Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

  2019: Quantum Pig - Songs of Industry and Sunshine - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nCyR9VQBZiALQVwUF4Ug7XH9Pg_OASJ4o

  1993: The Quest - Do You Believe? - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwLV0gVnESw

  1996: The Quest - Change - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kbcUeZUTNA7dks3TInds2FG0tGfes67F0

                   

PRIMITIVE INSTINCT     Some say Primitive Instinct are just apeing Marillion (especially the Hogarth era), but in the nebulous world of Neo Prog, that's a positive recommendation. 

PALLAS      Scottish wonder boys Pallas were one of the first Neo Prog bands to Arrive Alive on the music scene in 1981 with the release of their debut live album. Three years later came their stunning magnum opus - The Sentinel - a science fiction concept album about a technologically advanced civilisation that brings itself to the brink of destruction, despite The Dreams of Men hoping for a better world. Sound familiar? The third Pallas album would drive The Wedge between those fans who wanted to hear another classic prog album and others who wanted a more modern sound. After all, this was the 1980's, so there's no accounting for taste. I know how we like to constantly Beat the Drum about the merits of prog here at PA and some of us even Live Our Lives from Moment to Moment every day in the progosphere. Like me for instance. We all have The Cross & the Crucible to bear in trying to convince prog non-believers they don't know what they're missing out on in life, but We Are Who We Are, and sadly, some non-believers may be destined to remain in The Blinding Darkness and be forever ignorant of the joyous wonders of prog until The Edge of Time itself..... Pallas prove that it's not all bagpipes, haggis and sporrans in bonnie Scotland, although certain members of the band have been known to wear a kilt on stage. Och-aye, they do. 

MARTIN ORFORD     Keyboard player Martin Orford is Living Proof that there's life after being a member of a major Progressive Rock band. Prog fans will know him best as a founder member of IQ until announcing his departure from the band back in 2007.  Martin's also worked with increasing Frequency with John Wetton and Jadis too and in The Wake of leaving IQ, he's created one of the best Neo Prog albums you're Ever likely to hear - "The Old Road" - even if you have some Resistance to Neo Prog generally. 

Nth ASCENSION     Blackpool Rocks! Nth Ascension are a little-known Neo Prog band from the seaside town of Blackpool. Be warned though: the earnest, overwrought vocals of Michael Alan Taylor are an acquired taste. They should appeal to fans of Gentle Giant or Van der Graaf Generator though. 

 

 2016: Nth Ascension - In Fine Initium - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpitg7cz79wJ54uEuUGiqbdbCkUV5_QcM

 2019: Nth Ascension - Stranger Than Fiction - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nCMcCzwGUlSlX_psrhaNeOVkIOeDqSxFE

CLIVE NOLAN    The Grand Wizard of Neo Prog presents six epic albums of rock opera with a cast of characters longer than the biblical epic: Exodus (1960). Yes, it's England's answer to Ayreon! Clive Nolan has the singular distinction of being the youngest ever musician (aged 16) to gain a diploma at the prestigious London College of Music. The prodigious number of bands Clive's been involved with over the years reads like a veritable Who's Who of Neo Prog:- Arena; Pendragon; Shadowland; Strangers on a Train (with Tracy Hitchings); Caamora (with Agnieszka Swita); Casino (with Geoff Mann); and Nolan & Wakeman (with Oliver Wakeman). No doubt it would cost a King's Ransom to own Clive Nolan's entire discography, so why not sample some free Hidden Treasure that Clive has sprinkled with his invisible touch of keyboard Alchemy on YouTube. It's magic! 

  2013: Neon Leaves - Cinema Verite - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ngE_4a86Iw-yhH_eJ0ezQrPA9moA_Ci7A

  2016: Neon Leaves - A Room Full of Strangers - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mZKh24TmxDZoAXh53tUs7CwWNkpX9MMHs

  2013: Clive Nolan - Alchemy - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ncYYh8SLR6jq87sCvdzeSwFiKLdRHsteA

  2013: Clive Nolan - Otra Vida - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k53TW5mtM6JjahzdITV6qdmIW9W-4MblQ

  2015: Clive Nolan - Hidden Treasure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbCNav2HuS0

  2017: Clive Nolan - King's Ransom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6_ZWCWkKM

  2021: Clive Nolan - Song of the Wildlands - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k2R-u2u1PNlrL02FPK6PNIG7R9k6hB7kk

  2022: Clive Nolan - El Valle de los Cedros - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpcogb_mDYFMzL6Bo4ZkJnjidLjEnCqcQ

  1999: Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman - Jabberwocky - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kRNzuC_raR9uuKARO42tGdSHYyL3Wn79g

  2002: Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman - The Hound of the Baskervilles - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lTHQYyisLyUGXgY9rkU7hxRxL_Lkvc5Q8

  2021: Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman - Dark Fables - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lsfx_N5E_RLQ_5vSgljMp3OgtY1LiyngQ

  2019: Nth Ascension - Stranger Than Fiction - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nCMcCzwGUlSlX_psrhaNeOVkIOeDqSxFE

MR. SO & SO    Another stonkingly good Neo Prog band who may have passed you by. Mr. So & So were an impressive band right from the get-go, but they were about to get a whole lot better in the new millennium when they reunited with the angelic voice of Charlotte Evans adding a nice delicate feminine touch to the band's sound. It's on the band's fourth album though where they really let rip by ramping up the amps to eleven (ala Spinal Tap), or is that just a combination of Truths, Lies & Half Lies? You be the judge. 

MOBIUS     A half-twisted Mobius strip is an abstract mathematical concept embedded into three-dimensional Euclidean space, and so it is with the band Mobius, whose music twists and turns in endlessly complex and multi-dimensional ways, designed to amaze and confound the listener in equal measure. This is Neo Prog, Jim, but not as we know it, and I can confidently Make the Promise that Mobius' 5-star album sounds like no album you've ever heard before. 

MARILLION     A band for your Friends & Family too... Marillion are the most popular and most commercially successful Neo Prog band of all time - bar none - with a career spanning over forty years - or five decades if you prefer. Marillion sound like the kind of band Genesis might have been in the 1980's if it wasn't for Phil Collins' ambitious dreams of pop idol stardom. Marillion's long discography spans two distinct eras:- The Fish Era: 1982-1988, and The Hogarth Era: 1989 to the present day. Marillion bravely went where no band had gone before with their New Wave of British Progressive Rock (or Neo Prog) often being credited with giving a second life to older established prog bands, although You & I know that's just Smoke & Mirrors and there was never any danger of prog dying out like the dinosaurs - or is that just a case of Anoraknophobia? Long Live Prog! 

A well-known painting from The Hogarth Era