— First review of this album —

In mid 1980 I bought a Mexican Rock Magazine called "Sonido"(which is defunct since the mid eighties, I think) which announced and reviewed several then new single releases from some members and some ex-members of Genesis. One of these singles reviewed was this, with both tracks taken from Tony Banks`s first solo album titled "A Curious Feeling" (1979), which I consider as his best solo album.

"For a While" is a ballad with a guitar melody which appears repeated several times during the song, with electric piano and other backing keyboards, plus lead and backing vocals by Kim Beacon (and maybe Banks as backing singer too) and Chester Thompson on drums, with Banks also playing the guitars and the bass. It now sounds to me as the most obvious choice for a single, and it is a good and very accessible song, maybe the most simple and accessible song from the album. It still sounds like very influenced by Genesis`s style of the late seventies. Some months ago I discovered in youtube that this song has a video clip with Banks and Beacon appearing doing a playback. Many people doesn`t think that Beacon was a good choice as singer to sing Banks`s songs, but I think that he was a good lead singer and that his voice sounded well singing Banks`s songs in that album.

The "B" side, "A Curious Feeling", is more Progressive in style, but I think that it also is one of the most accessible songs from the album and that it easily could have been an "A" side for another single.

I don`t know if this single was a Hit somewhere, but I like both songs.

— First review of this album —

I listened to this song (and recorded it) in mid 1988 from the radio, during a series of radio programmes dedicated to the discography of Marillion in a now defunct (and missed) FM Radio station called "Rock 101" in my city. The woman who was the radio commentator said: "...and now we have a special surprise for our listeners..." and then the song was played. This song was composed by Tony Banks and Fish for the soundtrack of the film called "Quicksilver" in 1986, being the first time that both musicians collaborated together (the next time was in one of Banks`s solo albums, I think). It also has a video with Banks and Fish riding bicycles in the streets, also showing some scenes from the film which had as central theme a bicycle rider (I don`t remember well the thematic of that film now, which I watched to it on TV only once, without liking it very much).

Well. The style of the song is very Pop Rock fom the mid eighties, with Banks`s very characteristic keyboards sounds from that period of time, using some horn sounds from his synths to play a "brass arrangement melody" which is repeated several times in the song. There are also some female backing singers and drums which sound like programmed drums or real drums recorded in a very typical eighties fashion. The song is good, very typical from that period of time, but maybe more influenced by Banks`s style with Genesis during the "Invisible Touch" album period than from Fish, who sings good lead vocals. I don`t know if this single was a Hit somewhere. But at that time I liked the song very much. But with the pasing of time really I forgot about it until I saw now that it wasn`t reviewed yet in this website.

When Phil Collins left Genesis in 1996, I thought that maybe Fish could join the band as their new lead singer. Of course, it didn`t happen, but maybe a lot of fans of the band thought the same at that time.The combination of Banks`and Fish `s musical styles really worked very well for this song, so it was not very difficult then to imagine Fish becoming Genesis`s new lead singer.

Thank you to those who sent me messages about my recent King Crimson reviews. For some unknown reason, my new laptop isn't posting the correct star ratings; the ratings in the review texts are accurate. Thank you for taking the time.

In the Court of the Crimson King is widely considered to be the beginning of progressive rock. Does the fact that our favorite website includes Miles Davis, Meshuggah, and Tangerine Dream invalidate the claim that any one album could shoulder that claim? In the Court for short is, without a doubt, one of the most important records in the history of rock music. It's not my favorite album by King Crimson, my favorite band, but it gets 4 and 1/2 stars from me. I would be willing to round it up in deference to the opinions of others.

There are so many upsides here that I would use up a lot of ink trying to list them all. Therefore, I will just summarize. I really enjoy Ian MacDonald's contributions, and it's a shame that he didn't remain with the group for very long. Greg Lake is an excellent singer, more skilled than John Wetton. Am I in the majority here? Comparing King Crimson singers might make an interesting forum, now that I think about it. David Sinfield's lyrics, although they may be too English Lit for some tastes, do make sense. The same can't be said for a lot of King Crimson's later output.

I'll pick "21st Century Schizoid Man" as my favorite track for the present. I love the fact that even in the beginning, when KC were closest to symphonic prog, they could come up with something that's this metal. Genesis has never come close to rocking this hard. The only nit that I'm going to pick is that "Moonchild" is too meandering for my tastes. That's one minor complaint for In the Court of The Crimson King, a brilliant release.

The last album of the 20th century from the Monaco-based Edhels took the liabilities of their flawed 1991 "Astro Logical" album and turned them into virtues. The band's icy digital sound hadn't thawed in the previous six years, but this time they used it to their advantage, as heard in the potent opening rhythms of the album's kickoff track, "The Lord of the Fire". And the writing was more sensitive to instrumental color and melody, recalling the band's popular "Still Life" album, recorded a full decade earlier but even now a career peak.

The addition of vocals is a bit of a shock, however. The instrumental music of Edhels was never geared toward actual songs, but the singing here is at least weird enough to add a not-unwelcome sense of cognitive dissonance. Check out the mock-heroic "Guinevre's Regrets", in which Arthur's queen delivers a backhand slap across the face of courtly chivalry: "Instead of cutting off dragons heads / You should have cut off your own / Bloody Lancelot of Camelot / Rot in hell, forever..." Take that, Thomas Mallory!

The oddball song interludes (all of them odd-numbered tracks, by the way) make a half-hearted effort to swim into mainstream waters, but the riptides of Marc Ceccotti's compositional eclecticism are a little too strong. From the lush Neo-Prog bombast of "On the Borderline of Sleep" to the idiosyncrasies of "Gentle But Not Giant" (take that too, Derek Shulman!), this is a collection of music dodging all over the Prog Rock map.

It might have been more effective as an unplugged effort, as suggested by the delicate acoustic guitar of "Life, Life". And with a total running-time of 70-minutes, be prepared to accept a little padding. Tighter editing might have revealed the four-star gem hidden somewhere inside it, but as it stands the album marked a welcome retreat toward a less clinical, more accessible style.

Marc Ceccotti's Monaco-Prog quartet release its fourth studio album in 1991, with a cheesy title, a tired concept, and some laughably tacky cover art (the pseudoscientific hokum of astrology really isn't all that sexy). After the disillusions that followed the supposed dawning of the Age of Aquarius, did an album of instrumental zodiac portraits make any sense? And if not, could it at least be salvaged by the music itself? The answer to both questions is: almost, but not entirely.

The album was released a mere three years after the band's popular 'Still Dream'. But even with the same line-up a lot had changed since 1988. Gone were the melodic Neo-Prog nods to classic '70s role models, replaced by a cold electronic soundstage more in step with the antiseptic early 1990's. However it all might have begun, the music in its finished form was digitized to a not-very flattering degree: cybernetic might be a better description.

A flesh-and-blood percussionist is credited, but he likely had to be plugged into his drum kit and re-programmed before every session. Even the guitarists (two of them, including Ceccotti) sound computerized. On the other hand, any musician who models his technique (and his tuning) after Robert Fripp or Alan Holdsworth deserves our applause, and the performances are often brilliant, even at their most mechanical.

The music too, beyond its impersonal cosmetic design, is never less than challenging. But the episodic framework, often within each song, keeps the listener at arm's length, never allowing even a casual brush of human contact. The album would have been far more involving with a little more organic warmth, but clearly that wasn't in the stars.

Appreciate it as a noble experiment: Progressive Rock by way of Isaac Asimov, or William Gibson. But don't expect too many repeat plays.

In "Wanted" RPWL borrow a Greek-antiquity concept of the "gift of absolute freedom" and create a new philosophy on how this might apply to the modern world and especially in the context of how organised religion and being religious (in the modern sense) may hinder the individual from reaching this state of "freedom"; regardless of whether Plato had that in mind when talking about Hippocrates' methods or not, RPWL, "Wanted" by the world religion churches, go on a conceptual journey (or mission) in this album (and finally succeed) to free the world from the "blindness" and "intolerance" of religion.

"The RPWL Experience" was my first with the band, from which I remember the music hovering about a more toned-down Porcupine Tree approach, having little to do with Neo-Prog as such. Almost the same could be said musically about this release: the album's sound is closer to what we would call "Crossover Prog", with a strong resemblance to late 70's/80's Pink Floyd and especially the warm tone of David Gilmour on vocals and guitars (especially on the middle section, see 'Hide And Seek', 'Disbelief', 'Misguided Thought'). When the band decide to add some distortion, they do so by mixing a heavy-blues sound with Porcupine Tree ('Disbelief', 'The Attack') that certainly adds points in terms of variety. Disappointingly, there is a large amount of mainstream pop-prog ('Swords and Guns', 'Wanted', 'Perfect Day'), which certainly curtails the efforts for originality and innovation, revealing the "Achilles' heel" of this release.

The Hogarth-era Marillion-balladry style of numbers such as 'A New Dawn' left me initially with a general feeling of disappointment about "Wanted", but on subsequent spins the musicianship got me convinced of its credentials, with the instrumental interesting opener 'Revelation' and the dark-ish 'Hide and Seek' and 'The Attack' standing a bit above the others. The keyboard passages, when apparent, certainly give a note of innovation and variety and would certainly have liked to have more of it in this album.

A good, solid release from RPWL, but not as exciting as it promises to be, "Wanted" would appeal to fans of "lite", melodic prog.

— First review of this album —

Pilgrim's progress

Recorded in 1975 but not released until 2013, this archival release features Greenslade performing live in Stockholm, Sweden. At the time of this concert performance, the band were touring in support of the album Time And Tide which had been released the same year, and four tracks from that 1975 album are featured here in Newsworth, The Flattery Stakes, Waltz For A Fallen Idol, and The Ass's Ears. From 1974's Spyglass Guest comes Joie de Vivre and the excellent Spirit Of The Dance both of which also appeared on Live 1973-75 (an archival live release from 2000). Bedside Manners Are Extra is represented by three tracks including the title track, which was also on Live 1973-75, and Pilgrim's Progress and Drum Folk, which were not on Live 1973-75. The band's self-titled debut album is not represented at all on Live In Stockholm.

The sound quality is not perfect, but also not too shabby. The art work by the great Roger Dean is very nice and I would guess it is something that they dug up in the archives. It is a similar style to the early Greenslade covers, though it features a long-legged lady instead of the trademark many-armed man.

If you liked Live 1973-75 then Live In Stockholm will constitute a good companion piece for your collection. But essential it is not unless you are a Greenslade fan and collector.

The last couple of years have delivered endless high quality instrumental progressive albums, but one that's completely been lost amongst the higher profile releases has been Toyz' second album from 2012, `The Infinite Road'. With a 14 year gap since their obscure debut album and numerous line-up changes, this band from the Netherlands have decided to ditch vocals altogether and have carefully compiled a strong collection of addictive hard- rocking instrumental pieces that are always catchy and endlessly melodic. The four-piece are all exceptional players, but they never feel the need to show off with draining and drawn- out show-boating, instead focusing on compact pieces with superbly executed soloing.

Despite being listed as progressive metal act, `The Infinite Road' suggests the band have far more than that style to offer. Although they have occasional passing similarities to Dream Theater (but much more subdued), they rarely resort to uninspired riff-heavy metal clichés, and despite constantly having a hard rock approach, they also incorporate crisp synths runs similar to the Neo prog bands (I.Q sometimes comes to mind) and classical symphonic grandiosity, with the smoothness of the later Pink Floyd albums. All the pieces race through a range of different tempo changes back and forth, full of dynamic playing and punchy performances, and anyone familiar with Carpe Nota's amazing self-titled album from the same year will have an idea what to expect here too.

Without question, standout praise must go to guitarist Peter van Heijningen. The man plays with so much genuine emotion, his every note goes straight to the heart, always effortlessly sublime. How he has remained a relative unknown is beyond me, and he may deserve to eventually be considered among the modern progressive guitar greats. The rest of the band are all excellent as well, Arjan van Gog coats the disc with an endless tasteful selection of synths, Robert van Kooij's drumming is always snappy and Jeroen van Boldrik's murmuring bass moves in all directions.

The frantic tension and sense of foreboding on `Face The Mirror' is an early highlight. It's the first piece on the album to incorporate very stirring orchestration to hugely dramatic effect, as well as the keyboards taking on an almost choral quality. The deeply romantic `Tears of Joy' would have been considered a classic if it had appeared on one of the early Pendragon albums, with heartfelt clean electric guitar runs and cool icy synths very comparable to Nick Barrett and Clive Nolan. `Introspection' is a melancholic ghostly piano interlude that remains hopeful, `Far Away' opens with a booming theatrical narration before running through all sorts of symphonic bombast, with some slight medieval flavours and even brief reggae touches.

`Shifting Gears' fills the gothic heaviness with synth-heavy electronic atmospheres, `Dream On' is an exquisite slow-burning bluesy guitar and piano showcase that would make David Gilmour weep. `Rock on Wood (hey, at least the band have a sense of humour!) is an up-tempo ballsy rocking blast with an amusing and unexpected western break in the middle, and the band seem to be having a heap of fun on this one! The album closer `Thermal Winds' is a fitting finale, the rest of the band playing with perfect restraint around Peter's powerfully touching and romantic Camel/Andy Latimar-styled soloing.

Accompanied by a CD booklet that not only folds out into a small poster of the cover artwork, but includes brief written passages that each track are inspired by, `The Infinite Road' is for those who like gutsy instrumental rock played with power and variety, and fans of any of the above mentioned artists will find much to enjoy here. There's also a real joy to the playing of these musicians I'm hugely impressed by, so I hope we get a follow-up to this terrific album sooner than later - that means no 14 year gap, fellas!

Four stars - Well done to this great band!

To be honest I wasn't expecting anything good from Big Red Dragon (2013), latest Sophya Baccini album. I knew here from her bands Presence, especially from their latest album Evil Rose (2008) and that album wasn't that great so I was expecting something simillar to that. I lost Sophya's first solo album Aradìa (2009) so I really didn't know what to expect.

Big Red Dragon (2013), released by Black Widow Records last year, is based on William Blake's paintings. Each song represent an image very beautifully represented in the booklet of the CD. The sound on Big Red Dragon (2013) still has a bit og the Gothic influence of her previous band, but this is just a small percent, in its majority the album is Symphonic and full of great vocals. Not just that, the album is filled with guests including Christian Decamps (Ange) Sonja Kristina (Curved Air) Elisa Montaldo (Il Tempio Delle Clessidre) Steve Sylvester (Death SS), Lino Vairetti and Irwin Vairetti (Osanna), Enrico Iglio (her old mate in Presence) and Roberto Tiranti (Mangala Vallis). This make the album has a certain epic feeling.

This is a great album, especially for people who like some Opera kinda of Symphonic prog.

— First review of this album —

I recently got this CD, having never heard of the Italian group before. But the music is naturally very familiar: they have adapted CAMEL's most succesful album and added an Italian language narrative (translated from Paul Gallico's novella from 1941) into it. Fabio Fantin who seems to be relatively young man acts as both the narrator and Rhayader, and occasionally there are dialogues. Fantin is quite a sugary and empathetic narrator, giving it a bit childish feel.

One should have some basic understanding of Italian, so that one could take it as a language course simultaneously, otherwise it gets quite frustrating to have these long narrative sequences on almost each track, boosting the total length to over 69 minutes. But frankly I don't think I'd enjoy English- language narration much better. Maybe even less, since Italian is such a beautiful language actually. But it can't be helped: that goddamn narration always spoils the musical enjoyment to some degree; I have never really enjoyed e.g. Rick Wakeman's or Jeff Wayne's works with narration either.

Musically speaking, this version is very fresh, airy and clean, giving a big role to the guesting player Anna Angelone's flute. I can't tell if I would enjoy it (imagining of course that the narration wasn't there!) more than the original Camel album - by the way, I haven't yet heard their remake version -, instead it makes me think how excellent the work itself is, how fine melodies and atmospheres. Also it makes me think that if I was a musician the Snow Goose album would be a pleasure to perform.

Music is absolutely great, and whatever differences there are to the original (others than the inevitable extensions to back up the narration) they mostly just increase the freshness. But I can't rate this more than three stars... A pity. But if the very idea of having The Snow Goose with Italian narration sounds good to you, this is surely worth having.