Phideaux - Number Seven ($11.99)
Phideaux - 313 ($11.99)
Phideaux - Fiendish ($11.99)The Los Angeles band Phideaux is led by songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Phideaux Xavier. Their first album Fiendish (2004) is an intoxicating blend of progressive and psychedelic-folk, with an organic sound from an earlier era. Think of a more proggy/spacey Polyphonic Spree. Xavier’s lead vocals are supported by female backing vocals. In addition to Xavier’s guitar and keyboards, drummer Richard Hutchins is the other constant, while a large number of other musicians contribute vocals, bass, cello, Theremin, oboe, English horn, harpsichord and more. There are elements of The Moody Blues, early Floyd, David Bowie, trippy English folk, and baroque music (Amazing Blondel perhaps?).
Ghost Story (2004) makes it clear that Phideaux are not going to make the same album twice. The female vocals are absent here, the music is darker and rocks harder, with a bigger sound. There is still an Englishness to the more serene numbers, and they still have that mesmerizing psychedelic quality. The rockier numbers sometimes suggest a progressive version of David Bowie. An excellent album from a band that can’t be pigeonholed.
Chupacabras (2005) is a no-holds-barred, Mellotrons-and-all progressive album highlighted by the 21-minute title suite, a true prog rock epic. The effect is often that of David Bowie singing for Van der Graaf Generator with some Floydian spaciness and psychedelia added.
313 followed in 2006, with more immediate, shorter songs. Phideaux’s essential psychedelic progressive style is intact, in which songs can somehow be simultaneously haunting and playful. It’s amazing how this U.S. band can sound so (early 70’s) British sometimes, but one can’t call this retro, as Phideaux include later styles in their very creative blend.
The Great Leap (2006) is more vocal-heavy and guitar-oriented, though there are about a dozen musicians involved and there are all manner of keyboards, Theremin, violin, cello, flute, recorder, brass, hammer dulcimer, sitar and more. Of the previous albums, it is closest to Ghost Story. It sounds like David Bowie’s version of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, and fans of Roger Waters will likely love this album.
The Great Leap is part of a conceptual trilogy, of which Doomsday Afternoon (2007) is part two and is Phideaux’s masterpiece to date. As the band says, Doomsday Afternoon is the yin to The Great Leap’s yang. The Great Leap is an art-rock album, while Doomsday Afternoon is a 67-minute symphonic rock epic, essentially one long song cycle divided into two acts, and includes the instrumental sections missing from The Great Leap. The album features a small chamber orchestra drawn from members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Among the guests are Martin Orford (IQ), Matthew Parmenter (Discipline), and Matthew Kennedy (Eyestrings). The booklet is gorgeous too. Comparisons to earlier progressive rock bands are possible but seem unnecessary at this point. There aren’t many artists today who could make this album, and now the bar has been set so high, it will be interesting to see where Phideaux go from here. All the Phideaux albums are distinct from each other, but the quality is consistent, and the musical ambition of this band is incredible. Read the reviews at ProgArchives.com of Doomsday Afternoon, The Great Leap, 313, Chupacabras, Ghost Story, and Fiendish.
The much-anticipated Number Seven (2009) is here. As Phideaux says: “This album is a continuation of the long form compositions found on Doomsday Afternoon and Chupacabras. It represents another foray into progressive rock, with perhaps a good dollop of chamber jazz and classic rock. For this release, we stayed completely in-house, inviting no outside musicians to contribute. We wanted to see what we could cook up with our live band. I think you will be surprised!” (Our description to be added.)
Jack Yello - Xeric ($13.99) Jack Yello is a German quintet that includes former members of German neo-prog bands Darius and Jagiello. No one in the band is named Jack though. The departure point for Jack Yello’s style is the first two Marillion albums, with the larger sound of typical modern production and the addition of some metal guitar for the kids. If that suggests Arena, that may be the best reference. Singer Dirk Bovensiepen has a fair amount of Fish in his voice, and the lyrics are also in that typically verbose style. Thorns of Anger is their 78-minute 2003 debut. Xeric (2009) is their second, also 78-minutes long. They may be heavier and more bombastic, but as Marillion-influenced bands go, Jack Yello is among the most complex and interesting.
Toxic Smile - Overdue Visit (CD-EP, $7.99) Toxic Smile is the other band of keyboardist/composer Marek Arnold of Seven Steps to the Green Door. This 2009 four song, 23-minute CD-EP is not their first, as Toxic Smile have CDs and DVDs dating back to 2000. Not many prog fans outside of Germany or Korea (where one album was released on a major label) have heard those previous works, so Overdue Visit can be seen as an introduction for the rest of the world, and as paving the way for a new full-length CD that the band have begun work on. Given that the two bands have the same composer and some overlapping personnel, Toxic Smile sound quite similar to Seven Steps to the Green Door, and all the good things said about Seven Steps apply here. There are flashes of metal, but Toxic Smile curtail it before it can drag the music down. There are two excellent energetic songs and two mellower songs; the latter are arguably where Arnold’s songwriting is best displayed. Here are mp3 excerpts: Solitudes Sphere, Insights, Peak of Delight, Freezing Rain.
Seven Steps to the Green Door - Step in 2 My World ($12.99) The Puzzle (2006) is one of the most intriguing modern takes on progressive rock that we’ve heard. In true postmodern fashion, this German band integrate many different styles into a cohesive whole, but there is little doubt that it is symphonic progressive at its core. The classically-influenced piano playing of Marek Arnold is a key feature of the music, and he also adds some woodwinds. There is a good deal of metal influence, and prog-metal fans owe it to themselves to give this a spin. Most prog-metal bands alternate rather than integrate the prog and the metal. Seven Steps to the Green Door on the other hand blend the two well. They are able to maintain the melody and the song when adding the crunchy guitar, and the music never gets ugly. They have excellent male vocals (and some female vocals) in English. The whole thing is surprisingly sophisticated and very well recorded. The Puzzle runs 74-minutes and held our interest the entire way, which is pretty rare.
Step in 2 My World (2008, 66-minutes) is even better. It is more melodic and the metal guitar plays only a minor role, but where the band have really taken things to the next level are the vocals. They use one female and two male singers, both in lead and harmony roles, plus a guest spot for Larry B., the singer from Stern Combo Meissen (once the top progressive rock band of the old DDR).
Cirrus Bay - A Step Into Elsewhere ($11.99) Cirrus Bay is led by American multi-instrumentalist Bill Gillham. On Cirrus Bay’s 2008 debut The Slipping of a Day, Gillham is joined by a drummer/bassist, several singers (male and female), and two musicians providing tenor sax on two tracks. Gillham plays electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, bass, mandolin, recorder, and percussion. Our opinion of Cirrus Bay’s first album changed completely about a third of the way through its 77-minutes, and this is because the album was recorded in different sessions spanning a number of years. The first third of the CD contains a lot of pastoral, folky progressive, reflecting the fact that Cirrus Bay began as an acoustic duo. There are pitch problems with some of the vocals on the early tracks that are not present on the later tracks. The CD then transforms into much more powerful, more instrumental symphonic prog. Gillham’s biggest influences are Tony Banks, Anthony Phillips, Jade Warrior, and Bo Hansson. We can state this confidently because it says as much in the booklet. (Among younger bands, he mentions a fondness for Big Big Train, The Flower Kings, and The Watch.) There are tracks here that would have fit on Banks’ A Curious Feeling and have been the second-best track (after the song You, if you must know). Overall we’re reminded of Canadian Ken Baird. Read reviews here.
The second Cirrus Bay CD A Step Into Elsewhere (2009, 55-minutes) is the CD they really wanted to make, a significant improvement over Slipping... and a cohesive musical statement. It’s female vocals only on this one, from two singers, and the easiest way to describe the album is a blend of Genesis circa Wind and Wuthering and Renaissance. Renaissance because the vocals are in an Annie Haslam style, and there is that breezy folkiness blended with classical piano. Genesis because Gillham is a musician who gets what Tony Banks does. It isn’t about how fast one can play scales, it’s about the chord progressions. There is plenty of electric and acoustic guitar in addition to keyboards, so it sounds closer to Genesis than a Tony Banks solo album, and there are influences of other progressive artists as well. Instrumentally, the appeal of this album is similar to the Willowglass albums, on top of which you get the beautiful vocals. Well done!
Zingale - The Bright Side ($12.99) Zingale are the most famous Israeli progressive rock band; their album Peace (recorded in 1975, released in 1977) is usually considered to be the best progressive rock album to have come out of that admittedly small scene. The Bright Side (57-minutes) is their 2009 comeback CD. Zingale now are founding members Ephraim Barak and Udi Tamir, both playing electric guitar, bass and keyboards as well as singing, with a new drummer. There was some Yes influence on Peace and there is even more on The Bright Side, but Zingale’s sound has changed, now more modern sounding, more reliant on synths, with a lot of sonic elements competing for space in the mix. Musically and spiritually though, Zingale still have their hearts in the 1970’s. Lyrics in English. The CD comes in a lightweight mini-LP sleeve and counts as only one-half CD for shipping. In addition to the audio clips on the band’s MySpace page (mp3 icon above), here is an mp3 of the song Sooner or Later.
Ubi Maior - Senza Tempo ($19.99) Nostos (2005, 61-minutes) is the debut CD for this talented Italian quintet from Milan and is further evidence that there is more good progressive rock coming out of Italy now than at any time since the early 1970’s. Ubi Maior play in a pure 1970’s Italian symphonic prog style. The keyboardist focuses on Hammond and piano, and the guitarist sticks with a period tone. The Italian vocals are strong and original. There are influences ranging from Biglietto per l’Inferno (Baffo Banfi writes the bilingual liner notes) through to PFM, blended with the band’s own style. The long title suite is a great example of the abilities of the band. The CD also features a beautiful cover of Il Balletto di Bronzo’s La tua casa comoda. Ubi Maior features Gabriele Manzini, former keyboard player for Italian Genesis-soundalikes The Watch. Heavyweight gatefold mini-LP sleeve with 12-page booklet.
Senza Tempo (2009, 61-minutes) is Ubi Maior’s second CD. As the label describes it: “It is not a proper concept album, but its major influence is Neil Gaiman’s graphic-novel masterpiece Sandman and one its main characters, The Endless: seven brothers and sisters named Destiny, Death, Dream, Desire, Despair, Destruction and Delirium.” Senza Tempo is again a fantastic album of 1970’s-style Italian progressive rock, tending toward darker atmospheres and echoing Il Balletto di Bronzo, PFM, and many others. The only time Ubi Maior depart from that is when they reference British progressive rock bands directly. There are passages that are closer to Genesis, and a few instances of a more modern guitar tone. Overall the sound of the band is still vintage, heavily based on Hammond organ, Mellotron and piano. A second booklet contains English translations of the lyrics. Digipack.
There are more new titles on our Italian page that have not been added to this page, including the recent releases by Archangel, Rodolfo Maltese Group, and Riddle, as well as the mini-LP reissues of Maxophone, Zauber, Tito Schipa Jr., and Blue Phantom. Look for the highlighted titles.
Höstsonaten - Springsong remastered ($19.99)Springsong is the fourth and final chapter of Hostsonaten’s ‘SeasonCycle Suite’ and was originally released in 2001. The band consider this remastered mini-LP edition on AMS to be a new album based only in part on the first version. For starters, the artwork and booklet are new, and they are beautiful. Musically the 2001 album has been completely reworked, remixed and remastered. Fabio Zuffanti and Robbo Vigo added many new musical parts: new Mellotron parts played with a real Mellotron (the old parts were played with samplers); new bass parts throughout; new Moog, bass pedals and percussion parts; and a 13-minute bonus track: the acoustic suite Suite Bretonne, the track from which Springsong was born. As the label says: “If you love such works as Genesis’ Trespass or Anthony Phillips’ The Geese and the Ghost, you will certainly welcome this album enthusiastically. If you like acclaimed bands such as Clannad, Nightnoise, and Moving Hearts, bands who usually play on the edge of several musical worlds, you will find the good vibrations you need. But you will also feel at home if you are searching for jazzy and traditional echoes from other European latitudes. For this adventurous trip, Fabio Zuffanti united some former Finisterre members -- Stefano Marelli, Agostino Macor, Boris Valle, Francesca Biagini -- as well as some very talented musicians who normally approach rock music in a different way -- Sergio Caputo, Federico Foglia, Edmondo Romano (ex-Eris Pluvia/Ancient Veil). The result is a blend of powerful modern sounds and traditional instruments that give Springsong a unique and original flavor. With Springsong, Fabio Zuffanti offers us his most painstaking recording, a work which shows the maturity he has reached and that goes beyond the fences that sometimes enclose the progressive rock world.” Heavyweight gatefold mini-LP sleeve with 12-page booklet. More Hostsonaten CDs and more info on our Italian page.
Fabio Zuffanti - same ($19.99) This 2009 CD is the first album for Fabio Zuffanti under his own name, as his work in the bands Finisterre, Rohmer, LaZona, Hostsonaten, La Maschera Di Cera, Aries, and Quadraphonic just doesn’t keep him busy enough. You can divide Zuffanti’s output into his classic prog rock work and his modern, mellow, experimental work. His solo CD is of the latter, a mix of electronica, songwriter, post-rock, ambient and dreamy psychedelia. Zuffanti plays a long list of instruments and sings in Italian, and the album remains low-key, slow tempo, and surreal, with an introverted, rainy-day feel. Of his other projects, it comes closest to Rohmer. Heavyweight gatefold mini-LP sleeve with 12-page booklet.
Macromarco - Il pianeta degli uomini liberi ($19.99) Macromarco, alias Marco Grieco, apart from being the composer of the famous Odissea musical, is also a great lover of Italian prog, and his 2009 debut Il pianeta degli uomini liberi (The World of Free Men) follows directly in the footsteps of the best melodic/romantic Italian prog giants such as PFM. While deeply rooted in that tradition, this is not a retro album. Rather, it is the album PFM might make today in a perfect world, with contemporary production but not contemporary compromises. Marco’s Italian-language vocals are excellent, and it is impossible to tell that this is the work of one man just by listening to the music. Marco does depart from the Italian tradition on a few occasions to rip through some classic Genesis-style instrumentals. This is just a beautifully-crafted Italian symphonic prog album, full of gorgeous melodies as only the Italians can do, and pretty much required listening for fans of the genre. Heavyweight gatefold mini-LP sleeve with 12-page booklet containing the lyrics with English translations; 60-minutes. Read the review by veteran Polish journalist Artur Chachlowski.
Osanna & David Jackson - Prog Family ($19.99) The legendary Osanna returned in 2009 with a new expanded lineup they call the ‘Prog Family’. David Jackson from Van der Graaf Generator signed on for this project and became a stable element of the band, making major contributions, as do guests Gianni Leone (Balletto di Bronzo), David Cross (King Crimson), Tim Stevens, Lello Brandi, Sophya Baccini, and many others. The addition of Jackson makes perfect sense, as Osanna were the Italian band most influenced by Van der Graaf Generator. This CD contains 70-minutes of rearranged, re-recorded versions of existing Osanna songs, mostly from their first four albums, but also one track each from Suddance and Taka Boom, one track from Città Frontale’s El Tor album, and a version of Van der Graaf Generator’s Theme One! Lino Vairetti approached the new arrangements as if they were new songs, but retained the vintage sounds such as Hammond and Mellotron, not to mention flute and sax from David Jackson. The violin of David Cross is the most noticeable and refreshing new element in what is a consummate “inside job” homage to one of the great Italian progressive bands. Lyrics mostly in Italian, some English. Heavyweight gatefold mini-LP sleeve with 24-page booklet.
Two new releases on Progress Records:
Adventure - Beacon of Light ($15.99) Beacon of Light (2009, 73-minutes) is the second CD for Adventure, who are sort of the Norwegian counterpart to the Swedish band Black Bonzo in that they blend retro-style symphonic prog with the heavier Uriah Heep style. Adventure have two male lead vocalists, one of whom sings in a more pompous, affected style, and female backing vocals. Their sound features vintage keys, flute, and guitar that sticks mainly to early-70’s tones. The sympho-prog side of their style is vaguely in the vein of The Flower Kings or Camel.
Illumion - Hunting for Significance ($15.99) This is the 2009 debut by a Dutch prog band that not only features female vocals -- Esther Ladiges has previously sung on albums by Ayreon and Ixion -- but is led by female guitarist/composer Eveline van Kampen and also includes a female keyboardist. They describe themselves as a symphonic prog band even though the guitar playing is more often in the metal idiom. References include The Gathering, Magenta (but heavier and less refined), and Ayreon (but more refined, less overblown). But there is a bit more than that here. When Illumion omit the metal guitar and thus open up the mix, there are passages where the vocals show some of the artiness of Kate Bush, other passages where the keyboards are free to create more sophisticated textures. 59-minutes.
Pantokraator - Tormidesööjad ($16.99) Back in the bad old days of the Soviet Union, records were released on the state-owned Melodiya label, and fans in the west weren’t always aware of where the artists actually hailed from. It turned out that the majority of the Soviet progressive rock bands were really Estonian, and they were very good. But after Estonia gained independence in 1991, their progressive rock scene never recovered, economic realities having something to do with that, and little was heard out of Estonia. Until now.
Pantokraator are from Tartu, Estonia’s second city, and trace their roots to the early 1980’s. They released their first album in 1990, broke up in 1992, reformed 14 years later, and now are really back with the 2009 CD Tormidesööjad (The Storm Eaters). The album opens with Metsavaht, a song of aggressive folk-rock, similar to the heaviest Scandinavian folk-rock bands. A great song, but not representative of the rest of the album, as it is symphonic prog the rest of the way, with a Yes influence that is sometimes heard clearly. Pantokraator have excellent male lead vocals with some female backing vocals. There are slight ethnic touches in spots that give the music a special character, as do the Estonian vocals. The Estonian language is close to Finnish, and the ethnic touches sound Scandinavian. If you’re one of those so-called prog fans who prefer all their music to sound like it came from some generic Anglo-American place where everyone sings in English and there is nothing of a national or regional character, then you probably haven’t read this far. For those who prefer richer, more varied and more real music, this is an exciting, world-class prog rock album played by highly-skilled musicians. The CD comes in a tri-fold digipack with a 24-page booklet containing English translations of the Estonian lyrics. Here are YouTube videos of the songs Tule tule and Metsavaht. (Don’t confuse this band with the Swedish metal band spelled Pantokrator.)
Touchstone - Wintercoast ($14.99) Touchstone are one of the current crop of British melodic progressive rock bands, having been voted Best New Band by Britain’s Classic Rock Society in 2007. Following a 2006 EP, their first full-length (63-minutes) CD Discordant Dreams was released in 2007 and led to Touchstone making their first U.S. appearance at Rosfest 2009. Touchstone’s second CD Wintercoast (2009) is an excellent, more ambitious follow-up, featuring narration by actor Jeremy Irons. Like most of the recent British prog bands, Touchstone’s progressive rock has an AOR or melodic rock side to it, with metal guitar more prevalent on Wintercoast. Their great strength is their blended male/female vocals, which brings their sound close to The Reasoning. On Wintercoast, Kim Seviour assumes more of the vocal duties, and she has a very good voice. Relative to The Reasoning, there is a stronger element of the old Marillion/Pendragon neo-prog style in Touchstone’s music. So if you enjoy the albums by The Reasoning, Darwin’s Radio, Tinyfish, Strangefish, JEBO, and Breathing Space, then Touchstone comes highly recommended. Read the reviews of Discordant Dreams at Silhobbit and DPRP and of Wintercoast at Silhobbit.
Jane Relf - Jane’s Renaissance: The Complete Jane Relf Collection 1969-1995 (2CD, $14.99) The complete and rather confusing history of the band Renaissance is beyond the scope of this product description, but the better known Renaissance with Annie Haslam was not the first Renaissance. One Renaissance did morph into the other, even though the full-time personnel were completely different. The first Renaissance emerged from The Yardbirds. Singer Jane Relf is the younger sister of Keith Relf. (Keith passed away in 1976.) Among their members was future Strawbs keyboardist John Hawken. This first Renaissance released two LPs in 1969 and 1970 before giving way to the second incarnation of the band. When the first band reformed in 1976, the name Renaissance was already in use, so they called themselves Illusion, from the title of the last album they recorded as Renaissance. Illusion’s 1977 album Out of the Mist is their best, followed closely by their self-titled 1978 album. Enchanted Caress is their third album. It was recorded in 1979 but remained unreleased for many years, no doubt the punk and new wave plague having something to do with that. This is the Renaissance Records edition.
Jane Relf has one of the most beautiful voices in rock. The jam-packed double-CD Jane’s Renaissance compiles material from Renaissance Mark I, Illusion, and Stairway (a more new age-y Illusion offshoot). Perhaps most important are the Jane Relf solo songs that few have heard before. She released a solo single Without a Song from You b/w Make My Time Pass By in 1971; both songs are included here along with Gone Fishing, a song recorded in the mid-1970’s for a frozen food advertisement! There are also two rare demo versions of Carpet of the Sun with Jane singing, which ties the two incarnations of Renaissance together. The booklet contains photos and a detailed bio. Read the review at Musical Discoveries.
Planet P Project - Levittown: Go Out Dancing Part II ($13.99) 
Planet P Project - same ($13.99)Planet P Project is Tony Carey, one-time keyboardist for Rainbow, with help here and there from other musicians. While recording more commercial albums under his own name, he reserved the Planet P Project name for his progressive output, and his two Planet P Project albums in the 1980’s resulted in some chart success. This CD edition of the self-titled 1983 Planet P Project debut includes four bonus tracks, alternate versions of album tracks. “Their eponymous 1983 debut was defined by the synthesizer-laden style of the day with a nod to the progressive rock of the prior decade.” [All Music Guide] Pink World (1984), the second, was originally a double-LP and was often compared to Pink Floyd’s The Wall. These are the Renaissance Records editions.
1931, released in 2005, is the first part of a planned trilogy entitled Go Out Dancing. While some of the recording for this album dates back as early as 1992, it is a product of the 2000’s in terms of music technology. The subject matter of 1931 is the radical right, from the rise of Nazism to present conditions in the U.S. This is the ProgRock Records edition. Levittown (2008, 66-minutes) is Part 2, which uses post-WWII America as its departure point. These conceptual works will draw comparisons to Pink Floyd and Roger Waters’ work from The Wall on. They also exhibit a Peter Gabriel or Francis Dunnery flavor. Levittown in particular is an exceptional work that so far is getting overlooked -- try to locate a review of it on a prog rock review site.
City Boy - The Day the Earth Caught Fire ($13.99) 
City Boy - Dinner at the Ritz ($12.99) City Boy were an English progressive pop or art-rock band along the lines of 10cc and Stackridge, to a lesser extent Quantum Jump, early Queen, Supertramp, and ELO. They released seven LPs between 1976-1981. Like Supertramp, City Boy had two lead vocalists, one high-pitched and the other low-pitched. They added a third lead vocalist (also their new drummer) on their fourth album. Prior to their first LP, they had been a folk band, and this carries over slightly onto their self-titled 1976 debut, where there are some more acoustic-flavored tracks, especially the gorgeous Haymaking Time. This first album was City Boy’s best: it shows the strongest identification with progressive rock, and has a couple longer tracks that are outstanding. Dinner at the Ritz (1977) displays a bit of the English music hall influence, as Queen did early on, and also includes excellent hard rocking songs (Queen were pretty good at that too).
Beginning with Young Men Gone West (1977), the albums became less arty, more a set of quirky and sophisticated rock/pop songs. Like every band operating during the late 1970’s, pressure increased every year to produce hit singles and more commercial rock. In City Boy’s case, they were probably also pressured to make music insipid enough to break them in the USA. Book Early (1978) yielded the band’s first hit single, and while we’re sure there are a lot of pop fans who consider this album their best, none of those people ever shop at this site. The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1979) is actually something of a comeback; the title track is one of City Boy’s best. You can watch the promo video for it on YouTube. (Be forewarned that the other City Boy songs on YouTube are skewed toward their more commercial output.) Steve Broughton, one of their principal songwriters and vocalists, had left before Heads Are Rolling (1980), and it was like Supertramp after Roger Hodgson departed. The City Boy fan site has a good overview of their albums on the who tab, actually taken from the Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock.
IQ - Frequency Sp. Ed. (CD+DVD, $17.99) out-of-stock Frequency is the brand new 2009 IQ album. This Special Edition comes in a digipack and adds a full-length DVD (NTSC, all-region, stereo, 16:9) of IQ performing live in Holland in 2007. See Page 2 for more IQ CDs and our DVDs page for IQ’s DVDs.
Stream of Passion - The Flame Within Ltd. Ed. ($15.99) Stream of Passion is the other band of Arjen Anthony Lucassen (Ayreon), featuring the beautiful vocals of Marcela Bovio. The Flame Within (2009) is their second studio CD. This is the Limited Edition digipack, which adds one bonus track. Check our Dutch page for the other Stream of Passion CDs and DVD.
Ageness - Songs from the Liar’s Lair ($15.99) Ageness is a symphonic neo-prog band from Finland singing in English and generally sounding very English. The band was founded in 1991, though it evolved out of the band Scarab, who released an album in 1983. Ageness was very active in the 1990’s and was probably the best known Finnish prog band at that time. They released three CDs that decade. Their primary influence is undoubtedly Genesis, though they add elements of Marillion and Rush.
After a long downtime, Ageness re-emerged with Songs from the Liar’s Lair (2009). Their sound is still somewhere between Genesis and early Marillion, often with similar melodrama, while new guitarist Speedy Saarinen’s style is at times more aggressive, taking some of the music closer to Arena. It’s an excellent comeback album that will appeal to a majority of symphonic prog fans, and as if there wasn’t enough great progressive rock coming out of the rest of Scandinavia, now Finland is ramping up production! To aid in determining which tracks at Ageness’ MySpace page are from this CD, the track list is: Entering, Martial Arts, The Lie and the Liar, Why Don’t You Go Away, Sons of Madness, The Lament of Ghosts, Liar’s Lair.
Jeavestone - Spices, Species and Poetry Petrol ($15.99) Jeavestone are the new Finnish prog sensation. They are a progressive rock band that start with a jam band sound palette, though Jeavestone’s songs are composed and structured. They add flute, terrific harmony vocals (sounding like CSNY on one song), other woodwinds and string arrangements here and there, an organic sound where acoustic instruments are important, just as they were with the classic progressive rock bands. They have an obvious sense of humor, and sound like they’re having great fun. Playful prog for when you just can’t take another melancholy band. Jeavestone have similarities to Wigwam, Magic Pie, Umphrey’s McGee, Moon Safari, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Zappa, Jethro Tull, Caravan, and Echolyn.
This is the Presence Records re-edition of Jeavestone’s first full-length CD Mind the Soup (2005), which includes videos of two songs. Mind the Soup is more of a prog & roll album. Spices, Species and Poetry Petrol (2008, digipack) is the proggier of the two and a significant step forward, so start there, but Mind the Soup is no slouch. Go to Jeavestone’s website, click on Discs, then click on Album Reviews where you’ll find loads of them.
Kataya - Canto Obscura ($15.99) Kataya is a band formed by three veteran Finnish musicians. Their 2008 debut Canto Obscura is stunning, a very atmospheric progressive rock, instrumental with wordless female vocals and, on one track, male spoken word. As the band says: “The inspiration for this album comes from the deep, wild forests of Finland. Being amongst the last pure and clean, untouched spots of nature on our planet, the Forest is and has always been a church and sanctuary for us Finns. There are also numerous legends, myths and folklore about the creatures living in these woods. Although mostly instrumental, this album is a storyteller in the spirit of these old tales.” Think of a collaboration between Ralph Lundsten, Mike Oldfield, and Camel. (Ralph Lundsten is a Swedish electronic musician who made a number of albums evoking the mystique of the Nordic forests, particularly his Nordic Nature Symphonies series.) Kataya occasionally incorporate folk instruments and melodies the same way Oldfield does, but lest you think this is an album of ambient or folk music, Kataya use electric guitar, bass and drums, and the music is frequently full-blown symphonic rock. The early albums of French band XII Alfonso are somewhat similar, otherwise this is quite a unique album, spellbinding and magical, one that can transport the listener to somewhere they’ve never traveled. Veteran prog reviewer John "Bo Bo" Bollenberg chose Canto Obscura as the best album of 2008!
“After almost 35 years of listening to prog rock, it still happens that I am pleasantly surprised by new, unique and genuinely progressive (rock) music; in this case it’s Kataya with their wonderful blend of folk, ambient and prog... What a beautiful and captivating effort to translate pure nature into pure progressive music!” [Erik Neuteboom]
Time Traveller - Chapters I & II ($15.99) This 2008 album out of Finland was recorded as the solo project of multi-instrumentalist Juhani Nisula, though he has since formed a quintet for live performance. Chapters I & II sounds like a full band as it is, with a great analog 1970’s sound. This is exciting, energetic instrumental symphonic prog with the glory more from the accomplished 70’s-style guitar work, but ably blended with an array of vintage keyboards: Hammond; Mellotron; Moog, ARP and Oberheim synths, Clavinet; Crumar string ensemble and more. The bass playing and drumming hold up their end as well, while a guest adds violin on one song. It is really amazing for a solo project to achieve the sort of live energy heard on this CD. Listen to the clips on the Time Traveller MySpace page, and if you aren’t hooked pretty quickly, then classic prog probably isn’t your thing. Also look at Nisula’s list of influences there -- his knowledge of progressive rock runs deep. Read the Sea of Tranquility review.
Pictorial Wand - Face of Our Fathers ($14.99) A Sleeper’s Awakening (2006) is the double-CD debut project of Norwegian musician Mattis Sørum, who recorded the album while attending university. Sørum enlisted the help of a large number of musicians for this concept album. The label calls it a symphonic progressive rock album, which it is, but it could as easily be called a prog-metal album. It isn’t as metallic as the average prog-metal album, but the heavy guitar appears often enough, and even when the music isn’t overtly metallic, it is often weighed down by the typical plodding metal aesthetic and melodic/harmonic restrictions. On the positive side, there are plenty of more refined passages featuring orchestral arrangements, Mellotron, organ, flute, cello, oboe, and violin. There are beautiful female vocals from three different singers, while the main character in this concept album is male and so most of the vocals are male. A more refined take on the Ayreon style perhaps, though less skillfully executed.
Face of Our Fathers (2009, 68-minutes) is the superior follow-up, the result of a few more years experience and musical maturity. Here Sørum tones down the metal enough that the more refined and melodic elements can occupy center stage. Sørum plays guitar, bass, and keys, assisted by other musicians on drums, keys, flute, violin and cello. Two male and two female vocalists are used, usually singing male/female duets that are a major part of the album’s appeal. With all the vintage keyboard sounds, the music has much of the magic of 1970’s prog, even if the occasional incursions by heavy guitar yank the music back into modern times.
Vecteur K - La Peur du Désert ($14.99) This is the 2009 debut on Unicorn Digital of a progressive rock band from Quebec. Vecteur K play a style similar to the band Direction but slightly harder edged. It’s a combination of the lyrical, entrancing Québécois prog style descended from Harmonium, Octobre, Pollen, Morse Code, et al., and Rush-like guitar and hard rock energy. French lyrics are essential to this music, as is the balance between acoustic and electric guitar. 65-minutes.
Flood - Tales from the Four Seasons ($14.99) This 2009 release on Unicorn Digital is the debut CD by an Englishman known only as Flood. As Flood says: “My debut album Tales from the Four Seasons is an instrumental album. It began life as a short piece entitled Summer written whilst on holiday in Dorset five years ago. I liked the feel of the arrangement and therefore decided to write a suite of four pieces based on the four seasons. Although typically drawn to more heavy arrangements in terms of the use of synthesizers, bass pedals and electric guitars, I felt it was important to keep the orchestration and choice of instruments the same as had been used on Summer. Each season is made up of individual movements linked together using short linking passages. The music was inspired by the sights and sounds of the English countryside.” This is a very pastoral and relaxing work, nearly 80-minutes in length, influenced by the English classical composers. There are passages with drums and/or synths and organ, but they’re in the minority. Acoustic 6 & 12 string guitar and piano form the backbone of the album, augmented by flute, clarinet, cello, and upright bass. When the guitar is present, the feel is close to Gordon Giltrap’s later work, while Mike Oldfield and Anthony Phillips are other possible reference points. Very nice.
Jolly - Forty-Six Minutes Twelve Seconds of Music ($12.99) Jolly is a New York City band signed to the Swiss Galileo label, whose albums are released in the U.S. on ProgRock Records. Jolly’s 2009 debut CD (46:12 for short) shows a modern dark and melancholy prog band in the vein of Riverside and, to a lesser extent, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Oceansize, et al. Jolly have the expected guitar-centric sound, but they do have a keyboardist, and the beauty is in the details behind and surrounding the aggressive guitars: keyboards providing elegant soundscapes and haunting ambiences, the intriguing melodies, the richly textured sound; in short, all the elements that make the modern prog style appealing.
Roswell Six - Terra Incognita: Beyond the Horizon ($12.99) Hiding behind this new name is Erik Norlander, keyboardist of Rocket Scientists and Lana Lane, with a number of albums under his own name. Norlander wrote all the music for this project, which also features singers James LaBrie, Michael Sadler, John Payne and Lana Lane; bassist Kurt Barabas (Under the Sun, Amaran’s Plight), violinist David Ragsdale (ex-Kansas), guitarists Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery, Amaran’s Plight) and Chris Brown (Ghost Circus), and drummer Chris Quirarte (Prymary). Martin Orford (ex-IQ) adds flute, Mike Alvarez cello. Terra Incognita: Beyond the Horizon (2009, 73-minutes) is in the Ayreon style of bombastic prog and metal, meant to accompany a fantasy novel by author Kevin J. Anderson, who co-wrote the lyrics. Click the first mp3 icon above for reviews.
Fruupp - Modern Masquerades ($15.99) 
Fruupp - Future Legends ($15.99)These are the 2009 remastered editions on Esoteric of the four albums by the Belfast-based symphonic prog band Fruupp, Northern Ireland’s great contribution to 1970’s progressive rock. Amazingly, these four LPs were originally released within a span of less than 18 months in 1973-1975. Fruupp opened for Genesis many times, and their open admiration for Genesis probably influenced them, as their music is sometimes similar to pastoral 1970’s Genesis. The DPRP history and review of Fruupp and these four CDs will tell you all you need to know. Future Legends has one bonus track, The Prince of Heaven’s Eyes has two. All have extensive booklets with previously unseen photographs and new liner notes.
Saga - The Human Condition ($14.99) Saga’s 2009 studio album is the first with new signer Rob Moratti. No worries, Moratti is a good singer, and The Human Condition picks up where Saga left off on 10,000 Days. The final track You Look Good to Me is very catchy. Digipack. Read the Sea of Tranquility reviews. See our Canadian page for the rest of the Saga CDs and our DVDs page for Saga’s DVDs.
Patrick Moraz - Change of Space ($16.99)After years of solo piano music, Patrick Moraz finally returns to rock and his progressive roots with Change of Space (2009, 60-minutes). The CD is a collection of songs and instrumental pieces composed, recorded, mixed and polished between 1989-2003. Moraz then spent the two years prior to this release assembling and mastering it with engineer Jean Ristori at MTX Mastering Studios in Switzerland. Other musicians on this album include Alex Ligertwood (ex-Santana) on lead vocals, Bunny Brunel (ex-Chick Corea) on bass, Kazumi Watanabe (Japanese guitarist extraordinaire), and many others. Given that the material was recorded in different years with different musicians, there is more diversity here than on any other Patrick Moraz album. Read the Music Street Journal and Sea of Tranquility reviews. The rest of the Patrick Moraz CDs are on our German/Swiss page. Check our DVDs page for Moraz’s DVDs.
Oceansize - Frames (CD+DVD, $15.99) This is the 2009 North American edition of Oceansize’s 2007 album Frames (66-minutes), which includes the 2-hour Frames Live DVD (NTSC, all-region) containing a performance of the full album plus bonus behind-the-scenes footage. Oceansize are one of them young, modern arty rock bands who are sometimes considered progressive, depending on which track is playing and where one is standing. A clue to their sound (and where their progressive credentials can fall short) is that they have room for three guitarists but no true keyboardist; a guitarist and the bassist add keyboards when they’re not too busy. Certainly most of Frames is outstanding modern prog along the lines of Radiohead and later Porcupine Tree: complex, dense arrangements; a richly-textured, sometimes lush sound palette; plenty of inventiveness. If the band eliminated a couple tracks that are little more than post rock or heavy rock, there would be little argument. What else to do but head to Prog Archives and read what the people say? (One prediction though: the processing on the vocals that creates the disconnected, distant feel will eventually date this just a surely as gated reverb on drums dates 1980’s rock. Also congratulations to the band and label on the most useless CD booklet we’ve ever seen.)
Little Tragedies - Cross mini-LP ($15.99) 
Little Tragedies - Chinese Songs Part Two ($14.99) 
Little Tragedies - Return ($15.99)Little Tragedies is a Russian band led by composer/keyboardist/singer Gennady Ilyin. Once upon a time, progressive rock bands had first-hand knowledge of classical music, and while this has not often been the case with later generations of prog bands, it isn’t difficult to find prog bands in Eastern Europe with conservatory-trained musicians, which is the case with Ilyin.
Return is Little Tragedies’ third album and dates from 2003. This is an excellent album, mixing 1970’s style symphonic progressive rock with some jazz-rock and contemporary classical music. The vocals are in Russian, lending the work a Slavic personality. The instrumentals especially are influenced by ELP and UK, though they are even closer to the style of Japanese bands such as Deja Vu or Social Tension, virtuosic and just slightly over-the-top. 78-minutes.
New Faust (2006) is one of Little Tragedies’ best, a double-CD and a brilliant work that makes them the best current Russian symphonic prog band, as professional as the best bands in the world. The Russian classical influence is very strong, and the dominant influence is again ELP and their brethren, though Little Tragedies does have a guitarist. The music is keyboard-dominated and heavily instrumental, again with poetic Russian lyrics, and varies from frenetic, bombastic and virtuosic to sensitive and peaceful. In addition to the classical and ELP influence, there are elements of Genesis and Yes, but overall the music has a distinct personality. Note there were two versions of this 2CD, the difference being Cyrillic versus English text on the printed materials. The discs and disc labels are identical, and the Cyrillic booklet actually has four more pages. The English text version is out-of-print with no signs of a reprint, so the version sold here now is the Cyrillic text version. As the lyrics are in Russian and didn’t appear in the English version anyway, you’re not missing much.
It didn’t take Little Tragedies long after New Faust to release another CD, The Sixth Sense (2006, 77-minutes). It’s another excellent album of classical progressive rock. This album has less emphasis on the flashier style and includes more tracks of a more sedate and lyrical nature, emphasizing the poetic Russian lyrics.
Chinese Songs Part One and Part Two, both released in 2007, are so called not because they contain any Asian music but because the lyrics are by 8th-13th century Chinese poets, sung in Russian translations but printed in English translations in the booklets. Continuing with the trend established on The Sixth Sense, more of the music on these CDs is of the serene and lyrical side of Little Tragedies, though when they do unleash their full power, it’s about as good as it gets.
Cross (62-minutes) is a studio CD released in the last days of 2008. On The Sixth Sense and the two Chinese Songs CDs, the balance had shifted to the vocal and reflective side, but with Cross, Little Tragedies put things right. Instrumental passages dominate, and the CD is full of the rip-roaring classically-influenced sympho-prog we all crave. This is a return to the style of New Faust, and Cross ranks with that album as Little Tragedies’ best. Heavyweight gatefold mini-LP sleeve with booklet containing English translations of the lyrics. Reviews of all CDs here.
The Sun of the Spirit (1998) is the first solo CD by Little Tragedies’ leader, but it was originally released by Boheme Music under the name Little Tragedies. Ilyin wrote the music, plays the keyboards and sings, assisted by the guitarist and sound engineer of the then-current Little Tragedies lineup. As Ilyin says, there was still the feeling of a band, albeit studio-like, hence the decision in 1998 to use the band name. This is the 2009 reissue on the MALS label, which adds one bonus track and comes in a high-quality mini-LP sleeve. Because Little Tragedies’ lineup has since changed, it was decided to reissue The Sun of the Spirit as a Gennady Ilyin solo project. As one should expect by now from Ilyin, this is a very accomplished progressive work which covers a lot of ground, with complex arrangements and skillful playing. The music was inspired by the lyrics of the Russian poet Nikolay Gumilev. Ilyin sings in Russian (English lyrics in the booklet), but the music is heavily instrumental. There are some classical-rock workouts in the ELP and Little Tragedies styles, but for the most part, Ilyin uses this opportunity for less flash, more nuance and acoustic timbres. Certainly much of the material is classically-influenced, but Ilyin never settles for pure orchestral simulation. His use of expressive synth sounds is similar to Jozef Skrzek of SBB, and Skrzek’s early solo albums are a good reference point for some of this material.
Taylor’s Universe - Return to Whatever mini-LP ($15.99) Taylor’s Universe is a superb Danish prog band headed by Robin Taylor, who plays guitar, grand piano, Hammond organ, and various analog synths. Joining Taylor on Terra Nova are sax player Karsten Vogel (Secret Oyster, Burnin’ Red Ivanhoe) and drummer Rasmus Grosell, plus a few guests. Taylor has or had another project with almost the same name, Taylor’s Free Universe, but that project is entirely different, focusing on improvisation and experimental jazz. And for maximum confusion, Taylor also releases albums under his own name that tend to be more electronic/ambient. Terra Nova (2007) however contains classic 1970’s style Scandinavian symphonic progressive, instrumental with some wordless vocals. The music is keyboard-dominated, with Vogel’s melodic sax adding spice. There is definitely appeal to fans of Secret Oyster and Canterbury music, but while there is jazz influence here, the music is not jazz or fusion. Rather, the music is the stately symphonic prog typical of Focus and the first generation of Scandinavian symphonic bands.
Return to Whatever (2009) is the new one and features a new band lineup that includes electric violin, sax, guitar, bass, drums, and Taylor’s keyboards, with guests providing Celtic harp, flute, and female voice. The music is again instrumental and 1970’s-oriented, but not retro. As always, Taylor favors organ and piano, and there is jazz influence felt primarily through the sax (which is played melodically), but overall this is still stately symphonic prog with strong links to the first-generation Danish progressive and jazz-rock bands. Heavyweight gatefold mini-LP sleeve. Note the mp3 icon next to this title will stream mp3 excerpts from each track on the album.
OHMphrey - same ($15.99) OHMphrey is a band comprised of three members of proggy jam-band Umphrey’s McGee (keyboardist Joel Cummins, guitarist Jake Cinninger and drummer Kris Myers), OHM guitarist Chris Poland, and bassist Robertino Pagliari. The Magna Carta label describes their 2009 debut as “improv-heavy, a record that assimilates not only disparate musical genres but the individual playing styles of everyone involved. Fortunately for OHMphrey (and the rest of us), this project cuts against the grain in so many ways, not the least of which is by eschewing the pitfalls of modern production techniques in favor of a straight-ahead live recording setting. These extended instrumental jams are exciting and cohesive statements. The band seamlessly weaves together elements of metal, jazz, blues and prog rock.” Digipack.
Neuschwanstein - Alice in Wonderland ($15.99)Yes, this is the same German band that released the famous Battlement album in 1979, and this is a virtually unknown album recorded in 1976, appearing on CD in 2009. Alice in Wonderland predates the arrival of singer Frederic Joos, so the music here is almost entirely instrumental, with brief narration auf Deutsch tying pieces together. (The inspiration for this album was Rick Wakeman’s Journey to the Center of the Earth.) There is some Genesis influence present (Battlement was a Genesis clone), but here the music is closer to Snow Goose-era Camel, flowing and nimble, with lots of flute in addition to keys, guitar, bass and drums. There is audible distortion at times, but in Machiavellian terms, the end easily justifies the condition of the master tapes. The booklet provides the history of the band (in English) with several period photos. A fantastic relic from the golden age when prog was prog, played by great bearded men in strange clothing. More German prog CDs.
Wurtemberg - Rock Fantasia Opus 10 ($15.99)Rock Fantasia Opus 9 is a very welcome CD reissue of a rare French instrumental progressive rock LP from 1980, plus two bonus tracks from 1986. The music is classically-based prog with folk touches, incorporating medieval and renaissance-inspired sounds. While piano and flute dominate, the composer is also a famous maker of early stringed instruments, and so you can hear bowed psaltery, dulcimer, lyre, and metallophone alongside keyboards, guitar, bass and drums. Read the reviews at Progressive World, Progweed, and Progressor. Here is an mp3 excerpt courtesy of Jurriaan Hage’s site.
The follow-up album Rock Fantasia Opus 10 was recorded in 1985 but remained unreleased until this 2009 CD. Two unfinished tracks have been replaced by two 1986 bonus tracks. (It’s still a short album.) The band lineup had changed some, and it’s a safe bet that this is the only rock band ever with three psaltery players. The instrumentation also includes keyboards, guitar, bass and drums. The music here is a more conventional form of instrumental symphonic prog than Opus 9, melodic and flowing, roughly the Camel style merged with a bit of melodic jazz-rock. It’s very good, and you just haven’t lived until you’ve heard what is otherwise a familiar style of music with melody lines played on bowed psaltery! More French progressive CDs.
Karda Estra - Weird Tales ($14.99) Weird Tales (2009) is something like the eighth Karda Estra CD, a bit darker than most of their other albums, but no less spellbinding. See the Karda Estra section on our British page for all the info and other available CDs by this unique band. There isn’t much we can add to what we’ve written before other than to remark that Richard Wileman has created a pretty good working environment for himself, employing female musicians almost exclusively!
Quantum Fantay - Kaleidothrope SE (CD+DVD, $17.99) |     |
Ozric Tentacles - The YumYum Tree ($15.99) Speaking of Ozric Tentacles, they’re back with a 2009 studio CD The YumYum Tree (digipack). Prog Archives media player includes a track from this CD.
The Floor’s Too Far Away (60-minutes, digipack) is Ozric’s 2006 studio CD. Ed Wynne is the only original member now, and he’s the primary creative force here. It’s another very good album for the band. It’s hard for Ozric Tentacles to break a lot of new ground as they’ve been doing the same style of music for something like 23 years to this point, but their sound does evolve due to personnel changes at least. There are some tracks on The Floor’s Too Far Away that are nearly fusion! There are many more Ozric Tentacles CDs on our Bargain CDs page.
Twelfth Night - Smiling at Grief def. ed. (2CD, $17.99) Hopefully most of you are familiar with this British band who, along with Marillion, IQ, Pallas, Pendragon, and Haze, spearheaded the progressive revival of the 1980’s. The first Twelfth Night LP was the instrumental Live at the Target (1981), and the next vinyl release was their classic Fact and Fiction (1982), but in between was the 1982 cassette-only Smiling at Grief album, which was the first album with Geoff Mann on vocals. It was released on CD in 1997 by the French MSI label, but that label has been out-of-business for years. This new double-CD Definitive Edition contains the original album and the bonus tracks that appeared on the MSI CD, plus a second disc containing the archive release Smiling at Grief Live. The latter is the only known live recording of the four-piece line-up, from a concert recorded a month or so after the studio album. This set also includes three previously-unreleased tracks, including the original demo of Eleanor Rigby and a very different early version of This City. Smiling at Grief Definitive Edition sports new artwork, sleeve notes and previously unseen photographs. Go to our British CDs page for more Twelfth Night CDs and info.
RA - Rising ($7.99) RA is the new project of Brits Rob Andrews (bass) and Steve Hillman (keyboards) along with David Groves (guitar) from Rob Andrews’ band, and Dai Rees (drums). Violinist Phil Morgan guests on one track on Wake (2007, 57-minutes), which contains high-caliber instrumental progressive rock in the British 1970’s style, superior to any of the progressive rock albums Andrews or Hillman have done on their own. Influences vary by track, but the strongest is early Camel, followed by Focus and then Steve Hackett. Ah, it takes one back.
Rising (2009, 60-minutes) is a budget-priced CD intended to entice prog fans to give this overlooked band a listen. Some of the tracks are new, others are reworked, restructured versions of tracks that appeared on earlier albums: two from Wake, others from Hillman’s and Andrews’ solo albums. The quartet is assisted by six guest musicians.
The Aurora Project - Shadow Border ($13.99) The label’s description: Shadow Border is the second album from Dutch progressive rock band The Aurora Project. Their 2005 debut Unspoken Words brought them much acclaim in the worldwide progressive rock community. The band has twice been invited to perform at the prestigious ProgPower Europe festival. TAP create atmospheric progressive rock with a metallic edge. Liquid keyboard solos duel with heavy, crunch-filled guitar riffs. Vocals take a theatrical approach reminding us that this is after all a prog band. Strong appeal to fans of Riverside, Rush, Arena and Porcupine Tree. More Dutch prog CDs.
Haddad - Eros & Thanatos (2CD, $19.99)Haddad are a Brazilian symphonic progressive rock band who began playing soft prog, and while later albums are not as soft, their music is never really hard or intense. If we counted right, Eros & Thanatos (2009) is Haddad’s seventh album, a double-CD packaged in a fat digipack with a 24-page full-color booklet. The band lineup is the largest yet, with flute, violin, viola, and a third guitarist, now including three generations of the family Haddad! There are some English vocals, mostly Portuguese, a mix of shorter songs and four tracks over 8-minutes where they stretch out a bit. The album is full of great melodies, the songs often reminiscent of the Italian romantic style. Nothing earth-shattering, just very enjoyable and well-crafted South American prog. Counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping. See our South American page for more Haddad CDs.
Gerson Werlang - Memorias do Tempo ($15.99)This 2008 CD is the first solo album by Gerson Werlang, the guitarist and singer of the Brazilian progressive rock band Pocos e Nuvens. Other Pocos e Nuvens members guest, and this is as good as or better than the Pocos e Nuvens CDs. The lineup varies from track to track, as Memorias do Tempo is a mix of large-lineup symphonic rock pieces with an instrumental emphasis, and smaller scale songs that are more vocal, more intimate, and more acoustic. Werlang sings in Portuguese. In addition there are beautiful female vocals, sometimes wordless, sometimes in duets with Werlang. The violinist from Pocos e Nuvens appears on two tracks; other musicians add keyboards, bass and drums, while Werlang plays electric and classical guitars. There are high-energy passages, but more often the atmosphere is warm, slightly spacey, and affective. The artwork in the booklet also deserves praise.
Jaime Rosas Cuarteto - Viajero Astral: Live in Brazil ($14.99) 
Consisting of members of the Chilean prog band Entrance, the Jaime Rosas Trio is a keyboard power trio a la ELP or the final UK lineup, though their bassist does play some guitar. Extremos (2004) is their second CD, a mostly-instrumental affair. It mixes predominantly fast, high-energy, technically-adept classical rock workouts with a few breathers centered around classical piano. The material is well-composed and not just flash and bombast. With Creciendo (2005), they’ve added a guitarist to become a quartet (And Then There Were Four?). This album is again heavily instrumental, with quality vocals both wordless and in Spanish. Much of the instrumental material is in a high-energy, fast and demonstrative symphonic prog style, leaving no doubt that JRC can play. The electric guitar gives this material a harder edge. But this is balanced by more sensitive tracks employing vocals and acoustic guitar. Rosas’ keyboards are still the highlight, often very classically influenced.
Viajero Astral is 73-minutes of JRC live at the 2005 Rio ArtRock Festival and one track recorded in Mexico in 2004. Excellent sound, the best JRC CD to start with.
Andrew Roussak - No Trespassing ($15.99) Andrew Roussak is a Russian ex-pat keyboardist/composer living in Germany, where he has risen to some prominence. On this 2008 CD, he leads a full rock band. The instrumentals are classically-influenced and often give the impression of a Rick van der Linden album. Two pieces are arrangements of Bach compositions; another excellent classical-rock instrumental was written as a tribute to Keith Emerson. The instrumentals share the CD with English-language vocal songs that are similar to things found on Rick Wakeman albums. The album is rich in melody, with Roussak’s classical piano a frequent highlight. Read the DPRP review.
Kevin Peek - Life and Other Games ($16.99)Australian guitarist Kevin Peek is best known for having formed the classical rock band Sky with John Williams, Francis Monkman, Herbie Flowers and Tristan Fry. Peek was also an in-demand session musician; notably he plays on the first Alan Parsons Project album, Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds, at least two Sally Oldfield albums, and Francis Monkman’s The Long Good Friday soundtrack, to name just a few. The Beyond the Planets album with Rick Wakeman is primarily Peek’s album. Awakening (1981) and Life and Other Games (1982) were the second and third of three solo albums for Peek. Both were recorded while he was still a member of Sky, and while Peek’s first solo LP did not receive wide distribution, these two did because of Sky’s prominence at the time. Both albums includes performances from fellow session musicians on bass, drums, keyboards and guitar. They are instrumental and close to the style of Sky as well as Gordon Giltrap’s band albums. We’ve always been fond of these two albums where melody is king, albums that make it clear that Peek had a lot to do with Sky’s style.
Porcupine Tree - Signify 2CD digibook ($15.99)Kscope’s 2CD reissue of Porcupine Tree’s 1997 live album Coma Divine comes in deluxe digibook packaging and adds four tracks not included on the original release. The music was recorded during three nights in Rome on the Signify tour. The audio has been remastered. Counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping.
Kscope’s 2CD reissue of Porcupine Tree’s 1996 studio album Signify also comes in deluxe digibook packaging. The second CD in this set is a revised and remastered edition of Insignificance, an album that was only available to subscribers of the PT information service Transmission in 1997 as a cassette. Insignificance is a selection of Steven Wilson’s demos that includes several tracks that didn’t make it onto the Signify album, as well as formative versions of some that did. Counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping. More Porcupine Tree and related CDs on Page 2.
Renaissance - Live at Carnegie Hall (2CD, $18.99)Renaissance’s magnificent 1976 double live album Live at Carnegie Hall captured the band at their peak, playing with a symphony orchestra in a city where they were probably more popular than in their home country. This is the 2009 Deluxe Anniversary Edition on Friday Music, remastered from the original Sire Records vault tapes and including new recollections and artwork from Annie Haslam. This is the first in a planned series of remastered Renaissance albums for Friday Music. Check our British page for more Renaissance CDs.
Viima - Kahden Kuun Sirpit ($16.99) The Finnish symphonic prog band Viima was first heard on Mellow Records’ Finnish prog tribute CD Tuonen Tytar and can also be heard on several of the Musea/Colossus various artists CDs. Viima’s 2006 debut Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta features beautiful female vocals that add a folky quality that has led some reviewers to reference Mellow Candle, though the music here is really only folky in the sense that early Renaissance or October Project were folky: the inclusion of acoustic instruments and a light, breezy quality rather than folk music per se. Viima play unadulterated 1970’s-style Scandinavian progressive rock featuring vintage keyboard sounds and some flute, and as with the best first-generation Scandinavian prog bands, Camel is never far away.
After the release of their first CD, Vimma changed lineup, expanding to a quintet and transitioning from female to male singer. It has worked to their advantage, as Kahden Kuun Sirpit (2009) is a more powerful symphonic prog album, without the folky aspects of their debut. There is a Genesis influence on this CD that was not present on their first, plus Camel and perhaps Focus. Keyboards include Mellotron, Hammond organ, Rhodes, and analog synths, and there is flute, soprano sax, and a string quartet. In fact, Kahden Kuun Sirpit is on a par with the best Scandinavian classic progressive bands: Atlas, 1970’s Kaipa, Blakulla, early Isildurs Bane, Tabula Rasa, etc. Those bands didn’t sing in English either, but we have faith that even our monolingual American customers have advanced beyond beginner-level prog fan and appreciate great music sung in any language, and the greater variety that enables. (English translations of the lyrics are printed in the booklet.) This is simply one of the top progressive rock CDs of 2009. Read reviews of both CDs here.
Rick Miller - Falling Through Rainbows ($14.99) Rick Miller has been composing, producing, performing and recording since the early 1980s, gaining a great deal of production experience while working at Sound Design Studios in Toronto and later in his own studio in Lakefield, Ontario, all the while honing his skills as a singer and songwriter. Early this century, Miller turned his attention to progressive rock, the music he grew up listening to, and released four prog CDs between 2004-2009. Falling Through Rainbows (2009) is his latest; this is the new Unicorn Digital edition. Rick lists his influences succinctly as The Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Steve Hackett, and Gabriel-era Genesis, but it’s the first two that dominate, such that Falling Through Rainbows can easily be described as a cross between The Moodies and Floyd. Miller sings and plays guitar and keyboards (lots of Mellotron), assisted by other musicians on flute, cello, guitar, violin, and drums. This is old-school melancholy, and those David Gilmour-style guitar leads are just what is needed to shift The Moody Blues out of the late 1960s into the 1970s progressive rock era.
Mystery - Destiny? 10th Anniversary edition ($14.99) SALE!With Destiny? (1998), this Canadian band took the most progressive elements of Rush and Saga and married them with a more symphonic and ambitious approach to produce this gem of a concept album. To their credit, Mystery use delicate passages for contrast, something Rush and Saga never spent much effort on. The 10th Anniversary Edition of Destiny? features an entirely new mix that sounds much better than the original, a new cover and one new track. We have just a few copies of the original edition available now at a discounted price. The rest of the Mystery CDs are on our Canadian page.
Junk Farm - Didn’t Come to Dance ($14.99) The self-described German “fusion trio from hell” consists of a keyboardist (favoring organ), guitarist/singer, and drummer. The band has metal roots, so Ugly Little Thing, their 2007 second CD, is heavy rock/fusion with a strong progressive flavor, much more rock than fusion. Like prog-metal, this is music that is something-else first and progressive rock second, but for the most part it is really well done. Junk Farm shift gears rapidly, playing an appealing mash-up of styles with great finesse, comparable to the band Mörglbl.
Didn’t Come to Dance (2009) is not a radical change, but the songs and melodies here are much stronger and Junk Farm have put more work into the vocal arrangements, sometimes adding a Zappa feel to the proceedings. Start here.
Agah Bahari - The Second Sight of a Mind ($14.99) Agah Bahari is an Iranian ex-pat guitarist now living in Toronto. After an initial independent release, Unicorn Digital has reissued Bahari’s 2008 debut CD The Second Sight of a Mind, on which Derek Sherinian plays keyboards, Virgil Donati drums and Rick Fierabracci bass. Not surprisingly then, this is instrumental fusion/metal/prog in the Sherinian and Planet X style, with fine guitar work from Bahari, sometimes reminding one of Allan Holdsworth. Apparently Bahari’s decision to leave Iran had a lot to do with the Iranian Ministry of Culture’s decision to ban him from performing or recording in Iran. Everybody’s a critic.
Direction - Est ($14.99) Direction are a Québec City band with strong vocals in French, playing progressive rock along the lines of Morse Code. A cross between later Ange and classic Rush is a fair approximation of much of their music. The Rush influence is easier to spot during the instrumental passages, as once the French vocals enter, the character of the music is changed considerably. Ère is the reissue of their 2002 first album which was originally titled simply “R”, completely remixed and remastered for this 2009 edition on Unicorn Digital.
For Est (2008), Direction have joined the Unicorn Digital label and cranked the Genesis influence up to 11 on the first two tracks. If you are playing these tracks while another symphonic rock fan enters the room, he/she will demand to know who the band is and will not hesitate to strangle you if you don’t answer quickly. For the remainder of the album, the Genesis influence is present to varying degrees, along with some Yes. The Rush influence is there but less prevalent, so perhaps the significance of the title is that instead of looking west to Ontario for direction, Direction are looking east (est) to England on this album. And of course to France, since the French-language vocals give the music a special character and invite the inevitable Ange comparison. Direction’s best and most symphonic album.
Claire Vezina - Cyber Neptune ($14.99) Cyber Neptune is a 2008 release on the Unicorn Digital label from Quebec’s Claire Vezina, her fourth album. From what we can gather, Vezina is a singer/songwriter who has been making increasingly progressive albums each time out, expanding well beyond the singer/songwriter universe with the assistance of other musicians and a co-writer. She is also a keyboardist, especially fond of Rhodes, also using piano, organ and Mellotron. When it comes to progressive music in Canada, the French-speaking areas have long been nearly the only areas that matter, both in terms of producing and buying it. This is reflected in the music of Cyber Neptune, which is very progressive-flavored, with full electric rock instrumentation on many tracks, impeccably performed and full of magical atmospheres. Vezina has a beautiful voice to deliver the lyrics, in French of course, essential to the feel of her music. Claire Vezina joins Emily Bezar and Kate Bush in the aristocracy of female progressive artists. Read the reviews at Proggnosis and JerryLucky.com.
Unicorn Digital followed in 2009 by reissuing Claire’s 2003 third album Alambic, which is nearly as good as Cyber Neptune. Here Claire collaborated with Jeff Grenier (co-producer, musician), Marc-André Dubé (cowriter, bass) and Olivier Couture (drums). More Canadian progressive CDs.
Hour of the Shipwreck - The Hour is Upon Us ($10.99) The 2008 debut by this Los Angeles band is dark progressive rock with the modern aesthetic of grandiose melancholy, deeply mystic, frequently beautiful, and not quite like anything else. It touches upon the styles of Anekdoten and Radiohead, with fuzzy-around-the-edges vocals lending a surreal quality. There are many refined and delicate elements in these dense and unpredictable arrangements, revealing more detail upon each listen. In addition to the expected instrumentation, there is a large choir, 12-string guitar, pump organ, cello, French horn, glockenspiel, and more. With music this inventive, it’s essential to listen to the clips on the band’s MySpace page (mp3 icon above) and read the review excerpts there. Read the review at Ytsejam.com.
Jimmy Hotz - Beyond the Crystal Sea (CD-R, $10.99)Special buy. This 1980 album is one of the great unsung American progressive rock records, and somewhat legendary among those actually aware of its existence. It was originally released on vinyl but was never easy to find. (If you want an LP, you can get one now for $100 at Hotz’s website.) Hotz has been selling these for $15 on his website and at CDBaby, priced even higher on other sites, most of which don’t mention that this is a CD-R. The cover looks good, the rest of the printing is not at a professional level. The audio however sounds great -- buy this for the music, not the physical package. Hotz sings, plays guitar, and shares keyboard and bass duties with several other musicians, while still other musicians handle drums and backing vocals. The major influence here is Yes, though Hotz’s voice is in a more typical range than Jon Anderson’s. There is a good balance between keys and guitar, with some fantastic synth work. Apparently it’s a Christian album, but unless you sit down and read the lyrics (which don’t come with the CD), you’re unlikely to be aware of it. CDBaby has audio samples and more info. The good people at jimmyhotz.com will replace discs that mistrack at any time for free.
Deluge Grander - The Form of the Good ($11.99) 
Deluge Grander sprung from the ashes of Baltimore progressive band Cerebus Effect. It was the addition of keyboardist Dan Britton that made the final Cerebus Effect CD their most symphonic, and on their 2006 debut August in the Urals, Deluge Grander continue in that same direction, more symphonic and, well, grander. Britton is the primary composer here, and he is a tremendous keyboardist. The pieces vary from long to really long, so that only five tracks comprise the 71-minute CD. No one will be able to digest this music in one go. It is complex symphonic prog in a 1970’s style, with some vocals but no attempts at songs per se, as instrumental content clearly dominates. The 27-minute first track is the closest to Cerebus Effect, the most angular and dissonant of the pieces, though the dissonance is used more for contrast than as the sole style. The other tracks are more melodic and symphonic. There are many possible reference points, including King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Fireballet, Genesis, and Yes, but the music rarely suggests any other band for long. There are times when Britton’s piano playing suggests John Tout and Renaissance, times when his organ playing suggests Rick Wakeman, and lots of times when he uses Mellotron strings. This album has turned a lot of heads among the fan base for classic progressive rock.
Birds and Buildings is Dan Britton’s other band and is fairly similar. The two bands also share a bass player. Bantam to Behemoth (2008, 69-minutes) has some vocals by Britton and a female singer on one track, but they are so buried in the mix that this still feels like an instrumental CD. The major difference between this and Deluge Grander is the presence of a woodwinds (sax, flute, clarinet) player in the band. The flute tends to be used in the gentler, pastoral passages, while the sax is used in the more energetic passages. The sax style is similar to David Jackson or Mel Collins, ranging from melodic to frenzied. The presence of sax leads to comparisons with King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, and Gong, and there is more of a Canterbury influence here than in Deluge Grander. There are still gobs of Mellotron strings and choir, and highly-skilled ensemble playing. The production is a little bass-shy, but overall this is a tremendous CD in the tradition of the complex side of British symphonic progressive.
The Birds and Building CD was recorded between the two Deluge Grander CDs, and the second Deluge Grander CD The Form of the Good (2009) seems to have more in common with Bantam to Behemoth than August in the Urals, perhaps not surprising given that B&B’s woodwind player guests here. The Form of the Good is entirely instrumental and has more of the sonic maelstrom approach of the French band Clearlight. Here the core quartet of keys/guitar/bass/drums in augmented by a large number of guests contributing clarinet, flute, sax, violin, cello, trumpet, trombone, and oboe. Clearlight had Didier Malherbe’s woodwinds and either David Cross’s or Didier Lockwood’s violin, so Deluge Grander usually have a sonic counterpart to those in the mix here. As with B&B, this is blended with a more symphonic style highlighted by Mellotron.
TCP - The Way ($12.99) TCP, short for Temporal Chaos Project, are a promising new U.S. progressive band, a collaboration between several east coast musicians with a number of guests helping out on The Way (2009), their 74-minute debut. The music draws primarily from classic early 1970’s symphonic prog but doesn’t strongly resemble any one band. The dark, slightly Gabriel-esque vocals are one element that suggests early Genesis, and the keyboard sounds (mainly organ, piano, Mellotron strings) tend to be of that vintage. The music features extended instrumental passages with layers of keys and guitars over shifting and complex rhythms. OK, we cribbed some of that last sentence from the press release, but it’s accurate. The Way could be grouped with the first Deluge Grander CD.
Pavlov’s Dog - Has Anyone Here Seen Sigfried? ($16.99) 
Pavlov’s Dog is an American band from St. Louis that released two classic progressive rock albums: Pampered Menial (1975) and At the Sound of the Bell (1976). Principal songwriter and singer David Surkamp has the most unique voice in rock. Has Anyone Here Seen Sigfried? is the lost third Pavlov’s Dog album. For many years this album was considered to be lost, as the band split during the 1977 recording sessions. There have been several bootlegs of this album, but this 2007 edition on the German Rockville label is the first legitimate CD release, though it is mastered from vinyl (something the label and most retailers intentionally don’t mention). The quality of the 1977 material dropped off from the first two albums, but the Mellotron still makes appearances, and the Dog’s style is much the same. In addition to the 10 original ‘lost’ tracks, this CD contains 10 bonus tracks of unreleased live and studio rarities that take the CD length up to 79:57. There are live versions of many of the classic songs from the first two albums. This material could have been released as a separate ‘live and unreleased’ CD, so if you already own one of the bootlegs, the bonus tracks may be the reason to buy this CD.
1990 saw the unexpected release of the fourth Pavlov’s Dog album, after 13 years of silence. Lost in America is much more of an AOR album. Ironically, it is this album that now sounds dated, with what are largely 1980’s arena rock production values, whereas the 1970’s albums sound timeless. In addition to the 10 original tracks, this 2007 edition contains eight bonus tracks of rare and unreleased live recordings from the period 1990-2006 that take the CD length up to 79:23.
David Surkamp released a solo album Roaring with Light in 2001 and returned in 2007 with his second solo album Dancing on the Edge of a Teacup, which is subtitled The Pavlov’s Dog Trinity Sessions; all that really means is that Surkamp is the custodian of the Pavlov’s Dog brand name. The young Geddy Lee’s voice mellowed with age, but Surkamp’s voice hasn't changed much in over three decades; he still has that characteristic unforced vibrato. Teacup is a nice blend of progressive and pop and sounds quite similar to Pavlov’s Dog, who after all were on the pop side of progressive rock. The songs are essentially folky pop songs that could have been written 30+ years earlier, but Surkamp still likes big arrangements and a lush sound, with loads of keyboards pulling the result to the progressive side. A short CD at 37-minutes, but then all Pavlov’s Dog albums are about that long.
The Rockville label also reissued the first two Pavlov’s Dog albums in 2007, which is where newcomers want to start. The label has just acquired U.S. distribution, which is why these CDs are appearing here now. Hopefully the first two albums follow soon. Note there is supposed to be a new Pavlov’s Dog album in 2009.
Aquaplanage - same ($14.99) Aquaplanage are the creative offspring of Fragile, the Yes tribute act who have toured extensively with Steve Howe of Yes and been endorsed by Rick Wakeman through regular airplay on Planet Rock. Aquaplanage are Robert Illesh (guitars, vocals, keyboards, orchestral arrangements, flute, programming); Steve Carney (lead vocals); Jon Bastable (bass guitar, samples) and Tom Dawe (guitar), also featuring Max Hunt (keyboards), Mitch Harwood (drums, vocals), Deborah Peake (violin), Ruth McGibben (viola) and Sophie Hurr (cello). Material on their 59-minute 2008 debut CD was written over a number of years and features contributions from members of Fragile past and present. Yes is the dominant influence on the album, but not to the extent of being a clone, as there is an original style present as well. When Aquaplanage do sound like Yes, they come closest to the style of Magnification and the Keys to Ascension studio tracks. Much of the Aquaplanage material was written in early 2002, much closer to the time of those albums. Aquaplanage’s vocals are one of their strengths. All told, this is an excellent classic-style symphonic prog album from musicians who’ve learned Yes through and through and have applied that know-how to their own creative endeavor.
“Aquaplanage: Life-affirming prog rock from a six piece who wear their 1970s influences on their sleeves, yet mould these timeless traces of vintage British ventures into their own musical landscape of excellent dynamics, stunning solos and consummate lyrical expression. Ode to Grey Mornings is set to be a prog classic, as its 15 minutes and five sections find superbly produced lead and group passages, plus flute and sound samples delivered in brilliant succession. Anyone seeking a modern edition of Genesis’s Selling England by the Pound, Jethro Tull’s Thick as a Brick or Yes’s Close to the Edge should grab every opportunity to catch this band. A simply tremendous album.” [Musician Magazine (UK), Spring 2009]
Carlton Walker - Avery: A Rock Opera ($12.99) Yup, it’s a rock opera. Avery is the 2007 creation of Carlton Walker from Tennessee, who assembled a full band to realize this 74-minute CD, the instrumentation including keyboards, electric & acoustic guitars, bass, drums, flute, violin, viola, cello and mandolin. Walker lists his influences succinctly as Peter Gabriel, Genesis, and The Who, and given that Walker’s singing voice is fairly Gabriel-esque, it’s easy to feel the Gabriel/Genesis influence. But Avery is executed differently, with the strings and other acoustic instruments having a big impact on the sound and style, perhaps Genesis in an alternate (less British, for one) reality. As Walker puts it, “Take one disc from Genesis’ The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and one disc from The Who’s Quadrophenia and shuffle them. I wore out several copies of both those albums and they’re still rotating in my brain.” No one is suggesting that Avery is the equal of those albums, but you get the idea. The Who influence manifests on a couple tracks where you can hear those characteristic power chords. The Avery story is about a guy who writes a rock opera (based on the medieval morality play Everyman), so it’s as self-referential as Seinfeld.
Martigan - Vision ($15.99) 
Martigan - Stolzenbach ($13.99)
For many, German band Martigan will be the best neo-prog band you’ve never heard. They were founded in 1994 and have made steady progress with each album, and with Vision (2009, 79-minutes), they are at least on a par with Collage and Deyss at their peak, and ahead of any other continental band who play or played a style similar to early Marillion or IQ. Which is exactly what Martigan play, the original neo-prog style without metal, excessive melancholy, or other modern downgrades. The music is melodic, exuberant, dramatic and majestic, with soaring Rothery-style guitar leads and excellent vocals, and like the best neo-prog bands, the ‘neo’ tag is not always necessary. The 23-minute track that opens Vision will hook any fan of the style immediately. Man of the Moment (2002, 76-minutes) is just as good, with more music directly influenced by Genesis rather than Marillion/IQ, while one can also hear the influence of early Saga. Working backwards to the earlier CDs, the quality only drops off slightly on Ciel Ouvert (1996, 68-minutes), a bit more on Stolzenbach (1995, 60-minutes); Stolzenbach doesn’t have the great production of the newer recordings. All their albums are sung in English. (Stolzenbach is named after the village where their first rehearsals took place.) Reviews of each CD can be found by following the second mp3 icon above.
Live in Köln is a 112-minute ‘official bootleg’ DVD+R with stereo audio of Martigan performing live in 2003. The disc is all-region but in the PAL system, so those outside Europe, be sure you can play PAL DVDs. It comes in a slimline case with no liner and counts as only one-half CD for shipping. Here is a video sample.
5bridges - The Thomas Tracks ($16.99) To find a new Dutch band playing real progressive rock, not neo-prog and certainly not prog-flavored metal, is little short of amazing. 5bridges take their name from the album by The Nice, but their influences are a little Gentle Giant, a little Renaissance, more Yes, and a lot more 1970s Genesis. They are skilled musicians who have first-hand knowledge of classical music and who grew up listening to Yes and Genesis. The Thomas Tracks (2009) is their 74-minute debut CD, parts of which had been released earlier as a demo, but this is the finished product. A wonderful album with no weak tracks, highest recommendation. Read reviews at ProgArchives. More Dutch progressive CDs.
Centric Jones (Fonya) - Foreign Tea ($10.99) Centric Jones is a progressive rock duo from Colorado and is another permutation of Fonya, Chris Fournier teaming this time with drummer Tobe London. Chris plays bass, guitars, keyboards, and electronic percussion; Tobe plays drums, acoustic/electronic percussion, and keyboards. Nick Kerzner sings on the one vocal track. Foreign Tea (2009, 70-minutes) is the new pinnacle of the Fonya style, still recognizable as such, but with more diversity due to the input of a second musician. There are some stellar drum performances here, and this new intensity in the rhythm section means that Centric Jones can stand with any space rock you care to name. But significantly, this is much more structured and symphonic than most space rock, really a progressive rock/space rock hybrid. Note this is a CD-R. The discs are Taiyo Yuden Watershield discs, which look as good as silk-screened discs and have a 100-year data integrity guarantee. You’ll probably get tired of this album after 80 years anyway.
Project Moonbeam (Fonya) - same ($10.99) Project Moonbeam (2008) is for all intents and purposes a new Fonya CD, but even better. Chris Fournier is still at the helm, but whereas Fonya was Fournier solo, Project Moonbeam includes contributions from several other musicians, primary among them electric violinist Cyndee Lee Rule. Other musicians contribute drums and guitar here and there, while two guest vocalists sing on one track each. The bulk of the album is instrumental. Fonya fans will find much that is familiar but also many new elements, as Fournier has expanded his sonic arsenal with some of the superb software instruments now available, including the M-Tron (Mellotron). The music is a mix of progressive space rock, symphonic rock and electronics, a further development of the unique Fonya style. Note this is a CD-R. The discs are Taiyo Yuden’s Watershield discs, which have excellent long-term reliability, look as good as silk-screened discs, and you can take them in the bathtub with you. See Fonya in the Kinesis-label section for much more background.
Progression By Failure - same ($15.99) Progression by Failure is the project of French multi-instrumentalist Nicolas Piveteau. He is primarily a keyboardist but also plays guitar and drums. His 2009 debut CD is instrumental keyboard-dominated progressive rock for which Tomas Bodin is a good reference point. It is symphonic prog through and through, varying from softer moods to quite aggressive ones. Piveteau is young and says he favors the more modern prog bands and also lists quite a few metal bands as influences, which would account for the aggressiveness, but he also mentions Yes, Genesis, Camel and Gentle Giant. For a one-man symphonic prog band, it’s hard to think of someone doing it better. 68-minutes.
Ulysses - The Gift of Tears ($15.99) The Gift of Tears (2009, 62-minutes) is the second full-length CD for this Dutch prog band, six years after their first CD, switching singers in between. Ulysses are between neo-prog and prog-metal, the typical case of a European band with a progressive keyboardist and a metal guitarist. Read the reviews at JerryLucky.com and Music Street Journal.
Riveryman - Magic World ($15.99) Riveryman is the band of Finnish guitarist Tony Riveryman, who also plays keyboards and bass and sings, joined by a drummer on the Riveryman debut CD Magic World (2009, 72-minutes). Tony grew up listening to the standard list of guitar heroes before discovering progressive rock (and good to see Pekka Pohjola on his list of influences, even if one can’t hear that influence here). Magic World is almost pure symphonic prog in the Yes and Genesis veins, with some heavier/busier guitar and a wall-of-sound approach. The vocals are multi-tracked in an attempt to produce Yes-like harmonies, but Tony ought to run his vocals through Auto-Tune as his pitch isn’t precise enough to pull it off. That aside, there is loads of bombastic Yes-derived sympho-prog here.
Baroque - La Fiaba della Buonanotte ($15.99) La Fiaba della Buonanotte (2009) is the debut CD for this Italian band from Torino. We may need a new sub-genre: glam-prog, as Baroque blend progressive rock with early Queen, David Bowie, or Mott the Hoople. The result is sometimes similar to the Swedish band A.C.T. It’s great fun, with the Italian-language vocals only adding to the eccentricity. The ballads are more purely in the romantic Italian style, and there is more than enough musicality to keep prog fans entertained, with classical/baroque influences in the keyboards.
Eidolon - Dreamland ($15.99)This French band is composed of a keyboardist/guitarist, violinist/bassist, and drummer, all of whom sing. They are augmented on Dreamland (2009) by a string quartet. Dreamland is the audio version of a complete show based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem, with a dancer and lightshow. Eidolon often recall Pink Floyd and Pulsar. Since the poem isn’t that long, the recitation of it occupies only a small portion of this CD. The music is mostly-instrumental, retro and atmospheric, alternating contemplative/ambient moments with passages featuring electric guitar, sometimes lyrical and sometimes wilder, while the keyboards are dominated by organ. The atmospheres are enhanced by melancholic soft vocals. A respectable album that certainly stands alone and doesn’t require a visual element. Here is a video which provides a good sample of the music of Dreamland. (Probably just as well the dancer can’t be on the CD.)
Jean-Jacques Toussaint - Travelling ($15.99) The full title of this 2009 CD is From Tiemko to Travelling, as Jean-Jacques Toussaint was the keyboardist of the band Tiemko. For this 63-minute ‘solo’ album, Toussaint is assisted by numerous musicians including Tiemko’s guitarist and drummer and others on accordion, trumpet, sax, violin, cello, and more. This chamber rock orchestra plays 13 instrumental pieces with diverse instrumentation and styles, from Canterbury-ish jazz-rock to Tiemko-style progressive to classically-influenced music, all of the more angular and adventurous variety. See our French page for the Tiemko CDs and info on that band.
SBB - Iron Curtain digipack+2 ($15.99) SBB was the most important 1970’s progressive rock band in Poland, probably the most important Polish rock band period. The band split up in 1980, was reactivated briefly at various points during the 1990’s, and has been active again since 2000. Usually a trio of keyboards/vocals, guitar, and drums, they are well-known because they toured Western Europe before the Iron Curtain came down. Now in 2009 SBB have a new CD entitled Iron Curtain; this is the digipack edition with two bonus tracks. SBB continue with the same lineup as on 2007’s The Rock, and the style is similar though more instrumental. The main change on The Rock was the replacement of American jazz drummer Paul Wertico with Hungarian rock drummer Gabor Nemeth, leading SBB to leave the improvisation behind and return to their roots as a 1970’s rock band. Skrzek’s organ and synths keep everything progressive-flavored. The lyrics are in Polish. Read reviews at Sea of Tranquility and Prog Archives. See our East European page for all the SBB CDs and more info, and our DVDs page for some of SBB’s DVDs.
Eroc - Changing Skies ($16.99) Eroc (Joachim Ehrig) was the drummer for Grobschnitt, leaving that band in 1983. But he was much more than a drummer, adding electronics to Grobschnitt’s live shows and having a successful solo career, releasing the albums Eroc 1 (1975), Eroc 2 (1976), Eroc 3 (1979), Eroc 4 (1982), and Changing Skies (1986). This is the latest remastered digipack edition of Changing Skies (79:10), the album that might have been named Eroc 5, but having left Grobschnitt, things were different and Eroc was free to concentrate on his solo work. The music on Changing Skies is as diverse as should be expected from Eroc. There are a lot of instrumental pieces with the typical Eroc charm and wistfulness, reflective of the Scandinavian landscape where he composed much of this album. There are also humorous pieces and demented fairground music. But there are also new styles for Eroc, including a collaboration with a medieval group called Consortium Terpsychore using bombard and crumhorns. Eroc reworked some of the material more recently and feels that this CD is the first proper release of the album. See our German page for the rest of the Eroc catalog and more info.
Grobschnitt - Solar Music Live ($16.99)
These are the 2008-2009 digipack editions on SPV’s Revisited Records label. Grobschnitt were one of the top few German progressive rock bands, quite possibly the best. Though they began as more of a Krautrock band, by the time of their 1975 third album Jumbo, they had become a very refined, melodic symphonic progressive band singing mostly in English, Germany’s counterpart to Genesis, with a sense of humor usually evident. A string of great symphonic prog albums followed before it all went horribly wrong, as with so many other 70’s prog bands who didn’t make it out of the 80’s.
Grobschnitt’s second album Ballermann (1974), originally a double-LP, was a transitional album, much more symphonic than their debut but still full of space rock, hard rock, psych and Krautrock. The studio version of the legendary space-rock epic Solar Music is featured on this album. Much of the music is reminiscent of Nektar in that there is a significant role for keyboards but is ultimately guitar-dominated, with a hard rock feel.
The track Solar Music was originally released in 1974 on Ballermann. The piece was expanded and improved live, the energy greatly increased and reaching 50-60 minutes on stage, always accompanied by an immense fire-show celebrated by the crew interacting with the musicians. It is mostly instrumental, spacey, and jam-oriented, quite a contrast to their studio albums such as Jumbo and Rockpommel’s Land. Solar Music became Grobschnitt’s signature piece, and in 1978 Solar Music Live was released by the Brain label on vinyl, running 55-minutes. This LP became a milestone in Grobschnitt’s history, and many still consider it the best live recording of any German progressive or Krautrock band. This digipack reissue adds two bonus tracks, one inconsequential, the other called The Missing 13 Minutes, material originally omitted to fit everything onto one LP.
Illegal (1981) was the last good Grobschnitt album. Those who relish the jamming style of Solar Music won’t find much like that here, but Illegal does contain some excellent songs in Grobschnitt’s unique style (as did the previous album Merry-Go-Round). In fact this is the best-selling Grobschnitt record after Rockpommel’s Land and Solar Music Live. We all know what was happening in popular music at this time, so while Grobschnitt were forced to modernize some, Illegal is better than one might have expected. This CD edition was remastered by drummer Eroc in 2008 and contains three bonus tracks: an 11:30 live version of the title track and two alternate mixes. See our German page for more Grobschnitt CDs and more info.
Novalis - Konzerte ($16.99)This is the first time on CD for this album, a digipack edition on SPV’s Revisited Records label. Hamburg’s ‘romantic rockers’ Novalis were one of the best German symphonic progressive bands of the 1970’s, and actually achieved some success. After singing in English on their debut Banished Bridge, they switched to German lyrics for their 1975 self-titled album. Many of the lyrics were actually poems of the band’s namesake, Novalis, the most important German poet of early romanticism (also author and philosopher). As a rough approximation, Novalis were musically between Camel and Pink Floyd. As with so many 1970’s prog bands, Novalis continued making records into the 1980’s with decreasing quality, finally calling it quits after their 1985 12th album.
Novalis’ first live record Konzerte was compiled from five 1977 concerts and released the same year, selling 50,000 copies within a few months. This CD adds three bonus tracks to bring the total time to 79-minutes. This was the premier for Novalis’ new frontman, Austrian singer Fred Mühlböck. While the album proper contains live versions of tracks from Novalis’ self-titled second album and third album Sommerabend (none from Banished Bridge), the three bonus songs appear on their 1977 studio album Brandung. See our German page for more Novalis CDs and more info.
Derek Sherinian - Molecular Heinosity ($15.99) Derek Sherinian (Planet X) is back with this 2009 digipack studio CD. Molecular Heinosity features guests Virgil Donati (Planet X), Tony Franklin (Whitesnake), Brian Tichy (Foreigner, Billy Idol), Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne, Black Label Society), and some new talent. By now you should know what to expect. More Sherinian and Planet X CDs and more info on Page 2.
Sunchild - The Invisible Line Ltd. Ed. (2CD, $15.99) Antony Kalugin’s franchise continues to expand rapidly, with two Karfagen CDs in 2006 and 2007, the Hoggwash CD in 2007 and now two Sunchild CDs. Kalugin has half the musicians in the Ukraine on the Sunchild albums, which continue to develop the style of Karfagen and Hoggwash, with vocals in English primarily by Kalugin. This is melodic symphonic prog that draws from all eras of progressive rock and establishes Kalugin as one of the top contemporary composers in the genre.
The first Sunchild CD The Gnomon (2008) is a double-CD that includes a video of the song Wonderworld and the Making of Sunchild video. This is the limited 2CD edition of the second Sunchild CD The Invisible Line (2009), which adds a four-page booklet and bonus disc containing seven additional tracks including two written for the main album, plus a 24-minute ‘making of’ video. Four of the bonus tracks are demos, three of which are previously-unreleased tracks from earlier in Kalugin’s career. The first disc in this set is itself over 69-minutes long. As the bonus disc adds little to the cost, it will be the only edition we stock until it is no longer available. Read the review at JerryLucky.com.
Hoggwash - The Last Horizon ($13.99) Hoggwash is the brainchild of Welsh musician Will Mackie. In order to realize this CD, Mackie recruited Antony Kalugin, leader of the excellent Ukrainian progressive rock band Karfagen. While Mackie and Kalugin have co-writing credits on all tracks, the music was recorded in the Ukraine by Kalugin with Karfagen members/collaborators and other Ukrainian musicians. And while Karfagen is an instrumental band, Hoggwash has excellent vocals by Kalugin. The result is a beautiful melodic symphonic rock CD in the Genesis and Camel veins. Despite all the input from the Ukraine, The Last Horizon (2007) sounds so British that it serves to remind us what it is that distinguishes classic British prog from most everything else. 67-minutes of prog joy.
Aethellis - Aethellis remastered ($8.99) Aethellis is a Baltimore-area progressive rock band, but this CD was recorded solo circa 2003 by bandleader Ellsworth Hall, the band assembled later for touring. This is the 2008 remastered edition. This sounds like the album Tony Banks should have made after A Curious Feeling. In fact a lot of this would fit well on Genesis’ 1980s albums as proggier pieces. The Aethellis album is keyboard-dominated (though there is electric guitar), and there is some Banksian playing and chord progressions, but like Banks’ albums, the emphasis is more on songwriting. And Hall is a quality singer. Whereas Banks headed off in a pure pop direction, Aethellis maintains a good balance between pop songwriting and progressive rock. All but one track exceeds seven minutes, and the nearly 12-minute Final Affinity is darker and requires no qualifiers; it’s just prog rock. Oh, and the chorus of Saint Augustus is a mind worm. The CD comes in a cardboard sleeve and counts as only one-half CD for shipping. Note the track Exchequer Prague on iSound (click mp3 icon above) is not from this CD. Read reviews here.
Fractal - Sequitur ($11.99) Sequitur (2009, digipack) is the second full-length CD for Fractal, a prog rock quartet from San Jose, California whose members include two Americans, one Brit and one Dutchman. The San Francisco Bay area bands have tended toward the more adventurous, less conservative side of prog, and Fractal are no exception. As the band says, Sequitur both compares and contrasts with their first CD Continuum – the repertoire is still rife with odd and compound-meter riffs, metric manipulation and complex song structures, but adds vocal, lyrical and contextual dimensions since the instrumental trio debut. It deemphasizes improvisation in favor of composition and conceptual cohesion. King Crimson is the biggest influence, but Fractal stretch well beyond that. Significantly, there are varied, symphonic textures that elevate this above guitar-only bands. Adventurous and innovative yes, but structured, musical, and with one foot in classic prog. Read reviews here. 66-minutes.
Spleen Arcana - The Field Where She Died ($14.99) Spleen Arcana is primarily the work of French multi-instrumentalist and singer Julien Gaullier, with a drummer and female backing vocalist. From the cover image and title of this 2009 CD, you would be correct in assuming it is a melancholic album, but it’s a fairly unique one. The album is bathed in a warm Mellotron glow, mostly strings but also some choir, making it a hybrid of vintage prog and modern styles (among the latter, Gaullier mentions Anathema and Radiohead as inspiration). Most of the tracks hover around the 10-minute mark. There is only a minor metal influence, and some of this sounds like an extension of later Pink Floyd. It isn’t unrelentingly dark either, as there are major key chord progressions during which the music is closer to Hogarth-era Marillion. A sincere and very worthwhile first album. Read the review at JerryLucky.com.
Celestial O’euvre - This Mortal Coil ($14.99) From the New York City area, Celestial O’euvre’s name may not roll off the tongue, but they are a progressive rock band and are not trying to hide it. Taking cues from Yes, ELP, and other 1970’s bands, their sound is huge and full of pomp, sometimes with an AOR flavor, but don’t worry, this isn’t Styx. The lead guitarist of the band is Joe Nardulli, who has a CD under his own name and one by his own band Ad Astra. Singer Joe Acaba reminds us of the singer for Isopoda, though we’re pretty sure Acaba has never fronted a Belgian progressive rock band. Keyboardist Jose Damien and drummer Hector Lopez are also superb musicians. The core members of Celestial O’euvre have been writing and playing progressive rock since the mid-1970’s, and the band’s aesthetic is of that era, full of Yes-like positivity.
Second Chance (2005) is their debut. It caught the attention of Montreal’s Unicorn Digital label, who released the band’s second CD This Mortal Coil (2009). Sadly, Jose Damien passed away in 2007, which would explain the title of the second album. But as the band had been working on the second album for some time, Damien still plays all the keyboards and bass and has several writing credits.
Satellite - Nostalgia digipack+2 ($14.99) Nostalgia (2009, 68-minutes) is Satellite’s fourth studio CD. This is the digipack limited edition with two bonus tracks. Already the de facto leaders or at least co-leaders of the current Polish progressive scene, Satellite are not resting on their laurels, as Nostalgia adds new sonic elements and expands the boundaries of their familiar neo-prog style. Read the reviews at Prog Archives. See our East European page for the rest of the Satellite CDs and all the info.
Strawberry Fields - Rivers Gone Dry ($14.99) Strawberry Fields is a new project of Wojtek Szadkowski, the leader of Satellite, working here with a female singer using the name Robin (really Marta Kniewska). The rest of the band is Satellite minus their singer: guitarist Sarhan Kubeisi, bassist Jarek Michalski, keyboardist Krzyś Palczewski guesting, and Szadkowski on keyboards, acoustic guitar and drums. This is Szadkowski’s chance to apply his considerable skills to a more contemporary style that incorporates all the trappings of modern music technology, and also to work with a talented female vocalist. Robin’s vocals are the focus of the music and are especially beautiful when multi-tracked. The result is a blend of the old and the new, more laid-back and atmospheric than Satellite but even more detailed, an excellent example of a prog musician making a more accessible or trendy music without compromising on quality. Read the Sea of Tranquility review.
Collage - Moonshine/Changes (2CD, $17.99)Collage was the top Polish neo-progressive band; their members went on to form the bands Satellite and Believe. These two double-CDs simply package two of the 2003 remastered editions of the Collage CDs (with the bonus audio and video tracks) together in a slipcase at an attractive price. (Each counts as 2 CDs for shipping.) See our East European page for more Collage info and the full listing.
John Orr Franklin - Transformation ($11.99) Transformation (2009, digipack) is the second CD for guitarist/singer/songwriter John Orr Franklin from Austin, Texas. Franklin also adds keyboards and bass and is assisted by other musicians on bass, drums, and backing vocals. His guitar style is close to David Gilmour’s, and Transformation is a melodic progressive rock album that may remind listeners of Gilmour’s solo albums at times, with a predominance of songs rather than instrumentals, the work of a guitarist who is more interested in establishing himself as a songwriter. The Gilmour style is blended with something resembling The Alan Parsons Project or Duncan Browne, that end-of-the-1970s aesthetic (though there are modern elements), rhythmically straightforward but with world class songwriting. Many of the songs here have exceptional choruses, and the two instrumentals are gorgeous, concise symphonic rock pieces. The production is excellent. There are prog fans who won’t give consideration to a CD under an individual’s name unless the individual is from a well-known band, regardless of how an album was actually recorded; in this case it will be their loss.
Steve Cochrane - With or Without ($11.99) Canadian guitarist/singer/songwriter Steve Cochrane now has four CDs to his name, dating back to 1991. While his first two albums were rock-oriented new age, his third The Purest of Designs (1998) is his salute to 1970’s symphonic progressive rock. Cochrane is impressive as a one-man orchestra and singer. The best reference points are Yes and Mike Oldfield, and the music certainly doesn’t shy away from bombast and grandiosity. The highlight is the seven-part, 27-minute Songs for Spring.
Fast forward to 2007 and With or Without, on which Cochrane is joined by Ken Baird on keyboards (Cochrane in turn has played on several of Baird’s CDs), two drummers splitting the workload, and backing vocalists. Cochrane admits he’s been slow to get the word out about this latest CD. He has altered his approach on this one; not only is it more band-oriented, but there is a lot more acoustic guitar. It is Cochrane’s best album by a wide margin. The two contemporary comparisons that spring to mind are (Guy) Manning and Steve Unruh, that is, progressive troubadours who frame folky singer-songwriter songs in rich symphonic prog arrangements. With Cochrane, there is more influence of Renaissance (piano-based classical-rock arrangements) and some of the pastoral nature of early Genesis or Anthony Phillips. The electric guitar provides melodic leads in a progressive (e.g., Steve Hackett) style that balance the acoustic guitar perfectly. Read author Jerry Lucky’s review.
The Fractured Dimension - Towards the Mysterium ($9.99) Toward the Mysterium (2008, 60-minutes) is the debut by an American band of musical mad scientists, playing intricate instrumental progressive rock and symphonic fusion on the avant-garde side. The musicianship is high caliber, with synths and piano to the fore, giving the band a symphonic sound. It’s not only the playing that is dazzling in its complexity, but the compositions themselves, which are highly structured and influenced by contemporary classical. As the band describe themselves: “not technical for the sake of being technical, but extremely musical for the sake of transcending normality”. Frank Zappa would be impressed. Note there may have once been a CD-R version of this, but this is a replicated CD. Read the Proggnosis review.
Jeremy Morris & Guillermo Cazenave - Two Seconds ($12.99) This 2008 CD is a collaboration between American Jeremy Morris, best known for his Pilgrim’s Journey and Celestial City CDs on the Kinesis label, and Barcelona resident Guillermo Cazenave, best known to prog fans for his collaborations with Anthony Phillips. Both musicians have extensive catalogs beyond those however. Today most such transatlantic collaborations are done over the Internet, but these guys actually get together in the same room, and one track here was performed live. Two Seconds contains two vocal tracks and the rest instrumental, using both keyboards and guitars, generally relaxed and spacey, integrating the styles of these two musicians. There are elements of Anthony Phillips, early Pink Floyd, and modern electronica. See our dedicated Jeremy section for his progressive CDs.
Cazenave - Ser ($13.99)Guillermo Cazenave is known to many for his collaborations with Anthony Phillips, but much of his solo work is in the cosmic music vein, and Ser (2008, digipack) is probably his best such album. It was recorded at Anthony Phillips’ studio in England. Jeremy Morris has a couple guest vocals, otherwise the music is instrumental. This is not a retro, Berlin School album, though that influence is present. There are acoustic instruments (guitars, flute, sitar, santur) in addition to electronics, so the music has a more organic feel than most electronic music, and crosses over into progressive a la Jade Warrior. More electronic music CDs.
Electric Forgiveness - Echoes & Booms ($12.99) While recording keyboard tracks for the band Third of Never, The Who keyboardist John “Rabbit” Bundrick began a collaboration with Third of Never guitarist Jon Dawson. They brought in Jeremy Morris of Pilgrim’s Journey and Celestial City fame to play guitar on many of the tracks of this 2008 CD. The resulting material is nothing like Third of Never or The Who. What it is like is Porcupine Tree’s Voyage 34, flowing spacey instrumental tracks where progressive rock meets electronica, with similar found vocals from an old record about LSD or something. Call it Voyage 34A, another great trip. The song titles also provide clues to their inspirations, e.g., Tangerine Dreams, Gilmour Was Pink, Eno the Disco, Valentine from a Porcupine, Syd Barrett Blues, Dark Side of the Sun, and an alternate mix of the last song referred to as the “Looking for Hackett mix”. 77-minutes.
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes (CD+DVD-A, $15.99) For all the projects that Porcupine Tree leader Steven Wilson is involved in, usually as the leader, Insurgentes (2009) is yet the first album under his own name. For the album, Wilson recruited a stellar cast of guests including bassist Tony Levin, drummer Gavin Harrison, keyboardist Jordan Rudess, flautist/saxophonist Theo Travis, singer Clodagh Simmonds (presumably the same Clodagh Simmonds who was in Mellow Candle), and others. Disc One of this set is the 10 track CD, while Disc Two is a DVD-Audio disc containing the hi-res (24-bit/48kHz) surround mix plus the hi-res stereo mix of the album. (All DVD-A discs include a DTS version for those who sadly must get by with DVD-Video-only players.) Note Wilson has become so proficient at surround mixing that he is doing the surround mixes for the King Crimson albums! See the Insurgentes website for reviews and more info. “The once and future king of surround has done it again... [Insurgentes] pulsates with the confidence of a master creator at his peak in crafting the multichannel mix.” [Sound and Vision] Super Jewel Box plus slipcase, counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping. The Porcupine Tree and related CDs are on Page 2.
Nosound - Lightdark (2CD, $15.99) Nosound is a Roman ambient/prog band headed by Giancarlo Erra. He and his bandmates were once a Porcupine Tree cover band, so it’s not surprising Nosound have ended up on the same label as Porcupine Tree and No-Man. Also, the resemblance of Nosound to No-Man is not simply alphabetical. The U.S. release of Lightdark (2008) lagged the European release by half a year for no good reason. (Did the ship transporting the CDs sink?) It’s NoSound’s second album, following 2005’s Sol29, but is a significantly stronger work, more of a band project, whereas Sol29 was mostly the work of Erra. Tim Bowness sings on one song, and a cellist plays on three tracks, a nice addition to the sound palette. Nosound’s music is in the style of No-Man, softer Pink Floyd and early Porcupine Tree, but even more melancholy, if that is possible. Erra sings in English. Languid, lush (Mellotron!), richly-textured, intimate, relaxing and beautiful in that melancholy way. This double-CD edition adds four more tracks totaling 27:20 and a 4:48 video for the title track. Read lots of reviews at Prog Archives. 2CD digipack, counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping.
Kayanis - Where Abandoned Pelicans Die ($15.99) Kayanis is the name of a Polish musician/composer, but this 2008 CD is not exactly a solo work. It is a large-scale project combining orchestra, choir, soprano singer and rock band (synths, guitar, bass, drums) for a 75-minute, mostly-instrumental rock symphony, with the emphasis on symphony. What vocals there are are in English. This is a sophisticated romantic work, and one that demonstrates there is life in the current Polish prog scene beyond the Satellite/Riverside adherents. More Polish prog CDs on our East European page.
The Healing Road - Timanfaya ($15.99) The Healing Road (the name taken from Neil Peart’s book) is a studio project led by German keyboardist Hanspeter Hess with a number of other musicians contributing drums, bass, guitars, and more keyboards. Timanfaya is the second The Healing Road album, initially released independently in 2007 before being picked up by Musea in 2008. This is instrumental keyboard-dominated symphonic rock with aspects of both classic and neo-prog. Hess lists Yes, Genesis, Mike Oldfield, Spock's Beard and Rush as influences. Of those, Genesis is the strongest, followed by Oldfield, the others not so much. Camel should probably be included -- isn’t the track Crater Camels a reference to Moonmadness? These are tasteful compositions full of nuance, a very exciting and satisfying progressive rock record. Just listen to this 8:41 mp3 album sampler (same audio currently on the band’s MySpace page) and read the reviews at Progressor and Prog Archives. Note there is a third The Healing Road album available, but only as an inseparable CD+vinyl LP package. (What, no wax cylinder?) When they come to their senses and make the CD available by itself, we’ll stock it. More German progressive CDs.
Raimundo Rodulfo - Mare et Terra ($15.99) 
Venezuelan Raimundo Rodulfo, who now makes his home in Miami, is a highly-skilled guitarist, whether playing acoustic, classical, electric, or bass guitar or even mandolin. He leads a large cast of musicians, including keys, drums, flute, violin, and sax. Sueños/Dreams is his 2000 debut. The Dreams Concerto (2002) is a 78-minute large-scale work featuring a chamber orchestra and female lead vocals. Tempano’s singer Pedro Castillo guests. Rodulfo often sounds like a South American Steve Howe or Gordon Giltrap, playing long tracks of a bounteous, symphonic style of guitar-dominated progressive rock, often with electric guitar playing lead while acoustic guitar provides a foundation, solo acoustic guitar passages contrasting with full ensemble sections. Beautiful packaging on these CDs, featuring the works of British painter Peter Rodulfo; The Dreams Concerto has a full-color 40-page booklet inside a slipcase.
Mare et Terra is Rodulfo’s 2008 studio CD, recorded in the US, Spain and Venezuela between 2004-2008, featuring the usual large cast of supporting musicians, among them Carlos Plaza, keyboardist and leader of Kotobel, Tempano’s Pedro Castillo (vocals) and Gerardo Ubieda (drums), musicians on violin, cello, woodwinds and trumpet, and more male and female vocalists. It’s an imposing 77-minute rock symphony of great sophistication, primarily instrumental, with more Yes influence than on Rodulfo’s earlier works, especially in the guitar and bass. Think of this as Rodulfo’s Tales from Topographic Oceans, but distinguished by the inclusion of Spanish/Latin American, classical, and jazz-rock colors. Impressive.
Galadriel - Calibrated Collision Course ($15.99) This Spanish band (singing in English) began as an early PFM and Genesis-influenced band on Muttered Promises (1988), adding more of their own identity with each succeeding album, always relying heavily on the vocal talents of Jesús Filardi. Mindscapers (1997) is their third, a 61-minute sci-fi concept album.
After a long wait, Galadriel’s fourth album Calibrated Collision Course appeared at the end of 2008. Most of this album was composed by bassist/keyboardist José Bautista, beginning as early as 1995, and it maintains continuity with the previous Galadriel albums. The new CD includes guests Jean Pascal Boffo and Twelfth Night singer Andy Sears (who has emigrated to Spain). Blending Sears’ backing vocals with Filardi’s lead vocals was a good move, but we still feel that Filardi should allow more instrumental passages, as he sings over just about everything, and always has. That may avoid the problem of the singer having nothing to do on stage during instrumental passages, but more contrast would be welcome. That said, this is a richly-textured progressive rock album, blending symphonic prog with some aspects relating more to Peter Gabriel or modern King Crimson than to Genesis, and more of a jazz/classical bent than any of those artists. 58-minutes.
Guillaume de la Piliere - Requiem Apocalyptique ($15.99) Guillaume de la Piliere is the leader of Versailles, a French band modeled after Ange and Mona Lisa. The Versailles members went on to make up the second incarnation of Mona Lisa, so de la Piliere is currently Mona Lisa’s guitarist. Requiem Apocalyptique (2008) is de la Piliere’s third solo CD and his best to date. The CD plays as one continuous 45-minute piece. The vocals are in French but the music is heavily instrumental. There is a lot of Yes influence present, blended with the Versailles style and something resembling Mike Oldfield. The CD comes in novel peaked arch packaging and counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping due to its unusual dimensions. Check our French page for some of the Versailles and earlier Guillaume de la Piliere CDs, most now on sale.
The Watch - Live 2008 ($14.99) 
The Night Watch - Twilight ($14.99) Italian band The Watch, formerly The Night Watch, are a clone of Gabriel-era Genesis. Even their singer sounds like Gabriel. It isn’t really necessary to say anything more, though of course The Watch lack the songwriting abilities and melodic sense of Genesis. But they mimic all the sounds and surface details perfectly, so take a little trip back...
Primitive is from 2007, Vacuum from 2004; both are digipacks. Twilight is their 1997 first CD, which had been unavailable for some time but has been reissued in 2009 in a cardboard sleeve as opposed to a jewel box. Live 2008 contains seven live tracks including a cover of Twilight Alehouse (the 1971 Genesis non-LP B-side) in a medley with a song from the Primitive album. Here are mp3 excerpts from the tracks Twilight Alehouse and Shining Bald Heads. Live 2008 comes in a mini-LP style sleeve; both it and The Night Watch - Twilight count as only one-half CD for shipping.
The Source - Prickly Pear ($12.99) All Along This Land is the 2006 debut CD by a young Los Angeles prog band whose surprising sound is in many ways very early-1970’s retro, with elements that include early Yes, The Beatles, a little Pink Floyd and dreamy psychedelia. But beyond that, they don’t sound much like anyone else today. Much of their sound derives from the low-distortion jazz and country tones favored by guitarist Harrison Leonard, similar to Peter Banks and Steve Howe. Vocalist, principal songwriter, and keyboardist Aaron Goldich favors grand piano, with some Hammond and analog synth sounds. There’s a good balance of vocal and instrumental passages, and like any good prog album, there’s a five-part suite. Charming, to say the least. Read the DPRP review.
All Along This Land was a good start, but Prickly Pear (2009) is a significantly proggier and more ambitious album, with three epic length compositions. The Source’s sound is still early-70’s, with more Hammond and more electric guitar leads this time, everything taken up a couple notches. Amazing that this record has come out of Los Angeles in 2009. Note the mp3 icon next to this title links directly to an mp3 playlist that will stream samples from each track.
Dante’s Inferno: The Divine Comedy Part 1 (4CD, $49.99)The French label Musea in conjunction with the Finnish magazine Colossus continue their excellent series of various artists progressive rock concept CDs with their biggest set yet, the four-CD Dante’s Inferno: The Divine Comedy Part 1. Following Dante’s book, the organizers have divided the project into three parts: Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso, so despite the massive size of this set, more is to follow. This first volume features 34 songs by 34 artists adhering to the rules for all these Colossus projects, that is, no programmed drums and only 1970’s vintage progressive sounds and inspiration. The artists include: Nuova Era, Yesterdays, Little Tragedies, Lady Lake, Greenwall, Nemo, Nexus, Flamborough Head, Colossus Project, Court, Willowglass, Wicked Minds, Brighteye Brison, Ars Nova, Il Castello di Atlante, Groovector, CAP, Sinkadus, Viima, Notabene, Entrance, Advent, Contrappunto Project, Corte Aulica, Raimundo Rodulfo, Tempano, Nathan Mahl, Simon Says, and several more; a veritable who’s who of the current progressive scene. Counts as 2.5 CDs for shipping.
The Spaghetti Epic 3: The Great Silence ($15.99)
Subtitled Six Modern Prog Bands for Six ’70s Prog Suites, The Spaghetti Epic 1 (2004) is another concept organized by the Finnish magazine Colossus. Six bands each created a progressive suite of 20-25 minutes: Haikara (Finland), Randone (Italy), Tilion (Italy), La Voce del Vento (a moniker for Brits Guy Manning & Andy Tillison of The Tangent), Taproban (Italy), and Trion (The Netherlands). The bands use 1970’s keyboards and sounds and have been influenced by the major bands of that era, particularly the Italian prog bands such as Banco, PFM, Museo Rosenbach and Le Orme. The set is housed in the old style fat 2CD case to accommodate the massive booklet. Counts as two CDs for shipping.
The Spaghetti Epic 2 (2007), subtitled The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, is a single CD in the same style, featuring one track each by Randone, La Voce del Vento, and Tilion. The tracks average over 25-minutes each. This album is dedicated to recently-deceased Vesa Lattunen, the leader of Haikara, who were to have contributed the opening track.
The Spaghetti Epic 3 (2009), subtitled The Great Silence, features Little Tragedies (Russia), Yesterdays (Romania) and N.O.T. (Italy) each contributing a 20-minute suite. The same ground rules for all these Colossus projects apply: an emphasis on analog sounds, vintage keyboards, and a 1970’s orientation, faithful to the original masters of the genre without betraying the bands’ own identities. As usual, the booklet is filled with synopses, film analysis, storyboards, photos, and lyrics with English translations.
Colossus Project - The Empire and the Rebellion ($15.99) This is actually another of the CDs organized by the Finnish progressive music association Colossus and released by Musea. But whereas the other CDs have all included multiple bands, this one is by a single band, the Italian band Colossus Project (formed specifically for this project) led by keyboardist Alfio Costa (Prowlers, Tilion) and including other members of Prowlers and Tilion. There are a large number of guests that include Keiko Kumagai (Ars Nova), Fred Schendel (Glass Hammer), and Cristiano Roversi (Submarine Silence, Moongarden). The Empire and the Rebellion (2008) is based on the Star Wars universe, so you get lyrics about the dark side of the force as opposed to moon. The music generally adheres to 1970’s styles and instruments, more British sounding than Italian, and like Tilion, it’s not rigidly retro. Over its 78-minute length, there is a wide range of prog styles, enough that the band can claim their influences as “all the progressive rock of the seventies”, and yet they tend to avoid sounding like the big names (Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, ELP, et al). It’s more a pastiche of everything else, with heavy organ prog perhaps the dominant style but not the only one.
Giallo! One Suite for the Murderer ($15.99)This 2008 CD is another in the long line of various artists progressive rock concept albums organized by the Finnish magazine Colossus and published by the French Musea label. Giallo!, subtitled One Suite for the Murderer, takes the 1975 Dario Argento film Deep Red as its subject matter. The story has been divided into three chapters, each assigned to a band to create a suite inspired by it. These suites average 24-minutes each, plus there is a short intro and outro performed by Alfio Costa on keyboards. Costa is also featured on the first track Visions of Helga (3:02 mp3 excerpt here), performed by Dark Session, an offshoot of the Italian band Tilion. The other two bands are Leviathan with Vecchi Giochi and Floating State with Suite dall’Inconscio dell’Assassino (14:48 mp3 excerpt here). The style is clearly influenced by Italian 1970’s symphonic rock and relies on vintage keyboards.
Ancient Vision - Lost at Sea ($15.99)The American band Ancient Vision released two Jethro Tull-influenced CDs in the early 1990s. After 15 years, the band resurfaced with the original lineup and a new CD Lost at Sea (2008). This work is much more eclectic and diverse. The Tull influence can still be heard at times, but there are also similarities to Camel, Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator, and Kansas. All of these are just approximations though. While the music remains faithful to the 1970s progressive rock aesthetic, it is not a retro album. The use of plucked sounds, Celtic folk, and ethereal female voice may suggest Clannad; in any event, such touches take the music into more original territory. This is Ancient Vision’s best and most mature album.
Presence of Soul - Blinds ($15.99) Blinds (2008, 58-minutes) is the second album by a Japanese band led by a female singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist. The music is in a progressive post-rock vein similar to Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, Mogwai, and Anekdoten, deliberately contrasting grungy, over-distorted guitar with delicate elements such as Mellotron and ethereal female vocals (in both Japanese and English). The music slowly evolves from mournful, quieter atmospheres into an intense, violent musical maelstrom.
Pendragon - Pure ($12.99) out-of-stock |        |
Ken Baird - Further Out ($12.99) 
Ken Baird - Fields ($12.99)On Further Out (2009), Ontario songwriter/composer Ken Baird leads his band (guitar, bass, drums) through nine tracks while playing predominantly keyboards and singing, with Sue Fraser and others adding backing vocals. Even though it’s been a while since Martin Road, the music seems to be a logical extension of that style, with a stronger individual identity and greater maturity. Production-wise it’s a big step up too. It’s another very strong album for Baird, and in particular, the 10-minute title track is a tour-de-force.
Martin Road (2004) continues Ken Baird’s remarkable career arc, from instrumental Mike Oldfield-influenced solo works to more ensemble-oriented Renaissance/Genesis-inspired songs with confident vocals. Baird’s warm vocals are now to the point where he could get a gig solely as a singer, and Sue Fraser again contributes her lovely backing vocals. Multi-instrumentalist Baird, primarily a keyboardist, gets help from several other musicians on drums, bass, and guitars (one of whom, Steve Cochrane, is a fine recording artist in his own right). Both the folky side as well as the symphonic side of Renaissance are suggested here, and the Genesis/Tony Banks influence first heard on Fields continues, but Baird’s songs are more personal and intimate than either of those references would imply. Needless to say, highly recommended.
Orion is Ken Baird’s third album, not only a quantum leap forward for this artist, but one of the best symphonic rock albums of 2000. Orion features a greater role for singer Sue Fraser; she and Ken share vocal duties and when they sing together, the harmonies are sublime. While the Mike Oldfield and Genesis influences are still present, the music now feels closest to Renaissance, with some Rick Wakeman-like synth leads.
The music on Fields (1998) is situated between Mike Oldfield and Genesis/Tony Banks, closer to the latter in fact, a very warm vocal symphonic rock album with touches of folk, both Celtic and otherwise. The emphasis is on melody, arrangement, and texture. Ken’s voice is pleasant and intimate, and Sue Fraser’s backing vocals are most welcome when they appear. She sings lead on the album’s centerpiece, the 11-minute Into Night, and her voice is exquisite. Ken is an accomplished keyboardist and also plays recorder, whistle, guitar, bass, trumpet, and percussion. Other musicians assist on drums and guitar.
August (1996) is Baird’s first album. It is more strictly in the early-Oldfield style, less rock-oriented, instrumental save one track. Consider it Baird’s Ommadawn. These albums exude such analog warmth - they just don’t make them like this any more.
Manning - Number Ten ($14.99) Singer and multi-instrumentalist Guy Manning, a member of The Tangent, is continuing the tradition of great British progressive singers who take the singer-songwriter model and expand it to epic proportions. At various times, we’re reminded of Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull, Roger Waters, Geoff Mann (Twelfth Night), Dave Cousins/The Strawbs, Roy Harper, Rupert Hine, Al Stewart, and Nigel Mazlyn Jones. Manning’s strong vocals are among the best in the progressive genre today. He is a poet and storyteller who could be (and sometimes is) a folk troubadour but chooses to work on a larger scale. His Hammond organ playing is a delight to hear. There is almost no one making music like this now, and with so much progressive rock today lacking emotional warmth, it’s vital to hear music this organic.
On Songs from the Bilston House (2007), Guy is joined by Laura Fowles (saxes, vocals), Ian Fairbairn (fiddles), David Million (electric guitars), and Julie King (vocals), plus guests Stephen Dundon (flutes) and The Tangent’s Andy Tillison (keyboards, drums, vocals, co-production). We already thought that Guy Manning has been responsible for some of the best music this millennium, and it’s remarkable that he manages a new CD every year. But this new album is just incredible, almost all that is good in classic melodic British progressive rock rolled into one 67-minute CD. In addition to all the influences and reference points mentioned above, we now also hear some Caravan, Genesis, Snow Goose-era Camel, and Fairport Convention, and certainly fans of The Tangent will be drawn to this album. Excellent production and artwork top off a beautiful, powerful, intelligent and heartfelt progressive rock album.
Number Ten (2009, 63-minutes) is already the tenth Manning CD, and by now we’ve exhausted our supply of superlatives, but fortunately prog fans are finally realizing that the Manning CDs are full of the best in classic-style British progressive rock. Number Ten is very strong and could be a new high water mark for Manning. Here are links to reviews of this and all the previous Manning CDs; we’ll excerpt one of them: “Number Ten has set the bar for all other releases in the progressive rock genre for 2009. If this had been released in the late 70’s or early 80’s, then we’d have been seeing Mr. Manning on our TV screens in the endless documentaries about ‘how good the old prog was’.” [Paul Baker, ARfm Soundscapes] More Manning CDs and much more info on our British page.
Squonk Opera - Astro-rama: Live Under the Stars DVD ($14.99) 
This amazing Pittsburgh ensemble have created a unique and contemporary progressive rock style. But even more impressive are their big-budget, highly-imaginative shows, perhaps the best fusion of art-rock and performance art there is. Many reviewers have tried in vain to describe Squonk Opera’s music. Perhaps a collision between However, Clearlight, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Kate Bush, and Laurie Anderson is a starting reference point. They feature piano and accordion, wind synth and Celtic flute, female vocals, electric and double bass, drums and percussion. The music is full of odd meters and a generally dark ambience, with Jackie Dempsey’s classical piano usually at the center of things. The female voice is often used as another instrument.
You Are Here (2006, digipack) is the soundtrack to both touring series (put your hometown’s name here): The Opera and You Are Here. The same lineup that recorded Rodeo Smackdown is augmented by a guitarist (electric & acoustic), further broadening their sound. So You Are Here improves even on Rodeo Smackdown, with a grand symphonic feel to some of the music. Watch videoclips here and you’ll also hear some of the music.
Rodeo Smackdown (2004, digipack) is the album from their show of the same name. Squonk Opera like to juxtapose stories from antiquity with modern themes; in the case of Rodeo Smackdown, it’s the myth of the Minotaur and the maze, set against the backdrop of the American West. Rodeo Smackdown is their best album since their debut Howandever (long out-of-print). Video clips here.
Without the visual element, Squonk Opera’s CDs can only tell half the story. At last in 2009, Squonk Opera have released their first DVD (NTSC, 16:9 widescreen, stereo). Filmed in their hometown of Pittsburgh, Astro-rama is the “biggest, baddest, boldest Squonk Opera yet!,” or so says Pop City. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, who chose it as one of the most memorable musical moments of 2008, said “the visuals were outstanding and Squonk’s progressive rock was transcendent.” There, a mainstream U.S. newspaper printed the term ‘progressive rock’ in the correct context and without derision! Watch the show overview video. In an era when nearly everything can be easily traced to a past or current trend, Squonk Opera stand alone. Note the DVD liner states Region 1, but Nero InfoTool says the disc is all-region.
Metamorphosis - Dark ($12.99) Metamorphosis is a Swiss band headed up by Jean-Pierre Schenk (vocals, keyboards, drums). Schenk founded the progressive rock band Nature in 1971 with Giovanni Esposito, who is the guitar player in Metamorphosis. Nature began very Pink Floyd influenced, then evolved towards Genesis. Metamorphosis, which began circa 2000, also began very Pink Floyd influenced. Dark (2009, 62-minutes) is the fourth Metamorphosis CD. Here the music is an intoxicating blend of Pink Floyd and early Marillion, full of great melodies. The vocals (in English) remain in the Pink Floyd style, that is, the Marillion influence is instrumentally only. There always was a bit of David Gilmour in Steve Rothery’s guitar style, so the blend feels quite natural. Good stuff that will probably appeal to a large segment of the Porcupine Tree fan base as well.
Tony Spada - Balance of Power ($12.99) American guitarist Tony Spada is known to prog fans for his band Holding Pattern but also for his 1993 album Balance of Power. The first edition of this CD was on the Art Sublime label but had been out-of-print for a long time. This new edition on the Cypher Arts label comes in a wide-format cardboard sleeve (same dimensions as a digipack) and counts as only one-half CD for shipping. The album is instrumental except for one vocal track. Spada is backed here by most of the members of the final incarnation of Holding Pattern, most notably bassist/keyboardist Tony Castellano. It is an excellent album of guitar-oriented progressive rock, with nods to Steve Hackett and Steve Morse. The other Tony Spada and Holding Pattern CDs are on Page 2.
Il Cerchio d’Oro - Il Viaggio di Colombo ($16.99) The self-titled CD was a posthumous one when released in 1999, documenting the activity of this Italian band that only released three singles at the end of its first life. Formed in 1974, Il Cerchio d’Oro recorded the tracks for an album circa 1976 that remained unreleased until this CD. The album is in a typical Italian progressive style, though on the simpler side. The sound quality varies, most of it is fine but one or two tracks sound like a bootleg cassette. The three singles appear at the end of the CD, but they are in a pop and disco style. The Mellow label describes this as a missing link between Alphataurus, Corte dei Miracoli and Panna Fredda. Maybe throw New Trolls and Le Orme in there.
Il Cerchio d’Oro reformed in 2006 with all the original members and released their first proper album in 2008, the concept CD Il Viaggio di Colombo. It is firmly in the 1970’s Italian melodic, song-structured symphonic prog style, using vintage sounds and sung in Italian (English translations in the booklet). The band list their influences as Le Orme, New Trolls, The Trip, PFM, and Pink Floyd, which are good reference points; Delirium is another. Beautiful digipack.
G. C. Neri - Logos ($16.99) This late 2008 release on the Black Widow label is the debut album of Giorgio C. Neri from Genova, Italy. Neri plays most of the instruments: electric & acoustic guitar, bass, mandolin, dulcimer, keyboards and flute, with the assistance of a drummer and guests on flute and vocals. The label says that Logos is a tribute to the artists that influenced Neri, “a path through tradition, music created according to the aesthetic and the sounds of the 1970’s.” One such influence would have to be PFM, particularly on the one track with vocals, which are in Italian. Apart from a little spoken word, the rest of the album is instrumental. Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles or Gong appear to be influences on other tracks, and the album as a whole covers the spectrum between the romantic symphonic prog style and the space-rock style. Of the other influences Neri lists on his MySpace page, Mike Oldfield, Osanna, and Genesis are probably the most relevant, but no one influence dominates. And while Neri’s influences are primarily from the 1970’s, this is not a strictly retro album. Overall, Logos is excellent and sounds indistinguishable from a full band. Digipack. More Italian progressive CDs.
Brett Kull - The Last of the Curlews ($13.99) Brett Kull is Echolyn’s guitarist/vocalist, not to mention a member of Grey Eye Glances. He has continually honed his songwriting, production, and engineering skills, all of which are on display on his solo albums. They are songwriter’s albums, more personal and intimate than Echolyn but sharing a similar character. Orange-ish Blue (2002) was first. The Last of the Curlews (digipack) is Kull’s second solo CD, released at the end of 2008, the result of three years of writing. Kull plays all the instruments except drum kit, which is handled by Paul Ramsey. There is more acoustic guitar than electric, and plenty of keyboards. There are also several guest vocalists. These 12 songs feature beautiful arrangements, understated musicianship, and powerful lyrics. The mood is generally languid, and an influence of The Beatles can usually be heard, though of course the execution is contemporary. Kull is clearly a very creative musician. Check Page 2 for Orange-ish Blue.
Echolyn - Cowboy Poems Free 2008 ($13.99) Cowboy Poems Free is Echolyn’s 2000 comeback CD, which focuses on Americana of the first half of the 20th century. It had been out-of-print for some time until this digipack edition, released at the very end of 2008. It has been completely remixed and remastered and features all new artwork. When it was first released, this album was everything one could hope for, a superb album that reasserted Echolyn’s identity. Their music had not stood still, yet recognizable elements of their earlier style are here. The music is progressive through and through, but it has a very contemporary energy to it. 59-minutes. The rest of the Echolyn CDs are on Page 2.
Frost - Experiments in Mass Appeal sp. ed. (CD+DVD, $16.99) Frost is a UK progressive rock band featuring Jem Godfrey, John Mitchell (Kino, Arena), John Jowitt (IQ,...), Andy Edwards (IQ), and (on the second CD) Declan Burke (Darwin’s Radio). It does seem that the same core group of musicians is shuffled around to form as many bands as possible, with the one requirement that Jowitt be the bassist. But Godfrey, who made a name for himself as a writer and producer in the pop music field, is the sole writer in Frost, and as he says: “I’ve always been into progressive rock music and so I decided to do exactly that, writing an album to my kind of taste”. Frost’s 2006 debut Milliontown is a blend of classic prog and very modern, heavier prog. The classic stuff happens mainly during the instrumental passages, of which there are plenty. These instrumental passages sound like what Genesis would produce today in an ideal universe (in which the five of them were together, had their youthful energy and then some, and forgot everything that happened after Duke). The keyboards especially remind one of Tony Banks. The album opens with a killer 7:30 instrumental and concludes with the 26:35 title track, which is the highlight. In between there's a 10-minute song, and the remaining shorter songs showcase the modern side of the band.
It looked for a time as though Frost would be one-and-done, but they returned in 2008 (2009 in the U.S.) with Experiments in Mass Appeal, which is a completely contemporary-style progressive rock album, meaning guitar-oriented, darker, heavier, and employing some modern production techniques. This is as good as Porcupine Tree or any of the other practitioners of the modern prog style you care to name. And even though it is guitar-dominated, keyboards still play a more important role than in most other such bands. This is the digipack special edition, which adds an NTSC DVD containing a documentary, informal studio renditions of two songs from Milliontown, and an instrumental remix of the entire EiMA album as 192kbps mp3 files. Read reviews at ProgArchives.
Xystus - Equilibrio: A Rock Opera ($12.99) The Sensory label convinced us to carry this 2008 CD because it’s the least metallic release on the label. What it is is a Dutch prog-metal band with male and female vocals playing a rock opera with a symphony orchestra and choir. The orchestral arrangements are highly sophisticated and are the progressive appeal here. While combining an orchestra with bands such as Renaissance or ELP made a great deal of sense, combining orchestra and metal usually sounds goofy to us, but then metal bands have been combining metal with anything and everything no matter how ridiculous. Really though this is quite good, especially if you actually like metal. The music remains melodic throughout, and if you can listen to Ayreon’s most overblown, metallic pieces without giggling, then Equilibrio will be no problem. Digipack.
Yleclipse - Trails of Ambergris ($15.99) |    |
Product - Earth ($9.99) 
Product is primarily the work of Arman Christoff Boyles (vocals, guitar, keys), with help from Scott Rader (drums, bass) and guests. Their first CD On Water (2000) tells a surreal story from the viewpoint of a drowning young sailor, set against the backdrop of the American Revolution. The level of originality is high; the closest comparisons are Porcupine Tree, No-Man, and Hogarth-era Marillion, specifically their moodier tracks. Vocally, Boyles has a deep voice with some suggestions of Peter Gabriel and some of Steve Hogarth’s style. Songs usually start off in acoustic singer-songwriter mode, with dry, close-miked vocals, then blossom into lush, majestic progressive rock. A wealth of subtle production effects warrants repeated listens. There’s a Ring of Myth connection, as Danny Flores contributes bass, classical guitar, and mandolin, and Scott Rader is currently the Ring of Myth drummer. One customer described this as “brilliant... the album Porcupine Tree hasn’t made yet”.
Product’s 2003 second CD Aire is currently out-of-print, but the band plan to reissue it. Their third CD The Fire (2005, 63-minutes) is based on the life of Nero and restores some of the fire that was missing from Aire. This album sounds like a meeting of Hogarth-era Marillion and Pink Floyd with touches of King Crimson, generally quite dark and moody as always. Product complete their water/air/fire/earth tetralogy in grand style with Earth (2008, 67-minutes), their most fully-realized work. Earth is based on the life of Nikola Tesla and reflects on our relationship with technology.
Daniel Gauthier - The Wish ($14.99) Above the Storm (2000, 57-minutes) is the terrific second CD by Daniel Gauthier, who was once the bassist and singer for a Yes tribute band. Here he handles vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar and bass, while two other musicians add electric guitar and drums. The music sounds like a mélange of 1970’s Yes and Pink Floyd, with various other Euro-prog influences added. Here is an mp3 of the track Evening of a New Romance (6:47).
The Wish (2008, digipack) is the third album for Gauthier, one that he’d been working on for some time. Gauthier does everything here and does an admirable job sounding like a full band. Yes is again the dominant influence; in particular, Gauthier’s bass playing is close to Chris Squire’s. Gauthier sings in English and his voice can sound a bit like Jon Anderson, if Jon Anderson’s first language was French. The Wish doesn’t reach the heights that Yes do, but then how many bands do? The Yes styling is blended with a Pink Floyd influence and a typical symphonic prog approach for which early Machiavel might be one reference point -- the slight French accent in the English-language vocals contributes to the association, but there are musical similarities as well. 58-minutes. Read Jerry Lucky’s review.
Nathan Mahl - Exodus ($14.99) Formed at the end of 1981, Nathan Mahl (a totally fabricated name) are now one of the longest-lived and most accomplished Canadian progressive rock bands. They are led by Guy LeBlanc, who also spent some time as Camel’s keyboardist. After a long wait, Nathan Mahl have a new studio album: Exodus (2008, 59-minutes). According to the press release, it is inspired by events depicted in the second book of the Old Testament (and Torah). Exodus focuses on the emotional and physical struggles of those who wish to escape the bonds of slavery. Musically, the band have approached the subject as a rock opera, having as central characters Moses, Pharaoh, and God, and further expanding their symphonic/fusion/Canterbury style to include some harder-edged elements. A guest violinist adds a welcome new dimension. Nathan Mahl are too much of an instrumental band for Exodus to sound all that much like a rock opera, which often means too many theatrical vocals getting in the way of the music. No, this is an excellent progressive rock album including all the styles the band and Guy LeBlanc have worked in over the years, but it also sounds distinct from their past albums, as if Nathan Mahl are opening a new chapter in the history of one of Canada’s finest bands. For the rest of the Nathan Mahl and Guy LeBlanc CDs and much more information, go to our Canadian Page.
Big Big Train - English Boy Wonders 2008 ($13.99) Big Big Train’s second album English Boy Wonders was originally recorded on a limited budget and released by GEP (IQ’s label) in a semi-complete state in 1997. It has been unavailable for several years. For this 2008 digipack re-release, Big Big Train returned to the original multi-track tapes but also re-recorded much of the album. Additional sections of music were written to complete the album as it was originally intended. A bonus track featuring Martin Orford has been included and the album has been completely remixed and remastered by Rob Aubrey. Across its 80 minutes, English Boy Wonders tells the heartbreaking story of a doomed relationship.
Big Big Train - The Difference Machine ($13.99) 
English band Big Big Train began in the early 1990’s as a soft neo-prog band. They made what we consider their breakthrough album in 2002 with Bard. The band almost called it quits at that point, but the overwhelmingly positive response to Bard encouraged them to continue. For Gathering Speed (2004), they added a new singer. The music on this CD is more intense than past efforts and far more connected to early Genesis than to the 1980’s prog bands, with tasteful use of Mellotron and that characteristic mix of the pastoral and the majestic. A concept album set in the summer of 1940 during the Battle of Britain, it tells the story of a fighter pilot who is shot down during a combat patrol. If you want to re-experience the way English bands once made progressive rock, this is an essential album.
Though Gathering Speed would exceed it, Bard is a very good album, more complex than Big Big Train’s previous work, the band’s compositions having become quite sophisticated by this time. While you can detect a few similarities to Jadis and IQ (Rob Aubrey engineers the albums of all three bands), Big Big Train have their own sound, a certain fragility and an appealing relaxed vibe permeating the vocal sections (male with some female vocals). They do cut loose during some of the instrumental passages, especially in the 14-minute Broken English, while the 17-minute For Winter is also a highlight. A perfect antidote to all the metal bands masquerading as progressive, this is very English music full of finesse and grace.
Big Big Train’s fifth album The Difference Machine (2007) features significant contributions from Pete Trewavas (Marillion) and Nick D’Virgilio and Dave Meros from Spock’s Beard, and was mixed by Rob Aubrey. The band describes this CD as a combination of classic progressive influences (Genesis, Van der Graaf Generator, King Crimson, PFM) and influences from alternative rock (Sigur Ros, Oceansize, Mew). It does represent a significant evolution of their sound from previous albums, and is one of those albums like Marillion’s Brave that defies expectations and may require several listens before it begins to sink in. “The great chord changes and powerful melodies are still there, more so in fact than before, but the music is much more upbeat, more ‘proggy’ if you will than previous albums. In fact it doesn't even sound like the same band as earlier albums, except for some of Gathering Speed. This is in fact one of the most powerful and beautiful albums I have heard in years. This is one of those albums that sound better and better with repeated listens, and the addition of sax and cello give the overall effect of a true classic, somewhere between Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd in their primes. Mellotron abounds as well, in the short breaks that divide the three long songs that make up the bulk of the album.” [Bill Gillham, ProgArchives] One thing is reasonably certain. Big Big Train have gone from being a second-tier neo-prog band to a band that is now breaking new ground.
3RDegree - Narrow-Caster ($11.99) 
Narrow-Caster is the 2008 CD from New Jersey progressive rock band 3RDegree, whose first CD was 1996’s Human Interest Story CD, following a 1993 cassette-only release. 3RDegree disbanded in 1997 but reformed more recently, finding their new singer and playing their first live shows in over ten years at the NJ Proghouse in 2007. The DVD+2CD The Reunion Concerts (counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping) contains their traditional electric show plus an unplugged show. The show was recorded in 1080i HD (downres’d for the DVD) and 24-bit audio (downres’d for the CDs), 16:9 widescreen. These are recordable CDs and DVDs housed in an Amaray case. The DVD is NTSC, all-region and includes some behind-the-scenes and interview footage.
Narrow-Caster is a contemporary-sounding prog rock record, with some similarities to Echolyn or Izz. While lead singer George Dobbs has a voice that reminds us of Dave Lawson of Greenslade (though Dobbs is a better singer), 3RDegree’s greatest strength may be their Yes-like harmony vocals. The result is sometimes similar to the band Ring of Myth -- 3RDegree use more keyboards and are more melodic but lack the Howe-like guitar. Narrow-Caster comes in a lightweight “Eco-Wallet” and counts as only one-half CD for shipping. Read reviews at DPRP, Sea of Tranquility, The Prog Files, USA Progressive Music, and Rock Report. Human Interest Story (72-minutes) is also an excellent album of Ameri-prog, sounding like a cross between Rush and Echolyn.
DeeExpus - Half Way Home ($14.99) DeeExpus are a modern-style progressive rock band from the north of England, debuting in 2008 with Half Way Home. They do what the current crop of British progressive rock bands does best, which is to emphasize strong pop songwriting and quality vocals. There are elements of Porcupine Tree and modern Marillion in their style, Spock’s Beard to a lesser extent. As a contemporary prog band, DeeExpus’ sound gives guitar the upper hand over keyboards, as with Porcupine Tree and their ilk. But what makes this CD outstanding is the wealth of hooks and memorable choruses. 59-minutes. Read the DPRP review.
Parallel or 90 Degrees - A Can of Worms: The Best of Po90 1996-2001 (2CD, $17.99) To finish the rather long subtitle of this double-CD set: ...Plus Unreleased Recordings from 2002. Parallel or 90 Degrees (Po90 for short) was Andy Tillison’s band that evolved into The Tangent. The music of both bands is similar, and Po90 would probably be better known had the Cyclops label simply kept their albums in print longer than a couple years each. This 2CD set not only includes selections from the Po90 CDs released by Cyclops, there is an unreleased 2002 version of Blues for Lear with Roine Stolt, and 30-minutes of tracks from A Kick in the Teeth for Civic Pride, the 2002 album Po90 were working on that was put on hold in favor of The Tangent. It was usually easy to spot the Van der Graaf Generator influence in Po90 -- one of their CDs consisted entirely of Van der Graaf Generator and Peter Hammill covers -- but given this opportunity to look back on their work, one realizes that Po90 were one of the best and most important bands when it came to reinventing classic progressive rock along contemporary lines.
Karmakanic - Who’s the Boss in the Factory ($14.99) This is the 2008 third CD from the band led by the busy Jonas Reingold (The Flower Kings, The Tangent). Guests include Andy Tillison (The Tangent), Theo Travis (The Tangent, Gong, Porcupine Tree), and Tomas Bodin (The Flower Kings). The album is of the style and quality one would expect from the personnel involved. Most of it is in the Spock’s Beard and The Flower Kings styles, though the two-part Eternally that concludes the album is more personal and moving, Reingold’s eulogy to his late parents. After their first album which was marred by some metal, Karmakanic now seem committed to pure progressive rock, and this is their best work yet.
Moon Safari - Blomljud (2CD, $18.99) Back in stock, new lower prices. This Swedish quintet debuted with one of the freshest, most likeable symphonic prog albums you’ll hear. The “summer” in A Doorway to Summer (2005) is apt as Moon Safari display none of the long-dark-winter Scandinavian melancholy and gloom. Instead they have a warm, Yes-like positivism, though their sound comes closer to England, Druid, or Sebastian Hardie. They have harmony vocals that sometimes reach Beach Boys level, and some Beatles flavoring (closer to Klaatu actually). They use all analog keyboards including Mellotron and lots of acoustic guitar. The openness of their sound and their outstanding melodic sense give the album a 1970’s feel and set Moon Safari apart from most of the other current prog bands. Tomas Bodin (keyboardist of The Flower Kings) guests and co-produced, and Moon Safari will almost certainly appeal to fans of The Flower Kings, though their style is distinct. Just five long tracks, one of which is 24-minutes long. Here is an mp3 from the track Dance Across the Ocean.
Despite the Swedish title, the double-CD Blomljud (2008) is again sung entirely in English. The title apparently translates to “sound of flowers”, and so the CD title again gives a clue to the music. Or maybe it’s an oblique reference to The Flower Kings. The style is a continuation of the first CD, but those wonderful harmony vocals are even more striking here, reminiscent of Queen, Yes, The Beach Boys, and Fireballet (second album). It’s almost a lost art these days. The first disc has the lighter, vocal-heavy material, while the second disc tends to have the more energetic material, as if the first disc was warming the listener up for the second. It is all symphonic prog close to Yes with some Genesis influence, the latter felt particularly in the pastoral passages. Its sunny optimism is again in stark contrast to the prevailing mood of darkness, cynicism and metal in today’s music.
Unitopia - The Garden (2CD, $16.99) out-of-stock More Than a Dream is Unicorn Records’ 2007 re-edition of the 2005 debut CD by Australian progressive rock band Unitopia. The music on their debut actually falls between progressive rock and a 1980’s flavor of progressive pop. On the progressive side, Peter Gabriel seems to be a strong influence, and Saga is a fair reference, but there are more symphonic influences that that, including some orchestral arrangements. On the pop side, these guys write memorable choruses on a par with the best pop songwriters, and they have a singer who can carry it off. Mark Trueack sounds like Steve Winwood, except when he sounds like Gabriel. So many modern prog bands don’t have a singer that you’d want to put forward in the mix, it’s refreshing to hear a band with a talented one. 62-minutes. Read reviews here.
The Garden (2008) is a double-CD, with a switch to the InsideOut label. We felt all along that Unitopia’s first album was unjustly overlooked, and The Garden will remedy that, as it is a really fine melodic prog album. Unitopia’s greatest strength is their vocals, which are well ahead of the average progressive rock band, both the lead vocals and the vocal harmonies. Trueack again sounds like Peter Gabriel when he sings in his lower register, and like the guy from Men at Work at other times. While Unitopia don’t sound all that much like Spock’s Beard or The Flower Kings, they will almost certainly appeal to fans of those bands and InsideOut’s other melodic prog bands. Read reviews at Progressive Melodies and Bill’s Prog Blog.
Caamora - Journey’s End: An Acoustic Anthology (2CD, $18.99)This double-CD digipack set is a follow-up to She, featuring over 130 minutes of acoustic live performances from around the world, as well as a selection of previously unreleased demos and bonus tracks. In the buildup to the release of She, Clive Nolan and Agnieszka Swita performed approximately 30 concerts in England, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and Canada. Journey’s End features recordings of some of these performances. Some of the guests on this CD such as Magenta singer Christina Booth also participated in She, while there are new guests such as keyboardist Claudio Momberg from the Chilean band SETI. Beyond the live material, there are three demos that were made over the past few years, and three bonus songs. The set concludes with a short radio interview with Nolan and Swita, providing insight into the world of Caamora. View the track and guest list on Caamora’s site. Read the DPRP review.
Caamora - She studio digipack 2CD ($18.99) She (2008) is the huge giant epic rock opera from Caamora, the project keyboardist Clive Nolan (Pendragon, Arena, Neo) has been laboring on for two years with Polish female singer Agnieszka Swita and guests Alan Reed (Pallas), Christina Booth (Magenta), Mark Westwood (Neo), John Jowitt (IQ, Neo), Scott Higham (Pendragon), Richard West (Threshold), Hugh McDowell (ELO), and others. It’s a rock opera all right -- Nolan has made Jesus Christ Progstar for the 21st century. One can hear the seeds of Caamora in Nolan’s Strangers on a Train and Shadowland albums, but Nolan has matured as a writer in the interim. His real forte is orchestrating, where he has few peers among active progressive rock musicians. Read the excellent DPRP review for much more detail, and follow the mp3 link above to the Caamora website for more info on the She project.
The studio digipack 2CD contains the full studio version of She plus one bonus track that is not available on the jewel box version. Counts as 1.5 CDs for shipping.
The DVD contains the live premiere of She, filmed on 31 October 2007 in Poland, with almost all of the same musicians that appear on the studio recording and then some. A Making of She featurette is included as a bonus. Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio, 160-minutes. The Limited Edition includes the DVD plus the double-CD live version of She in a lavish digipack DVD case. Counts as 2 CDs for shipping. (Compare to amazon.com’s price, which has generally been around $40.)
Seven Day Hunt - File This Dream ($14.99) Seven Day Hunt are the new incarnation of Egdon Heath, the dean of Dutch neo-prog bands, who existed for 18 years. By the early 1990’s, there were a lot of Dutch neo-prog bands operating, but Egdon Heath, who released their first album in 1987, were the cream of that crop. Egdon Heath retired in 1999 after four studio albums and a live double-CD of their final gig. Jaap Mulder (keyboards, vocals), Aldo Adema (guitar), Marcel Copini (bass) and Maurits Kalsbeek (vocals) worked on new material with new drummer Erik Koning, a life-long Genesis fan. Karlsbeek quit the band, but the four remaining members continued without a singer for a considerable time, experimenting with new influences and styles. Eventually the band came in contact with Han Uil, singer-songwriter and former singer/guitarist of Antares (a symphonic prog-metal band), and with him on board, they fine-tuned the nearly completed compositions, with Han writing the lyrics. File This Dream (2008, digipack) is their debut, and there are no radical changes to the Egdon Heath style, just a few more contemporary elements. It is a polished neo-prog album including the mandatory Marillion influence and the characteristic Dutch neo-prog style that Egdon Heath helped define. 69-minutes.
Tuner - Müüt: Live In Estonia 2007 ($14.99) 
Tuner consists of drummer Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson) and German multi-instrumentalist Markus Reuter plus guests. Reuter has a large discography that includes collaborations with Ian Boddy and Robert Rich. Pole (2007, 60-minutes) is Tuner’s superior second studio CD, more accessible and personal than their first. It includes vocals courtesy of several male and female guests. It combines the modern King Crimson style with a dark, understated contemporary sound not unlike things Steven Wilson has done. The combination of Reuter’s throbbing bass and Mastelotto’s thunderous drums underpins most of it and is very seductive, while the sonic elements on top of the rhythm section are texturally complex, adding haunting, ethereal, eerie and quirky elements. The CD comes in a Super Jewel Box.
Totem is a re-release of their 2005 debut album, remastered and remixed in this 2008 definitive edition.
The label’s description: Recorded live on tour in October 2007, Müüt: Live In Estonia captures Pat and Markus in raw and powerful performances full of heavy grooves, harmonic tension and weird samples and moods. Müüt (Estonian for myth) is a fully-produced and mixed album with a fantastic analog sound but still retaining the live feel.
Universal Totem Orchestra - The Magus ($16.99) Universal Totem Orchestra are an offshoot or side project of the Italian band Runaway Totem, and though the main aspect of UTO’s style is also Zeuhl, UTO are actually better. The Magus (2008) is the long-awaited successor to 1999’s Rituale Alieno. The Magus is 80-minutes long, and even some hard-core Magma fans must get worn out by 80-minutes of Zeuhl music, but UTO blend in quite a bit of more conventional progressive rock and jazz-rock, symphonic sounds, and melodic, beautiful parts, making this a deeply satisfying opus. UTO feature beautiful operatic female lead vocals in Italian, plus six male vocalists doing the Carmina Burana thing. Tri-fold digipack with 24-page booklet. Read reviews at Prog Archives.
Mirage - Borderline ($15.99) This French band’s name is almost certainly taken from the Camel album, as they seemingly want to renew Camel’s inspiration and identity (Mirage to Moonmadness era). On their debut A Secret Place (2000), one track is more or less a cover of Camel’s Lunar Sea, with some liberties taken. With female and male vocals in English, flute, relaxed and flowing instrumental passages and, above all, beautiful and well-crafted melodies, this album confirms Mirage as the French Camel. Mirage’s second CD Tales from the Green Sofa (2004) is currently out-of-print.
Borderline (2008, 66-minutes) is their third. Mirage are no longer Camel copyists on this CD, as they have branched out in other, still progressive directions. Camel may still be Mirage’s major inspiration, but one can also hear Pink Floyd, a little King Crimson and Canterbury, and mostly an original mélange. The music generally retains the flowing quality of Camel, but the flute is used less and the guitars are now either mixed louder than the keyboards or just given more to do. The lead vocals here are all male and are low-key, as Camel’s were on their early albums. Borderline is not conclusively better or worse, just different and not repeating what Mirage have already done.
Klotet - En Rak Höger ($15.99) This is the 2008 debut from a Swedish quartet in existence only since 2004, and yet En Rak Höger could have come straight out of the first generation of Swedish progressive rock, as Klotet’s music leaves no clue that it wasn’t made in the early-to-mid 1970’s. Klotet are from Uppsala, the old university town that seems to be the birthplace of Swedish progressive rock. Their music is instrumental, the instrumentation restricted to vintage keys (mostly organ and Rhodes) and guitar tones. Those who know and love the music of Bo Hansson, Atlas, Blåkulla, Kaipa, Kebnekaise, Trettioåriga Kriget, Fläsket Brinner, etc. already understand the special flavor of this music. The band even mention Harald Hedning; how’s that for an obscure reference?
Tilion - A.M.I.G.D.A.L.A. ($15.99) Following a 2000 demo, Tilion’s 2003 debut CD Insolitariamente was quality Italian progressive rock, leaning towards the dark side a la Goblin, with a 1970’s sound emphasizing analog keys. Tilion return in 2008 with A.M.I.G.D.A.L.A., switching to English lyrics. All the vocals on this album are handled by guests that include Sophya Baccini (Presence), Lino Vairetti (Osanna), and Clive Jones (Black Widow). (Black Widow were an obscure British band who for some reason were big in Italy, sort of like how David Hasselhoff apparently had a singing career in Germany.) Tilion play dark symphonic progressive rock, taking most of their cues from 1970’s progressive rock. They may not be as self-consciously retro as a band such as La Maschera di Cera, but keyboardist Alfia Costa uses only Mellotron, Hammond, Minimoog, piano, Rhodes, and Korg MS-10 (vintage 1978). With the upgrade in vocals, Tilion are now ready for some of the attention given to the other current top Italian progressive bands. Note you can also hear Tilion on Mellow’s Canterbury and King Crimson tribute CDs and the first two volumes of Musea’s The Spaghetti Epic CDs.
Aviva Omnibus - Nutcracker in Fury ($15.99) Aviva, an alias for Dmitry Lukianenko, is a Russian virtuoso pianist and multi-instrumentalist, assisted on Rokus Tonalis (2007) by a guitarist and a number of guest voices. This is a 70-minute instrumental concept album inspired by the Apocalypse of St. John. At the same time, the composer has incorporated Paul Hindemith’s polyphonic piano cycle Ludus Tonalis into this electric rock format. This is sophisticated instrumental progressive rock that comes closest to ELP, with a more modernist flavor and some more reflective moments. Emerson of course was influenced by Mussorgsky and Stravinsky, and most of the Russian keyboard-dominated progressive works show this same strong Russian classical influence. Aviva is clearly conservatory trained. Rokus Tonalis is quite an original work that extends beyond the Keith Emerson universe, symphonic rock masterfully composed and executed; rich in contrasts, majestic melodies, and luxuriant arrangements; joyfully blending vintage and modern sounds.
Aviva then decided to form a band, hence the name change to Aviva Omnibus on the 2008 CD Nutcracker in Fury. In addition to Aviva, the band includes musicians on guitar, bass, drums, and a second keyboard player who doubles on violin. Nutcracker in Fury creates a musical fantasy by rearranging, twisting, and paying tribute to Tschaikovsky's Nutcracker. What was said about Rokus Tonalis applies here. There is the classic ELP progressive style at the core, not to mention Tschaikovsky, but it is a more contemporary work and a highly-creative one at that, with samples deftly interwoven and a little heavy guitar, almost a new paradigm for classical-rock.
Survival - Crusader ($15.99) Survival is the name of the project of Dutch keyboardist Jack Langevelt, who is no newcomer to progressive rock. Born in 1954 and initially attracted to classical music, Langevelt was most inspired by Ekseption, who after all were national legends, as well as Trace, The Nice, and ELP. It sounds very much like Langevelt has taken up the mantle left by Rick van der Linden (the keyboardist and leader of Ekseption and Trace). Like van der Linden, Langevelt does use modern synths, but his favorites remain Hammond organ and piano. Although a version of Survival existed from 1981-1997, that band split up. Following several CD-Rs, Crusader (2008) is their first proper CD and features tracks recorded between 2001-2006. Langevelt plays keys, bass and drums, with two guitarists assisting. Langevelt had been a drummer earlier in his career and provides a competent rhythm section. Crusader is old-school keyboard-dominated symphonic prog that is highly recommended to fans of Langevelt’s influences listed above, though it is often executed with higher energy and more guitar, yielding a more contemporary-sounding result. Note some of the audio samples on Survival’s MySpace and ReverbNation pages are not from this CD. The track list for Crusader is: The Holy Land, Beauseant, Lamentation, Crusader, Abide With Me, Baldwin, I Cried for You, Exceptional Friend, The Knights Templar, Montgisard, After All.
Frequency Drift - Personal Effects part one ($15.99) German (Bavarian) band Frequency Drift create atmospheric, melodic and yet challenging music that they call ‘cinematic progressive rock’. Personal Effects part one (2008, 61-minutes) is a concept album set in a dystopian future. The band say they are influenced by movies or television series such as Ghost in the Shell, Blade Runner and Cloverfield, and their music aims for similar moodiness. The Musea label compares this album to Marillion’s Brave or Sylvan’s Posthumous Silence, if those two bands had a female singer as Frequency Drift does. It isn’t as accomplished as those two albums, nor would one expect that of a debut album. Personal Effects part one has a somewhat sparser sound, with most of the keyboard work done on piano, which is essential to the mood. The album has compelling atmospheres, a solemnity and melancholy that are maintained even through the heavier passages, with Floydian tempos and deliberate pacing. The booklet contains a storyboard-like picture for each song that helps illustrate the story. Read reviews at ProgArchives.
The Other Side - A Higher Vantage Point ($11.99) The Other Side are a Colorado instrumental progressive trio led by composer/keyboardist/saxophonist Alan Mallery, who is also a member of the fusion band Zed. The other members of The Other Side play bass and drums, so this is classic keyboard progressive rock. The first song blends Egg and Happy the Man. The second song is Genesis style, joyous and bombastic. Later tracks introduce an American fusion-tinged style, a little ELP, a little heaviness, and so it goes. The final track is dedicated to Peter Bardens and has a strong Camel feel. The Genesis symphonic style is probably the strongest of the various influences. Mallery uses piano, organ and Mellotron, but doesn’t restrict himself to retro sounds -- the variety of keyboard sounds is one of the album’s strong points. The sax is used sparingly but is always played melodically. Certainly a contender for best keyboard prog album of 2008.
Zed - You Are Here ($11.99) The Colorado-based fusion quartet Zed includes guitarist Scott Cleland, also a member of prog band Singularity, saxophonist/keyboardist Alan Mallery, also a member of The Other Side, bassist Jeff Smith and drummer Ian Keldin. You Are Here (2008) is Zed’s debut, on which they play Weather Report-style fusion. Lightweight digipack, counts as only one-half CD for shipping.
Haze - 30th Anniversary Shows (2CD, $14.99) 
Haze were one of the bands responsible for the progressive revival in Britain in the 1980’s, and their members carry on making music in one form or another (usually several forms) to this day. Back in 1992, the Haze compilation CD In the End: 1978-1988 was released on the hoary Kinesis label, and by following that link, you’ll find more info about Haze and their music. Stoat & Bottle (1987) was far and away Haze’s finest hour, and In the End drew heavily from it. Cyclops have now reissued Stoat & Bottle in a standalone version with new liner notes by Chris McMahon and five bonus studio tracks that Haze recorded as demos during August 1987 but never released. Most of these demos were re-recorded for the first World Turtle CD. The album has been remastered by Chris but not remixed. As Chris notes, remixing was impossible due to the state of the multitrack tapes.
Haze celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2008 and recorded two shows at The Peel, Kingston and The Boardwalk, Sheffield to produce the 2CD commemorative live set, which is priced as a single CD. For these gigs, the band tried to avoid playing too many of the obvious choices that had already been captured live on their 10th and 20th Anniversary CDs (not that those CDs were widely available) by including several new songs, some of their oldest (Turn Around, Portrait, Unto the Dawn, Mirage), and two tracks first played with Treebeard, in addition to Haze classics such as Ophelia, Last Orders, Seven Stones, and The Vice. In all there are 26 songs totaling 133 minutes. The trio of Paul Chisnell and brothers Paul and Chris McMahon are joined on many tracks by flautist Ceri Ashton and by Rog Patterson for a cover of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb.
The McMahon brothers, two-thirds of Haze, went on to form World Turtle, a slightly more pop-oriented version of Haze. Whether this CD should be under the name Haze or World Turtle is unclear. It is really the first World Turtle CD, but includes songs that would have appeared on the third Haze LP plus a few re-recorded Haze tracks. 69-minutes.
Slychosis - Slychedelia ($9.99) Slychosis are a progressive rock band from Mississippi led by Gregg Johns. On their 2006 self-titled debut, they display many of their influences, including Genesis, Yes, Rush, Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Hawkwind, and 70’s hard rock. On a few of these tracks, they wear those influences on their sleeves, but most of the tracks are more original. The debut recording is home or project studio quality, so while it doesn't have the clarity and sheen of a pro studio recording, it does reinforce the illusion that this is an early 1970’s album. 54-minutes, digipack. Lots of reviews here.
Slychedelia (2008, digipack) is a significant step up in both music and production and, unlike its predecessor, doesn’t sound like a 1970’s record. There is still a strong classic progressive rock feel and some 70’s hard rock, but the heavier, more aggressive guitar is from the modern era, and modern technology is employed, for example, the Vocaloid Miriam software, which allows Miriam Stockley (Adiemus) to sing on one’s record without her knowledge. On the latter tracks, the heavy guitar disappears and the Genesis influence becomes dominant, sounding something like the Banks/Rutherford/Collins lineup producing an instrumental progressive track (which they did all too infrequently). Instrumentals dominate over vocals, though the vocals are respectable. This is also one of the most beautiful CD packages you’ll see, featuring the artwork and design of Russian artist Vladimir Moldavsky. 62-minutes.
Panic Room - Visionary Position ($16.99) At the beginning of this millennium, the Welsh band Karnataka were one of the most popular new progressive bands in the UK. In 2004, when they seemed destined to break through to greater success, they disbanded. The original band splintered into three new bands: one using the name Karnataka but with only one original member, The Reasoning (who nabbed lead singer Rachel Jones), and Panic Room. Panic Room are the closest to the original Karnataka, as four-fifths of the band (everyone but the bassist) are former members. Visionary Position (2008) is the band’s debut album and is not far removed from Karnataka. As before, the focus lies as much with singer Anne-Marie Helder’s powerful but controlled voice as with Jonathan Edwards’ symphonic keyboard parts. But Visionary Position does sound like it is further developing the style of the original Karnataka and in fact is more progressive, while the other splinter bands sound like different bands, which they are. Anne-Marie is a wonderful singer, and the electric violin from guest Liz Prendergast is a great touch; keep her around! Now the dissolution of Karnataka no longer feels like a loss, as this is a tremendous album. 65-minutes. See our British page for the Karnataka CDs.
Hermetic Science - These Fragments I Have Shored Against My Ruins ($15.99) Ed Macan is the author of Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture, the definitive scholarly tome on progressive rock, and Endless Enigma: A Musical Biography of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. He also has his band Hermetic Science, who released their first three CDs between 1997-2001. Subtitled “A Hermetic Science Primer”, the double-CD Crash Course contains 20 tracks (135-minutes) from those three CDs: all 19 of the band’s original compositions plus their cover of Holst’s Mars, the Bringer of War. All the tracks have been remixed and remastered, with a few newly-recorded parts snuck in, substantially improving the end result. Macan’s biggest influence seems to be Keith Emerson, especially harmonically. The band improved steadily with each release. On their debut Hermetic Science (1997), they are a trio of vibes/bass/drums. The music is often influenced by ELP or Egg, but with this instrumentation, the sound is sparse, open, and somewhat jazzy. On Prophesies (1999), the mallet instruments are still prominent, but piano, Hammond organ, and ARP string ensemble are employed, yielding a fuller sound and shifting the music toward symphonic and chamber rock. On En Route (2001), the mallet percussion is relegated to the background as an expanded arsenal of keyboards seizes the limelight, creating an even fuller sound. Read the many reviews of the three albums here.
The one with the long title is the 2008 Hermetic Science CD, their first for Musea, and their first studio album since En Route in 2001. Paul Whitehead provided the cover art. Here Macan divides his time between piano, Hammond, mallet percussion, and synths, with Jason Hoopes on bass and six-string guitars and Angelique Curry on drums. The music is sophisticated classical rock, with ELP still the closest reference. The difference is in the execution and feel. ELP sound like a rock band when they play classical-rock, whereas Hermetic Science perform it more in the manner of classical music, with a feel closer to that of a chamber ensemble.
Marillion - Happiness Is the Road Vol. 1: Essence ($12.99)
Marillion - Somewhere Else ($11.99) Marillion’s 15th studio album is actually a 110-minute double album split into two separate CDs. Happiness Is the Road Volume 1 is subtitled Essence while Volume 2 is subtitled The Hard Shoulder. Both contain all new material. A new creative streak of writing and producing music was captured in the studio and fans will not be disappointed. Marillion will be posting reviews here as they come in. For now, we’ll just quote from the review in Classic Rock magazine: “They still sound like Marillion but, dare we say it, a better, bolder Marillion... All in all then, it’s beautifully rendered, touching and telling. Happy days.”
This is the U.S. edition of Marillion’s 2007 studio album Somewhere Else. Beginning in the late 1990’s, a string of increasingly dull albums caused many of Marillion’s original progressive fans to lose interest. But Marillion began a resurgence with Marbles (2004), and Somewhere Else continues with similar strengths. This is the U.S. edition of Marbles with the bonus video of Don’t Hurt Yourself. Check here for Marillion DVDs.
Anthony Phillips & Joji Hirota - Wildlife ($17.99)
Anthony Phillips - The Geese and the Ghost 2CD ($17.99) out-of-stockThese are the 2008 remastered 2CD Voiceprint editions of Anthony Phillips’ classic early albums. Details can be found on Voiceprint’s site for The Geese and the Ghost, Wise After the Event, and 1984. The Geese and the Ghost was released in 1977, but the recordings for it had begun several years earlier and are representative of the pastoral early Genesis sound. As most Genesis fans know, Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins play on this album, with Phil singing on two tracks. Ant took over vocals on Wise After the Event (1978), while the guest musicians include Michael Giles, Mel Collins, John G. Perry, and Rupert Hine (who also produced). Sides (1979) has been skipped for now at least.
1984 was released in 1981 and finds Ant playing keyboards and only occasional guitar. Morris Pert and Richard Scott assist, but it’s mostly Ant. He uses the Roland CR-78 CompuRhythm, which was also used by Genesis, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Mike Oldfield and many others. It was never intended to sound like real drums, which is its appeal. 1984 is instrumental and bursting with great melodies, and perhaps Oldfield is not a bad reference point for some of it. All three of these titles include a second CD full of rarities, demos, alternate mixes, etc., providing great insight into the making of each album. The booklets include extensive new liner notes, including background information on each bonus track. Also, The Geese and the Ghost and Wise After the Event were two of the best album covers ever, though the larger format of the vinyl LP is really required to see the clever details.
If memory serves, Anthony Phillips first worked with Joji Hirota on 1983’s Invisible Men album. The two later collaborated on music for television wildlife programs mostly in the British Survival series. Wildlife (2008 on Voiceprint) contains highlights of that music, recorded by Ant and Joji between 1994-2003. The CD contains 45 tracks from 11 programs. More Anthony Phillips CDs can be found on our British page.
Rewiring Genesis: A Tribute to The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (2CD, $17.99) Nearly coinciding with the release of the SACD surround version of The Lamb is Rewiring Genesis, a project of Nick D’Virgilio of Spock’s Beard fame and Nashville-based recording engineer/producer Mark Hornsby. With the assistance of top Nashville session musicians, they have re-recorded the classic Genesis album in its entirety in a unique way, including horn, woodwind, and string arrangements. The songs have been taken in a whole new direction. “We wanted to see what would happen if we exposed the songs to a different climate of musicians,” says D’Virgilio. “The early Genesis recordings are so musical and very bluesy when you get right down to it. They really lend themselves to some different interpretations.” D’Virgilio worships The Lamb as most prog fans do, but most of the session musicians had never heard the album (it is Nashville after all), so they read their charts and played without preconceptions. As Nick says, “We are not trying to recreate The Lamb. That would be stupid; it is already a classic. We are not trying to make it completely different either, just giving it some new life. The songs and the writing are so good that it just lends itself to a different interpretation.” Face it, your life will be incomplete without this!
Jack Foster III - JazzRaptor’s Secret ($12.99) SALE!
Jack Foster III - Evolution of JazzRaptor ($13.99) Jack Foster III’s third CD Tame Until Hungry (2007, digipack) is billed as “Jack Foster III with Trent Gardner and Robert Berry”. Trent Gardner is of course Magellan’s mastermind, and Robert Berry should be well-known from his stint with Emerson and Palmer in the short-lived 3, his solo albums, and working with most of the acts on the Magna Carta label during the 1990’s. These three musicians are of like mind, and although Foster is firmly in control here, the result will undoubtedly appeal to fans of Magellan and Robert Berry, and probably Spock’s Beard as well. Tame Until Hungry also suggests a John Wetton who had been born later; Foster’s music is more contemporary and higher energy than Wetton’s, with far fewer ballads. There is a serious singing and songwriting talent at work here, and fortunately for us, Foster frames his songs in adventurous arrangements. There is a strong pop/rock sensibility, surrounded by plenty of symphonic prog elements. 61-minutes. Read the DPRP and Prognaut reviews.
Gardner also produced, arranged, and played on (keys, vocals, percussion) all of Foster’s first album Evolution of JazzRaptor (2004). It was recorded at Robert Berry’s studio, and Berry plays on almost every track (bass, drums, guitar). Ignore the word “jazz” in the title. It’s a very good album that covers a lot of territory and integrates it all into a proggy whole. As with Tame..., Spock’s Beard fans as well as Magellan fans will probably enjoy this album a lot. This is the Musea edition.
On Raptorgnosis (2005, 62-minutes), Foster again gets a lot of help from Trent Gardner and Robert Berry. This one is less progressive, coming closest to 1990’s Rush, with a bit of early Chicago here, a bit of Queen there, that sort of thing. As you’d expect from these guys, it’s very professional and competent, but more of an energetic AOR album than a symphonic progressive one.
Jack Foster III’s 2008 CD JazzRaptor’s Secret again features Robert Berry on every track and Trent Gardner on all but two tracks. This one is as good as contemporary American-style progressive rock gets. Think of Echolyn with some latter-day Yes stirred in and you’ll be very close. Many prog fans will pass on albums that are under an individual’s name while snapping up albums by, say, Magellan, though Magellan is no more and no less a band than Jack Foster III is. And this album sounds every bit as much like a band as Echolyn does. So at this stage, prog fans ignore Jack Foster III at their own peril. What else can we say, JazzRaptor’s Secret is really, really good!
Days Between Stations - same ($13.99) This is the 2007 debut CD by Days Between Stations, a Los Angeles band formed by guitarist Sepand Samzadeh and keyboardist Oscar Fuentes, with a large number of other musicians assisting. The music is instrumental (with some wordless vocals), certainly influenced by mid-period Pink Floyd but more surreal, ambient, and cinematic. Some of the material could be compared to so-called post rock bands such as Godspeed You Black Emperor, and there are many other progressive elements as well. The lush soundscapes and rich sonic detail reveal an uncommon talent. Read the Proggnosis and Sea of Tranquility reviews, or just see this compilation of reviews. Also see the feature article on Days Between Stations in Progression Issue 54 (Summer 2008) for more info. 56-minutes, digipack.
Lunatic Soul - same ($15.99) This is the 2008 first solo album from Riverside’s singer Mariusz Duda, who we all know has a great voice. Duda is assisted by five other musicians including Riverside’s keyboardist and friends from Quidam and Indukti. The music is beautifully textured, and the mood here is much the same as Riverside (and Porcupine Tree, and all the other modern prog bands who’ve jumped on this particular bandwagon): dark, lush, melancholy and moving. It’s easy to draw parallels to the music Steven Wilson creates outside of Porcupine Tree. With the metal element of the parent band downplayed (Lunatic Soul contains no electric guitar at all), the music is more ambient, and the more refined and progressive elements are allowed more room to be heard. Digipack.
Fear of Flying - same ($13.99) This is the coming-out party for upstate New York’s Fear of Flying. Despite being self-titled, this 2008 CD is actually their third. Their first CD Parents Tend to Oxygen First dates to the mid-1980’s and was a hybrid of progressive rock and 80’s style synth-pop. Their second CD More Attempts at Perfection (2005) straddled progressive rock and synth-heavy pop/AOR, much the same as Blind Owl’s album or the first Asia album. That’s where FoF have been, but this new CD far exceeds their earlier efforts. If you haven't heard this band yet, you will be surprised at the level FoF are currently at. This is halfway between Saga and Genesis, with both great songs and vocals as well as fabulous long instrumental excursions that not many prog bands seem capable of anymore. Not like this anyway. Note on the band’s page of mp3's (first mp3 icon above), the first six tracks are from this CD. Currently all the clips on their MySpace page (second mp3 icon above) are from this CD. The CD comes in a fold-open cardboard sleeve and counts as only one-half CD for shipping.
Steve Walsh - Shadowman ($12.99) Steve Walsh is of course the voice of Kansas. Walsh originally released Shadowman in 2005. This 2008 edition adds two bonus tracks recorded in 2007 with most of the same musicians. Walsh sings and plays keys, Joel Kosche (Collective Soul) handles guitar and bass, and Joe Franco is the drummer. David Ragsdale guests on violin, while Michael Romeo of Symphony X adds orchestral arrangements using a sample library. Most of the music resembles the bluesy, hard rock side of Kansas, with symphonic keyboards and orchestral samples overlaid, and some prog-metal. Walsh’s voice is more whiskey-soaked now than in his younger days with Kansas, so it is well-suited to this type of material. Click the mp3 icon for lots of reviews in addition to audio samples. 63-minutes.
Also Eden - It’s Kind of You to Ask ($16.99) Also Eden are one of the best of the latest crop of British neo-prog bands. It’s great that there is a crop at all. Prog rock isn’t exactly popular in the UK, yet each year new prog bands emerge. What usually distinguishes the British prog bands today is not only that they actually write songs and put melody first, but they have quality singers whose vocals are up in the mix where vocals normally are and who can carry a song. Also Eden’s Huw Lloyd-Jones is such a singer, his voice having a slight John Wetton character. Along with Lloyd-Jones, the other core member of this quintet is keyboardist Ian Hodson, so keyboards occupy their rightful place in the arrangements, with many nods to Tony Banks. About Time (2006) and It’s Kind of You to Ask (2008) are symphonic rock, free of modern metal ugliness, in the vein of Abel Ganz and, to a lesser extent, Marillion, Pallas, and IQ. The distinguishing characteristic of Also Eden’s music is an emotional warmth that makes them the coziest of the British neo-prog bands. Put the kettle on. Read the review at JerryLucky.com.
Pravda - Walking Through Walls ($8.99) Pravda are an American progressive band from Boise, Idaho whose two CDs are quite different from each other. Their 2003 debut The Echoing Sounds has vocals on the majority of tracks. There is a mix of symphonic prog and classic rock here, but the instrumental content is stronger than the vocals; the vocals just seem to be holding the music back. Which may be why Pravda abandoned vocals entirely on their 2006 second CD Walking Through Walls. Here they are more focused and aggressive, with guitar playing a larger role, while the rough production edges of their debut have been smoothed out. They are also heavier here, inviting comparisons to Liquid Tension Experiment or Djam Karet. There is little improvisation or jamming though, as everything sounds structured. One could also mention Rush, Umphrey’s McGee, and Dream Theater. There may actually be more symphonic keyboards on The Echoing Sounds, though unevenly distributed, but Walking Through Walls is the better progressive rock album. Note the mp3 icons above link directly to mp3 playlists that will stream samples from each track of the corresponding album.
Rich Casey - Shadowblack ($11.99) |    |
Edensong - The Fruit Fallen ($12.99) The 2008 debut by this U.S. band has a surprisingly early-70’s British progressive sound. There are nods to Van der Graaf Generator, Yes, Jethro Tull and others, but overall the music is darker, more melancholy and pastoral. It goes without saying that Edensong’s songwriting is not on the level of those classic bands, but for those looking for long, dense tracks with that magical sound, or those missing Anglagard, this album will be most welcome. The keyboards generally stick to piano and organ, there is a lot of flute, some violin and cello. A small amount of metal lowers the tenor a bit and disrupts the early-70’s illusion, but this is not prog-metal. 71-minutes, digipack. Note Edensong are scheduled to play the 2009 3RP festival in Pittsburgh.
Strawbs - The Broken Hearted Bride ($14.99) 
Dave Cousins - Two Weeks Last Summer ($14.99)
Strawbs - Deep Cuts / Burning for You (2CD, $19.99)The single CDs are the latest editions on the Strawbs’ own Witchwood Media label, which now has better distribution in the U.S. and consequently lower prices on their CDs. The Broken Hearted Bride is Strawbs’ 2008 studio CD, with the lineup now Dave Cousins, Dave Lambert, Chas Cronk and Rod Coombes. John Hawken has retired from touring but does play keyboards on the CD, and Ian Cutler adds fiddle. This is the best Strawbs album in ages. The Strawbs sound young again, they sound like a rock band again, and there are some symphonic songs worthy of the glory days. 60-minutes. More information at the Strawbs’ website.
Dave Cousins’ Two Weeks Last Summer (1972) was recorded between the Strawbs’ Grave New World and Bursting at the Seams albums. Assisting Dave are Dave Lambert (who had not yet joined the Strawbs), Rick Wakeman, Roger Glover (Deep Purple), Jon Hiseman (Colosseum), and others. The album fits in well with the Strawbs’ releases, and this 2004 CD adds the track Going Home, which had been released as a single.
The Strawbs’ prime period was that of Hero and Heroine (1974) and Ghosts (1975), so Deep Cuts (1976) is from shortly after their peak, with the shift from symphonic to pop-rock on. (The story is the same for any number of progressive bands; only the album names have been changed.) Deep Cuts featured a new label, new producers and new keyboardists, and contains some classic tracks, with Simple Visions still a concert staple. One of the great LP covers too. This CD contains one bonus track.
Burning for You followed in 1977, featuring a Patrick Woodruffe cover illustration. It was the last Strawbs album to chart in the U.S. The tracks Burning For Me, Cut Like a Diamond, and Heartbreaker are standouts. One bonus track.
The Deep Cuts / Burning for You double-CD is the 1996 edition on Road Goes on Forever, which is where Witchwood were releasing Strawbs CDs prior to bringing everything in house. Both albums are here in their entirety, though not with the bonus tracks of the Witchwood editions. But it’s cheaper than buying the two separately, and as Geddy Lee once said, “Ten bucks is ten bucks, eh!”
Live at the Calderone, New York ’75 is an official live CD released by Witchwood. In the mid-1970s, the Strawbs were on a roll in the United States. The band had had five consecutive albums on the Billboard charts between 1972-1975, with Hero and Heroine and Ghosts selling over half a million copies between them. This CD was recorded on the Strawbs’ first U.S. headline tour and is the first release of this concert on CD. After John Hawken’s first departure, Cousins, Lambert, Cronk, and Coombes were augmented by Robert Kirby and John Mealing, both on keyboards. This CD shows how the Strawbs’ stage show had evolved from its early folk-inspired tunes into an almost continuous symphonic sequence of hard-hitting songs. Among the established classics were new offerings from the Nomadness album including The Promised Land, To Be Free, and Hanging in the Gallery, which have never appeared before on a Strawbs live album.
Recorded just prior to the Strawbs reunion tour that saw them headline NEARfest 2004, Deja Fou is not only Strawbs’ first album of all new material in a decade, but the lineup is the classic one that recorded Hero and Heroine and Ghosts, together for the first time in 30 years. No one seriously expected another Hero and Heroine, but Deja Fou is quite a good album, a lot of which sounds like it could have come from an even earlier period in Strawbs history, particularly the acoustic tracks. With keyboardist John Hawken living in the U.S., he contributed little to the writing and not all that much to the playing – he added his parts from the U.S. after receiving the tapes from the UK recording sessions. This is really a Cousins and Lambert album. Nevertheless, there are two tracks of classic Strawbs prog music, and the old magic frequently shines through.
Dave Cousins’ 2007 solo CD The Boy in the Sailor Suit features Chas Cronk, guitarist Miller Anderson (who was also on Two Weeks Last Summer 35 years earlier), fiddler Ian Cutler and drummer Chris Hunt, who along with a couple keyboardists and backing vocalists comprise “The Blue Angel Orchestra”. The album is more or less in the Strawbs’ folk-rock style. The fiddle pushes the sound close to Fairport Convention, though Cousins still rocks harder at times, and between his voice and his songwriting, there’s no mistaking The Boy in the Sailor Suit for the work of anyone else.
Nektar - Book of Days ($14.99)Book of Days is Nektar’s 2008 studio CD on the band’s own Treacle Music label. Original members Roye Albrighton and Ron Howden are joined by new members Peter Pichl on 5-string bass and Klaus Henatsch on keys, both from Hanover, Germany. This is the best of the reformed (post-2000) Nektar albums. Some songs have a modern sound, but there is much of the old Nektar sound present, something the previous two albums needed more of. Listeners are guaranteed a couple flashbacks to Remember the Future. Here are mp3 samples of the tracks Doctor Kool and Where Are You Now. For the full 11-minute Doctor Kool, which is an instant classic, check Roye Albrighton’s MySpace page. More audio clips can be found here. More Nektar CDs here.
Moth Vellum - same ($12.99) Moth Vellum’s 2008 debut CD (digipack) introduces a Los Angeles-based symphonic prog quartet heavily influenced by Yes and committed to classic 1970’s progressive aesthetics, albeit with modern production. They resemble Yes both vocally and instrumentally, often using similar guitar and bass tones as Howe and Squire, and generally staying near the Wakeman keyboard style, Mellotron washes included. There’s enough room in the Yes universe to fit several bands heavily influenced by Yes that sound little like each other, as for example no one will confuse Moth Vellum with Starcastle. There’s also a little Genesis in Moth Vellum’s style. Six tracks cover the 58-minutes of this CD that will surely excite many prog fans. For a genre that was supposed to be long dead, there sure is a lot of activity.
Tempus Fugit - Chessboard ($15.99) Tempus Fugit are one of the best South American progressive bands to emerge during the 1990’s. They sing in English, though their 1990’s albums are predominantly instrumental, their music lying in Genesis, Marillion, and Camel territory. Tales from a Forgotten World is their 1997 debut album and maybe still their best. This is the 2007 extended and remastered edition, which comes in a slipcase and adds two bonus tracks, 1993 demo versions of two of the album tracks. Here is an mp3 excerpt from the track A Song for a Distant Land. The “official bootleg” is a great quality 1998 recording of the last show with the original lineup, including three new tracks.
Their third studio album Chessboard (2008, 50-minutes) is again a refined, melodic symphonic prog album, roughly a blend of early Marillion and Camel and likewise straddling classic and neo-prog. There are somewhat more vocals now, with a guest female vocalist appearing in spots to add another dimension. Beautiful tri-fold digipack. Here is an mp3 of the complete 11-minute track The Game of Life. Read reviews at Prog Archives.
Trem do Futuro - O Tempo ($15.99) Brazilians Trem do Futuro released their first CD in 1995 and this, their second, not until 2008. A seven-piece band, they sing in Portuguese and augment their sound with a lot of flute and some violin. Their style is purely 1970’s-style sympho-prog, coming close to the sound of various early-70’s Italian progressive bands who used flute. Released on the same label around the same time as Tempus Fugit’s Chessboard, O Tempo doesn't sell as well here, perhaps because of Fear of Foreign Vocals, and though the two albums are apples and oranges, this one deserves just as much attention. More South American progressive CDs.
Fromuz - Overlook ($12.99) Fromuz are a world-class instrumental progressive rock and fusion band from Uzbekistan, very high-energy and fairly heavy. Using the ISO code for their country (UZ), their name literally means “From Uzbekistan”. Their drummer/percussionist is Vladimir Badirov, who released the Greeting from Nostradamus CD on Unicorn Records in 2004. Audio Diplomacy (2007) features an NTSC, all-region DVD of a 2005 live performance, a multi-camera professional production. There is an accompanying 75-minute audio CD containing the same songs on the DVD, the two discs housed together in a jewel box. There is so little crowd noise, and the recording quality is so high, that this could pass for a studio CD. Maybe it is and we’re just confused. The DVD includes two bonus tracks. Read the Sea of Tranquility reviews.
Overlook (69-minutes) is Fromuz’s 2008 studio CD. There is little real jazz or fusion here, as Fromuz have focused on the progressive rock side of their style. They get heavy at times, but the music is distinct from the likes of Planet X or Liquid Tension Experiment. Fromuz are much artier, varied and inventive. High marks all around.
Emily Bezar - Exchange ($12.99) 
Emily Bezar’s music is breathtaking, magical, and defies categorization. As Exposé magazine said, “Bezar is a genre unto herself”. Emily is a northern Californian who spent time living in Europe. It’s impossible not to think of Kate Bush when hearing Emily sing. She is a classically-trained pianist, and her virtuoso piano playing is at the center of her music along with her incredible voice, which has similarities to Kate’s but is more operatic. While Emily’s music flirts with pop, it is much more progressive and less pop-oriented than Kate’s. But each of her albums is distinct, making it difficult to generalize about them. Her 1993 debut Grandmother’s Tea Leaves (out-of-print) was her most intimate and, at times, experimental, but the style established here is at the core of all her following albums. Emily formed a band (adding guitar/bass/drums) to record Moon in Grenadine (1996) and Four Walls Bending (1999). Her bandmates are also stellar players. Of her first four albums, Four Walls Bending is the most (progressive) rock-oriented.
Angels’ Abacus (2004) is a long one at 73-minutes. Here she uses a varying lineup of musicians rather than the fixed band of the previous two albums, and there are more electronic textures. While it isn’t as rock-oriented as the previous album, Angels’ Abacus is more sophisticated and ambitious. As Emily describes it, “This is music as architecture, as crystalline objects in time, with no agenda but its own sensual and complex beauty.” Is it progressive rock? To our way of thinking it is, but every genre from fusion to cabaret to rock will undoubtedly want to claim Emily as their own. The production and recording quality are exceptional, and this CD as well as Four Walls Bending are HDCD-encoded.
Patience pays off, as Emily’s 2008 album Exchange (72-minutes) is stunning, merging all aspects of her previous work into her most progressive album and perhaps the most live-sounding. On this CD, Emily again has a more than capable band with her, including saxes, trumpet, trombone, violin and cello in addition to guitar, bass and drums. There is a lot of jazz influence in the sophisticated harmonic vocabulary, but the result is closer to Hatfield and the North than jazz per se. Emotionally these songs have a depth and intimacy that reminds one of Peter Gabriel, but with feminine rather than masculine energy. Kate Bush is the better pop songstress, but Emily’s work is musically more intricate and challenging. Forget about pretenders like Tori Amos – that is pop, this is art.
Believe - Hope to See Another Day Live DVD ($16.99) Believe is the new band of Mirek Gil, guitarist and founding member of Collage. Two other ex-Collage and/or Satellite members are in the band: Przemek Zawadzki (bass) and Tomek Rózycki (English-language vocals, guitars). Wlodek Tafel (drums) and Adam Milosz (keys) were in Gil’s previous band Ananke. The band is completed by female Japanese violinist Satomi. Their 2006 debut CD Hope to See Another Day blended the Collage style with that of Riverside, meaning Believe sound more contemporary than Collage, the guitar is sometimes heavier and the music more melancholy. The violin is a welcome addition as it almost always is. Note the U.S. edition of Hope to See Another Day has been deleted.
This is the digipack limited edition of Believe’s 2008 second CD Yesterday Is a Friend (64-minutes), which includes three bonus tracks, one of which is entitled Best Wishes for Robert Fripp, an excellent piece in the 1980’s King Crimson style. Milosz has been demoted to guest, while the other five members remain, and two other guests add guitar and flute. Here Believe further develop the style of their first album, marrying elements of Satellite and Riverside, with the violin adding another dimension. The music is sensuous, atmospheric and finely detailed, easily placing Believe in the same class as Satellite or Riverside. Read a review at ProgArchives.
The concert captured on the Hope to See Another Day Live DVD (NTSC, all-region) was recorded in November 2007 at the Wyspański Theater in Katowice, Poland. Most of the songs are from the Hope to See Another Day album, plus one song from Yesterday Is a Friend and one from the Mr Gil - Alone CD (Mirek Gil’s former band). The DVD also includes an interview with Mirek Gil and Tomek Rózycki, a photo gallery, and two bonus audio tracks taken from the Yesterday Is a Friend CD. Dolby Digital 5.1 surround audio. The Collage and Satellite CDs are on our East European page.
Willowglass - Book of Hours ($14.99) Willowglass is an English act that is actually the work of one Andrew Marshall on electric & acoustic guitars, 12-string guitar, classical guitar, bass, keyboards, flute, recorders and drums, with the assistance of Dave Brightman on drums. The ten instrumental pieces on Willowglass’ 2005 debut are pure English 1970’s-style progressive rock, with the main influences being Genesis, Camel, Anthony Phillips, and Pink Floyd, in that order. There is plenty of Mellotron strings, plenty of Hackett or Latimer-style electric guitar work, and plenty of the pastoral feeling missing from most modern progressive rock. This CD has continued to sell, as more and more prog fans discover Willowglass.
Book of Hours (2008) is again instrumental and continues in the same general style while expanding it slightly. In addition to Camel, Genesis, and Anthony Phillips, there are touches of Gryphon and Rick Wakeman. This music has an elegance and a sensitivity that contrasts sharply with the overblown and demonstrative style of so many current prog bands, and is a breath of fresh air after all the metal-dressed-up-as-prog being churned out today. The beautiful artwork for both CD booklets is by Lee Gaskins. The artwork alone may tell you everything you need to know about these exceptional albums.
The Reasoning - Dark Angel ($15.99) The Reasoning are a Welsh prog band formed by ex-Magenta and ex-Erasmus bassist Matthew Cohen and featuring former Karnataka singer Rachel Cohen (née Jones). In addition to Cohen, the band have two excellent male vocalists. Their 2007 CD Awakening is a great debut with strong songs. It was mixed by Dave Meegan (U2, Marillion), while Steve Rothery (Marillion) guests. Dark Angel (2008) fulfills the promise heard on their debut, with the band sounding more confident, and the songwriting and production both taking a step up. All those vocalists The Reasoning have stockpiled are paying dividends in the form of some of the best vocals and vocal interplay in progdom. New guitarist Owain Roberts adds more metal stylings. It works well enough, as the band can also be as lush, delicate, warm and melodic as Karnataka and Magenta, something few prog-metal bands could claim. Easily recommended to fans of Karnataka and Magenta, the progenitors of the current south Wales progressive bands, but The Reasoning’s appeal extends beyond that as well.
Magenta - Live at the Point 2007 DVD ($19.99) Magenta’s 2008 live double-CD features over 100 minutes of live music recorded at their amazing performance at The Point in Cardiff in November 2007. Only two of the tracks appear on Magenta’s previous live 2CD. Live at the Point includes an extended selection from Home, the rarely performed Sloth, and the recent show-stopping arrangement of The Warning from Revolutions. View the setlist here.
The same performance is captured on the DVD (NTSC, all-region), which adds a behind-the-scenes documentary, interviews, and the video for Speechless. Not only was it the last concert in support of their third album Home and the last performance of that lineup, apparently even the venue has since closed! The Live at the Point DVD features a set list largely different from The Gathering DVD released in 2005. 5.1 surround and stereo audio, 147-minutes (concert running time 106-minutes), 16:9 widescreen.
Magenta - Metamorphosis ($13.99) Yes, Magenta’s 2008 studio CD Metamorphosis is somewhat darker and more intense than their previous work, though hardly enough to warrant cover graphics that belong on a metal album. As the previous albums Home and New York Suite showed Magenta becoming more song and vocal-oriented, Metamorphosis represents an about face. The qualities found on Home are still present though, blended with the epic progressive rock of their first two albums, then done up darker than any of it. Troy Donockley (Iona) again guests on Uilleann pipes, and there is a string section. Read the review at Musical Discoveries.
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Thieves’ Kitchen - The Water Road ($12.99) |     |
Beardfish - Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two ($14.99) out-of-stock 
Beardfish - Från en plats du ej kan se ($15.99) We didn’t think anyone made records like this anymore. Beardfish are an outstanding Swedish progressive band blending many 1970’s prog styles. There are elements of Swedish 70’s bands (Trettioåriga Kriget, Bo Hansson, Made in Sweden, Kaipa), the great Dutch bands Supersister and Focus, Gentle Giant, the Canterbury Bands, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, and much more. And yet there are contemporary elements too. There’s so much good stuff here, it’s hard to know where to begin when attempting to describe it all. Sleeping in Traffic: Part Two (2008, 74-minutes) is their fourth. Sleeping in Traffic: Part One (2007, 66-minutes) is their third.
The double-CD The Sane Day (2005) is their second. This is the 2007 edition on Progress Records. Read reviews here. Från en plats du ej kan se (From a place you cannot see) is their 2003 debut. This is the 2007 remastered edition on Progress Records, which includes two bonus tracks and an expanded booklet.
Mostly Autumn - Glass Shadows ($16.99) Glass Shadows is the 2008 Mostly Autumn studio CD. This is the standard version available to the trade. There is a CD+DVD special edition available only from the band that adds a making-of video, two bonus tracks and an alternate mix, so if there are any left and you have $50+ to spend, go for it.
Mostly Autumn has become something of a revolving door of late, with just about everyone other than Bryan Josh and Heather Findlay leaving the band, but guitarist Liam Davison has returned, and keyboardist Iain Jennings seems to be back at least temporarily. The band have added singer and flute player Anne-Marie Helder (ex-Karnataka), and so it seems Mostly Autumn are stockpiling talented female vocalists. The line-up that recorded Glass Shadows is Josh, Findlay, Helder, Olivia Sparnenn (harmony vocals), Andy Smith (bass) and Henry Bourne (drums), with Troy Donockley making his usual guest appearance on Uilleann pipes, low & penny whistles, string arrangement and programming. More than any previous Mostly Autumn CD, this one is dominated by Bryan and Heather, who did virtually all the writing and oversaw the mixing and mastering. Glass Shadows represents a return to form. After three CDs seeing them become more of a rock band, Mostly Autumn have to a great extent returned to their roots, restoring the folky, pastoral and delicate elements. They aren't just re-treading old ground -- their sound now is different from the early days -- but they are again focusing on what made them a special band. Heather of course handles much more of the vocal duties now, and her beguiling voice sometimes reminds one of Stevie Nicks. All in all, Glass Shadows won’t displace The Last Bright Light as our favorite, but the ship is back on course.
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Breathing Space - Coming Up for Air ($16.99) Breathing Space (2005) is the first CD from former Mostly Autumn keyboardist Iain Jennings, joined here by Olivia Sparnenn on vocals and Mostly Autumn bandmates Liam Davison and Bryan Josh on guitars and brother Andrew Jennings on drums. Olivia was hired by Mostly Autumn to provide backing vocals, but she is featured prominently on this album as lead vocalist, and she is a very strong singer. Iain wrote or co-wrote a number of Mostly Autumn songs, so it should be no surprise that this is more of a songwriter’s album and not one full of flashy keyboard workouts. Jennings is coming much more from a Tony Banks and Rick Wright direction than Emerson or Wakeman. There are seven tracks with vocals, heavy on the ballads, plus two instrumentals, including the beautiful Vangelis-like Escape that concludes the album with some “breathing space”. This album should please most fans of Mostly Autumn, as much of it sounds like MA with the heavy Pink Floyd influence (coming from Bryan Josh) downplayed and another side of the band emphasized.
After the first CD, Iain formed a touring band and gave them the name Breathing Space, retaining Sparnenn as lead vocalist and bringing in a new guitarist, bassist, drummer, and brother Ben as second keyboardist. Coming Up for Air (2007) is a solid second effort. The CD is front-loaded with the most song-oriented and vocal-heavy tracks, after which the music get proggier, with room for instrumental passages. Sparnenn’s voice is often the most recognizable element of the Breathing Space sound, and as her voice has similarities to Joanne Hogg’s of Iona, this album could be compared to Iona’s upbeat vocal tracks, with Jennings’ Genesis influences substituting for Iona’s Celtic elements. Note Jennings’ first CD is the U.S. edition, hence the lower price; no U.S. release is scheduled for Coming Up for Air. Read the review at Musical Discoveries.
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