Oktopus

(Former Name: Progoctopus which included Jane Gillard on Vocals. Jane is no longer with the band, hence the name change.)

Genre: Prog

Subgenres: Fusion, Jazz, Metal, Classical

Album: "Worlds Apart"

Tracks:

1. Discord (Approach)

2. Eyes Open

3. Worlds Apart

4. The Adventures of Jerry Troutmonto (part 1)

5. 春 | Haru

6. The Hand On Your Shoulder

7. Discord (Descent)

8. Minotaur

(Also, 1 Previous Album called "Transcendence EP" released as Progoctopus was released with a slighly different line-up. I notice that they call "Worlds Apart" their first album.)

Bio:

A 3-piece band from Birmingham, UK, formed in 2016 (might be 2015 )after the departure of former lead singer Jane Gillard. The current members are:

Alistair Bell – guitars, lead vocals and backing vocals

Samuel C. Roberts – bass guitar

Tim Wilson – drums, pads and backing vocals (lead vocals on track 6)

Oktopus have toured with IOearth (where I first saw them) and Dave Kerzner, so they are already attracting serious interest!

Web Site: http://oktopusuk.com/

YouTube Samples:

Worlds Apart - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSGJWEyWmDw

Eyes Open- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZCNZ10YHLc

Bandcamp:

https://oktopusuk.bandcamp.com/

Why they should be added:

I have seen countless prog bands and almost as many support bands. (I like to get there early!) One day in early 2016, I went to see IOearth (who need no introduction) in North London and Oktopus walked on stage. I guess over the years, I've become very tolerant of some very dubious music but the unfortunate side effect is that it takes much more for me to take notice! Within a few bars of these gents playing, I think my jaw must have hit the floor with such extraordinary musicianship - and at such a young age (I don't actually know how old they are but unless they're using the same skin cream as Cliff Richard, I don't think they're that old)! For an instant, I was reminded of the Cardiacs and their ability to change time signature and stop suddenly and then come back in at exactly the right time. However, musically I could hear all kinds of other influences (one will be, I think, quite obvious) but I'm loath to make such comparisons to avoid the "labelled for life" syndrome! Also, when they next track started it was clear that they have the versatility to shift from prog metal to jazz fusion and back again sometimes in the same track. And I would say that's their unique sound: they love to play with harmonic and rhythmic modulation (at the same time!) but still make it sound good - and more importantly keep it together. Having seem them live before hearing the studio album, I know this stuff isn't "made up" in the studio: these guys are for real and they are seriously talented. The lyrics are also of a very high standard that bely their years (unless, as I say, they use Cliff's face cream!). 

There is one masterpiece in particular that I must have played a thousand times: Minotaur. It's the longest track and it incorporates almost all the Oktopus goodness into one 10-minutes track. Yet, despite playing it that many times, I still miss a beat in my head sometimes! Why? Because if you are the kind of person that like to tap your foot in a comfortable 4/4 in D all the way through to the end, you'll find yourself off the beat and out of tunes very quickly indeed. :)

(My wife likes girly plinky plonkey piano pap. She hates Worlds Apart. Nuff said. Go buy it.)

The first EP reminds me somewhat of a heavier version of District 97, who we have archived here in Crossover Prog, and the second album continues in a similar vein, but with male vocals (albeit mostly sung in quite a high register, & not all that dissimilar to those of Jane Gillard on the first EP at times). I think we can forget about the Jazz, Fusion and Classical elements of this music as far as PA is concerned, and I don't really hear this band as a full Prog Metal candidate either, though some tracks certainly get pretty close to it in places. It's also not really Eclectic Prog to my ears, despite the varied influences, & it's too heavy in the main to be sent over to the Math Rock boys - though not consistently heavy enough to be considered as a Heavy Prog per se (though I do hear a definite 'Rush vibe' in that Minotaur track that you mentioned)...which kinda just leaves Crossover Prog, I guess. 

Svetonio (who spends most of his life on bandcamp, & used to be one of our most prolific new artist suggesters...until they banned his ass right outa here about a year ago!) has already discovered these guys (back in March, by the look of it) and added them to progfreak (the site that several of our evaluation teams use to track the progress of the jobs they have in hand): http://progfreak.com/Oktopus-166096.html, so that saves one job, at least. 

It always helps if you can include a suggested sub genre in the topic title, so that members of the relevant team can spot it easily...We don't have a dedicated New Suggestions Monitor anymore to pass any new candidates over to the most appropriate evaluation team, so unless a collaborator drops by at random, has a listen and does the job for us, we are wholly reliant on the teams picking up their suggestions from here themselves.

Anyway - let's embed those YouTube vids here so that folks can listen and read without opening up any new tabs:

And here's the Worlds Apart album teaser:

Oktopus on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oktopusuk, where two of my radio/podcast presenter friends have 'liked' them, so I guess will have already given them some airplay.

Good stuff!   Let's see what others make of it.

Mark, you can follow the progress of the evaluation here: http://progfreak.com/Oktopus-166096.html?path=pa/recent. The votes (and any other actions taken) will appear in this chart in due course. 

"Tasty stuff indeed." 

You took the works out of my mouth. :)