Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

YAK      Words cannot describe the outstanding music of Neo Prog band Yak - mainly because their albums all contain songs without words, commonly known as instrumentals, but to describe the grandiose, symphony majesty of Yak's albums as "instrumental music" would be a bit like calling Elgar's magnificent Pomp and Circumstance march an "instrumental". Yakety-Yak, Don't talk back. 

WILLOWGLASS     Neo Symphonic Heaven! Three stunning albums of earth-shattering beauty from multi-instrumentalist Andrew Marshall. Maybe not quite as earth-shattering as the dramatic events going on at Radio FAB FM though, where it's quite literally, The End of an Era for DJ's Smashie and Nicey. 

THE VIOLET HOUR     Cometh The Violet Hour, cometh the prog... The Violet Hour were a short-lived British band who released just one album - The Fire Sermon (1991) - before going their separate ways due to the age-old band problem of "artistic differences". They're listed on PA as a Neo Prog band, although sounding more like a Prog Folk band, with their main claim to fame having been the support band for Marillion on a couple of early 90's tours. The Violet Hour's singer, Doris Brendel, has been described as a cross between Janis Joplin & Bonnie Tyler, and according to some, the band may have created a whole new sub-genre of music, known as "Dream Prog". 

UNTO US     .....a prog legend is born! Unto Us are a Neo-Prog band who sound so good, I feel like shouting it from the Tower of Babel. Oh Boy. Are you in for a treat. This is one of the best prog albums you're ever likely to hear In a Lifetime! The Human Landscape is the name of the album and just between These Four Walls, the singer sounds remarkably like Mike Hollis of Talk Talk. This is the one and only album from Unto Us, so there's no Plan B. Enjoy! 

TWELFTH NIGHT     "If music be the food of love, then play on." - Duke Orsino in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which later provided the inspiration for a Fleetwood Mac album. Separating Fact and Fiction now, it's a fact that Twelfth Night were one of the first Neo Prog bands with their first Live album recorded back in February 1981, which must have been A Night to Remember. They also released two studio albums in 1982 which preceded Marillion's first album by a whole year. Twelfth Night are masters of Art & Illusion with their masterpiece Sequences album destined to become a treasured Collectors Item. 

The album cover of the Tr3nity record looks like one of those early 3D tech demos.

It didn't age well.

TIME COLLIDER     If you've got the time, then they've got the music. Time Collider are loud and they're proud and they're on a collision course and taking no prisoners, so light the blue touch paper, stand well back and watch the fireworks as this fine band are ready to set the world alight. Then again, they could fizzle out like a damp squib. Will there be a second album? Only time will tell. Sorry, I know that's a tired old cliche, but on a level playing field, it can't always be avoided at the end of the day, but all's well that ends well. 

THIS WINTER MACHINE     There's no need to wrap up warm as This Winter Machine will warm the cockles of your heart and leave you flying high as a Kite. 

It's cold comfort for the Top Gear team though...

THIRD QUADRANT     A multi-layered Neo Prog foursome with many stories to tell. It'd be a crime to skip them, just like crime in multi-storey car parks, which is wrong on so many different levels.