Progressive Rock

Review: You can't really imagine members of Dream Division doing anything other than being part of Dream Division. A band inspired and heavily influenced by the soundtracks, themes and moods of movies by directors such as Dario Argento and John Carpenter, theirs is a world filled with silver screen tension, sinister plots afoot, and incredibly cool noises. Legend of Lizard Lake is a case in point. Album title certainly no accident, invoking B-movie scenarios by the letter-load, the record is paced with fuzzy guitars, spine-tingling organs, Casio-choral lines, twinkled and chimed melodies, vast, open, almost-Western-yet-very-synthy open sonic frontiers, and the overwhelming sense that something, somewhere, might be watching us. Enough to make the Stranger Things scores sound like they've never seen Phantasm, or at least not recently, this is the whole retro-hued package.

Review: As well as his prog rock god status as part of ELP, English musician Keith Emerson is well known for his soundtracks for the likes of Dario Argento's 1980 movie Inferno. This Murderock album was written in part as a tribute to the master of Italian horror Lucio Fulci and was first released in 1985, described at the time as being like Flashdance meets Psycho. It's a mix of dance tunes for the day and some dramatic scores and was first reissued in 1993. This version adds four never before released tunes which were used in the backing to the most macabre scenes of the movie.

Review: Family's final studio album, It's Only a Movie, celebrated its 50th birthday in late 2023. To mark the occasion, Esoteric has offered up this remastered, expanded edition. Disc one boats the original album, an extended fusion of blues, psychedelic rock, string-laden progressive rock and Country & Western-influenced Americana, as well as a handful of single B-sides, alternate takes and early versions of LP cuts. Over on disc two, we're treated to a mixture of BBC 'in concert' recordings (where their roots in the British blues explosion of the late 1960s are far more evident) and performances captured for BBC Radio One's legendary 'Top Gear' programme (which did much in the 1960s to bring Beatles performances to the masses).

Review: Prog rock - even in its most shiny 80s pop incarnation - doesn't do thing by halves and so we shouldn't be surprised this double album is only one of two sprawling releases containing the 1986 LA gig by Genesis. This is the threesome in their Invisible Touch era, so there's plenty from that album here - yes, even their often overlooked electro-styled instrumental 'The Brazilian' - plus highlights from its eponymous predecessor (the Grandmaster Flash-referencing 'Mama', 'That's All') and other back catalogue big hitters such as 'Follow You, Follow Me' and 'Abacab'.

Review: Erlend Viken's first outing as Giant Sky - 2021's self-titled debut - was part epic prog rock overture and part major statement about the state of the music business. Only available in physical album format, for some time just a single track was doing the rounds on streaming services, which wasn't really a track at all, but instead a message about the evils of major streaming platforms and their role in ruining the artistic economy. Second time around, and the music itself is no less powerful. Moving from 'Origin Of The Species' and its floating-through-the-cosmos atmosphere, to the rousing call-to-unity of 'The Pensieve' and the industrial-noise-cum-delicate pop on 'Imposter', the vision and scope are incredible, new ideas seemingly presenting themselves at every twist and turn on this 13-strong track list.

Review: Commonly regarded as the first official release from avant-garde prog/space rock outfit Heldon; Electronique Guerilla (also known as Heldon 1), served as a pioneering piece of studio experimentation and manipulation, utilising a myriad of guitar effects, tape delay and electronics, collated together by the genius of Richard Pinhas. Building the pieces from a Schizo (the earlier incarnation of Heldon) track together with solo guitar loops and electronic works, while warping elements from another collaborative cut with guitarist Alain Renaud, the fruitful, cosmic, proto-wave machinations are often credited as some of the earliest influences from King Crimson's Robert Fripp (who Pinhas cited as a major influence and master of the guitar) and Brian Eno, yet while in no way shying away from their inspirations, Pinhas has since specified that "Heldon 1 was released in '74 at the same time Muff Winwood released the first Fripp & Eno", so while similarities and comparisons are welcome, more attentive ears should be able to extract the nuanced differences with which Heldon crafted their hallucinatory, boundary-pushing early opus. Originally released on Pinhas' own Disjuncta Records and limited to 1000 copies, this long overdue reissue won't stick around anywhere near as long as these swelling brain-pieces.

Review: London might be seen as one of the hottest places for new, urban jazz sounds, but this album Second Light from Kepler Is Free shows that Greece also has its own vibrant scene. Their debut album was a quickly sold out success and now the jazz rock ensemble is back with more expansive work that traverses the 60s, 70s, soul jazz, hip hop and experimental in all new ways. The band was founded in 2018 and though all members are relatively young, they show their maturity here with more widescreen and entrancing sounds that come in collaboration with LEX, one of Greece's best-known rappers.

Review: Larry Manteca's Zombie Mandingo album arrived back in 2013 and in the danced plus has only ever been available digitally. Now it makes its debut on wax and remains a bold listen that was devised as a soundtrack to a non-existent exploitation film. It fuses funk, jazz, and Afrobeat influences with plenty of niche cinematic references such as the zombies in Lucio Fulci's horrors and Umberto Lenzi's cannibalistic adventures. The resulting mash up is beguiling to say the least with horror-tinged exotica next to Fela Kuti rhythms and elements of Italian Library music and colourful psychedelia. A boundary pushing work to say the least.

Review: Osibisa's magnificent The Lost 70s Live Shows resurrects the pulsating energy of the Afrobeat and highlife fusion that defined the band's vibrant sound. Released as a testament to their dynamic live performances in the 1970s, the album captures the group's fierce genre-defying spirit with infectious rhythms, hypnotic percussion, and spirited horns. It is with these that the group create an immersive experience that transcends time with multicultural influences abounding throughout. Osibisa's lost live shows showcase their ability to ignite stages with an infectious blend of African, Caribbean, and jazz elements so do not sleep on this reissue.

Review: .You don't need to hear much on The YumYum Tree to understand how apt the story behind Ozric Tentacles is. A troupe which formed from an impromptu six-hour jam session which took place around a campfire during the 1983 Stonehenge free festival, the band name itself came about when an audience member asked guitarist and keyboardist Ed Wynne what the group - which included his brother Roly, Nick 'Tig' Van Gelder (later of Jamiroquai note) and Joie Hinton - were called. Originally dropping from the cosmos in 2009, The YumYum Tree is archetypal stuff from the outfit in question. Complex guitar solos taking us into the stratosphere, uptempo, highly commanding, cacophonic arrangements, star-gazing, mood-setting, deeply textured space rock, and moments of pure new age bliss. A journey to musical unknowns, captained by progressive rock visionaries.

Review: Now celebrating its landmark 50th anniversary, Pink Floyd's seminal The Dark Side Of The Moon remains a timeless masterpiece and is a groundbreaking fusion of progressive rock and psychedelic soundscapes. This iconic album, known for its conceptual brilliance and sonic innovation, continues to captivate with its introspective lyrics and haunting melodies half a century on and this 50th Anniversary Edition pays homage to the monumental work on some very special vinyl pressings and packaging. With its celestial tapestry of sound and thought-provoking themes, his record is often cited as one you need to hear before you die, and you really do.

Review: Legendary prog rock icons Pink Floyd performed live at the KB Hallen, Copenhagen on November 10 ,1972 and this is a digitally remastered recording of that night. It's a great bit of musical history, capturing the band across two CDs that feature many highlights, not least the epic 24-minute rendition of 'Echoes' which is about as prog as prog can get. As well as that, the album takes in the entirety of The Dark Side Of The Moon plus extra tracks 'One Of These Days' and 'Careful With That Axe Eugene,' all of which make it a superb addition to the collection of any fan.

Review: Outside of jazz-fusion circles, violinist and composer Jean-Luc Ponty is best known for two things: embracing synthesizers and electronic instruments (including electric violin) earlier than his peers, and playing a small but significant role in inspiring some of Detroit techno's earliest innovators. This double disc set rounds up three of the albums that proved most inspirational to electronic musicians. Disc one sports 1987's warm, colourful and mesmerising The Gift of Time - where, fittingly, Ponty's ability to create surprising and intense off-kilter dancefloor workouts was first noticed by adventurous DJs - and 1989's Storytelling, which kicks off with his most famous work: the awe-inspiring 'In The Fast Lane'. Over on disc two, we get 1991's Tchokola, an inspired mix of fusion, Afrobeat and Zouk flavours that has long been a favourite amongst Balearic silverbacks.

Review: Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of Saint Etienne fame are the diggers behind this new rock assemblage which pays tribute to mid-afternoon set times at lesser-known festivals from years gone (well, the 70s) such as Deeply Vale, Bickershaw, Krumlin, Weeley, and Plumpton. They were just as important to those who attended as the more celebrated likes of Glasto' and this collection shows the sounds were just as good, too. The sounds - from big names liek Deep Purple, Hawkwind and Alan Parker & Alan Hawkshaw to lesser known acts like Jonesy, will appeal to hippies and bikers alike with big riffs, funky drumming and some psyched-out sounds.

Review: The legendary Talk Talk was one of a kind. Not only did they craft exceptional studio albums rich in melodic details but they were top in the live arena too. This sublime broadcast from 1984 finds them in Utrecht in the Netherlands playing for a live FM Broadcast recorded at the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg on 27th May. The group formed by Mark Hollis is in dynamic form and they worked through all their hits to date alongside cuts from the two albums which they had already put out at that time. Experimental rock, jazz and free improv all defined this most artful band.

Review: Anyone familiar with Tokyo, Japan's predominantly instrumental math-rock prodigies Toe, should already be clued into the fact that the member's prolific nature prevents them from resting on their creative laurels for long, with each full-length they drop bookended by an EP. 2005's debut LP The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety was followed by the 2006 EP New Sentimentality, while after 2009's outstanding For Long Tomorrow came The Future Is Now in 2012. At the time of writing, 2018's aptly titled Our Latest Number currently sits as the group's most recent EP; sandwiched in between 2015's sonically transformative Hear You and 2021's latest output DOKU-EN-KAI. Furthering the experimentation of its preceding full-length, the EP strays from their signature twinkling, mathy noodles and emotive shoegazing, and instead embraces elements of minimalism and trip-hop, whilst expanding their acoustic-driven nu-jazz flourishes, and even sprinkling some ethereal vocals into the mix.

Review: Japanese math/post-rock outfit Toe have become renowned for their virtuosic blend of jazzy, hyper-technical math-rock blended with emo shoegazing and tropical Balearic vibes. Originally released in 2006 as follow up to the band's 2005 debut full-length The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety, and beginning their trend of intersplicing each album cycle with an EP, New Sentimentality offers up four lengthy cuts running the sonic gamut of almost every water they wade within. Trading off noodling twinkles with acoustic pluckings, while abrasive jazz drum-fills clatter over the weaving gentle cacophonies, this is what happens when the emo kids become the new prog nerds.

Review: Tokyo-based post/math-rock noodlers Toe have a habit of cleansing the palette of each subsequent full-length they release with a follow up EP. Just like 2005's debut album The Book About My Idle Plot On A Vague Anxiety was followed up with 2006's New Sentimentality EP, the group would return three years on from their stellar 2009 sophomore effort For Long Tomorrow with 2012's The Future Is Now. From the twinkling emo-inflected shoegazing noodles of 'Run For Word' to the more acoustic-driven psych-jazz of 'Ordinary Days', the four cuts purposefully meander and fuse differing elements from the band's arsenal whilst somehow increasing the dense technicality to absurd, near impenetrable levels.

Review: .During their live appearances - and especially ones captured for posterity by radio stations - Tool have often delivered surprisingly and unlikely cover versions. These, alongside a smattering of similarly eyebrow-raising duets and demos, form the basis of Absolute Ultra Rare, an unofficial compilation of obscurities that should be essential listening to fans. It sees the alt-metal and progressive metal heroes variously turn their hand to Pink Floyd (a surprisingly jangly take on 'Comfortably Numb'), Rage Against The Machine ('Know Your Enemy'), ska ('Wrong Way'), and Wings ('Silly Love Songs', which is turned into a moody growl). Throw in some heavy takes on their own tunes (see the opening rendition of 'Passenger') and you have a suitably epic collection of rarely heard tracks.

Review: Not every live album makes the impact Vital did. Recorded at London's Marquee Club on 16th January 1978, it hit shops six months later, by which time the group had split (for the second time), making this more of a capsule of the past than was probably intended. It also turned heads for the often radical re-design of older tracks in the set list. The troupe had been known for on-stage intensity, but this tour was particularly ferocious. Captured using a 24-track mobile unit, the second of two performances in the UK capital was committed to tape, and then mixed down into Vital at Foel Studio by Guy Evans. After some serious magic was worked to clean up a sax track that suffered a technical fault, the finished product encapsulated the huge energy and atmosphere that defined the original date.

Review: Fantastic Voyage: New Sounds For The European Cannon 1977-1981 is one of the most grandiose titles for a record we have come across in a while, but we like it. Fortunately for those involved, the music on this new gatefold heavyweight double album stands up to scrutiny for lovers of sounds that collide electronic, post-rock and experimental with synth, new wave and even a touch of new age ambient. The track list is a big one with tried and tested names like Patrick Cowley, Cabaret Voltaire, the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, Peter Gabriel and more all featuring. It makes for quite the trip and a fine reminder of the magical newness of electronic music back then.

Review: X-Ray Pop play live at Rockomotives Festival in 2020. The cult band was first formed back in 1984 by Didier Doc Pilot and Zouka Dzaza and are said to be inspirations for the likes of Beastie Boys and Stereolab. Their set at Rockomotives marked a triumphant return to the stage for the group with Charlotte Barfuss and Zouka Dzaza providing vocals, Doc Pilot on space guitar and Olivier Gicquel on drums amongst others. The setlist takes in tunes from four albums - Surrealistic Pilot, Fuzzy Soundtracks, All that Jazz and The Dream Machine - with psychedelic jazz mixed with novo beatnik overtones.