According to their biographical sketch, Oak started as a folk duo, and that background still provides a backdrop for the elaborate constructions of the current band on their second album. Behind...
» Read moreIt was not that long ago that I reviewed Laughing Stock’s second album Sunrise. Now Apollon...
» Read morePianist Mabel Kwan is a performer of classical, improvised, and experimental music. She is fascinated by sound, contradictions, and our perceptions of what is familiar or strange. And a natural...
» Read moreSplinter Reeds is the woodwind ensemble of Kyle Bruckmann (oboe), Bill Kalinkos (clarinet), David Wegehaupt (saxophone), Jeff Anderle (bass clarinet), and Dana Jessen (bassoon). Hypothetical...
» Read moreEvery Other Color is the long awaited follow-up to Keough’s debut album Blue, released in 2001 when she was just a teenager. Her amazing singing is what really makes this...
» Read moreListening to Playing with Fire, I was reminded of the great band Mawwal. This is a very similar kind of world fusion that exists on the same high plane of musicianship. The group was...
» Read moreWhen this CD arrived in my mail, I’d never heard of Mrs. Fun, so I started my research and discovered that this Chicago band started in Wisconsin back in the 80s and has been a going concern...
» Read moreSo 2018 is the year that Satoko Fujii turns 60 years old (although not until October 9th) and to celebrate, she will be releasing one album every month of the year, which will include releases by...
» Read moreThis is disc #2 in Satoko Fujii’s CD-of-the-month releases commemorating the year of her 60th birthday, so this one is to be released on February 23rd, which is a couple weeks from the date...
» Read moreBy now, if you have kept up with our reviews of Ms.Fujii’s recent output, you will know that she turns sixty years old this year, and for the occasion she’s going all out, releasing a...
» Read moreSo I wonder what Satoko Fujii is going to do after releasing twelve albums in twelve months... (This is the fourth installment of her 60th birthday marathon.) Maybe take a vacation, but the various...
» Read moreThis Is It! What is? 1538 is the melting point of iron (in degrees celsius), but 1538 is also the title of the first album by this new Satoko Fujii trio configuration featuring her...
» Read moreFor the finale of Satoko Fujii’s kanreki or 60th birthday celebration, release number twelve of twelve, is a tribute to tenor saxophonist Masaya Kimura, who sadly passed away in 2017. He...
» Read moreSome music is better seen than heard. Music that is designed to work with dance is especially likely to have this quality. This installment of Satoko Fujii’s album-a-month project features...
» Read moreIf you’ve been paying attention to the progressive rock coming out of Norway, likely you’ve noticed that Tusmørke is a busy group of musicians. But even their steady stream of...
» Read moreListening to Snack Family’s debut full-length, I was immediately reminded of the band Morphine. Snack Family features a lineup of guitar, sax, and drums, with both the guitar and the sax...
» Read moreThe duo known as Art of Flying, Anne Speroni (vocals, bass, piano) and David Costanza (guitar, keyboards, vocals, trumpet, harmonium), has been recording music together in Taos, New Mexico since...
» Read moreI’ve heard a couple of Miguel Zenón’s previous albums, but while they were good efforts, neither prepared me for this wonderful recording. Zenón is a saxophonist and...
» Read moreMusic that slips between the cracks of conventional genres is my specialty, and Grex is an Oakland, California band that certainly fits that bill. Karl Evangelista and Rei Scampavia are the core of...
» Read moreIt seems that paying tribute to Yes is in fashion lately. We've got the
Exposé readers might be familiar with singer Laura Meade from her work with the band IZZ. Remedium finds her presenting herself as a solo artist, and the result is an...
» Read moreFrom Soft Machine to Soft Ware to Soft Works to Soft Machine Legacy, and now finally back to the band’s original name Soft Machine, the one constant with this band is personnel changes. In...
» Read moreWhen it comes to evolutionary cosmic free jazz with no boundaries, it’s hard to beat Sun Ra. Few have made as much of an impact or left behind a massive recorded legacy as his, from the early...
» Read moreWhatever else you might say about Voices from the Fuselage, you have to admit there’s something distinctive about their sound. Musically, they are very much along the lines of some of the...
» Read moreSince their first album in 2013, Ovrfwrd has been honing their craft, taking their time and producing quality music. With their third studio album, they’ve arrived at a sophisticated...
» Read morePicking up where they left off with last year’s superb Repetitions of the Old...
» Read moreInstrumental prog group Ovrfwrd released their fourth album — third studio album — Blurring the Lines in the summer of 2018, but I did not receive a copy to review until a few...
» Read moreHarrigans Lane Collective in Willsons Downfall, Australia, is the home of the Piano Mill, a center for explorative interdisciplinary projects in rural Australia with a focus on architecture, music,...
» Read moreRobert J. Zimmer? (with a question mark) is a curiously named band from Chicago which, even aside from punctuation, defies expectations on almost every level. The instrumentation is unconventional,...
» Read moreBaba Yoga is an intentional misspelling of the 1973 movie Baba Yaga, based on the adventures of Guido Crepax's comic book character Valentina. This new Italian prog band is the...
» Read moreOver the last twelve months we have reviewed many different releases from Russia, some excellent, some good, and some not so good. Aton Five’s new release, Solarstalgia, falls into...
» Read moreWith their arsenal of exotic guitars, Kastning and Szabó masterfully create a mysterious world of sweeping textures, emotional shadows, colorful points of light and shimmering angular...
» Read moreAerostation is an Italian power trio without guitars that plays a mix of crossover prog, electronic music, hard rock, and fine pop that alternates between powerful and energetic music with more...
» Read moreWith Life Size, John Greaves gives us a set of songs that are pretty far removed from the avant-garde tendencies of some of his past work, though they’re hardly mainstream or without...
» Read moreMany years ago, Craven was a member of several bands, none of which went anywhere, and none of which provided a satisfying outlet for his own music, which was inspired by the glory days of...
» Read moreIn Rome there is a door called the Alchemical Portal, the only alchemical monument in Italy. This magic door was built by the Marquis Massimiliano Palombra in his home, the Villa Palombra, the...
» Read moreIn the ranks of Italian progressive rock bands, “Forza Elettromotorice” seems like a fine name, and it’s totally in keeping with the genre’s history to refer to them as FEM....
» Read moreDon Byron has been on my radar for quite a few years now, since I picked up his Romance with the Unseen nearly 20 years ago (mainly from seeing the names of Jack DeJohnette and Bill...
» Read moreRomain Collin’s Tiny Lights… is a release that is very hard to summarize. Some parts are beautifully orchestrated chamber works with piano and strings: others veer into...
» Read moreSince the initial development of the style called trip-hop back in the 90s, a significant portion of the bands have featured a female vocalist and one or two male instrumentalists: Portishead,...
» Read moreI’ve lost track of how many times I’ve listened to this album, and I still have trouble getting a hold on what it’s about. To be clear, I regard this as a good thing — music...
» Read moreJust to recap, I am not a listener who is fond of pigeon-holing music into genres, which seem to be essentially arbitrary and subjective. The category called post-rock is no different, with the...
» Read moreFocus is a band with a very long history, and with Focus 11 they give us a new album of studio material, following on from
Dávid Makó is a Hungarian singer who has worked in a couple of metal bands I’ve never heard — Stereochrist and HAW — but The Devil’s Trade is his entirely solo...
» Read moreThere was a day when I would have called much of 41 Point 9’s music “radio friendly,” but I’m not sure what that means anymore. While a couple of the tracks stretch beyond...
» Read moreOver the course of Budjana’s recent solo output, It seems he has been straddling the fence between powerful electric jazz fusion and progressive rock, with a healthy dose of his Indonesian...
» Read moreAt the end of the 70s in Peru, a new musical concept was starting to come together that combined the instrumental traditions of ancient cultures in new ways, incorporating electronics, tape...
» Read moreThe burning question here is, what is a saz? The saz or bağlama is a member of the family of plucked string, long-necked lutes used in Ottoman classical music, Turkish folk music, Iranian music,...
» Read moreI don’t remember anymore when I first discovered the wonders of Turkish psychedelic rock, but it’s stuck with me for a long time. Starting back in the 60s, European and American rockers...
» Read moreToronto’s Myriad3 is one of a new generation of piano trios bringing traditions of jazz into a modern age. Unlike Naima or Chat Noir, they don’t venture into added keyboards or...
» Read moreThis album may have a 2018 date on it, but it was recorded back in 2006. The David Cross Band had been touring with Peter Banks’s Harmony in Diversity, which featured Andrew Booker on drums....
» Read moreFollowing on the lovely Parallax (2014), Italian drummer and multi-instrumentalist Massimo...
» Read moreBror Stefan Pettersson (a.k.a. Steve Future) has been working professionally in his native Sweden for 35 years now; his album First Take was released in 1994, but he was involved in other...
» Read moreWhen this CD arrived in the mail, I had no idea what to expect. I checked out my colleague’s review...
» Read moreMoon Men is an unconventional musical collective, though it’s a stretch to call them a band, maybe a recording project would be a more accurate term. Uncomfortable Space Probe is...
» Read moreEldanka’s second album in nine years might really surprise you if you have never heard of the band before, their instrumental music being an off-kilter cocktail of early-60s West Coast surf...
» Read moreSubtitled The Ode & Epic Recordings 1968-1972, this five disc set in a clamshell box pretty much covers the formative years of one of the finest and most eclectic bands of the late 60s...
» Read moreWelcome to our first review ever of the musical collective miserable.noise.club, said to be based in Charlotte, North Carolina, but also claiming members in Amman, Jordan and Guangzhou, China....
» Read moreBack in the fall of 2017, there were rumblings in the Seattle experimental music community about something special going on at Bear Creek Studios. Many of the local stalwarts were up there with a...
» Read moreThere’s no shortage of instrumental bands offering up rock music with odd meters and tricky arrangements, but Chicago’s Monobody has their own twist on the style. With the use of both...
» Read moreThough most will know Hellmut Hattler as a founding member and bassist of Kraan, many are not aware of his works outside of that band, which probably began in 1977 with his solo album...
» Read moreI had somewhat mixed feelings about The Thin Cherries’ debut album a couple of years ago....
» Read moreMany of our readers will be familiar with Tim Bowness from his work with No-Man and Samuel Smiles, and possibly releases under his own name as well, but Plenty is a project that might have faded...
» Read moreTake a look at who’s involved in this project, and you’ll see familiar names (if you’re a person who pays attention in the world of progressive rock): from Henry Fool we get...
» Read moreOho has been making great music since the early 70s, seemingly swerving and dodging any typical styles and genres as they avoided the classification game, instead going for whatever direction their...
» Read moreWhat might one expect from these three Italian jazz musicians covering (mostly) progressive rock from the late 60s and early 70s? It’s certainly not what might be considered retro in any way,...
» Read moreIf you’ve been reading reviews on our site for a while, you might have come to the conclusion that Russian bands all play space rock. OK, maybe not all of them, but a significant portion....
» Read moreThis four song EP is the debut release from Resolution Alley, a project of Baltimore based composer, bassist and multi-instrumentalist Jason Wilson, who sang on the first CD by Dark Aether Project,...
» Read moreKanaan is a Norwegian trio that blends elements of rock, psychedelic, fusion, and raw unbridled groove-power. Almost unbelievably, Windborne is the band's debut release — I say...
» Read moreThis German band has a style that shares many similarities with a lot of post-rock, with long tracks that build slowly to dramatic climaxes. But they are also prominently a vocal band, unlike the...
» Read moreThe debut solo album by Canadian singer-songwriter Jesse Matas is an open heart collection of folk songs, half-spoken poems set to music, along with some gritty guitar workouts and one short but...
» Read moreStarting back in 2015 with the 13th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus Festival, Fruits de Mer Records has been presenting an annual festival of musicians and bands who have been, currently are, or soon will...
» Read moreWriting for Exposé, I’m pretty used to albums that are difficult to describe. We come across a lot of music that stretches boundaries, combines elements of different genres,...
» Read moreA few years ago, when Mythalogue came out, I noted how The Red Masque had been getting progressively (sorry) better with each album. I’m happy to report that the trend has continued...
» Read moreMy previous encounters with Daniel Barbiero’s music have been his collaborations with Christiano Bocci, which are highly abstract soundscapes built up from many sources, usually involving...
» Read moreFor their second album, this Bergen band has chosen the awkward title B/B, but we shouldn’t let that deter us from enjoying their version of 70s rock brought into the modern world....
» Read moreThe band called Piniol is composed of Poil and Ni mashed together, with all seven members forming something a little like what King Crimson had in the “double trio” lineup. Two...
» Read moreFelix Culpa is the third release by reedman Pepa Päivinen and the duo Good Romans, which consists of Ilari Filander (guitar) and Jussi Miettola (drums). The album features 12 tracks...
» Read moreThe 16 mailboxes on the cover offer an important clue; there are 16 different artists featured and the foreword “instrumentation: guests, as listed; GS: remainder.” So, this is volume 2...
» Read moreIt’s been quite a few years since we last heard from Forgas Band Phenomena, but little has changed in quality, sensibility, or even personnel. The only changes in musicians for...
» Read moreThe first track on The Fold starts so quietly that you might suspect some kind of malfunction. Unless you’ve got the volume really cranked, it’s not until nearly a minute into...
» Read moreThis Düsseldorf band clearly has their sights set on a hit single — in 1972. But that seems unlikely, so they’ll have to settle for being a contemporary band that sounds like...
» Read moreWhile Jukka Iisakkila (pronounced Eye-Sa-Keela) is probably best known in his native Finland as an orchestra conductor and a producer of other artists, including the pop band Goldfrapp and...
» Read moreI’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...
» Read moreListening to the debut album by I Ya Toyah, I was first struck by how catchy the tunes are. Her music is often described as “electronic / industrial,” which leads me to expect something...
» Read moreHis Name Is Stan and He's a Bad Motherf**ker is the debut album of a new progressive rock band from Austin, Crocodile. Band leader, composer, and guitarist Kevin Sims has created a...
» Read moreThis French band involves a somewhat unusual instrumentation, featuring electric guitar, double bass, and drums along with a vibraphone. Their music occupies a fuzzy zone somewhere between jazz and...
» Read moreísa is a young Norwegian band of former students from a jazz course at The Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. In April 2017 they released their debut album Våren, om lenge....
» Read morePaola Tagliaferro is an Italian singer who began recording in the late 70s with a couple of singles. She went on hiatus for more than twenty years, devoting her attention to art. Now she is back...
» Read moreIt always seemed to me that the band Jellyfish never got the attention it deserved. Superbly clever and catchy rock songs with touches of psychedelia — ah, really my thing! Finnish...
» Read moreBill Hart is a Canadian-born guitarist now based in Georgia with a five releases before this, which was recorded live at the Red Clay Theatre in Duluth, Georgia on June 2, 2017. All of the tracks...
» Read moreThis collection of music was written for a film about artist Cy Twombly, and is titled after the painting which adorns its cover. Much of what we hear is floating ambient washes of sound, echoing...
» Read moreIn the foothills of the Himalayas, on the Chinese side, tea with yak milk is a regional beverage, so when I was there, I gave it a try. I didn’t find it much to my liking, though I have...
» Read moreOne thing I’ve learned over the last ten years or so is that El Paraiso is a label that can be trusted for quality music, to the point where now if I find out an artist is on that label,...
» Read moreTribus is the first album I’ve heard by this Norwegian band, though they’ve been together since 2001 and have two previous releases to their credit. For the most part, they...
» Read moreProviding soundtracks to vintage silent films has become a very trendy thing for contemporary musicians, with bands like We Stood Like Kings devoting their entire efforts to it, and others such as...
» Read moreFrom the far reaches of Western Australia comes this instrumental band with a distinctive take on heavy post-rock. The sound is dominated by a combination of guitars and keyboards in roughly equal...
» Read moreThe third of Fruits de Mer's end of year releases is an exquisite and emotive single by FdM newcomer Elfin Bow. Elfin Bow is singer songwriter Elizabeth Kearny. For this FdM single (standard...
» Read moreWhen Andy Bracken and Keith Jones formed Fruits de Mer Records over 10 year ago, their goal was to reissue 7-inch singles from the glory days of psych. They have finally reached this goal with this...
» Read moreActively recording since the mid-90s with five releases to his credit, Greek born composer and guitarist extraordinaire Strat Andriotis migrated with his family to Canada when he was a teenager,...
» Read morePolish synthesist Vanderson returns with a new album, Sequenced Thoughts, this time joined by Spheric Music’s Lambert Ringlange. The album consists of four tracks in the 16 - 20...
» Read moreThe band Pink Fairies may not be especially well known for their music, occupying a spot in history due to their connections to other bands with higher profiles: Hawkwind, Motörhead, The...
» Read moreIt is widely acknowledged that something special was going on in rock music in Italy from about 1971 to 1976, with quite a few innovative bands recording albums that have come to be regarded as...
» Read moreAtlas : Empire is an alternative band from Glasgow that formed in 2011. They released their first EP To the Astronaut… in 2012, a second EP Somnus in 2013, and their third...
» Read moreWhat, you may ask, is a spriggan? Well, a spriggan is a mischievous and thievish mythological creature from Cornish faerie lore. And Spriggan Mist is the British progressive folk rock band of Baz...
» Read moreGuerssen has been reissuing a number of obscure albums of music by artists I have never heard of or music that does not necessarily interest me. Case in point is the reissue of the Dutch minimal...
» Read moreAction & Tension & Space is a band which to a certain extent has a name that describes its style. This instrumental music has elements of surf (Action), post rock (Tension), and space rock...
» Read moreSometimes it seems like we’re in the midst of a psychedelic renaissance, a resurgence of a style pioneered over half a century ago. Excellent music from that era is being reissued,...
» Read moreKenyon Bunton is a musician with roots back to bands in the 90s, ultimately unsuccessful, but mainly in the Cardiacs and London avant noise scene. Disillusioned with the music scene, Kenyon...
» Read moreLjungblut is a band operating in the realm of atmospheric rock with elements of progressive rock mixed in, much like their compatriots Rhys Marsh or Bjørn Riis. That is to say they have a...
» Read moreMartin Springett’s 1983 album called The Gardening Club is a pretty obscure item. I do not personally know anyone who’s heard it, though it was reissued in 2017 by Gonzo...
» Read moreRenata Zeiguer is a singer and songwriter with a wispy voice and a great talent for writing lyrics. That puts her into a category with quite a number of other artists, but she sets herself apart...
» Read moreNick Didkovsky and Tom Marsan strike again, this time with 44 minutes of brutal guitar chaos (call it free metal) instead of the 32 minutes we got the the first time around, which I suppose makes...
» Read moreSince leaving Art Zoyd at the end of the 90s, bassist and cellist Thierry Zaboitzeff as been busy with his own solo work, as well as writing scores for theater and dance, many of which have been...
» Read moreLondon Underground is an Italian progressive rock band consisting of multi-instrumentalist Gianluca Gerlini (Hammond organ, piano, clavinet, Mellotron, Elka, Moog, and Logan), Alessandro Gimignani...
» Read moreThe new album L'Incanto dello Zero by Italian prog rockers Il Segno del Comando is wonderful! The album kicks off with a fantastic gothic church organ instrumental “Il Senza...
» Read moreWell that was something totally unexpected. Basing my preconceptions of the album by its artwork — I know, a stupid mistake — I was expecting to hear a horror soundtrack similar to...
» Read moreIn 2016 Guerssen reissued Jodi’s first album, Pops de Vanguardia, and since then Joern Wenger unearthed a set of unreleased recordings in his basement that had been sitting there for...
» Read moreIn approaching this lovely new album, I revisited the review I wrote for its predecessor, Whispers...
» Read moreHot on the heels of their last release Perdide, Quimper squeaked out Elapsed Songs 2018 the last week of the year. I find interesting the endless supply of ideas that Jodie and...
» Read moreFrom all the reviews lately, you might think that Russia is the home of space rock these days. But here’s a new release from Sweden’s The Spacious Mind to remind us that trippy...
» Read moreHaving followed this excellent band since 1996’s Remnants of a Deeper Purity, one can always count on a mesmerizing, somewhat dark instrumental attack, guided by shadows and strange...
» Read moreBack in 1974, after Irish folk rock group Mellow Candle broke up, members Alison O’Donnell and David Williams moved to South Africa. There they met fellow expats Barrie Glenn and Jo Dudding...
» Read moreAs usual for Spirits Burning albums, An Alien Heat features a large cast of musicians organized by Don Falcone. We’ve got Buck Dharma, Richie Castellano, Joe Bouchard, and Albert...
» Read moreIt has been three years since nick nicely last appeared on a Fruits de Mer release. So this past December was a treat when FdM released a new single as part of their year-end batch of vinyl....
» Read moreFruits de Mer Records released a new single by The Chemistry Set as one of their year end releases. Side one is the four minute “Firefly,” a strong trippy psych song that takes you on a...
» Read moreFounded in 1996, The Embrooks is an aggressive freakbeat band from England. They’ve released a couple of singles and, after a ten year hiatus, they are back with a full length album, We...
» Read moreWith a lean basic instrumental lineup of drums, bass and keys, fronted by female vocals, Budo is Vak’s second full length CD release – the first CD Aedividea from 2015...
» Read moreIt amazes me how an artist can adopt another's style so comprehensively and completely, and yet never actually steal any compositional ideas, but for Swedish singer and songwriter Klas Qvist,...
» Read moreMauricio Sotelo is one half of Cabezas de Cera, the ‘stringed instrument’ half, as opposed to the ‘percussionist’ half Francisco Sotelo. Cabezas de Cera have a new live...
» Read moreThey call themselves a kind of 'postconstructuralist village band'; having turned some heads at the Victoriaville festival in Quebec, they have apparently left some heads spinning, a large...
» Read moreThis album brings together three creative musicians into a configuration that might at first seem strange: jazz woodwind explorer Dave Liebman, who has been part of expanding the genre in the post...
» Read moreAs a composer, Bobby Previte has never shied away from ambition, and he appears to have never encountered a genre boundary he didn’t want to erase. In 2016, he gave us
The Athens duo of Stratos Morianos (keyboards, programming, percussion) and Alexandros Mantos (guitar, bass, flute) make their recording debut with Introspection, an instrumental concept...
» Read moreZan Zone is a Brooklyn NY based seven-piece led by guitarist Zan Burnham. The band has three previous releases; the most recent was Shorts from 2013, but It’s Only Natural...
» Read moreByron is a contemporary composer who to date has released about half a dozen albums on Cold Blue Music as well as a few more on other labels, and like many or most Cold Blue releases, the composer...
» Read moreOver the years since its release, and especially once CD reissues became available, Bubu’s Anabelas has come to be regarded as a classic of South American progressive rock. The...
» Read moreContinuing my exploration of relatively unknown Ukrainian and Russian bands, I have now reached the excellent band from Kiev, Pree Tone. Forming in 2014, they have six releases under their belt,...
» Read moreThis is one that arrived out of the blue. I’d never heard of Mist of Flying Elbow before this CD came in the mail, and even after listening a dozen times or so to these eight tracks,...
» Read moreThere is nothing wrong with your CD player. I hadn't heard of this band in a long while, it seems that on Substitute Songs of Heights, Vol. II they are as over-the-top eclectic as the...
» Read moreSometimes promos come to me that are pretty far out there, so far in fact that regardless of how many times I listen to them, I’ll probably never catch the wavelength, and Points sans...
» Read moreMotherfathers & b! is the Moscow trio of Dmitriy Syrtsov on drums, Dmitriy Peitsch on guitar, and Maxim Elizarov on electronics. This 24 minute album is basically one long improvised jam where...
» Read moreFor the life of me, I cannot fathom who would be a fan of sludge rock, especially this Soom release, Джєбарс (Djebars) from April 2018. The only redeeming feature is the opening track...
» Read moreReleased in September 2018, Monomyth is Russian band Transnadežnost’s debut release. Consisting of Aleksandr Yershov (guitar), Alesya Izlesa (guitar and glockenspiel), Nikolay...
» Read moreTwelve solo pieces for celesta are presented here, short instrumental pieces in the two to three minute range wih one exception; they are introspective and mysterious, covering a wide range of...
» Read moreDigging a little deeper into these recent Russian releases, their musical community appears fluid, with musicians coming together in different combinations, groups, and styles. For instance,...
» Read moreI am discovering that there is quite an active Russian music scene as I continue to discover new bands. The most recent is the psychedelic / stoner rock / doom metal band The Re-Stoned and their...
» Read moreElectric Mud is Hagen Bertschneider (ideas, sound concepts, and bass) and Lennart Hüper (rhythm guitar). An what really struck me about their new album The Deconstruction of Light is...
» Read moreIfsounds is the Italian prog band consisting of Fabio de Libertis (bass guitar), Runal (lead vocals), Dario Lastella (guitars, keyboards, synths, and vocals), Lino Mesina (drums, percussion, and...
» Read moreFor their third release, Italian neo-proggers Marchesi Scamorza tell a story of a man struggling with his many personalities, Gemini. The man’s schizophrenia is a whirling...
» Read moreWilliam Rustrum AKA Saint Luminus released a new mini-album in October 2018, a followup to his 2017 single. The album title refers to an echo / reverb guitar pedal that he used on this album. ...
» Read moreQuimper returns with a new album with a science fiction theme, Perdide, and ten new songs written mostly during the Summer of 2018. Perdide is another fine slab of understated...
» Read moreRussian psych / space rockers Vespero are back with a new album, Hollow Moon. With its artwork, album and song titles, and music Hollow Moon is much like a Jules Verne story. The...
» Read moreJack Ellister has been appearing on a variety of Fruits de Mer releases since 2012. Now for the first time he has released a full length album on another label, You Are The Cosmos. As a change of...
» Read moreIn 1999 Dutch avant garde / experimental composer Michel Banabila released VoizNoiz, a collection of short experiments with looped samples and electronics. Now Steamin’ Soundworks...
» Read moreWell that was an hour of my life squandered that I will never get back. I’ve come to expect much better from Sulatron. Sun Dial is basically the solo efforts of one Gary Ramon from the UK....
» Read moreOriginally released on cassette in 2016, Sulatron Records just reissued this excellent slice of revival Krautrock jamming on both vinyl and CD. Hailing from Umeå, Lappland, high up in the...
» Read moreThe Tigris - Euphrates river system consists of two roughly parallel rivers flowing through Iraq, and known as one of the cradles of civilization. Eden is supposed to have been located in this area...
» Read moreThis Norwegian band with a strange name has a very interesting take on progressive rock. When “Wounded Dreamers” starts there are distinct hints of mid-70s Yes, especially in the guitar...
» Read moreTo my mind, Be Bop Deluxe has always occupied a unique position in the ranks of 70s progressive rock bands. Unlike most of their contemporaries, they didn’t arrive at their progressive sound...
» Read moreI first encountered this Irish band on their third release, and the follow-up continues in the same vein,...
» Read moreCash Pony is a San Francisco Bay Area quartet (Oakland, to be precise) with previous releases going back to 2012. However, this is the first one I’ve had an opportinity to listen to. They...
» Read moreWith this German band, the only instruments involved are bass guitar and drums, so you know not to expect complex harmonies or much in the way of counterpoint. Michi’s bass always features...
» Read moreChronotope Project represents the solo work of one Jeffrey Ericson Allen, a 30-year veteran of the practice of Zen, with the eight tracks on Lotus Rising representing an aspirant's...
» Read moreWhen it comes down to basics, the human voice can be considered as simply one of the instruments available in music, though it obviously occupies a special place, requiring nothing outside of the...
» Read moreOctober Equus’s guitarist Angel Ontalva and Russian spacerockers Vespero have joined forces to record and release an interesting album of seven instrumentals, Carta Marina, that...
» Read moreThe trifecta of Exposé writers Jon Davis, Peter Thelen, and now myself have all had the pleasure of reviewing different Nick Piunti releases, even though Nick’s music is not...
» Read moreWhile the title may remind the potential listener of a dry junior college history textbook, the seven powerful instrumental tracks herein are full of warmth, brilliance and energy, and certainly...
» Read moreFernando Perdomo managed to release two albums of original material in 2018 in addition to working with a variety of other artists on the Sonic Elements
So here we have the latest release by Bow Thayer – singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist (banjo, guitar, bojotar, synth, keys, and percussion) – along with his bandmates Jeff...
» Read moreAbout a month ago I reviewed Max Corbacho’s other release from 2018 titled Nocturnes II; it, like this, is a dreamy soundworld filled with beautiful sonic textures flowing gracefully...
» Read moreMost will know L’Épée from the various bands he has led, starting with Shylock in the 70s (and reforming in 2012), then Philharmonie in the 90s, then Yang in the 00s, each band...
» Read moreThis Cologne band pays unabashed tribute to the music of the 70s without sounding completely derivative. They do this by mixing together a variety of period influences into a basic style that they...
» Read moreYagull's music has always been mysterious and beautiful, but with this latest album, Yuna, the two principals, Sasha Markovic (guitar and mandolin) and Kana Kamitsubo (piano) have...
» Read moreKristoffer Momrak is back with his second Alwanzatar release, Fangarmer Gjennom Tid og Rom. He continues to develop his intriguing version of tribal space rock infused with elements of...
» Read moreSugarbush Records has a winner on their hands with this new album, Hi-Seas by Dom Mariani & The Majestic Kelp. Australian Dom is quite the accomplished guitarist and involved with a...
» Read moreThe Grip Weeds are an American power pop band from Highland Park, New Jersey founded in 1988. Their first album, House of Vibes, originally released in 1994, has now been reissued on vinyl...
» Read moreThe opening chords of “Liminal,” subtitled “At the Threshold of the In-Between,” is indeed like the process of moving from consciousness into slumber and onward to dreams,...
» Read moreHardcore fans can argue all they want about whether this is really Soft Machine or not, but it’s kind of a moot point. The Softs went through so many changes in their original run...
» Read moreWay back in 2008 I wrote about Kurt Reifler’s self-titled album, and here he is back with an EP of...
» Read moreIn 2016 Mega Dodo released a compilation of dark folk/folk horror tunes curated by Chris Lambert,
Serbian keyboard maestro Vasil Hadžimanov is back with his crack band of jazz-rock players for Lines in Sand. These 12 cuts cover a lot of ground stylistically, from funky electric jazz...
» Read moreIn 2017 Schizo Fun Addict provided free copies of their 2013 LP The Sun Yard...
» Read moreOver the course of 55 years Jim McCarty has done just about everything, from his days drumming for the nascent Yardbirds, through all their successes and changes (a band which he still leads...
» Read moreThe long hiatus has come to an end; Quarkspace is back recording again. Frankly, oh me of little faith, I wasn’t sure they would ever be back. It’s been at least fifteen years since...
» Read moreThis is Kevin Kastning solo. Alone, sparse, wandering, introspective and meditative, playing either his 30-string contra-alto guitar, or his 36-string double contraguitar. This marks his fifth...
» Read moreI had never heard of this Swedish duo of Peter Wikström and Emil Holmström before they were brought to my attention by Gayle Ellett (of Djam Karet and Fernwood), who has been involved...
» Read moreI covered some of Rafał Sarnecki’s work as a sideman and arranger recently in the context of vocalist Annie Chen’s great
The Soft Hearted Scientists’ Nathan Hall has released a new album with his group The Sinister Locals. Announced back in May 2018 for a vinyl release, this album has been plagued with so many...
» Read moreThe Ten of the album title refers to the number of years since the founding of Beats & Pieces Big Band by Ben Cotrell. In that time, they’ve only released two albums, but...
» Read moreThe mere existence of this album is something of an unlikely occurrence. Tone Masseve was something of a prodigy on guitar, working as a session musician while still in his teens, and in the 90s...
» Read moreThis is the second of three (I presume) of Max Corbacho’s Nocturnes series; the first (which I confess I have not heard) was issued in 2017. The style, as might be suggested by the...
» Read moreOn both May 12 and November 11, 2017, Italian progressive band Ancient Veil performed live at the Teatro della Tosse in Genoa, Italy. The band has its origins in Italian progressive band Eris...
» Read moreThe opening track on A Drop of Light (which incidentally is titled “All Traps on Earth”) is a nearly 19-minute seemingly never-ending progression of ideas that accompanies the...
» Read moreAlthough it may seem odd, the theme of this album is about the attitude of setting lowered expectations in a world where we often engage in edless speculation about who is the best, the MVP, the...
» Read moreFour years on from their previous album, German rockers Le Mur return with their third album Exorta. As their second album
Never quite receiving the fanfare or attention they deserved, Unicorn was a British four-piece band that worked their magic throughout the 70s, beginning in 1971 with their debut album, Uphill...
» Read moreSomehow I missed Gentleman Surfer’s 2016 album, Reanimate Ore, after really liking the two previous releases, but here I’m back on board with Hard Pass. These Northern...
» Read moreA jazz trio that consists of bass, drums, and a melodic instrument like sax or trumpet can be a really wonderful thing. The absence of a piano or guitar filling in chords gives the other players...
» Read moreNext up in the parade of bands featuring Norwegian musicians best known for work in other bands is Amgala Temple, which was formed by Lars Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist), Amund Maarud (The Grand), and...
» Read moreSongs for Nathan is the long distance friendship / split release by Australia’s Trappist Afterland and Denmark’s Moongazing Hare. The album title refers to
Eiko Ishibashi is the kind of artist who completely defies both categorization and prediction. She’s recorded music in such a variety of styles and genres that you never know what to expect...
» Read moreAustin’s math-rock band Opposite Day released their latest album Divide by Nothing on September 20, 2018. Guitarist Sam Arnold, bassist Greg Yancey, and drummer Eoghan McCloskey...
» Read moreLet's start with the cover art. This beautiful painting looks like a hybrid of surreal artist Gervasio Gallardo, Betty Swanick (Selling England by the Pound), and Paul Whitehead...
» Read moreInterkosmos is an intergalactic band consisting of Sergio Ceballos (guitar and FX), Pablo Carneval (drums), and Dave Schmidt (AKA Sula Bassana, bass, FX, and loops). They released their debut...
» Read moreIn another time in an alternate universe, I will be trapped in a loop where I review this album every night for eternity, and find something subtle, some new feeling, a different perspective each...
» Read moreGiven his long tenure in Jethro Tull, Martin Barre’s distinctive style of guitar playing has to be one of the iconic elements of progressive rock, and it is testament in part to his skillful...
» Read moreIn 1976 Turkish rock singer Barış Manço wanted to make one last attempt to gain a world-wide audience for his music with Nick the Chopper before he changed careers to a TV...
» Read moreOne of Fruits der Mer’s most ambitious projects to date was released on October 8, 2018, the three LP set The Three Seasons, celebrating the spring, summer, and autumn of love. The...
» Read moreLast year Fruits de Mer released Kris Gietkowski’s interpretation of the first Egg...
» Read more“And in thy heart inurn me” — and so closes John Keats’ poem “You Say You Love.” This last phrase is also the title of Italian band Monjoie’s...
» Read moreClose - Lamb - White - Walls is the sixth album by Italian prog band Twenty Four Hours. This is not a concept album, but instead a collection of songs inspired by the bands who released...
» Read moreRita Braga is a singer-songwriter born in Lisbon in 1985, now residing in London. Bird on the Moon is her second release and it is one quirky album. Over the course of 28 minutes and 14...
» Read moreHow better to spend New Year's Day than listening to the latest live album by Swiss math-rock-jazz giants Sonar? This is actually the band’s second live album (the first was Live at...
» Read moreA bit of background: Following a series of dates in Poland, Peter Orins (drums) and Ivann Cruz (guitar) joined up with Polish double bassist Maciej Garbowski at the Institute of Music Performance...
» Read moreJust in time for holidays this year’s Snowflakes Christmas Single by Green Seagull was released on December 7. The single features two songs: “First Snow of Winter” and the...
» Read moreIt wouldn’t be hard to make the case that Chris Squire was one of the most influential bass players in the history of rock. Even outside progressive rock, anywhere someone is using a picking...
» Read moreJazz as an art form may have been born in the US, but over the century or so (no need to be more precise) of its existence, it has reached all over the world, and people from different backgrounds...
» Read moreA musical world filled with complex mathematical rhythms, odd angles and planes, sharp corners and geometric surfaces, these Swiss practitioners have created their own place in multi-dimensional...
» Read moreIs there room in the world of music for a live album that’s not really progressive rock or retro classic rock, but consists of good tunes well played? Guitarist Paolo Baltaro is known to me...
» Read moreWhen I reviewed Slap Guru’s debut album in August 2018 I was not impressed. So I approached their second album, Diagrams of Pagan Life, with caution, and they have now won me over...
» Read moreTrumpeter Cuong Vu’s last outing with his 4tet was the excellent Ballet, which was devoted to the music of Michael Gibbs. With Change in the Air, compositional duties are...
» Read moreYou hear footsteps coming down the hall, a squeaky door opens and closes and suddenly you are in Schroeder’s world. The German synthesizer pioneer, originally discovered by Klaus Schulze in...
» Read moreI’ve often wondered what is the maximum number of tracks that a sincle CD can accommodate. I remember that Dr. Nerve’s Beta 14 OK had around 16 regular tracks followed by 44...
» Read moreI hadn’t heard anything about this band before receiving this promo out of the blue (and by the title, this is obviously their second release); in some ways that’s good, no expectations...
» Read moreHard to believe, but Far Corner is back after an almost ten year absence, and their new music is more powerful than ever, 13 compact tracks of angular and difficult twists and dark, dangerous...
» Read moreFrédéric Gerchambeau is perhaps the lesser known of these two collaborators, with only a couple releases to his credit, and two more collabrations with Zreen Toyz (aka Jean Luc...
» Read moreWintherStormer is a Norwegian trio playing improvised sequencer-based electronic music in the Berlin School style, though they have taken the sound a couple steps further with the addition of some...
» Read moreThe first four nodes of heavy distorted bass that pump out of your speaker to introduce the first track, “Deadend Mind,” let you know immediately that Electric Mud means business, and...
» Read moreIn the rock era, there have been a lot of bands to combine Irish folk music and rock, going back to Horslips and working forward through many others, including punk-inflected groups like The Pogues...
» Read moreAxess is the electronic musical project of one Axel Stupplich, active since his First Light album was released in 2002, and with about ten albums since, some released with fellow...
» Read moreThere are very few bands active today with a history as long as The Guess Who, which started as Allan and the Silvertones in 1958 under the leadership of Chad Allan (vocals, guitar) with Randy...
» Read moreMy vision of Ultimate Torment looks like this: I’m locked in a room with a giant screen that can’t be turned off and receives only two channels — professional wrestling and Neal...
» Read moreSwedish singer-songwriter Christian Kjellvander was part of the Swedish alternative country band Loosegoats until they disbanded in 2001. Since then he has pursued his solo career, releasing his...
» Read moreAfter a 20 year hiatus Italian prog band Trama returns with their second album, Oscura Movenze. I find it intriguing that in today’s world that an active band can remain obscure....
» Read moreTwo years since their last full length release Hollow Ghost / Rochelle Salt, Octopus Syng have graced us with their latest take on dreamy psych pop, Victorian Wonders. These...
» Read moreTo set the stage, let’s start with a translation of the band's name and album title. This new Italian band Una Stagione all’Inferno or A Season in Hell released their debut album...
» Read moreAt the heart of Dirigo Rataplan is drummer and composer Devin Gray. Six years after their first eponymous release the group is back together for a second take. Gray provides interesting and flowing...
» Read moreCoriolanus is one of Shakespeare’s tragedies, based on the life of the legendary Roman leader Caius Marcius Coriolanus. Coriolanus was successful against various uprisings...
» Read moreI have been anticipating listening to this new album by Italian band Alchem, fully expecting classic spooky and gothic Italian progressive music based on the witch queen, ravens, and cheetah on the...
» Read moreSomewhere beyond the three minute pop-song, where the steady beat and catchy melody devolve into a world of purely textural sounds, this is where the soundworld of Chord begins. The four pieces on...
» Read moreMoon’s third album presents me with what may be the reviewer’s worst dilemma. I really like it, but I’m having trouble articulating why. To my mind, why is the...
» Read moreItalian prog rocker Maurillo Rossi (AKA Goad) returned this year with a double album. The first disc is all new material and the second disc is a live recording from 1995 of his 1994 album...
» Read moreBack in 2015 I wrote about the debut of one-woman prog-metal artist OH. Olivia Hadjiioannou seems to have the uncanny ability to touch any musical instrument and immediately produce impressive...
» Read moreDownpilot is Paul Hiraga’s solo effort, with This Is the Sound being his sixth release, though this is my first encounter. The album’s ten songs are edgy yet dreamy takes on...
» Read moreKraan has been going strong since their debut in 1972 around the core of bassist Hellmut Hattler and brothers Peter Wolbrandt (guitar) and Jan Fride (drums), and although their studio work has had...
» Read moreI am by no stretch of the imagination or definition a metal head. I went through a brief phase as a teenager where Black Sabbath was one of my favorite bands, but it had passed by the time the...
» Read moreAasraa is by far the more mysterious of the two recent Vacuum Tree Head EP releases, though I wouldn’t say it’s any better or worse than its partner release
And suddenly, after about five or six years of silence, there are two new Vacuum Tree Head EPs. I think the last one I heard was Hypothetical Quandaries (n) from around 2012. I think there...
» Read moreIn June 2017 Crystal Jacqueline and her band performed at the Sonic Rock Solstice Festival in Worcestershire, England where someone slyly bootlegged their performance, producing a homemade CD and...
» Read moreThe Sheen is a relatively new band from the small city of Bellingham, Washington, and in their short existence they’ve already been through two distinct phases. The personnel for their...
» Read moreThe Sheen is a relatively new band from the small city of Bellingham, Washington, and in their short existence they’ve already been through two distinct phases. The personnel for their...
» Read moreIf Johnston’s name sounds a little familiar to some, it may be because he is a founder, leader, composer, and saxophonist of one of his other (many) bands, the New York based Microscopic...
» Read moreI’ve lost count now, but this is apparently the ninth (of twelve) releases that Satoko Fujii is releasing for her 60th birthday celebration / marathon. This is an improvisational duo with...
» Read moreMan, I needed this. After a spell of listening to pretty heavy music, Yves Lambert’s acoustic folk really hits the spot. Some might remember him as a founding member of La Bottine Souriante,...
» Read moreA couple of years ago, this ensemble put out the excellent Further Explorations...
» Read moreThis Oslo band creates mostly instrumental music in the vein of such 70s sounds as European movie soundtracks and library music, with a gauzy, atmospheric sound that would fit in a David Lynch...
» Read moreBands (and the PR people who work for and with them) are free to describe themselves however they see fit, and in the case of June Bug “alternative folk music” seems to be a phrase...
» Read moreWay back in the mid-70s while I was waiting for my DD-214, I was scouring the cutout bin at my favorite record shop in Northside Berkeley and found an album with an interesting front cover, a...
» Read moreMy musical journey changed after chasing down a live Alio Die CD to a UK label known as Txt. Txt was run at the time by Autumn of Communion’s Lee Norris, who also released the music of many...
» Read moreMy musical journey changed after chasing down a live Alio Die CD to a UK label known as Txt. Txt was run at the time by Autumn of Communion’s Lee Norris, who also released the music of many...
» Read moreThis time out, Kastning (30-string contra-alto guitar, 36-string double contra guitar, and piano) approaches the improvised sounding compositional work as a trio, along with Sándor...
» Read moreThere’s no telling what will come your way when you write about music, and Ayn Inserto was a new name for me, but she has been composing and conducting orchestrated big band music for around...
» Read moreOne thing you can count on from Jamie Saft is that each new recording has a good chance of sounding unlike what you’ve heard him do before. I’ve heard him in a variety of settings, from...
» Read moreThis quartet, like his trio with Steve Swallow and Bobby Previte, represents the more traditional jazzy side of Jamie Saft’s work. As in the trio, Saft limits himself to piano, and his...
» Read moreWhen a catchy garage rock song is grooving along, and you notice that the lyrics are talking about Antonio Gramsci, you know this is no ordinary rock ‘n’ roll band. That’s...
» Read moreWhen Yellow Magic Orchestra’s first album came out in 1978, listeners around the world were treated (many for the first time) to creative music from Japan, something that wasn’t just...
» Read moreWhen Yellow Magic Orchestra’s first album came out in 1978, listeners around the world were treated (many for the first time) to creative music from Japan, something that wasn’t just...
» Read moreWhen Yellow Magic Orchestra’s first album came out in 1978, listeners around the world were treated (many for the first time) to creative music from Japan, something that wasn’t just...
» Read moreWhen Yellow Magic Orchestra’s first album came out in 1978, listeners around the world were treated (many for the first time) to creative music from Japan, something that wasn’t just...
» Read moreWhen Yellow Magic Orchestra’s first album came out in 1978, listeners around the world were treated (many for the first time) to creative music from Japan, something that wasn’t just...
» Read moreFor their 2018 outing, the duo of Paolo Fosso (keyboards, compositions, arrangements) and Jacopo Bigi (acoustic and electric violin, viola, ukulele) present a set of pieces produced with movie...
» Read moreAre we to the point in the history of modern music where everyone who would be inclined to like The Green Pajamas has already heard them and fallen in love? Just in case there are some stragglers,...
» Read moreDrummer Xavi Reija has had a partnership with guitarist Dušan Jevtovič for some time now, going back to Reija’s 2006 album Dream Land that I’m aware of. They did the...
» Read moreAs I understand the story behind this new release by veteran violinist David Cross, Cleopatra label head Jürgen Engler presented the musician with 12 tracks of music, giving him the...
» Read moreSo here’s a question for you. If you didn’t understand any English, how much would you enjoy Frank Zappa’s music? (I’ll allow that for some listeners, it’s the words...
» Read moreSo here’s a question for you. If you didn’t understand any English, how much would you enjoy Frank Zappa’s music? (I’ll allow that for some listeners, it’s the words...
» Read moreIt’s been around six years since Sister Death, the last album by...
» Read more“Joe Frazier” was one of the highlights of the somewhat overlooked third Bruford album, Gradually Going Tornado — which is a fine album, and would be a standout in any...
» Read moreThe six tracks on The Truth of Being are explorative ambient inward journeys of discovery, meditations that search for inner peace and find it via bountiful musical visions that at once...
» Read moreFrom 1980 through 1984, the St. Louis Missouri based guitarist’s recorded output was mostly through collaborations with various other local musicians: Gale Ormiston, Walter Whitney, David...
» Read moreFrench five-piece Spectrum Orchestrum started back in 2007, and has been pretty much flying under the radar all this time. We were introduced to them with their last release
Any time Magma archival releases come out, yours truly is somewhere near the front of the line to make the purchase. I’ve heard enough bootlegs through the years, especially from this period,...
» Read moreThere is no mistaking the unique and hauntinly beautiful voice of Judy Dyble, who, since her days as singer and founding member of Fairport Convention, in the pre-Crimson assemblage of Giles, Giles...
» Read moreThe band called Space Streakings didn’t last very long, with three years or so between their beginnings and splitting up, but the two albums they released, plus a collaboration with the...
» Read moreTales of the Dreaming City finds guitarist Mark Wingfield back in the driver’s seat, leading a band that takes Yaron Stavi (bass) and Asaf Sirkis (drums) from
I’m happy to say that I have most of the Steve Roach back catalog, and have listened to all of those many times over the years, sometimes even leaving them play in an endless loops for days...
» Read moreJ. Peter Schwalm is back with another set of intriguing electronic music. The Beauty of...
» Read moreThis instrumental band brings together sounds from several decades to make an appealing style. There are some heavy riffs that would, depending on their surroundings, work in anything from 80s...
» Read moreMike Brown has been releasing music as “The Man from RavCon” for nearly ten years, but this album is the first I’ve heard. Judging by the covers of his previous albums, he seems...
» Read moreSometimes with Satoko Fujii, less is definitely more. Back in 2016, Fujii and bassist Fonda’s first recording together, simply titled Duet, was an exceptional collection of masterful...
» Read moreSome artists have a uniquely identifiable sound, just the combination of composition, playing style, choice of arrangements, and overall production. So even though Carl Weingarten works in a...
» Read moreThis Oslo band plays instrumental music inspired by various forms of classic music, especially 70s soundtrack music, funk, and early jazz fusion. Somehow, they also end up having some features in...
» Read moreIn most circumstances, a CD with only two tracks would be considered a ‘single,’ but when the total time of the two tracks approaches the 70-minute mark, and consists of two essentially...
» Read moreIt’s often said that dreams only last for a few minutes, but they sometimes seem like hours when they are recalled, often connecting with previous dreams in a restless continuum that wanders...
» Read moreDarrell Katz has been around for a number of years (the earliest recording on his site is Flux, from 1992, credited to the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra), in fact he was the founder of...
» Read moreNature is one of several new Russian releases that dropped into my mailbox in June. Disen Gage is an experimental musique concrète project that is surprisingly accessible....
» Read moreA melodic rock song featuring both slide guitar and harpsichord… Who would do such a thing? Norwegian songwriter Lasse Myrvold and his cohorts in Kong Klang would. And it works. This kind of...
» Read moreJacques-Yves Cousteau is probably the last person I would have expected to see on the cover art for a prog rock release, let alone one from a Russian band. But there he is smiling at you on...
» Read moreWhen last we met drummer Phil Haynes, he gave us Sanctuary, a set of pieces for solo drum kit....
» Read moreThis Berkeley, California group of musical amphibians is based around the eclectic songwriting partnership of Eric Kampman (keyboards and vocals) and Thea Kelley (vocals, who also sings in Jack...
» Read moreWhy 33? It’s not a 33 1/3 LP (at least yet). This is, in fact Segal’s 33rd solo album, which also happens to be a really interesting nine-part workout of dreamlike sequences of...
» Read moreHarsh electronics, distorted guitar, power chords, and heavy metal sludge ooze out of your speakers for four stoner rock and doom laden tracks: “Heavy State,” “Weird...
» Read moreThe third part of the Regal Worm trilogy, Pig Views, hit the streets on July 13, 2018. For this installment Jarrod Gosling used a more song-based format and delivers nine songs, with two...
» Read moreGerald Arend (AKA Klangwelt) is not a prolific musician. He released his previous (third) album, XOIO, in...
» Read moreKlaus Schulze turned 71 on August 4, 2018 and he is still releasing new music, though he has slowed down over the years. His discography is so massive, it is a challenge to comprehend,...
» Read moreIt seems like it was only yesterday that I reviewed Cromlech Chronicles II and now Fruits...
» Read moreDuring the process of revisiting, remastering, and reimmersing himself for the 30th anniversary edition of his classic album Dreamtime Return, Roach was inspired to expand upon parts of...
» Read moreBack in 2013, after Fruits de Mer released the Me and My Kites 7-inch with Tony Durant, I went on a search for Fuchsia’s albums. Even the CD reissues were difficult to find, but find them I...
» Read moreEric Goulden (AKA Wreckless Eric) has been part of the underground music scene since 1977 when he was barely out of his teens. His new album, Construction Time and Demolition, is the...
» Read moreAt Peter Gabriel’s UK Womad Festival in 1992 Michel Banabila and Yaşar Saka performed together as an “East Meets West” performance. They then went on to record and release two...
» Read moreThese enigmatic Finns return to the fold after two years with their second full length album, Duel. Onségen Ensemble have matured their sound, moving away from stoner rock to a more...
» Read moreReal Ax Band might have been something of a minor footnote in German jazz rock history, their original recorded output was limited to an album and a few songs on anthologies, but they were a much...
» Read moreThis is another project featuring pianist Satoko Fujii along with her trumpeter husband Natsuki Tamura, this time under the name Mahobin (a Japanese word meaning Magic Bottle), along with two other...
» Read moreI should know better than to judge a book by its cover, but sometimes the album art grabs my attention and sets my expectations for the music. So with the medieval cover art of A Golden...
» Read moreTriad came about as Fujii (piano) and Fonda (double bass & flute) were planning a European tour following their 2016 Duet album, and were in touch with Long Song label owner...
» Read moreLike a comet streaking through the heavens, the vintage sounds of Cuasares (the enigmatic studio project by pianist / arranger / visionary Waldo Belloso) splashes a wild esoteric mixture of...
» Read moreIf I had to review this collaboration between Hungarian percussionist Balász Major and American guitarist Kevin Kastning in a single word, it would be “sparse.” Sparse in a good...
» Read moreSurely every progressive rock fan in the world has been paying attention to Regal Worm by now. If they aren’t, it’s time to start. Pig Views continues the amazing run of Jarrod...
» Read moreGuerssen continues to reissue albums by the legendary Toby Robinson. The latest is Pyramid with its single 33-minute track, “Dawn Defender.” Recorded between 1975 and 1976,...
» Read moreFrom the wilds of Ontario — Mississauga, to be precise — comes this genre-defying band. With elements of math rock, post rock, jazz, and “other” among the references, they...
» Read moreJust as the band Asia was not from Asia, Kraków is not Polish, but from Bergen, Norway. Approaching Minus from the perspective of a progressive rock fan, it’s a bit like...
» Read moreOn September 12, 1967, three months before releasing their first LP, Mr. Fantasy, Traffic performed live on Radiohuset in Stockholm, Sweden to a large crowd. This radio broadcast was...
» Read moreJodie Lowther is back this past June with another new release, this time a split cassette with A.R.C. Soundtracks on Front & Follow. Our Exposé readership should be familiar...
» Read moreMy history with Guru Guru is somewhat unfortunate. Back in the late 70s, their album Globetrotter showed up as a bargain item in the Jem import catalog, and I’d heard they were one...
» Read moreThis California band is best known for their song “Let’s Talk about Girls,” a track from their 1967 debut album that also appeared on the first Nuggets compilation. Their...
» Read moreRock Beat Records is digging up some great shows to release from the vaults of time, like the Paul Butterfield Live in New York 1970 show that I
Anyone who’s heard any of Koenjihyakkei’s previous work will know to expect a high-energy adaptation of Magma’s classic zeuhl sound, featuring complex rhythms, singing in an...
» Read moreSo what is this? Alan Simon is a French composer with a varied career originally centered around Celtic flavored folk-rock music, but since around 1999, starting with Excalibur – The...
» Read moreA most important reissue in that it contains both the original 1968 mix of Anthem of the Sun, the Grateful Dead’s most psychedelic and experimental album, as well as the 1971 remix,...
» Read moreIn 1972 Swiss avant-garde guitarist Christian Oestreicher gathered some friends from the jazz-rock scene, among them Jean-François Boillat, Blaise Català, and Jerry Chardonnens, in a...
» Read moreGuerssen has reissued another one of the legendary Toby Robinson’s one-off projects recorded after hours at Dieter Dierks’ studio near Köln, Germany. Toby’s favorite activity...
» Read moreMark McDowell is a UK musician who has been intermittently releasing music since 2001. We in fact reviewed his
Corde Oblique, the band directed by guitarist composer Riccardo Prencipe, has released seven full length albums since 2005, though their latest Back through the Liquid Mirror is my first...
» Read moreAustralian band All India Radio is back again with a new album, Space. 45 years ago, veteran British artist David A. Hardy was commissioned by Pink Floyd to paint the cover art for their...
» Read moreSpanish industrial noisemeisters are back with another short release, the strangely titled The Beautiful Pork Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Espardenyes. The information on their...
» Read moreIl Sole alle Spalle by the new Italian band Sintesi del Viaggio di Es is the last of the batch of Lizard Record releases I received this spring. Sintesi del Viaggio di Es is Nicola...
» Read moreBasta! is another Italian band on the Lizard Records label, and their new album Elemento Antropico is a set of eleven instrumentals. I was expecting heavy percussion or a drum line from...
» Read moreFor their new album released this past spring, Aurora Lunare covered nine different prog rock songs as a tribute. The album opens with a cover of Procol Harum’s “A Whiter Shade of...
» Read moreHere is another relatively new Italian progressive band, Il Sentiero di Taus, who have just released their second album, Macrocosmosi. Il Sentiero di Taus, Italian for the Path of Taus, is...
» Read moreOne might be forgiven for not knowing about Aperus, which is the musical project of New Mexico based composer and photographer Brian McWilliams (and do check out the outstanding photography on his...
» Read moreIt seems that this band released a few individual tracks back in 2015 under the name Kelvin — “Lights Are Low,” “Give It All,” and “Strobelights” —...
» Read moreI’m a fan of artistic ambition when it comes to music, though of course there’s always a risk that ambition exceeds the ability to deliver on the plan. Hanterhir is a band new to me,...
» Read moreBrain Wizard is basically a one-man band consisting of Kurt Elzner, who is assisted here and there by bassist Zach Lansdowne. Elzner has a long history in music — I remember him from a...
» Read moreThis is a little different than the most of the psychedelic, experimental, and progressive rock that we typically cover, but nonetheless enjoyable and certainly well arranged and produced. Most...
» Read moreIcarus Peel steps out in front with his power trio Acid Reign to release some brilliant extended guitar-driven acid rock, a departure from what we have grown used to with The Honey Pot and Crystal...
» Read moreI fell in love with Jerry Marotta’s drumming on Peter Gabriel’s second solo album. His use of toms as part of the patterns was distinctive, and not something I’d heard before. He...
» Read moreOne of the qualities I enjoy most in music is surprise. While there is a potential comfort in music that does what you expect it to, I value the disorientation that comes when creative artists let...
» Read moreIf you are into weird music, then this new Italian album called Kinderheim is for you. Italian musician Davide Mezzatesta (AKA Mezz Gacano) and his RIO band the Self Standing Ovation...
» Read moreFor some reason, several of the last few albums in my review queue have been odd avant-garde releases. La Traccia by Runaway Totem is no exception. La Traccia is my first exposure...
» Read moreI am slowly discovering new Russian bands and music, at least new to me, and I am impressed with what I am hearing. The latest is Roz Vitalis, a band from St. Petersburg that has been around since...
» Read moreJames Roditis (AKA Upper Regions) is a Canadian producer and electronic musician who just released a collection of tracks written over the past 25 years. Observing Humans is one long...
» Read moreIn the 80s, Barcelona musicians Maria Dolores García (Lole) and Jordi Cabayol released a series of cassettes as Camino al Desván, Spanish for Road to the Attic. The music on these...
» Read moreThe moody eclecticism and ethnic richness that permeates all of Dharmawan’s latest release surprised even me, and I had marveled at those qualities in his previous release, Pasar...
» Read moreJason Sweeney AKA Sweeney Straddles the Suns’ first album, Erect, was released in 2010. Sweeney’s second album, Tarantula, seven years later in 2017 and now his third...
» Read moreThe title pretty much says it all, with Brazilian trio Dialeto expanding to a quartet with King Crimson violinist David Cross for this show on July 22nd, 2017, the second concert to promote their...
» Read moreDušan Jevtović is a masterful guitarist, and this live set was recorded in December 2016 in Jevtović’s home town of Kragujevac in Serbia, at the Dečije Pojorište with the...
» Read moreCircle Six is my first encounter with this Bergen band that’s been around since the mid-90s and recording since 1999. It is their sixth album, so I headed to Youtube to check out...
» Read moreIt’s been more than 40 years since Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, and a few others introduced us to the world of expansive sequenced electronic music that has come to be called the Berlin...
» Read moreLast August the Minneapolis prog instrumental quartet Ovrfwrd recorded an in-studio live performance that they intend to release as a DVD/Blu-ray disc this coming Fall. As a teaser and their third...
» Read moreWorldService Project’s follow-up to the outstanding For King and Country is called Serve, and it serves (ahem!) up another set of great tunes. No real changes are in...
» Read moreEscupemetralla is a purposefully obscure Spanish band. They go out their way not to reveal any meaningful information. If you search for them on the Internet, all you can find is this...
» Read moreThree years ago German band Sirkus released their debut album Dream Factory. And this past April saw the release of their second album The Noise of Time. Sirkus is a group of...
» Read moreEmmett Chapman invented his Stick back in the mid-70s, and for the majority of the time since then, it’s been somewhat of a rarity in music outside a small community of enthusiasts. But the...
» Read moreSonLosGrillos, the Spanish duo of Marta Rodríguez (vocals) and Mauricio Mora (guitars, bass, mandolin, zither, banjo, lap steel guitar, keyboards, and percussion), is a new band to me, with...
» Read moreThe first half of the 80s were troubled times for Wishbone Ash; the band that had created classics like Pilgrimage, the mighty Argus, and There’s the Rub only a few...
» Read moreThe first half of the 80s were troubled times for Wishbone Ash; the band that had created classics like Pilgrimage, the mighty Argus, and There’s the Rub only a few...
» Read moreLately there has been a lot of new and interesting music coming out of Finland. The latest for me is the Helsinki band Malady. Toinen Toista is their second album of five songs, with the...
» Read moreA founding member of Yes, guitarist Peter Banks was unceremoniously dismissed after two albums and replaced by Steve Howe. Banks’ creative muse was still on the rise, however, and soon there...
» Read moreA founding member of Yes, guitarist Peter Banks was unceremoniously dismissed after two albums and replaced by Steve Howe. Banks’ creative muse was still on the rise, however, and soon there...
» Read moreThe third time is the charm, especially for Aaron Clift and his cohorts. I delayed gratification for three months to listen to their new album If All Goes Wrong as I worked through my...
» Read moreMilkilo is a French duo of bass and drums, but they don’t sound much like the more famous Ruins. Their music is at time manic and pounding, but not as crazily technical as Yoshida’s...
» Read moreThis album is the kind of thing where it’s more or less pointless to pay attention to individual tracks. There are 29 of them, mostly one minute or less in length, so it’s best to ject...
» Read moreHardly seems possible, but Fruits de Mer Records has reached the ripe old age of 10. And to celebrate this milestone, they released a triple LP in a gatefold sleeve that features selections from...
» Read morePsychedelic Finns Permanent Clear Light are back on Fruits de Mer with a three track 7-inch slab of vinyl Maurice n’est pas la. FdM normally releases singles with at least one cover...
» Read moreYou can sometimes tell everything you need to know from a band’s name. Any group that would call itself Shatner’s Bassoon is obviously a grimly serious death metal act obsessed with...
» Read moreFernando Perdomo is guitarist and bassist for the Dave Kerzner band, and Out to Sea is an appropriate title for his debut album, given that he has been a regular on the “Cruise to...
» Read moreThis Oslo band has been pumping out the music lately, this being their third release in the last year or so. And (barring the diversion into children’s music with Bydyra) with...
» Read moreOver the last couple of decades, Azalia Snail has earned the title “Queen of Lo-Fi,” but with Neon Resistance, that designation seems less appropriate. The “Lo-Fi”...
» Read moreBabis “Bob” Katsionis plays guitar and keyboards in such bands as Firewind, Revolution Renaissance, Outloud, and Serious Black, but I’m not knowledgeable on the Greek metal scene,...
» Read moreOn their third album, Icebound, Not a Good Sign delivers a new level of complexity and ambitiousness in their work — the nine songs here easily representing their best effort to...
» Read moreYou never know what kind of surprise you’re going to get with a new Church of Hed release, but it’s always going to be something different than the previous one – that’s the...
» Read moreThis quartet outing finds three-fourths of the group from Preminger’s Meditations on...
» Read moreThese are two concurrent new releases by Thumbscrew, the trio of double-bassist Michael Formanek, guitarist Mary Halvorson, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara; Ours is a collection of original...
» Read moreThese are two concurrent new releases by Thumbscrew, the trio of double-bassist Michael Formanek, guitarist Mary Halvorson, and drummer Tomas Fujiwara; Ours is a collection of original...
» Read moreIt’s been almost fifty years since Curved Air hit the music scene with their first album Airconditioning, and closing the first side of that album was the seven and a half minute...
» Read moreIf you’ve got an itch that is scratched by Il Balletto di Bronzo and Van der Graaf Generator, Ring van Möbius is here to help. Not that they’ve copied the Balletto or VdGG sounds...
» Read moreSometimes you just don’t know why, you can’t put your finger on the reason, but a sound carries some kind of magic that can’t easily be explained. Case in point: Sirkus is a...
» Read moreThe Rabbit and the Fallen Sycamore is an album that takes many listens to reveal itself, and even after maybe a dozen times through, I’m still not really sure what to make of it....
» Read moreOn February 22 the Guerssen sub-label Sommor released the first reissue of a rare Swedish album that was privately released in 1975, Till Den Sträng Som Brast Än Att Aldrig...
» Read moreDeep Purple, Uriah Heep, Atomic Rooster — classic heavy rock bands known for featuring the sound of an overdriven Hammond organ. The Shadow Lizzards start off their debut album with...
» Read moreAmerican electronic musician Bryan Jewell Hughes now has six albums out under the moniker AeTopus (Totum Totum is his latest), and with each release he manages to up his game without...
» Read moreWith such a perfect and descriptive title for the music at hand, Roach’s Molecules of Motion features four long tracks of flowing emotional energy, at once sharing both his Berlin...
» Read moreThe album at hand is Sverre Knut Johansen’s third release on Spotted Peccary music. This time his theme is the universe, presented in an electronic symphonic style much like his previous two,...
» Read moreLike the recently reviewed album by David Cross and David Jackson, this is a new recording by...
» Read moreExpectations can be dangerous. For example, this collaboration between a former King Crimson violinist and a former Van der Graaf Generator saxophonist is bound to generate high expectations in a...
» Read moreNLTM is the collaboration between Nicholas Littlemore (Teenager, Pnau, Empire of the Sun, musical director of Le Cirque du Soleil, and other endeavors) and Thierry Müller (Ilitch, Ruth, Crash,...
» Read moreAcross Wøllo’s nearly two dozen albums going back to the early 80s, and even more when one counts all the collaborations, the Norwegian guitarist's explorative sounds have evolved...
» Read moreThis, the second full length release for this German band from Düsseldorf, comes amid a number of similarly titled EP vinyl releases. The group is led by guitarist and singer Jochen Oberlack,...
» Read moreNobody can ever accuse Tibbetts of flooding the market with product. His pace is slow and deliberately so, and of late, now that he’s an established artist, taking about eight years between...
» Read moreThere was a gap of several years between No Ifs Ands or Dogs (2011) and Putting off Death (2017), but Thymme Jones and company seem to be on a roll — here it’s not...
» Read moreHaving last heard Marbin on their Aggressive Hippies album a few years ago, their latest, Israeli Jazz, is certainly what one would expect from this Chicago-based quartet: a...
» Read moreGuitarist Marc Ribot has a recorded history that is so diverse as to be of little use in predicting what a new album might sound like. His group Ceramic Dog consists of Ches Smith (drums,...
» Read moreUK instrumental group The Senior Service released their second album King Cobra on April 27, 2018. Fans of their 2016 debut album The Girl in the Glass Case will be pleased with...
» Read moreCuban pianist Miguel de Armas makes his album debut under his own name with What’s to Come, a collection of ten varied tunes that presents his nimble keyboard work with a backing of...
» Read moreGiven my love of Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, and Boiled in Lead, it would seem like Tempest should be part of my musical life when it comes to folk-rock. But there’s so much music in...
» Read moreWhen one puts The Chroma Plateau in the player, the sounds won’t immediately jump out and grab you by the jugular, but instead slowly envelop the listener in a wash of colorful fog...
» Read moreIt is always a pleasure to listen to a new release from the fertile mind of the prolific Christian Koch, AKA Vibravoid. Over the past 30 years he has released more than 100 LPs, singles, EPs, etc.,...
» Read moreIt is always a pleasure to listen to a new release from the fertile mind of the prolific Christian Koch, AKA Vibravoid. Over the past 30 years he has released more than 100 LPs, singles, EPs, etc.,...
» Read moreThere are a lot of metal bands out there who have the mistaken impression that they are “progressive” when their music is so conventional (for its style) that the word becomes a parody...
» Read moreOne manifestation of the impact of modern technology in music is the kind of meticulous production used on most pop recordings, where you’ll find such things as kick drum sounds that are...
» Read moreFungus Hill is a relatively new band from Umeå in Northern Sweden. They began playing together in 2015, recording an EP, two singles, and a music video. Then in 2017 they released their first...
» Read moreSeems like I was just writing a review of their previous studio effort Mushroom Mantras a few weeks ago — it was in fact February of this year — but the point is that Vibravoid...
» Read moreSeems like I was just writing a review of their previous studio effort Mushroom Mantras a few weeks ago — it was in fact February of this year — but the point is that Vibravoid...
» Read moreTyler Taormina (aka Cloud) released his debut album, Comfort Songs, in 2013. On March 9, 2018 he returned with his new album Plays with Fire. Plays with Fire is a set of...
» Read moreL’Albero del Veleno, Italian for The Poison Tree, released their second album in 2017 on Black Widow Records. This is an interesting gothic instrumental suite in two acts based on Greek...
» Read moreVogon Records has unearthed and released some lost broadcasts by Cream during their halcyon days between 1966 and 1967. What we have is a live recording made for Swedish radio plus some unreleased...
» Read moreFlutatious is a UK band that blends different elements from Celtic, psychedelic fok, progressive rock, and techno dance music. They are Michelle Devonshire (flute), Bill Forwell (bass), Stella...
» Read moreHe’s been actively recording music since the early 80s, with well over two dozen releases to his credit, yet probably not as prolific as some others in the floating ambient subgenre, but his...
» Read moreWith their fourth album, this Japanese band continues the growth that has progressed through all of their work. All of their strengths are on display, and everything is nudged up a notch in...
» Read moreThe Brotherhood was a one-and-done band from Ohio that recorded and privately released their only album, Stavia, in 1972 (200 copies). Stavia is one of those elusive albums that...
» Read moreOne of the founding members of Polish progressive legends SBB, as well as Czeslaw Niemen’s band going back a few years before that, this Polish-born guitarist of Greek parents is one of the...
» Read moreUnless you have been living under a rock for the last 50 years, you are probably aware that the Nazgûl are the Dark Riders from J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy....
» Read moreMost of us know him as the primary force behind Karda Estra, and before that, Lives and Times, which together account for around a couple dozen albums, but this is the first full length solo album...
» Read moreKastning has released nearly thirty albums on the Greydisc label since around 2000 (both solo and collaborations with folks like Sandor Szabo, Carl Clements, Michael Manring, Balasz Major, Mark...
» Read moreAleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He gained widespread notoriety during his lifetime (1875 - 1947), being a recreational drug...
» Read moreOur favorite Swedish gothic psych / acid folk duo has two new releases on Mega Dodo Records this April and June: a 7-inch single, From the Corner of My Eye, and their second full-length...
» Read moreOur favorite Swedish gothic psych / acid folk duo has two new releases on Mega Dodo Records this April and June: a 7-inch single, From the Corner of My Eye, and their second full-length...
» Read moreYou may have not heard of French bassist Shob before, but the spting 2018 release of his second album Karma Obscur should help pave the way for further recognition. He has previously...
» Read moreIn listening to pianist Danny Fox’s album, it occurs to me that while “nostalgia” indicates a fondness or longing for the past, built within the concept is the realization that...
» Read moreThis February Quimper released another EP of their unique electronica, A Soft Day, a set of four instrumentals spanning roughly ten minutes, each one exploring different territories and...
» Read moreIt’s been about seven years since the first Hillmen release, which was The Whiskey Mountain Sessions, Vol.I. I guess one might suspect that the musicians involved just treat this as...
» Read moreMy Sweet Movida is the third album by the UK band Alfa 9. Consisting of Phil Mason (guitar and vocals), Ali Heath (guitar and vocals), and John Bradbury (drums), Alfa 9 presents a...
» Read moreEx-Porcupine Tree bassist extraordinaire Colin Edwin has been involved in a wide variety of musical ventures. His latest is a collaboration with Estonian guitarist Robert Jürjendal,...
» Read moreThe title is a true statement, because TOC (keyboardist Jérémie Ternoy, drummer Peter Orins, and guitarist Ivann Cruz) is a conduit for free improvisation between the three members,...
» Read moreDominique Vantomme is a new name to me — he has done some work with European pop singers, and has a band called Root that I’ve never heard. But here he is on a session recorded with...
» Read moreFor anyone who’s grown up on rock music, no matter how sophisticated taste may grow, it’s likely there’s a fondness that survives for a heavy guitar riff based on the blues. The...
» Read moreGerman label Tapete Records / Bureau B releases a variety of music, but mostly electronic, so I did not know what to expect from this new release by Swedish singer-songwriter Kristoffer Bolander....
» Read moreThere are definitely multiple ways to approach Limbohead. If you’re coming at it from an indie-rock perspective, it’s a super-tight example of clever melodic rock akin to...
» Read moreThe Soft Bodies Bleed Out compilation was my first encounter with the enigmatic and intriguingly named Petunia-Liebling MacPumpkin. Just the artist’s name is more than enough to...
» Read moreFor those of you who do not know Traffic's history, the band was formed in 1967 by Steve Winwood after leaving the Spencer Davis Group, along with Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood, and Dave Mason. The...
» Read moreMildlife, for all intents and purposes, is a dance club band. Their new album Phase is a set of seven mostly instrumental dance groove tunes. They made a judgement error in sending this...
» Read moreFor their third album, Lisbon’s Beautify Junyards takes you into their secret garden of delicate acid folk songs, The Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards. Led by João Branco...
» Read moreDo you know how sometimes you hear a song lyric and because of the way it is sung your mind makes strange connections to other words that sort of make sense? Consider this lyric from the fourth...
» Read moreThe Dead Centuries is an instrumental prog metal band from Ottawa. Canada consisting of Adam Tremblett (guitars, bass, and programming) and Bryant McNamara (drums) and when they play live, Jacob...
» Read moreMetal guitar shredder Dustin Behm has been honing his skills since the age of 13 as lead guitarist for Portland’s instrumental progressive metal band Increate. When Portland was snowed in a...
» Read moreThis has got to be one of the saddest and most outré releases since cavemen made music by banging two rocks together. How many of you enjoy listening to the Singing Dogs’...
» Read moreAs a companion to their recent boxed set of early material, Tapete has just released a brand new Monochrome Set album, Maisieworld. Over three decades later The Monochrome Set continues to...
» Read moreThe Monochrome Set is a band that I had heard the name of but never encountered their music. I believe that I first read about them through Archie Patterson’s early efforts with Paradox Music...
» Read moreExpectations can be dangerous things. When I first heard Gazeuse!, it was instantly one of my favorite albums. Sure I knew it wasn’t really Gong, since that name first...
» Read moreWe reviewed Garland’s Cold Blue release String Quartets (2009) and his contribution...
» Read moreAdams is an American classical composer, born in Mississippi, who studied music at Cal Arts in the 70s, and who spent over 35 years of his adult life living in Alaska, during which time he...
» Read moreMartin Gordon has had a long musical career dating back to Sparks and Radio Stars in the 70s and starting his solo career in 2003. Now 15 years later he has developed into what sounds like a bitter...
» Read moreIf you thought that Slivovitz’ two previous albums Bani Ahead (2011) and All You Can Eat (2016) couldn’t be topped, well, think again. LiveR showcases this...
» Read moreThe thing I notice most about Forrest Fang’s music is that his sounds create a world of their own, seemingly existing within an infinite space of possible sounds, all of which are distinctly...
» Read moreFrom the blackboard jungle to the waning crescent and beyond, visionary composer Forrest Fang has been honing and perfecting his craft since the early 80s, and if I’m not mistaken Scenes...
» Read moreFruits de Mer continues to release The Pretty Things on vinyl — label owner Keith Jones is a big fan of the band. For this first 7-inch of the new year we have four songs, two from The Pretty...
» Read moreIf you have been following our coverage of Sendelica over the years, you will no doubt be familiar with their space rock / krautrock / psychedelic output. Their latest release on Fruits de Mer is a...
» Read moreJaguwar is the Berlin trio of Lemmy Fischer, Oyèmi Noize, and Chris Krenkel, who play energetic shimmering shoe-gazer updated New Wave. So far they’ve released two EPs and played live...
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2021-02-14
SoundQuest Fest 2021 –
SoundQuest Fest, first experienced as a live festival in Tucson Arizona in 2010 was created by ambient music pioneer Steve Roach. This 2021 event will unite a worldwide gathering of artists and audience members together for a 3-day online event unique in the realm of ambient music. From March 26-28th a continuous flow of streamed performances, audio-video wonder worlds and deep immersion zones will burn bright on Roach’s YouTube channel. »
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2021-02-10
Chick Corea RIP –
The sad news has reached us that Chick Corea has Returned to Forever, so to speak. The innovative keyboardist and composer died on February 9 at the age of 79. With a career that spanned from the 60s until shortly before his death, Corea touched many listeners with the incredible variety of music he produced in his lifetime. »
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2021-01-18
Asia Minor Third Album on the Way –
On January 29, AMS records will be releasing the long-awaited third album by classic Turkish-French band Asia Minor. Released last year in Japan, this will be the widespread debut of Points of Libration. The album features original members Setrak Bakirel (vocals, guitar) and Eril Tekeli (flute, guitar). »
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2020-12-09
Harold Budd RIP –
Harold Budd, one of pre-eminent American composers of avant-garde and minimalism, has died of complications from the coronavirus. Budd came to prominence in the 70s, championed by Brian Eno on his Obscure Records label, with music that blended academic minimalism with electric jazz and electronic music. Much of Budd's best known work was done in collaboration with other artists, including Eno, Daniel Lanois, Robin Guthrie, Andy Partridge, John Foxx, Jah Wobble, and many others. »
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2020-11-20
25 Views of Worthing Finally Gets Released –
A while ago, we wrote about the discovery of a "long lost" Canterbury-style gem by a band called 25 Views of Worthing. And now we're pleased to find out that Wind Waker Records has released their music on an LP. »
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Deathwatch Beetle Repairman - Hollow Fishes – Debut albums from obtuse solo acts can be difficult to ascertain on the surface. The first few listens of this disc from the Toronto based artist sound very much like an alternative to some of the... (1999) » Read more
Kebnekajse - Electric Mountain – This recent reissue comes from Sweden circa 1977 and represents a collection of traditional folk melodies interpreted by the rather large ensemble Kebnekajse. As many as nine musicians collaborate on... (1995) » Read more
The Fucking Champs - IV – The Champs are an unusual trio of twin lead guitars plus drums that cranks out a heavy uptempo rock sound with plenty of meaty riffs. On many tunes they sound like an instrumental version of Thin... (2001) » Read more
Magenta - Metamorphosis – Magenta have all the right things going for them: talented musicians, good label support, a loyal fan base, and an intelligent approach to surviving as a prog band. They’ve carved out a niche... (2008) » Read more
Versus X - Disturbance – Versus X is German guitarist Arne Schafer's band. Schafer was known for his solo album, The Border of Awareness, on Musea in which he delivered a thoughtful music maybe a bit in the range of Peter... (1997) » Read more