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Atlantis Chronicles – Nera

With the simultaneous explosion of popularity in both video games and streaming, the phenomenon of speedrunning has never been more popular than it is now, with pro speedrunners streaming their attempts live for curious fans to watch at home. Speedrunning…

Journeyman’s Progress – Journeyman’s Progress Part One [plus interview with Steve Anderson]

Enjoyable and diverse instrumental debut solo album from guitarist and songwriter Steve Anderson of The Room. A journeyman is the term given to a craftsman who is between an apprentice and a master craftsman. It is therefore a suitably modest…

Knekklectric – Alt Blir Verre

Knekklectric are another fantastic find from Bergen, Norway. It seems to be a hotbed of creativity, and this is a delight. Alt Blir Verre (Everything Gets Worse) is their third full album, and I can confidently confirm that the sentiment…

J. Peter Schwalm / Stephan Thelen – Transneptunian Planets

‘Transneptunian’ is the term given to “any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has a semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units”, and so would include Pluto (the opening…

The Aristocrats – The Aristocrats with Primuz Chamber Orchestra

The Aristocrats unfreeze themselves from pandemic mode with their first studio album since 2019, ahead of a US tour. Nothing particularly strange about that, perhaps, but this is an album that appears to have happened almost by accident. In a…

National Diet – The Noon Hour

National Diet is a music project formed by self-confessed “Prog rock nerds” Jake Rose (Rainbow Face) and Conner Reilly (Mercury Tree, Rainbow Face, Nick Prol), their aim being to create songs which are melodic and complex. The songs are written…

Ufomammut – Fenice

This is a review of Ufomammut’s latest album, Fenice, but I’m going to begin by writing about an earlier one. That might seem a strange thing to do, but it feels right for me. My descent into the dark and…

Geoffrey Feakes – 1973: A Year in Progressive Rock / Richard Rees Jones – Peter Hammill On Track: Every Album, Every Song

Sonicbond’s series of books by amateur music enthusiasts continues with these two volumes, and before I go any further, I would simply say that the many and mostly, if not all, amateur enthusiasts, are all far more disciplined than me.…

Pryzme – Four Inches

Pryzme hail from Rennes in France, and the amusingly titled Four Inches is their debut album. Why Four Inches? Well, I guess it’s catchier than 10.16 centimetres. Odd album titles aside, this is an impressive piece of work, exploring the…

Ghost Of The Machine – Scissorgames

The first album from a brand new band, particularly one that chooses the rarefied pastures of prog to sew their seeds, is always going to be a defining one, and for the relatively small (but perfectly formed) audience, it is…