Exposé Online » Reviews of releases for 2019

Astralasia - A Different Kettle of Fish

When Keith Jones was combing the Fruits de Mer archives for the tenth anniversary Goldfish compilation, Marc Swordfish of Astralasia was going down an entirely different path of...

Videodrones - Atavistic Future

This Danish synth duo is comprised of Jakob Skøtt and Kristoffer Ovesen, the former being a founding member of the great Causa Sui in addition to having a half dozen solo albums to his...

Monarch - Beyond the Blue Sky

Far from the base of El Paraiso's operation, which would be Denmark, and also far from their typical sound, which would be the heavy instrumental rock jam-band sound of groups like Causa Sui,...

Chocolate Watchband - This Is My Voice

The 60s are over. They were over a long time ago, but their musical influence lives on, having left a mark on virtually every genre of music. So when one of the bands that actually went into making...

Jonas Munk & Nicklas Sørensen - Always Already Here

We know Jonas Munk from his work as longtime multi-instrumentalist (primarily guitar) and writer in the Danish powerhouse Causa Sui, as well as solo endeavors like 2012's Pan....

Hanterhir - Our Hour & Songs We Learned in Cornish

I first encountered Hanterhir on their ambitious epic concept album The Saving of Cadan, the success of which has prompted the band to release these two collections of their earlier...

Hanterhir - Our Hour & Songs We Learned in Cornish

I first encountered Hanterhir on their ambitious epic concept album The Saving of Cadan, the success of which has prompted the band to release these two collections of their earlier...

William Steffey - Reality Jockey

When I first heard William Steffey’s Reality Jockey, his name didn’t ring a bell, but that’s not because I’d never heard his music before. He was in the band...

Kit Watkins - Field of View

It’s always good news whenever Kit Watkins releases new music, and for me, being unaware of his two 2015 releases, the last one I heard was Sky Zone from 2006. When one listens to...

Dizzy Mystics - Wanderlost

Dizzy Mystics is a band from Winnipeg, Canada, with an interesting and engaging style. In many ways, they remind me of Opposite Day, with strong vocals over complex instrumental backing, but where...

Erik Griswold / Camerata String Quartet - Hollows out of Time

The story behind this album starts with the Harrigans Lane Collective, a creative space for explorative artistic interdisciplinary projects in rural Australia with a focus on architecture, music,...

35 Tapes - Lost and Found

Norwegian trio 35 Tapes is a modern melodic rock band inspired by the progressive rock of the 70s. The sound of the mighty Mellotron, with its 35 tapes to produce notes, made a deep and lasting...

Security Project - Slowburn

For their second full-length outing, the all-star Peter Gabriel interpreters tackle seven more tunes from the repertoire, this time bringing in some earlier material. Where Contact relied...

Fraud Prophets - Poptosis

The world of studio musicians is a part of the music business that many people don’t know about. Outside of pop stars whose music is primarily the product of producers, we always think of the...

Akku Quintet - Depart

Like their previous releases, the five pieces on Depart make superb use of math in their overall concept, seemingly moving forward in multiple simultaneous time signatures, something most...

Richard Wileman - Cabal of a Thousand Souls

Songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Richard Wileman is probably best known as the guiding force behind Karda Estra (a dozen full length releases from 2000-2017) and Lives and Times before...

Ruphus - Ranshart

Regarding Ranshart:

The Norwegian group Ruphus suffered a drastic lineup shift after their 1973 debut, New Born Day, which resulted in the loss of, among others,...

Various Artists - The 16th Dream of Dr. Sardonicus Festival Live

Starting 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...

Hermetic Science - Out There - Live 1996-2006

Ed Macan is a professor of music at College of the Redwoods in Eureka, California. The sprawling campus is hard to miss as one drives through Northern California on US highway 101. His idea in...

Manfred Mann Chapter III - Radio Days Vol 3 - Live Sessions & Studio Rarities

Manfred Mann, as of this writing, is just seventeen months shy of his 80th birthday, and what an amazing career he has had with his various bands through all the years, plus soundtracks and other...

Paul K - The Fermi Paradox

Paul Kirkpatrick is a British composer, arranger, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who operates under the moniker Paul K. On these fourteen tracks he creates a musical homage to Italian...

Miles Richmond & Peter Grenader (with Steve Roach) - POV

The two Los Angeles based collaborators Miles Richmond and Peter Grenader have long and varied histories with electronic and experimental music, although much of their work has been making film and...

Neil Campbell - Last Year's News

Neil Campbell is a Liverpool based master-guitarist with about twenty releases to his credit, both solo albums and with various ensembles, mostly instrumental, but some with vocals, mostly original...

Ruphus - New Born Day & Ranshart

Karisma Records has begun a reissue campaign for the catalog of Norway’s Ruphus, a band formed in 1970 that went through a lot of changes and gained some notoriety in Europe, though they...

Ruphus - New Born Day & Ranshart

Karisma Records has begun a reissue campaign for the catalog of Norway’s Ruphus, a band formed in 1970 that went through a lot of changes and gained some notoriety in Europe, though they...

Magma - Zëss - Le Jour du Néant

Zëss. Hardcore Magma fans will be familiar with it through two previous official releases: First, there is the Bobino Concert 1981 CD (released in 1995) where we get a...

Caravela Escarlate - Caravela Escarlate

Caravela Escarlate is Brazilian band in the classic tradition of keyboard trios, Emerson Lake & Palmer being the prototype (or 1-2-3 / Clouds if you want to go a little earlier and less well...

Jordsjø - Nattfiolen

With Nattfiolen, Jordsjø proves that their debut album was no fluke. This duo is indeed one of the top progressive rock bands in the world today. Looking at all the qualities that...

Kevin Ferguson - Beauty in Your Head

Ferguson is a Portland, Oregon based composer and multi-instrumentalist with nine releases to his credit. We reviewed his first album Strad to Strat way back in 1996, a masterful treatment...

Frédéric l'Épée - The Empty Room

Master guitarist Frédéric L’Épée has done just about everything, recalling his work with Philharmonie, Yang, Shylock, and numerous solo albums alongside...

Kepa Härkönen - Spicy Tales & Spacey Tones

In a general sense, Kepa Härkönen is mostly known as a “surf guitarist” in his native Finland, previously the lead guitarist of The Wristshakers; he’s been honing his...

Lucifer's Friend - Black Moon

Lucifer’s Friend hit the scene around 1970, a German progressive hard-rock band fronted by the gifted British singer John Lawton, their apparent influences were Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and...

The Proper Ornaments - 6 Lenins

6 Lenins is the third release by the London jangle pop group The Proper Ornaments. I was a little thrown off by the disturbing cover art that looks like an execution, as the image does not...

Third Ear Band - Alchemy (Expanded and Remastered)

This is where it all began for a band so unusual and outside the ‘rock box’ that many at the time may have dismissed them as being too far out. When I first heard Alchemy, I...

Pepa Päivinen / Jussi Miettola - Hirttomiehiä Työväenluokalle

While it may have enough umlauts to make a metal fan salivate, Hirttomiehiä Työväenluokalle is in fact a highly abstract and atmospheric creation involving various wind...

Clan Aldo Pinelli - Patagonia

In his latest release, the Argentine composer and multi-instrumentalist has surrounded himseld with a small orchestra. His previous releases (at least the three that I have heard) have been all...

Nodens Ictus - Live Kozfest 2018

Nodens Ictus began back in the mid-80s as a subset of Ozric Tentacles performing that type of music in a more ambient style (as opposed to the space rock of Ozrics), specifically guitarist Ed Wynne...

Marilyn Mazur's Shamania - Marilyn Mazur's Shamania

Listening to Marilyn Mazur’s Shamania is like receiving an invitation to visit a new world, one that developed along different lines than ours, where peace and positivity are as...

Cantrip - Authentic Luxury

In the legions of jazz-rock power trios, Cantrip sets itself apart in several ways. First of all, there’s the guitar of leader Simon Henneman, whose resume includes such diverse settings as...

Phenomena - Anthology

I’m going to assume that there is a segment of music fans for whom Phenomena is a big deal. I am not a member of that segment, and in fact, I’m not even sure I ever heard of the project...

IZZ - Don't Panic

It’s been many years since I’ve heard anything new by IZZ, maybe their second album I Move, but they’ve been busy releasing numerous albums in the interim while I...

Big Big Train - Grand Tour

I’ve been aware of Big Big Train as long as Exposé has been a going concern, since the days of early albums like Goodbye to the Age of Steam and Gathering...

Alban & Cédric Theys - Sirius

Alban and Cédric Theys are French-born brothers now both living out of their mother country. Cédric, the elder brother, now calls Texas home, and he started playing guitar, and then...

The Spellcasters - Music from the Anacostia Delta

First question is: What is the Anacostia Delta? One might be forgiven for not knowing, but it’s the area of the East Coast which includes southern Maryland, northern Virginia, and of course...

Farmhouse Odyssey - Fertile Ground

This Northern California band has been honing their craft in relative obscurity for several years now, and their dedication is apparent on Fertile Ground, which is their third full-length...

Tim Burness - Interconnected

This past November UK musician Tim Burness released his latest album, Interconnected. Like his previous album, this one features a wide range of musical styles, touching on electro-pop,...

Kevin Kastning / Sándor Szabó - Ethereal III

While there is a good chance I haven’t heard every one of Kastning and Szabó’s previous collaborations, I think it can be safely said that Ethereal III is unique among...

Satoko Fujii / Ramón López - Confluence

Our readers should know the work of Satoko Fujii well, as we have covered most of her releases as solo, and in collabortion, as well as with the many bands and orchestras that she leads, as a...

Hoia - Scavenger

The man behind the name Hoia is Prateek Rajagopal, who is also known for his work with a metal band called Gutslit. But Hoia is the result of his interest in music outside of the metal genre, and...

Alio Die & Lorenzo Montanà - The Threshold of Beauty

These are two names that any floating ambient music enthusiast can trust with certainty, and much like Alio Die’s collaboration with Mathias Grassow Expanding Horizon way back in...

Walter Holland - Storyteller: Part I

This album might be the last thing one would expect from Walter Holland: an album of traditional, cover and original folks ongs, especially given that his previous releases were pretty much...

Wooden Peak - Yellow Walls

Yellow Walls seems to me like an application of the attitude which produced albums like After the Heat to modern pop music. Wooden Peak is a duo using a combination of guitar and...

Lambert - Dimensions of Dreams - Remastered

At hand is a remastered reissue of Lambert’s sixth album from 1995, whose released works date back to the late 80s. With the addition of a seven minute bonus track “Distance,”...

Various Artists - Romantic Warriors IV - Krautrock Part 1

This is the fourth in a series of excellent documentaries produced by José Zegarra Holder and Adele Schmidt, and judging by the title, it probably won’t be the last. I checked my video...

Der Finger - Le Cinque Stagioni

Der Finger is a band from Moscow, Russia who play avant-free, dark jazz, noise, and psychedelic improvisational music. Their new album, Le Cinque Stagioni, is a set of five instrumentals...

Moon Goose - Source Code

Moon Goose is a new band on Fruits de Mer. They came to Keith Jones’ attention last year on Facebook. Keith really liked what he heard, so he persuaded them to contribute a track, “The...

Sverre Knut Johansen with Robert Rich - Precambrian

What the Norwegian composer and synthesist has created here could be summed up as an instrumental representation of planet Earth’s history in roughly 62 minutes. Precambrian is...

Bibi Den's Tshibayi - Sensible

Bibi Den’s Tshibayi was born in the Province of Kasaï Occidental, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly known as Zaire) on February 5, 1954. Growing up in a musical family, he...

The Yardbirds - Live and Rare

The 60s were turbulent times, the decade where rock music grew up, going through a number of phases and reaching new extremes as time went forward. Within the span of just two years, from 1963 to...

Petunia-Liebling MacPumpkin - All My Friends Live in Uncanny Valley - The Remixes

Now, if you thought that the lovely Miss MacPumpkin’s latest album

Various Artists - Romantic Warriors IV - Krautrock Part 1

The latest installment of the Romantic Warriors series takes us to Germany, a country with such a rich and varied history that it will require three full-length films to cover. As...

Sonora Sunrise - The Route through the Canyon

This Russian band started releasing digital EPs on Bandcamp in 2016, but The Route through the Canyon marks their label debut. Most of the nine tracks on this album have appeared on one or...

Chat Noir - Hyperuranion

Italian electronic jazz explorers Chat Noir are back after three years with Hyperuranion, and the duo of Michele Cavillari (keyboards) and Luca Fogagnolo (bass) has expanded to a quartet...

Moon Letters - Until They Feel the Sun

For a couple of years now in the Seattle area, Moon Letters has been impressing audiences with their modern take on classic progressive rock. The band could be considered a Northwest supergroup of...

Diamusk - Sleepwalkers

Adisa Zvekić a.k.a. Diamusk is a Bosnian musician currently living in Norway, and Sleepwalkers is the third Diamusk album, and the eighth in her career. The music is primarily reggae and...

Kuhn Fu - Chain the Snake

What do you do when you try to surpass your previous success? Try something different. And that is exactly what Kuhn Fu has done on their new album, Chain the Snake. The same elements are...

Julien Favreuille / Christophe Motury / Stefan Orins - Till Mina Vänner

A most unusual jazz trio, in that there is no bottom end (drums or bass) to hold down the rhythm, but that’s not to say they’re not there, mostly implied by their absence using the...

Green Seagull - Simeon Brown / Belladonna

Brit neo-psych rockers Green Seagull released a new single on May 3 that is a taste of things to come on their forthcoming second album, to be released later this year. Both songs are so good that...

Mandrake Paddle Steamer - Pandemonium Shadow Show

During their short life as a band (1967 - 1970), Brit psych group Mandrake Paddle Steamer opened for the likes of Pink Floyd, The Nice, and Vanilla Fudge, as well as performing at the Isle of Wight...

Breidablik - Nhoohr

Breidablik is back with another choice set of tasty electronic music. For the most part, Nhoohr is firmly in mid-70s Tangerine Dream mode, starting with icy string synth and the sounds of...

Subshine - Easy Window

At the risk of sounding like one of those old farts who’s always going on about how the “good old days” were better than today, I’m going to throw out the generalization...

Stratus Luna - Stratus Luna

Stratus Luna is a new four-piece from Brazil, but to hear this, their debut release, one would think these are old pros who have been at it as long as most of the members have been alive. The band...

Jeff Kelly - Beneath the Stars, Above the River

Those who know Jeff Kelly only from his work in The Green Pajamas might be a little surprised hearing Beneath the Stars, Above the River. His distinctive voice and a tinge of psychedelia...

Hasting's Street Opera - Slippery When Wet

In the late 60s a group of young friends (Harry Wellott, Gordon Carlisle, Don Hathaway, and Chris Nelson) in Montclair, NJ formed the Hasting’s Street Opera, named after an old Detroit blues...

Hhoogg - Earthling, Go Home!

Who or what is a Hhoogg? Is it an alien or the sound of a stuttering pig? There is a dearth of information about them, but neither answer is true. Hhoogg is an improvisational quartet of aliens...

Ni - Pantophobie

Three years after Les Insurgés de Romilly and time spent on side project PinioL, Ni is back with a new album, Pantophobie, released on March 1, 2019. While being faithful...

Gabriele Zibret - Happy Songs und Herzenslieder

A most unusual album, especially for the pages of Exposé, but when a change of pace is in order Happy Songs und Herzenslieder (“Happy Songs and Songs from the...

Various Artists - Post Now: Round One - Chicago vs New York

With a roster that includes such diverse artists and Cheer-Accident, Koenjihyakkei, Flying Luttenbachers, Space Streakings, Yowie, and many more, Skin Graft has become one of the most reliable...

Thirteen of Everything - Our Own Sad Fate

Austin’s progressive rock scene continues to produce excellent music. The latest is Thirteen of Everything’s second album Our Own Sad Fate. The band has a long and storied...

Satoko Fujii - Stone

Satoko Fujii piano solo Stone, not what you think! Yes, these fifteen pieces are most definitely performed solo on piano, but using mostly extended techniques, rather than sitting at the...

Tom Eaton - How It Happened

Tom Eaton is a Massachusetts based composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and engineer who has spent most of his career behind the scenes, producing and engineering dozens of releases for other...

The Ed Palermo Big Band - A Lousy Day in Harlem

After six albums on Cuneiform, all nothing less than superb, the Ed Palermo Big Band is back in action on Sky Cat records with A Lousy Day in Harlem, this time taking it in a slightly...

Sam Rosenthal with Nick Shadow & Steve Roach - The Gesture of History

Sam Rosenthal is probably better known for his band Black Tape for a Blue Girl, who have been releasing albums since the mid-1980s, or his label Projekt Records specializing in gothic,...

Emily Bezar - Out of the Moment

If you come to Out of the Moment as a listener unfamiliar with Emily Bezar’s music, I can only try to imagine what you might think. “The Longest Way” starts out with a...

Djam Karet - A Sky Full of Stars for a Roof

On their site, the band claims that this is their 19th album, but in fact their discography shows a few additional releases that they must not be counting (and that’s not even counting those...

Aria Primitiva - Sleep No More

It wasn’t that long ago that we reviewed the three song teaser Work in Progress, which was a preview of sorts to this, Aria Primitiva’s first full-length foray into their...

Byron Metcalf / Mark Seelig - Persistent Visions

One has to wonder... If this was designed to be a continuous 71 minute listening experience, why the heck was it broken into six tracks, especially when the end of one track is no different than...

Kuhn Fu - Chain the Snake

Surely what Kuhn Fu accomplished on their last album Kuhnspiracy couldn’t be topped, so this time out they seem to have wandered down a slightly different path, bringing forth their...

Rudolf Heimann - Die Unendlichkeit des Augenblicks

Electronic musician Rudoph Heimann is back with a new album, which is possibly his best to date, Die Unendlichkeit des Augenblicks or The Infinity of the Moment. This new album...

Kenyon Bunton - All Planes Must Land & This Guy's Disguised This Sky

Kenyon 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...

French Boutik - L'Âme de Paris

Overall all, L’Âme de Paris is an excellent set of aggressively pleasant French psych pop songs by French Boutik. L’Âme de Paris is meticulously...

Bobby Beausoleil - Voodoo Shivaya

“Bad breaks and hard knocks, it’s been a long hard road” are the opening lyrics on “Hard Road,” a dark, bluesy number that opens the first disc of this two disc set,...

Peter Orins - Happened by Accident

If one goes to the ‘discogs.com’ website and searches for Peter Orins, they will find that it simply says ‘drummer,’ though that’s certainly an oversimplification of...

Cabezas de Cera - Contigo y en Directo / En Vivo en el Alicia

One has to be amazed at how just two guys can make such absolute mind shattering music in a live setting, but the evidence is right here on this 71 minute compact disc, recorded on June 6, 2018 at...

My Favorite Martian - Martian Chronicles, Los Angeles 1990's

In the annals of American garage rock, My Favorite Martian is an interesting footnote, and this archival release serves to illuminate a little-known corner that deserves to be remembered. Al Bloch...

Massergy - Fire Opal

Massergy is the floating ambient electronic music project of one Eric Jensen, based in Austin, Texas. There’s an interesting back story here: Massergy was originally created to honor...

The Honey Pot - Bewildered Jane

The Honey Pot have come a long way since their first album and then debuting on Fruits de Mer Records. Their fifth full album, Bewildered Jane, was just released on Mega Dodo Records and...

Alister Spence and Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe - Imagine Meeting You Here

Moving into 2019, after releasing twelve albums (seems like more) last year, Satoko Fujii takes a back seat on this album, leaving composer and co-conspirator Alister Spence to take the reins of...

Craig Padilla & Marvin Allen - Toward the Horizon

For many years at Exposé we have been reviewing the work of Craig Padilla, both as a solo artist and in collaborations with Zero Ohms, Skip Murphy, Howard Givens, and others. A...

Robert Forster - Inferno

Robert Foster has a long musical career starting as the co-founder of the indie band The Go-Betweens in 1978. After that band broke up in 1989, he released his first solo album, Danger in the...

The Telescopes - Exploding Head Syndrome

The only thing constant with The Telescopes is founding member Stephen Lawrie. Every release explores a different musical direction. For his 11th album, Exploding Head Syndrome, Lawrie...

Radiant Mind / Steve Roach - Heliosphere

Radiant Mind is a soundscape and meditation music artist who prefers to exist in relative anonymity, but we suspect his real name is Robert Englis. On his first two releases Sense (2012)...

Ape Shifter - Ape Shifter II

A couple years since their debut, Jeff Aug and company are back for their sophomore release, another (almost) instrumental exploration of edgy hard rock played with a punk vengeance with only a few...

Kevin Kastning - Piano I

Kastning has played piano on many of his albums to date, mostly on collaborations where someone is playing guitar, but for his sixth solo album, he has crafted nine pieces – over an...

Steve Roach - Atmosphere for Dreaming

Released on January 1st 2019, I’ve been spinning this nearly every early morning for almost three months as this review is written, and it could go on like this for much longer too. We have a...

Chris O'Leary - Ashes to Ashes

Exhibit A

Ashes to Ashes covers The Songs of David Bowie, 1976-2016 — every song Bowie wrote or recorded in that time period in chronological order....

Jon Lundbom & Big Five Chord - Harder on the Outside

Big Five Chord’s ninth recording, Harder on the Outside, celebrates their 15th year as a band, and offers a mighty eight tracks, all purely instrumental explorations of hard-grooved...

Dr. Mark Lomax, II - 400: An Afrikan Epic, Vols.1 - 4

Dr. Mark Lomax, II is a 2018-19 Artist in Residence at the Wexler Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, and he has taken advantage of the Center’s support in a big way, putting...

Dr. Mark Lomax, II - 400: An Afrikan Epic, Vols.1 - 4

Dr. Mark Lomax, II is a 2018-19 Artist in Residence at the Wexler Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, and he has taken advantage of the Center’s support in a big way, putting...

Dr. Mark Lomax, II - 400: An Afrikan Epic, Vols.1 - 4

Dr. Mark Lomax, II is a 2018-19 Artist in Residence at the Wexler Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, and he has taken advantage of the Center’s support in a big way, putting...

Dr. Mark Lomax, II - 400: An Afrikan Epic, Vols.1 - 4

Dr. Mark Lomax, II is a 2018-19 Artist in Residence at the Wexler Center for the Arts at Ohio State University, and he has taken advantage of the Center’s support in a big way, putting...

Celeste - Il Risveglio del Principe

A short history of Celeste. There was a band called Il Sistema that existed from around 1969-71, never released anything during their lifetime, their permanent place in history only assured fot two...

Xochitzin & Ixonetzli - True Love Vol.1

A most unusual collection of folksongs by Mexican singer Xochitzin, with several previous albums to her credit, and multi-instrumentalist Luis ‘Ixonetzli’ Perez, who penned most of the...

Forrest Fang - The Fata Morgana Dream

Appropriately titled, most of Forrest Fang’s catalog could seem like the soundtrack of dreams, and this latest release underscores that sense, from the sprawling eleven-minute opener...

Ed Wynne - Shimmer into Nature

It’s been a good four years since the last Ozric Tentacles album Technicians of the Sacred came down from on high, a double CD and a great one which was promptly

Metaphor - The Pearl

It’s been at least ten years since Metaphor’s last album, The Sparrow, so the band certainly can’t be accused of flooding the market with product. Even with the passage...

Mark Feldman's Level 5 - The Sybil EP

This short but anazingly effective helping of crisp, snappy, aggressive instrumental funk clocks in just shy of twenty minutes, and is in fact the debut offering by Level 5, the four-piece led by...