Mahoujin - Babylonia Suite (1978)

The one and only album from this Japanese power trio.

Well, we are not talking hard rock here. We are not talking Rush copycat. Far from it. Their setup is exactly the same as ELP with a keyboardist, bassist and drummer. Though with Japanese names and a story nobody but themselves knows. There is not much info on this band.

Their music is in the same vein as ELP and the first Triumvirat albums. That is cascades of keyboards supported by bass and drums. Which frankly is not the most interesting music unless you are a keyboards freak. Which I am not. Not by any means. When that is said....

... This is quite an interesting and very enjoyable album. The band has made and recorded some good music on this thirty-six minutes long album. An album I really like. Well, in small dosages. Yes, the album is sometimes approaching airport/elevator music. But most of this album is very dynamic and has a spring in it's step. So much that it is, quality wise, not far off the standards set by Triumvirat and ELP. This is a good album and one recommended to the fans of those two bands.

3 points

Maryson - On Goes The Quest (1998)

The second and so far the final album from this Dutch band.

We are back in melodic prog land again. Some sort of neo-prog to be more precise. This band is the vehicle of William Maryson. He does the keyboards and vocals here. Thijs Van Leer from Focus is guesting as the flute player here too. The band itself is a five piece band with bass, drums, guitar and keyboards. A female vocalist is also guesting here in addition to Mr. Van Leer. 

This is a concept album about a master magician. Just as their debut album was a concept album about a master magician. There is a theme running here....

Unfortunate, the music here is not particular good. It is decent enough, though. The sound is thin and the music is going nowhere. To put it as simple as this: There is not much quality here. The guitar solos are good. The rest is not particular good. 

Nevertheless, I have heard far worse albums than this pretty dull album. In the big ocean of prog bands, this band is merely a sardine. This based on albums like this one.

2 points

Saga - 10 000 Days (2007)

The 18th album from this Canadian band.

Can you teach an old horse new tricks ? That is my immediate thoughts after some listening sessions spent on this album. Saga has always been rooted in this Human League and the British new romanticism movement which sprung up as a reaction to punk music. This was back in the early 1980s. The difference between that movement and Saga was that Saga's music was more heavy and punchy. They played pomp rock and released some hit and miss albums. 

Not so on this album. This is very much a Saga album, looking back towards their best albums from the early 1980s. But they have also gone progressive rock on this album. They have always been thereabout throughout their career. It was indeed Saga who introduced me to progressive rock and this band has a special place in my heart. Nevertheless..... Saga has never released a progressive rock album...... before this album, that is. 

The guitarist Jim Crichton gets a bit of a free reign here on many long and progressive sounding guitar solos. Saga has always been running a tight reign on solo excesses. Not on this album, though !

The solos is kind of getting too long here. This album still retain all the DNA's from Saga. That is both good and bad. There is no really great tracks here. 

That said, this is a very good album which has really entertained me and rekindled my desire for this band. Oh, they got a special place in my heart, indeed.

3.5 points

Mind Sky - Timewise (2005)

The debut album from this US band.

Symphonic prog can mean a lot to a lot of different people. The band and this album is listed in this category in some music websites. I am not sure if I agree.

Mind Sky is a no less than a seven piece strong band. That is two keyboards, one Chapman Stick player, one guitarist, one bassist, one drummer and one vocalist. Josh Gleason is the vocalist and he does a good job. 

The music is pretty dynamic and is leaning pretty heavy on AOR and neo-prog. The songs are pretty long so yes, this is a symphonic prog album. I have to give them that. The music is also pretty rich on details too. 

Unfortunate for me and others who has the chance to listen to this album, there is no really good songs here. The album is walking in well trodden footsteps of the greats in this music. It also has a very typical US sound. A very clean and radio friendly sound without having any songs a radio would play. This is one of those obscure US prog albums and will probably remains so too. It has no good songs, but is still rich on details. Hence my rating.

2.5 points 

Mother Gong - Best Of Mother Gong (1998)

The best of this Gong splinter group.

Mother Gong existed between 1979 and 1994. It was set up by Daevid Allen's wife Gilli Smyth and Hari Williamsen. Daevid Allen only appeared sporadic on their 11 albums and 3 live albums. Yes, they also played on the Glastonbury festival several times. The band is now a part of Gong again. That is all I know about Mother Gong. Let's say that the whole Gong family, who counts tens of people, was a very creative family who released many, many albums under many different names.

Mother Gong is pretty true to the psychedelic drop out jazz sound Gong is famous for. They stayed true to this formula during their fifteen years together. Gilli Smyth's vocals is everywhere and ditto for the quirky lyrics.

Everything depends on how much you like this band as this is a good summary of what they were up to. It is said to have the best songs from their best albums. This album is seventy-five minutes long and offers good value for money if this is your type of flying teapots. But get some of their albums too. 

3 points 

Moody Blues. The - To Our Children's Children's Children (1969)

Their fifth album and their final 1960s album.

The band released five albums between 1966 and the end of 1969. With the exception of their debut album, these albums are very good albums. Surprisingly great, in my view. The band took what The Beatles did on Sgt Peppers and took it further onto a much more progressive rock terrain. I think it is only fair to call this band one of the fathers of the prog rock genre.

This album though is a bit of a reverse trip back to the 1960s again. 1967 or thereabout. The music here is pretty naive pop rock songs with a very progressive twist. Yes, they played around with loops and tapes here. But who did not that in 1969 ? Most bands did. Inbetween the naive pop songs, there is a lot of instrumental songs here too.

There are some short songs here. The one minute long I Never Thought I Would Live To Be A Hundred. A very effective one minute and one of the highlights of the album. Actually, the best song on this album. Strangely enough.

I got the original forty minutes long album (there is also a 2 CDs version around with xtra tracks) and I really like this album. It is a quirky little album which in my cement this band's position as one of the greats in this scene. I wonder if they could maintain this standard in the 1970s..... I will soon find out.

3.5 points

Metamorfosi - E Fu IL Sesto Giorno (1972)

The debut album from this Italian band who went on to releasing a widely perceived masterpiece in the form of Inferno. That was their second album.

This is their debut album though and we meet a band in the middle of a transition from being a 1960s inspired psychedelic rock band to become an ELP/Le Orme inspired Italian symphonic prog band. The band had their legs in both camps on this almost forty minutes long album. 

The band used all the Italian prog instruments here. Flutes, Mellotron, Hammond organs, Moog, bass, guitars, drums and Italian vocals. The vocals are very good. Ditto for the sound which still retains the typical Italian prog sound from the 1970s. A great sound in my ears. The Italian folk rock sound is also very evident here.

There are some catchy songs here and some more psychedelic rock songs inbetween some symph prog work outs. The end result is a good album without any great songs. It is still an enjoyable album I really recommend to all fans of Italian prog rock. 

3 points 

Multi Story - East West (1985)

The debut album from this UK band who released two albums before they split up.

UK is the home of the neo-prog scene with bands like Pendragon and Marillion leading this scene. Behind them again, we have a lot of bands. Bands who did not really make it because of either lack of quality and/or the lack of label support. 

Multi Story is one of these bands in this jungle. A jungle who now sees a lot of re-releases. This album is not one of them. I picked it up in a second hand sales shop in Glasgow. Pennies well spent as this is not a bad album. We get 1980s neo-prog here in the more pop rock end of the scene. The vocals, bass, drums, guitars and keyboards are very light and there is not many symph prog influences here. This is verse-chorus-verse terrain.

The end result is a decent to good album which will forever remain an obscurity. That unless this world really goes mad. Which is not likely. For neo-prog fans only.

2.5 points

Mindgames - MMX (2010)

The third album from this Belgian band.

Since I have recently praised Brazil, let me also praise the good people of Belgium too. They have spawned a lot of very good progressive rock bands in all sub-genres.

Mindgames may or may not be one of those very good bands. I have not heard their previous two albims. I am not sure if the band is still around either. The band got a lot of attention after they released this album and I have been itching to get hold of a copy since 2010. Which I finally got this summer. 

Mindgames offers up one hour with pretty fine neo-prog on this album. We get keyboards, bass, guitars, drums and some very fine vocals here. The songs are very melodic and not that symphonic. This is very much a middle of the road neo-prog album which does not really excel when it comes to great songs. There are none of that here. There are some very good details scattered around. Nevertheless, this is fine addition to anyone's neo-prog collection and a good album.

3 points 

Montechiari Project - How Was the Future (2009)

The one and only album from this Brazilian band.

Brazil has given us a lot of varied music through the years. From black metal and grind-core to folk music and salsa. Within the progressive rock genre, Brazil has also given us a lot. This five piece band has put down roots somewhere between boyband pop music, AOR and symphonic prog.

Some of the songs here are boyband territory. The vocals are very much boyband territory. Most of the music here is AOR with some sporadic forays into symphonic prog too. 

The music has been performed with guitars, vocals, bass, drums and keyboards. No acoustic instruments who adds spices to this fifty minutes long album. A couple of good keyboards runs is the only interesting addition to an album which lacks good songs and quality. The music here is generic and bland. It is a decent album and I understand why this band did not really make hay with this album. It is recommended to those of you with insomnia though.

2 points

Conqueror - Sprazzi Di Luce (2009)

This is a self-released EP from this Italian band as a thank you to their fans after two years of touring.

And it is a nice gift too. The three studio songs here are far more vocals orientated than the songs on their albums. Simona Rigano is a great vocalist so no problems with that. 

The music here is still Italian progressive rock in the more symphonic end of the spectrum. This EP is less symphonic than their albums though. 

The three studio tracks are all good with the title track being the best song here. The live track here is also pretty good although the sound is not as good as the studio tracks. 

This is a good, twenty minutes long EP which does not really comes across as a great release. Nevertheless, check it out.

3 points

Machine Mass Trio - Inti (2014)

The second or third album from this band. A band which on this album includes Michel Delville on guitars and keyboards, Tony Bianco on drums and Dave Liebman on saxophone. And yes, this is a jazz album.

I am very happy to sniff around MoonJune's catalogue of albums. I rate this label as one of the best record labels of all time. Their many albums certainly gets my brain cells working overtime. This is another one of their albums which gives my non-jazzy braincells some xtra hard work to do.

Dave Liebman and Michel Delville is doing the melody and solo stuff. The contrasts between guitars, saxophone and the Roland keyboards is very interesting and gives this album a lot of life. Dave Liebman's solos is really jazzy and great too. Tony Bianco too is great here.

This is by no means jazz for newbies. Neither is this big band jazz or any of those melodic types of jazz. This is really hardcore jazz where the art of melodies comes in a distant second to the art of playing the instruments. Avant-garde it is to a large degree. 

A jazz newbie is where I feel I am at the moment. Music wise, I really like what I hear and rates this as a good album. I may rate it somewhat higher when I get more experience in the art of jazz. I still like this album.

3 points 

Last Turion - Circle Logic (1992)

The first of two albums from this German band.

The band logo and album cover is a bit misleading. No, this is not a German thrash/speed/power metal band. This is a band whose music is somewhere between German power metal and neo-prog. There is a lot of metal structures on this album. There is also a lot of neo-prog structures here. 

The vocals are faultless English. It is still obvious that the vocalist is from Germany. The phrasing and the way Martin Garden sings is typical German power metal vocals. Some of the guitars are also in that vein. 

Most of the melodies here are pretty soft and neo-prog like. They are neo-prog. I have to admit this comes across as bit original to me. Not particular great or even good, but still original. 

The end result is an hour long album with decent to good songs. The melodies and details here feels a bit formula driven and well known from countless other bands. It is just the style this has been delivered in which is original. It is still a decent to good album which you may want to check out.

2.5 points

My Solid Ground - SWF Session (2002)

The final sign of life from this German band.

My Solid Ground's self titled debut album from 1971 was a very good krautrock album. So they got a session at the SWF radio station where some of these tracks were recorded and broadcasted. There is also an album recorded in 2001 included here. So this is an album in two halves. A sixty-five minutes long album.

The first part is the SWF sessions and this is solid krautrock with a lot of spaced out ideas and melodies. I really like this part. Even the sound is very good here. You can hear the 1970s sound loud and clear. You can hear how great this band was. 

Their 2001 album is also very good. More krautrock and all the mod cons soundscapes. Pretty long and dreamy krautrock tracks with a jazzy feel which prove that this band also has a lot to offer these days too.  

SWF albums does not have the best reputation in my house. This compilation offers up some very good music and comes recommended.

3.5 points 

Marco - Marcolapsos (2002)

The second album from this Mexican guitarist. His full name is Marco A. Gomez. 

We are again collected around in our office where the music of a man and his instruments are blaring out of the speakers. Marco is a multi instrumentalist who does guitars and synths in equal measures. He is helped by a drummer, bassist and another guitarist. 

Comparisons can be made with Vangelis and Mr. Oldfield. You get a mix of ambient, classical music and symphonic prog here. One hour of it, to be precise.

Marco does his guitars really well and is highly skilled. His solos is both melodic and clever. The synths is not so good. There is no really good tracks here. It is nevertheless a decent album which will appeal a great deal to the fans of Vangelis and Oldfield. 

2 points

Mackay. Duncan - Chimera (1974)

The debut album from the keyboardist in Alan Parson's Project and the unofficial keyboardist in Budgie. This is the first of three albums from Duncan Mackay.

This is another classical music inspired symphonic prog album from a man and his keyboards. That is in a few words what we get here. Besides of the tangents, we also find a violinist and a drummer here.

This is a thirty nine minutes long album divided on three tracks. The longest one is almost twenty minutes long. The two other ones a bit shorter. The sound is very good. 

There is no doubts that Duncan Mackay is a great keyboardist. The music here is more classical music than rock. It is more noodling on the tangents than rock'n'roll. It is excess all areas. Keyboards excesses. That was 1974 for you.

What should I give this album ? It is not a bad album and it has some good stuff. I guess a decent to good rating would suffice here. Fans of keyboards all areas should really get this album.

2.5 points 

Elephants Of Scotland - Execute and Breathe (2014)

The second album from this US band.

I thought the band was pretty gimmicky when they appeared with their first album. It had a great cover and band name. The music was also good. But I still had my doubts about the band. I was not sure if the band was a serious band with musical aspirations.

...Doubts now erased. The joke is now on us doubters. The band has not made it easy for themselves with a highly tricky choice of direction. Neo-prog with keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals is not an easy way out. The scene is pretty much overcrowded too. You really have to be great to make headway here. 

And this band has managed to come up with a very good album where the only gripe I have got is the lack of a killer track or two. Besides of that, fifty minutes with this album times many times is very enjoyable. Yes, they are a bit of a middle-of-the-road band. Their enthusiasm and skills on their instruments shines through too. That they sometimes sounds like Rush does not harm them either. I think this band can go far. I really like this album.

3.5 points

Mostly Autumn - Heart Full Of Sky (2006)

The seventh album from this Welsh/English band.

I have always liked this band. That is, when they tries to sound like a celtic prog combo. This album comes as a double CD album, clocking in at 104 minutes. Heather Findlay is still in the band and is doing a superb job on the title track. The best track here by miles. It is one of their best ever tracks too.

The band is doing their mix of pop, celtic folk and progressive rock very well on the first CD. The second CD is not up to the usual standards with some pretty decent songs and nothing more than that. The whole Mostly Autumn concept seems watered out on this long, long album. Numerous guest artists and contributors in addition to the rather big band is not helping their cause. It is not helping this album. Mostly Autumn is best when they give Ms Findlay and Bryan Josh plenty of space. That and adding some celtic folk music.

Nevertheless, this is a good album with it's mountains and deep rivers. I would recommend it.

3 points  

Murple - Quadri Di Un'Esposizione (2008)

The second album from this Italian band who has just released their third album. 

We are again deep into Italian symphonic prog. Take a lot of classical music and some ELP. Add some Italian prog rock with vocals too and you get this album. Most of the album is instrumental with tonnes of keyboards. They also got a guitarist, drummer and a bassist. 

This album reminds me about one of those heavy keyboards laden albums from Russia, Ukraine and Belorussia. Not to mention from Marian Vargas. They are not my favourite kind of albums. Neither is this album. I very much liked their 1974 album as expressed in a ProgArchives review in May 2011. This one is not an album I rate. Too much doodling on the keyboards. I would rate it somewhere between decent and good.

2.5 points

Masque Premiere - Another Abandoned Dream (1981)

The one and only album from this US band who has just been re-discovered through a highly deserved inclusion in ProgArchives. 

I am not so sure if they will get many new fans though although the album has just been re-released again. Their brand of symphonic prog is heavy rooted in the AOR scene in USA. Take some pomp prog too and you get this album. 

There is no dedicated guitarist here. It seems like the two synth players also does guitars through their synths. The guitar sound has a plastic feel. It does not feel genuine to me. These two tangent wizards are helped by a drummer and a bassist. There are also two vocalists here.  

This album is full of synths and the US pomp rock sound anno the 1980s. It feels like it has been put in a time capsule and never unleashed again. There is no really good songs here either. It is a decent album and nothing more than that. I hope the re-master will clean up the pretty bad sound here. If it does, this album is well worth checking out.

2 points

Moose Loose - Elgen Er Los (1974)

The debut album from this Norwegian band who went on to release two albums.

This album is also the first album with the now famous jazz guitarist Jon Eberson. A man who has released a lot of albums. The album also feature the locally famous Pal Thowson on drums, Brynjulf Blix on keyboards and Sveinung Hovensjo on bass. They have also released numerous albums.

The music here is jazz with guitars and keyboards as the main solo instruments and the bass and drums thundering along in the background. This album reminds me somewhat about Soft Machine's Softs album. There is no avant-garde doodles around here though. Just pretty much hard core jazz. 

This is a bit too much jazz for me who is just nibbling at the edges of the jazz world. I really like the intensity of the jazz here and Jon Eberson is a great guitarist. This is a good album and one who should be re-released by any jazz label.

3 points  

Marathon - Sublime Dreams (1994)

The second and final album from this Italian band.

I quite liked their debut album Impossible Is Possible from 1993. Dark, twisted progressive rock in the Asgard vein. I am afraid that cannot be said about this album.

Marathon has shed their more twisted and dark stuff and cleaned up their sound and music with a Blenda white detergent. The result is a lot lighter neo-prog. The result is a lot more in the direction of Marillion and the English neo-prog scene. The result is almost a copycat of that scene.

The songs on this forty-five minutes long album is not good either. The vocals sounds forced and not good for the health of the vocalist. There are even some football terraces chants and choirs here. The synth, drums, bass and guitars sounds uninspired too. 

This album has become a test of how much I can stay awake when the music is this dull. I got the diploma, but just by a cat's whisker. This is a decent album, but nothing more than that.

2 points 

Echoreason - Loch (2014)

The debut album (?) from this Seattle, USA band. 

Progressive rock anno 2014 can mean a lot. From Yes/Genesis copycats to new and groundbreaking bands. Remember; progressive rock means progression although it is sometimes hard to spot progression in progressive rock.

Echoreason is trying to progress this year with their music. They have added a lot of various styles and modern stuff into their brand of progressive rock. A brand of progressive rock which is not looking back to the 1970s. Their music is prog rock anno 2014.

That is not always comfortable listening. Their blend of the likes of Marillion, Gazpacho, post rock, djent and sometimes even death metal is not easy to the ear. Not to mention; my brain. But that is progression for you.

The music is performed with keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. The vocals are great. The guitars are changing between chugging metal riffs and jazzy half acoustic pieces. The rhythm section is very tight and the keyboards are hardly ever used.

The end result is a good one hour long album. A weak good award, but still a good status. I like the more pastoral bits and accept the more djent and death metal flirtations. This is prog rock anno 2014, btw. 

3 points  

Barock Project - Coffee In Neukölln (2012)

The third and so far final album from this Italian band. A band who has maintained good form throughout their first two albums. Two nearly-there albums.

Behind this rather strange art-work (what were/was they thinking ?), we get a rather big lump of neo-prog. That means, sixty-four minutes of symphonic and pretty eventful neo-prog.

This album and it's basis in neo-prog has incorporated a lot of symphonic prog, jazz and even soul music. Not to mention eclectic prog. There is a heck of a lot going on here. Far more than I am used to in a neo-prog album. It is worth mentioning here that the band is a trio. But they pack a solid punch. 

There is a lot of majestic sounding melodies here inbetween some rather pastoral pieces of music. The title track is a great, rather catchy song. There is also some not so catchy songs here. They still works and they are still great songs. There is a lot of pastoral moments here. 

The overall sound is great and so is the music. I am surprised how great this album. An album who goes straight into the top 5 best Italian neo-prog albums of all time. This album is a joy to behold throughout this one hour it is gracing my life. Many times one hour, in fact.

4 points   

Mirror - Daybreak (1976)

The one and only album from this Dutch band.

The Netherlands has produced a lot of great symphonic prog bands during the last forty years. Mirror is trying to contribute to this scene with this album.

The basis is a mix of Yes and Focus without those flutes. The tempo is pedestrian with some guitars and guitars leading the solos with sporadic help from some woodwinds. The vocals are mostly female vocals. A very thin and almost painful female vocal. 

There are four tracks here on this almost forty minutes long album. The final track is clocking in at almost fifteen minutes. Nothing of the music here is any good although this album has some sporadic good melody lines. This is a decent album from a band time has forgotten. Thankfully.

2 points

Margin - Psychedelic Teatime (2014)

Wow !!

This is the debut album from this German band. A trio with two men and one woman, no less. But the music sounds a lot bigger than that.

I have heard rumours about this album for a while. That it was a something special, something great from Germany. So I bought it. 

It is not easy to label this album. It got tonnes of influences from neo-prog, Canterbury prog and psychedelic rock. The basis is Pink Floyd though and they expands from there into the three above mentioned genres. There are several very catchy and jazzy Canterbury rock parts here. The album starts of as a neo-prog album though before it really branches off into Canterbury and psychedelic rock. Take Caravan and Pink Floyd. The music is also really laid back with Mellotrons, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. The use of both female and male vocals here is really great. 

The sound and ambience here is really great too. So is the tracks which is really great. They got this mix of elegance and naive innocence which I find really attractive. A big plus to the Mellotron sound too which I find refreshing.

Psychedelic Teatime is one hour of great music and I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

4 points

Messaggio 73 - Una Ragione Per Vivere (1976)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

Italy had a pretty big Christian rock scene in the 1970s. A scene affiliated with the very popular Italian prog rock scene. Both then and now. 

This thirty-five minutes long album has Christian lyrics in Italian. Hence, these lyrics does not reach me as I do not speak Italian. They hit stony ground. The music is a mix of Italian prog and psychedelic rock. 

The music is, as with all other Italian Christian rock, very much sugar sweet. The rest of the Italian scene use light and dark, sun and shadows in their music. The Christian scene and this band only use light and sun. This means a very important dimension has been omitted from the music. This album has an overdose of angels and goody goody things. Their version of Samuel Barber's Adagio is a good example of that. Sugar sweet, it is. It is for this reason I don't like Christian rock that much. It gives me sugar overload and nothing much else. I like both night and day. In particular in my music.

There is no real good music on this album either. It feels cheap and boring. It feels a bit plastic fantastic. Hence my verdict.

2 points 

Marygold - The Guns Of Marygold (2006)

The one and only sign of life from this Italian band.

Neo-prog has a good standing in Italy too. A very good standing in fact. The amount of neo-prog albums from Italy is pretty big.

Marygold was a four man band. A guitars, bass, keyboards and drums band. That and English vocals. Very good vocals too. Marygold very much sounds like an English neo-prog band as their brand of neo-prog is middle of the road British neo-prog. Think Marillion, Arena and Pendragon. 

The songs here are good. Good but not great. The keyboards and the guitars are pleasing and the vocals really good. The songs are by no means offensive as in being bad. Just a bit dull.

The end result is an unspectacular good album which will please all neo-prog fans and not win them any other fans.

3 points 

Eider Stellaire - Eider Stellaire I (1981)

The debut album from this French band who released three albums. A band very much associated with other French bands like Magma, Offering and Eskaton. In short, we are in the zeuhl genre here.

There is not many zeuhl albums around as this was and still is a very small genre. A genre for the extreme open minded ones. I am perhaps not open minded, but I really like this genre. 

This album is though not an all out zeuhl album. It has the zeuhl drums and bass. That and the zeuhl female choirs which appears on one of the songs on this instrumental album. 

Most of the music here is guitars and Hammond organ driven jazz though. This thirty-five minutes long album is very similar to what Eskaton did in their best days. The bass and the Hammond organ is everywhere and the guitars also chimes in with some long solos. The mood is very dark throughout the album. A haunting mood which is not for everyone.

My only gripe is the lack of a great track. Besides of that, this is very much a very good album which I really enjoys. It goes straight into my collection of zeuhl albums I want to listen to on a regular basis.

3.5 points 

Budgie - If I Were Brittania I'd Waive the Rules (1976)

The sixth album from this Welsh band.

I have always regarded this Welsh power trio as being a very weird band whose most music are boogie hard rock, but who also strays far a field. Yes, their album comes across as hard rocking. But a pretty big percentage of them also showcases a very melodic side of the band. Not to mention, a very funky side of them. Which they do here.

The title track is hard rock. Most of the stuff here is hard rock. There are also some weird melodic stuff here. I am by no means a fan of hard rock, having got an overdose in a young age of hard and heavy metal. But in the case of Budgie, I really like their hard rock and is not so happy about their more melodic stuff. 

The title track and Quaktor And Bureacrats is the best songs on this good album which showcases a band who still knows how to surprise their listeners. So much that I am getting a grudging respect for them.

3 points  

Mirthrandir - For You The Old Women (1976)

The one and only album from this US band.

This album has got a legends status among rock and prog rock fans. Something I can understand.... 

Mirthrandir played what we can call eclectic prog. They and their music on this album were heavy influenced by the likes of Yes, ELP, King Crimson and mostly; Gentle Giant. I would also point out the similarities with another US band who released a legends album at that time; Cathedral and their Stained Glass Stories. These two albums are pretty similar.

It is pretty obvious that Gentle Giant has been a great influence on this album. They and Yes. The music on this album has the same eclectic structures with tonnes of flutes, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. That and a pretty much Derek Schulman similar type of vocals. 

There are a lot of great music on this album. Subtle great music. A couple of tracks are great too. Most of the details here are truly great and it is obvious  to me that the hype around this album is right. This is indeed a legends album. One that deserve to be purchased. 

4 points 

Eden Shadow - Phases (2014)

The debut album and the second offering from this new English band. 

Their Hail EP bore promises of a new great English band in the neo-prog genre. Eden Shadow consists of three enthusiastic young men who does keyboards, bass, drums and guitars in addition to some vocals. Nik Turner guests on one of the songs. 

Most of the album is trio format instrumentals. Mostly instrumentals with one glimpse at the post rock genre and the rest of the focus on the progressive rock genre. They are all done by the instruments above. I have to admit I don't find these instrumentals that interesting. This album starts a bit on the dull side with long instrumentals who only proves that the band are good on their instrumentals. The quality of the song writing needs to be improved, though. 

The vocals tracks is more interesting with one of them a pretty good song. The guitar solos are also great on those songs.

This is a more than acceptable debut album. I am not entirely convinced that the band has lived up to their promise with this offering though and want them to release at least one more album before I make up my mind about them. This is a good album.

3 points

My Solid Ground - My Solid Ground (1971)

The debut album from this German band. My review is a review of the original 30 odd minutes album. The rest of the CD is full of various outtakes I find of little interest. Hence, this is not a review of those 35 minutes. 

My Solid Ground was a four piece krautrock band who played instrumental krautrock. Instrumental hypnotic krautrock in the Eloy vein. The music, performed by Mellotron, guitars, keyboards, bass and drums, is quite fuzzy and discorded at times. This is no easy listening music. The opening 13 minutes long Dirtyellow Mist is a good example. Very dirty at times. Also very good with some angelic choirs thrown into the mix too. Very much the eerie feeling of the end of the world. 

The rest of the album is not on the same level though. Too blues like at times. But we are still talking about a very good album here which I really enjoy. The original album, that is. Not the bonus material.

3.5 points   

Nu - Fuego (1983)

The third album from this Spanish band. A band who is supposed to be a folk rock band.

Not so on this album, though. This album is a Spanish heavy metal album. Not heavy rock, but heavy metal. The flutes has been pushed into the background here. What I will remember this album for is the vocals from Jose Carlos Molina. Classic, classic heavy metal vocals. Screaming and with some pretty impressive lungs and vocal chords. 

He is also let loose on a power ballad here called Flor De Metal. A pretty much run of the mill power ballad.

The rest of the songs are very heavy and not much to be joyful about. The vocals are in Spanish and this album is a wild ride. It is a decent album who has not survived the test of time.

2 points

Morgan Delt - Morgan Delt (2014)

The debut album from this Los Angeles, USA based band.

California is a sunny state and that is very much reflected on this half an hour long album. An album released on Bandcamp, as an LP and as a CD. I am pretty sure the analogue version of this album on LP is a good choice for the vinyl freaks out there.

We are here talking psychedelic rock again. I would say a trippy, electronica and tapes based version of the tape looping experiments The Beatles did on their final albums. Well, from Revolver and onwards. Take some San Fransisco psychedelic rock and electronica too and you get this album. 

Some of the songs here are really good and very much enjoyable. Most of this album is really enjoyable. Well, the whole album in fact. This is not my everyday type of music. But I really like their music. Music performed with computers, vocals, guitars, drums/drum-machines and bass. The vocals are very dreamy. The songs are short and to the point.

This is a good album in my estimation and well work checking out on this link.

3 points 

Midnight Sun - Midnight Sun (1971)

The real debut album from this Danish band who released one album under the name Rainbow Band before changing their name to Midnight Sun and releasing three albums.

Actually, this is the Rainbow Band album with different vocals. The RB vocalist was kicked out and another lucky man got the slot and this album instead. Strange, but they did it anyway. 

Their style can best be described as a mix of blues, rock and jazz. Scandinavian kind of fusion between these three music styles. I would call it proto-krautrock. The Danes are not that happy about their neigbours in the south so I think I will leave it like that. 

There is a lot of saxophones, Hammond organs, vocals, bass, drums and guitars here. The sound is lush. The music is rather dated and very bluesy. This is not really my cup of tea and I don't really find any good songs here. This is nevertheless a decent album.

2 points

Minor Giant - On The Road (2014)

The debut album from this Dutch band.

Holland has always come up with some great neo-prog bands. This country is perhaps even the greatest neo-prog land at the moment and throughout the history of this genre. Maybe. In this band, they have got another very good band on their hands.

ProgArchives is down today and I know next to nothing about this band. So I have to take it on the music in this provisional review (to be updated when ProgArchives is up again).

The music on this album is symphonic neo-prog with soaring keyboards and guitars. Those two instruments plus vocals, drums and bass is what we get here on this fifty-three minutes long album. An album where the songs ranges from two to fifteen minutes. Songs which is bordering to symphonic prog throughout. The sound is very typical neo-prog though and this album is well within it's genre boundaries.

Most of the songs here are good to great. There is a lot of very good melody lines. I really like this album and regard it as a typical example how complex and symphonic neo-prog should be done. It is a very good album in my estimations.

3.5 points

Edison's Childen - In The Last Waking Moments... (2011)

The debut album from this multi-national duo of Pete Trewavas (Marillion and Transatlantic) and Eric Blackwood of Crimson Steele. A neo-prog and symph prog musician and a metal musician joins forces and is getting help from most of Marillion on this album. An interesting project and one of the most spoken-about new projects during the last years.

And the hype and reputation is justified. This album is almost too long, clocking in at seventy minutes. When that is said, it is difficult to decide what to leave out from this album too. So it is what it is.

The music here is melancholic and very mood based modern neo-prog. Take some Pink Floyd, Gazpacho and a lot of Marillion. Then you get their sound. Each of the fourteen songs is unique and stand on it's own feet. Put together as an album, these fourteen songs very much stands in unity as one piece of music too. 

There are some rather superb pieces of music here and some good pieces of music. The end result is a great album which I very much enjoy. I cannot recommend this album highly enough.

4 points

Made In Sweden - Made In England (1970)

The third studio album from this Swedish trio. A band better known in some quarters as where Tommy Borgudd, aka Slim Borgudd played drums before he joined Abba and then embarked on a motor-sport career which took him to Formula 1 for the ATS team and a good 6th place in the 1981 British Grand Prix. He also became a truck champion and raced in Le Mans 24 Hours. I am impressed ! 

His drums here were complemented by some keyboards, bass, guitars and vocals. This album were recorded in England and by a member of Colosseum. That kind of gives the game away here. The music here is a mix of jazz and rock. Not fusion as there is not much fusion between the genres here. Add some krautrock too and some Caravan like Canterbury prog. 

But mostly, this is vocals based jazz. The vocals are good throughout and in the Richard Sinclair vein. The music is pretty whimsical most of the time. There are a lot of good songs here with some very good melodies. There are some less good pieces too. 

The overall quality is good though and this is an interesting album. Even anno 2014. It is well worth checking out this album.

3 points  

Marathon - Impossible Is Possible (1993)

The debut album from this Italian band. A band who has released two albums.

Marathon is a splinter project of Asgard, another Italian band who so far has released five albums. Both bands played/plays neo-prog. Asgard had a more occult cinematic slant of their neo-prog than most other bands, Marathon included. 

Marathon has moved much more towards the Fish era Marillion on this album. There is still some Asgard influences here. Strong ones too. There are intriguing enough, some death metal like guitars throughout this album. A forty-two minutes long album where the first half is more Marillion like than the final half. 

The vocals are pretty strong here. The keyboards is good. The guitars are very metal like and the drums and bass is doing a good job too. 

This is a slightly strange neo-prog album which sometimes is very Marillion like and sometimes is exploring a lot of other non neo-prog avenues. It is a mix of tradition and innovation. The end result is a good album which does not really have any greatness to offer, but still rocks a lot. Neo-prog fans should check out this album and band.

3 points 

Conqueror - Storie Fuori Dal Tempo (2005)

The second album from this Italian band.

This band has emerged as one of the more promising, long living bands from the last fifteen years. They are reasonable productive too with five albums to this date. 

Their brand of Italian progressive rock is based on a lot of flutes and the usual keyboards, guitars, bass and drums setup. Add saxophone and female vocals to the mix too and you get this band. Most of the material here is instrumental though. 

This one hour album is divided into five short songs and one half an hour long suite named Morgana. The short songs and the long suite is more or less one piece of music anyway. The songs has one sound and glides into each other. The sound is very lush throughout.

It is a bit of a let down that the songs are not great here as the band has done everything except from delivering great songs. I still think this is a very good album though and one to check out for everyone into Italian progressive rock. It comes recommended. 

3.5 points 

Exmagma - Goldball (1974)

The second album out of in total three albums from this German band.

This band was, as the artwork alludes to, a three piece band with drums, keyboards and guitars. Their debut album was not a great album to say at least. I did not like it. 

On their second album, the band did a lot of music explorations in the musical territory between Soft Machine, krautrock and avant-garde jazz. I would say they have 1/3 of each area on this album. The music is pretty dynamic and offers up a lot of interesting details. The avant-garde bits makes a lot of sense here too and complements the remaining 2/3 of the album.

The overall quality on this half an hour long album is good throughout. It is an interesting album to say at least. The songs are not great, but it is still worth checking out this band and album if you fancy the music styles I have listed above. 

3 points 

Le Orme - Venerdi (1982)

The twelfth album from this Italian band.

I almost wrote "Italian masters" here. But that would sound hollow when confronted with this forty minutes album. The band is down to a three piece here. As the cover art work alludes to, the music is not exactly symphonic prog as on their first albums. 

Aldo Tagliapietra's excellent vocals has very little to work on here. This on an album with all the ills of the 1980s. Banal songs and melodies which has been "livened up" with cowbells like drums and "amusing" synth sounds. I hide my face in my hands. I was cringing so much that even my better half is giving me a mug of coffee to comfort me during the final listening session. 

This is bad pop music from the 1980s with Italian vocals where the vocalist is not even stretching himself. It is as bad as it can get. It is a turkey with feathers, beak and two legs. Avoid at all cost.

1 point

Eloy - Ra (1988)

The fourteenth album from this German band.

Eloy were in the middle of a really weak period in the 1980s. Their 1985 album Codename Wildgeese were a dismal affair. It was also a movie soundtrack to a B movie. It is best forgotten.

Ra shows Eloy turning more in the direction of Saga. Yes, that Canadian band who were and still is very popular in Germany. Take a bit Saga, some old Eloy and a lot of pop and rock. Then you get this album.

The end result is a pretty much watered out Eloy album. That despite of the promising art work and album cover. The drums sounds fake and ditto for the keyboards. The guitars has this traditional rock sound which is not the normal Eloy sound. Only the vocals reminds me about Eloy here.

The songs are not good at all. They are decent enough though and this album is an improvement on Codename Wildgeese. It is still an album only for their fans and even they will turn their nose up when confronted with Ra.

2 points 

Messenger - Illusory Blues (2014)

The debut album from this English band.

There is a lot of English bands who has set out on the reasonable broad path between indie rock, psychedelic prog and folk rock. This three piece band is one of them. They released an EP some time ago as a taster and got great response on that one. Hence this album. 

Messenger is by no means reinventing the wheel with this album. A forty-five minutes long album with violins, guitars, bass, vocals and drums. The sound is reasonable acoustic too. It has some faint whiffs of Porcupine Tree and Fairport Convention. Besides of that, there is a lot of what I would call indie rock. Modern rock indeed with some post rock influences.

Unfortunate, the songs are not that good here and the material here is not that interesting either. This is not an album that breaks any new ground. It is somewhere between decent and good in my estimations. It does not appeal to me, I am afraid.

2.5 points 

Excubus - Lagauchetière (2011)

The second and so far final album from this Canadian band. Another fine band in the Quebec scene. A scene that has produced a lot of really great bands over the last fifty years.

Their 2008 album Memoires caused quite a stir and is one of those hidden gems which makes this hobby of mine so interesting and fascinating. Really great music.

This album is a bit of a strange one, though. It starts out as an ELP like album with plenty of borrowing from classical pieces before the band suddenly is raiding Caravan's home turf and runs of with some of their items. Then a bit of a return to symphonic prog again before this album suddenly becomes a jazz album before it finally ends up in crossover and symphonic prog again. The final part of this album is in the Harmonium vein. Confused ? 

Well, it is like several albums has been pressed into one album here. An album with five members and five different wills and ideas. 

The music though is very good throughout. It has class and it has quality. The rapid changes of direction is a big dizzying though. I would highly recommend both their albums and I will keep an eye on this band. I fear the worst, but I hope they will grace us again with an album or two.

3.5 points