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 

  

Nucleus - Belladonna (1972)

The fourth album from this English band and a new start in their career.

It is my understanding the band had broken up when this album was released. But somehow, Nucleus still released new albums. The band from the three first albums had gone though. Karl Jenkins and John Marshall had joined Soft Machine..... which is a recurring theme in the history of Nucleus. Two of the new members on Belladonna, Roy Babbington and Allan Holdsworth also joined Soft Machine on a later stage.

Ian Carr is the Nucleus band leader and the only one left of Nucleus after the upheavals after the first three albums. And his trumpet is a great asset here. He has been called Europe's answer to Miles Davis for some very good reasons. Most of these reasons can be found on this forty minutes long album. Allan Holdsworth also get the chance to shine here. Which he does on some solos and more rhythm guitars work. 

This album also sees Nucleus, the new band called Nucleus, take a much more jazz direction. Most of the rock in the fusion is gone. The jazz is not particular intense and it is mid-tempo. 

The end result is a good jazz album which may be a bridge too far for the rock orientated fusion fans. Something I was one-two years ago. But I like what I hear here and I guess this album is a bridge I have crossed on my way to becoming a jazzhead. Nevertheless, this is a good album.

3 points 

Imán Califato Independiente - Califato Independiente (1978)

The debut album from this Spanish band who altogether released two albums.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. There are some sporadic vocals here too.

Both their albums is highly rated in the prog rock and fusion scene. I was therefore spurred to get these two albums and review them by a couple of good friends in the scene. I am glad I did that.

Take a big chunk of Spanish folk rock including flamenco. Well, make that a large chunk of flamenco. Flamenco lays in the bottom of this whole album. The whole forty-three minutes of this album. An album who starts with the twenty-one minutes long Tarantos del Califato Independiente. A very jazzy composition where jazz is combined with flamenco and symphonic prog. Take a big chunk of Weather Report too and you get this track. 

The two following, much shorter tracks has a lot more flamenco and rock incorporated into these jazzy compositions. The fourth and final track has some vocals and takes us more into a bit mainstream folk rock terrain with a jazzy bite to the melody.

There is a lot of great details on this album and a lot of great references to the Canterbury jazz scene. Soft Machine springs to mind. But most of all; this is a Spanish folky jazz album. An album proud to be made in Spain.

The end result is a great album and one of those any fan of fusion should have in their collection. The good reputation it has got is fully deserved.

4 points  

Hughscore - Delta Flora (1999)

The third and final album from this UK band.

Hughscore was one of the many Hugh Hopper bands after he left Soft Machine. Hugh Hopper is rightly regarded as one of the best/biggest bass players and pioneers in the jazz and rock scene. His fuzz bass has it's very own sound and it is present here too.

This album though is also dominated by the very laid back ethereal vocals of Elaine Di Falco. Hugh and Elaine is joined by two other musicians in Hughscore and some other guest musicians on this album. Elton Dean is the most famous of those. 

The album is dominated by Elaine's vocals, Hugh's bass and various woodwinds. The music here is acid jazz. The evergreen Facelift gets another version and face lift on this album. I prefer the original, but this version still rocks. That is the most rocking track on this one hour very laid back acid album. 

Laid back but still a good album. Maybe not the most loved album in my house as I am no big fan of acid jazz, but still a good album where the quality of the musicians shines through. It comes recommended by me.

3 points    

Cos - Postaeolian Train Robbery (1974)

The debut album from this Belgium based band.

I have had their albums for five years now before I have picked up enough courage to give them some spins and review them. 

Cos is a ten men & women big group with woodwinds, bass, drums, keyboards, guitars, male and female vocals. Mostly female vocals from the wonderful voice of Pascale Son.

This one hour long album starts out as a Canterbury jazz album before it changes to a zeuhl album. And this is what Cos is all about, from what I have been told. A mix of Canterbury jazz, avant-garde and zeuhl. Besides of Canterbury and zeuhl, there is also some funk and avant-garde here. Present springs to mind. 

The music is very playful throughout and it also has some great melodies and harmonies too. Not to mention; some great jazz piece and Pascale's vocals. That makes this a great album in my view. 

I really enjoy this album and I am looking forward to hearing and reviewing their other albums too.

4 points   

Hallelujah - Hallelujah Babe (1971)

The one & only sign of life from this English band.

Hallelujah was a four piece band with the usual Hammond organ, bass, guitars, drums and vocals. The band was based in Germany and it was believed that this was a German band. The band itself corrected that mistake. They were one of many British bands trying their luck in Germany. The Beatles was the most famous one of them. Hallelujah stayed put, though.

This thirty-nine minutes long album has a German sound indeed. Heavy psych with some krautrock influences. The music is pretty heavy throughout. There are also some pretty British folk rock here.

It is perhaps not so strange that the band also use Handel's mighty Hallelujah piece here. Besides of that, the music are decent throughout. The vocals are good and so is the sound.

This album is obscure for a good reason. Namely the lack of any good songs. Besides of that, this is a decent album well worth checking out if you can find it on Youtube.

2 points

Haizea - Hontz Gaua (1976)

The second and final album from this band from the Basque province in Spain.

Or maybe it is the Basque nation ? Spain is a bit difficult to understand as it is more a federate state of various nations and provinces. Kind of USA to a large degree. 

Haizea was a five piece band with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums, percussions, xylophone, flutes and vocals. They played a sort of folk rock. 

Spanish folk rock can mean a lot. Some of it is very folk music dominated. Others are more rock orientated. Haizea is more leaning towards rock with a clear emphasis on melodies and songs than on typical Spanish folk music. The music is in their local language and the music is pretty lyrical.

The music here is based on acoustic guitars and flutes. That and the vocals.

The music is also pretty good. It has a good vibe too. I am still not really a big fan of Spanish folk rock so I have my reservations. There is no real good song here either. This is a decent to good album.

2.5 points

Iluvatar - From The Silence (2014)

The fourth album from this US band.

Iluvatar has been quite a name to be reckoned with in the east-coast prog rock scene for the last years. They have played some gigs and my good friend Raff has reviewed one of their gigs in her blog.blog.

That review made me purchase this album.

Iluvatar is a five piece band on this album with the usual keyboards, drums, guitars, bass and vocals lineup. The music is some sort of neo-prog. In this case; US neo-prog. 

Take some US symph prog, AOR and European neo-prog. Then you get this album. It is not quite symphonic prog and not quite neo-prog. It is US neo-prog. 

This fifty-five minutes long album has some good songs. Well, everything here is good. The sound is rich and warm. Ditto for the vocals and the instruments. What is lacking is a killer or even a good track. It is not here and that is a pity as I quite like this band. Neo-prog fans will really like this album.

3 points

Haze - Wilderness Of Eden (1997)

The fifth album from this English band. An album released under the short lived World Turtle moniker. 

The band operated as World Turtle for two albums before they reverted back to Haze. I don't know why. 

The band is still the two McMahon brothers with a handful of guest musicians. We get keyboards, guitars, bass, drums, vocals, saxophone, flutes and viola here. 

The music on this seventy-one minutes long album is a mix of happy-chirpy pop music, neo-prog, rock and AOR. The music is very commercial at times and some of it reminds me about drunken Englishmen going to the beaches in Spain. It is enough kitsch here to last a lifetime. 

The vocals and the sound is very typical 1980s. The music is at times not too bad. The album is far too long and has far too much dire songs for my liking. It is almost a turkey, this album. But it is saved by a couple of songs.

1.5 points  

Harmonic Heyday - The Willow Tea Shop (2011)

The debut album from this German band.

This album is a free download from Jamendo and that is how I got this. I rarely says no thanx to anything I get for free. Hence this review. 

I know next to nothing about this band. The vocals are in English and the vocalist is very, very limited in range. The vocals is sometimes off tune and similar to a hen who is on the run from a hungry fox. The vocalist is helped by keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. 

To say that the band is competent...... well, they are not. This album has got a punk'ish devil-may-care attitude. Which some may regard as charming. 

The music is psychedelic folk rock. I would almost say krautrock. Well, it is krautrock. Forget the electronics part of the krautrock scene. There is no electronica here. Just organic material. Besides of that; the krautrock is there.

The songs are not that good and I have already described the lack of competence of the musicians. This album is not a turkey. But it is close to being one. And I am glad I did not pay anything for it.

1.5 points  

Fractal Mirror - Garden Of Ghosts (2014)

The second album from this Dutch band and my only meeting with their music.

The Dutch neo-prog and symph prog scene is a very strong scene which has given us some really great albums and bands. 

Fractal Mirror comes from a good pedigree, then. And this three piece band with keyboards, bass, drums and vocals line up does not let down their own scene. 

Melodic progressive rock is what we get here. Their music is not as cold and poppy as neo-prog. It is much more like songs based progressive rock. Straight progressive rock with some AOR and metal influences. 

There are no long songs or even suites on this one hour long album. Eleven songs is what we get here. All the songs are really good. The sound is very warm and cosy. The addition of some female vocals and male/female vocals duets adds a lot of value to this album. 

The end result is a very good album which I would really recommend. A very good album with a couple of great songs and melodies too. Get it.

3.5 points 

Cast - Arsis (2014)

The eighteenth and so far latest album from this Mexican band.

The band introduced a new twist to the scene on their 2011 album Art. The first half was instrumental jazz and neo-classic music. The final half was symphonic and neo-prog. A bit of a mouthful, indeed. But also a good album. Not to mention; refreshing. Very refreshing indeed.

So the band thought that was a good idea, then. Hence this album where we get the same recipe again. This time; a half an hours long neo-classical piece called La Iliada. This piece is big and bold. Not always good, but still bold and big. And mostly good too. 

The final half an hour is devoted to symphonic neo-prog. The ten minutes long song The Old Travel Blog comes with English lyrics and is a good song. 

The final piece of music comes with Spanish vocals and is the eighteen minutes long El Puente. This piece is like the ideas from La Iliada and The Old Travel Blog fused into one piece of music. Not literary speaking, but as ideas. This is by far the best piece of music where we get tonnes of guitars, female and male vocals, keyboards, woodwinds and a lot of other instruments too. 

The end result is breathtaking bold and almost delusions of grandeur from this band. Well, they got delusions of grandeur when they put out this album. But they have mostly pulled it off and have made a very good album. 

The scene needs bands like Cast and this is a very good album. I hope we will get more albums from this band. 

3.5 points    

Tomorrow - Tomorrow (1968)

The one and only album from this English band.

Tomorrow was the band where Steve Howe (Yes, Asia etc) started out. The vocalist Keith West also had a pretty decent career after Tomorrow broke up. 

The famous BBC DJ John Peel was very fond of this band and gave them their break. Unfortunate without the band becoming a commercial success as the two bands they mostly shared the scene with; Pink Floyd and The Soft Machine. Tomorrow just faded away after this album.

An album which is not bad at all. The term hard psych is probably a fitting label here. Another good comparison is The Who. The music on this forty minutes long album is pretty hard throughout. The softest song being the Beatles cover Strawberry Fields Forever. Even this version is pretty hard and psychedelic in Tomorrow's version. Unfortunate, it is also the best song on this album. 

The end result is a decent album which is well worth checking out. Not at least because of Steve Howe and his hard guitar works here. He has never ever been as hard and psyched out as on this album. The vocals too is not bad at all. Hence, check it out.

2 points

Van Der Graaf Generator - A Grounding In Numbers (2011)

The eleventh album from this British band.

This band is without any doubts one of the best bands to have come out of the progressive rock scene in England. They have delivered some really superb albums. Most of them in the 1970s before the band went on a very long break. Their 2005 comeback album Present was also a good album. After that album, the band has not been on great form.

VDGG, as the band is also known as, has reverted back to a trio on this album. David Jackson and his saxophone is gone. What remains is Guy Evans on drums, Hugh Banton on bass and Peter Hammill on guitars, keyboards and vocals,

Peter's vocals is as dark and gloomy as per usual. It is like the grim reaper knocking on your door. Pretty scary, in other words. The music too is not chirpy to say at least. This album has a very gloomy sound and outlook. 

This album is fifty minutes long divided on thirteen songs. There is no long songs here. Just a lot of straight to the point short ones. Songs dominated by gloom. Very typical VDGG in other words.

There is no really great songs here. There are no classic songs either. This album is claiming a good reward here because of the sound and a couple of really good songs and melodies. It is not one of their best albums to say at least. Check it out...... only after you have checked out their other albums.

3 points  

Healing Road. The - Birdbrain's Travels (2014)

The fifth album from this German project.

The Healing Road is Hanspeter Hess project. He has written everything here and is also playing keyboards. He is helped by six other musicians on guitars, bass, drums and additional keyboards. 

The music is instrumental and it is very symphonic. A kind of a neo-symphonic as it is not necessary following the 1970s symphonic prog formula. It still have the usual neo-prog setup though.

There is a lot of soaring melodies and long guitars and keyboards solos. Each instrument has got their own space. The music is reasonable hard too. This is by no means lounge music..... although I would not mind if my local airport played this album in the departure lounge ! I am afraid too many would ask the staff to turn it off, though.

The melodies here are very good and so is the album. A very dynamic album which effortless switches between the themes. I am not fond of instrumental symph prog albums. This one is one of the better ones though and I really like it. Check it out.

3.5 points  

Little Atlas - Automatic Day (2013)

The fifth album from this US band.

Little Atlas has been kicking around since their 1998 debut album and probably a lot longer than that. This without really getting any breakthrough. Well, at least not here in Europe. I have heard they are a good and much sought after live album.

Something I can understand when listening to this four piece band. Their lineup is vocals, bass, drums, keyboards and guitars. Some sporadic saxophones spices up their music a bit. 

The music is neo-prog with a lot of AOR and college rock thrown into the mix. The US version of neo-prog is quite similar to college rock anyway and Little Atlas is true to this genre. 

There is no great tracks on this good album. It is still a good album well worth checking out.

3 points  

Harvest - Northern Wind (2014)

The third album from this Spanish band.

I very much enjoyed their 2009 debut Underground Community and the 2012 follow up Chasing Time. Harvest established themselves as one of the better female vocals fronted prog rock bands.

Monique Van Der Kolk is again at the microphones and doing a seriously great job. She is helped by four musicians on guitars, drums, bass and keyboards. 

The end result is one hour, eleven songs. The music is somewhere between Mostly Autumn and Gazpacho. Soaring songs and very good melodies. They have become less heavy than at their previous album and the music is much more pastoral. Pastoral and symphonic. Gazpacho is an obvious reference here.

The vocals and the great guitars sets this band apart though. Not all the songs are great. There are some very good and some great songs here. The title track is a great song. The end result is a very enjoyable great album well worth checking out.

4 points 

A Presença das Formigas - Pe De Vento (2014)

The second and so far last album from this Portuguese band. Hopefully the second of many albums.

Great art work, btw. Let me start with that. I also very much liked the artwork on their debut album too. And their second album takes off where they left it at the end of the debut album. 

That means acoustic folk rock with female and male vocals. The vocals is in their native tongue. The music is both very cheerful and wild. There are also some ballads like songs too here. And the music is much more folk music than folk rock. Folk music, it is. 

This forty-five minutes long album takes us through some good folk music. The music sounds honest and well produced. Not to mention; well crafted. 

The end result is a good album which will win a lot of friends in the folk music community.

3 points  

Habu - To The Stars (2014)

The debut album from this Ipswich in England band.

It was sold to me as a progressive rock album. A prog rock masterpiece, no less. Well........ 

I am not sure about how many members this band has got. The lineup is guitars, bass, keyboards, drums and vocals. Neo-prog, I wondered....

The vocals has got this 1980s NWOBHM feel. And so has the music too. One of the reviews featured on their homepage says this is a refreshing return to the past. It is a return to the past, yes. Take really old-style heavy metal from the 1980s and add some AOR and prog metal to the proceedings. Then you get this album. Progressive rock ? Nope. 

The end result is a decent album which is not my style. But it has it's moments, yes. Check it out.

2 points  

Idle Race. The - The Birthday Party (1968)

The debut album from this English band.

The Idle Race is mostly, if not only known, as Jeff Lynne's first band. I believe this is also the first album he was ever involved in. 

We can already here see the main themes in Jeff Lynne's creative outputs. Quirky psychedelic pop with a lot of melody and a lot of The Beatles influences. This album is very much an English eccentric album. It is a short album and it was released with a lineup of guitars, bass, drums and Jeff Lynne's vocals. His vocals is great here. 

This album is twenty-eight minutes long/short. The title track is very quirky and as eccentric as it gets. The rest of the album has some rather normal psychedelic pop tunes in the vein of The Beatles. The early germs of Electric Light Orchestra is very much in attendance here. 

I find myself, to my surprise, enjoying this album. Not everything is good here. But several of the songs here are indeed good songs. I would rate it somewhere between decent and good. Fans of Jeff Lynne must get this album.

2.5 points 

Iluvatar - Children (1995)

The second album from this US band who debuted back in 1993 with a self-titled album.

Iluvatar is a five piece band with a lineup of keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. The standard lineup, in other words.

And we are indeed deep into neo-prog land again. The likes of Arena, Pendragon and IQ springs to mind when listening to this one hour long album. But I would also like to add Threshold here. I think the vocals points towards Threshold. 

The music is very solid with some very good guitars and keyboards. I don't mind listening to neo-prog albums like this one. Not for a bit. The music is a bit on the dull side and there is no great tracks here. Nevertheless, this is a good album.

3 points

Heliopolis - City Of The Sun (2014)

The debut album from this US band.

Heliopolis may be a new band. But the members has got long experience from other bands like Mars Hollow and some cover bands. The band already got a big fanbase and have played some festivals to great acclaim from the critics. This band is/was a band for the future.

The band is a five piece with keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. A normal setup for the kind of symph and neo prog bands. In this case; some sort of symphonic prog. Or maybe not.

This is very much a US band and you can clearly hear the 1990s US prog rock scene here. And the post-millenium US scene too. Added to that, there is a lot of 1970s symph prog here too. An interesting mix. 

Half of this forty-two minutes long album is instrumental and the other half has vocals. The proper songs are the best material here by far. There are some really great melodies here. The instrumental bits are decent to good. 

In short; this is a good album from a band I hope is still going strong. I hope to hear a lot more from them in the future. Either as a band or single entities. 

3 points

Mr So & So - The Overlap (1998)

The third album from this English band.

The band has been one of the hardest gigging and most active bands in the British neo-prog scene for the last twenty years. But this is my first ever chance to listen to their music. I got three albums by them.

Mr So & So is a five piece band with keyboards, guitars, bass, drums and vocals. The twist in the lineup is that the band also employ a full time backing singer, a female backing singer. I cannot remember anyone else, bar Mostly Autumn with this lineup. Steve Rothery also guests on the title track.

The music is melodic and songs orientated neo-prog. It is bordering to mainstream rock throughout this album. 

I find the music here a bit on the dull and downright boring side of the spectrum. There is not really anything bad here. Neither is there anything I find interesting either. This is a decent enough album.

2 points

Electric Desert - Electric Desert (2014)

This is as far as I know the debut album from this Israeli band.

This one hour long album is also available as a stream or a purchase from Bandcamp.

I have for a long time wanted albums with some ethnic flavours. So someone listened to my pleas and sent me this album. Thank you !

I am not sure how many band members this band has got. The lineup here is, as far as my ears can pick this up, flutes, vocals, bass, guitars, drums and some keyboards. There is a lot of flutes here.

The music is a mix of folk rock anno Jethro Tull and Israeli folk music. There is a lot of krautrock and blues rock here too. Add some space rock too and you get the full picture.

The end result is a rather good album with a great sound and some good songs. I am not convinced this is a good album though as it has some not so good stuff too. Hence my verdict.

2.5 points

H2O - Due (2001)

The second and final album from this Italian band.

I really liked their 1997 debut album UnoPuntoSei a lot. Very good Italian symphonic prog indeed. The band has shrunk to three members on the follow up album though. Keyboards, guitars, bass and vocals. A mix of Italian and English vocals. 

The vocalist Luca Prandi sounds like a mix of Peter Gabriel and the vocalist in The Watch. The music is also pretty much in the Genesis and in particular; in the The Watch vein. Those who really like The Watch should flash their credit card in the direction of this album.

This is a fifty minutes album and the title track is sixteen minutes long. There is no great songs here. Neither is there any weak songs here. This is a very solid album and I would recommend it. It is also a good album.

3 points

Annot Rhul - Lost In The Woods (2007)

The second album from this Norwegian band.

Annot Rhul is basically Sigurd Luhr Tonna with hired hands. There is a lot of them here and he has chosen some of the best prog rockers from his town, Trondheim in Norway, to contribute with their stuff. Sigurd is playing guitars and some keyboards here.

There is a lot of different instruments here. The mellotron and the harpischord is very much present here. So is organs and guitars too. 

This album is a space/psychedelic rock album in it's purest form. A lot of tangents with some guitars and the occasional vocals from Sigurd. He is a very good vocalist. 

The album is split pretty evenly between instrumental space rock workouts and proper psychedelic songs. These songs are all very good to great. The instrumentals are not that good though. 

This is a pretty uneven one hour long album. I would still rate it as a very good album though. It comes recommended.

3.5 points     

Herba d'Hamelí. L' - Interiors (2015)

The sixth album from this Catalan, Spanish band.

I once championed this band and reviewed their first four albums in ProgArchives. I also interviewed them. Then I lost contact with the band and their albums. Their fifth album Girafes A Siberia has yet to be purchased by myself.

The band started out as a pure-bread Catalan folk rock band before they went much more symphonic prog in the vein of Genesis on their fourth album Inversa Visual. 

The band seems to have landed on a half way house between symph and folk prog on this album. A album where the band is a six piece. The lineup is guitars, keyboards, flutes, drums, bass and Catalan vocals. 

There is still a lot of Genesis in their sound and music. But the band very much got their own style and has also incorporated a lot of fusion into their new sound/style.

That would had been absolute great and my wildest dream if the band had written any great stuff on/for this fifty minutes long album. They have not. There are some sporadic flashes of greatness. Mostly when the keyboards and the flute is being let loose. But there are not enough greatness to go around here. The album also finishes as a damp squib. 

Nevertheless; this is a good album from a great band. A great band who can do a lot better than this album. Keep an eye out for their albums, old and new.

3 points    

Gods. The - Genesis (1968)

The debut album from this English band who released two albums. 

The Gods is most know as the keyboards god Ken Hensley's first band. The Gods is in many ways the forerunner for Uriah Heep as there were some others Uriah Heep members who also served their apprenticeship in this band.

Another fun fact about this album was that the Ozzy Osbourne drummer Lee Kerslake also played drums on this album. He was also a longtime member of Uriah Heep too. The two other members were Joe Konas on guitars and the later Carmen and Jethro Tull member John Glascock played bass on this album. The Gods were indeed gods in their own respect.  

The year was 1968 and psych rock was one of the genres who broke out of England and USA. In this case, with a pretty hard sound. The sound is pretty good too with a great guitar sound and some good keyboards.

This almost forty minutes long album is a rather decent to good album. Yes, the music is both dated and very naive. It has this beat sound and all the flavours of the 1960s. It is an album well worth checking out too. I quite liked it.

2.5 points 

Soft Machine. The - Switzerland 1974 (2015)

The latest of many, many archives live albums from this British fusion/jazz band. A band I happens to be a fan of and I also have everything they have released. 

This is the much bootlegged recordings from their gig at the Montreux Jazz Festival. They played alongside the likes of Billy Cobham, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Larry Coryell on that festival. A great lineup.

The Soft Machine was, from top to the bottom, Roy Babbington, Alan Holdsworth, Alan Jenkins, John Marshall and Mike Ratledge. Alan Jenkings is now Sir Alan Jenkins and I think both mr Holdsworth and Ratledge deserve the same honour bestowed on them by our majesty, the Queen. 

That maybe for other reasons than this album though. The band was testing out material for what was to become their classic album Bundles. Great music indeed and it is interluded with some rather disharmonic avant-garde pieces too.

The sound is OK and it is obvious that the job compiling this album was a pretty big one. They have succeeded in creating a historical document here, but not a great live album. That aside, this is a good live album which is neither the best or the worst Soft Machine live album out there. 

3 points