NEO-PROG

This is the other album I just bought, following a hype. (The first one being Big Big Train: English Electric Part II) And this time I was lucky. I was looking for some new approach, blending Progressive rock with maybe Radiohead-like electronics, maybe a bit of Sigur Ros, certainly a lot more 80ies new wave (the antichrist of prog so to speak... why this is so, I cannot tell) and The Cure. To make it short: Thielen does just that and he does it perfectly. Yes, perfectly. He draws a lot from New Wave, the typical melodies, the guitar sounds, the atmosphere. But he omits all the things that make New Wave dated, like the repetitive structures, the plastic keyboards and the rather too simple Punk relation. Then he adds the structures of classical progressiveness and gets somewhere completely elsewhere. This is true innovation, progressive rock in the true sense of the word. The "masterpiece" part then is that it really works from a listener's perspective. The music is both, new and innovative on the one hand, emotional and highly digestible on the other. What a surprise from such an artist who is all but famous. I will certainly try and get the other cds as well.

When it comes to progressive rock, things become complicated. Especially for the artists, I always think. The term is so overused and understood in so many different ways that it hardly helps when classifying new acts in the rock sector. "Psychoanorexia" is a case in which this seems to lead to very different emotions with very different listeners. Firstly, there are those who simply like Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd and their sound. These are the people who will always praise albums with a retro sound, often because it reminds them of their youth. Secondly, there is the Neo Prog generation who want their unicorns and Tolkien-like characters on the cover. If there are no guitar solos that copy Steve Rothery and no eighties reverbs and no synthetic string pads on the album, then it is no good. Thirdly, there are those who applaud to innovation and novelty and take the genre as what it was meant to be in the seventies, in unison with that famous ad by Steve Hackett when he joined Genesis: To explore how to break through boundaries in musical taste and zeitgeist matters.

T is a bit of a hard case for the first two fractions. This is nothing special, every true artist has to face these drawbacks of avantgardism. What actually IS special is that T succeeds where, e.g., Steven Wilson with his raven fails: He creates a mixture of classical and avantgarde elements that still sounds like nothing I ever heard before without neglecting actual musicality or melodic "well-being". This is what I call a genius. And this is, I think, why people are so diverse in their reactions: It takes some time for new grounds to be really covered and for people to follow explorers. Let's just hope that the artist does not listen to those who want him to wallow in retrospections and cheap effects that would certainly make a man of his craftmanship a lot more money.

To me, this is the one album you must have heard in 2013. You will then either hate it or love it - as the ratings here on progarchives seem to prove.

I still love this album even 25 years after discovering it. And that's the problem for the "newbies" who are used with modern production : It sounds like most of self production from that area. Back in 1987, 'Vision of the dark' was considered as one of the 'Album of the year' amongst the few remaining progfans and it's still the case. The cover paintings show a strong reference to Marillion (as well as singer's name : Jester) but i, a musical point of view Deyss are closer to IQ's Tales from the lush attic (Mainly in the last track with long instrumental parts). So back in 1987, I would have given 4.5 stars but 3.5 according to 2012 standards...

3.5 stars for sure

One of the most pleasent discoveries I've made in last years in music is for sure german band Argos. Formed around 2005 as a trio and evolved on their second album from 2010 as quartet, Argos mange to capture my intrest big time. The selftitled album saw the light in 2009 released by Musea records. Argos is divided in 3 parts with each part having small pieces but some how conected between them as a real story. Each parts as the title of the part implies have different musical influences, first one is something between Genesis Gentle Giant and VDGG, the second part is a tribute to the canterbury sound not far from Hatfield and the North or Caravan and the third remind me of maybe The Beatles but more complicated for sure. Very polished album with lot to offers, very diverse in manner of composing. Nice instrumental arrangements with eclectic sound, electronic keyboards and awesome voice very much towards Peter Hammill fame. Intresting orchestrations, complicated yet melodic guitar lines, some excellent keyboards and crystal clear sound overall. A pretty good debute, I really like the combination Argus offer here of aformentioned bands, it has a very good atmosphere and is quite intresting most of the time. 3.5 stars. Argos is definetly one of the best kept secrets Germany has today in prog rock scene. With 3 album released so far they definetly are among the most intresting bands around.

2.5 really

Celebration of birth from 2010 is the debute album of this obscure band from Indonezia named Montecristo. Ok, now what I've heared here is quite mediocre most of the time with sporadicaly good moments. If the music let's say is ok like on opening track Ancestral land, good pieces, the vocals in some parts are simply almost horrible, it ruins the album big time. I forgot Montecristo offers a kind of prog rock with some edgy guitar parts in places and some neo elements throuwn in. The rest of the track are so so, not really bad but nothing really to talk about. A quite under the standards release from these indonesian guys and not polished enough to really pleases me big time . For sure I will not "celebrate the birth" of this album and for that matter I'll give 2.5 stars. Nice cover art and logo by the way.

How to review an album that I and many others view as one of the finest of its' kind? 'Fact and Fiction' remains to this day a supremely impressive album which captures a band at the pinnacle of their studio career. This is a reissue by Cyclops that manages to give us seven bonus songs on top of the original eight, and also restores the cover to its' original format (the MSI release had a negative cover, i.e. black on white instead of white on black). There is also a history of the recording process provided by Brian and overall this is a reissue that more than justifies purchase again even if you already own the MSI CD.

But what is all of the fuss about? Twelfth Night were the band that should have had the success of Marillion at least, and if Geoff hadn't decided to become a minister who knows what they might have achieved. But back in the early Eighties the band had been reduced to a four-piece with the departure of keyboard player Rick Battersby, who later returned. This left the core line up of Geoff Mann (vocals), Clive Mitten (bass/classical guitar/keyboards), Andy Revell (electric and acoustic guitars) and Brian Devoil (drums). The recording process took a year, during which time Marillion started to gain a lot of attention so the band decided to shift the attention away from some more commercial elements and dropped some numbers and rewrote others. The result was a progressive masterpiece.

The album starts with the second longest song, in "We Are Sane". Gentle held-down keyboards with Geoff singing falsetto and in the background that are the sounds of children playing and a radio being tuned. Gradually Geoff sings lower, the keyboards come down and the sense of menace starts to appear. Percussion starts not with Brian on drums but on typewriter as "Reports flop into the in trays". Even from very early on in the album it becomes apparent that Twelfth Night just weren't like any other prog band that was around at the time, or since. Prog bands often today are likened to Genesis/Marillion/IQ but rarely to TN. "We Are Sane" is about a Big Brother society where individuals are controlled by a small box they plug into their brains each day. The music swirls and changes, being beautiful and refreshing, or rocking and dramatic, as the need arises. There is a spoken word passage; all tricks utilised to make the song unusual and classic.

Following that is the more laid back "Human Being" which not only contains one of my favourite lyrics in any song ("If every time we tell a lie a little fairy dies, they must be building death camps in the garden") but also a powerful bass solo which has to be one of the best bass riffs ever. "This City" again starts slowly, with children in the background and in some ways is almost Floydian except with far more menace and emotion from the Mann. It is stark and barren, with Geoff in total control. Next up is a small instrumental "World Without End" which acts as a gentle keyboard bridge into the title cut. It may only be four minutes long, but this keyboard dominated piece is one of their more powerful and thought provoking, all with no guitar! Given the current climate this song seems even more poignant "If the unthinkable should happen, and you hear the sirens call, Well you can always find some shelter behind a door against the wall, Don't make me laugh!!"

This also gives way to an instrumental, "The Poet Sniffs A Flower" which features acoustic guitar and keys in gentle harmony until the drums kick in and they are off and racing, as they lead into the longest track on the album, the one with which Geoff will always be associated, "Creep Show". It starts gently enough, and we are invited into the creep show to see the exhibits (as in "Karn Evil 9", but here with an even more damning indictment on society). It is gentle, lulling and simple, or dramatic, rocking and complex. It can be a breaking voice, pure melody or a spoken statement of fact, whichever way you look at it this is one of the most important prog songs ever.

Given all of the horrors and complexity that has gone on before, the only way to end the album was with a gentle number that gave the listener the chance to reflect. "Love Song" is pure and delicate, as Geoff sings about the power of love and what it can achieve. It is a song of restrained emotion here in the studio, which became an outpouring when performed in concert (listen to 'Live And Let live' to get some idea). It builds and builds in tempo, on from the acoustic guitar to a more powerful prog rock number and to put it simply, out of all of the many thousands of songs I have heard over the years, this is my number one.

Of course, that was where the original album ended but now there are the bonus numbers. "East Of Eden" was one of the band's most powerful stomping rock numbers (and was the song they performed on the David Essex Showcase!) and had originally been destined for the album but was instead released as a single along with "Eleanor Rigby". The band weren't particularly noted for their cover versions, but this is a great take with the song taken from the Sixties into the Eighties and now imbued with the dramatic vocals of Geoff. "Constant (fact and Fiction)" has nothing in common with "Fact and Fiction" and sounds like Geoff and Clive and a drum machine and is interesting but has to be taken as a work in progress, and was never developed any further. "Fistful Of Bubbles" shows the band experimenting with an almost reggae style in the chorus, and much more in the way of emotional guitar and is interesting but again was a work in progress.

To the fan it has to be "Leader" that is by far the more interesting demo, as this is a song that had musically built out of a number called "Afghan Red" and would in turn become "Fact And Fiction". The verse is musically almost the same, with some of the final lyrics, and it is fascinating. "Dancing In The Dream" is a poptastic keyboard led song that is fun and is a song I have found myself singing. It reminds me of Men Without Hats and I wonder if a finished version of this had been released as a single what would have happened? The last song is a different version of "Human Being" which is only just over half the length of the finished article. Musically it is quite different and is more dynamic with in your face keyboards. The band seems to be bounding along on this much more rockified version.

So there you have it, an album that should have been in every music lover's collection prior to this Cyclops reissue and definitely should be there now. Forget labels, this is music of the highest quality that deserves to be heard. An album that is now over twenty years old yet is relevant and powerful. Superb.

Originally appeared in Feedback #73, Jun 03

While Satellite may be a new name in the prog field, and 'A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset' their debut album, this is a band that have been formed out of one of Poland's most well-known and best-loved prog acts, Collage. Originally this was set to be a solo project by drummer and main Collage songwriter Wojtek Szadkowski but he gradually brought in more and more musicians, many of whom he had performed with in Collage. They are signed to Metal Mind, the most important label of it's' type in Poland, and the artwork has been provided by Mark Wilkinson of Marillion/Fish fame. In fact, if you look at the Satellite site at www.satelliteprog.com you can see the whole series of covers that he designed for this, a real work in progress.

But what about the music? The band themselves have compared it most to 'Moonshine' era Collage but how about Western proggers who may have never heard that band? In fact there is a lot going on, and while certain influences such as Genesis and Pendragon or Pink Floyd can be picked out, it is easier to say that this is easy listening prog that is thoroughly enjoyable throughout. The album is sung in English, and in fact the feel is that this is an American project and not a Polish one at all. The album starts with street noise and a snippet of a radio commentator, and the impression is a bustling American city. That is an intriguing way into the first song, "The Evening Wind", which at nearly thirteen minutes long is a great start. Of course, the guitar can't be hidden totally by the keyboards and there are some very powerful plays indeed. A particular favourite has to be "No Disgrace" which is a belting prog rock number driven along by dynamic percussion and sizzling keyboard runs.

This could easily be the most important album out of Poland this year, and the finest I have heard from that country since Quidam. Which one is the better? The jury is still out.

Originally appeared in Feedback #73, Jun 03

Salem Hill is definitely one of my favourite American prog rock outfits, and since first hearing it 'The Robbery Of Murder' has been a frequent visitor to my CD player. So it was with some sense of anticipation that I looked forward to hearing this double live CD. Performances have been taken from a variety of shows over quite a long period of time, but it has been put together in a manner that means that this isn't audibly noticeable. For the most part the band has a four man line-up, with Carl Groves and Michael Dearing sharing lead/harmony vocals and both of them providing guitar. But there are times when one or both of them play keyboards, so it is possible to go from a guitar-oriented outfit to one containing no guitars at all. While Carl provides most of the songs, bassist Pat Henry also is no mean slouch in the song writing stakes. The line-up is completed by drummer Kevin Thomas.

This is extremely melodic rock, that often reminds me of the mighty Kansas, and indeed ex- Kansas violinist David Ragsdale guests on "Brave New World", and the fact that it is an outstanding number by all concerned is incredible given that they were unable to rehearse together! The album starts with "Evil One" which has a delicate guitar/keyboards introduction, but the song has a harsh edge which played upon with Michael screaming the verse out through gritted teeth while Carl provides the more sympathetic vocals on the chorus. It is extremely hard to pick out a favourite as the album is just so strong throughout. I suppose the five numbers taken from 'TROM' are hard to distinguish between just because I love that particular album so much, but they have picked songs from throughout their career and the result is an album that every prog or melodic rock fan should hasten out to purchase immediately, if not sooner.

Originally appeared in Feedback #73, Jun 03

This is the follow-up album to 'Thunderstruck' as it is the second part of that live album, and marks the end of an era for the band as it will be the last album to feature keyboard player Steve Leigh. Although the band have been a little careless with vocalists over the years (with Damian Wilson doing the hokey cokey, Moon never recording, and now Tracey who was the person they originally wanted to front the band years ago), this is the first time that they have had a change of 'musician'. So the future is now with Spanish keyboardist Gonzalo Carrera (ex Galadriel etc), but this album looks back with five of the six numbers taken from the three Damian albums.

Tracy has long been one of my favourite female singers, and she gives the songs a different edge to that from Damian who was a very hard act to follow indeed. The fact that the guys had been playing together for many years certainly show as they have a total understanding of what they are about and with Tracy giving it her all, this captures one of the UK's most under-rated prog bands at their best. There is an instrumental version of the mighty "Ta Jiang" (here combined with "Narovlya") that is only half its' original length but it still shows what close understanding between a rhythm section and twin melodic lead instruments can provide. Uwe is never an over the top guitarist but he has enough of an edge to give the music bite when it needs it while Steve's keyboards can be simple and almost understand or total pompous grandeur when the need arises.

Yet again this is a solid testament to the band, and an album that all progheads will surely enjoy, but instead of just listening to the album why not get out and see them! They are playing some dates around the country in the near future ? go out there and give the much maligned prog scene some support. The band has all the details on their very informative web site at www.landmarq.net.

Originally appeared in Feedback #73, Jun 03

There surely can't be much left to say about these guys ? for years they have been one of the hardest gigging bands in the UK and they have released the odd album or two, all of the same high quality. In fact, apart from the extremely amicable parting from their original bassist a few years ago they still have the same line-up as when they started (although for this album they have now added a backing singer). This is British rock; I would hesitate at using the word 'English' as that may just upset the rather tall and very vocal front man John Dexter Jones. Jump never fail to produce the goods, and 'Home Songs' is another case in point, although I did find that this album took a bit more perseverance than its predecessor 'On Impulse'.

It is songs such as "The Better Part Of Valour" that show this band at their best (is that a mandolin I hear?). It is strong and powerful yet at the same time with plenty of room for John to take centre stage. These guys may never be fashionable but they know what they want to produce, and don't worry if the record buying masses don't get to see things their way. This is quality and they know it. They do sometimes step almost into the prog field, with "Never Too far" having some Marillionesque tendencies, but then they also put on some slide guitar just to ensure that no-one thinks that they are clones of anyone. Jump often get lumped in with prog bands, as they seem to share a similar audience, but they have more in common with class acts of old than they do with neo-prog pretenders of today.

It is another album by Jump, therefore it is good. A mathematical certainty.

Originally appeared in Feedback #73, Jun 03