Cherry Five - Il Pozzo dei Giganti (2015)

The second album from this Italian band, released 40 years after their debut album.

Cherry Five is mostly known as the band who became Goblin. But their 1975 self titled debut album was a very fine album in itself. 

The band has reformed with most of the original members and with Gianluca De Rossi (from Tabopran) on moog, mellotron, hammond organs and keyboards as an extra member. The five original members are concentrating their efforts on guitars, bass, drums and Italian vocals. 

I noted in my 2011 review of their first album that it sounded like an Italian version of a Yes album. Well, they have moved on from that one after forty years and gone for a much more ELP sound and soundscape. The tangents, all kind of tangents, sounds like Keith Emerson at times. The guitars sounds like a normal Italian guitarist in the symphonic prog scene and the rest is also grounded in that scene. Ditto for the vocals.

This is a very classic Italian symphonic prog rock album with obvious references to Le Orme. It is also an album which takes the listeners on many exciting journeys throughout these fifty minutes. It is an album which would immensely please anyone into Italian prog and I am indeed pleased. It is just lacking a killer track or two. Besides of that; this is indeed a very good album.

3.5 points 

  

Cos - Viva Boma (1976)

The second album from this band from Belgium. 

Their 1974 debut album with that weird album title, was a rather strange mix of zeuhl and Canterbury jazz. It was also a great album.

I am pleased that the band has continued down the same path on Viva Boma. They still got a lot of musicians here with a lineup of both strings, woodwinds, keyboards, drums, bass, guitars, mini-moog and lots of vocals. Both male and female vocals.

Pascale Son's weird female vocals floats on the top of, again, a rather heady mix of jazz and zeuhl. The bass is in the Jannick Top vein although he does not play here. The bass is in short solidly in zeuhl territory. Pascale Son's vocals also makes some detours into zeuh too on this  one hour long album.

The result is very jazzy and avant-garde. It is also at times very melodic and offers up some great guitar solos too. The end product is a very good album which only lack a couple of great piece of music to really become something special. Check it out !

3.5 points 

Gazpacho - Firebird (2005)

The third album from this Norwegian band.

Gazpacho has been labeled as Norway's best kept secret by ProgRock Magazine. I don't disagree with them. This band is big everywhere but in Norway. Don't ask me why.

The band was a four piece on this album with three guest musicians, including Marillion's Steve Rothery. And Marillion is as usual a strong influence on their music. Gazpacho is essentially a fusion of Marillion and post rock bands like Sigur Ros and other post rock bands. 

The band is still trying to find their feet on this fifty-four minutes long album. There is no really good songs here, truth to be told. But their sound and the soundscapes they are painting makes this a good album. Hence my rating of this album.

3 points

Intentions - Place in Time (2009)

The so far only album from this Dutch band.

The Netherlands has had and still has a very strong neo-prog scene. Some of these bands are well known and some are not so known. The cream always floats to the top in this scene.

Intentions was/is a five piece band with the usual lineup of keyboards, bass, drums, guitars and vocals. 

Their music is standard neo-prog with a lot of pop music inspirations. The sound is very clean and so is the twelve songs on this one hour long album. The band is doing a good job on the instruments. The inspirations and that little extra which makes a great or even a good album is simply not there. 

This is a decent but still a dull album which does not give me much of anything. If you are really into neo-prog rock of the most melodic, poppy kind, this album is for you.

2 points 

Amministrazione Caos Popolare - Sendai Nebula (2015)

The debut album from this Italian band.

I know next to nothing about this five piece band besides of what I have found on their homepage. It is in Italian and I don't understand Italian.  Their lineup is guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and Italian vocals. All band members seems to be somewhere in their 40s and 50s. Maybe even 60s. Spring chickens, they are not. Which is great. 

Their music is not exactly modern either. Good mature progressive rock. Maybe not so much Italian progressive rock although there is a lot of folk rock in their sound. The music is much more leaning towards the English folk rock & symphonic prog crossover genre which was pretty popular back in the 1970s. Add the Italian vocals and we get a very warm and at times some pretty pastoral music.

There are no really great songs here and this album has a tendency to drown in the onslaught of these kinds of albums lately. I get the feeling this band is much more a live band than an album band. I guess releasing an album is a necessary evil even for touring hobby bands these days. 

But by all means; this is a good fifty minutes long album. But not overly exciting. A weak good rating has been awarded.

3 points  

Message - Message (1975)

The third album from this German band.

I was very surprised by their 1973 album From Books And Dreams. Really complex krautrock which really appealed to both brain and heart. So I was looking forward to this one........

Message is a four piece band on this album with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, synths, woodwinds and English vocals sung by an English vocalist. No heavy German accent, then.

Unfortunate for me, the band had shed the pretty complex krautrock on this album and gone a bit mainstream. The music is still hard rocking. But the woodwinds and occasional female choir also takes this album into soul territory on a couple of songs. That on this thirty-eight minutes long album. We even get treated to some ska here. The woodwinds is pretty much everywhere too. That also adds some funk to the whole proceedings.

This album is pretty much what hard swinging rock was all about in 1975. And the result is a decent album with no really good songs. A bit of a let down, in other words. Check it out if you like the 1970s.

2 points  

Antares - Over the Hills (1982)

The debut album from this German band. A band who released two albums before they gave up the ghost and split up.

The band was a trio on this album with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and English vocals. And no, this is not a krautrock band.

Not krautrock, but neo-prog. Take a big slice out of Pendragon, add a lot of Genesis and finish with a light sprinkling of Saga. Then you get this album. The English neo-prog sound is pretty evident here. A very clear, cold and poppy sound. 

This forty minutes long album starts with the title track, a very long track which takes up more than 1/3 of this album. Sixteen minutes to be precise. It is a non event of a track. So is most other tracks. The best part of this album is the final five minutes where the band sounds like a crossover between Saga and Genesis. 

In short, this is a decent album which leaves me a bit cold. Hence my rating.

2 points 

Itoiz - Alkolea (1982)

The third album from this Spanish band.

I thought I had some more albums from this band as it has released seven albums and is highly regarded. But I only got this album. Maybe I should get some more Itoiz albums. In particular the Ezekiel album.

......Anyway..... Itoiz is one of the many bands from the Basque region on the border to France. They got their own language and culture. Their folk rock scene was a big one back in the 1970s and this band is a good example of that. 

Itoiz was a seven piece band with a lineup of galician bagpipe, mandolin, sax, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. And I almost forgot; male vocals in their own language.

The sound is good. The vocals is very good. The music is a blend of Genesis, Camel and Basque folk rock. 50/50 of symph prog and folk music. The songs are both catchy and melodic on this thirty-eight minutes long album. The overall quality is good without really being impressive. I am not carried away by the music here. Hence, it is not a great album.

3 points 

Cryptex - Madeleine Effect (2015)

The second album from this German band.

I did not get their 2011 debut album because the cover art did not really appeal to me. Kind out vaudeville and pirates themed music. So gave that a miss.

Cryptex is a duo of Simon Moskon and Marc Andrejkovits. They are supported by three session musicians on  this album. The lineup is strings, mandolin, bass, drums, guitars, accordion, drums, male vocals and a female choir. 

The vocals is very good. Both of them. The music is in the vaudeville and catchy tuned based rock genre. A lot of theater and catchy hooks. A lot of genres fused into this album. Funk and jazz comes to mind. A lot of George Michael too. A lot of INXS too. A lot of things, really. 

The result is very catchy music which is a bit thin on the ground when it comes to substance. Nevertheless, this is a good album which is well worth checking out.

3 points 

Atempo - Abismos Del Tiempo (2003)

The debut album from this Argentine band. 

This band has so far released three albums with moderate success. I am not sure if the band is still alive. 

Atempo was a six piece band on this album with a lineup of bass, guitars, keyboards, drums, piano and female vocals. Spanish vocals, that is. 

The music here is a mix of neo-prog, prog metal and symphonic prog. The female vocals is kind of muddying this water as it points more towards prog metal. The music is reasonable melodic though with some long spells of symphonic prog. 

My problem with this album is the lack of any really good songs. There are sporadic good melodies. But they are far between. And the album is far too long, clocking in at seventy-four minutes. Quantity but not quality is what we get here. Unfortunate, it is.

2 points

Innerspace - The Village (2012)

The so far only album from this Canadian band. 

Innerspace is a four piece band with a guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and English vocals lineup. The usual lineup.

The sound is pretty rich and warm. Most of this album, including the vocals, reminds me about Pink Floyd. In other words, we get fifty-five minutes of mellow prog/rock with some prog metal and psychedelic influences. The guitars and keyboards are all driving the music forward together with the vocals. There are really no long solos here. But the music is still very Floyd'ish.

The album is a some kind of a concept album. It include three pretty long songs around the ten minutes mark and some shorter ones. It also includes one long narrative which explains the concept a bit. Darkness is afoot in this village and the devil has arrived, the narrative tells us.

The problem with this album is the lack of any real good music. It is also an album which has some overtly Floyd influences. Uncomfortably so. But that does not make me comfortably numb..... Sorry, I could not resist this pun. 

Nevertheless, this is a decent album and one fans of Pink Floyd should check out.

2 points

Alternative 4 - The Brink (2011)

The debut album from this British band.

This is the band Duncan Patterson set up after leaving Anathema. He gets company in the band by two other musicians and help from some other musicians on this album. The lineup is surprisingly acoustic with mandolin, violin, cello, guitars, bass, drums, synths, piano, computers and vocals. Both male and female. Duncan does the male vocals plus some other instruments. 

Duncan did not go far away from Anathema, music wise. Take a lot of Pink Floyd and Anathema. Add a lot of post rock and post metal. Then some of Gazpacho and a lot of this electronica based rock. Then you get this album.

The band is painting walls of sound on this album. It is mostly gentle with some doom metal influences and some funeral doom influences too. There are some harsh guitars and a lot of gentle piano here too. The contrast makes this painting. 

The end result is a good album. It is not for the faint hearted. But it is a good album where doom metal meets prog rock. Check it out.

3 points

Inside//Outside - Inside//Outside (2013)

The debut album from this New York, USA based band.

The band, a trio, is based in Brooklyn and is another one of those jazz bands from New York. A metropolis that never sleep and where jazz is everywhere. I must go there one day.... for a month.

The band is helped out by ten other musicians on a song by song basis. The music is instrumental though. And you will not be surprised to know that the core of this album is woodwinds and a lot of it. But piano, drums, violins, guitars, bass and electronica also plays a substantial part of this album.

The music is very dynamic and slightly avant-garde. For some reasons, the band is listed as RIO/avant-garde in Progarchives. Based on this album, their only album so far, I do not agree with that. This album is a straight jazz album.

Straight jazz with a lot of electronica incorporated. The music has this urban, modern feel. This fifthy minutes long album also has some really very good stuff too. It is bordering to being a great album too. A couple of barely good tracks drags it down to a very good album. It is here to be enjoyed though and I hope we will hear a lot more from this band.

3.5 points

Incredible String Band. The - I Looked Up (1970)

The seventh album from this Scottish band. 

The band was now a five piece band with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums and vocals. Both female and male vocals. 

The Incredible String Band was always on the folk music fringe of the folk rock scene back in the 1970s. The implemented a lot of Indian music too in their music. That on their previous albums. 

On this forty minutes long album, their sound is stripped down and reasonable bare. There are a lot of Spanish folk music influences on this album. But still with a strong Scottish accent in their English vocals. Vocals which pretty much dominates this album.

The end result is not particular enjoyable. Their music is too stripped down and does not have much colours. Hence my rating of this album.

2 points

Nucleus - Labyrinth (1973)

The sixth album from this British band.

The band had now evolved into Ian Carr & a bunch of musicians called Nucleus on this album. Ten or so musicians to be just about correct. Roy Babbington, later Soft Machine, was still involved here.

The well known jazz soprano Norma Winston was doing some vocals here too. The rest of the names here is unknown to me as I am still a newbie in the jazz scene.

Labyrinth is a concept album about Greek mythology. A guy called Mintour is pictured on the cover, if I am not mistaken. Greek mythology is not my strong side, to put it mildly.

The result is forty-five minutes with a blend of jazz and fusion. There are some pretty good avant-garde jazz here too. Ian Carr's trumpet is excellent here. He is indeed Europe's answer to Miles Davis. Or is it the other way around ? It is debatable. 

All musicians does a very good job here on some material which is really good. The end result is a very good album which should appeal to everyone into fusion. Enjoy !

3.5 points

Hune - De l'Autre Côté du Monde (2009)

The debut album from this band from Quebec, Canada.

This city/town has had a great music scene and some excellent bands during the last fifty years. Maneige, Sloche and Harmonium springs to mind. Not to mention a lot of other bands too.

Hune is/was a two men big project where Daniel Couturier plays all instruments and Andre Bourget does the vocals. The vocals are in French. The instruments are guitars, drums, bass, piano and keyboards. That from what I can detect.

For those of us who fondly remembers Harmonium, this album comes as a big gift from heaven. Hune has incorporated their style into this album. That means all their phases over three albums. 

This album offers us one hour with pastoral folk rock influenced symphonic prog. That is the most fitting label I can find for this album. The vocals is great. The music floats away with some gentle pastoral melodies. And the melodies are great too. That after a bit of a weak start where this album struggles to come into full bloom. But when it does that......... voila !!!!!!!!

This is a great album and I hope we can get another serving of the same. Please !

4 points

Crooked Mouth - One Bright Midnight (2015)

The third album from this Edinburgh, Scotland based band.

Crooked Mouth is Ken Campbell with six friends. He has always been the main force in this band. In this band, we find synths, samples, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. Both male and female vocals, that is.

Crooked Mouth is what we can call a modern prog rock band with some good references back to the past. The sound is big and bold. So is the music too. The music has a lot of metallic edges to it. This album is rather hard and heavy. The music though is still neo-prog with some hints of americana and standard rock. Not to mention prog metal.

There are also some electronica influences here. Pretty strong ones too. Add some movie scores influences and you get this one hour long album.

The music varies between some instrumental pieces and proper songs. Both of these two music styles offers up some good stuff. Stuff which more than often sounds frantic and hyper. The music is very busy indeed. 

The end result is barely a good album. What is missing is a great song or two. Besides of that, this album is a good album. Check it out.

3 points  

Ice - The Saga (2005)

The one and only album from this Dutch band. 

Ice is a five man band who originated from the pretty good Dutch neo-prog band Maryson. A band who released two good albums.

Ice really picks up the baton from their final 1998 album. The keyboards, bass, drums, vocals and guitars lineup gives us an hour worth of symphonic neo-prog.

We get both ballads in the vein of the Mama era Genesis and some harder, more muscular songs. The blend of songs is pretty good throughout. What is missing is some great songs on this good album which ticks all the right symphonic neo-prog boxes bar that great songs box. Unfortunate, so does a lot of other albums too. If you like symph prog and/or neo-prog, check out this album.

3 points   

La Düsseldorf - La Düsseldorf (1976)

The debut album from this German band. A band who released three albums before they split up.

LA Dusseldorf was a three piece band with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, piano, keyboards and vocals. Both male and female vocals on this album and the vocals was in their mother tongue. 

This band also originated from one of the biggest krautrock bands of all time; Neu. I have yet to hear a tone from that band. They are on my to-do list though. 

The music on this thirty-five minutes long album is pretty elegant and airy krautrock. The music is not full on aural attack. It is much more like pop music at times. Elegant synth pop. There are also some of the usual krautrock madness here with spoken, shouted words and some bombastic melody themes. But the album is mostly elegant and funky. 

The end result is a very good album which should appeal to everyone into krautrock and elegant music. I am won over.

3.5 points  

Weather Report - Night Passage (1980)

The ninth album from this US band.

The good career of this fusion band is winding down towards the end with this album. There is still life in this band though. 

Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul and Jaco Pastorius is still very much present in this band. They are the core on this album and what makes this band pulsating. Sort of pulsating. 

Thankfully, the pretty bad urban sound from Mr Big has been dumped and the real Weather Report from the good old days has been restored, polished and brought into life again. That means a lot of interplays between Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul with Jaco Pastorius also chiming in with some very intricate bass playing. This is what I like !

The music is at times pretty avant-garde'ish and dense jazz. This is much more a jazz album than a fusion album. 

The end result is a good album without the great tracks, but still a good album which I pretty much enjoy. Check it out.

3 points

Hands - Caviar Bobsled (2015)

The fifth album this US band.

Hands debuted in 1996 with a self titled album. A very good album if my memory serves me right. I have not heard their other albums though.

Hands is labeled as a symphonic prog band in ProgArchives. I am not so sure if this applies to this album, though. From the first song on this album, the very good The Last Song, the band wanders through a much more art rock landscape than a symphonic prog landscape.

The instruments here are also pretty arty. Chapmann stick, guitars, cello, woodwinds, keyboards, bass and drums is mostly the lineup here. The music is pastoral throughout. There is no bombastic songs anywhere on this album. The album has a bit of a resigned feeling. It is also melancholic. 

The end result is a good album though. A very long album too, clocking in at seventy-two minutes. I like the opening song The Last Song a lot. The rest is not up to that standard. Nevertheless; this is a good album. Check it out.

3 points

Hydrus - Midnight In Space (1978)

The one and only album from this very obscure Italian band.

The band is so unknown that the members of the band has been lost forever. The royalties goes to the Italian taxman, then. If the record label pays royalties, that is. 

I am on very thin ice here because this is an electronic prog release. You will not see me review many of those albums. But it is nice to get some new impulses now and then. 

This is a forty minutes long album with a lineup of electronics and even more electronics. I am a bit surprised how organic this album feels though and I suspect some genuine instruments are involved here. 

Even the melodies here are pretty decent. Not good, but decent. This album is one of the classic ones in this genre and I can understand why. This is a decent album I am not really able to connect with. It is simply too ambient and fragmented for my liking.

2 points

Apocalypsis - No (1981)

The second and final album from this Greece band.

I quite liked their self titled debut album from 1980. A bit Genesis like, that album. 

The band has gathered again for a new stab at the music market as a five piece band with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and English vocals. 

The band has also moved on and away from the Genesis like music on the debut album. They have moved into a much more art rock territory with a few Gentle Giant connotations sprinklings on a pretty soft version of progressive rock. Supertramp is a band I would compare this album with too.

The sound is a bit strange. But what we get here is soft progressive rock with no long songs. Which was the standard anno 1981. A terrible year and this band does not really raise the standards of the musical outputs from this year either. 

There is no good songs here and this thirty-six minutes long album is just a decent album. One of many decent albums from that era. Don't bother unless Supertramp is your gods.

2 points 

Imán Califato Independiente - Camino del Aguila (1980)

The second & final album from this Spanish band.

I really liked their 1978 self titled debut album. Some really great fusion with a lot of Spanish folk music incorporated. Right down my alley, then.

The band is back again as a four piece with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, percussions and keyboards. The final song also offers up some vocals and choirs. Just as their debut album, though.

This time around, the genuine Spanish folk rock tinged fusion has been smoothed over and the music is a lot slicker. Not to say, a lot more commercial. The band still sounds like National Health with a lot of Spanish folk music influences. 

The result is a half an hour long album which is nice on the ears, but does not really offers much of food for the brain. It is simply too slick for my liking. 

Nevertheless; this is a good to very good album. The vocals at the end is not good at all. So this is a good album, then.

3 points  

Helmerson. Anders - Triple Ripple (2010)

The third album from this Brazil based Swedish keyboardist.

I believe this is the first Anders Helmerson album I have ever reviewed or ever heard. I believe I got his 1981 debut album End Of Illusion on a file somewhere. 

Anders Helmerson (all synths) has got with him the much traveled drummer Marco Minnemann and the bassist Bryan Beller on this album. Adrian Thurston does some spoken words here.

This whole one hour long album has got a space traveler concept. Well, it feels like it. This is by no means a space rock album. But it has got some ethereal space rock influences.

The main music here is a mix of symphonic prog, prog metal and fusion. I would label this as a bit of a fusion album. The music is a bit busy and intense at time. The drummer and the bassist is very busy and is having to work hard for their money. So does Anders himself. This is by no means an easy listening album.

The end result is a decent to good album. The opening piece of music, the fourteen minutes long Touchdown is a good piece of music. The album tails of at the end and the music becomes a bit too predictable. That is my main gripe with this album. Hence my rating... which I am upgrading to a good reward. 

3 points  

Annot Rhul - Leviathan (2014)

The third album from this Norwegian band.

I really liked their previous album, the 2007 album Lost In The Woods. A great psychedelic album with some great songs. So I was looking forward to Leviathan.

The band is continuing down the same path. Fifty minutes of some well crafted psychedelic rock tunes. Sigurd Luhr Tonna has again got with him some of the greatest musicians from his hometown Trondheim. Musicians from the likes of Seid, Wobbler and Manifest. The many instruments here gives a good psychedelic vibe. There are even some mellotrons, organs and steel guitars here.

The sound is very good. Unfortunate, that cannot be said about the songs and the melodies here. There is no great songs or melodies here. There are some sporadic very good stuff here. But that is all.

When that is said, this is a good album which will be loved by the psychedelic rock fans. The sound is very good, at least. Unfortunate, that is all. I am a bit disappointed.

3 points 

  

Horrific Child - L'étrange Mr. Whinster (1976)

The one and only album from this French project.

This project is the brainchild of Jean-Pierre Massiera, a man who has been involved in Ange and some other French bands. 

It is hard to describe this album. There is no music here. What we get is thirty-three minutes of sounds and some piano clunking away with some "scary" sounds. This is something, if I am nice, reminds me about something from a horror film. 

There is a lot of French ranting here which I don't really understand. And that is really it. It is a waste of space and a waste of time. Hence the turkey rating.

1 point

Van Der Graaf Generator - Alt (2012)

The twelfth and so far final album from this UK band. 

Van Der Graaf Generator is one of the all time great bands in the progressive rock scene. As simple as that. So why the heck they have released these bits, odds and studio outtakes as a proper album is beyond me. 

It would had been OK and a bit of an exotic album if one of the many avant-garde bands had released it. Or if VDGG had released it as a fan club special. But as an official album ? It is a desecration of their own name. 

What we get here is nothing but soundsbites without much meaning. It is fractured and with no purpose. It is a proper turkey, this one hour long album. End of it.

1 point 

Traffic Sound - Virgin (1969)

The debut album from this band from Peru. A band who released three albums before they broke up. 

All of them reviewed/to be reviewed here in this blog.

Traffic Sound was a six piece band with a wide array of instruments. From guitars to woodwinds, bass, drums, vibraphone, organ, piano and English vocals.

This half an hour long album has a surprisingly good sound. Good enough sound to really convey the psychedelic rock on this album. An album which sadly is also a bit of a mishmash between live sounding songs with audience and proper studio songs.

Peru is on the western side of South America and this album sounds like it has been spat out of the hippie scene in California. A song like Simple is....... well, simple. A good pop song. There are also some pretty good rhythmic and some more complex songs here. 

The end result is a decent album which sounds a bit dated. It also very much feels like a debut album where everything old and historical songs are thrown into this album. Check them out of old style psychedelic rock is your thing.

2 points

Message - From Books and Dreams (1973)

The second album from this German band who released seven albums between 1972 and 1980.

I got this album with a krautrock 5 cds box and go two other albums too of them. I have not heard their hard to find debut album so this is my first meeting with this band. A four piece band with a lineup of guitars, woodwinds, synths, bass, drums, mellotron and English vocals. 

Their music is on the more complex progressive end of the krautrock spectrum. At least, on this forty-two minutes long album. Take some blues, some psychedelic rock and a lot of hard rock. Add some symphonic prog too. The result is a complex hard rocking prog album with some krautrock influences too. This is indeed a krautrock album.

It is a heady mix and it works. The vocals are really good and the music is coherent. The musicians is doing a very good job too. This is a good album I can really recommend.

3 points

Malaavia - Frammenti Compiuti (2014)

The third album from this Italian band.

I think this is my fifth attempt to review this album. A very complex album....

Malaavia is a four piece band with a setup of female Italian vocals, mandolin, guitars, keyboards, samples, bass, mandola, piano and male vocals. A complex lineup.

The first two albums were very untraditional Italian symphonic prog albums. They were based on Arabic music and also had a lot of avant-garde and Italian symphonic prog. They were two godo albums, if my memories serves me right. 

Frammendit Compiuti follows in the same tradition. Very complex Italian symphonic prog with a lot of classical music and avant-garde influences. The melodies is not that easy to "get". Indeed, this is not easy listening music where the multiple layers of music almost kills each other. Perplexing, indeed.

This album is a very dense and multi-layered. It is also a very good album indeed. I like bands who really pushes  the boat out and is really progressive. Malaavi is one of these bands. This is an album who works on many different levels. But it works and I recommend this album.

3.5 points   

Hangover Paradise - Mirrors (2013)

The debut album from this Dutch band.

Hangover Paradise is a six piece band with two keyboardists, bass, drums, guitars and English vocals. Male vocals. 

Two keyboardists can mean orchestral over the top symphonic prog. In this case, it means pretty naked melodic neo-prog. The music is bordering to AOR and pomp prog too. Saga springs to mind here. 

This one hour long album gives us some very good vocals and some good melodies too. The music is on the soft side where metal is wholly absent. The music is also very romantic. 

The music still got a lot of substance and I can understand why this album is so popular among critics. I am missing some great songs here and is not happy about a couple of substandard songs. Hence my rating. I hope the band will continue to release albums.

3 points 

  

Gazpacho - Bravo (2003)

The debut album from this Norwegian band.

I have reviewed Gazpacho albums on and off for the last eight years, but never really this album and never in a chronological order. So that is now what I will do, filling in the gaps.

Gazpacho is a band who really defined their own sound and music. Sound and music later copied by other bands. Take a bit of the softer side of Marillion, a large bit of Radiohead and add some post rock and neo-prog. Then add Jan H. Ohme's very special vocals.

The music is created with the traditional guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals lineup. The vocals are all in English. 

The music on this album is very songs orientated and the songs are pretty short. Much shorter than on the later Gazpacho albums. The music is a bit pop orientated too. 

The end result is a good one hour long album with a couple of very good songs, some good ones and some very dubious ones. This is a debut album and not everything works here. It is nevertheless a worthy Gazpacho album.

3 points   

Weather Report - Mr. Gone (1978)

The eight album from this US band.

Weather Report delivered some great albums in the mid-1970s. They also underwent a lot of lineup changes. But Wayne Shorter and Joe Zawinul was still there. They got Jaco Pastorius on bass and some others on drums. There was also some other guest musicians here.

The band had adopted a much more accessible, slick sound on this album. The sound and music has been described as urban jazz by wiser, more experienced persons than myself. The keyboards sound has changed to a much more synth sound. A much more modern sound.

Gone is the very intricate duels between Shorter and Zawinul. The intensity from other records is missing here. What we get is a much more laid back sound and jazzy music. Slick is the word here.

There are some more avant-garde stuff in the middle and the end.

The music on this album is not really that interesting or good. It bores me a bit too much. Hence my rating which is somewhere between decent and good.

2.5 points  

Ignatius - Lights From The Deep (2011)

The debut album and so far the only sign of life from this Spanish band.

Ignatius is a four piece band with the usual setup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and English vocals. The vocals are good, but not the star on this album. The more instrumental parts here are the really good stuff.

The band is listed as crossover prog in ProgArchives and justifiable so. They are a crossover band between good old symphonic prog from the 1970s and more recent neo-prog. 

This one hour long album offers up a lot of classic prog like prog rock. That means soaring songs and dramatic melody lines. A bit theatrical symphonic prog mixed with some more down to earth neo-prog is the recipe here. 

The music is good to very good throughout. It is not the most exciting album I have ever heard. Some of the music here is a delight to behold though. Hence my rating.

3.5 points

Happy Family - Minimal Gods (2014)

The third album from this Japanese band.

I really loved their Toscco album from 1997 and marked that album as one of the best ever zeuhl album. 17 years later and they are back again with the follow up to that album.

Happy Family is a quartet on this album with guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. The sound is very minimalistic and has a lot of metal too. The bass is sometimes tripping into zeuhl territory. The music though is as I stated minimalistic and never really steps away from the confines of the narrow tunnel it operates within. The music is also pretty jazzy too.

There is a lot of chugging metal guitars here. The keyboards is really the star here with some good zeuhl melody figures. 

The music is pretty melodic within these tight confines too. The more jazzy stuff carries this album. 

The end result is a good album. This is not a zeuhl album. It is far more a fusion album..... sort of. Nevertheless, this is a good album which does not live up to my expectations. Nevertheless......

3 points 

Apocalypsis - Apocalypsis (1980)

The first of two albums from this Greece band.

This band was a five piece with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and English vocals. And the band was/is totally unknown to me. Their album was released in the barren year of 1980, the beginning of these horrible 1980s. A decade that gave us very little and is the decade most of us would like to forget. 

The band was very late to the table with their take on the more theatrical aspects of Genesis anno the Peter Gabriel years. Take a chunk of that band add a bit slice of Ange too. Then you get this forty minutes long album. Music as popular as a fox in a poultry farm back in 1980.

The vocals is pretty weak here and so is the rest of the instruments too. The music is not too bad. Indeed, there are some good stuff here. The band is not really able to carry it out though and that is the downfall of this album. An album I would rate somewhere between decent and good.

2.5 points   

Cailyn - Voyager (2015)

The third album from this US project.

Cailyn Lloyd is a female guitarist and multi instrumentalist who releases her albums through Bandcamp. She does the guitars, bass and keyboards here and gets help from a drummer and two other guest musicians. In short; this is a project. She also plays this music live.

Voyager is about this spaceship/satellite with the same name which has passed through our solar system and into the big cosmos. I think we have lost track with it by now and the contact with mother earth has been switched off. Maybe I am wrong.

Voyager the album is one hour long. It can best be described as a mix of neo-classical, prog metal and jazz. Throw in some new-age and you get my picture. The music is very much guitars and keyboards dominated. It is very much Cailyn Lloyd dominated. A bit of an ego trip as many of these albums are.

I am not a fan of this type of album. The opening track Voyager is rather good. The rest of this sort of concept album is decent enough. I am a bit tired of this type of albums now as this album does not add anything to this genre. Hence my rating.

2 points 

Ifsounds - Morpho Nestira (2008)

The fourth album from this Italian band who went under the name If on their first album.

Many bands were called If and the band had to change their name to Ifsounds. A wise choice indeed. 

I interviewed the band some years ago for ProgArchives and found their guitarist Dario Lastella a very intelligent guy. Which you have to be in this band and with their sound. 

Dario has got four other musicians with him in this band. Besides of guitars, you will find keyboards, drums, bass and English vocals. Two guest musicians adds saxophone and female vocals too. Both are pretty prominent in the sound.

This one hour long album takes us most places. From a bit punk'ish songs to more jazzy stuff. I guess psychedelic rock is the fitting label for this album. From the not so good male vocals to the sometimes fuzzy keyboards and guitars, the sound is very psychedelic. 

The end result is a good album without any great pieces of music. It is still an album well worth checking out. The band has just released a new album and all their albums is well worth your attention.

3 points  

7 Ocean - The Mysterious Race of Strange Entities (2008)

The debut album from this Belorus band.

7 Ocean is a three piece band with a lineup of keyboards, drums, bass, guitars and Russian male vocals. They have so far released four albums and is listed as a symphonic prog band in ProgArchives. This is why I got this album.

I guess that label is justified based on their other albums because it is hard to come by any symphonic prog on this album. There is hardly any of that here. 

What we get here is eccentric, eclectic Belorussian/Russian rock. The popular music & culture in the ex USSR is much more eclectic than here in the west. This album is a good example. 

The music goes from avant-garde to folk, jazz, symph prog and pop on this album. A strong piano present always takes the music towards prog rock. The vocals drags us towards avant-garde and pop music. 

This could had been a very interesting album if there had been any great or even good songs here. There are none. The album is chugging away throughout it's eighty minutes. Which is far, far too long for an album like this. The end result is a decent album and nothing more than that. Less is more should be what this band should aim for. 

2 points   

Zappa. Riccardo - Haermea (1982)

The fourth album from this Italian maestro guitarist.

Riccardo Zappa is regarded as one of the best acoustic guitarists of all time. I have reviewed his first two albums. Two pretty naked albums with acoustic guitars and not much else.

On Haermea, some sound samples, bass, keyboards and drums is added to the mix. The end result is a much more orchestral and fuller sound.

Riccardo is still dominating with his acoustic guitars. His fans would not want anything else than Riccardo's guitars. A lot of layers of guitars on the top of each others. Which is very noticeable here. 

The end result is not too bad. The music is still a bit on the less eventful end of the scale and some inclusion of softies classical music here is not a step in the right direction. Nevertheless, this is a decent album. I gladly admit that I am not a fan of his music and I will never be that.

2 points 

Mr So & So - Truths, Lies & Half Lies (2013)

The fifth album from this British band.

This five piece band has been around since the early 1992 with their debut album released back in 1992. They have not really had a break through and is still a cult band.

Their lineup is male and female vocals, guitars, bass, drums and keyboards. This normally means neo-prog and it is. Very much so. Take neo-prog and add some folk rock. That goes in particular for this album. They are not really a Mostly Autumn'ish band yet. They got at least one and a half foot in the neo-prog scene. The other one is in the folk rock scene.

I find it a bit hard to even write about this album. The band is doing everything right here. A bit Middle-East influences on a couple of the tracks and they are taking other influences too. The only thing missing here is great songs. There is none. This is by all means a good sixty-six minutes long neo-prog album. But nothing more than that. But the band has at least tried very hard to get something going here. But they are still a cult band.

3 points

Progression by Failure - Sonic Travelogue (2015)

The second album from this French project.

This time, it is a project. It was a one man band on the 2009 self titled debut. The composer in Progression By Failure is mr. Nicolas Piveteau. A young man who compose music somewhere between classical music and symphonic prog. He also plays keyboards. He is helped out by Drayen Labie on guitars and Mike Saccoman on drums. Together they are Progression By Failure.

The music is called symphonic prog although there is clear influences from celtic folk and new age here. Classical music too. It goes without saying that the music is instrumental.

There is a lot of chugging electric guitars here. Power metal guitars. The drums are pretty aggressive too. The keyboards is doing most of the melodies.

The melodies are good enough and the album throws up some good stuff now and then. Being an instrumental symph prog album, this is a rather good one. I am by no means fans of that genre. This album is not bad. I will give it a weak good award because there are enough good stuff here to barely warrant that. It is not an album I will play often, though.

3 points

Hidden Lands - In Our Nature (2012)

The debut album from this Swedish band.

In Our Nature is the first of so far, as of August 2015, two albums from this band. A band who originated from the band Violent Silence. I am pretty sure I reviewed their only (?) album so far some years ago. Well, it was their 3 album I reviewed and that was their 2013 album. So both bands are still alive. Good !!

Hidden Lands are a five piece band with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. 

Violent Silence and Hidden Lands is not very different from each other, music wise. Hidden Lands are very much in the symphonic prog tradition on this forty-five minutes long album. They have also added on the neo-prog sound. Modern symphonic prog is the correct label ? Maybe, maybe not. 

What also strikes me is the melancholic landscape and songs on this album. There is not much light in this Swedish landscape. Or soundscape to be more correct. Again, the movies of Ingmar Bergman springs to mind. There is a lot of gloom here and that makes this album a heck more interesting. 

The end result is no great songs. But this is still a very good album which should be a must-buy for anyone into Swedish prog rock. In particular; Swedish melancholic prog. Those who like Anglagard should also get this album as a matter of urgency.

As I said; this is as very good album and I will also get their second album.

3.5 points