The new German artist MARGIN makes it clear also in the promotional texts that PINK FLOYD is the major influence, and it's indeed audible in the music. To me this is not a problem, but if the idea of listening to a Floyd-soundalike doesn't appeal to you, you may as well keep clear of Margin. Being practically a one-man effort (concerning even the album design) this is amazingly well done, from a technical point of view.

There are many ways to interpret the essence of "psychedelic rock" today. The historical weight cannot be escaped anyhow. One can try and find a unique way of sounding "trippy" and "mind blowing", though it's harder and harder nowadays not to sound like someone. Or then one can underline the word "psychedelic" thematically and make quite safe and accessible music in the style and honour of one of the most legendary and beloved rock groups all time. It's obvious which way is easier and commercially safer. It may also be easy to forget such tribute-like band several years later. I don't mean to be cynical; these were my thoughts about relations between Psychedelia and this album.

'A Mysterious Cup of Tea' is a 23'-minute suite in five parts, numbers two and four with vocals. Definitely lyrics aren't MARGIN's strength, actually they're just escapistic day-dreaming "steps beyond the reality". "Look at this cup of tea, it's turning to a cup of sea with some islands / a saucerful of secrets sounds deep from an unknown ground / up to the highlands, it resounds". Thanks to the soaring melodic instrumental parts the suite is my favourite on this album. The best side-long epic that Pink Floyd never did! But sadly all is not up to that level. 'Psychedelic Underground' is actually a catchy pop song despite some prog rock flavour - including a mellotron sound - but especially the decision to end the album with its 10'-minute 2nd version is not good at all! It's rather disturbing how Lutz Meinert's vocals on it make me think of PET SHOP BOYS, of all bands in the world.

'Landscapes on the Sky' is a mellow and slightly melancholic track. I like the sounds of acoustic guitar, glockenspiel (xylophone?) and mellotron. My associations were the Finnish Folk-Psych group KOSMOS, and for the long instrumental section late sixties Pink Floyd at their calmest (e.g. 'Julia Dream'). Carola Meinert's backing vocals are in a very minor role on the album; I would have wanted to hear more of her, and less of Lutz Meinert himself who's a wonderful multi- instrumentalist but not a great singer. Also 'Last Exit to Pluto' concentrates on calm, Floydian sound painting. As an instrumental and relatively progressive track it's very enjoyable. But I can't help I dislike the re-entry of the weakest song, and the proggy extension of it doesn't save anything.

Three stars for a nice listening enjoyment are earned without a doubt. Weak lyrics, average vocals and the lack of real personality would make the fourth star seem quite undeserved. But in my opinion this is a very nice album to return to when in need of soothing prog-pop without harder edges.

Madrigal (not to be confused with countless bands with same name) was an obscure progressive rock band from USA with only two albums relased and then gone into oblivion. In my opinion this band is very unnoticed in prog circles. Their music is inspired, complicated with many memorable passages and has some quite intresting arrangements on both albums. The first album Waiting from 1989 is quite hard to find but the second can be found on CD here and there and definetly worth purchasing. With nods towards Yes, Happy the Man, Gentle Giant Madrigal definetly worth to be investigated. The music has everything a prog rock album must have, complex passages, nice guitar moments, polyphony in Gnetle Gian manner and a very fine voice that just goes hand in hand with the music. All 8 pieces stand as great to me so for that reson 4 star easy, underrated album.

"Psychadelic Teatime" is the debut full-length studio album by German psychadelic/progressive rock act Margin. The album was released through Madvedge Records in June 2014. Margin was founded in 2011 by Lutz Meinert (Spielte, For Your Pleasure), who sings most vocals and plays most instruments on "Psychadelic Teatime". He is joined here by Carola Meinert (additional vocals) and Arne Spekat (acoustic guitars).

The music on the album is psychadelic/progressive rock, highly influenced by late 60s/early- to mid 70s Pink Floyd. The music is laid back and slow building towards louder and more epic climaxes, but always pleasant to listen to. Organic drumming and bass playing, emotional guitar playing and some nice vintage keyboard/organ sounds spiced up by the occasional sedated vocal line (Lutz Meinert´s voice and way of singing remind me slightly of a more ordinary sounding Roine Stolt). The musicianship is top notch and you don´t notice that this is basically a one-man project.

"Psychadelic Teatime" features 9 tracks, but the first 5 tracks on the album seque into each other to form the 20 minutes + long "A Mysterious Cup of Tea" suite. While the Pink Floyd influence is heard throghout the album, it´s on this track that it´s strongest. The long suite is followed by the shorter "Psychedelic Underground - The Short Trip", which is an almost radio friendly catchy track. "Landscapes On The Sky" features a folk influence while still retaining it´s psychadelic rock foundation while "Last Exit to Pluto" is a bit more ambient and atmospheric. The album closes with an extented version of the "Psychedelic Underground" track titled "Psychedelic Underground - The long Trip". While there is satisfactory variation throughout the album there is also a good flow, so you´re never in doubt that it´s the same band playing.

While I wouldn´t put the sound production in the same catagory as some of the top notch sound productions of a band like Pink Floyd, "Psychadelic Teatime" is still relatively well produced and organic sounding, which suits the music well. All in all "Psychadelic Teatime" is a pleasant listening experience and a decent quality psychadelic/progressive rock album by Margin. They don´t really cover any new ground and I´m not sure that was the purpose either, but for what they do, they do it pretty well. While the musicianship are generally on a high level and the sound production decent, the album´s real strength is that the tracks are easy to tell apart and that the music flow well for the duration of the album. Although the music can be very laid back and slow, it´s never boring and my attention never wanders during it´s playing time. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.

Yes trying to pull a 'spiritual' Jon Anderson album, essentially trying to ay they can do what Jon does without him. I find this album difficult to review for the following reasons; although it's not disasterous it's not what it could have been. The music is pleasant, the tunes are catchy, but it lack drive of Chris Squire's bass, with a little bit of more instrumental interplay a little bit more 'progressiveness' so to speak, I do believe that this album would have equaled the well regarded Magnification album. I think Davison is great, I think he certainly has the songwriting skills his voice sounds great. No I don't think Heaven and Earth is dreadful, it doesn't need to be thrown out in the dump heap. In-fact it is worthy of a few listens, it's more 'meh'. It doesn't offend any of the fans, but merely frustrates you because you know that this album could have been closer to a four star if they made better produciton and arrangment choices, merely by doing some more soundscapes and a little bit of instrumental interplay with Squire and Howe, and it wouldn't be too hard because the songwriting as I mentioned earlier; is fine, the ideas are there, they feel inspired. I have to admit that there is a freshness as Steve Howe has mentioned, as I mentioned earlier it isn't terrible. It's worth a few listens, it is pleasant and uplifting and good on them for doing something different, which is what Yes does do. The only song that annoys me is the chorus in It was all we knew, it sounds a little too Sacharrin for my tastes. I am going to say 2.5 stars round up to 3 stars. Nice, give it a spin but you're not going to come out either loving or hating this album, but slightly frustrated as I mentioned earlier, knowing that this could have been really something good with a few better choices.

— First review of this album —

Wow! talk about a incredible best of Krautrock, this compilation has it all & it's well balance, it really sound like all the songs in there are related and came from the same year, but no, you cover 11 years of great Krautrock. Some song in there are edited version of the original, but the edit are well made and fit the flow of this compilation. If you are new to the german world of Krautrock, that compilation should be a good place to start. For the expert, there is nothing you haven't heard but is a really good mix of the best Krautrock, it might be a good addition to your Krautrock collection. A double compilation of this quality is rare and all of the track are 1st rate music so it deserve a 5 star rating.

"Move Of Thought" is the debut full-length studio album by Moldovan death metal act Neuromist. The album was independently released as a free download in March 2010. Neuromist were already formed in the fall of 2004, but several lineup changes have postponed the release of "Move Of Thought". The album was originally planned for a 2007 release.

The music on the album is technical death metal with progressive elements thrown in (semi- jazzy/fusion soloing). The musicianship are excellent and the band are more than capable of playing the many tempo- and time signature changes featured in the tracks. Although I hear influences from a varity of technical/progressive extreme metal acts in the music I´m actually mostly reminded of two of the probably lesser known acts in the genre in Tholus and especially Theory in Practice.

The sound production is decent, but a slightly more professional sounding production could have done wonders to an otherwise really great album. It´s especially the drums that feature a cold digital sound that doesn´t suit the music that well. However just to set things straight I´d like to point out that it´s a minor issue that doesn´t in any way ruin my listening experience.

"Move Of Thought" is overall a very intriguing debut album by Neuromist and despite my minor issue with the sound production, there´s little to complain about here. The songwriting is strong and at times very intriguing but without ever losing brutality and aggression and as mentioned above the musicianship are very strong too. This is definitely a band I´m going to follow. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

— First review of this album —

Barbaz Breiz is a compilation album. The songs appear to be taken mainly from Benoit's early studio albums. Those are more highly recommended, however, since they have a more consistent sound and feel. This album contains more of the Breton sound, with the small bagpipes playing behind the guitar. There's nothing Progressive Folk about the sound on most of the pieces chosen here, though it's quite lovely. The bagpipe sound reminds me a bit of the early Mike Oldfield use of the Uilleann pipes (Irish bagpipes), but beyond that it's very pretty folk.

For a better, more self consistent approach to Benoit's music, try the excellent Lutunn Noz, which really does have a progressive folk sound, with the pipes and wordless background singing reminiscent of early Mike Oldfield and Pink Floyd.

LOVE'S SECRET DOMAIN is commonly called COIL's accessible album but with a medieval art piece on an outhouse door with such a title, let's just say that "accessible" is only a relative term in the strange musical universe inhabited by COIL. I think it's considered as such mostly because of the fact the timings on the majority of tracks are a steady 4/4 beat and the progressive time signatures aren't as prevalent. This like any COIL album is highly experimental and eclectic and if anything more diverse in the influence department. There is the usual strange multitude of sound effects shrouding every beat and rhythm that emerges but unlike the past releases which focused a lot of time to brooding synthesizer jingles, we do a little more variety in the songwriting on this one.

The album begins with "Disco Hospital" with weird groans and electronic sliding notes before it morphs into a strange glitchy type of techno ambient acid house weirdness. We finally get a nice steady drumbeat to normalize the bizarro effect. It actually then becomes a nice loungy exotica number that even 50s housewives in rural Kentucky would like, well for at least a few seconds anyway, back to weirdness. Next track "Teenage Lightning 1", steady beat, klinks and klanks and bloops and bleeps. Robotron dance party? Nice backing vocals that have a nice digital age quality. Then we get "Things Happen" which has a psychotic female persona semi-singing to acid house beats. There is even a short but sweet flamenco guitar piece at the end with embellishments clearly out of the COIL playbook. There is a plethora of guest musicians on this release as well including Marc Almond from Soft Cell.

This album holds together fairly well and is a nice diverse collection of COIL weirdness to suit my appetite for the sonically demented. A few of the tracks on here would be messed around with and would appear in even stranger forms on the following release "Stolen And Contaminated Songs" and the track "The Snow" which is one of the most danceable of all COIL releases would find its very own EP with several remixes. Personally I can't say this is my favorite album by COIL since it's their dark and highly experimental output that excites me the most, but even when they release things that are somewhat closer to "normal" they managed to keep the sound eclectic and interesting. A great place to start for beginner's who wish to acclimate themselves to the idiosyncrasies of this strange electronic world before diving into the truly "out-there" stuff.

This five-piece from Boston consists of some of the most influential musicians in their respective instruments. With twelve albums released, Dream Theater has sold millions of albums over their lifetime. Varying in styles from progressive rock, to progressive metal, to even glam rock, each album differs in some way from the rest, as you can hear many unique sounds from album to album. I believe of all the albums they have released, one of my favorites has to be their album "Awake."

I noticed immediately that this album was a step in a different direction from their last album "Images and Words." Feeling more metal-oriented, songs like "Caught in a Web" and "The Mirror" are guitar-driven, featuring some of the bands heaviest riffs at the time. Guitarist John Petrucci is showcased in songs like "Erotomania" and "Lie," with his flawless execution of sweep and tremolo picking. Although Petrucci has sections of each song devoted to soloing, they are much more toned-down than previous albums, but are not over-technical, and when they do occur, it is more enjoyable for the listener. Besides such heavy riffs lies songs like "The Silent Man" and "Space-Dyed Vest," in which clean guitar is used and takes a back seat to other members of the band.

The vocals and lyrics are also fantastic in this album thanks to singer James LaBrie. LaBrie's voice is much more controlled in this album, and can be considered much more rugged than high- pitched. His voice is displayed beautifully in voices like "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream," "The Silent Man," and "Voices," which proves the range and quality of his voice.

Both the bass and keyboards help complement each song off the album. Bassist John Myung and keyboarder Kevin Moore have their own sections in this album dedicated specifically to their instrument, being "Lifting Shadows Off A Dream" and "Space-Dyed Vest" respectively. Coincidentally, these two songs happen to be my two favorite songs off this album, containing some of the best overall workmanship by the band as a whole. The darker and more melancholic themes that are so greatly expressed in this album are greatly increased with help from Myung and Moore.

As most of Dream Theater's other albums, I cannot help but focus on the drum track for every song Dream Theater releases. Mike Portnoy, the drummer during the time of this album's release, is magnificent. His flawless hits on the snare, the ease of his time signature changes, and the quality of sound off this album proves Portnoy to be one of the best drummers in progressive metal. His presence is known in songs like "6:00" and "Scarred," where Portnoy relies on other percussion.

I really enjoy listening to this album. I give it a solid 4 star rating.

This is an album recorded by YES`s drummer ALAN WHITE while he was working with some musicians from Seattle (Kevin Currie, Steve Boyce and Karl Haug) with the addition of Geoff Downes from ASIA on keyboards. White have lived in Seattle for several years, and after YES`s last tour with Jon Anderson and Rick Wakeman in 2004, YES was inactive as a band until 2008. So, White, like Chris Squire (who worked a bit with THE SYN during those years) worked for a time with these musicians from Seattle , and they recorded and released this album, which is not really a solo album from Alan White, but more a collaboration album which was released in 2006 under the band`s name WHITE. Alan White has credits as songwriter in 5 of the 10 songs of this album, but the main songwriters are Haug, Currie and Boyce, with some collaborations from other musicians like their former keyboard player Ted Stockwell.

The musical style of this band is more Hard Rock with some Prog Rock arrangements and sometimes sounding a bit Pop Rock. Currie`s vocals (who by the way has the same name as one of Supertramp`s former drummers from the early seventies) sound more oriented to Pop Rock and Hard Rock than to Prog Rock. The rhythms are not very complicated and are very related to Hard Rock and Pop Rock too. The main instruments in this album are the guitars played by Karl Haug, who is a very good guitarist, and the keyboard arrangements are more in the background, playing a more supportive role.

The listener can`t really expect this album to sound related to YES`s musical style, like in Alan White`s first solo album from 1976, titled "Ramshackled", which also was more a collaborative effort with other musicians than a real solo album by White. But at least in this WHITE`s band self-titled album Alan White collaborated to the songwriting. He plays the drums very well, as always, and his style of playing shows his talent for playing several musical styles very well. The recording and mixing of this album is very good, but the mixing gives more emphasis to the guitars and the drums.

The cover art was done by Roger Dean, and it is maybe the most YES-related thing in this album, more than the musical style of the band by itself.