Brainstorm - Last Smile (2001)

The first live album from this German band. The gig is from 1974 and this album was released through the Garden Of Delights record label. A delightful record label.

This is my first and only meeting with this German band's music. A jazz/fusion band who released two albums before they gave up. The band was also known as Fashion Pink before they became Brainstorm and I have reviewed their only album earlier this year.

A live album is not the best possible way to offer up an opinion about a band. I am not doing that either. I think the band was far better than this album.

The band sounds very much like a bad Soft Machine copycat on this album. On a couple of tracks, that is. The sound is pretty poor throughout and I am not getting much from this live album. The result is not a positive meeting with this band. I would offer up a decent rating on this forty minutes long album. Mostly because of the pretty poor sound. Something tells me I should really get their two studio albums, though. Which I will do. This live album is best forgotten.

2 points

Puppet Show - The Tale Of Woe (2006)

The second and so far final album from this US band.

Their 1997 album Traumatized showcased a band who knew how to make elegant symphonic neo-prog. Nine years later, that is still the case on The Tale Of Woe.

We get an hour worth of synth dominated neo-prog. The synths gets help from some very good vocals from Sean Frazier. They again is helped by a staple diet of drums, bass and guitars. Style wise, the music is in the symphonic neo-prog era. It is a mix of the English neo-prog scene and the US prog scene. Bands like Spock's Beard, Marillion and Pendragon springs to mind.

The music is good throughout without really making me stop in my tracks. There is no woo-hoo moments here where I find some really great details or even melody lines. On the other hand, the music is good throughout and I cannot fault this album at all. It is a very safe journey, this album. Approach this album from that angle. It does what it says on the tin, but nothing more than that.

3 points

Piero E I Cottonfields - Il Viaggio, La Donna, Un' Altra Vita (1972)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

This band were fronted by the vocalist Piero Cotto. He and his very good vocals are supported by bass, drums, sax, flutes, guitars and keyboards here.

... And yes, we are again in the Italian prog rock scene. Although not quite progressive rock. This is much more a pop/rock album. Traditional Italian pop/rock, that is. That scene were very different from the English and the American pop/rock scene at that moment. Or for that matter; the ABBA dominated Scandinavian scene.

What we get here is pop/rock with a great deal of folk music included. It is based on Italian folk music with a Latin feel. A lot of choirs and football terraces like choruses. It is as modern and relevant as a cassette player in today's Ipad and MP3 dominated world. It feels a bit odd and you really have to be a big fan of this scene to really enjoy this. I am not.

The result is forty minutes with very good vocals and not particular good music. It is nevertheless a decent album.

2 points

Pennelli di Vermeer. I - Mod.Barocco, Fragile, Maneggiare con cura. Grazie! (2003)

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

The very long title and the band name hints about some theatrical and eccentric music. Both is assumptions is right. Both the band and this album is loosely operating within the Italian progressive rock scene. Although the term art rock is the most suitable term here.

The music is created with guitars, piano, various male and female vocals, keyboards, bass and drums. It is not full orchestra in other words. The music is still pretty theatrical and pop music like. Add some folk rock too.

The music is still pretty complex as theatre music always is. It is not easy to find any concept or the thread here. The music is meandering away without really becoming great either. It has some Ange influences because Ange is the masters of theatrical music. That aside, a lot of Italian prog and rock influences is scattered around this album.

The quality is pretty good. Not good as there is no really great pieces of music here and the songs are a bit undercooked and not particular good. That aside, this is a decent to good album.

2.5 points

Delirium - Il Nome Del Vento (2009)

The fourth album from this Italian band. Their fourth album between 1971 and 2009.

That means this is off course a comeback album as their last album was released 35 years previously. And the band toured this album too. I got a DVD and CD with their gigs from this period.

Delirium was one of the leading lights in the Italian progressive rock scene back in the 1970s. They were more light weight and commercial pop orientated than the likes of Banco, PFM and Le Orme. But they were very popular and their Jesahel song is an evergreen in the history of Italian popular music (despite of this being a song from an English band).

So this is their final paycheck, then ? Well, there is no money to be earned on music anymore. Not in 2009 and not today. I suspect the band returned to refresh good memories and to prove several points. Whatever these points were, they have been proven.

The music is pretty jazzy, funky and symphonic. Gone is the pop element from their past. Delirium were a six piece here with bass, drums, vocals, sax, flute, guitars and keyboards. They were helped by Sophya Baccini and Stefano Lupo on this album too. I think Sophya were a part of their live lineup too. I have seen pictures...

The end result is a very ambitious and complex album. It does not have the great songs. But it is still a very good album and perhaps their best ever album. If I say it is not, I am in a minority. I think everyone agrees they have proven a point with this album. It is well worth checking out and it is a very good album by all means.

3.5 points

Ummagma - Lama (2014)

A remix album of other Ummagma songs.

For those who does not know, this two piece band, the married couple Alexander Kretov and Shauna McLarnon, has previously released the albums Antigravity and Ummagma. Both of them very good albums.

For some reasons I am far too old to understand, they felt the need to release some of the songs from them as remixes and as an album. This album.

This married couple found their world in Ukraine shattered by bullets, bombs and grenades earlier this year. The rebellion/Russian invasion in the Eastern Ukraine meant that Ummagma became refugees in Shauna's homeland Canada, the Yukon province where Shauna originates from. So hardly no promotion of Lama in between exploding bombs and low flying bullets. Life comes first. But they managed to send me a copy of this album first before they fled Ukraine.

I have to admit this type of music is not my type of music at all. It is more or less the antithesis of what I stand for. This is a house/trip hop album of some sort with Shauna's vocals in the middle of it all. This is a dance floor filler and/or a good excuse to dance like an otter in your own living room. Or perhaps like a beaver. Bushy tails up and all that.

I find it difficult to rate anything I cannot judge at all. I guess a good rating would do. Nevertheless, this is not my style so no rating here.

Check out this album yourself HERE    

Pax Romana - And The Dance Begins Again (2009)

The second album from this Finnish band.

The band continues more or less in the same vein as on their debut album. We are talking about a mix of rock and progressive rock. Not symphonic progressive rock, but still progressive rock.

The progressive rock element has been toned down a lot on this, the difficult second album. What we get here instead is a mix of folksy rock, country & western and some middle of the road pop-rock. That and some progressive rock.

We still get two distinctive different vocalists, piano, guitars, keyboards, bass and drums. We still get a couple of pieces of what can be called progressive rock. That aside, the roots and americana elements here are pretty evident. The band has gone mainstream, but they have forgotten to write any good songs.

This album is a let down and their weakest album by miles. It is a decent album, but nothing more than that.

2 points

Planetarium - Infinity (1971)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

Planetarium was an Italian band whose members are not known to others than themselves. The reason was that they wanted to be an English band. So no band members on the LP and no information about the band was known. It is only after some detective work from some fans of the Italian scene that some information about this band has been found.

Planetarium's music was a bit spaced out, symphonic and pop-orientated. Take a great deal of Eloy and ELP. Then you add some Italian pop without vocals to the mix too.

The music is pretty simple and space rock influenced at the same time. A couple of the tracks on this thirty-six minutes long album is very simple and almost like Richard Clayderman at times. It is lounge-music at times. Other tracks are more Eloy like and complex.

The Hammond organ is the dominating instrument here. It is helped by piano, guitars, bass and drums. The songs are not particular good and I am really hard pressed to find anything really positive to write about this album. I rate it between decent and good as it is not hopeless. But there are better albums around than this one.

2.5 points

Phoenix Again - Look Out (2014)

The second album from this Italian band.

Their listing as neo-prog in ProgArchives gave me some hope. I quite like Italian neo-prog. Well, this is not what this album is all about.

Look Out is a one hour long instrumental prog rock album. Take some Melotrons, keyboards, Hammond organs, guitars, bass and drums. Churn up the volume a bit and make the sound very heavy. This is not only progressive rock. This is what I would call heavy progressive rock. Add a hint of Italian jazz and you get the picture.

There is one vocals song here and the vocals is done by the now passed away Claudio Lorandi. A song somewhere between Phil Collins solo stuff and Marillion. Not a good song by any means. Three of his brothers, the Lorandi brothers is the main persons in this band too. The instrumental tracks are all good.

I quite like this album although it does not have any killer tracks. It is nevertheless a good album. Check it out.

3 points

Pholas Dactylus - Concerto Delle Menti (1973)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

Some of the albums from these one album bands takes on a mythological status. This is one of those albums.
It has a big reputation and I purchased it in the hope that it would live up to it's hype.

This album is split into two songs.... or compositions to be more truthful. Part 1 and Part 2. And we are talking avant-garde here. Mostly that. Take Area and add a lot of avant-garde and krautrock. Inbetween nibbling at guitars and bass strings, we get some piano and drums too. And there is even some vocals here too. A lot of it is spoken as in a narration. The language is Italian and I am none the wiser.

There are some melodies here too. Some of them very cheesy. In particular Part 2 has got a lot of cheesy melodies. Part 1 has got some more sobering stylish melody attempts.

The result is a decent album and nothing more than that. The sound is poor and I am not particular happy about this album and the hole in my bank account. This is not one of those much fabled albums I would recommend. If avant-garde is your thing and you can live with the sound, go ahead and purchase this album.

2 points

Perfect Beings - Perfect Beings (2014)

The debut album from this US band.

Perfect Beings is one of those prog bands who has got too much sun in their face and is heavy influenced by all this sun. I am off course ironic here. Nevertheless, this album is very much in the flower power and sunny side of the prog rock scene.

The album starts of in the vein of The Beatles anno Abbey Road and is then heading off to California. In the bus along Route 66, you will find a lot of keyboards, guitars, drums, bass and male vocals.

There is a lot of flower power and a lot of west coast rock in this music. The sun is always here. There is also a melancholic undertone and at times; a dominant melancholic tone on this album. This album has the typical US sound too.

This album clocks in at fifty minutes and has ten songs. I would rather say I enjoy this as one piece of music. There is a lot of quality here and the band has not unleashed their full might and potential here. As a debut album, this is a good effort. I believe we will hear a lot better albums from this band in the future.

3 points

Conqueror - Istinto (2003)

The debut album from this Italian band.

This band comes from Sicily and they are fronted by a female vocalist. Simona Rigono is her name and she also does the keyboards here. Her very good and light vocals is helped by guitars, bass and drums. I have seen a picture of her with a flute. But there is no flutes on this album so I guess that picture was taken after the release of this album.

The setup reminds me about the typical neo-prog setup. That is more or less the case here. This album is an hour long neo-prog album with some symphonic and prog metal influences. Not so many visible symphonic prog influences, but the prog metal influences are very much present here.

The Italian vocals are very good and it gives the band it's own identity. The guitars are also good enough. This is indeed a good and a very creditable debut album. The sound is not the best, but that is forgiven. This is a band well worth checking out. They released their new album, their fifth album some days ago.

3 points

Pye Fyte - The Gathering Of The Krums (1998)

The debut and so far only album from this US band.

I know absolute nothing about this band. I can only write about their music.

The band produces their slightly symphonic progressive rock with Mellotrons, keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. The vocals are OK.

Style wise, think a cross between The Beatles anno Sgt Peppers, Genesis, Kansas, Marillion and some AOR. This album is very much in the US progressive rock tradition. There are some theatre and vaudeville music on this album too. It feels like a joyous party, some of this music.

The end result is a forty minutes long album which is neither bad or great. It is a solid, good album which has it's moments, but who fails to move me too much. Check it out if you can find it.

3 points

Monarch Trail - Skye (2014)

The debut album from this Canadian band.

Monarch Trail is another musical vehicle for Ken Baird, a veteran in the scene. He is here helped by members of his backing band. Voila ! We got Monarch Trail.

I am not entirely enlightened on what Ken Baird has done in his solo career. I only know he has done a lot. This album is a bit different from his other work. This album is pretty polished symphonic neo-prog.

We get plenty of guitars, piano, vocals, keyboards, bass and drums. Another veteran in the Canadian scene; Steve Cochrane guest on guitars here.

This album only have four tracks. But they are very long four tracks. One clocks in at twenty minutes. The album clocks in at forty-six minutes. This is no EP !
Thankfully, it is not an album with time wasters and album fillers either. The album does not have a single wasted minute. All four tracks are full of catchy melodies and details. The choruses are really great here and I can see a commercial winner here. Which is a bit strange with these long songs. The album still sounds commercial to me.

This is by all means a great album, only slightly let down by the lack of a killer track. Besides of that, this is a great album and one to remember this year for. Can we get a second serving, Ken ?

4 points

Perdio - A Robert (1998)

The comeback album from this Italian band after 20 years of silence.

Perdio is an Italian prog band from the 1970s who never got a record contract. They were there abouts but never a recording artist between 1970 and approx 1975. Then the lack of success meant they split up before they reformed in the 1990s. The end result was this album.

There is no prog rock on this album, though. Soft rock with Italian vocals and a wide variety of soft rock and popular music is what we get here. There is clearly a great deal of references to Italian pop music here. Pop music from the 1970s. There are also one decent song here; Caroline. There is also some really cringe worthy stuff here.

These forty-five minutes is mostly no fun at all. I cringe more than I should, according to my local doctor. The vocals are great. But the music is really bad. If soft rock and Italian pop is your thing; please get this album. An album which is a true turkey and a member of my turkey yard. There is some turkeys in my turkey yard. This is one of them.

1 point

Logos - L'Enigma Della Vita (2014)

The third album from this Italian band.

Logos released their two first albums Logos (1999) and Asrava (2001) to a bit of a muted response. They were also free downloads for a while too from their homepage and many had their first taste of Italian symphonic prog after downloading those two albums. I quite liked them.

And that was it, I thought. I was very surprised when they returned again this year with a new album. I think that goes for everyone. We were all surprised.

I was also very surprised when I heard this album for the first time too. Good old Italian symphonic prog with a new contemporary feel. Great vocals surrounded by guitars, bass, keyboards, Hammond organs and drums.

The music is very Italian and very playful. The band must have hugely enjoyed making this album and I can only love them for that. There are elements of jazz, prog metal and folk rock here. Most of all; this is proper Italian symphonic prog. This is proper progressive rock and a credit to Italy. No wonder this review is just another review, praising this album. One of the best albums of 2014.

My only gripe is the lack of a brilliant song. Besides of that, this is an album full of excellent ideas, melodies and ideas. Hence my verdict.

4.5 points

Barock Project - Misteriosevoci (2007)

The debut album from this Italian band.

No, we are not talking symphonic prog here. Instead, we are visiting one of the many good Italian neo-prog bands. They have so far released three albums as of 2014.

The setup is the normal keyboards, guitars, vocals, bass and drums. A four piece band, in other words. The vocals are in Italian, thankfully. They are also very good.

The music is more in the vein of light flowery neo-prog with a lot of popular rock references. There is a lot of traditional Italian pop references here. The music here is not symphonic at all. The verses and choruses are pretty light and not particular rich on substance. Not in the meaning of prog rock substance. The music is nice to the ear during the first listening sessions. Then the interest in this album drops off. There it not much here for the brain.

That said, this is a good album. But nothing more than that.

3 points

Planeta Imaginario - Qué Me Dices (2004)

The debut album from this Spanish band.

Spain has produced a lot of good jazz and fusion bands during the last fifty years. The seven man strong Planeta Imagionario from Catalonia is one of these bands. They were formed in 1999 and has so far released three albums.

Que Me Dices is a pretty traditional fusion/jazz album with plenty of woodwinds, drums, bass, some guitars, synths and piano. There is even some pan flutes here. The synths are more in the background and works as the support for the guitars, piano and woodwinds solos and melody lines. Ditto goes for the bass and the drums. The guitars are both half-acoustic, electric and acoustic.

Style wise, this album is a mix of fusion and jazz. The guitars drags the music in direction of fusion. The woodwinds drags the album back to jazz again. This is a good thing in my view.

This album is a more than acceptable debut album and heralds a band I would like to hear a lot more of in the future. There is no great pieces of music here though. It is a good album.

3 points

Pangea - Invasori (1976)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

Pangea was not really a band. It was a name the producer Mauro Paoluzzi put on his own solo album. He was joined by two Madrugada members in Pangea and that made it a band.

Mauro Paoluzzi was pretty heavy involved in the Italian jazz/fusion scene. That again is not particular evident on this strange album. An album that covers a lot of bases. From space rock, avant-garde prog to Italian symphonic prog, eclectic prog, Italian folk rock to fusion. There is a lot of strange things going on here at this fifty minutes long album.

The album is created with flutes, Italian vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and saxophones. The vocals are good.

The album opens with some symphonic prog before it goes into avant-garde, space rock and folk rock. These changes happens all the time. This album never really settles down into one music style. It is like a small child not being able to keep the concentration level steady enough to concentrate on one toy. It has to race around the playhouse and try everything at the same time. That is a pretty good summary of this album.

That makes this album a pretty interesting album. Interested and pretty fragmented. Unfortunate without having a really great track. It is a very good album though and one I really like. Check it out if you can.

3.5 points  

Minimum Vital - Envol Triangles Les Saisons Marines (1992)

A collection of old tracks from this French band.

Minimum Vital has released some great albums. Their first album is not among those great albums. It was/is also difficult to find already back in 1992 so Musea put it out together with some other earlier material on this album. Their first album was called Les Saisons Marines and it is here in it's entirety.

That album and the other tracks here is very different from the rest of this band's material. Slick jazz/fusion is what we get here. Think the TV series Miami Vice and other similar TV series. This compilation album has the same slick music as those TV series. Slick, slick, slick. Also very sweet as in an overdose on chocolate and sugar.

In short, this compilation is only for those suckers, myself included, who want Minimum Vital complete. The album collectors out there. The music is decent enough, but it sounds outdated by three decades at least. I am sure you can use your money on better things than this album.

2 points

Pancake - No illusions (1979)

The third album from this German band.

Germany means krautrock in a lot of the albums I am reviewing here. I like krautrock a lot. So I was happy to pick up this album as it was labeled as krautrock in ProgArchives.

Them about that. Their previous two albums was krautrock. This album though can only loosely be labeled as a krautrock album. Take some 1960s psychedelic rock and add some symphonic prog to the proceedings. The instruments here is keyboards, Mellotron, guitars, bass, drums and female vocals.

Biggi Zmierzak's vocals are OK, but not great. They fits the music pretty well. The songs are pretty long with some songs topping over eight minutes on this thirty-five minutes long album. The Garden Of Delight's re-release from 2012 comes with almost an hour extra bonus material. I am though reviewing the original 1979 album.

The songs are pretty good and has got this flower power psychedelic rock sound. There are some heavy guitars now and then. The keyboards is not particular great. The problem I got is the lack of any really good songs. It is an album is almost good, but not quite a good album. Hence my verdict.

2.5 points

Puppet Show - Traumatized (1997)

The first of in total two albums from this US band. Both are/will be reviewed in this blog.

This five piece band has chosen a rather imaginative name for their band. A band consisting of bass, guitars, keyboards, drums and vocals. A band who has chosen a mix of symphonic and neo-prog as their musical expression.

Think Genesis and the British neo-prog scene. Just transfer it over the Atlantic ocean to the shores of USA. To these fifty rebel states. I believe to the biggest one of them all; California. Or maybe Texas is bigger than California. But California is the place where Puppet Show comes from. Not a boarding school in a nice market town in England.

The music has got a great American twaang to it too. It is not only about England here. Take the AOR sound and transfer it over to this blend of neo and symphonic prog this band has enlightened us with.

The result is fifty-five minutes with elegant, slick neo/symphonic prog. The songs are all good without really being great. This though is a more than acceptable debut album from a promising band. I have already purchased their second album on the basis of this one.

3 points

Pan & Regaliz - I Can Fly (1971)

A one off album from this Spanish band who disappeared after the release of this album. Hopefully not in one of general and dictator Franco's many nasty prisons. Spain was a very repressive fascist states at that time.

The music on this album has been created with vocals, flutes, guitars, bass and drums. There is even some harmonica on this album. Pan & Regaliz is commonly known as one of the first prog bands from Spain although their music is not particular prog.

OK, there is a lot of psychedelic rock here. That and some jazz and a lot of blues. Not the mention standard rock. This album is all over the place. But the core of the album is psychedelic rock from the late 1960s with some heavy krautrock influences too. Krautrock fans will like this album.

The result is not particular impressive. As I said above, the album is fragmented and all over the place. The music is not particular good either. It would give it a rather weak decent score. That what this album is and it is not a particular interesting thirty-five minutes long album.

2 points

Brainticket - Voyage (1982)

The fifth out of in total six studio albums from this German band.

Brainticket's career has been filled with high and lows. But it was never irrelevant and they released at least one classic krautrock album.

On Voyage, a 37 minutes long album, split into Voyage I & II, Joel Vandroogenbroeck and the three other members in this band comes up with two halves.

Voyage I is a 19 minutes long sound collage and a pretty bad one too. The mix of unimaginative loops and electronics here bores me to death.
Voyage II is an 18 minutes long piece of music with a very good jazz piece/melody intertwined with some rather duller avant-garde loops. The keyboards is very much present here together with percussions. It is much better than the first Voyage.

I don't really rate this album at all to be honest. There is so much better krautrock out there than this album. It is a decent album and nothing more than that. Avoid Voyage I and only play Voyage II.

2 points

Albero Del Veleno. L' - Le Radici Del Male (2013)

The debut album from this Italian band.

This band with this rather odd band name for us non-Italian speakers, is another new name in this very much flowering Italian prog rock scene. And they both brings a new sound and an old sound from the 1970s back into life again. This time; Goblin get a makeover.

This band is by no means a copycat or have in any way copied Goblin. It is just that they share the same stage, so to speak. We are here deep into dark cinematic instrumental music. The ones that were and still is the sound track to Italian B-movies. Mostly; horror movies.

Thankfully, the music here is much more dynamic than ambient landscapes. It is very dynamic in places and full of life. Splatter-gore life. There is plenty of flutes and lighter instruments here in the sound. Which strangely enough does not makes this album a dark-fest.

The music is though movie-soundtrack type of music and the quality is good. Fans of Goblin beware. This is an album for you. I am not a big fan and I find this album good, but not great. If I need a soundtrack, I will surely re-visit this album again. It is a good album.

3 points

Pax Romana - Trace Of Light (2005)

The debut album from this Finnish band.

I quite liked their new album and thought it was a good idea to invest my hard earned cash into their first two albums too. So here it is.

The band has been around, with a long break included, since the 1970s and this is their debut album. That says a lot about the recording industry and this band. A hobby band before and after this album was released. I suspect they got their mind focused a bit more because of this album.

The band has two male vocalists. One that sounds like David Gilmour of Pink Floyd and the other one who sounds like a sanitized version of Tom Waits.

The David Gilmour'ish vocals songs has a lot in common with his version of Pink Floyd. They are a bit of a copycats in my view. Still good songs, but they screams Pink Floyd long way. The more Tom Waits'ish vocals songs has a more generic rock feel with some good saxophones included.

So we got two bands here for the price of one. I prefer the band when they are leaning quite heavy on Pink Floyd. I also suspect the material here is older than ten years, counting back from 2014. This band has a long history.

Nevertheless; this is a good album well worth checking out. I quite like it.

3 points

Le Orme - Florian (1979)

The tenth album, or the ninth album from this Italian band if you take away the English version of the Felona E Sorona album.

The band has always been a great Italian symphonic prog band..... up to this point. Florian sees a bit of another side of this band, though. This is still prog rock, but from another angle.

The band has thrown away all their electrical instruments on this album. Aldo Tagliapietra's excellent vocals is the dominating instrument here. Around his voice, we get cello, acoustic guitars, piano, harpsichord, mandolin and violin. The album has a lot of medieval feelings and is in essence that. A folk medieval album.

This very much draws comparisons with Angelo Branduardi's many albums in this genre. Le Orme is a bit more instrumental focused than Angelo again. Besides of that, the similarities are many. This is by no means a symphonic prog album in the vein of the earlier Le Orme albums.

The end result is a good album which I respect. Aldo's voice and vocals is the big plus here. There is no real great tracks here though and the album is too similar to Angelo Branduardi's many albums. It is a weak good award.

3 points  

Jevtovic. Dusan - Am I Walking Wrong ? (2013)

To my knowledge, this is the debut album from this Serbian guitarist.

This album was released through MoonJune Records on the 1. October 2013. And yes, I am a slow reviewer.

In this case, this type of jazz is not my favourite type of music either. I was listening to it one time at the beginning of the year before I put it on the back-burner. But time has now come......

I do not dispute the fact that Dusan Jevtovic is a highly talented guitarist. One of many highly talented guitarists on MoonJune Records now. But to be fair, Dusan is really something. He has got help from Bernat Hernandez on fretless bass and Marko Djordjevic on drums on this album. An instrumental forty minutes long/short album.

Dusan showcases his unique abilities on this standard guitar jazz album. He is not an all out shredder. In that respect, John McLaughlin is not getting any competitions from Dusan Jevtovic. Neither is this a fusion album either. Dusan plays on different strings altogether. A lot of strings. Both electric and acoustic. The album has some folk music influences too. I presume Balkan or Serbian folk music.

This is by all means a good album. Even a newbie in this field understand that. Does this album enthuse me ? This music is perhaps too alien to me to really enthuse me. But I like what I hear..... in small dosages. Check out this album at the link below.

3 points

The album

Paidarion - Behind the Curtains (2011)

The second album from this Finnish band.

I know next to nothing about this band and I am struggling with my blindness here. OK, this band consists of members from Mist Season and Progression. I know both bands reasonable well. They are good bands from Finland.

The music on this one hour long album offers up a lot for everybody. From vocal jazz to some very complex progressive metal. I would call that big contrasts !

The music is created with female vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and saxophones. Steve Unruh on violin and Michael Manring on bass makes a guest appearance. The contrasts in the music makes me believe this is more a live band than a studio band. The band has a bit of a show-band attitude where no chances is taken and the band is walking down a wide road.

The jazz bits are good. I am not fond of prog metal and is not warming towards those bits. The material is to put it mildly all over the place and I am not sure what the prog metal is doing here. It is like two planets colliding, this album. Hence my verdict as I have a bit problems with this big contrast.

2.5 points

Pazzo Fanfano di Musica - Pazzo Fanfano di Musica (1989)

The one and only album from this Japanese band.

This band is another Japanese band who has camouflaged themselves under an Italian name. It is also a super-group with members from the likes of Teru's Symphonia, Deja Vu, Magdalena, Mr Sirius and Vienna.

The music here is a kind of eclectic chamber symphonic prog. There is a lot of strings here and acoustic instruments like flutes etc etc. Besides of Mellotron, there is hardly any electric instruments used here. Some electric guitars is what I can detect of any electricity.

The female Japanese vocals is a bit of an acquired taste. They are for me the weakest thing about this album. The songs are not that great either. This album is by all means a great idea. It is not that well carried out, though. The songs are pretty weak and mind-numbing boring at times.

The quality is simply not here and the band is trading on cliches. As simple as that. This is nevertheless a decent album where only the final two songs are reasonable good.  

2 points  

Hopper. Hugh - Hopper Tunity Box (1976)

The second album from Hugh Hopper & friends.

This album was recorded after he had left Soft Machine and in Yes mobile studio. It was parked up in the middle of a big film studio and the likes of Steve Howe and Jon Andersen visited Hugh Hopper during the session as they were old friends from the endless tours around the planet together in their respective bands.
None of these two Yes members played on this album.

Elton Dean on the other hand were very much active on on this record with his woodwinds. And so was the Isotope guitarist Richard Brunton too. Hugh Hopper's own bass is also very much alive here.

The end result is an album with the type of jazz Soft Machine once played. I would also compare this album to Gilgamesh and Hopper's cooperations with Alan Gowen. This album has a large Canterbury feel running through it as blood runs through a body. The sound is very dark at times and so is the music. It is still pretty playful with a lot of vibraphone and percussions here. That and woodwinds.

Hugh Hopper is very much toying with some Soft Machine themes here throughout this forty minutes long album. An album which has some great music too. I now understand why this album is one of the most liked Canterbury albums of all time. It is indeed a great album from the maestro of Canterbury jazz. Thank you, Hugh.

4 points

Trip. The - Time Of Change (1973)

The fourth and final album from this Italian band.

The band was now reduced to an ELP like trio. And they sounded like that too at times. Take ELP, Yes and Le Orme. That is when you get the first twenty minutes long song Rhapsodia on this album.

Rhapsodia is the highlight of this album too with this very Yes inspired epic. The album falls a bit in quality after this. The rest of this forty minutes long album is a mix of lounge jazz, symphonic prog and proper jazz. The jazz bits comes in particular from the drummer Furio Chirico who later joined Arti E Mestieri if my memories serves me right. His drumming is very jazzy. The keyboardist Joe Vescovi and the bassist Arvid Andersen is keeping it all together.

I get the feeling that I am listening to an Italian version of an ELP album. But this is still The Trip and they have their own style. I am landing on a weak three pointer here on this, their weakest album.

3 points

Budgie - Bandolier (1975)

The fifth album from these Welsh rockers.

This power trio is a bit of a strange band and I am not sure how to describe their music. It is riff based intelligent rock. It has the same line up as Rush. Bass, drums and guitars. The guitarist does the vocals here. They sound like Rush on Rush's self titled debut album. After that, they went in two very different directions.

Bandolier offers up a mix of hard rockers and some strange psychedelic pieces. Some rather psychedelic ballads, that is. This weirdness secured that the band never really became that big and commercial successful.

Bandolier is a bit of a strange album and I am scratching my head again. I do that every time I am listening to this band. My scalp and Budgie is not a good combination.

The hard rockers here are both catchy and very good. The psychedelic interludes not so good. The band knows how to hold a riff and how to rock hard. They also knows how to create very intelligent hard rock songs. That is what this album is full of. Some of the songs here are really impressive. They are one of the better hard rock bands. One band that influenced scores of other bands. Metallica, Iron Maiden..... I guess they have all quite extensive played this album.

I regard this as a good album. There is no great songs here. But it is an album which rocks my world. Hence my verdict.

3 points

Minimum Vital - Au Cercle de Pierre (1998)

The one and only live album from this French band. A band who released six studio albums in their time. This live album comes between their fourth and fifth studio album.

Minimum Vital is one of those sadly overlooked European bands. Which is a pity as their six albums were pretty good. OK, perhaps not their very hard to find first album. But the rest is interesting albums.

Minimum Vital is also one of those bands which I find hard to pinpoint. Based on almost chamber like folk music from Britanny, the band also broadened their music into jazz and symphonic prog. On this album, dare I also say zeuhl. There is a lot of zeuhl structures here with the female and male vocals. Where did that come from as I cannot remember that from their studio albums ?

In addition to the female and male vocals, there is a lot of keyboards, woodwinds, guitars, strings, bass and drums here. The band has laid it on here. It is a real celebration of this band. A one hour long party, no less.

The end result is a very good live album with a great sound and some rather unusual music which really works as a treat. I am not a fan of live albums. But this one is well worth checking out. Do it.

3.5 points

J.E.T - Fede, Speranza, Carità (1972)

The debut album and first of in total two studio albums from this Italian band.

Their second one is so obscure that hardly anyone have heard it these days. This is their most famous album and one you will find on for example Youtube. Hint, hint if this review makes you interested in this band and album.

The music on this forty minutes long album is vintage Italian symphonic prog. Style wise, they are somewhere between Banco, Biglietto and Balletto. The music is very bombastic symphonic at times in between almost pop like choruses. The band was originally an Italian pop band and I believe they returned to that scene after this album too. I have heard their other album is a pure Italian pop album. You can hear the Italian pop even on this album.

There are also a lot of folk music influences on this album. An album which in sound and music is very much an Italian symphonic prog album. The vocals and the vintage keyboards is very good. The songs are not that great though. It is nevertheless a good album which should please anyone into this scene. J.E.T was a very obscure band and it will always remain so too. Check it out.

3 points

Gurumaniax - Psy Valley Hill (2010)

The debut album from this German project.

What do you get when you take Mani Neumaier from Guru Guru, Ax Genrich from the 1974 version of Guru Guru and Guy Segers from Univers Zero ? You get a pretty avant-garde jamming krautrock album.

Actually, you get an album which is pretty true to the first Guru Guru albums. I presume Guy Segers on bass is a pretty big fan of those albums as he is doing a great job here. Ax Genrich is on guitars and Mani does his normal things on drums and vocals.

A lot of the vocals here is samples. The music is mostly instrumental with a lot of classical krautrock spaced out compositions on these fifty minutes this album lasts. The bass and drums is thundering along in the background and the guitars is giving the music some directions.

The result is a good, retro krautrock album. A form of music which is becoming more popular again. The sound is really good and I would really recommend this to anyone into krautrock. In particular; those who are new to this genre.

3 points

Lineateorica - Lineateorica (2014)

The first sign of life, an EP, from this Italian band.

This band from Rome is is fairly and squarely an Italian progressive rock band. Their sound is very contemporary and not particular retro. It is still prog rock we are talking about here.

The band use flutes, guitars, bass, drums and Italian vocals here. No keyboards and that means the music is pretty heavy. Not as in hard rock, but still pretty heavy.

This twenty-five minutes long EP is divided into four tracks. All of them pretty interesting and good. There is a lot of interesting details here. The flute adds a lot of pastoral elegance to the music. Ditto for the very good vocals.

The end result is a very promising debut and one which marks this band out as a promising prospect. There is no great songs here. Nevertheless, this is a good EP.

3 points

Mikromidas - Faunus (2005)

The second and final album from this very obscure and long forgotten band from Stavanger, Norway.

I reviewed their debut album Brennende Drommer back in September 2009 for/in ProgArchives. It took me 5 years to follow up that review with a review of their second album. Time flies !

Faunus is a much more contemporary sounding album than the rather 1970s sounding debut album. The band still got Norwegian vocals with some Mellotron, Hammond organs, bass, keyboards, drums and guitars. The sound is OK. The vocals rather dubious.

The music this time is much more mainstream rock and rather neo-prog like. There is not much 1970s symphonic prog left here. The Mellotron is nice and the band should have used a lot more of that to really follow up the Swedish bands from that time.

The songs are not that interesting and I find myself looking out the window at my office and looking at the roof at lot during the listening sessions. The songs are not particular good and the band not the most interesting there is. The music here should be down my alley. This album is not, though. This is a decent album and nothing more than that.

2 points

Big Goodbye. A - History In Rewind (2014)

The second album from this US band.

I quite liked their 2011 debut album Sounds & Silences whom I reviewed in ProgArchives. I notice with satisfaction that this Matt Glisson lead band is still around.

The debut album was somewhere between Porcupine Tree, Radiohead and Muse. Modern progressive rock with other words. Remove Radiohead and that is where they still are in 2014, on their new album.

The album is wildly ambitious. It comes from a country and a prog rock scene where big is better. This album is in that vein too. Very big and very long. Seventy-five minutes to be precise. The music is also pretty heavy at times and very much in the classic US prog rock tradition. Take some AOR and fuse that with Muse and Porcupine Tree. Very bold and very noisy indeed.

The guitars, bass, drums and keyboards is very heavy at times. Ditto for the vocals. Heavy and bold. The music is sometimes also pretty restrained and AOR like. Most of the music is thundering along as a freight train between Chicago and Santa Fe.

Unfortunate for the band and the listener, there is no real great songs here. There are some sporadic greatness here. But not often enough. Those into bold and brash US progressive rock will love this and the previous album. I like what I hear, but will only rate this album as a mere good album.

3 points

Curved Air - Air Cut (1973)

The fourth album from this English band.

Curved Air's previous three albums showcased a band in fine form, somewhere between the likes of Renaissance and more folk and pop rock like progressive rock. Nice, catchy songs combined with more complicated music.

The band continues this formula on Air Cut. This despite of Sonja Kristine being the only original member left of the band. She was and still is a great talent spotter. Eddie Jobson on violin and keyboards really does a great job here.

This album is said to be their most ambitious progressive rock album. The symphonic prog parts here is indeed not easy listening. The ten minutes long track Metamorphosis is one heck of a mouthful. It is also a very good track. There is also some instrumental tracks here and a lot of harsh sounding guitars. This album is not a Sonja Kristine with backing album. It is a fully blown band effort where Sonja's superb vocals is one part of the output. There is even a song with male vocals here. Strangely enough !

The result is a very good album and one that cement the band as one of those well worth listening to. This album also have a bit of a refreshing naive attitude I find charming. No really great songs here, but an overall very good album.

3.5 points

Zaragon - No Return (1984)

The one and only album from this Danish band.

1984 was in the middle of the dark ages for progressive rock and most of the music scene. Iron Maiden's Powerslave and their live album Live After Death is the only positives from that year. None of them were prog rock albums, though. The scene was on a life support machine back then. It was as cool as rabies.

But Zaragon gave it a try with an album which is supposed to be a symphonic prog album according to ProgArchives. Hence, it caught my attention. ProgArchives, as reliable as they normally are, does not always get it right. This forty-five minutes album may be symphonic prog anno 1984. But not anno 2014 or even anno 1974.

What we get here is a very good vocalist backed by a band with guitars, drums, keyboards and bass. The music is halfway cool rock with a lot of West coast influences. There are also some fusion and funky bits here. That and some prog rock influences.

The vocals are very good. The music is not particular interesting and the songs are pretty easy to forget. The sound is not particular interesting either. The Hammond organ is the best thing about this band. That and the vocalist.

The end result is a decent album and nothing more than that.

2 points

Pell Mell - Only a Star (1978)

The fourth album from this German band.

Pell Mell was one of those bands who combined symphonic prog with a lot of classical music. This album is no exception. Take a lot of violins, Melotrons, keyboards, violas, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. That is what this band uses to fuse classical music and symphonic prog.

Well, not only symphonic prog. There is a lot of naive pop in the The Beatles vein here too. Or even in the Moody Blues/Barclay James Harvest vein. Take some Ekseption and ELP too and you get this album. But most of all; The Moody Blues. This album is surprisingly pop orientated.

The classical music here has an emphasis on Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the more lighter classical music composers. Pell Mell copied some of the more harder and not so easy digested composers on the previous albums. This is not the case on this album.

The emphasis is on songs here too. The title track is a very good track and the best one here. The songs are cleverly composed and has some very good pieces. Unfortunate, this album also has a couple of throw away songs. Nevertheless, this is a good album from a band I think has been a bit overlooked. It was a very good symphonic prog band and a great find. I like them.

3 points

Trip. The - Atlantide (1972)

The third album from this Italian band.

It is many years since I were listening to and reviewed an album by The Trip. Their second album Caronte to be precise. More than five years ago, in fact. I cannot remember anything from that album as 3000 albums has been reviewed in the meantime. But I have always seen them as a fusion band.

I am wrong, in fact. They were more an ELP type band. At least on this album. The opening minutes is a blend of ELP and Annie Haslam's vocals for Renaissance. The rest is more or less pretty straight forward ELP'ish symphonic prog with some Italian avant-garde vibes thrown in at the end.

The vocals are in English and the music is heavy laden with keyboards. There is no guitars here. But there is plenty off bass and drums.

I am a bit surprised to discover that the vocal lines and melodies has taken a lot from Italian beat anno 1968'ish. The melodies is not as symphonic as I thought they would be. The music is a bit on the more primitive side and not even keyboards cascades can mask that. This is nevertheless a reasonable good album which does not really impress me. It is so and so.

3 points

Eloy - Codename Wildgeese (1985)

The thirteenth album from this German band.

This is also the first of three albums where these masters of space and krautrock lost their mind and went da-da dilly-dally. Codename Wildgeese is a movie soundtrack to a movie hardly anyone have seen. Well, it has been re-released on both DVD and Blu-Ray now. It is a bad, bad B-movie.

The movie is about cutting of the heroin supply from the golden triangle, ie Laos, Cambodia and Burma. It is supposed to be an all out action movie on a strict budget. So Eloy got this job, then.
Frank Borneman, the main composer in Eloy was now out of Eloy and the band consisted of three guys. None of them came up with anything remotely like Eloy here. Take an AOR song which were probably released as a single to promote this movie + a lot of ambient stuff made by computers.

The result is an abysmal bad half an hour long album. Half an hour too long in my opinion. It truly disgraces the Eloy name and brand. It is as good as turkeys come. Hence my verdict.

1 point

Halloween - Silence...au dernier rang (1998)

The live album from this French band, released before their final album and after their first three albums.

I am no longer a great fan of live albums as I find them not offering up much new music. Halloween was an interesting band though with some weird symphonic prog albums to their name. Weird even after the French symphonic prog standards. And French symphonic prog is normally really weird.

The music is fronted by the female vocalist Geraldine Le Cocq. The version of Van Der Graaf Generator's House With No Door is great. The live versions of Halloween's own songs are also very good. Geraldine's heavy accented English is not particular good. She is best in her mother tongue.

She is supported by violins, piano, keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. That and some orchestral instruments. The sound is not the best but it is good enough. The end result is a very good live album and a epitaph to a band who should not be ignored. They were very weird, but also very good. Check out this album.

3.5 points

Event - Human Condition (2001)

The second of in total three albums from this US band.

I thought for a long moment that I had got a King's X album on my hand here. A band I very much respect and like. But this album is from Event. A band who on their 1998 album Electric Skies sounded like a crossover between Dream Theater and King's X.

Well, we can forget Dream Theater on this album. But I guess King's X were ripe for a copycat too. Something Event very much is on this album.

I have to admit I am not a big fan of this album at all. There is no real good melodies here and there is not much of any interesting details. The drums are annoying to say at least. The vocals too much like the King's X vocals. This is simply not my cup of tea. Nevertheless, this is a decent album.

2 points

Blue Öyster Cult - Cultösaurus Erectus (1980)

The seventh album from this US art rock band. Art rock or whatever you may call it. Their music are difficult to pinpoint, to say at least.

Starting with the superb Black Blade, one of their best ever tracks and a heavy art-rocker, I got my hopes up for this album. The album then takes some strange, or rather some familiar Blue Oyster Cult turns towards jazz, AOR and synth rock. Inbetween, we also get a good slab of art-rock.

Nobody would deny that this band present highly intelligent, intriguing art-rock. That is the core of this band. Their DNA profile. The reason why this band intrigues me a great deal. It is why I got everything they have released. The band sometimes makes it a bit difficult for themselves by insisting trying out various things in full public. That synth rock track is not a good thing. And so is some sloppy standard AOR tunes too. The main core of this album is good to very good though.

The end result is a forty minutes long, interesting time with this band. It is bordering between good and very good in my estimations. But I would elevate it to a very good rating.

3.5 points

Minimum Vital - Capitaines (2009)

The sixth and so far final album from this French band.

It is many years since the last time I reviewed a Minimum Vital album. Perhaps five years or so. I really liked the previous albums from this band who has been hiding under the surface throughout their lifespan. They never really got the recognition they perhaps deserve. It is indeed a hard world out there.

Capitaines is mostly an instrumental album with medieval ages inspired symphonic prog. Add folk music tunes from the Brittany area of France too and you get this album. This band is run by the Payssan brothers who also have released an album under the name Vital Duo. On Capitaines, they have expanded to a full band effort again.

The music has a lot in common with Camel and die-hard fans of that band will probably love this album. The main idea and melodies are very good here. The album is a bit too pedestrian for my liking and I am not getting into this album. It is a good album, but it's flaws is the lack of any great melodies. You should still check it out.

3 points

Watch. The - Tracks from the Alps (2014)

The sixth studio album from this Italian band. Or the seventh if the lone album from The Night Watch is included too.

The Watch alternates between playing Genesis songs and original material. They have made a good touring career as a Genesis cover band. I am not so sure if they are touring their own material too. Which is a pity because the band has some good songs on their five previous albums. In their own right, The Watch is a very good band.

We are deep into neo-prog land here with a very large Genesis influence. There is no denying that Simone Rossetti sounds like Peter Gabriel. Where Yes are making albums and is touring with Jon Anderson soundalikes vocalists, Genesis with Simone Rossetti would had been a great idea. The Watch has also cornered that market, though.

On their own, The Watch does not come up with the classics, I am afraid. Some of the songs here are a bit weak and reminds me too much of Phil Collins less good solo material. The good stuff here is very Genesis like. On their own, The Watch is not a Genesis copycat. Their basis is in neo-prog. Not in symphonic prog.

The end result is a good album. I would also add; perhaps their least great album too. The album sounds a bit underwhelming uninspired. It feels like the band is threading water. It is still a good album with some very good melodies inbetween some rather dubious material. An uneven album, in other words.

3 points

Spettri - Spettri (2011)

The one and only album from this Italian band.

Don't be fooled by the 2011 release date. The album was recorded and then shelved in 1972. It was probably recorded as a kind of demo as the sound is not particular good. It has a demo/bootleg sound quality.

The music is on the heavy prog side. Take a great deal of Deep Purple and some Led Zeppelin. Then you get this album. There is a lot of Hammond organs here. That and some raw powerful Italian vocals. Add some raw unpolished guitars, bass and drums to the proceedings too. Then you get the picture.

The songs are not particular interesting. They are pretty standard heavy rock from that time. What sets the band apart is that they are from Italy and mugs like myself buys everything Italian. Hence this review.

This is a decent forty minutes long album and nothing more than that.

2 points