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Exposé Online

Not just outside the box, but denying the existence of boxes.
Covering music from the fringes since 1993.

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Available online from Issue 24

Billy Currie - Stand up and Walk

Cover art 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Cover art 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

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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

Cover art 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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

Cover art 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

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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

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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

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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

Cover art 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

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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

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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)

Oskar Aichinger - To Touch a Distant Soul

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Mainland European Jazz is a true mystery looking from this continent eastward across the Atlantic. To keep tabs on what is happening, what impact there is, and how volatile a jazz scene may be,...

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(Posted by Jeff Melton 2002-04-01)

Peter Blegvad - Choices under Pressure

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Choices under Pressure is a career retrospective done in a rather oblique (and typically Blegvadian) manner. He has rerecorded more-or-less acoustic versions of some of his best songs from...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Pink Floyd - Is There Anybody Out There? The Wall Live

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At long last, a legitimate live release of Pink Floyd’s The Wall is available! The band played this magnum opus in full a mere 29 times, in only four cities. Even bootlegs of it are...

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(Posted by Jim Chokey 2002-04-01)

Porcupine Tree - Voyage 34: The Complete Trip

Cover art History: In 1992, Porcupine Tree was a little-noticed solo project of Steven Wilson. The first album had made little splash on the progressive psychedelic scene. Wilson decided to bring a little less...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Pulsar - Bienvenue au Conseil d'Administration

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Coming off the success of their first three albums, and facing the rise of the punk esthetic with its corresponding decline in the popularity of complex music, Pulsar began to work within the...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Raoul Björkenheim - Apocalypso

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The only other release by Raoul Björkenheim I’ve heard is the collaboration he did with Nicky Skopelitis from 1997. I liked that a lot, but with two guitarists, you never know...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Soft Machine - Soft Machine Turns On, Volume 1 & 2

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The legacy of the early Soft Machine has been chronicled by many bootlegs and re-releases of the band's first album demos by Giorgio Gomelsky. What so far have not surfaced are official...

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(Posted by Jeff Melton 2002-04-01)

Sonus Umbra - Snapshots from Limbo

Cover art I was a little worried when I saw the names Luis Nasser and Jeff Laramee in the credits for this disc. They are both in the band Kurgan’s Bane, along with singer Lisa Francis (who provides guest...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Steve Hackett - Live Archive 70, 80, 90's

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Since Steve Hackett walked away from the Genesis rainbow, it's been a well-kept secret to fans that his live shows carried forward the finesse of that group. Adding further proof is a new four...

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(Posted by Jeff Melton 2002-04-01)

Stinkhorn - Tunguska

Cover art Back in #20 I reviewed the debut by this Seattle jazz group. I’m happy to say that this second release, Tunguska, is every bit as good as the first, and maybe better. Stinkhorn’s...  » Read more
(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

Tales - The Seskian Wars

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Here we have another in the continuing series of electronic concept albums from French synthesist Jean-Luc Hervé Berthelot. This one tells the story of an interstellar conflict between an...

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(Posted by Jon Davis 2002-04-01)

 

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