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Magma – Kãrtëhl

The history of Magma can be traced right back to 1969, and during that time they have forged their own path with consistency and dedication. To describe their music to a new listener is difficult as they sit in their…

Versa – A Voyage / A Destination

This album from Canadian band Versa, A Voyage / A Destination, is their third (and first for a decade) but the first I have heard, and I suspect I’m not alone in being new to them. Approaching the album with…

Solstice – Light Up

Back in late 2020, Solstice joyously re-emerged onto the music scene with their most uplifting album, Sia, just at the time the World needed a tonic from the ravages and lockdowns of Covid-19. When I reviewed that album, there were…

Grice – Polarchoral

It’s been an emotional few weeks, and the new album due from Grice, Polarchoral, is the right vessel to draw together those emotions. This is closer to the norms of The Pineapple Thief or Porcupine Tree, both of whose recent…

Rosalie Cunningham & Band - photo by Rosamund Tomlins

Rosalie Cunningham / The Tuppenny Bunters

Black Frog Presents at Chelmsford Social Club, Chelmsford Friday, 7th October 2022 On a windswept and rainy night, a potentially trepidatious trip, with the ever present vagaries of train travel, out to the Essex town of Chelmsford beckoned for the…

Poly-Math – Zenith

The biggest take-away for me from the Portals Festival in May was Poly-Math. Their half-hour set was an object listen in how to play an eviscerating set of complex and edgy instrumental music whilst keeping it engaging and entertaining. The…

Magenta – The White Witch: A Symphonic Trilogy

It is the time of Halloween, a time for Ghosts, Ghouls, Wizards and Witches, a perfect time for Magenta to release their rather different and ambitious new album, The White Witch – A Symphonic Trilogy. Magenta unveil a retelling and…

Marillion / June Road

Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, Eindhoven, Netherlands Thursday, 20th October 2022 I love seeing bands outside the UK, it’s usually a very different experience, and a smashing Christmas pres from a wonderful wife has led us to Eindhoven for Marillion’s second night…

Galahad – The Last Great Adventurer

Galahad are back, and they really have produced the goods on The Last Great Adventurer. It was about halfway through the scintillating Blood, Skin and Bone, as Stuart Nicholson sings passionately about what unites us all as human beings, and…

Lazuli

The Cavern Club, Liverpool Tuesday, 11th October 2022 Nineteen months ago, a van carrying a band of musicians and their instruments was heading north from Southampton to Liverpool when they received an urgent message. Due to the continuing rapid spread…