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Nick Prol and the Proletarians — An Erstwisle Alphabestiary: Book Two
(Bandcamp no#, 2025, CD / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2026-01-22

An Erstwisle Alphabestiary: Book Two Cover art

December 2025 brought the long-awaited second installment of Nick Prol’s Erstwisle Alphabestiary, five years after the appearance of Book One. Like most good sequels, Book Two picks up right after the final scene of its predecessor, with a “Welcome Back” and then one song for each of the strange beasts whose names begin with the letters M-Z. Well, they’re not all beasts exactly: “Stead” is apparently the name of a town — but a town which is also a life form somehow. And then there’s poor “X,” which, according to the rules of the Stead Board of Records, is not to be discussed and has most of its descriptive text redacted. The album consists of fifteen songs that touch on a wide variety of styles and moods, and highlights include “Pachyfoxes,” which is backed by the sound of a string quartet, “Quixotomes” and its Cheer-Accident-like rhythms, the organ chorale of “Rizwees,” and the avant-metal inflections of “X (Redacted).” “Toerillas” is a weird, catchy little tune featuring Mellotron sounds. Like Benny and the Jets, they’re weird and wonderful, a joyful and surreal journey through stream-of-consciousness writing applied to imaginative composition. Prol himself plays guitar and sings, Ben Spees handles bass and keyboards as well as singing, and Connor Reilly plays drums; as on previous Proletarians albums, there are a number of guests, including Kavus Torabi, Thymme Jones, Hollas Longton, Rita Kárpáti, Dominique D'Avanzo, Mark Beebe, Jack Brissenden, and Mohadev, who are not credited specifically. Prol wrote all of the lyrics and most of the music, with Spees contributing music on three and Kárpáti on one. It’s masterfully done, and should be in the collection of every lover of progressive and experimental music.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases

Related artist(s): Nick Prol / Proletarians, Kavus Torabi

More info
http://proletarians.bandcamp.com/album/an-erstwisle-alphabestiary-book-two

 

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