…
View More Damanek – Making Shore