Exposé Online

Billy Currie - Stand up and Walk

The second solo album by violinist and composer Billy Currie (ex Ultravox, Visage) traces a narrow path down a lush musical side road. Having completed his tenure with those bands, moving into a...  » Read more
(Posted by Jeff Melton 2002-04-01)

Bz Bz Ueu - Uhozmerigotz

I’ll admit a slight prejudice against bands with unpronounceable (or questionably pronounceable) names, but a brief review is probably not the time to get into a discussion of the philosophy...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Djivan Gasparyan - Moon Shines at Night

The duduk is an amazingly expressive instrument, sounding like a cross between a flute and an androgynous human voice, sometimes with reedy clarinet or oboe tones, and Djivan Gasparyan is a master...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Eskalation - Different Music for Bassoon, Wind Synthesizer and Sampled Percussion

First the cheap shot: My initial reaction to this music was, “Different.” I’ve heard a fair amount of electronic music, and none of it sounded much like this. There are elements...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

French TV - #7 The Case Against Art

You have to hand it to Mike Sary and Co., every French TV seems an improvement on the last, a feat impressive considering the strength of 1999's The Violence of Amateurs. Album number...

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(Posted by Mike McLatchey 2002-04-01)

Garmarna - Hildegard von Bingen

When I first heard that Garmarna’s next album was going to consist entirely of music by 12th Century composer Hildegard von Bingen, I was a bit concerned. But I was assured they weren’t going New...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Giles > Giles > Fripp - The Brondesbury Tapes

The early exploits of Giles, Giles and Fripp have always been a footnote considering the impact of the first King Crimson album on unsuspecting English and US audiences. Their only album, The...

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(Posted by Jeff Melton 2002-04-01)

Glass - No Stranger to the Skies

The little town of Port Townsend, Washington has special significance to me – I have some very fond memories from there dating back to the 70s. So when I first heard about Glass, a progressive band...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Gongzilla - Live

Musically, Gongzilla is the branch of the Gong family tree which favors instrumental fusion with heavy guitar and vibraphone. Historically, Gongzilla is the descendent of Pierre Merlin’s Gong...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Greenwall - Elektropuzzles

For this release, the “band” Greenwall consists entirely of keyboardist / programmer Andrea Pavoni. The tracks were all composed from 1994 to 1998, and comprise an interesting spectrum...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Greg Weeks - Awake Like Sleep

Awake Like Sleep is a lazy psychedelic exploration of interior spaces, and comes off a bit like a very introverted Meddle-era Pink Floyd without lead guitar. Greg Weeks has a soft...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

James Blood Ulmer - Blue Blood

One of the things about blues music that always loses my interest is the relative lack of harmonic sophistication: the blues almost by definition stick to a set of three or four chords for each...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Jan Akkerman - Tabernakel

In Focus, Jan Akkerman was one of the most interesting and distinctive rock guitarists of the 70s, and with this solo album, originally released in 1973, he showed an amazing range. Six of the ten...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Jean-Luc Ponty - Life Enigma

I’m probably not unique in my history with Jean-Luc Ponty. I discovered his inventive, melodic jazz-fusion violin playing with his albums of the seventies like Enigmatic Ocean and...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Jeff Johnson Trio - Free & The Art of Falling

Bassist Jeff Johnson is one of the regulars in the Origin Records stable, and these two releases see him as leader, first of a trio with drummer Billy Mintz and reedman Hans Teuber, then with a...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

John Martyn - Live at The Town and Country Club 1986

John Martyn has been writing personal songs and singing them in his inimitable style for quite some time now, and while he has never become the household name that Van Morrison or Joe Cocker has,...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Kit Watkins - The Gathering & Music for the End

Fans of Happy the Man, beware. These three live CDs are more in the realm of ambient space music than progressive rock. Taken together, they document the musical happenings on the night of March...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

L'Ensemble Rayé - Ein Fest für Pu den Bären

L’Ensemble Rayé’s third (I believe) release is the soundtrack for a Swiss version of Winnie the Pooh. The tunes, mostly instrumental, are a charming combination of innocence and art,...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Lenny White - Venusian Summer & Big City

Looking back thirty years later on the “golden age” of jazz-rock fusion, we tend to focus on the super tight unison lines and complex rhythmic structures of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Marble Sheep - Stone Marby

This album sees Marble Sheep back together in the studio for the first time since about 1993, and a finer example of heavy Japanese psychedelic music I could not name. There are bits of Hawkwind,...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)