Wooowww, what else can I say, coming from Zappa-Krimson school I admit I am totally incapable to find 1 interesting second of music on this record, I stopped properly listen to yes back in 1995 after they did Talk which I feel it is a pretty decent album, simply because they started to really be a thing of the past, after Trevor Rabin left, creativity left with him, obviously this statement will not be happily received by hard die dinosaurs yes fans... Keys to ascension studio material was extremely disappointing to me, then they went even lower with open your eyes, the ladder has a few listenable moments such as homeworld, still good musicianship there, magnification is absolutely irrelevant, fly from here absolutely no need for its existence, but this! this goes beyond whatever I expected, I knew it was going to be dull, but this is right there on the embarrassing line, YES was a great band and they certainly did things of a great importance in prog music, there wasn't any need other than making money to make such a travesty of record, it is extremely low and even sad. I won't even mention the vocalist stuff. RIP YES. One start because of the art work.

Dynamism in music is perhaps my favorite aspect of listening to progressive rock. The breadth of the human imagination is boundless, especially when it comes to the creation of music. Avant garde music, in its various forms, is perhaps the best at this, as musicians who play this genre purposefully take the accepted norms of music and transform them into either beasts or beauties or musical creations. This experimentation does not come without its share of risk, however, as the composition and performance of music that has not already been tested and reviewed before can often lead to harsh ridicule or simply a lack of listeners.

SOT, a Norwegian avant-jazz rock band that has been around the avant scene for less than five years now, is no stranger to this risk. Their debut 2011 album Kind of Saltz was a hit amongst fans of experimental and adventurous music, myself included. The band blended a unique groovy rock backing with tuba-driven jazz riffs and motifs. The album was exciting, unpredictable, and fun to listen to. The disorganized mish-mash of riffs and styles combined for a unique, different, and altogether enjoyable album.

When I received the bands next album, Redwing's Nest, I was very excited. The band had not released an album since their debut three years prior, and I was hungry for more of the band's spicy blend of Norwegian avant jazz rock. After my first spin, however, I was confused. It felt, on first listen, that the band had lost their spark. Kind of Saltz had a ferocious yet restrained pep to them, giving a raw energy to both the melodic and not so melodic aspects of the album. From the outset, Redwing's Nest seemed to be the product of a couple of weekend jam sessions that produced a lot of great ideas that had little cohesion. But as a veteran of their first album, I was convinced I was missing something and refused to have my opinion shaped by a single listen.

I was right, to a degree. The twists and turns of SOT's music still had that element of defiance against musical norms, and a number of the songs on the album, such as "They Called Me Sotanic," "Jan Meyen," "Redwing's Nest," and "Second Row," had that element of careless abandon that made their last album so special. The instrumentation was tight and purposeful; the arrangement showed power where strength was needed and restraint where a gentler or more whimsical motif was played. This is showed best in "Second Row," which is easily the best song on the album, showing each of the band's many, many styles. The band, as they showed on their last album, can switch between a pulsating metal riff, a feathery alto sax melody, and a weaving guitar-driven avant garde riff.

Much of the rest of the album, however, felt hopelessly disorganized. I could easily tell what the band was doing with each song, and on their own, many of the riffs are brilliant, but together, there are too many songs that feel forced. The transitions are weakly formed, and the songs blend together in a less-than-appealing way. For some, this reckless song formation will be attractive, as the songs themselves are not bad in any way. The band members play with drive and passion, and the writing is a prime example of what avant garde music can be. For me, however, I was disappointed with how little it seemed the arrangement of the parts seemed to have been thought out. I'm sure the band spent a considerable amount of time on this, and I'm afraid that it didn't show as well as they had hoped.

In the end, this album is in no way bad. All in all, it's a very enjoyable album to listen to. While I would prefer to listen to "Schlatan" for Kind of Saltz compared to "Second Row," this album shows that SOT still has a strong muse and can belt out a killer riff when they want to. Redwing's Nest is a really good album, but it will only be excellent for those who enjoy the form of avant prog that is played by bands with a stronger emphasis on riff diversity than riff cohesion. 3+ stars.

Long forgotten architectural temples in Alio Die's music imagination.

Diaphanous, wide open structures, filled to the brim with invisible threading choruses, slow single string chords, droning and nostalgic melody lines processed in his completely distinguishable personal music language.

Alio Die's "Aura Seminalis" 2008, concept is quiet well explained in the previous PA review, so I would not dwell into it. The fact that it all comes to a masterful music reinterpretation of physical structures, will reinforce the "concrete" and airy spaciousness of the 5 music compositions included in this work.

Besides that, as I have insisted, Alio Die sounds like Alio Die, therefore the musical comparisons act more as referentials, than comparisons as such. So in able to describe his music to newcomers, let me point out some references.

Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179) and Perotin's (1160-1230) sacred hypnotic music comes to mind at first. Then the Baroque organ music figures of J.S. Bach and the italian Antonio.L. Vivaldi's symphonic works, also Baroque. Enhanced with the flowing nature of early Renaissance music and some splashes of Indian's music mysterious under-tones.

In today's world, Alio Die compresses all these influences, strips them naked and then mixes up these powerful "powders" to the point of almost invisibility, yet perfectly structured and solid, as enticing.

As for prog audiences, well that's another ride! It all depends on your personal likings, but if you know and like the people mentioned above, well you are in for an amazing hypnotic experience!

**** 4.5 PA stars.

PD available in "i-Tunes".

Spleen Arcana is a one-man French band in which Julien Gaullier is responsible for all of the instruments, compositions, vocals and technical details, the only exception is the drums recorded by David Perron. The Light Beyond The Shades (2014) is an album that took around four years to be completed for Julien recorded everything on his own calmly at his home studio in Paris.

I got to know the band back in 2009 when Julien himself got in touch with me asking if I would like to review his first album, The Field Where She Died (2008). At that time despite seeing that the project had quality I thought that something was missing in Julien's music, perhaps a greater identity to it. Well, in The Light Beyond The Shades (2014) he got that!

For fans that follow Spleen Arcana two of the three tracks on the new album are not that new, despite the fact that they have new outfits in the new album they were available before through the band's Bandcamp page as singles around 2 years ago. But, as I mentioned, for the new album they were re-worked and can be considered new. The tracks are 'Erin Shores' and 'Fading Away'.

The opening track, 'Erin Shores' starts where the last track of The Field Where She Died (2008) ? 'A Kind Of Heaven' ? ends and shows Julien's passion for Scottish folkloric music. Julien's vocals are calm, serene and gentle, however his music not always follows this path, especially in the instrumental moments. Listening to this opening track is quite obvious that Julien is a big fan of the classical period of Prog, the 70's, however Spleen Arcana's music sounds fresh and new. This fact is even more noticeable in the second track 'Fading Away' where his wife Marie Guillaumet helps him with backing vocals (like on his first album). Julien is a great instrumentalist now, and one can see his growth from his first album, he does well both in the bass and in the electric and acoustic guitars. Keyboards are also present, but in a discrete way most of the time. The instrumental section on this second track is simply superb, at the same time Julien was able to write something that is worthy of the great 70's Prog bands but with a freshness rarely present in the new bands. I must also say that David Perron's works in the drums are great on this track.

But to be honest, the surprise of The Light Beyond The Shades (2014) is the third and final track 'Memento Mori', an epic of 24 minutes. 'Memento Mori' is a perfect example of the classic Prog Rock format in the 70's and the new Prog Rock made in the last ten years or so. Julien shows us that it is possible to mix both and that they match perfectly. Moreover, he shows us that you don't need to be trendy and super hyped to be a good Prog band nowadays. My only complaint is the vocal parts. Though I recognize that Julien improved a lot since his first album in this matter I think that the vocals on his new album are much alike, however I don't think this downgrades his work much, and the sounds you'll find in The Light Beyond The Shadows (2014) are so rich that honestly you'll find a great number of details for you to hook on.

Plenty of times when I start to write a review I ask myself if there's a way of sounding like the Classic Prog that we love but at the same time bring something new to the table. Most of the time I disappoint myself with new bands because of that. I believe that Spleen Arcana is my answer to that question! The album shows Julien with loads of Classic bands influence such as Mike Oldfield, Pink Floyd and King Crimson but at the same time he's listening to the new bands like Porcupine Tree as well. You can be sure that this five years waiting was worth it.

If you're one of those listeners that love the 70's and grew up listening to those but also like to know what's going on right now The Light Beyond The Shades (2014) is your album, you can buy it with no fear. On top of that I think this is a great format for an album: 3 tracks in 46 minutes.

I just hope that Julien will not take another five years to release a new album, but if that happens and if he can top The Light Beyond The Shades (2014), I don't mind waiting!

4,5 stars

(Originally posted on progshine.net)

Aeolia is disrespected by several fellow reviewers on PA. Since Leprous was apparently quite reluctant to release this to the general public, the band members seem to feel the same way about it. I frankly don't understand it. I don't see Aeolia as a flawed precursor to Leprous' official releases, and I'm giving it four stars.

I think the sound quality on this "demo" is perfectly acceptable. I can hear all the instruments, and that's all I care about. I'm not an audiophile, and practically every kind of music player available today allows you to adjust the sound quality of what you're listening to. Therefore, you can change the sound of the music you're listening to as you see fit. I've heard all of Leprous' albums, and I recently listened to Coal before I started composing this review. Some folks say that Aeolia is too scattered, too "weird". That's what I like about Aeolia; I found Coal, which is regarded as more focused, dull by comparison.

Leprous' musical abilities have been well covered by others, so I won't. "Disclosure" and "Eye of the Storm" are a couple of my favorite tracks, but there aren't any bad ones on "Aeolia". I thank God that someone talked the band into releasing Aeolia so we could all enjoy it. This is definitely an 4 star "excellent addition to any collection".

"Salisbury" is the first peak in the huge Uriah Heep's discography. From a prog point of view it is also the most consistent album they ever recorded.

The backbone is made by three memorable tracks: the heavy opener "Bird of Prey", the perfect archetype of the UH's aggressive rock song (with their multi part choruses trademark), "Lady in Black", the anthem everyone in the world knows, and the closer selft/titled epic, 16 mns of lush orchestration and large scale composing (very brass and woodwind oriented).

The remaining three songs are less known but at the very same level of quality: "The Park" is an introvert and melancholic number with sparse jazzy tinges and "Time To Live" is the heaviest song on the album, based on Mick Box's wah wah guitar. Last but not least "High Priestess" that is probably the most catchy tune, starting off very laid-back, then moving into a breezy fast tempo rocker.

This is one of the band's most diverse recordings, a highlight and one of the most overshadowed of the rock/orchestral crossovers that were fashionable at the time. Furthermore, the typical Hensley's hammond organ-led sound began to take shape.

Easily a five stars rating.

I find very astonishing to read so many negative reviews about this new album. I refuse to fall in this kind of collective condemnation. So many notes between 1 and 2 stars, how can we explain this ? Maybe a lot of people thought Yes could produce, in 2014, a masterpiece of modern prog music ?

I did not. We had to be aware Yes will never create a new "Close to the edge" or a new "Awken", not even a new "Mind drive". We just had to expect an agreable record and that's what it is : a nice collection of very pretty melodies full of beautiful harmonies in the typical Yes' manner. Probably, "Heaven and earth" is the most melodic record Yes has ever made.

The writing is quite good, the musicianship is skilled, more especially the guitar (though Howe's "it was all we knew" is the only weak moment of the album), Davison's voice is very close to Anderson's (in spite of some clumsiness, more especially in "Subway walls"). The entire disk reflects a great musical sensitivity and a perfect homogeneity. Surely, this is also the softer record Yes has ever made.

Ah ! I think I understand now why so many reviewers are disappointed : there is no heavy riff. Yes did not make any contractual reference to heavy prog, that's it ! Indeed. I could not say the contrary. No saturated guitars, no inflamed keyboard solo, no acute shouting, no thundering drums ; just soft and beautiful melodies.

In the mid 1990's, when they were reborn ("Keys to the ascension"), these musicians would have transcend the wise "Light of the ages". But this time is over. "Believe again" and "The game" are very decent true Yes songs, "To ascend" flows serenely and we nearly recover the great past some short moments in the bass parts and the keys/guitar bridge of"Subway walls".

I would have given 4 stars to this record, their best one since the Keys to the ascension. But I will give it 5 stars to balance a little bit the impressive flood of severe criticisms. "Heaven and earth" is quite an appropriate title for this record. But "Hell and flood" could reflect the predominant evaluation it gets here ! Unhappily...

Too much, too soon!

After all the 3 months ago first release by Brian Eno & Karl Hyde "Someday World" 2014, included an additional "bonus"disc. So, this second (?) release "High Life", 3 months later, seems and feels like an album of songs which came in third in their personal pickings .

And the music repertoire sounds more like an Eno's self-tribute, than a 2 musician collaboration. Yeah! Maybe Hyde's "electronic funky" fondness matches that of Eno's, but as far as new proposals, there are really none.

Maybe with a bit more time, they could actually have found some new "music lines", who knows?

Ok ! It is not bad, but it just reinforces the quiet well established Brian Eno's "sonic" discoveries. Like his endeavors with Daniel Lanois and U2's electric guitar "fast-droning" sound, in their 'Joshua Tree's" (1987) record, as sound engineers and collaborators (i,e. track one "Return" ). I suppose it is focused more for Underworld's not-knowledgeable of his existence audiences, than for more aquainted with his work followers .

Anyway, this effort in fact should have been the "Someday's World's" bonus disc, and that release, a one disc release! As such, it all seems quiet greedy, therefore deceiving and somehow dissapointing!

***3 flat PA stars. (The five star song, because there is one, is "Cells & Bells", track 6.)

PD. The PA's guy who labels "First Review of This Album", somehow always misses mine, but this is that!

Both songs of this single were recorded during the recording sessions for their "Machine Head" album in December 1971. This single was released in March 1972.

"Never Before", included in the "Machine Head" album, but released in the "A" side of this single in edited form (with 3:29 minutes of duration), is a song more influenced by Rock and Roll music, and it has some good solos by Ritchie Blackmore on guitar and Jon Lord on electric piano. It is more a danceable and funny song in this single, and one of the best songs from the "Machine Head" album.

"When a Blind Man Cries", which was only originally released in the "B" side of this single and not in the "Machine Head" album, is a slow song with some Blues music influences and with somewhat "spiritual" lyrics which is somewhat similar to "Child in Time" but without Ian Gillan`s shouts and shorter in lenght. It is a good "serious" song sung with feeling by Gillan and with some good guitar solos by Blackmore. It has been written in some websites that Blackmore did not like this song, so maybe it was the reason that this song was relegated to the "B" side of this single. The band never played the song in concert with Blackmore. It was until he left the band in late 1993 that the band started playing the song in concerts.

'Union' - Yes (37/100)

I can't rightly decide whether Union was a good idea in concept or not. The idea of teaming up the 'classic' Yes with the fashionably poppish '80s Yes is about as high concept as you can get in prog without spiralling into bombastic operatic narrative. While it probably sounded like a great way to merge the merits of both eras on paper, the album itself give the impression that it was a misguided decision at best. Rather than capitalize on the 'best of both worlds' as Union was no doubt supposed to, the strongest suits of Yes' prog and pop halves alike have been dulled to make room for one another. As is the case with every less-favoured Yes record, there are a few worthy gems, but it's not enough to compensate for Union's lack of focus and appalling inconsistency. If any one of the past four albums hadn't convinced someone that the glory days were indeed over for this band, Union should have been the final nail in the coffin.

Much like the album, I too find myself torn between sides. Part of me would like to see Union in a positive light. After all, given time and patience, I was even able to find some things to love about the unpopular Big Generator, and there are just enough hints of the 'old' Yes here to have piqued my interest. On the other hand, even compared to the band's 80s material, Union feels sloppy. Whether they're attempting to bring out the proggy side of their sound or opting for lighter fluid pop anthems, the music sounds like it was out of a compromise. Regardless what idealistic notions paved the way for Yes to pull this 'all together now' gimmick, every defining problem on Union is a cause of the decision to merge rosters. Looking at the performance credits on the album is enough to give anyone a headache; Trevor Rabin, Alan White and Tony Kaye (for example) are responsible for tracks 4, 6, 7 and 9, and their earlier counterparts are responsible for the rest. Instead of a real union, the band is just as segregated as ever; the only difference is that they're stuck on the same disc together. Yes' have proved a clichéd expression true- it turns out there is such a thing as too many cooks in a kitchen.

Although moments like the introductions to "Lift Me Up" and "Miracle of Life" showcase the instrumental fireworks of the proggy Yes, it's ultimately clear that the poppy constructs of their 80s material paved the sound here. Even the two aforementioned tracks revert to a fairly recognizable AOR format once they get the technical flash out of their systems. While I'm a defender of 90125 and even Big Generator, with Union the songwriting has taken a general turn for the worse. "I Would Have Waited Forever" is a fun song that would have fit well on Big Generator. "Shock to the System" is easily the best song on Union, featuring strong melodic hooks and an interesting groove. "Masquerade" is a solid classical guitar piece from Howe, and "Angkor Wat" (curiously left off of the original pressing) is an exotic ambient track that sounds like it could have been pulled out of Jon Anderson's solo career. Also, even though it's not even a minute long, the interlude "Evensong" (by guest bassist Tony Levin) is a pint-sized gem. Of course, it's little more than wallpaper ambiance, but it's still one of the best surprises the album has going for it.

The bad songs on Union are a lot easier to spot than the good ones, and there are plenty more of them too. While the classic roster at least offered "Shock to the System", the Rabin side of this musical debate doesn't have a single musical success here. When I was reviewing Big Generator, I remember condemning it for having the worst song yet of Yes' career with "Almost Like Love". Union offers several songs that make "Almost Like Love" look favourable by comparison. "Saving My Heart" is seriously one of the worst songs I've heard in ages; saccharine cheese and a god-awful chorus have a way of turning a song sour. "Dangerous" is not quite as bad, but it's pretty close, sounding like a less-fun, shallower version of the Ghostbusters theme, and as much as many Yes fans have been quick to sing the praises of "Lift Me Up" and "Miracle of Life" for their proggy intros, the songs themselves resort to the same mind-numbing AOR crap the rest of the Rabin material here is plagued with. I was a fan of Trevor Rabin's refreshing approach on 90125, but by this point, it's clear he was just as creatively exhausted as the rest of them.

Rather than work together, it truly feels like the two Yes's are trying to duke it out on Union. Like two warring nations continuing to fight after they've both been nuked, or two swordsmen duelling long after limbs have been hacked off, neither side is anywhere near their best, but it's nonetheless clear that they aren't compatible. Were it not for "Shock to the System" and a handful of others, I might consider Union a downright horrible album. Maybe there was a way a so-called union could have worked between the two eras, but this album sure as hell is nowhere near it. To date, Union still counts as one of the most disappointing albums Yes have ever done, and I don't suspect anyone's mind is going to change anytime soon.