Exposé Online » Reviews of releases for 2011

Airbag - All Rights Removed & The Greatest Show on Earth

Another Norwegian band that has escaped my attention until now is Airbag, though they have been around since 2004. Now Karisma Records is reissuing remastered versions of their second and third...

Airbag - All Rights Removed

[Regarding All Rights Removed:]

Airbag is a young Norwegian quintet whose 2009 debut, Identity, received positive reviews and helped garner concert appearances...

Matt Smith - Matt Smith 1988-2020 Vol.1 - Vol.4

Perhaps you’ve read some of the recent reviews we’ve posted of guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, bandleader and composer Matt Smith of the 6 String Ranch in Austin, Texas. He’s...

Todd Rundgren's Utopia - Benefit for Moogy Klingman

Mark “Moogy” Klingman had a long association with Todd Rundgren, and was one of the founding members of Utopia, appearing on the band’s first studio album and Another...

Fotheringay - Essen 1970

Although they were together only about a year, Fotheringay is generally seen as an interim step for singer Sandy Denny between her tenure (first time around) with Fairport Convention, with whom she...

Orange Peel - Orange Peel

Another one of the bright spots on the shaky Germanofon roster, Orange Peel were a one-shot that put out a great album in 1970 and then disappeared. The music is typical of early German groups more...

Gilgamesh - Gilgamesh

I hate to admit it, but this is one English import LP I just plain loved for the album cover alone, an amusing rock 'n roll version of the children's game Snakes and Ladders (e.g.—...

David Lawrence Atkins - Spitting on a Fish

I’m not going to call this a new release, nor is it a reissue either. It’s been out there for seven years already, languishing without any real distribution, the only difference between...

Jack Dupon - Démon Hardi, Bascule à Vif, Tête de Chien & Les Ronfleurs Dorment

I’ve been debating with myself about how I would review this collection of music, individual reviews or one combined review. Jack Dupon’s music is difficult to describe, so instead of...

Jack Dupon - Démon Hardi

[Regarding Démon Hardi]

An up-and-coming four-piece from the Auvergne region of France, there is nobody named Jack in the band – kind of like that other band...

Tony Levin / David Torn / Alan White - Levin Torn White

Magic Pie - Motions of Desire, Circus of Life & The Suffering Joy

Following on Karisma’s release of King for a Day in 2015, the label has gone to Magic Pie’s back catalog and re-released the first three albums. In 2005 they put out...

Soft Machine Legacy - Live Adventures

With the sad passings of Canterbury icons Elton Dean and Hugh Hopper, the reformulated quartet continues to carry on convincingly in the vein of the great icon of British Jazz. Now led by the...

The Microscopic Septet - Friday the Thirteenth

Straight ahead jazz with a flair for the avant – that’s Friday the 13th, the latest from The Microscopic Septet. This is the band’s tribute to Thelonious Monk, featuring...

Dave Brock - Strange Trips and Pipe Dreams

Dave Brock has been the one steady member of Hawkwind for nearly 30 years (the band's first album was released in 1971). In a band that has witnessed over 30 personnel changes over that time,...

Martin Turner - Life Begins & New Live Dates - The Complete Set

With the lawsuit over the Wishbone Ash band name finalized in Andy Powell's favor, in 2014 "Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash" became "Martin Turner Ex-Wishbone Ash." Late...

Embryo - Bad Heads and Bad Cats

As far as Embryo albums go, Bad Heads and Bad Cats is one of the cornerstones of their career in the early to mid-70s, a turning point where the band was celebrating its new-found freedom...

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen / Seven Up & Join Inn / Starring Rosi

Here we have domestic releases of the consummate Krautrock band’s early albums. Though not as quotable to neo-Kraut hipsters as Can, Faust, Kraftwerk and Neu! — Ash Ra Tempel were...

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen / Seven Up & Join Inn / Starring Rosi

Here we have domestic releases of the consummate Krautrock band’s early albums. Though not as quotable to neo-Kraut hipsters as Can, Faust, Kraftwerk and Neu! — Ash Ra Tempel were...

Ash Ra Tempel - Schwingungen / Seven Up & Join Inn / Starring Rosi

Here we have domestic releases of the consummate Krautrock band’s early albums. Though not as quotable to neo-Kraut hipsters as Can, Faust, Kraftwerk and Neu! — Ash Ra Tempel were...

Pink Floyd - Piper at the Gates of Dawn

Of all the 60s / 70s classic groups out there, maybe the one I'm most fatigued by is Pink Floyd. A year or two ago I had a chance to listen to the Dark Side of the Moon box that had...

Guildenstern - Guildenstern

The story of this band begins in May 1976 when bassist and guitarist Michael Lippert and drummer Claus Lange, together with keyboard player Gerd Schmelzer and guitarist Reinhard Olschanski, all...

Blixt - Blixt

As it says on the cover, Blixt is Raoul Björkenheim, Bill Laswell, and Morgan Ågren. And in case you weren't aware of it, they are all monsters on their instruments. But technique...

Kevin Kastning / Sándor Szabó / Balász Major - Triptych & Becoming

In all the music I've heard from Kevin Kastning (both with and without his frequent collaborator Sándor Szabó), one thing that has not been present is any kind of percussion....

Kevin Kastning / Sándor Szabó / Balász Major - Triptych

For their fifth album, Triptych, guitarists Kevin Kastning (USA) and Sándor Szabó (Hungary) are joined by Hungarian percussionist Balázs Major. As one might expect...

Steve Hackett - Beyond the Shrouded Horizon

Maybe he had their honeymoon on his brain, but Steve Hackett's first studio offering following his second marriage plays out like a musical travelog, reinforced by the exotic imagery on the...

Herd of Instinct - Herd of Instinct

Herd of Instinct is a new instrumental Texas based trio featuring multi-instrumentalist Mark Cook (mainly Warr guitar and keyboards) and drummer Jason Spradlin – both ex-members of 99 Names...

Rainbow Danger Club - The New Atlantis & Where Maps End

In their promotional photos, the members of Rainbow Danger Club pose in costumes reminiscent of characters from Jules Verne stories, and I've heard they do the same when performing live. Which...

Can - Tago Mago

McLatchey's Second Tier

The first Can I heard when I was in high school was Future Days. At the time, finding any of the earlier albums wasn't particularly easy,...

Can - Tago Mago (40th Anniversary Bonus Material)

The 40th Anniversary version of Tago Mago (an album I wrote about in my second tier) came out in 2011 as a 2CD limited edition and disappeared soon thereafter, unfortunately in this time...

Boris - New Album, Heavy Rocks, & Attention Please

A few days after I got New Album, I mentioned to a friend that I was really enjoying the new Boris CD. He gave me a funny look and said, "I didn't figure you for the...

Boris - New Album, Heavy Rocks, & Attention Please

A few days after I got New Album, I mentioned to a friend that I was really enjoying the new Boris CD. He gave me a funny look and said, "I didn't figure you for the...

Boris - New Album, Heavy Rocks, & Attention Please

A few days after I got New Album, I mentioned to a friend that I was really enjoying the new Boris CD. He gave me a funny look and said, "I didn't figure you for the...

Cheer-Accident - No Ifs, Ands or Dogs

This is one of those reviews that won't write itself. Not that reviews ever really write themselves, but some albums I listen to and know what I want to say. Not this time. First off, I love...

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell

Eight years since their last studio release, Floyd have come forward with another fine collection of songs, with no real surprises — their timeless style intact — this could just as...

Curved Air - Midnight Wire & Airborne

The final two albums by this seminal British band, always seeming to straddle the line between many styles, have finally been brought to CD. Unlike the early albums, which were solidly committed to...

Curved Air - Midnight Wire & Airborne

The final two albums by this seminal British band, always seeming to straddle the line between many styles, have finally been brought to CD. Unlike the early albums, which were solidly committed to...

Mike Oldhill - Elf Entdecker (Eleven Explorers)

Michael Altenberger (aka Mike Oldhill) is a German progressive rock multi-instrumentalist. Eleven Explorers is his debut release and quite an ambitious project! It is a concept album...

Thinking Plague - Decline and Fall

A new Thinking Plague album is always cause for celebration, especially when eight years elapse between them. But given the defiantly un-commercial and brutally difficult nature of the music...

Opus Avantra - Introspezione, Lord Cromwell & Strata

Led by composer/keyboardist Alfredo Tisocco, and fronted by vocalist Donella del Monaco, Opus Avantra – much like their name might imply, offers a music based in avant-garde classicism mixed...

Gösta Berlings Saga - Glue Works

Gösta Berlings Saga occupies a no-band's-land in between the realms of progressive rock, post-rock, math-rock, and RIO, with elements of all but not fitting completely in any of those...

Jack o' the Clock - How Are We Doing, and Who Will Tell Us?

The East Bay area (Oakland and surrounding) has produced some interesting musical hybrids of late. A lot of that no doubt has to do with Fred Frith’s involvement with the esteemed Mills...

Markus Reuter - Todmorden 513 & Todmorden 513 Concerto

Music that pleases the head and music that pleases the heart can be very different things. (Speaking symbolically, of course — aside from the physical experience of loud sounds thumping the...

Sebastian Hardie - Blueprint

Who woulda thunk, that 35 years after Four Moments and Windchase, Sebastian Hardie's two classic albums from the 70s, the four original members could get back...

Claudia Quintet + 1 - What Is the Beautiful?

NYC-based Claudia Quintet have wasted no time following up on their critically acclaimed 2010 release, Royal Toast. This time out drummer John Hollenbeck and crew pay tribute to American...

French TV - I Forgive You for All My Unhappiness

This is the tenth album by bassist Mike Sary and company, which this time (for the most part) includes ex-Boud Deun / current Prester John guitarist Shawn Persinger, drummer Jeff Gard, Adam Huffer...

Banco del Mutuo Soccorso - Darwin!

One of the most alluring aspects of Italian progressive rock from 1972-1977 is the wide array of tonal coloring, particularly due to experimentation with analog synthesizers. This was a completely...

Jakszyk, Fripp and Collins - A Scarcity of Miracles

The first thing to say is that I really love King Crimson in all its incarnations. But it is not unconditional, unquestioning love; I do love some of the incarnations more than others. My main...

Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel

McLatchey's Second Tier

This title's the first of three Ash Ra Tempel classics. It's a bit difficult to tell where Ash Ra Tempel and Manuel Göttsching begin and...

Atila - Intención

Best known for the incredibly magnificent Reviure, one of the best progressive rock albums all around, Atila are a Spanish classical rock group that started small and went out with a bang....

One Shot - Live in Tokyo

At this point all our readers should be aware of One Shot, with several studio albums to their credit, an outstanding live album Vendredi 13 from around ten years ago, a DVD, and a North...

Runaway Totem - Le Roi du Monde

After close to twenty years on the scene, this Italian band continues to evolve and surprise, providing something new and unique with each new release. Le Roi du Monde (King of the...

Tangerine Dream - Atem

McLatchey's Second Tier

The final album of the Ohr years would show the solidification of the classic Froese-Franke-Baumann trio and would perhaps show the influence of the...

Tangerine Dream - Zeit

McLatchey's Top Tier #25

I first heard this one fairly early in the CD age after having explored Tangerine Dream through what was probably Underwater Sunlight around...

Reptet - Chicken or Beef? & At the Cabin

Reptet fits squarely into that stream of jazz bands that contains the Lounge Lizards, Microscopic Septet, the Tiptons, and so on: crazy arrangements, skilled playing, influences drawn from both...

Il Tempio delle Clessidre - Live in Seoul

The long-awaited and much-anticipated DVD recording of their monumental performance in Seoul, South Korea on October 8, 2011 is finally available. This two DVD set presents their entire live...

Alpine Decline - Disappearance & Night of the Long Knives

When I last checked in with Alpine Decline (reviewing their first two releases), this LA...

Murple - Io Sono Murple

Murple is one of the countless Italian one-shots who released one rare album and disappeared off of the face of the earth. Their style was typical of the era – a classical/symphonic rock in...

Björk - Biophilia

Sometimes it feels strange to be reviewing an artist like Björk, who is well known enough worldwide to attract attention from the mainstream press and even paparazzi (swan dress, anyone?)....

Lito Vitale - Sobre Miedos, Creencias y Supersticiones

After MIA, Lito Vitale launched his solo career with Sobre Miedos, Creencias y Supersticiones, an ambitious album of powerful symphonic rock. Here, Lito plays just about everything: piano,...

M.I.A. - Transparencias, Mágicos Juegos del Tiempo & Cornonstipicum

Belle Antique has gone all out on their most recent set of reissues — the backlog of the brilliant Argentine ensemble M.I.A. M.I.A. was multi-instrumentalist (mainly keys) Lito Vitale's...

M.I.A. - Transparencias, Mágicos Juegos del Tiempo & Cornonstipicum

Belle Antique has gone all out on their most recent set of reissues — the backlog of the brilliant Argentine ensemble M.I.A. M.I.A. was multi-instrumentalist (mainly keys) Lito Vitale's...

M.I.A. - Transparencias, Mágicos Juegos del Tiempo & Cornonstipicum

Belle Antique has gone all out on their most recent set of reissues — the backlog of the brilliant Argentine ensemble M.I.A. M.I.A. was multi-instrumentalist (mainly keys) Lito Vitale's...

Miles Davis - Bitches Brew Live

McLatchey's Top Tier #6

This favorite almost came about by accident to some extent. Years before this was released, the DVD called Electric Miles - A Different Kind of...

Amarok - Gouevia 2005

This set was recorded live at the Gouveia Art Rock festival in Portugal (yes, it's spelled wrong on the CD cover), and it finds Amarok in fine form. They play some of the most memorable tunes...

Ex-Wise Heads - Schemata

In the frenzy to keep up with all the new releases that come out every month, it’s still worthwhile to keep an eye and ear out for things that slipped through the cracks and escaped notice...

Socrates - Phos

This is the third (apparently) and best-known release by this obscure (outside Greece, anyway) Greek band. This album was made famous by guest-keyboardist Vangelis. And while it's true that...

Yes - Fly from Here

Thinking back to when Yes released Drama in 1980, there was some debate about whether Yes without Jon Anderson was really Yes. That question aside, the album had some great tunes on it,...

Korekyojinn with Tsuboy Akihisa - Doldrums

If you take the gonzo-zeuhl of Ruins and graft it onto the kind of fiery fusion played by early Mahavishnu Orchestra, you get...

Hiromi - Voice

That's Voice as in "finding your voice," not indicating that there is vocal music on this CD. It's the Hiromi Uehara we know and love (at least I do) with a different...

Spettri - Spettri

I think it was my colleague Mike McLatchey who once jokingly said that in Italy in the 70s, there were more prog bands than there were fans. As such there were plenty of fine bands who fell through...

Various Artists - A Dark Cabaret 2

This Projekt compilation is the follow up to their successful Dark Cabaret 1 released in 2005. This new collection consists of 12 decadent, alluring, twisted, demonic, and sometimes savage...

Santana - Abraxas

McLatchey's Second Tier

Released the month after their performance at Woodstock, Santana's follow up to their excellent debut made music history. Sporting an iconic Mati...

Ash Ra Tempel / Manuel Göttsching - Inventions for Electric Guitar

McLatchey's Second Tier

No matter how many times a young future guitarist will plug his or her axe into an amp and echo/delay pedal in years to come, this sixth album by Manuel...

Tangerine Dream - Alpha Centauri

McLatchey's Second Tier

I've checked off Zeit, Phaedra, and Rubycon so far and have two more this round. The first of these is the group's...

Ash Ra Tempel - Join Inn

McLatchey's Second Tier

In many ways Join Inn could be seen as the first Ash Ra Tempel Mk II. It too had a side of intense psychedelic rock and a side bliss-out, all...

M.I.A. - Cornonstipicum

McLatchey's Second Tier

Crucis weren't the only brilliant Argentinian 70s group, but I'm not sure they were quite as young as some of the players in the collective...

Premiata Forneria Marconi - Per un Amico

McLatchey's Second Tier

I first heard PFM when I was 17 and a friend sold me a copy of The World Become the World for 50 cents. I liked it but wasn't really drawn...

The Trip - Time of Change

Another one from the Trident label. In the early 70s The Trip produced three fairly unremarkable albums as a four-piece led by guitarist/singer Billy Gray. After the 1972 album Atlantide,...

Steven Wilson - Grace for Drowning

Pyrolator - Neuland

Duck Fight Goose - Sports & History Single

Ego - Evoluzione delle Forme

Vibravoid - Minddrugs (Deluxe)

Tor-Peders - Brev fran Ederstorp

Strawberry Fields - Strawberry Fields Live

Syd Arthur - Moving World

Yuka and Chronoship - Water Reincarnation

Stick Men - Soup & Absalom

It's been a number of years since the Tony Levin Band was active, though of course Mr. Levin himself has been busy, with a couple of solo albums and frequent work as bassist-for-hire. Stick Men is...

Zubatto Syndicate - Zubatto Syndicate

Pendragon - Passion

Funin - Unsound

The Skys - Colours of the Desert

Hess & Franzen - {CLOSEDLOCKEDSEALED}

Robert Schroeder - Cream & Esthétique

Chris Hartford - Losing Season

Indrek Patte - Celebration

Indrek Patte - Celebration

In the Labyrinth - One Trail to Heaven

Spirit - The Original Potato Land

Anyone hearing this disc for the very first time might well conclude that this is the weirdest album ever produced. On one level there is an Orwellian concept running through all the tracks, but...

Ian Carr's Nucleus - Out of the Long Dark & Old Heartland

One of the last incarnations of Nucleus from the late 70s featured Carr along with long-time cohort Brian Smith on reeds. Geoff Castle, Billy Kristian, and Roger Sellers rounded out this version of...

Yes - In the Present - Live from Lyon

In the Present is a three-disk audio and video document (2 CD, 1 DVD) of Yes on stage in Lyon, France during their 2009 tour. In retrospect this was not Yes’ finest hour. Online sniping...

Salim Ghazi Saeedi - Human Encounter & Iconophobic

Xing Sa - Création de l'Univers

Travellers - A Journey into the Sun Within

The Inner Road - Visions

The Merchants of Dream - Strange Night Voyage

Eureka - Silverware: The Best of Eureka 1997-2010

Sean Filkins - War and Peace and Other Short Stories

Larry Kucharz - Unit IA42

Knitting by Twilight - Weathering

After... - No Attachments

Robert Rich - Medicine Box

André Balzer - Entre l'alpha & l'omega (Opus 1)

Offenbach - Tabernac

Ded Ringer - Ded Eye

Mark Wingfield / Kevin Kastning - I Walked into the Silver Darkness

Larry Kucharz - Unit IA42

Johnny Unicorn - Sweet Edith & Thinking Hard

São Paolo Underground - Trés Cabeças Loucuras

Sanhedrin - Ever After

Marbin - Breaking the Cycle

WintherStormer - Ground Connection

James Bloedel - Taurus & Old Rocker

James Bloedel - Taurus & Old Rocker

Gus Buzbee - Atmospheric Conditions

Gus Buzbee is a Houston-based singer songwriter who has worked as a engineer and musician over the past 40 years and has been voted best acoustic guitarist by the Houston Readers' Poll....

Julie Tippetts & Martin Archer - Tales of FiNiN

The Norman Haines Band - Den of Iniquity

Trois Expatriates - Conspiracy Weary

Dave Cousins and Brian Willoughby - Old School Songs

Adrian H and the Wounds - Adrian H and the Wounds (Dog Solitude)

Sandy Denny - 19 Rupert St

Robin Taylor / Taylor's Free Universe - Two Pack

Manooghi Hi - Silence

Clouds on Strings - Pomology

Henderson / Oken - Dream Theory in the IE

Various Artists - Prog Exhibition – 40 Anni di Musica Immaginifica

How can a box set that took me nearly a week to work my way through (it was a wonderful week indeed!) be condensed into a review of less than 5000 words? This writer will attempt to do the...

Omnia Opera - Nothing Is Ordinary

Gutbucket - Flock

Gutbucket - Flock

Acqua Fragile - Acqua Fragile & Mass Media Stars

Acqua Fragile is best known as the band that featured singer Bernardo Lanzetti prior to his joining PFM in time for their Chocolate Kings album. But in fact from their very beginnings,...

Modified Toy Orchestra - Plastic Planet

Mars Hollow - World in Front of Me

St Vincent - Strange Mercy

D'accorD - Helike

Operation ID - Legs

Noa - Noa

Serge Bringolf - Strave

Sunbirds - Sunbirds

Outopsya - Fake

Mawwal - Sight Up

Alabastro Euforico - Alabastro Euforico

For Missus Beastly - Dr. Aftershave and the Mixed Pickles

Eider Stellaire - I

Moksha - Here to Go

Kotebel - Concerto for Piano and Electric Ensemble

Electric Asturias - Fractals

Eter-K - Watching the Universe

Govea - Raíces

Niklas Barker - El Último Fin de Semana

Luz de Riada - Cuentos y Fábulas

Dan Pound - Medusazoa

Seven That Spells - The Death and Resurrection of Krautrock: AUM

Druckfarben - Druckfarben