Exposé Online » Reviews of releases for 2018

Jamie Saft - Solo a Genova

One 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...

David Cross - Crossing the Tracks

As 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...

Det Skandaløse Orkester - No Er det Skandale Igjen! & Tenk Om Noen Ser Deg

So 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...

Det Skandaløse Orkester - No Er det Skandale Igjen! & Tenk Om Noen Ser Deg

So 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...

Jeff Berlin - Joe Frazier - Round 3

“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...

Spectrum Orchestrum - It's About Time

French 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

Gryphon - Reinvention

Way 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...

Magma - Londres 17 Mars 1974

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,...

Judy Dyble - Earth Is Sleeping

There 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...

Space Streakings - First Love Remastered, 7-Toku & Shakuhachi Surprise

The 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...

Mark Wingfield - Tales of the Dreaming City

Tales 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

Steve Roach - Slow Heat (20th Anniversary Remastered Legacy Edition)

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...

J. Peter Schwalm - How We Fall

J. Peter Schwalm is back with another set of intriguing electronic music. The Beauty of...

Sons of Alpha Centauri - Continuum

This 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...

The Man from RavCon - Another World

Mike 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...

Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda - Mizu

Sometimes 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...

Carl Weingarten - This Is Where I Found You

Some 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...

Pymlico - Meeting Point & Nightscape

This 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...

Steve Roach - Electron Birth

In 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...

Soft Machine - Hidden Details

From 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...

Chris Russell - Echo

It’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...

Darrell Katz & The Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra - Rats Live on No Evil Star

Darrell 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...

Disen Gage - Nature

Nature 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....

Kong Klang - Kong Klang

A 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...

Detieti - V Obshchikh Chertyakh & Frogressive Punk

Jacques-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...

No Fast Food - Settings for Three

When last we met drummer Phil Haynes, he gave us Sanctuary, a set of pieces for solo drum kit....

Luminous Newts - Songs from a Local Universe

This 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...

Greg Segal - 33

Why 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...

Pressor - Weird Things

Harsh 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...

Regal Worm - Pig Views

The 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...

Klangwelt - The Incident

Gerald Arend (AKA Klangwelt) is not a prolific musician. He released his previous (third) album, XOIO, in...

Klaus Schulze - Silhouettes

Klaus 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,...

Sendelica - Cromlech Chronicles III

It seems like it was only yesterday that I reviewed Cromlech Chronicles II and now Fruits...

Steve Roach - Return to the Dreamtime

During 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...

Fuchsia - Fuchsia (Deluxe Edition)

Back 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...

Wreckless Eric - Construction Time and Demolition

Eric 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...

Banabila / Saka - 1993

At 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...

Onségen Ensemble - Duel

These 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...

Real Ax Band - Just Vibrations - Live at the Quartier Latin Berlin

Real 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...

Mahobin - Live at Big Apple in Kobe

This 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...

A Prouder Grief - A Golden Boat

I 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...

Satoko Fujii / Joe Fonda / Gianni Mimmo - Triad

Triad 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...

Cuasares - Afro-Progresivo

Like 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...

Kevin Kastning / Balász Major - Kismaros

If 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...

Regal Worm - Pig Views

Surely 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...

Pyramid - Pyramid

Guerssen 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,...

Dog Drive Mantis - How Did We Get Here?

From 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...

Kraków - Minus

Just 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...

Various Artists - Saz Power

I 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...

Various Artists - Saz Power

The 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,...

Traffic - First Exit

On 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...

Jodie Lowther & A.R.C. Soundtracks - The Blow Volume 4

Jodie 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...

Guru Guru - Rotate!

My 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...

The Chocolate Watch Band - Judgement Day / Secret Rendezvous

This 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...

Harvey Mandel - Live at Broadway Studios, San Francisco 2001

Rock 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

Oho - Gazebo

Oho 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...

Koenjihyakkei - Dhorimvishka

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...

Alan Simon - Big Bang

So 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...

Grateful Dead - Anthem of the Sun - 50th Anniversary Edition

A 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,...

Mouvements - Mouvements

In 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...

Temple - Temple

Guerssen 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...

Mark McDowell and Friends - Dark Weave

Mark McDowell is a UK musician who has been intermittently releasing music since 2001. We in fact reviewed his

Corde Oblique - Back through the Liquid Mirror

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...

All India Radio - Space

Australian 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...

Escupemetralla - The Beautiful Pork Revealing the Unknown to a Pair of Espardenyes

Spanish 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...

Sintesi del Viaggio di Es - Il Sole alle Spalle

Il 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...

Basta! - Elemento Antropico

Basta! 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...

Aurora Lunare - Translunaggio

For 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...

Il Sentiero di Taus - Macrocosmosi

Here 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...

Aperus - Lie Symmetry

One 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...

I Am K - Humans

It seems that this band released a few individual tracks back in 2015 under the name Kelvin — “Lights Are Low,” “Give It All,” and “Strobelights” —...

Hanterhir - The Saving of Cadan

I’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,...

Brain Wizard - Most Hella Dopest

Brain 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...

Ted & Majella - Better Together

This 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...

Icarus Peel’s Acid Reign - The Window on the Side of Your Head

Icarus 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...

Flav Martin / Jerry Marotta - Soul Redemption

I 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...

The End - Svårmod och Vemod Är Värdesinnen

One 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...

Mezz Gacano and Self-Standing Ovation Boskàuz Ensemble - Kinderheim

If 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...

Runaway Totem - La Traccia

For 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...

Roz Vitalis - The Hidden Man of the Heart

I 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...

Upper Regions - Observing Humans

James 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...

Camino al Desván - Libreto Cat / Cas / En

In 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...

Dwiki Dharmawan - Rumah Batu

The 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...

Sweeney Straddles the Sun - Ducks at the Moon

Jason 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...

Dialeto - Live with David Cross

The 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...

Dušan Jevtović - Live at Home

Dušan 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...

Emmerhoff & the Melancholy Babies - Circle Six

Circle 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...

Node - Node Live

It’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...

Vanderson Featuring Lambert - Sequenced Thoughts

Polish 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...

Ovrfwrd - Occupations of Uninhabited Space

Last 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...

WorldService Project - Serve

WorldService 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...

Escupemetralla - Cosmozumbido

Escupemetralla 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...

Sirkus - The Noise of Time

Three 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...

GEPH - Apophenia

Emmett 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...

Curha - I

Curha is a name used by Curtis Hasselbring for his excursions into electronic music, and if you’re familiar with his other work, it might come as quite a surprise — a pleasant one, I...

Laura Meade - Remedium

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...

Son Los Grillos - Garden of Clouds

SonLosGrillos, 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...

Wishbone Ash - Twin Barrels Burning & Raw to the Bone

The 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...

Wishbone Ash - Twin Barrels Burning & Raw to the Bone

The 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...

Malady - Toinen Toista

Lately 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...

Peter Banks - The Self-Contained Trilogy & Be Well, Be Safe, Be Lucky... The Anthology

A 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...

Peter Banks - The Self-Contained Trilogy & Be Well, Be Safe, Be Lucky... The Anthology

A 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...

The Aaron Clift Experiment - If All Goes Wrong

The 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...

Milkilo - Atlas

Milkilo 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...

Bruce Forman - Junkyard Duo

This 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...

Various Artists - Goldfish

Hardly 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...

Permanent Clear Light - Maurice n'est pas la

Psychedelic 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...

This Is It! - 1538

This 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...

Shatner's Bassoon - Disco Erosion

You 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...

Fernando Perdomo - Out to Sea

Fernando 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...

Tusmørke - Fjernsyn i Farver

This 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...

Azalia Snail - Neon Resistance

Over 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”...

Bob Katsionis - Prognosis & Synopsis

Babis “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,...

Not a Good Sign - Icebound

On 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...

Church of Hed - Sandstoned

You 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...

Noah Preminger - Genuinity

This quartet outing finds three-fourths of the group from Preminger’s Meditations on...

Thumbscrew - Ours & Theirs

These 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...

Thumbscrew - Ours & Theirs

These 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...

Darryl Way - Vivaldi's Four Seasons in Rock

It’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...

Ring van Möbius - Past the Evening Sun

If 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...

Sirkus - The Noise of Time

Sometimes 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...

Spirit - It Shall Be - The Ode & Epic Recordings 1968-1972

Subtitled 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...

Kristo Rodzevski - The Rabbit and the Fallen Sycamore

The 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....

Bättre Lyss - Till Den Sträng Som Brast Än Att Aldrig Spänna En Båge

On 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...

The Shadow Lizzards - The Shadow Lizzards

Deep 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...

AeTopus - Totem Totum

American 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...

Steve Roach - Molecules of Motion

With 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...

Sverre Knut Johansen with David Helpling - The Vast Expanse

The 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,...

Bobby Previte - Rhapsody

As 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

Colin Carter - One

Like the recently reviewed album by David Cross and David Jackson, this is a new recording by...

David Cross & David Jackson - Another Day

Expectations 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...

NLTM - Nick Littlemore / Thierry Müller - Days in Vermilion Sands

NLTM 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,...

Erik Wøllo - Threshold Point

Across 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...

Ümit! - The Testament of Ümit!

This, 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,...

Plenty - It Could Be Home

Many 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...

Steve Tibbetts - Life Of

Nobody 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...

Cheer-Accident - Fades

There 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...

Marbin - Israeli Jazz

Having 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...

Marc Ribot's Ceramic Dog - YRU Still Here?

Guitarist 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,...

The Senior Service - King Cobra

UK 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...

Miguel de Armas - What's to Come

Cuban 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...

Tempest - Thirty Little Turns

Given 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...

Numina - The Chroma Plateau

When 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...

Vibravoid - Vibrations from the Cosmic Void & Live at Rheinkraut 2018

It 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.,...

Vibravoid - Vibrations from the Cosmic Void & Live at Rheinkraut 2018

It 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.,...

Sleep in Heads - On the Air

There 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...

Elephants on Tape - Lightweights

One 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...

Fungus Hill - Cosmic Construction on Proxima B

Fungus 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...

Vibravoid - Vibrations from the Cosmic Void & Live at Rheinkraut 2018

Seems 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...

Vibravoid - Vibrations from the Cosmic Void & Live at Rheinkraut 2018

Seems 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...

Cloud - Plays with Fire

Tyler 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...

L'Albero del Veleno - Tale of a Dark Fate

L’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...

Cream - Nineteen Sixty-Seven

Vogon 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...

Flutatious - Festival

Flutatious 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...

Jeff Greinke - Before Sunrise

He’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...

Yuka & Chronoship - Ship

With 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...

The Brotherhood - Stavia

The 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...

Apostolis Anthimos - Parallel Worlds

One 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...

The Nazgûl - The Nazgûl

Unless 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....

Richard Wileman - Veil

Most 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...

Kevin Kastning - 17/66

Kastning 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...

Kira Kira - Bright Force

So 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...

Dave Liebman / Tatsuya Nakatani / Adam Rudolph - The Unknowable

This 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...

Star Sponge Vision - Crowley and Me

Aleister 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...

Us & Them - From the Corner of My Eye & On Shipless Ocean

Our 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...

Us & Them - From the Corner of My Eye & On Shipless Ocean

Our 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...

Shob - Karma Obscur

You 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...

Aria Primitiva - Work in Progress

Since 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...

Danny Fox Trio - The Great Nostalgist

In 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...

Quimper - A Soft Day

This 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...

Hillmen - The Whiskey Mountain Sessions Vol. II

It’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...

Satoko Fujii Orchestra Berlin - Ninety-Nine Years

By 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...

Jordsjø - Jord

It 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...

Alfa 9 - My Sweet Movida

My 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...

Crocodile - His Name Is Stan and He's a Bad Motherf**ker

His 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...

Colin Edwin / Robert Jürjendal - Another World

Ex-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,...

Choirs of Aether - The Music of Sun Ra (Live at No Town)

When 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...

TOC - Will Never Play These Songs Again

The 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,...

Dominique Vantomme - Vegir

Dominique 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...

Howlin' Sun - Howlin' Sun

For 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...

Kristoffer Bolander - What Never Was Will Always Be

German 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....

Dobbeltgjenger - Limbohead

There 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...

Petunia-Liebling MacPumpkin - I Left My Heart in Uncanny Valley

The 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...

Sonar with David Torn - Vortex

A 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...

Traffic - Where the Poppies Grow - Historic Radio Sessions 1967

For 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...

Mildlife - Phase

Mildlife, 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...

Beautify Junkyards - The Invisible World of Beautify Junkyards

For 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...

Green Seagull - Scarlet Fever

Do 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...

The Dead Centuries - Race against Time

The 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...

Dustin Behm - The Beyond

Metal 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...

Mist of Flying Elbow - Substitute Songs of Heights, Vol. II

There 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...

Mist of Flying Elbow - Substitute Songs of Heights, Vol. II

This 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’...

Mist of Flying Elbow - Substitute Songs of Heights, Vol. II

This 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,...

The Monochrome Set - Maisieworld

As 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...

The Monochrome Set - 1979-1985 - Complete Recordings

The 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...

Gong Expresso - Decadence

Expectations 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...

Kaze - Atody Man

This 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...

Peter Garland - Moon Viewing Music (Inscrutable Stillness Studies #1)

We reviewed Garland’s Cold Blue release String Quartets (2009) and his contribution...

John Luther Adams - Everything That Rises

Adams 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...

Martin Gordon - Thanks for All the Fish

Martin 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...

Slivovitz - Liver

If 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...

Forrest Fang - Scenes from a Ghost Train

The 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...

Forrest Fang - Scenes from a Ghost Train

From 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...

Satoko Fujii - Solo

So 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...

Kevin Kastning & Sándor Szabó - Ethereal I

With 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...

The Pretty Things - The Same Sun

Fruits 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...

Sendelica - Cromlech Chronicles II

If 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...

Jaguwar - Ringthing

Jaguwar 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...