In an interview done with Michael Giles at the time of the release of King Crimson`s "Epitaph" live album, done in 1997, Giles was asked about why this album, which was recorded in 1978, was still unreleased. He said that he was not satisfied with the album, and that he even looked for a record contract with a label but he didn`t get it then. He liked the songs but he thought that he still had to re-work some of them. Five years later, in 2002, this album was finally released, but I don`t know if he re-worked some of the songs. In fact, I think that the album was released as it was originally recorded, but I really don`t know.

With a list of tracks with titles which maybe suggest a "concept" on which a man goes on travel from the sunrise until he arrives to another place at night (I could be wrong, but even the cover design shows Giles waiting for a train with his packed drum kit), this is a very good album which fortunately was finally released in 2002. Even the main melody from the first proper song ("Departure") is reprised in the final song from the album ("Arrival") which also suggests a "concept", a cycle or a theme in this album. This album is very Progressive in some places (particularly in the title song "Progress", which is maybe the best from this album) and sometimes with a lot of influences from Jazz-Rock music. This album is more related to the "McDonald and Giles" album from 1970, sometimes sounding very close to that album, not only because of Giles`s very good drums playing, but also with the use of the saxophones and other wind instruments. There are also some influences from the original King Crimson, of course, but most of all this album shows how important was Giles in the original line-up of that band, not only for being the drummer, but also as part of the original sound of the band. In that interview he says that in King Crimson he mostly was an arranger and a composer of some parts of songs, suggesting some rhythm changes, and he also was one of the backing singers in that band. But, as I wrote before, this album is more related to his work in the "McDonald and Giles" album with Ian McDonald, another very important musican from the original line-up of the band, showing how influential were both musicians in that band. Greg Lake also said in one interview that when both left the band he did not want to continue with King Crimson because he considered that both musicians were very important for that band (this despite Lake and Giles appeared in the second album of the band more as guests or sessions musicians in a band which became mainly Robert Fripp`s band after that).

Giles in this album appears as a multi-instrumentalist, playing keyboards, a bit of guitar, and also singing very good vocals. And his drums and percussion playing is very good, of course. He even plays a drums and percussion solo in "Nightdream".

A very good contributor to this album is bassist Peter Giles, playing very good bass guitar parts with his very personal style and doing very good parts playing along with the drums. Both Giles brothers are very good musicians, but both remained in their musical careers playing and recording more as session musicians, with Michael appearing in a lot of albums from other musicians particularly during the seventies.

This is a very good solo album from Michael Giles which also shows that he also is a very good composer. The songs play one after the other with good continuity, and even some of them are "introduced" by the sound of cymbals and other percussion instruments. These "sound effects" work very well giving a very personal "identity" to the album.

Ok, so I'll make this short for no other reason than I don't need to go into much detail over this fantastic record. Furthermore, it's not my style (to write lengthy reviews) and I'd also like to mention that this is my very first review on Progarchives so I'd like to set some sort of tone for what could be expected of my contributions in the future.

I discovered The Art Of Navigating By The Stars in 2013. I don't remember how, but oh man was I happy to have made such a discovery! Every time I'd pop it on I'd actually WANT to write about the album and share my love of it with people! I've finally done it, case in point!

Anyway, as far as progressive metal goes, this is up there with the best of them. Now when I say "the best of them" I have no intention of comparing or dropping any names, but what I'm trying to get across here is that if you take some of the ideal aspects of this genre and put 'em together then that should equate to "the best of them". Again, I don't want to elaborate on that, I feel like subjectivity will win here and any true progressive metal fan might understand that I'm referring to the highlights and defining characters of the genre.

The album itself isn't the heaviest but it's definitely heavy enough. It also has great dynamics in it so if you're looking for something really musical and great at mixing the heavy with the mellow, then you'll love this record.

It's smart, it has those tinges of European metal which elicits excitement from me personally, it has great rhythms and musicianship. It's a great ride!

One of my favourite tracks on it is Sequence VI: To The Ones Who Have Failed. Sequence IV: Stigmata is also a fabulous piece that stands out for me.

Well, I guess this review wasn't as short as I set out for it to be! Thank you for reading.

Leprous mix extreme metal with various clean metal subgenres - from power to melancholic. That by itself is not original - lots of bands were doing this in the zeros. But Leprous are more diverse that average, and also feature one of the more impressive vocal gymnasts out there. Song structures on their second, or first properly produced, album, are quite progressive and inventive, with lots of twists and turns. Too bad they concentrate too much on the extreme/normal metal dynamic and not enough on unexpected detours such as falsetto outro in Passing or lounge piano popping up here and there. A capella even makes a brief appearance.

Overall, this is probably Leprous most diverse and in-your-face-see-what we can do album. Also has more guitar solos. Later ones are more streamlined and delve further into post rock and Brit pop, but are still recognizably Leprous.

The first thing to say in this review is a health warning. If you are a person who believes that for a song to qualify as prog, it should be at least ten minutes long, and preferably twenty, or that any Mike Oldfield album that does not include at least one track of that length represents a sellout or abomination to all things prog, then it is fair to say that this new release is not for you. Do not waste your money, for you will be very upset and disappointed. Actually, best not to even read any further, go settle down, relax, and listen to some of that real prog.

For the rest of you, those open to the principle that a song based album can actually be pretty good and, well, like prog, this album might well be for you.

It is some six years since Oldfield's last release, and he had clearly entered a state of semi-retirement. However, the overwhelmingly positive response to his live appearance at the superb London 2012 Opening Ceremony, and, as clearly, the need to exorcise some inner demons that have been dormant for some time, persuaded the great man to sit down, write, get a band together, and release an album of entirely new material.

Band is the first thing, actually, to note about Man On The Rocks. It is an Oldfield band performance, rather than Oldfield doing it all. The man himself plays guitars and keyboards, but enlists the services of veteran bassist Leland Sklar (Phil Collins and CSN), drummer John Robinson (Eric Clapton), and, on vocals, Luke Spiller, of Derby indie rock band, The Struts. Yep, you read right, Oldfield has recruited an Indie singer to perform on one of his albums, which, if some comments are to be believed, represents a capital crime.

In fact, Spiller is one of the finds of the decade, and puts in one hell of a shift in on this. He has the full range, from the soft textures of the title track and Following The Angels, to the full rock pelt of Nuclear. Some have compared him to Freddie Mercury, and the comparison is not entirely a load of old spin. The way he works with Oldfield on the disturbingly catchy Minutes does, actually, invoke memories of another fine partnership Oldfield once had with a certain Maggie.

The music is fair mix of styles, from the pure, and instantly enjoyable toe-tapping, pop of opener Sailing, to the dark, heavy, and brooding Nuclear, via Celtic infused influences (similar to those found on Voyager) of Moonshine, Chariots, which could easily have found a way into a album such as Calling All Stations, and gospel influences on Following The Angels and the closer, I Give Myself Away.

The constant throughout is Oldfield's guitar work. If he had been the lead guitarist of a common or garden band, rather than the multi instrumentalist we know, I genuinely believe that we would be talking about him in the same reverential and hushed tones we reserve for the likes of Howe and Hackett. His (undoubtedly conscious) decision to restrict himself to guitars and keys allows him to shine, and this album contains some of the best trademark guitar bursts, licks, and riffs heard from him for many a year. I simply love the electric burst of Castaway, which screams and cries emotion.

I mentioned earlier inner demons. Well, the extraordinary title track, with its slow opening right to the bombastic rock pomp of the emotional outlets that follow, deals with his, and his late mother's, many addictions, the thoughtful Castaway with the fear of a child, Minutes and Chariots, with missing loved ones and separation (he is going through yet another separation and divorce), and, especially, the very dark Nuclear, the highlight of the album for me, dealing with emotional suffering, the riffs of which remind me of Blackmore at his rock peak, and put many so called heavy rock acts to shame. The other fine harder rock track is Irene, dealing with the hurricane that struck the island where Oldfield now calls home.

It is not, however, all doom and gloom. Following The Angels, the longest track at just over seven minutes, is a tribute to the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Sailing is about the joy of a life on the ocean waves, and a nice, gently performed, worship number in the closer, I Give Myself Away, written by William McDowell, a black gospel singer and preacher. I love the complex prog pop of Dreaming In The Wind, a tribute to an unknown man whose ashes were spread in the sea, but is more cheery than it might sound on reading. Actually, the word, in spite of some of the subject matter, that best describes this album is fun, in that Oldfield, I believe, had a great deal of fun and satisfaction in making it. It is not a "simple" pop album, it is the mature work of a great songwriter which grows on one with each and every listen.

Okay, so to a rating. Going back to the beginning of this review, this is not an Amarok, Bells, Incantations, or Ommadawn. It could be better compared to side two of Crises, or albums such as QE2 or Discovery, and stands up very well in comparison, so four stars for this, an album which I will play regularly for a long time. This review is of the single cd only. There is an extended version available with instrumental work.

His swan song? I know not, but, if it is, there are far worse ways to sign off.

There's a whole new Prog genre that began around 10 years ago that I like to call (for some weird reason) Alt Prog. It's characterized by almost no Rock, lots of Ambient music and loads of Pop. It's a genre that seems to be more and more popular but it simply doesn't click with me.

The German band Frequency Drift lies in this category and even more on their new album, the recently released, on the Gentle Art Of Music label (from RPWL), Over (2014).

There was a big fuzz over their last album, ? Laid To Rest (2012), with lots of great ratings and reviews, I gave it a try and it didn't click, it was good, but far away from being that awesome. The new album, Over (2014), seems to me to be part of the same path as Nosound Afterthoughts (2013) (review here: progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=954909). Everything's alright, everything's ok, everything's so? normal. Doesn't really go anywhere.

The instrumental seems to be the same medium tempo all the time, no clever bits, many background music. The female vocals are there, in the spot, but the voice, always the same melodic line, the same melodies, and too much on Gothic Pop Metal for my taste. A couple of tracks ('Sagittarius A*' and 'Memory') have some interesting and more Rock moments, but that's all. On top of that the album is too long (over 75 minutes) and it seems it'll never end. Sure it's a good album, especially if you like bands like Anathema or Nosound. For me?. Just one more ok record that doesn't really progress.

UK's self-titled debut album hasn't aged very well, but the harder-rocking follow-up recorded by the newly stripped-down trio a year afterward actually sounds better in retrospect. New drummer Terry Bozzio (not a familiar name at the time) was more in tune than Bill Bruford with the grandiose commercial ambitions of John Wetton and Eddie Jobson. And because he no longer had to share the stage with an ace guitarist, Jobson responded with some of his most assertive playing on record.

Musically the album traces the muscular template of "In the Dead of Night", the obvious high point of the previous album. The reconfigured band may have been more song- than music-oriented, perhaps revealing the direction Wetton had hoped to steer KING CRIMSON (and why Robert Fripp quit in response). But the new songs left generous space for a little instrumental exploration. And Jobson in particular rose to the challenge, showing all the brio of a less-classical Keith Emerson (the sophomore UK album appeared only four months after ELP crashed onto "Love Beach", leaving a vacancy in the keyboard virtuoso pantheon), and stealing the spotlight with his trademark Perspex violin, in "The Only Thing She Needs" and the punchy "Caesar's Palace Blues".

The only stumble on an otherwise strong effort is "Nothing to Lose", an obvious bid for radio airplay foreshadowing the trite Arena Pop of ASIA. But that misstep is quickly overshadowed by the mini-epic album closer 'Carrying No Cross", a poor second-cousin of sorts to the celebrated King Crimson finale "Starless", with a similar structure of escalating tension and release over twelve invigorating minutes.

Splitting up a band can sometimes benefit everyone involved. Bruford and Allan Holdsworth both moved on to impeccable Fusion careers, while the remaining UK players rediscovered the focus that had eluded them on the first LP. It didn't last very long (see the obligatory, by-the-numbers live album "Night After Night"), but even a brief flash-in-the-pan was better than the empty kettle of Wetton's next supergroup.

In retrospect the first album by the short-lived Progressive supergroup resembled an attempt by John Wetton and Bill Bruford to resuscitate the recently deceased KING CRIMSON, with another violinist in lieu of David Cross and a more sympathetic guitarist replacing the often intractable Robert Fripp. On paper it looked good, and the debut album sounded thrilling when first heard in 1978. But the passage of time has been less than kind to it, revealing not only the fatal stresses within the quartet but the larger cracks in the ideology of Progressive Rock at the end of the 1970s.

Blame the lopsided pool of all-star talent: an attempt to balance a pair of dedicated Jazz-Rockers (Bruford and guitarist Allan Holdsworth) against two aspiring pop stars (Wetton and Eddie Jobson), without any blueprint for a workable fusion. It all came together brilliantly in the opening "In the Dead of Night" suite: one of the more exciting highlights of late-Golden Age Prog. If only the rest of the album had as many memorable hooks (incredibly catchy, despite the odd time signatures), or the same lush symphonic climax, in years to come providing a sonic blueprint for embryonic Neo- Proggers.

But I don't know many fans who ventured far beyond it, into the often empty virtuosity of Side Two. The balance of the album leaned more toward the polite Bruford/Holdsworth style of English Jazz Rock, implausibly grafted onto Jobson's clinical synth patches and Wetton's typically beefy bass guitar lines. And the singer's smoky baritone sounds distinctly uneasy when forced into the jazzier cadences of "Time to Kill", "Nevermore", and "Mental Medication".

At the start of the 1970s bands were encouraged to cross-pollinate opposing forms of music, just to hear what might happen. But as the decade advanced and the adolescent music business matured into an industry, the final goal became more commercial than creative, spelling an end to Prog Rock's original idealism. Seven years earlier the same friction that split UK in two might have produced something really special. You can still hear the occasional spark, but the expected detonation never happens.

Give the effort three stars at best, in recognition of the talent, not the results.

3.5 stars really

Zen Rock & Roll is a solo project of mult instrumentalist Jonathan Saunders from 2001. Under this name he released so far 3 albums. The second offer was released in 2004 at Progrock records and was very well recived even the band is quite unknown in prog circles. I like what I've heared here, the music is symphonic prog based on keyboards and long instrumental sections, complicated passages, very well puted on portative. Also there are lots of effects that give to the listner a pleasent atmophere all over. Only 4 pieces but is not a problem, there is an epic clocking around 22 min named Circles, very nice, like the rest 3. The music is sometimes similar with Yes, sometimes with The Tangent, but with Saunders special manner of composing, a quite underrated musician I might say. Maybe to some listners the problems are with overdubs and electronical effects present here, but to me was quite enjoyble mixed in the symphonic prog amalgamation. I can say definetly Zen Rock & Roll needs a far more recognition then has today , all three albums worth to be discovered for sure. Good album towards great.3.5 stars.

As a prog fan from the early seventies, I sometimes have difficulty in appreciating some of the modern prog bands. However, Maschine's 'Rubidium' is one of the best I have heard for a long time. While it is classed as progressive metal, I would suggest that it would be more suited to the 'eclectic' sub-genre. The music is metal-based but has jazz and Canterbury influences, and has a wide range of moods and tempos, often within the same song.

There is excellent guitar work throughout, and an upbeat tone to it all. The tracks are long enough to allow experimentation, and yet still retain interest. Definitely my favourite album of 2013.

— First review of this album —

The ethno-oriented group AALTO from Tampere, Finland, has released their second album. Let's start by listing the instruments, because in this case it is very revealing: Marko Niittymäki plays mandolin, banjo, percussion, mandola and guitars, the only female member Petra Poutanen plays kantele, Antero Mentu plays guitar, sitar and tambura, Sampo Salonen didgeridoo, doshpulur and percussion, Panu Ukkonen clarinet, and finally Kusti Rintala plays drums and percussion.

All except Rintala also use their vocals. In some cases it's Tuvan throat singing! All in all Aalto's music has not much emphasis on vocals, in the traditional song sense. The band themselves speak of tying together ethnic music and prog-psychedelia. Some of the members have studied ethnomusicology and the influences from e.g. Tuva and Northern India are strong. However they wish to point out that "it's not self-poignant exotism but making beautiful and personal music with an unusually wide range of influences". I may not be the biggest fan of ethnic music and have never been, but I do sense that they make their music sincerely and with a real passion to what they do. That's very valuable indeed, and if the listener is open-minded enough, the music feels good.

I like the many, seldom heard colours in the sound. For example 'Kastepisaroita II' has a nice bright kantele playing among other ethnic intsruments, and the track builds up a hypnotic atmosphere in its repetitiveness. Petra's Finnish-language vocals on tracks such as 'Vapahtaja' and 'Sateentuoksuisia unia' (= "Rain-Odoured Dreams") adds the accessibility, and the lyrics seem to be full of poetic nature themes. Also her voice is beautiful. The title of the closing track (written by Antero Mentu who is the most productive composer in the group) means "The Daughter of Moon". It's ten minutes of calm and atmospheric beauty. The flowing clarinet brings even some jazzy flavour into it.

Of course this music is not necessarily "excellent addition to any prog rock music collection", being so far from rock in the first place, but in its own field it is very well made and pure music easy to surrender to. Hence four stars!