ISSUE 142 04.08.

23

IF IT’S IN THERE IT’S ON HERE

STEVE MORLEY/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

“Roger started
getting really
upset later
after Money
became a
success and we
COVER became more
FEATURE
famous, and
the gigs got
larger;
intimacy
was lost.”

Pink Floyd p28

1973-1981: the eight years that changed the band forever…
 FEATURES
Ring Van Möbius ___Pg 40
REGULARS Norway’s retro-prog trio dance to a new
PROG PRESENTS… pg 7 tune on their latest release.
Get your free 23-track Spirit Of Unicorn Music
downloadable sampler here. Voyager __________Pg 44
Australia’s
BLOODY WELL WRITEpg 10 Eurovision

PRESS/TOURISM WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Missives, musings and tweets from Planet Prog. heroes return
with the dark
THE INTRO pg 12 and heavy
Trevor Rabin tells us about his new solo album Rio Fearless In Love.
and there’s all the latest news from TesseracT, Public
Service Broadcasting, David Longdon, Jethro Tull, Barclay James HarvestPg 48
Keith Emerson and more. John Lees looks back on the making of
1971’s classic, Once Again.
Q&A pg 24
Fates Warning’s Ray Alder on his second album and Arjen Lucassen_____ Pg 52
why there won’t be any new records from the band. The Dutch prog polymath explains
what’s behind his latest project
THE PROG INTERVIEW pg78 Supersonic Revolution.
Enslaved founding member Ivar Bjørnson details
a musical journey from extreme black metal to prog, Soft Machine ______ Pg 56
Nordic folk and beyond. The ever-evolving UK prog/jazz legends
are back with Other Doors, their first new
THE MUSICAL BOX pg 84 album in five years.
Voyager’s new album Fearless In Love takes top
billing this month and we also have reviews of The Fierce & The Dead Pg 60
releases from Lifesigns, Big Big Train, Strawbs, Vivian Covid and cancer were just two of the
Stanshall, Soen, Pat Metheny, Devin Townsend, Kevin
Ayers, Sigur Rós, Asia, Haunt The Woods, Cardiacs, obstacles for the UK quartet to overcome
Hawkwind, Anderson/Stolt, Held By Trees, Mellow for News From The Invisible World.
Candle, Stackridge, The Holy Family, Karnataka and
loads more… Mystery __________Pg 64
Mystery founding member Michel St-Père
reveals all about new album Redemption.
Godsticks _________Pg 68
PRESS/YORK TILLYER

The Welsh prog quartet talk line-up

changes and latest record This Is What
A Winner Looks Like.
TAKE A BOW pg 102
I Am The Manic WhalePg 72
This month we’ve seen shows by Peter Gabriel,
Roger Waters, Porcupine Tree, Muse, Dream Theater, It’s all about adventure stories for prog
The Dear Hunter and more! fans from the Southampton quartet.

MY PROG pg 114
Avenged Sevenfold _ Pg 76
The US metal quintet take on avant-garde
US guitarist/bassist Fernando Perdomo on a prog
world full of Yes, Todd Rundgren and The Cardigans. prog on Life Is But A Dream…
Discovering What’s on your free Spirit Of Unicorn Music digital album
Download the 23-track sampler from www.bit.ly/soum_sampler

1 Tomorrow 2 Keith Emerson 3 Greg Lake 4 John Wetton

My White The Band Keeps From The Battle Lines

S
pirit Of Unicorn Music was born out of the Bicycle Playing Beginning Taken from
Taken from Taken from the box Taken from Songs Battle Lines
international music management company
Permanent Dream set Variations Of A Lifetime
QEDG Management, home of Yes, Asia, Keith
Emerson, Greg Lake, Focus, Martin Turner,
Curved Air and Downes Braide Association. The label
was initially formed as a vehicle for making the
catalogue material from the estates of world-
renowned artists Keith Emerson, Greg Lake and John
Wetton accessible to music fans across the globe.
However Spirit Of Unicorn Music has developed into
so much more than that. The label team now 5 Downes Braide 6 Davey 7 Keith Emerson 8 Darryl Way
comprises highly experienced music industry Association Johnstone & Greg Lake Morpheus
executives, each with a world-class pedigree and Keep On Moving Melting Snow C’est La Vie Taken from The Rock
a passionate belief in the label’s artists and values. Taken from Taken from Deeper Taken from Live Artist’s Progress
Celestial Songs Than My Roots From Manticore Hall
Through their partnership with Cherry Red, Spirit
Of Unicorn Music now boast a vibrant roster of
musicians from exciting new talent through to
well-known, established bands, then on to classic
acts who have been a much-loved part of our lives
for many years, and finally the wonderful works of
music legends who have passed over but will never
be forgotten. SOUM considers itself a boutique label
and believes in a “small is beautiful” approach. This 9 District 97 10 Keith Emerson 11 Focus 12 John Wetton
means that every release is curated and created Stay For Tarkus Focus 12 I’ve Come To
with the utmost care, befitting the incredible array The Ending Taken from the box Taken from Take You Home
set Variations Completely Focussed Taken from
of world-class artists it represents. Taken from Stay
For The Ending Rock Of Faith
How to download your free digital MP3 sampler from
Spirit Of Unicorn Music
Scan here to download or
follow the instructions
on the right 1. Visit www.bit.ly/soum_sampler.
Type it straight into your browser – do
not type the URL into a search engine.
2. Download the zipped album to
your computer.
3. Unzip the file and enjoy your 13 Cairo 14 Fernando 15 Ian Danter 16 Life On Mars
new music! Tripwire Perdomo Generation Z Stray Dog
Discover more Spirit Of Unicorn Taken from Nemesis Calling London Taken from Taken from
Music music by visiting Taken from Calling Rule Of Three Shadows In A Jar
www.spiritofunicorn.co.uk. London (single)

17 Paola 18 Ram On 19 Tony Kaye 20 Geoff Downes 21 Focus 22 Curved Air 23 Martin Turner
Tagliaferro Another Day Sweetest Rainbow’s End Focus 3 Backstreet Luv Everybody
The Great Gates Taken from Dreams Taken from New Taken from Taken from Live Needs A Friend
Of Kiev Ram On Taken from Dance Orchestra – Focus 50: Live In Rio Under The Bridge Taken from The
Taken from La End Of Innocence Electronica – 45th Anniversary Lockdown Sessions
Compagnia Dell’Es

progmagazine.com 7
 Ed’s Letter

I
XT SS
ello, and welcome to the new issue of Prog magazine.
I trust this finds you well.

NE

UE
Stream the Prog 142
playlist at
I don’t think there’s any doubt that 1973 was
a momentous year for Pink Floyd. Not only did
SEP
www.spoti.fi/43qQrhu
they release the groundbreaking The Dark Side Of
The Moon, which would go on to sell more than 45 million copies
08
N SAL

E
and spend over 981 weeks on the US album charts, but they also
performed two massive shows at London’s Earls Court exhibition
centre in May of that year, changing the course of the band.
Suddenly Pink Floyd were all about bigger and bigger live shows,
more conceptual records and the ever-increasing influence of
Roger Waters. By the time the band performed The Wall, also at
Earls Court in 1980, they were a very different band. Daryl Easlea’s
intriguing cover story charts the eight years that changed the
face of Pink Floyd forever. A cautionary tale of ‘be careful what
you wish for, Eugene’ starts on p28. I hope you enjoy it.
Elsewhere, John Lees recalls the making of Barclay James
Harvest’s 1971 classic Once Again, Soft Machine tell us about
their 12th studio album Other Doors, Arjen Lucassen goes glam
with his latest project Supersonic Revolution, and Enslaved
founding member Ivar Bjørnson talks about his musical evolution
from black metal to prog, Nordic folk and beyond.
Aussie Eurovision champs Voyager are back with a brand-new
studio album, as are The Fierce And The Dead, Ring Van Möbius,
SCAN HERE TO GET OUR Mystery, I Am The Manic Whale, Ray Alder and Godsticks,
WEEKLY NEWSLETTER while US metallers Avenged Sevenfold have gone totally avant-
garde-prog on their latest release – all this and more is covered
in these packed pages.
There’s also some great music on this issue’s downloadable
sampler from Spirit Of Unicorn Music. You’ll find cuts from
Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, John Wetton, Focus, Curved Air and
loads more. Details are on p7.
We’re back on September 8. Until then, stay safe, and prog on!

You can subscribe

to Prog at www.
magazinesdirect.com. Jerry Ewing – Editor
See page 112 for
further details.

FIND
US progmagazine.com
ONLINE
AT Get your daily fix of prog
news and features at
www.progmagazine.com
 Letters

Send your letters to us at: Prog, Future Publishing, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London, W2 6JR, or email prog@futurenet.com. Letters may be edited
for length. We regret that we cannot reply to phone calls. For more comment and prog news and views, find us on facebook.com under Prog.

WHERE WORDS FAIL,

MUSIC SPEAKS
Thanks for the latest copy of my
favourite magazine. Still so enjoyable,
with just the right balance of old and new
prog. I am getting increasingly interested
in the wonderful world of instrumental
prog, where pure melody can often be
expressed, beyond the limited confines
of a song. Whilst I am aware of many
of the classic names of instrumental
music – Mike Oldfield, Tangerine
Dream, Rick Wakeman, Brand X, Soft
Machine, Camel (The Snow Goose), etc –
I am less aware of the more recent, new
artists who are opting to focus on this
enriching element of prog. Sometimes,
the reviews of albums make it clear that
a work is instrumental, often it is not
so clear. Is there any chance that all new
instrumental prog albums could be more
clearly highlighted as such, or, if possible,
listed separately? In addition, any chance
of an article on instrumental prog?
Colin Leppard, Taunton
Thanks for your message, Colin. We’ll pass
your comments on to our reviews team. –
Dep. Ed.

ALL BOXED UP
PRESS/ANNE-MARIE FORKER

So many box sets have come out since

2020, but the cost of them is so expensive.
Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon Marillion: still finding
– 50th Anniversary is over £200, the new audiences even
after all this time.
new Porcupine Tree set is over £150
and the [super-deluxe edition] of Mike
Oldfield’s Tubular Bells is over £200. MISPLACED ADULTHOOD and check their stuff out on Spotify. To
Great music, great bands, but the cost I first picked up an issue of Prog – Genesis say my mind was blown would be a gross
of living is going up. were on the cover and I love Genesis – understatement. Where have this band
I love the music but I hope some of the a few years ago (Prog 109, May 2020) been all my life? Script For A Jester’s Tear
prog bands and artists [can appreciate] when Genesis announced that they were ended me. Fugazi, Misplaced Childhood,
how expensive box sets are. embarking on a farewell tour. I read in that Clutching At Straws – I immediately
Paul S Harvey, Enfield issue all about one of my favourite bands set about collecting every Marillion
of all time, Rush, as well as Genesis, CD I could find but I learned all too
A DREAM PIECE and I just loved this magazine that was quickly that this would not be easy here
I’ve never been moved to write to Prog definitely speaking my language. I waited in America. It seems everyone in my
or indeed any other publication in the until I think August of 2020 to subscribe country has their head up their backside
past but having recently received my and at the time, I kept saying to myself, when it comes to this incredible band.
copy of Karnataka’s new album, Requiem “the whole point of this subscription is I had to order most of my collection
For A Dream I am now so ‘moved’. [It’s] to hopefully find a new band I’ve never from Europe, but in short order I have
absolutely magnificent throughout, with heard of that I can obsess over.” all the deluxe Blu-ray limited editions
each and every song being an absolute joy It seemed almost every issue kept and almost all of the studio albums.
to behold. It’s the best thing that’s come bringing up this band I’ve never heard I wanted to collect their albums in order
into my possession in a long, long, time! called Marillion and from what I kept starting with the Fish era and then move
David Pratt, via email reading about them I decided to sit down to the Hogarth era – Seasons End, Brave,

MARIUSZ DUDA AVAWAVES MUSE

@Marivsz_Riv @AVAWAVESMUSIC @muse
Over a month off is really good for you. You This week we had the last recording session Electric energy pulsating
TWEET can properly relax, unwind, go on holiday with for a project that we have been working on through the crowd, as

TALK
your family, visit childhood places, quieten for the last 9 months – it has been such our rhythm and 70,000+
MARIUSZ DUDA

the mind, calm down, gain some distance, a journey and we feel lucky to have had an Musers become one. Thank
Follow us on twitter.com/ and then, with a smile on your face, go back amazing team by our side. We can’t wait for you for an unforgettable
progmagazineUK to everyday life and… record a new album :) you to hear (& see) the results! night, Paris!

10 progmagazine.com
 J ust a few days
ago, I bought
Yes’ Mirror To
i.e. Relayer. Alan
was really very
helpful to us and
The Sky and was always a real
when I looked at gentleman and Future PLC, 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London,
W2 6JR
the credits I was without ego. Email prog@futurenet.com
LETTER really shocked I can’t always twitter.com/ProgMagazineUK
instagram.com/progmagazine
[to read] that buy Prog so may You can also find us on facebook.com under Prog
Editorial
Alan White had I ask, have you Editor Jerry Ewing
died in 2022. done an issue Deputy Editor Natasha Scharf
Art Editor Russell Fairbrother
Very hard to with regard to Production Editor Vanessa Thorpe
News Editor Julian Marszalek
take this in: Alan’s history? Reviews Editor Dave Everley
Chris Squire in Our tribute to the “magnificent” Alan White. I buy just about Associate Editor Jo Kendall
Content Director Scott Rowley
2015 and now everything by Contributors
Jeremy Allen (JA), Joe Banks (JB), Mike Barnes (MB), Jordan
Alan! The two together were magnificent. this great cosmic band. (I have nothing to Blum (JMB), Chris Cope (CC), Isere Lloyd-Davis (ILD), Daryl
Easlea (DE), Dave Everley (DEV), Cheri Faulkner (CF), Ian
I have been a Yes fan since their third do with computers, the internet and the Fortnam (IF), Paul Ging (PGI), Grace Hayhurst (GH), Cedric
Hendrix (CH), Rob Hughes (RH), Emma Johnston (EJ), Jo
album, The Yes Album, and when Alan like. They scare me rotten!) Kendall (JK), Hannah May Kilroy (HMK), Stephen Lambe (SL),
Dom Lawson (DL), Fraser Lewry (FL), Dave Ling (DML), Gary
joined them just after Close To The Edge Bryan J Lee, Ferryhill Mackenzie (GMM), Emily MacNevin (EM), Rhodri Marsden
it was terrific. There’s two years of age Thanks for your letter, Bryan. We ran an ٢«Rx٣ًhɖǼǣƏȇxƏȸɀɿƏȄƺǸ٢hx٣ً!ǝȸǣɀxƬJƏȸƺǼ٢!xJ٣ًhƏȅƺɀ
McNair (JMN), Grant Moon (GRM), Alison Reijman (AR), Chris
Roberts (CR), Jack Rogers (JR), Paul Sexton (PS), Johnny Sharp
between us and we both went to the same obituary on Alan in Prog 131, but sadly (JS), Sid Smith (SS), Francesca Tyer (FT), Phil Weller (POW),
David West (DW), Chris Wheatley (CW), Rich Wilson (RW)
school – Broom Cottages Secondary that issue is no longer in stock. We hope
Cover image
Modern – in Ferryhill [County Durham]. you continue to enjoy reading about your Image: MagicTorch/Getty Images
In the late 70s and early 80s, I – with favourite band in Prog and enjoy the goodie Advertising
Media packs are available on request
a friend John in Scotland – did a fanzine, bag from Burning Shed. – Dep. Ed. Commercial Director Richard Hemmings
richard.hemmings@futurenet.com
Advertising Sales Director – Music Lara Jaggon
This issue’s star letter wins a goodie bag* from burningshed.com *Contents may vary lara.jaggon@futurenet.com
Account Director Steven Pyatt
steven.pyatt@futurenet.com
Holidays In Eden. I bought the special HARVESTING MEMORIES Account Director Kyle Phillips
kyle.phillips@futurenet.com
edition Marillion issue and pored over it I read with great interest the John Lees’ Account Manager Lawrence Cooke
lawrence.cooke@futurenet.com
like it was a holy scripture. I knew none BJH gig review at the Islington Assembly International Licensing and Syndication
of this: they opened for Rush? What?! Hall in Prog 141. Although I wasn’t at ProgǣɀƏɮƏǣǼƏƫǼƺǔȒȸǼǣƬƺȇɀǣȇǕƏȇƳɀɵȇƳǣƬƏɎǣȒȇِÁȒˡȇƳȒɖɎ
more contact us at licensing@futurenet.com or view
They do not play in America because it the gig itself I have had the pleasure of our available content at www.futurecontenthub.com.
Head of Print Licensing Rachel Shaw
would not be economically viable? As attending five BJH shows since the early Subscriptions
I am sitting here typing this out, I just got 70s and beyond. I am saddened by the Online orders & enquiries www.magazinesdirect.com
UK order line & enquiries 0330 333 1113
This Strange Engine today and while tears news that the current wave of gigs are Overseas order line & enquiries +44 (0) 330 333 1113
stream down my face listening to this likely to be the last. Email enquiries help@magazinesdirect.com
CRM Director nȒɖǣɀƺ(ɖƳˡƺǼƳ
song, Man of A Thousand Faces, I know I also read the letter in the same Subscription delays
a trip to Europe is in my near future. edition by Martin Molloy and I have Disruption remains within UK and international delivery
networks. Please allow up to 7 days before contacting us
I have to see this band live! to say that I share his misgivings about a late delivery to help@magazinesdirect.com
Thank you Prog magazine for the relating to the final chapter of this often Circulation
Head of Newstrade Tim Mathers
amazing articles and introducing me to overlooked and sometimes demonised Production
Group Head of Production Mark Constance
my new favourite band, Marillion! prog (mostly) act. I feel, however, that Production Manager Keely Miller
Bryan Dano, Liverpool, NY, USA your magazine has done nothing to Senior Ad Production Manager Jo Crosby
Ad Production Coordinator Emma Thomas
celebrate this remarkable band [except] Digital Editions Controller Jason Hudson
A NEW SEASON the aforementioned gig in London, Management
SVP Tech, Games & Ents – Kevin Addley
I would like to thank you for doing that which Chris Roberts warmly received. Managing Director – Music Stuart Williams
piece about Marillion [to celebrate the I realise the band at this moment are Head of Design – Music Brad Merrett
Printed by William Gibbons & Sons Ltd
reissue of Seasons End] in Prog 141. It was not promoting a new album or sellout Distributed by Marketforce UK Ltd.
very interesting and I learned something stadium tour, but I find the lack of 121-141 Westbourne Terrace, London
W2 6JR. For enquiries, please email:
new about how H joined the band. attention given by Prog over the years mfcommunications@futurenet.com
I remember when I first heard He Knows is in my opinion shameful. www.marketforce.co.uk
ISSN 2045-2260
You Know on German radio back in 1983. I hope that soon your magazine We are committed to only using magazine paper, which
Hearing that song made me think of will show a bit of respect towards this ǣɀƳƺȸǣɮƺƳǔȸȒȅȸƺɀȵȒȇɀǣƫǼɵȅƏȇƏǕƺƳًƬƺȸɎǣˡƺƳǔȒȸƺɀɎȸɵ
and chlorine-free manufacture. The paper in this magazine was sourced
early Genesis and I was hooked. I bought band and feature them and the legacy and produced from sustainable managed forests, conforming to strict
environmental and socioeconomic standards.
Script For A Jester’s Tear and have never they leave. All contents © 2023 Future Publishing Limited or published under licence. All
rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be used, stored, transmitted or
looked back. To this day I am still Alan A, via email reproduced in any way without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Future Publishing Limited (company number 2008885) is registered in England
a massive fan and always look forward “Nothing to celebrate” BJH? I don’t know ƏȇƳáƏǼƺɀِ«ƺǕǣɀɎƺȸƺƳȒǔˡƬƺ‫ي‬ªɖƏɵRȒɖɀƺًÁǝƺȅƫɖȸɵً ƏɎǝ ‫׏׏‬ÈِǼǼ
information contained in this publication is for information only and is, as far as
to anything that they do. I have never where you’ve been hiding, Alan, but Prog we are aware, correct at the time of going to press. Future cannot accept any
responsibility for errors or inaccuracies in such information. You are advised to
seen them live as it is out of my budget has always been supportive of BJH, running contact manufacturers and retailers directly with regard to the price of products/
services referred to in this publication. Apps and websites mentioned in this
but have watched their concerts on TV. a selection of features on the band over the publication are not under our control. We are not responsible for their contents
or any other changes or updates to them. This magazine is fully independent
Their music is like a comfort blanket and years and will continue to do so while the ƏȇƳȇȒɎƏǔˡǼǣƏɎƺƳǣȇƏȇɵɯƏɵɯǣɎǝɎǝƺƬȒȅȵƏȇǣƺɀȅƺȇɎǣȒȇƺƳǝƺȸƺǣȇِXǔɵȒɖ
submit material to us, you warrant that you own the material and/or have the
brings back happy memories of when members are available to talk. Such as this necessary rights/permissions to supply the material and you automatically
grant Future and its licensees a licence to publish your submission in whole or
I was in the army . issue, where John Lees tells the story of Once in part in any/all issues and/or editions of publications, in any format published
worldwide and on associated websites, social media channels and associated
Allan Reid, via email Again on p48 – Ed. products. Any material you submit is sent at your own risk and, although every
care is taken, neither Future nor its employees, agents, subcontractors or
licensees shall be liable for loss or damage. We
assume all unsolicited material is for publication
unless otherwise stated, and reserve the right to
edit, amend, adapt all submissions.

RICHARD BARBIERI KYROS STEVE HACKETT

@barbieri301157 @KyrosUK @HackettOfficial
Girls’ night out :) The time has finally come to Wot Rhino?
announce our new bass player!
RICHARD BARBIERI

We are incredibly excited to

welcome multi-instrumentalist
JO HACKETT

Future plc is a public !ǝǣƺǔ0ɴƺƬɖɎǣɮƺ ǔˡƬƺȸ Jon Steinberg

company quoted on Non-Executive Chairman Richard Huntingford
and composer extraordinaire, the London Stock !ǝǣƺǔIǣȇƏȇƬǣƏǼƏȇƳ³ɎȸƏɎƺǕɵ ǔˡƬƺȸ
Exchange (symbol: FUTR) Penny Ladkin-Brand
@CharlieCawood into the fold! www.futureplc.com Tel +44 (0)1225 442 244

progmagazine.com 11
 IF IT’S OUT THERE, IT’S IN HERE
THE RETURN OF
TREVOR RABIN
The former Yes and ARW musician and
soundtrack composer returns with his first
collection of solo vocal material for 34 years.

Trevor Rabin has revealed the debt of

gratitude he owes to his wife, Shelley May,
as he prepares to release his new studio album,
Rio, on October 6 via InsideOut. This, his sixth
solo album, is the first collection of vocal-led
material from the South African-born , multi-
instrumentalist, composer and producer since
Can’t Look Away in 1989. It also makes a marked
detour from his celebrated film score work. His
previous solo album, 2012’s Jacaranda, was an
instrumental affair.
“There was quite a lot of pressure to make
a record like this, and those demands have
bordered upon insult – largely from my wife,”
Rabin tells Prog. “She told me, ‘Fuck the films,
get your own record done.’ So I owe a lot of the
credit to her.”
Since leaving Yes following 1994’s Talk and
largely as a prequel to touring as part of Yes
Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick
Wakeman (ARW) in 2016, the musician has
carved out a successful career as a composer of
Trevor Rabin has found
soundtracks for a wide number of Hollywood his voice again on new
movies including the blockbusters Armageddon solo album Rio.
(1998), Gone In 60 Seconds (2000) and the action
sequel Bad Boys II (2003).
“Once I joined Yes I did one solo album [Can’t
Look Away] in that time and 10 years from my
life seemed to vanish,” says Rabin as he ponders
the motivation behind the origins of Rio. “I did
the instrumental album [Jacaranda], which
wasn’t really a planned thing, and then I became
involved in film scores so everything else in my
musical world was put on the backburner. With
this one I really had to clear the decks.”
He continues: “I’ve done 30-odd movies with
[Academy Award-winning producer] Jerry
Bruckheimer, and it took me saying, ‘I’m not
feeling it on this one’ to find the time to make
this album. There’s a lot of pressure in movies;
you have to deliver. That forced me to have “I just wanted to
a little more self-discipline. And of course with get into what, for
Yes, you’re dealing with a business.” me, were a few
Getting back into the business of making different areas.”
a solo album would prove a wonderful

12 progmagazine.com
 Prog
news
updated progmagazine.com
daily
online!
This month, Intro
was compiled by DAVID LONGDON’S
experience for Rabin, though he’s a little
mystified as to why it took him so long to do so.
Chris Cope
Dave Everley DEBUT SOLO REISSUED
“I really enjoyed it and I don’t know what
Jerry Ewing
Cheri Faulkner
The remixed, remastered and expanded
caused me to stop [making my own music]… Dom Lawson edition will be released in October.
just a lack of discipline, I guess,” theorises Dave Ling
Rabin, who elected to play just about all of the Rhodri Marsden
instruments himself while following a somewhat Julian Marszalek David Longdon’s
Matt Mills legacy continues.
eclectic path. Grant Moon
“I even considered calling the album The Natasha Scharf
Demographic Nightmare,” he says with a laugh. Phil Weller
“I just wanted to get into what, for me, were
a few different areas, even doing some country-
type stuff. There’s some prog things and
a political song about the nightmare of the
Oklahoma bombing, but overall there are several

PRESS/SOPHOCLES ALEXIOU
styles going on.”
Lou Molino from ARW performed quite a few
of the drum parts, with Rabin’s son, Mason,
helping out on some of the most important
percussive arrangements. The album cover
features a painting by Rabin himself – “I didn’t
Wild River, the debut solo album from the late Big Big
really want something big like Roger Dean,” the
Train singer David Longdon, is to be reissued in a remixed,
musician insists.
remastered and expanded form through English Electric
All of which does rather beg the million- Recordings on October 12.
dollar question of whether Trevor expects fans Originally released in 2004, Wild River has been out of print
of Yes to enjoy Rio. for some time – although Longdon always had plans to remix and
“I haven’t even thought about that because repackage the album, his tragic death in November 2021 meant
doing so would influence me,” Rabin replies. this never happened. However, in a final act of remembrance by
“When I wrote most of the material that his longtime colleague and Big Big Train’s noted engineer Rob
appeared on 90125 it was before I had anything Aubrey, Longdon’s wishes have now been fulfilled. The album
to do with Yes.” packaging has also been redesigned by the artist’s friend and
Perhaps more importantly for his fans, Rabin collaborator, Steve Vantsis.
does harbour aspirations for taking Rio out on “I am delighted that this beautiful album is being re-released,”
the road. “That’s the plan,” he affirms. “I very says Longdon’s partner, Sarah Ewing. “This is the final wish of
much hope we can make it happen.” David’s, which we are able to fulfil, so it means a great deal. I so
A sonic carnival surely awaits. wish he was still here but at least we have his music as a lasting
See www.trevorrabin.net for more. DML legacy to remember him by.”
Wild River will be released on limited-edition green and
daffodil yellow coloured double vinyl as well as black vinyl and
two-CD and digital formats.
Vinyl versions of the album will feature four songs recorded
live in 2004, while the CD format features nine live songs.
The vinyl and CD formats all feature a bonus studio track not
available on the 2004 edition of the album, while the CD format
also includes an extended version of one song from the studio
recordings. For more info, see www.davidlongdon.net. JE

JETHRO TULL TO CONTINUE

PRESS/HRISTO SHINDOV

THEIR REISSUE PROGRAMME

The Broadsword And The Beast gets overhaul treatment.
Jethro Tull’s 14th studio album, The Broadsword And The Beast, is the latest
of their albums to receive the 40th anniversary deluxe treatment with
a new eight-disc CD/DVD version and a four-disc vinyl reissue to be released
through Warner Music on September 1.
The anniversary packages includes new mixes from Steven Wilson, demos,
rough mixes, a 1982 live recording from Germany, and sessions from 1981 with
five CDs and three DVDs forming the Monster Edition and the four-disc vinyl
version. Also included is a 164-page booklet that tells the story of the album
and attendant tour with the band and crew plus an
accompanying reproduction tour programme from
the 1982 tour.
Originally released in 1982, The Broadsword And The
PRESS/ MARTYN GODDARD

Beast featured a distinctive blend of rock, folk and

progressive influences accompanied by Ian Anderson’s
storytelling lyrics and unmistakable flute, which
reached the Top 20 in the USA. For more details
and information, see www.jethrotull.com. JE

Ian Anderson sees a dark progmagazine.com 13

sail on the horizon.
 INTRO
TESSERACT’S NEW Public Service
ALBUM AND TOUR Broadcasting celebrate
the BBC at the Royal
Prog metal quintet to release their first Albert Hall.

concept album in September.

INTRO
extras

PRESS/BBC
RIVERSIDE’S
PSB TURN PROMS
MARIUSZ RECORDING INTO
PRESS/ANDY FORD

Winning the battle:

DUDA TO
TesseracT stay true to
themselves on latest. RELEASE NEW A LIVE ALBUM
SOLO ALBUM Guest performers include Michael Sheen.
British heavy prog favourites TesseracT have Riverside singer
announced their first studio album in five years. and bassist Mariusz Public Service Broadcasting’s appearance at the 2022
War Of Being comes out on September 15 via Kscope and will Duda has teased Proms is being released as a live album. Out on September 8
be followed by an extensive world tour. Its lead single, the new material via via Test Card Recordings, This New Noise was recorded at the
11-minute title track, is currently streaming. Twitter. He’s told fans Royal Albert Hall and saw the band backed by the 88-piece BBC
“War Of Being is one of our most diverse records,” vocalist that he’ll release Symphony Orchestra. The show marked the centenary of the BBC.
Dan Tompkins tells Prog. “We’ve learned a lot over the past a solo album in “We wanted to present how idealistic and full of adventure the
few album cycles about finding an accessible and exciting November with “a lot BBC seemed in those early days,” says the group’s leader and
of blackness”, called mastermind J Willgoose, Esq. “It was about trying to recapture
way of writing songs for our audience, which is quite
AFR AI D. “It will be the wonder of it, which we’ve lost a lot of.”
widespread. We don’t want to alienate anyone and we want
about people’s fear The album’s eight songs were written specifically for the Proms
to stay true to ourselves.”
of the development show, PSB’s second appearance after their 2019 debut. It features
Lyrically, War Of Being is TesseracT’s first concept album. of Artificial guest vocals from folk star Seth Lakeman, as well as spoken word
Its nine songs are about two characters, Ex and El, who crash- Intelligence,” he appearances from BBC newsreader Reeta Chakrabarti, and Good
land on an alien world and embark on separate journeys. writes online. Omens actor Michael Sheen.
According to the band, it’s an allegory for the internal, It’ll be the Polish “I know Michael. And it was great to get Reeta,” says Willgoose.
existential conflicts a person goes through during their life. artist’s first solo “It’s not often you get to do to a voice recording with a celebrated
“When I got home after we filmed [2021 live and video record since last news reader.”
album] Portals, the world was still full of craziness [due year’s mini-album, Willgoose says that the cost of staging the show with a full
to the Covid pandemic] and it sent me into quite an Let’s Meet Outside. orchestra means it’s unlikely to be repeated.
introspective space,” explains bassist Amos Williams, who For more, see “Without the subsidies that the BBC and other public arts funds
is planning a novella based on War Of Being’s narrative. www.mariuszduda.md. can provide, this kind of art can’t survive,” he says. “That’s why
“I found it interesting that I might not know myself. It was we closed the concert by leaving the stage and inviting people to
very intriguing to spend some time asking those questions: imagine a future without the BBC. No private organisation would
‘Who am I? Who are we?’” step in to do the things it does to support the arts.”
The ambitious title track is the band’s longest in 10 years. See www.publicservicebroadcasting for more. DEV
“We like to do what people don’t expect,” explains
Tompkins. “The music industry, generally speaking, [wants]
you to release something radio-friendly that’s going to grab KEITH EMERSON SALUTED
short attention spans. Considering that the last album [2018’s
Sonder] was our shortest, we wanted to release a huge song
WITH 20-DISC BOX SET
that was probably half the length of the previous record.” Career-spanning collection will be released in October.
Williams adds, “I find it quite interesting that we could
just, at this stage of our career, go out and release a track Variations, a career-spanning 20-disc box set celebrating the work of Keith
that embraces all aspects of what we do.” Emerson, will be released by Spirit Of Unicorn Music on October 13.
TesseracT have also announced live dates right up to The set contains rare early tracks with The T-Bones, music from The Nice and
May 2024. of course Emerson, Lake & Palmer, all of Emerson’s solo albums, his soundtrack
“The fact that we can do a world tour work, recent collaborations with conductor Terje Mikkelsen, and a host of live sets
that lasts a good 12 months, it shows featuring previously unavailable material.
we’re still doing our thing and the The set has been curated with the full involvement and blessing of the Emerson
momentum is still there,” Williams says. family. Speaking of the collection, Aaron Emerson, Keith’s son, adds, “It is with
The tour includes European and UK great excitement that we can share all of Dad’s The late, great
“We don’t want gigs in January and February, with great work, expanding throughout his long career. Keith Emerson.
to alienate support from progressive rockers I hope it gives you as much joy as it has done
anyone and Unprocessed and mathcore band The for all of us.”
PRESS/JORGEN ANGEL

we want to Callous Daoboys. MM Variations will be housed in a special 10-by-

stay true to 10-inch box, and the 20 CDs are accompanied by
ourselves.” See www.tesseractband.co.uk for tour dates sleeve notes written by Prog editor Jerry Ewing.
and more information. See www.burningshed.com/store/elp. JE

14 progmagazine.com
 INTRO
POMEGRANATE
TIGER ENDS HIATUS
The impact of artificial intelligence forms
the core of new album All Input Is Error.

INTRO
extras

PRESS/VARG LUND
Bloomin’ brilliant: The
Flower Kings bring
their flourish to Europe
and the UK.

PRESS/ LISA COVERDALE

NEW ALBUM
THE FLOWER KINGS
FROM
HATS OFF
TAKE A GOOD LOOK
There’s no mistaking A 23-date European and UK tour for their
Pomegranate Tiger. GENTLEMEN
IT’S new record might also yield a live album.
Following an eight-year hiatus, prog metal fusion ADEQUATE
artist Pomegranate Tiger will release his third album, London-based duo Swedish prog veterans The Flower Kings are set to return
All Input Is Error, independently on September 8. The new Hats Off Gentlemen with their 16th studio album when Look At You Now is
record from multi-instrumentalist Martin Andres’ solo It’s Adequate have released through InsideOut on September 8.
project follows a near-decade period of touring and writing announced their “I cannot really imagine a life without making music,” says
as part of other people’s projects. As such, the 10-track seventh album, The founder member and singer-guitarist Roine Stolt as he explains
sees Andres building on his experiences supporting Devin Light Of Ancient his motivation for moving ever forward. “It’s been like this since
Townsend, Gojira and Children Of Bodom as part of Mistakes. Released I was a teenager when I started playing. Nowadays, I don’t even
Canadian prog metallers Oni, and working with Animals on September 9 think much about it; this is what I do.”
on Castle Glass Following the stasis of the last few years, Stolt sees the new
As Leaders guitarist Javier Reyes. Now Andres has returned
Recordings and album and its subsequent 23-date European tour as something of
to his own music with fresh energy.
inspired by books a rebirth that brings The Flower Kings full circle.
“Pomegranate Tiger has become my own selfish artistic
authored by Iain “We’re trying to build up and make the touring thing happen
fascination with myself and my most immediate interests,” M Banks and Philip again,” says Stolt. “And it’s great that we can actually book a tour
says Andres. “Everything about this record is mine; I don’t K Dick among and actually do the tour. It’s good to start fresh again. It’s almost
have to deal with any other opinions, be that creatively or others, the band like you’re starting a new band.”
with the business.” will celebrate the Given the spread of the upcoming tour, Stolt is confident that
He adds, “Pomegranate Tiger hasn’t been able to play very release with a new live album could follow soon afterwards. If so, this would be
much, so getting to tour with some of my favourite bands an album launch at their first concert recordings since 2011’s Tour Kaputt.
was amazing. You’re watching these bands and it’s hard not the Camden Club “Our hope is to record something,” he says cheerfully. “Maybe
to notice that every night the audience goes crazy during in London on not in the beginning of the tour but once you get into it, and you
certain parts. Those experiences have definitely influenced September 24. start playing really well, I think definitely we will. Lots of modern
me in wanting to inject some of that into my own music.” See www.bit.ly/ mixing desks already have recording facilities built in, so you can
The record’s concept centres on what the emergence of hatsoffgents. have your sound guy record a couple of these shows. And the
super-intelligent technologies mean both morally and audience reaction will help too.”
societally. Taking that notion, lead single The Cryptographer’s See www.roinestolt.com for tour dates and ticket info. JM
artwork was created using AI software.
Says Andres, “I really wanted to question what the point
of these sounds that are coming out of me are. I needed to PROGPOWERUSA RETURNS
have a larger storyline behind the album. I’ve always been
a fan of technology. We’ve always learnt to embrace
FOR ITS 23RD EDITION
technology without taking away what came before it, but The long-running Stateside event takes place in September.
with AI, we’re literally entering sci-fi territory. Is it morally
ethical to use AI-generated artwork? What does it mean to ProgPowerUSA has announced details of its 23rd edition. Taking place
create something smarter than ourselves? All Input Is Error between September 6 and September 9 at the Center Stage Theater in Atlanta,
is about having those conversations and coming out the GA, the festival is offering an eclectic mix of prog rock and power metal.
other side better for it.” This year’s edition features a wide-ranging international line-up that includes
“““ He continues, “When I started Australian progressive metallers Caligula’s Horse, Norway’s Green Carnation,
putting this music together around Poverty’s No Crime from Germany and the USA’s own Zero Hour. Also performing
2018, I gave myself the ridiculous goal at the event are symphonic metal bands Ad Infinitum and Visions Of Atlantis.
of writing an album where I really loved Co-organiser Glenn Harveston says, “Our festival has established itself as one of
every second of its music. That’s why the most unique and exciting events for progressive
“What does it it took so long to make this album. And and power metal worldwide.”
mean to create in doing so, I wanted to make sure that His colleague Milton Mendonca adds, “This year’s
it’s going to mean something and be roster calls back to the quintessential blend of
PRESS/ANDREW BASSO

something
something extra-special.” POW genres that made our festival so successful to begin
smarter than
with. You cannot find a show like this anywhere in
ourselves?” Caligula’s Horse ride in
See www.pomegranatetiger.com for the United States.”
for ProgPowerUSA.
more information. See www.progpowerusa.com for details. JM

16 progmagazine.com
FAD GADGETS MY PROG HERO
Inspiring the wider music world…
Rhodri Marsden on three

MIRRORPIX/MIRRORPIX VIA GETTY IMAGES

of the latest must-have Yes bring Nuno Bettencourt
(inset) Close To The Edge.
gizmos currently putting
the prog in progress.

AERODRUMS 2
We featured the first iteration of
Aerodrums eight years ago. Our
correspondent (me) was excited to
convert his air drumming into real
sound, thanks to a Sony
Playstation 3 camera plugged
into a Mac, fluorescent-tipped
sticks and reflective footpads.
My enjoyment was hampered
by practical restrictions: you
could only use it low light, or
the camera couldn’t pick up the
movement of the sticks. That’s
been solved in this new version, which
comes with a powerful camera and
doesn’t even require a computer to
work. Gigging drummers rejoice! It’ll fit

LA
SSE LIRO
in your glove compartment (although
you’ll still look a bit ridiculous).

PRESS/JE
NUNO BETTENCOURT
www.aerodrums.com

REBIRTH REBORN
Back in the bad old days when your With help from his 10 siblings, Extreme’s guitarist grew up to the sounds
average PC or Mac struggled to process of progressive rock, with Yes and Genesis among his many inspirations.
audio, the arrival of ReBirth was a thrill.
A groundbreaking piece of software, it
simulated a TR-808 drum machine and “As a kid I had a music library that spanned my favourite bass players of all time. He was like
two TB-303 synths all 10 brothers and sisters. You’d go into one the prog Paul McCartney, where he could play
running in parallel, and room in the house and there’d be The Beatles melody or just keep time and still be great.
let you use your iMac or playing, then Genesis in another. Probably 90 per Some Yes albums messed with my DNA,
Pentium 133Mhz to cent of the music I was listening to in those first fucked up my head a bit in a good way. Close To
channel the spirit of important years of my life was prog. I was in The Edge was a massive album for me. [I recall]
Chicago house with a band called Viking with two of my brothers! We putting on a pair of headphones and the twists
a repetitive thud. Sam Battle, aka Look were driven by UK, Yes, Kansas and Genesis. and turns of it really engaging me, just like Queen
Mum No Computer, has taken Rebirth When we talk about progressive rock, the II did – now that album just didn’t stop. For me,
back to its hardware roots, building most important part of that is the ‘rock’. Bands the big Genesis records were stuff like Trick Of
a huge control surface with multiple like those, and Rush and King Crimson, still The Tail and …And Then There Were Three. The
knobs and switches: the most wonderful made you feel like you were listening to heaviness of some of those songs really turned
sledgehammer ever to crack a nut. rock’n’roll. It was hard and heavy enough, but me on. But if somebody said I had to throw the
www.lookmumnocomputer.com they took some risks outside the box too. collection away and just keep one, it would be
Steve Howe was almost an outlier in Yes. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway.
RØDE PODMIC USB You’d hear this classically driven What I loved about both Genesis
Everybody and their aunt (and their music with layered vocals and and Yes was that they had what I call
aunt’s dog) feels compelled to make keyboards, then there’s this guy ‘simplexity’. They were complex, but
a podcast these days, and while it’s playing, like, bluegrass guitar! What you could still latch on to a melody, or
tempting to knock off recordings on made Yes so special was that every a lyric. You can want to impress
a voice memo on your smartphone and member seemed like they were on “Genesis and people, but whether fast or slow,
get uploading pronto, there’s a lot to be their own island – the soup had lots Yes were you’ve still got to have an
said for giving those recordings a bit of of different ingredients. I played complex but emotionality connected to what
tender loving care. Røde reckon that this with Rick Wakeman at the Guitar you could you play.” GRM
mic, dedicated to podcasting but with Legends concert in Seville [1992]
still latch on
a wealth of uses, is their most versatile and met Chris Squire once – he was Six is out now on earMUSIC.
to a melody.”
ever; it has XLR and USB outputs, a flat a pretty amazing person and one of See www.extreme-band.com for more.
frequency response, minimal
noise, a pop filter to cut
Goat (right) have digitally Beatrix Players have Moody Blues bassist and
out those annoying released the soundtrack to announced two co-headline singer John Lodge has
popping sounds, and
a built-in headphone port
PROG Shane Meadows’ TV series
The Gallows Pole. The album
gigs with Amanda Lehmann.
They play London’s The Water
released Days Of Future
Passed – MySojourn, his new

for zero-latency monitoring. IN includes five brand-new

tracks and three previously
released songs. More details
Rats on December 3 and
Barlaston Village Hall in
Stoke-On-Trent on March 16.
version of the band’s 1967
classic that he’s recorded
with his 10,000 Light Years
www.rode.com
BRIEF and information to be found
at www.goat.bandcamp.com.
Tickets are on sale now at
www.beatrixplayers.co.uk.
band. To order a copy, go to
www.shop.johnlodge.com.

progmagazine.com 17
 Limelight
PRESENTS
NEW MU
SIC
Listen to
OSYRON
all this mont
h on

R A D IO
pr og zil la.
co m/ lis ten
/

PRESS/MONIKA DEVIAT
OSYRON
Osyron are going even
more adventurous for
their fifth album.

Queensrÿche-inspired Canadians take prog metal to darker realms.

CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE METAL quintet Osyron “The lyrics stem from a lot of depression, and a lot of
really didn’t leave themselves much wriggle room when overcoming obstacles,” he notes. “The album became about
they decided to call their fourth album Momentous. larger-than-life things that make you question who you are,
Fortunately, these residents of Calgary, Alberta genuinely the place where you live and the people around you. We
seem to have struck upon a new, potentially game-changing wanted to express that on a large scale, and to make it dark,
formula. While owing plenty to the hallowed likes of Dream atmospheric and a little unsettling. I also want to push myself
Theater and Symphony X, Momentous also harnesses the and do different things with my voice on every record. I want
cutting-edge heaviness of post-TesseracT metal and a strong to be able to do everything that I hear in my head, and so far
sense of old-school prog ebb and flow. As a result, I’m able to do that with this band.”
Momentous lived up to its title with ease when it Since releasing Momentous, Osyron have already
emerged in November 2022. PROG FILE started work on their next studio album, which
“We’ve always tried to stay melodic and within the Alton promises will be their most adventurous yet.
realm of hooks and melody,” says vocalist Reed Alton. The band also notched up an appearance on the
“But then we’ve also tried to get darker and heavier. legendary 70,000 Tons Of Metal Cruise, wherein
Over the last two releases [Momentous and 2020’s they were the only Canadian band and the most ”We just want
Foundations], we’ve really just focused more on overtly prog-inclined act on the bill. to share the
songwriting, getting smarter and thinking about why “We got to hang out with people we’ve idolised, music and have
we’re making the decisions we’re making, like, ‘Where LINE-UP like Amorphis, Kamelot and Evergrey,” Alton recalls. stories to tell
Reed Alton (vocals),
does this lead us and what are we trying to convey?’
Tyler Corbett (bass),
“So it was great to represent our country and see how around the
The silver lining with the Covid thing was that there Bobby Harley (guitar, the pros operate, and then get drunk with them!” campfire when
was a lot of inspiration and we had a lot of time. I really vocals), Krzysztof Hangovers notwithstanding, Alton hopes that we’re old.”
think that helped us to progress.” Stalmach (guitar), Osyron will get many more opportunities to travel
A significant leap forward from Osyron’s early Cody Anstey (drums) in the name of adventurous, heavy music. So far,
SOUNDS LIKE
releases, Momentous manages to cram everything so good.
A deft fusion of
from full-bore thrash metal to ambient neofolk into melodic prog metal, “This has always been the dream – to make
its 56-minute duration. Melody remains the post-djent precision music and tour and see the world. It’s a little
Canadians’ greatest weapon, however, and Alton’s and ambient noir tougher, coming from western Canada, but I like
versatile and emotive vocal performance is as CURRENT RELEASE that because it makes us work harder. So the
convincing as it gets. As he explains, these songs Momentous is out now ambition stays the same. We just want to share the
were written during a time of introspection that the WEBSITE music and have stories to tell around the campfire
majority of people can surely relate to. www.osyron.com when we’re old and decrepit!” DL

progmagazine.com 19
 INTRO

ALL AROUND THE WORLD

Our far-out trip to far-flung prog

EVERYTHING EVERYTHING
RE-ANIMATOR
(Infinity Industries, 2020) Mong Tong: bringing a fusion of
PRESS
musical ideas to adventurous ears.
Although housed within the indie rock community, it always
felt like Manchester four-piece Everything Everything
lived on the weirdest outskirts of the genre. With their fifth MONG TONG
album, Re-Animator, the band’s desire for a “less thinking, more
action” approach resulted in something even further from the Taiwanese brothers mix up their native culture with
centre of town. western electronics and global psychedelia to blur genres.
If this is an unfiltered Everything Everything, it suggests that
the band’s subconscious is more progressive than pop and hints
towards something more abstract. They seem less concerned The brothers Hom Yu and Jiun styles certainly makes for a joyous
than ever about appealing to a wide audience – although plenty Chi who make up the Taiwanese aural experience.
of big hooks certainly do no harm. Instead, they let the songs experimental band Mong Tong are “We’re actually big fans of left-field
dictate their own fates, leaving no room for overthinking as they pondering the differences between local and electronic music,” continues
intrinsically veer left-field, a copy of Kid A gripped tightly in hand. and western funerals. Hom Yu. “But we’re trying to make
Their previously frantic vocalist Jonathan Higgs uses his quick “I think some of the funerals here something from an eastern perspective
wit in more reserved ways, giving the record a strong spirit of are actually not sad,” ventures Hom Yu. and totally different from western
Radiohead. On It Was A Monstering, he goes full Thom Yorke. His “Okay, somebody’s passed away, but music. So we’re thinking about our
drawn-out, exacerbated melodies skim his band’s art-rock canvas,
it’s a celebration of a life, so we should hometown, and we think that’s a good
which perennially deviates from the typical pop structure path
be happy.” place to start working on. We put
listeners had been led to believe the group were on. Lost Powers’
Mong Tong aren’t a morbid band. a lot of our town’s events and music
hook of ‘Come on, you only lost your mind’ floats on an uneasy
breeze, while its instrumentation never quite nestles in place as The duo, who formed in Taipei in together in our material. I think that’s
fuzz-dripped riffs are trippily misaligned from wavering keys. 2017, revel in the many positive why our percussion sounds different
Moonlight’s skittish backbeats, sour guitar progressions and aspects of Taiwanese culture by from other bands.”
warped vocals continue in a similar vein. recording them and using the results The vibrant results do much to
In many ways, it’s a transitional album. Across its 11 tracks, an within their music. These elements avoid easy categorisation. But surely
explorative maturity replaces youthful gung-ho, resulting in a less include weddings, celebrations and they see themselves as part of a wider
energetic but more introspective record. Although its change of funerals, all of which carry festive psychedelic tradition?
character initially confused fragments of their fanbase, it has aged aspects about them. It’s not exactly “Well, it’s hard to say,” considers
like a fine wine. Lord Of The Trapdoor’s playful polyrhythmic musique concrète, and it does owe Hom Yu. “Most of our fans are from
guitars ping-pong between speakers as Higgs flits seamlessly some of its technical execution to the global psychedelic scene. But
between rapping and elongated hooks. Its irregularities coat some other unlikely sources. I think we’re more experimental than
the song in a bizarre paranoia, the gritted riff midway through “We’ve been influenced by that. So it’s kind of blurry
sounding like Black Holes And Revelations–era Muse remixed the production of hip hop,” for me.”
by Dillinger Escape Plan. says Hom Yu. “So maybe Just how far things get
Lyrically, Higgs found himself captivated by Julian Jaynes’ we’re trying something blurred will be seen when
theory of bicameral mentality. This explores the idea that our from an Asian perspective Mong Tong tour Europe
ancestors didn’t consider emotions and desires as stemming rather than Black people’s. later this year. JM
from their own minds, but from the hand of the gods. Higgs’ “We put
There must be something
protagonists hear multiple voices and are unsure which to listen a lot of our
original from us.” Tao Fire is out now via
to, mirroring the band’s balancing act of experimentalism with town’s events
As evidenced on their Guruguru Brain. See www.
commercial appeal. Turns like ‘Caught in the twist of delight/ together in
Between this world and the light’ on the haunted dysmorphia of eclectic new album, Tao mongtong.bandcamp.com
Fire, Mong Tong’s pick of
our material.” for more information.
Black Hyena capture that indecision. His signature absurdities
– which reference everything from local criminal Purple Aki to
sentient grease – neglect all pop sensibilities entirely. Norwegian prog jazz trio Prog metallers Soen will play
What makes Re-Animator so unique is its reluctance to be Hedvig Mollestad Weejuns London’s Shepherd’s Bush
PROG (right) are to release their Empire on October 13 in
PRESS/JULIA NAGLESTAD

anything in particular. It’s too weird to be explicitly pop, yet its debut album Weejuns on support of their new album,
surrealism is grounded in a desire to be memorable and, in that
intervening void, it spectacularly lays its hat. IN September 8 via Rune
Grammofon. Recorded live,
the record will be available
Memorial, which is released
on September 1 via Silver
Lining Music. The show is part
PHIL WELLER
BRIEF on double vinyl. See
www.bit.ly/hedvig_mollestad.
of a 26-date European tour.
See www.soenmusic.com.

20 progmagazine.com
 Limelight
THEY WATCH US FROM THE MOON
Spaced-out US collective reach new heights with their debut album.
PRESENTS

THEY WATtoCH
FROM TH
Listen

E M US
all this mo OON
NEW MU

nth on
SIC

R A D IO
pr og zil la.
co m/ lis ten
/
WHEN A BAND describe themselves as “cosmic doom The concept focuses on a rock’n’roll band invited to play at
opera” and call their members names like Nova 10101001, the pyramids in Egypt, and when their “sonic resonance”
it’s clear that their music is going to be a trip. inadvertently activates ancient technology and sends
They Watch Us From The Moon live up to the PROG FILE a signal to space, the group end up kidnapped and
billing on their debut album, Cosmic Chronicles, Act 1: transported to the Moon.
The Ascension, a five-track concept odyssey lurching “The whole band is a concept,” Thirteen explains.
through spacey, Sabbath-esque riffs and a story fit “We play our live shows in character. It kind of
for a sci-fi epic. Slathered on top of the Kansas brings an air of theatrics to our stage show.”
sextet’s doom-mongering is an unusual twist of two Speaking via Zoom, and rather disappointingly
soaring, melodic vocals – from both Nova 10101001 not decked out in costume, he can remember being
and Luna Nemesis. LINE-UP taken to the first Star Wars film in the late 1970s as
“There’s nobody that sounds like us,” guitarist The Luna Nemesis (lead a child. At one point his “mouth dropped”, according
vocals), The General
General Shane Thirteen proclaims. “There’s nobody Shane Thirteen to his mother. “I didn’t say a word for the entire
in doom or metal or a combination thereof that has (guitar, vocals), Adryon movie, then talked about nothing for the next five
accomplished the sound that we have. The vocal ability Prahktaur (drums), years except ‘Space Wars’,” Thirteen adds. “Science
Rain Charger (bass),
of the ladies is just phenomenal. What’s going on with R Benjamin Black fiction and alien lore and stories of ancient aliens are
that took us from a pretty thick rock’n’roll band to an (lead guitar, vocals), just a huge fascination for me and I think quite a few
element of ‘holy crap’.” Nova 10101001 (vocals) other folks in the band.”
The band’s beginnings weren’t quite so spectacular, SOUNDS LIKE Bassist Rain Charger, the most recent addition to
though. The guitarist says they were “originally just A trip to the Moon the band, pipes up: “I think it’s definitely for fans of
soundtracked by
a dad band” before the line-up changed and things got forward-thinking Dune, Star Wars, The Amory Wars, Red Rising…”
serious. Their first release was 2020’s Moon Doom! EP, doom metal Looking forward, the band are working on new
followed by the single Return To Earth a year later. CURRENT RELEASE material – shorter songs, incidentally – and are “The whole
There’s an undeniable penchant for long songs and Cosmic Chronicles, keen to keep touring. But an important question band is
cyclical riff worship on their latest: no track here is Act 1: The Ascension remains: what is out there on the Moon? “It’s hard
is out now via New a concept.
shorter than six minutes, with two topping the Heavy Sounds to say what’s on the Moon,” Thirteen responds. We play our
10-minute mark. A running theme pervading the WEBSITE “There’s a whole lot of speculation and rumour and live shows
whole shebang is space, with the band offering their www.facebook.com/ conspiracy theory about it. It’s been fantastical
officialtwuftm in character.”
members an outlet for a long-rooted love of sci-fi. enough that I want to believe it’s true.” CC

They Watch Us From

The Moon are taking
‘spaced out’ to
a whole new level.

PRESS/CHRIS ORTIZ

progmagazine.com 21
 What got us all
US, THEM & YOU grooving this month…

EXCLUSIVE
ASIA
VINYL SET
The prog top 30 albums
Compiled by
July 2023
1 MUSE Will Of The People (WARNER/HELIUM-3)
2 BIG BIG TRAIN Ingenious Devices (ENGLISH ELECTRIC RECORDINGS)
3 ROGER WATERS The Lockdown Sessions (SONY MUSIC)
4 SIGUR RÓS Átta (BMG)
5 SWANS Beggar (MUTE)
6 MIKE OLDFIELD Tubular Bells – 50th Anniversary Edition (UMC)
7 FRANK ZAPPA Funky Nothingness (UMC)
8 YES Mirror To The Sky (INSIDEOUT)
9 KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD PetroDragonic Apocalypse (KGLW)
10 PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING Inform Educate Entertain (TEST CARD)
11 PINK FLOYD Animals (2018 Remix) (PINK FLOYD RECORDS/RHINO)
12 JETHRO TULL RökFlöte (INSIDEOUT)
13 POLYPHIA Remember That You Will Die (RISE)
14 TAME IMPALA Lonerism (FICTION) W hen Asia launched in 1981, they become one of the biggest supergroups
of the 80s. Featuring John Wetton, Steve Howe, Geoff Downes and Carl
Palmer, they went on to score a massive hit with Heat Of The Moment and
15 HAWKWIND The Future Never Waits (CHERRY RED) perform all around the world. Although their line-up fluctuated over the
16 MYSTERY Redemption (UNICORN DIGITAL) following years, the original formation reunited in 2006 and released Phoenix
two years later. That first reunion album has just been released as a special-
17 HAWKWIND Warrior On The Edge Of Time (CHERRY RED) edition two-LP set and we have one of these, plus an extremely rare test
18 MATT BERRY Kill The Wolf (ACID JAZZ) pressing of the album, to give away to one lucky reader.
This recent release finds Phoenix on vinyl for the very first time and this special
19 SOFT MACHINE Other Doors (DYAD)
edition contains the sprawling Sleeping Giant as well as An Extraordinary Life –
20 PENDRAGON North Star (TOFF) also the title of the new Wetton biography. The vinyl package is adorned with
21 MARILLION Seasons End (Deluxe Edition) (PARLOPHONE) trademark artwork by Roger Dean, and the highly coveted test pressing is presented
as a white label.
22 FLAMING LIPS Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots (WARNER) To be in with a chance of winning this unique prize, visit www.bit.ly/PROG142 and
23 THE ORB Prism (COOKING VINYL) answer the following question:
24 BLACK MIDI Hellfire (ROUGH TRADE) Asia have had several different line-ups over the years, but which
25 COHEED AND CAMBRIA Vaxis II – A Window Of The Waking Mind (ROADRUNNER) member has appeared on all of their studio albums to date?
26 PERIPHERY V – Djent Is Not A Genre (3DOT RECORDINGS) a) Steve Howe
b) Carl Palmer
27 STACKRIDGE Friendliness (ESOTERIC)
c) Geoff Downes
28 PORCUPINE TREE Deadwing (TRANSMISSION)
For more information see www.originalasia.com
29 PORCUPINE TREE Closure/Continuation (MUSIC FOR NATIONS) TERMS AND CONDITIONS: This competition will be open from August 4-September 8, 2023. By entering you
agree to our competition rules (available at www.futureplc.com/competition-rules). Entries limited to one
30 STACKRIDGE Stackridge (ESOTERIC) per household regardless of the form of entry. Use of automated devices as methods of submission are not
valid forms of entry. The winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received by the closing
date. No employees of Future Publishing or any of its group companies or the employees of any entity which
has been involved with the administration of this competition or any member of their households may enter
FIND OUT MORE AT WWW.OFFICIALCHARTS.COM this competition. The winner will be notified by Future by email after the closing date. If a winner has not
responded after 28 days, an alternative winner will be drawn.

Now our turn…

The Editor The Art Guy The Deputy Ed The Musician The Writer The Reader
Jerry Ewing Russell Fairbrother Natasha Scharf Bruce Soord Grace Hayhurst Graham Smith

TESSERACT HEDVIG MOLLESTAD VOYAGER THE FIERCE & THE DEAD SCAR SYMMETRY HASSE FROBERG &
WEEJUNS MUSICAL COMPANION
News From The The Singularity
War Of Being Weejuns Fearless In Love Invisible World (Phase II – Xenotaph) We Are The Truth
KSCOPE RUNE GRAMMOFON SEASON OF MIST SPENCER PARK MUSIC NUCLEAR BLAST GLASSVILLE RECORDS

22 progmagazine.com
 Limelight
THE ANCHORET
A stranger in a strange land spins a tale of loneliness with help from some new friends.
PRESENTS

THE ANCHto O
all this mont
Listen

h on
RET
NEW MU
SIC

R A D IO
pr og zil la.
co m/ lis ten
/
“THIS WAS A ONE-MAN project in the beginning,” result of Levitsky’s ideas is more than likely what drew in
Eduard Levitsky explains, when Prog asks about the theme Auclair, and fellow collaborators Leo Estalles, James Knoerl
of loneliness that runs through The Anchoret’s debut and The Tangent’s Andy Tillison. “I would love
album, It All Began With Loneliness. “I built the band to nothing more than to meet these people. It did all
PROG FILE
connect with other people through the internet and begin with loneliness and they were my help.”
have a bit of collaboration.” The album was recorded remotely, with Levitsky
Levitsky had just relocated to a new city in early taking on a project manager role, but he explains that
2020 when the world around him began to change, each band member had a story to tell. It reflects well
and it hit him hard. “I was in a new town,” he explains. on him, then, that despite being the sole songwriter
“I still felt like a stranger in a strange world.” and musician, when he invited these newfound
He had a vision of combining genres and creating LINE-UP friends into the fold to help him create It All Began
a bridge between the prog world, which he enjoyed Eduard Levitsky With Loneliness, they felt able to express their
growing up, and the metal world. “With that vision, (bass), Sylvain Auclair feelings and pour their emotions into the album just
I started putting pen to paper, one thing led to another (vocals), Leo Estalles as much as he had.
(guitar), James Knoerl
and I connected with all of these other people who (drums), Andy Tillison “I thought it would probably piss off both the
were just as isolated as myself.” The musician sees this (keys, synths) metal community, who are very set in their ways,
as a coming together of worlds, a coincidence that was SOUNDS LIKE and the prog community, who can also be set in their
always meant to happen. He created the demos for the Haunting melodic ways, and to bridge the two – I was sure I was
album alone, and wanted them to be as accurate to the metal, 70s prog rock making a mistake,” he laughs. “I’m humbled by the
and ingenious
final product as possible, before posting them on songwriting mixed in reaction, I really am.”
forums and apps to find “people who use music to help a potent cocktail you Being picked up by Willowtip – a label famous for
can’t get enough of
themselves as well” to work with on the release.
CURRENT RELEASE
making good discoveries – has really worked in The “I never
He gathered an eclectic group of people to work and
It All Began With
Anchoret’s favour, but the music speaks for itself. expected such
record together, but aside from Levitsky and vocalist Loneliness is out now
After all, loneliness truly was a motif of the talented
Sylvain Auclair, none of the other members of The via Willowtip Records. pandemic and the subject matter is more relatable people to reach
Anchoret have ever met in person. “I never expected WEBSITE than any of us want it to be – but perhaps that’s out, but I got
such talented people to reach out, but I got lucky,” he theanchoretofficial. why people are gravitating towards this remarkable
bandcamp.com lucky,”
explains. In reality, the musicianship, writing and end debut album. CF

Eduard Levitsky:
bridging the gap
between prog
and metal.
PRESS/EDUARD LEVITSKY

progmagazine.com 23
 Limelight
IHLO
Studio project-turned-band proper deliver dark, poppy and synth-infused prog metal.
PRESENTS

IHLO
NEW MU
Listen to

all this mont

h on
SIC

R A D IO
pr og zil la.
co m/ lis ten
/
FEW BANDS CAN state that their origins lie in memes, of its parts and that’s very exciting. If Union was one of
but without these viral images, British prog metallers Ihlo those lovely, traditional, bright cymbals that you polish up
may not exist. to a mirror sheen, album two is shaping up to be one of those
“Back in 2016 I was posting a lot of memes on Facebook really dark, trashy metal cymbals. It’s still got a sheen, but
groups,” says vocalist and keyboardist Andy Robertson, “and it’s much darker.”
I was also using it as an opportunity to share some of Ihlo have released two live EPs since, with 2022’s
my music. Phil [Monro, guitars] saw some of those Live Sessions From Pirate Studios giving fans
PROG FILE
posts – he liked both kinds – and after a few a tantalising taste of their new era. Now with album
messages we decided to collaborate together.” two expected in the next 12 months, Monro is aware
“As soon as I heard Andy’s vocals on my demos, of the challenge that lies in producing a worthy
I knew we had something,” Monro returns. successor to their debut.
What was initially intended to be a two-man, studio- “There’s unavoidable pressure making a follow-up
only project, quickly got serious. With the help of to something that is so well known,” he accepts. “One of the
drummer Clark McMenemy, whom Robertson knew LINE-UP
“But we feel like a much more cohesive unit now. biggest
through social- and meme-based circles, the trio spent Andy Robertson “I think one of the biggest changes that has changes that’s
the next three years writing and recording their debut (vocals, keyboards), happened in prog in the past five years or so is the happened in
album, Union. A smörgåsbord of artful ambience, Phil Monro (guitar), introduction of really poppy elements. Look at what prog is the
dancing djent and glossy pop hooks, they soon piqued Rob Mair (guitar),
Clark McMenemy
Voyager and Sleep Token are doing now. When we introduction
the interest of the progressive metal scene as the (drums), Michael released Union I felt like that’s what was specifically of poppy
record suddenly became something of a cult classic. Roberts (bass) unique about us; Andy was laying down these really elements.”
When a gig offer supporting Kyros came their way, the SOUNDS LIKE catchy, poppy choruses. Now the context around
band evolved into a physical entity, with guitarist Rob Brooding TesseracT and those hooks is a little darker, there’s a clearer vision
Haken instrumentals
Mair and bassist Michael Roberts entering the fray. laced with irresistibly and a stronger narrative running through the album.”
Four years later, Ihlo are a very different prospect. poppy vocal hooks “If we wanted to, we could release an album now,”
“I think the first record was an experiment,” reflects CURRENT RELEASE Robertson takes over, “but we’re taking our time
Robertson. “We know what we like from our sound Union is out now vibing with the songs and finding those missing
now and we’re pushing forward with developing that.” via Bandcamp elements which can really elevate the album. We want
WEBSITE Ihlo are busy crafting
“The dynamic is completely different,” McMenemy to justify this being a new era of the band and not a worthy successor
beams. “We’re writing music that sounds like the sum www.ihlo.co.uk just an extension of what we’ve done before.” POW to their debut.

PRESS/ MARTYNA SOWINSKA

progmagazine.com 25
 INTRO
In an interview with Prog for Long Day Good Night you
admitted circumnavigating lockdown in Spain by going to
live in the studio…
[Laughs] Yeah, that was illegal! I was evading the long arm of the
law. Spain allowed you to move [house] during lockdown so
I moved to the studio.

Making this new record must’ve been much less problematic?

It was. I started working on it two years ago but then Mark Zonder
[ex-Fates Warning drummer] got a hold of me for A-Z. And then
[keyboard wizard] Derek Sherinian called to ask if I’d like to be
a part of an all-star thing with him. I kept getting sidetracked.

The timing, with Thomas Waber from InsideOut sending you

an email, was pretty spooky…
One morning over coffee I was thinking about how I should get

RAY ALDER
The Fates Warning vocalist discusses his complex
a hold of Thomas and see if he was interested in another solo album
from me. I didn’t get around to it, but the very next day he sent me
a message. That was really strange but it made me very happy.

Second time around you have retained the same cast list –
second solo album, the future of his main band and Fates Warning’s touring guitarist Mike Abdow, Lords Of
Black guitarist Tony Hernando and drummer Craig Anderson
playing live without his ‘brothers’. [Ignite, Crescent Shield], with Mike and Tony playing a big
part in the writing.
Words: Dave Ling Portrait: Jorge Cueto I saw no reason to change anything. My original idea for the first
album was to use tons of different musicians but that was such
esides fronting US prog metal pioneers a logistical nightmare it would have taken years. Somebody you
Fates Warning since 1987, Ray Alder wanted was too busy or wanted too much money. So I’m very
has his fingers in a number of pies, happy with these guys. I have such an amazing relationship with
including Engine, Redemption and, most Mike and together we write these amazing songs.
recently, A-Z. As he unveils a second
solo set, suitably entitled II, Prog places Stylistically, II follows the sleek sophistication of What The
a call to the singer’s home in Spain to Water Wants, though tracks such as Silence The Enemy and
find out more. Waiting For Some Sun are slightly heavier.
A bit darker and heavier, yeah. I wanted to do some longer and
After being a ‘band guy’ for so long, more complex songs. I think of it as a mix of ‘old’ metal and
how did it feel to release your solo something new as well. It has some cool detuned stuff. I hope it’s
debut, What The Water Wants, in 2019? an interesting record.
I like doing a lot of different things, which is why I’m involved in
a few projects. A solo album just seemed like the next step. But if The song Hands Of Time includes the lyrics: ‘Standing silent,
Fates Warning is no longer going to release material then I need an staring at the sky/Never felt so lost as this’ and ‘Sinking deeper
outlet. I don’t want to join another band, so a solo career seems the into emptiness/There’s no ladder left to climb’. Not exactly
most logical thing to do. cheerful, is it?
Well, I do sing for Fates Warning, don’t forget [laughs]. None of
Hold on a minute – no more Fates Warning?! these songs are interrelated – This Silent Shell is about someone
Jim [Matheos, guitarist and main songwriter] says he doesn’t want that wants to take revenge on another person. I let the music guide
to write any more new music for the band. That could change, me when I write lyrics. I just try to tell a story.
I don’t know, you’d have to talk to him. It’s not to say there won’t
be any more live shows. The band didn’t break up. It’s just that Passengers tackles the issue of old age (‘As the days grow colder
there won’t be any more new music. And I need an outlet; music and the sunlight dims/It’s hard to not feel older as the winter
has been my life for over 30 years. begins’). Is that something that worries you?
There are a few like that, including Hands Of Time. From the
What The Water Wants was critically praised. Prog admired its moment you’re born the hourglass is running out. Like I said,
“dramatic shifts in intensity and tone, contrasting elegance I turn 56 this year and looking back you realise that time has really
and melody with headbanging riffs”, but especially the fucking flown by. It seems like only yesterday I was in the studio
quality of your vocals. with Fates recording Perfect Symmetry [in 1989].
That sounds like an elegant review, thanks [chuckles]. I turn 56
this year and a lot of singers that use that higher range just tend to Last year you made your solo debut at the ProgPower USA in
lose their voices as they get older. I sing every day Atlanta. That must have lit the fire to do more of the same.
for a few hours so maybe that helps. It’s a muscle That was great. It was such fun to play my new stuff. I didn’t do
– you have to work it or it ceases up. any Fates songs, though I included some stuff by Engine. It was
weird, man. I was really nervous.
Covid prevented you from touring What
“If Fates Warning The Water Wants. That must have been Well, you didn’t have your ‘brothers’ beside you.
is no longer going incredibly frustrating? I’m always okay before going onstage but at ProgPower I was more
to release It was the same with Fates. We did an album nervous than I’d ever been in my life. The crowd response was
material then with them [Long Day Good Night] and then the good. I hope I can do more of that. When I made the record I was
I need an outlet. pandemic hit. Every tour around the world was thinking, “I wanna hear this live.”
A solo career cancelled and the only thing musicians could do
seems the most was write new music. That was the one benefit II is out now via InsideOut.
logical thing.” out of that whole shitshow. See www.facebook.com/RayAlderOfficial for more information.

26 progmagazine.com
progmagazine.com 27
 – EIGHT YEARS THAT CHANGED PINK FLOYD FOREVER

n 1980, Pink Floyd took to

the stage at Earls Court, the “Roger started
cavernous 18,000-seater
exhibition centre in west London.
getting really upset
Booked for six nights in early
August, the group performed a show
later, after Money
that systematically parodied the very
notion of an arena concert, introduced
became a success.
by an over-the-top MC, before sending We became more
famous and the gigs
four musicians onstage wearing Pink
Floyd life masks; a surrogate band,

got larger; intimacy

proving that audiences at that distance
could actually be watching anything.

was lost.”
If that wasn’t enough to emphasise the
dislocation, a physical wall was built
between artist and audience made of
450 cardboard bricks. Ginger Gilmour
The Wall became Floyd conceptualist
Roger Waters’ most complex idea,
a reaction to the general isolation in
his role as conflicted multi-millionaire
socialist, but specifically at the
dislocation he felt as his group played
live to ever bigger, increasingly soulless
arenas. Always a band received with
earnest silence from their fans, yet
since the global success of 1973’s
The Dark Side Of The Moon, rowdy
elements of the crowd, especially
in North America, asphyxiated the
already slender rapport Waters felt
with his audience.
But how did it come to this? How did
a band, so experimental, stately and
well-mannered get to this point? It all
begins in exactly the same place, Earls
Court, seven years earlier in May 1973.
There was much talk in early 1973
of Earls Court opening its doors to
live concerts, yet there were few acts
that could fill a hall of such size and
scale. Built between 1935 and 1937,
the storied venue was constructed
on a triangle of land between train
lines that had been used for

28 progmagazine.com
The two shows Pink Floyd played at London’s Earls Court in May 1973 marked a quantum leap for
the group out of the ballrooms and theatre circuit into the arenas, stadiums and fields, where their
concerts would remain for the rest of their career. Thanks to the worldwide allure of their eighth
album, The Dark Side Of The Moon, their controls seemed to be set; any intimacy and direct connection
with the audience – never something highest on Floyd’s priority list – was over. Prog explores those
shows and their impact on the group in the following years.
Careful with those facts, Eugene: Daryl Easlea
Image: GEMA Images/IconicPix

Happy bunnies:
Pink Floyd in 1973.

zine.com 29
progmagazine.com
 entertainment grounds since the late
1880s. Its spectacular Art Deco/ “All the elements came shows they played in the UK in that
particular year. They already had
Moderne style was designed by
American architect Charles Howard
together, as we presented a taste of larger shows as they had
played Wembley’s Empire Pool the
Crane, famous for his ‘movie palaces’
of North America, most specifically
the piece in its most previous October, and understood that
the sound was so important to these
in Detroit. The venue opened on
September 1, 1937 – 40,000 square
developed version.” halls. Their US tour in March saw
them playing venues between six- and
feet of space, complete with an Nick Mason 12,000-seaters.
indoor pool – with a chocolate and Although Slade had been booked
confectionery exhibition. From then The idea to put on live shows at Earls first, at the end of their UK tour on
on, it became the go-to venue for Court came from showbiz impresario July 1, David Bowie was announced
large-scale events such as the Royal Robert Paterson and boxing promoter first and opened Earls Court to rock
Tournament, the Ideal Home Show, Jarvis Astaire (the man later responsible audiences on May 12. Whereas his
the 1948 Olympics and the Boat Show, for bringing WWF to these shores). Hammersmith Odeon concert in July
where the indoor pool would be filled “Patterson came from the classical that year is revered by the world and
with almost eight million litres of scene, very old-school,” former London its gnome, Bowie’s Earls Court show
water. But not live performances by agent and Thin Lizzy co-manager Chris is frequently swept under the carpet.
rock bands. Yet. O’Donnell recalls. “I used to see Jarvis By all accounts, it was a shambles. The
For large concerts, London was around town a lot. I don’t think there stage was too low, the PA inadequate
served by Olympia, just up the road was a pie that he didn’t have a finger in. and the show had to be stopped for
from Earls Court, with its 10,000 He once claimed he was offered the 15 minutes to quell the excitable stage-
capacity. Jimi Hendrix and Floyd management of the Fabs but turned charging crowd.
themselves had played there as part of them down because his wife didn’t like “There was a good deal of
Christmas On Earth Continued and, them. Pure fantasy!” But, of course, an apprehension about the group playing
later, in one of his few ill-fated solo element of fantasy is what is needed to at this enormous exhibition hall,” Pink
gigs, so did Syd Barrett. There was also The old Earls Court pull off feats on such a large scale. Floyd biographer Rick Sanders wrote in
exhibition centre, now
the Empire Pool Wembley – again sadly – yet somehow Firstly, Mel Bush was contacted 1976. “Some weeks previously, David
a 10,000-seater – which had opened inevitably – demolished. about which acts of his he thought Bowie had done a concert there, the
first time the venue served as a rock
palace, and both fans and critics had
been unanimous in their verdict.
The show was a disaster, with terrible
sound and nobody able to see what was
happening on the distant stage. Earls
Court was definitely not for rock,
everyone thought.”
Pink Floyd would be leaving nothing
to chance. Their live shows had been
building in scale for a couple of years,
especially with the addition of lighting
and effects technician Arthur Max,
who would introduce cherry pickers
cascading rose petals, or burning
gongs to enhance the band’s desire
to focus on ‘son et lumière’ rather
ROB VERHORST/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

than the group themselves (as Floyd

academic David Pattie notes, “The
band, with the occasional exception
of Roger Waters, were static to the
point of self-effacement”).

ven though it had been played

live for over a year, the press
were calling the Earls Court
its doors to concerts since 1960 with he could promote there. He had not one, show the “première” of The Dark Side
the NME Poll Winner shows. but two of such magnitude: David Of The Moon, which had been released
After The Beatles had played to Bowie and Slade. At opposite ends of that March. It was certainly the first
57,000 at Shea Stadium in 1965, plus the glam phenomenon, both had ardent time that UK audiences had seen the
Woodstock in 1969 and the Isle Of fanbases that could guarantee sales. group augmented with Dick Parry
Wight Festivals of ’69 and ’70, rock If the teenyboppers could potentially on saxophone and female backing
promotion became big business. fill it, so could Pink Floyd’s fans, vocalists – on this occasion, Vicki
And ‘big’ was the operative word – the especially as The Dark Side Of The Brown and Liza Strike. Thunderbirds
bigger the better. The idea of festivals Moon looked as if it would be their (and later James Bond) special effects
was now established, so if they could biggest release yet. Negotiated by the technician Derek Meddings coordinated
draw tens of thousands, surely the team at housing and homeless charity a crashing Spitfire to shoot over the
right band could fill a mere 18,000 Shelter, Floyd agreed to play a benefit audience’s head, and Max worked
seats in an arena. To facilitate this, concert. As ticket sales (priced at £2, on the lighting effects, as well as
JILL FURMANOVSKY

a new breed of UK concert promoter £1.75 and £1) far exceeded capacity, introducing the inflatables that
was coming through such as John and a second date was added. And so, on would become so central to Floyd’s
Tony Smith, Harvey Goldsmith, May 18 and 19, 1973, the group played performances. A huge mirror ball rose
Maurice Jones and Mel Bush. two nights there, one of only three behind Nick Mason’s drums and

30 progmagazine.com
Roger Waters pictured
with his trusty flaming
gong at the May 18 Earls
Court show.
 opened out – not unlike the jewel- wife, Ginger, who was there that night, Bootleg recordings of the concerts
encrusted satellites shown in Diamonds recalls. “You didn’t just have it coming demonstrate how accomplished the
Are Forever, the then-recent Bond film at you. You were enveloped into it. group had become. From the hits’n’bits
– and sent laser light beaming across Rick’s keyboards were amazing. It was of the first half, opening with Obscured
the auditorium. really special.” By Clouds and When You’re In, they
Most importantly, given the
criticism of Bowie’s shows, the sound
team led by Chris Adamson employed
“When we were setting up, I thought that it
the latest quadraphonic technology to
exploit the auditorium’s vastness.
did look a bit like a circus with all these wires
“What I always found amazing was
the sound in the room, how that took
going into the audience.”
the music around,” Gilmour’s first Roger Waters
32 progmagazine.com
 and the beauty of it, a beautiful
concept. I loved it.”
The band were broadly happy with
the way the show had gone.
“All the elements came together,
as we presented the piece in its most
developed version,” Nick Mason wrote
in Inside Out. “The music had been
rehearsed enough to be tight, but was
new enough to be fresh. The lighting,
thanks to Arthur, was dramatic. There
were additional effects including
a 15-foot spotlit plane shot down a wire
over the heads of the audience to crash
onstage in a ball of fire in sync with the
explosion in On The Run.”
Rick Sanders continued: “Their
material might have been familiar
but they put on the show of their lives
for 18,000-strong audiences whose
appreciation bordered on religious
fervour. Floyd’s amplification amply
filled the cavernous hall with
quadraphonic magic, aided by visual
effects of dramatic power. Roger
Waters’ gong exploded in flame during
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The
Sun, an inflatable man loomed behind
Nick Mason during Careful With That
Axe, Eugene, his luminous green eyes
glowing through dry ice clouds.”
It was, as Melody Maker said,
“A perfect moonshot, faultless in
every department.”
Waters spoke to ZigZag magazine
the week after the gig and still seemed
in awe at the scale of what his band
could achieve:
“When we were setting up, I thought
that it did look a bit like a circus with
all these wires going into the audience.
And the plane we used at Earls Court
was very like those circus space
rockets that people whip round and
round in. It was silver and red and
about six feet long, like a bloody great
aluminium paper dart, flashing lights
and smoke. Amazing.”
A bar had been set. The shows
DAVID WARNER ELLIS/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

changed the band – thoughts of how

subsequent records would scale up
for performance became as much
a consideration as what the sleeve would
look like, what the music would sound
like and what the concept would be.
Never the most prolific of touring bands
compared to their peers, their new-
found success enabled further scarcity.
Before now, Pink Floyd’s appearances
sound enlivened by their US tour and jams stretching out. If it had been able On stage at Earls Court, had incorporated the experimental,
happy to be scaling up that size of to stay this way during subsequent unworried by the moving forward with light and sound,
looming electric bill.
venue, filling the empty space with tours, maybe The Wall would never cooking breakfast and sawing wood,
layers of well-mixed sound. Waters have happened. yet these all seemed am-dram, even
introduces Careful With That Axe, “It wasn’t, ‘Here’s a bit of a Spitfire,’” the original liquid lights, compared
Eugene as another “extremely oldie”. Ginger Gilmour continues. “It was with what they had arrived at.
A leisurely Echoes closes the first set. bringing the multi-dimensional aspect The very fact that Pink Floyd weren’t
Then The Dark Side Of The Moon of the music and the visuals more going to be coming to your town meant
is presented straight, with little into one. It was theatre. It wasn’t getting your money’s worth when you
improvisation. A storming encore of a gimmick. It intensified the reality did see them. While each performance
One Of These Days sends the crowd of the music, the experience and the was to become a treasured memento
home in rapture. The second night’s oneness. It made the audience feel like for European fans, their reception
performance is a lot roomier, with a kid: ‘Wow!’ I remember the unity in North America after they had

progmagazine.com 33
JILL FURMANOVSKY

hit the bigger stages was to lead to Waters and David Cardiff concert at the town’s Sophia on which films could be projected –
something altogether darker. In May Gilmour backstage Gardens Pavilion received 9,000 known colloquially within the group as
on their 1974 tour.
1973, 10 days before the Earls Court applications for 2,000 tickets. ‘Mr Screen’. Films were made for each
shows, Capitol US did what the group The weight of expectation of the live number including director Ian Emes’
wouldn’t allow in the UK – release an return weighed heavily on Pink Floyd. animated clocks for Time, and shots of
edited version of Money as a single. When this tour was announced, it was Dark Side… being pressed up for Money.
The sarcastic blues-boogie taken out back to ’72 in terms of premièring new Pictures taken of the band by Jill
of context made Pink Floyd sound like material in the first half of the show, Furmanovsky backstage show them
everything they were not: a good-time before returning to familiar territory. positively at ease with each other.
bar band. Although its success didn’t And frankly, hearing Shine On You Crazy “They were an organism,” Ginger
greatly affect their remaining North Diamond, and early versions of Dogs Gilmour says. “Each one had a character,
American and European dates of the (Gotta Be Crazy) and Sheep (Raving And a quality that made it work: Roger
year, as time passed, it became an issue. Drooling) cold was quite a big ask. And was the outspoken visible person, Nick
“Roger started getting really upset by now, although The Dark Side Of The was the glue, David was more of the
later, after Money became a success. Moon was becoming a tad hackneyed heart and the floating, Rick was even
We became more famous and the gigs for Floyd, people had paid their money more introverted, but brought in
got larger; intimacy was lost,” Ginger to hear their softly spoken magic spells. a certain quality.”
Gilmour says. “In earlier gigs, people For these 1974 shows, one of Pink The volume of the cheers at the first
listened. They allowed themselves to Floyd’s most recognisable stylistic thud of The Dark Side Of The Moon’s
be taken by the music and they didn’t devices was added: the circular screen heartbeat after the interval drowned
have to be on drugs to do it.” out anything that was played in the
Aside from commitments to a short
French tour in June 1974, Pink Floyd
“The music was just about first half, yet UK fans were respectful
and knew how to behave.
reappeared onstage at Usher Hall in
Edinburgh on November 4 that year,
audible amongst the Tour manager Mick Kluczynski, who
was also part of the group’s sound
playing a 20-date UK winter tour that
mixed multiple nights in smaller
props and the click track. team, the ‘Quad Squad’, said in 1976:
“Pink Floyd fans come to a concert, sit
capacity venues with four consecutive
nights at Wembley Arena. There was
It was not to David’s liking, down, shut up and listen, and go home
quietly. The group have a very good
tremendous excitement for the group’s
first UK tour in over two years.
nor Rick’s.” reputation among hall managers.”
This was becoming less of the case
Demand was high. For example, the Ginger Gilmour in North America, where on the

34 progmagazine.com
 THE SPACE CADET GLOW: LIVE TOP 10
Pink Floyd’s greatest hits, viewed from the audience.

1. 14 HOUR amplifiers, bearing the

TECHNICOLOR legend ‘Pink Floyd.
DREAM, ALEXANDRA London.’ is one of the
PALACE, LONDON, greatest moments in
APRIL 1967 pop, ever.

GRANT TRIPLOW/COMIC RELIEF VIA GETTY IMAGES

Where the first tranche
of Floyd fans felt they’d 5. WINTER TOUR
sold out, moving from ’74, TRENTHAM
the confines of All GARDENS, STOKE-
Saints Hall in Powis ON-TRENT,
Gardens and the UFO NOVEMBER 1974
in Tottenham Court After the desultory
GAB ARCHIVE/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

Road to be part of the performances at the

multi-artist happening Empire Pool the nights The iconic Live 8
reunion in 2005.
in Muswell Hill. before, Pink Floyd
Captured on film by found their mojo and shock of this band, associated with 9. PULSE, EARLS COURT,
Peter Whitehead as played a show strong hippies and the profound, playing OCTOBER 1994
part of Tonite, Let’s All enough that the confrontational, difficult, theatrical By the time of The Division Bell, and
Make Love In London, bootleg of the three rock was palpable. Once the taste was what was to become the live album
Floyd appeared at the non-Dark Side songs acquired, to see it in this enormous Pulse, Gilmour, Wright and Mason had
end of the show, as the of that tour allegedly venue with its inflatable mothers, learned how to be Pink Floyd, without
Sunday sun rose across the capital, sold 150,000 copies, in one shop schoolteachers and wives, crashing Roger Waters or, indeed, Syd Barrett.
and with it, their role as underground outselling Led Zeppelin’s Physical planes, pop-up rooms, explosions and No one now had to ask “Which one
house band of choice was secure. Graffiti. What the recordings do a lot of cardboard is still somewhat was Pink?” as Pink was the unity, the
underline is that by playing an hour mind-bending. spectacle, the togetherness of the
2. GAMES FOR MAY, QUEEN of unheard material, Floyd demanded band, playing The Dark Side Of The
ELIZABETH HALL, LONDON, a great deal from their audience. 8. A CONCERT FOR EUROPE, Moon in full for the first time since
MAY 1967 VENICE, JULY 1989 1975, but importantly, having, in The
Probably the group’s most famous 6. IN THE FLESH, STADE DU A free concert that was intended to Division Bell, an album that could
early concert, Games For May was PARC OLYMPIQUE, MONTREAL, be played off the island of Giudecca stand upright in its shadow.
immortalised in song by Syd Barrett JULY 1977 in the Venetian Lagoon; instead,
on the Floyd’s first Top 10 single, See Included solely for its notoriety, the because of logistics, it actually ended 10. LIVE 8, HYDE PARK, JULY 2005
Emily Play. Described as a “Space age most infamous Pink Floyd show of all up being staged on large rafts in the They never thought it would happen,
relaxation for the climax of spring – time saw Waters beckoning a rowdy middle of the San Marco Basin, directly Gilmour and the boy from Great
electronic composition, colour and fan toward him, then spitting at him. opposite the Doge’s Palace and Bookham, out on that crepuscular
image projection, girls, and the Pink It resulted in Waters hating himself smack-dab in the middle of Venice. common, that night many haven’t
Floyd,” frankly, what was there not and his audience, setting his creative A great deal of local, national and eco forgotten. Pink Floyd’s temporary
to like? Playing more or less what was course for a considerable time going politics surrounded the show, but it reunion, engineered by Bob Geldof
to become The Piper At The Gates forward. How had it come to this? also acted as a metaphor for the very for Live 8, overshadowed the rest
Of Dawn, and premièring Emily, opulence of the 80s – not to mention of the global concert. Although
someone dressed as an admiral gave 7. THE WALL, EARLS COURT, the apogee of slick, Gilmour-led the awkwardness onstage can be
out daffodils to the audience while AUGUST 1980 commercial Floyd. The show was analysed to the Nth degree afterwards,
a bubble machine stained the seats, The excitement of The Wall shows eventually watched globally by 100 in its moment, it felt like the best
allegedly resulting in a lifelong ban is difficult to put into writing. The million people. thing ever. DE
at the venue for the group.

3. MORE FURIOUS MADNESS

FROM THE MASSED GADGETS OF
AUXIMENES, ROYAL FESTIVAL
HALL, LONDON, APRIL 1969
Realising that trying to replace the
tragic whimsy of Syd Barrett was
a road to nowhere, Floyd favoured
the high concept with a generous
dollop of their brand of space rock.
The show the group premièred at
this RFH event was The Man And The
Journey, following Everyman as he
goes through the day, incorporating
released and unreleased material.
Thumbs up for ambition, thumbs
down for abundance of melody.
BAYERISCHE RUNDFUNK/ORTF/KOBAL/SHUTTERSTOCK

4. ROMAN AMPHITHEATRE,
POMPEII, ITALY, OCTOBER 1971
Arguably Pink Floyd’s most famous
live performance was captured without
a single paying member of the public
amid the lava-saturated relics of
Pompeii. Filmed by Adrian Maben
for his oft-released and well-loved A lava-ly time
movie Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii, (sorry) playing
the tracking shot behind the band’s Pompeii in 1971.

progmagazine.com 35
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

short two-part tour they undertook ‘Mr Screen’ displaying The tour ended with an enormous are now more passive, demanding
in April and June, at the gig at Three footage of The Dark Side outdoor show at Knebworth Park on slickness and professionalism rather
Of The Moon rolling off
Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, fights the production line. July 5, 1975, the only major outdoor than experiment.”
broke out in the 50,000-strong crowd. concert they had performed in the UK When they did take the stage at
They detracted, as The Pittsburgh Press since the Hyde Park show in July 1970. Knebworth, the first hour was material
was to write afterwards, “from the “Knebworth looked, initially, like completely unfamiliar to most of the
mood so vital to appreciating Pink a repeat of one of those glorious festivals audience – unless they had been to
Floyd’s music”. Not even the brand- that marked the zenith of progressive previous shows on the tour or bought
new Mark Fisher and Jonathan Park- rock development in the late 60s,” a bootleg. To think a group would
designed inflatable pyramid could calm Robin Denselow wrote in The Guardian. conclude their tour ahead of an album
the nerves. “The vast audience was sprawled across that had yet to be released today seems
A despairing Waters was later to say: the English countryside, banners unthinkable. To go that long before
“I cast myself back into how fucking waving like a medieval battlefield, ‘the hits’ would test the patience, and
dreadful I felt on the last American while the homely droning of Mr John as seemed commonplace at this point,
tour, with all those thousands and Peel announced an impressive cast of the show received mixed reviews.
thousands and thousands of drunken musicians who used to be leaders of the However, there was much to look at.
kids smashing each other to pieces. so-called underground, and still retain Sadly, technical delays hampered
I felt dreadful because it had nothing their cult appeal. The underground has matters, as the band had to take to the
Roger Waters playing to
to do with us. I didn’t think there was 100,000 at Knebworth, long disappeared, rock has become big stage as two Spitfires, flown in from
any contact between us and them.” July 5, 1975. business and respectable, and audiences East Midlands airport, buzzed the
crowd. The electricity supply to the
stage was variable, the band were
tired, and the sound beset with issues.
Rick Wright’s keyboards were out of
tune, and, losing foldback to the stage,
Waters sang out of tune. However,
with pyramids and lights and
explosions there was still enough
warm thrill of confusion for the
100,000-strong crowd to enjoy.

T
he band spent the first half of 1977
on the final ‘proper’ tour they
undertook with Roger Waters.
MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES

This would be the one where their

superstardom really hit home, with
sales of Wish You Were Here – which
arrived three months after Knebworth
– proving a worthy successor to The
Dark Side Of The Moon.
Yet the band were determined to
keep their anonymity – there would

36 progmagazine.com
 CHICAGO SUN-TIMES COLLECTION/CHICAGO HISTORY MUSEUM/GETTY IMAGES
be no showboating or foot-on-the- Down On Broadway two years earlier Soldier Field, Chicago, forebodings of previous excursions
monitor shenanigans. at the same venue, I was expecting June 19, 1977. Floyd’s coalesced. A pall seemed to hang over
North American gigs
As David Pattie notes, Pink Floyd “did something similar, but without the were rowdier than the the band, and all the shows seemed
not take advantage of the technologies costumes.” For Bandana, it was not band would like. to be downbeat. The staging had
they helped pioneer to declare to be. “My abiding memory is one of complex hydraulic lights rather than
themselves, unambiguously, to be disappointment and I would tell people their usual ‘square rig’ illumination;
stars. Instead, they allowed themselves it was the most boring concert I ever these had umbrellas attached that
to disappear behind the images they attended. Maybe I expected too much. could also protect the band from the
created; in fact… the stage technologies The music, of course, was wonderful elements. In addition to Mr Screen, the
they employed came to stand in for the but there was no interaction with the mirror ball, the pyramid and the pig,
band in performance.” They were, in audience. It all felt very sterile, played Fisher-Park designed a huge inflatable
the stadiums at least, a surrogate band exactly like the records. There was, of nuclear family to hover out over the
– people came to look at the lights. audience in Dogs.
To coincide with the release of
Animals in January 1977, the group
“The last show we did “The Floyd were mere puppets,
it seemed, on the stage and in the
undertook a European tour, arriving
in Britain in March for five nights at
under those really bad distance,” Ginger Gilmour wrote in
Behind The Wall. “I admired this, for it
Wembley’s Empire Pool and four at circumstances was in gave an opportunity to listen instead

Montreal at Olympic
Stafford’s Bingley Hall. Although of adulating upon our stars. Taken on
keeping Dick Parry on sax, there would a journey, because that was the Floyd

Stadium to 90,000 people

be no backing vocalists, thus removing they loved. Admittedly, I wished that
any sweetening of the sound – instead, there was less tragedy, less angst. It

and my sense of it was

second guitarist Snowy White helped was as if Beauty had become a whisper.
Gilmour recreate his multi-tracking The music was just about audible
from the Animals album. By now the
spectacle was complete, beyond the that it was a bad joke.” amongst the props and the click track.
It was not to David’s liking, nor Rick’s,
usual explosions and projections one as the click track took over.”
expected from the Floyd as a matter Roger Waters Ginger added, “Sometimes I’d come
of course, there was now one of the out telling them it had been a really
most-loved aspects in Floydology: the course, one theatrical moment: the pig great gig and they’d go, ‘It was terrible.’
inflatable pig. As seen on the cover of on a wire. But I remember little else. They’d have their headphones on,
Animals, it would majestically hover “Today I might appreciate it more, the click track and all that stuff.
above the audience’s heads. especially as I never saw them live Sometimes they were almost doing
Dave Bandana, writer and performer again. But at least I saw them and covers to them. But it still transcended,
with prog outfit The Bardic Depths, witnessed a bit of musical history.” at least for me.”
was in the audience at the Empire As the European Animals tour The final show of the In The Flesh
Pool shows in March 1977. “Having became In The Flesh in the US tour was at the recently built Olympic
seen Genesis perform The Lamb Lies from May to July 1977, all the dark Stadium in Montreal on July 6, 1977.

progmagazine.com 37
 “Roger didn’t want Comfortably
Numb on the album. David doesn’t
show anger very often, but on that
night, in the Japanese restaurant,
if he knew karate, he would have
broken the table with how hard he
hit it. He said, ‘That fucking has to be
on the album.’”
Ginger Gilmour

Anyone with even a passing knowledge “The last show we did under those it made me very uneasy – I didn’t want
of Floyd lore knows where it all reached really bad circumstances was in to be involved in it.”
breaking point, with Waters reacting to Montreal at Olympic Stadium to Ginger Gilmour, from her vantage
the rowdy crowd with phlegm. It’s 90,000 people and my sense of it point at the mixing desk, could see it
fascinating to think that in 1977, with was that it was a bad joke,” Waters slightly differently: “The energy was
all the ‘I hate Pink Floyd’ sentiment later recalled of that night. “It really terrible. But at the same time, the unity
from punk, Floyd themselves would be had nothing to do with a group of of people – apart from the ones in the
the ones to gob on their audience rather people playing music and another front row that were drunk, out of it on
All in all, it’s just
than be spat at. David Gilmour had another brick in the group of people listening to them. It marijuana and making a lot of hoo-ha
had enough as well, retreating to the wall at Earls Court. was a weird kind of religious rite and – they wanted intimacy. They wanted
mixing desk for the final encore.
“I’ll never forget the moment when
David appeared at the mixer,” Ginger
Gilmour says. “Poor Snowy White.
He didn’t know that traditionally, at
the last gig of every tour, they always
did this breakdown. Little by little,
all the equipment leaves and there’s
poor Snowy, suddenly David’s gone
and everything’s been taken away.”
The irony of the final thing that this
line-up of Pink Floyd would play in
a stadium was a listless blues jam, not
unlike something that they would have
ROB VERHORST/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

played at UFO when starting out just

over a decade previously. But, here in
the brutalist Olympic Stadium, both
UFO’s liquid lights and the band’s
spirit had gone.
The effects of the In The Flesh leg
of the Animals tour were deep and
long lasting.

38 progmagazine.com
 ROGER THAT: FROM SHOEGAZE TO SHOWMAN
Shining the spotlight on Roger Waters’ development as a live solo artist.

ifty years almost to the month politics’ people, then you might do became the highest-grossing tour Wilson is far from unnerved when
F that Pink Floyd first played Earls
Court, the Roger Waters This Is Not
well to fuck off to the bar.”
It wasn’t always like this for Waters
for a solo artist.
Waters is able to do this with such
fans sing every word back at him.
“That lets you know they love the
A Drill tour arrived at London’s O2 live – when he presented his 1984 élan with a band of thoroughly superb songs – their minds are being blown
Arena, the 20,000-seat venue that album The Pros And Cons Of Hitch players and singers, including long- the whole show, from my view.”
effectively replaced the old exhibition Hiking at Earls Court for two nights, time Floyd collaborator Jon Carin, Although over half of his 2023 show
centre, 13 miles to the west. A hall of even the thrill of seeing Eric Clapton ex-REM drummer Joey Waronker, comprises Pink Floyd classics, one
this size is meat and drink to Waters, recreate David Gilmour’s parts guitarist Dave Kilminster and, since the does not merely go to be entertained.
who now plays those venues with the couldn’t bring the crowds in. By 1987, Us And Them tour, LA troubadour and Without getting into the complexities
ease of Sinatra in Vegas; he embodies his Radio KAOS tour dates often solo artist Jonathan Wilson. Wilson’s of Waters’ arguments, or his
the space with a showmanship that appeared in the US soon before or appointment was a perfect match. permanently spiky persona, one thing
there wasn’t even a fleeting glimpse after David Gilmour’s Floyd’s “I happened to have The Final Cut that everyone will agree on is his
of in 1973. comeback tour, meaning attendances and The Wall in my family record mastery of the stadium, the location
While not exactly ladding it up the were low. After his remarkable, collection,” Wilson tells Prog from of so much of his early angst.
way Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt do star-studded performance of The Wall Laurel Canyon. “I loved The Final Cut “Roger Waters is one of the most
with Floyd’s legacy in Nick Mason’s in a reunified Berlin in 1990, Waters particularly growing up, and also brilliant people I’ve ever met, much
Saucerful Of Secrets, Waters is now didn’t appear live again until 1999 hearing Have A Cigar on FM classic rock less gotten to play hundreds of gigs
showman provocateur, stalking the with his own In The Flesh tour. By the radio growing up was arresting; the with,” Wilson says. “It’s a pleasure
stage like an senior preening rock time he played Glastonbury in 2002, bit where the low end all drops out!” every night. It looks like he’s on about
god, dressed in black with arms aloft he’d been able to reinvent himself Wilson is in a unique position, gig number 3,000: 60 years of hard
to take his praise. His sense of humour enough to be loved. By 2006 (albeit revered as a cult singer-songwriter, work, that’s what I’m sensing, a life
is as black as his trademark T-shirt, after Live 8) he was headlining Hyde yet also able to enjoy the trappings spent onstage.”
as witnessed by the messages on his Park Calling and playing Earls Court of superstardom as he tours with Jonathan Wilson’s new album, Eat
screens and his commentary before the following year for a final time on Waters. “It’s really fun, and the entire The Worm, is out in September. See
the shows, including the memorable his The Dark Side Of The Moon tour. band is stellar. We propel each other www.songsofjonathanwilson.com. For
missive: “If you’re one of those ‘I love By 2011 Waters was performing along, all the while supporting and more on Roger Waters’ solo work, visit
Pink Floyd but I can’t stand Roger’s The Wall live, which, at the time, backing the man.” www.rogerwaters.com. DE
ROB VERHORST/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES

Well, for me, having gone through that play together until their brief reunion
summer where there was so much in 2005. Tales of The Wall, and what
angst in the demos, and watching it the size and scale of the concerts meant
evolve into something that we could for the entire live concert industry,
watch. The reason why is it represents are legion. Sounds reported that “they
the archetypal journey of us with dwarfed the biggest indoor rock venue
chaos. When Comfortably Numb comes, in the country with a dazzling array of
it’s the release, it’s a hope. He’s up effects and a 360-degree sound system
there, the light totally shifts and you’re that was the finest I have ever heard
people to listen, because if you don’t Waters at Earls Court absolved of all the angst. If that wasn’t anywhere, let alone the cavernous
listen, you don’t hear it. You need to during The Wall tour in there, it would be a terrible album.” wastes of Earls Court.”
August 1980.
become one. The majority of fans were The Olympic Stadium would be Earls Court always had a special
sitting, listening, wanting to get lost in Pink Floyd’s final show playing old place in Pink Floyd’s mythology. Nick
music and not partying.” material. When they returned to the Mason wrote in Inside Out that it was
Relationships within the band had live arena in February 1980 it would “one of our favourite venues, a place
been slowly, almost impenetrably offer something completely different with plenty of character, right in the
deteriorating since The Dark Side Of – a show based entirely around their heart of London.” It was where the
The Moon. Never a band of brothers as new album, which contained two Roger Waters-less Floyd ended their
such, as success meant they had to versions of a track called In The Flesh live career with their run of shows in
spend less time together, it was almost – one with a question mark and one October 1994 to complete The Division
as if strangers were reconvening every without. Its opening line was: ‘So you Bell tour, and Waters played there
time they gigged or recorded. thought you might like to go to the show…’ again in 2007. Tragically, the
“There was terrible conflict,” Ginger Designed specifically in three parts exhibition centre was demolished in
Gilmour recalls. “Roger and Carolyne, – an album, a live show and a film – 2017 and is now an empty space
his new wife, would always be in The Wall channelled everything, good awaiting long-promised development.
a separate limo, separate hotel… always and bad, of what had been learned in It was a venue that was far from
separate. She was building up his belief the seven-year trajectory since Pink perfect, but the group had an affinity
so that he could break out of the chains Floyd took to the stage at Earls Court in with it – being less soulless than
that he felt we had. May 1973. It took all of Waters’ angst, Wembley. The shows Pink Floyd
“We were in LA and they were and all the cutting-edge skills of the played there between 1973 and 1981
working on finishing the album. They light, sound and construction team to bookended the most fascinating, not
were talking about royalties, and we all create a show so grandly preposterous necessarily for all the right reasons,
met up at a Japanese restaurant. The that it could only be staged in its period in Pink Floyd’s career.
day apparently had been really tough original incarnation 31 times. The
because Roger didn’t want Comfortably band played it at Earls Court twice: for Ginger Gilmour’s new book, Behind The
Numb on the album. David doesn’t the six-night stint in 1980, and then Wall: A Story of Love Loss & Wonder is
show anger very often, but on that a further five nights, for potential use in out now. See www.gingergilmour.co.uk
night, in the Japanese restaurant, if he Alan Parker’s forthcoming film of the for more information.
knew karate, he would have broken the album, in June 1981. The show on June Pink Floyd’s 50th anniversary box set of
table with how hard he hit it. He said, 17 that year would be the last time the The Dark Side Of The Moon is out now.
‘That fucking has to be on the album.’ four core Pink Floyd members would See https://pinkfloyd.lnk.to/DarkSide50th.

progmagazine.com 39
 Thor Erik Helgesen: not
a guy you’d associate
with theatrical dance,
but here we are.

Norway’s self-proclaimed “retro-prog” trio are back with an album inspired by an abstract dance
performance! Ring Van Möbius reveal why they jumped at the chance to move away from their
comfort zone with the project that led to Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops Of Poison, and their plans
for future releases – which could even include a recording of the soundtrack to the horror flick Suspiria.
Words: Dom Lawson Images: Anders Mikkelsen
40 progmagazine.com
 Dag Olav Husås is
a man who refuses
to let anyone sleep.

Håvard Rasmussen in
the zone. Seriously,
don’t disturb him.

P
rogressive rock can take
musicians to all kinds of
unexpected places, but it rarely
requires them to put on their
dancing shoes. Back in 2021, Ring
Van Möbius were contentedly beavering away
in the studio in their native Norway, working
on the follow-up to The 3rd Majesty, the band’s
second full-length that was released the
previous year. Then, from nowhere,
opportunity knocked.
“After we finished the last album, we
figured we’d just continue with new material,
which is always refreshing to do,” explains
vocalist/keyboard maestro Thor Erik
Helgesen. “You can start all over again and
get creative, throwing the ideas out there.
“When we were working on Harald
We were nearly finished with the sketches for
the next album, when this guy Harald Beharie
[Beharie]’s project, Covid was still
approached us, and he asked if we could make around and so it became an amazing
some music for his next abstract dance
performance. We had absolutely no clue job opportunity. We had something
whatsoever about that world, so of course
we said yes immediately! [Laughs]” exciting and creative to do, while
A respected dance maverick in Norway,
Harald Beharie confessed to having little prior everyone else was stuck at home.”
knowledge of progressive rock, and that he
had discovered Ring Van Möbius via a simple and he didn’t really spell out a specific material from Ring Van Möbius’ rehearsal
Google search. Helgesen and his comrades, direction for what the music should be, and jam tapes, the trio were able to piece together
Håvard Rasmussen and Dag Olav Husås, were we had no clue what he was going to do. But an album-length demo for Beharie to use as
too thrilled by his offer to care. we just thought, ‘Okay, let’s just do it!’ It’s a musical starting point.
“We’d spent half a year writing a new album, good to move away from your comfort zone.” “The demo was kind of like an album,
but we just paused that thought,” Helgesen After some minimal discussions with his because we can’t help it, we make albums!
recalls. “There was no discussion, because this new creative partner about how this project [Laughs] But then it was fascinating to be
was a very interesting opportunity for us to was to unfold, Helgesen set to work on writing working with these people, because they
work with something completely different. We some music that could be moulded to fit had a very different approach to music, and
had no clue whatsoever about abstract dance Beharie’s vision. With riffs, improvisations a different take on why it was being used on
or that whole area of the arts, so we were quite and ideas conjured during months of lockdown the stage. For them, music is just a tool for
honoured. We had a meeting soon thereafter, isolation, and an assortment of additional building up expectation, you know? They

progmagazine.com 41
 Ring Van Möbius:
just try to keep “Of course the lyrical themes come from
them contained. my own thoughts, but partly inspired by what
I understood was Harald’s actual theme. But
because it’s all quite abstract, I don’t think
we’ll ever know exactly what’s going on! I just
added my own thoughts and made up my own
story. I think it’s more than just a linear thing:
it’s not something that starts and ends. It’s
more like a combined process, with the
chapters of the story being more like
representations of different personalities and
different themes… but like I say, it’s rather
complex and abstract!”
Could it be summed up in one sentence?
“I guess not! [Laughs] I would say that
Harald’s original idea was about how we see
people and judge them, exaggerating who they
are and focusing only on that exaggerated
perception. This is the story of those
exaggerations and the personifications of
those characteristics. That’s part of it, but
I need more time to work this all out!”
Back in the slightly less cerebral world of
thunderous prog rock, Ring Van Möbius are
now one album ahead of themselves and
almost overburdened with music to capture
on tape. As its title suggests, the new album
is the second commissioned piece the
Norwegians have produced, following their
composing of a new soundtrack for legendary
Italian horror movie Suspiria back in 2018.
The latter remains unrecorded, but Helgesen
notes that he fully intends to get it down for
posterity eventually. Meanwhile, the album
that Ring Van Möbius were just about to
“We never tour because we’re record when their new dancer friend came
knocking is back on the production line.
always recording something. I think “When we were working on Harald’s
project, Covid was still around and so it
I would explode without doing gigs became an amazing job opportunity. We had
something exciting and creative to do, while
every now and then.” everyone else was stuck at home. After we
finished with Harald and then recorded the
new album, we went straight back into the
studio again to rehearse the next album, which
use a lot of repetition. There was a riff that prog rock terms. Fortunately, Ring Van Möbius we are recording as we speak! It’s full of energy
was only 20 seconds on the demo, but for love making albums, so they returned eagerly and it’s far more hectic than Six Drops Of
Harald I played it for eight minutes, because to the drawing board. Poison, which has much more air in it. It
he wanted that specific feeling. It was a cool “We realised that we needed to release breathes better than our other albums. There’s
way to work. After a while, you don’t hear the something from this, because we liked it! We more space. But that is exactly what the next
riff anymore because your brain gets used to went back to the old approach, to the demo album will be lacking.”
it, and then you get to hear the room, the with the original ideas that were much better These are fruitful times for Kopervik’s
acoustics and the overtones, what’s going on suited to an album. We developed those ideas, retro-prog kings, at least in the studio.
between the tones and notes.” added some vocals, and there you have it!” Helgesen admits that he would like his band
This is where things become a bit Hot off the vinyl press, the third Ring Van to do a lot more touring, with single shows in
complicated. Ring Van Möbius completed the Möbius album is among us. Enigmatically Sweden and the UK their only performances
composition for Harald Beharie’s abstract titled Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops Of outside of Norway to date. Unfortunately,
dance piece roughly two years ago, swiftly Poison, it’s a multi-part prog odyssey that ebbs however, he admits that Ring Van Möbius
recording the finished music for the and flows with dramatic flair, eschewing the “are horrible at doing all that stuff” and keep
choreographer to use as the soundtrack for his band’s trademark wall of 1971-flavoured sound finding reasons to hit the studio instead.
show Batty Bwoy: a study of in favour of a more eclectic, What a terrible shame.
“Black, queer self-consciousness” dynamic and unpredictable “I think we need help with the touring
that opened to much acclaim in splurge of brown’n’purple-toned thing!” he says with another laugh. “We
Oslo in January 2022 and that, ideas. Helgesen cheerfully notes never tour because we’re always recording
Helgesen notes, is still being that the album’s lyrics are loosely something. I think I would explode without
performed. Meanwhile, the (“I mean really, really loosely…”) doing gigs every now and then, but until then
original ideas that they had based on Harald Beharie’s hazy we’re just here, making music, and that’s all
presented in demo album form explanation of his project’s core there is to it.”
to Beharie had been manhandled concept. Consequently, amid fits
and repurposed to such an extent of chortling, he tries and fails to Commissioned Works Pt II – Six Drops Of Poison
that they no longer resembled a Commissioned Works Pt II – nail the essence of the new is out now via Apollon. See www.facebook.com/
coherent body of work, at least in Six Drops Of Poison is out now. album’s narrative. ringvanmobius for more information.

42 progmagazine.com
 Eurovision didn’t know what had hit it!

44 progmagazine.com
 Many artists would follow a mainstream moment with the most
accessible music of their career. However, weeks after finishing in
the Top 10 at the Eurovision Song Contest, Voyager have doubled
down on their heavy synth-prog with new album Fearless In Love.
Singer Danny Estrin, guitarist Simone Dow and bassist Alex Canion
tell Prog about life after playing to more than 160 million people.
Words: Matt Mills Portrait: Corinne Cumming/EBU

t’s early June when Prog video-calls

Voyager frontman Danny Estrin, guitarist
Simone Dow and bassist/singer Alex
Canion, and the trio are midway through
being smashed back into reality. This time
last month, the Perth-based band (rounded
out by drummer Ashley Doodkorte and Dow’s
co-guitarist Scott Kay) were jet-setting in
luxury. They were traipsing across Europe
and getting interviewed by countless glossy
magazines, all part of the run-up to them
representing Australia to more than 160
million TV viewers live at the Eurovision
Song Contest. Now they’re back home –
and getting hammered by a storm so violent
that it routinely wipes out their internet
connection and freaks out Canion’s
dog, Seamus.
“We played the WA Day festival [in
Perth] yesterday,” Dow tells us, camera off to
put less stress on the struggling WiFi, “and
our booking agent sent us a video of the
backstage area after we left. You should have
seen the flooding! It was insane!”
Although Mother Nature is trying to quite
literally rain on their parade, there’s no
denying that Voyager became progressive
music’s newest superstars this spring.
Eurovision is touted worldwide as an
international celebration of top-shelf

“Fearless In Love is one of

our synthiest and most
melodic albums, but
it’s also the heaviest.”
Danny Estrin
songwriting (despite it frequently showcasing
the most OTT pop possible) – and the synth-
prog quintet had been chasing that rainbow
from the moment Australia joined, in 2015.
They came tantalisingly close with their
pop-prog anthem Dreamer in 2022, finishing
second in Eurovision: Australia Decides, the
nationally televised competition to select
the country’s representative. This year, they
finally got sent to the semi-finals when they
were held in Liverpool, thanks to the electro-
rock singalong of Promise.
Voyager advanced to the grand final and –
after an 80s-throwback performance, replete
with sequinned jackets, keytar solos and
larking about on a Toyota MR2 sports car –
finished a massively respectable ninth out
of the 20 finalists. The band couldn’t
overcome the litany of public votes for

progmagazine.com 45
 Finnish rapper Käärijä, nor the jury’s collective Voyager brought a Toyota MR2 to the
passion for Sweden’s now-two-time winner Eurovision final, but luckily had no
Loreen. However, for five people playing need to make a speedy exit!
prog in the isolation of Western Australia,
it marked an underdog triumph.
“It’s pretty incredible!” Estrin exclaims.
“We were just a progressive metal band from
Perth going about our business and, the next
minute, we’re on the world’s stage! The
comedown’s been real, but it’s been dampened
by the insane amount of publicity we’ve
done. It’s kept that spark of Eurovision alive:
we’re selling out shows, particularly in the
UK. Eurovision has given us the platform
to continue doing what we were doing on
a much bigger level.”
The numbers certainly agree. At time of
writing, Promise is Voyager’s biggest song,
with more than eight million Spotify
streams. The music video’s been watched
PAUL ELLIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

two million times on YouTube, with the

footage of that grand final performance firmly
in the seven-digit mark.
Estrin’s vow of his band sticking with
what they’ve always done going forward isn’t
hollow, either. A week before Voyager played
Eurovision, they released another single called
Prince Of Fire. It was every bit as proggy and
high-energy as longtime fans would expect.
Plus, with its leaps from synthy verses to “People were stoked “That knack for melody and a really catchy
chorus came very early on and stayed with me
sturdy rock choruses, it was powerfully
dynamic. No kowtowing to the masses with that we were putting from the very beginning,” he says. “It’s why
I’m the catchy chorus guy in Voyager!”
simpler songwriting or a saccharine ballad
here, thank you very much! progressive metal on Estrin started Voyager at just 18 years old
– by which point, he says, “I was living and
“It showed that we hadn’t vastly changed,”
Canion says. “I did see some comments when the map. Now, we’ve breathing metal.” As a result, their 2003
debut, Element V, packed more high-speed
we released Dreamer: people were worried
got sold-out shows power metal drumming than later albums.

across Europe and

that we were gonna change our sound. But However, it also flaunted a love of operatic
Prince Of Fire is an indication that we’re melody, prog and keytar playing that still

Australia. You could

still the same band. We still have the same defines the band to this day.
melancholy and dark heaviness about us.” “The goal was to make music sustainable:

not ask for anything

The single, alongside Eurovision entries to write and record music and tour around
Dreamer and Promise, appears on Voyager’s the world,” Estrin remembers of the early

more than that.”

eighth album, Fearless In Love. And said album days. “Living in one of the most isolated
doesn’t just mark Voyager continuing to be cities in the world has made that very, very
Voyager despite the newfound mainstream difficult because, wherever you go, it’s very,
intrigue: it contains the most out-there and Simone Dow very expensive. It’s even more difficult when
genre-agnostic music of the band’s career. you play a niche form of music.”
The Best Intentions opens Fearless In Love Dow adds: “We started writing around the Making things even harder was an Australian
with a pulsing dance beat, joined by Estrin’s time of Australia Decides and [the release of] underground that seemed more smitten with
graceful vocals before the band dive into some Dreamer, and the writing process was very extreme metal than anything else, as well
heavy, off-kilter rocking. Submarine smacks different. We did it all at Scott’s little studio in as Voyager’s revolving-door line-up. Dow
you into a wall of guitar hefty enough to his house. That way we could edit and change (friends with then-guitarist Mark De Vattimo)
belong in a TesseracT or Devin Townsend things as we went along, rather than doing it joined in 2005, six years after the band
tune, before Twisted’s synths and irresistible all in the rehearsal studio. Then, when we formed, and is today the second-longest-
hook feel comparable to Signals-era Rush. recorded the album, everything was all done. serving member. Canion, who played with
That’s all before semi-title track Gren (Fearless It’s been a huge process, but it was one of the Dow in a thrash act called Psychonaut,
In Love) wraps these 45 minutes up with an most rewarding and creative processes we’ve joined in 2007.
atmospheric and guitar-powered symphony. gone through with an album.” “I immediately recognised that Voyager
It’s arguably the most nuanced, evocative song It comes as no surprise that Eurovision were one of the top bands in the scene,” the
Voyager have ever put their name to. hasn’t changed Voyager when bassist says. “Danny had this X-factor that
“Fearless In Love is one of our Voyager’s Fearless In Love is out Estrin, who formed the band in no other band had. He was driving forward
synthiest and most melodic now via Season of Mist. 1999, says that the contest was a sound that was almost too daring for the
albums, but it’s also the heaviest,” one of his very first musical metal scene to adopt.”
Estrin summarises. “It was during inspirations. He was born in By 2012, Kay and Doodkorte had completed
the Eurovision process that we the North German town of the current Voyager line-up, which hasn’t
wrote it, so I guess we had a bit Buchholz In Der Nordheide shifted since. Three years later, with the
more focus on song structures and before his family relocated to announcement that Australia would become
making sure there’s no extra fluff. Perth, and while growing up an honorary competitor in Eurovision, the
We’ve got playful guitar solos and in Germany, Eurovision and band began campaigning to represent their
more prog than was on the last classical music were his two country. They started the Twitter hashtag
album [2019’s Colours In The Sun].” greatest musical loves. #VoyagerForEurovision and submitted songs

46 progmagazine.com
Who doesn’t
love a keytar?!

PRESS/CORINNE CUMMING/EBU
every year to no avail. Even after being the we thought, ‘If we can’t drink, we’re going to Cologne’s Euroblast festival in September.
runner-up to singer-songwriter Sheldon Riley eat something.’ These are gruelling nights and After that comes a continent-wide European
on Australia Decides in 2022, though, they were days, so there’s nothing like having a little headline run that will keep them trekking
never disheartened. sandwich in your pocket.” until the end of October. Eager to see their
“It was never like, ‘We have to do Eurovision Voyager were far from the first heavy rock litany of new fans in the flesh, Estrin, Dow
or we’re a failure!’” Estrin says. “It was more band to play Eurovision. Rock’n’roller Freddy and Canion are all impatient to get onto
like, ‘However far we can get, that’s awesome!’” Quinn represented the genre (and Germany) at the road.
Australia Decides was canned in 2023. the inaugural Contest in 1956. Then Finnish “I hope Eurovision will allow us to keep
Instead, Voyager were simply told over the masked monster mash Lordi and Italian glam upgrading with each subsequent tour,” the
phone by broadcaster SBS that they’d be going bunch Måneskin won the whole thing in 2006 bassist says. “I hope it’ll let us craft the kind
to Liverpool. When there, they had the same and 2021, respectively. Even this year, Voyager of show that I’ve wanted to put on with
outlook: a win would be nice, but simply were contending with German gothic metal Voyager since I joined.”
representing prog and band-made music to quintet Lord Of The Lost, who sadly finished Looking beyond this year, Voyager want
millions of people is already brilliant enough. in last place. to have a legacy as the band that brought
“If you’re a Eurovision fan, you know the However, competing in a mainstream both fearlessness and consistent quality to
juries don’t like heavy music, or bands in programme mostly reserved for pop singers/ not just Eurovision, but the broader rock and
general,” says Estrin. “So the fact that we songwriters has led to purists sometimes prog scenes.
came sixth in the jury vote is incredible.” denouncing bands as ‘Eurovision groups’, like “I want us to go down as a band that doesn’t
That casual attitude made its way on-screen. it’s a derogatory term. Dow claims Voyager sound like anyone else, regardless of at what
When Voyager won the second round of haven’t weathered any such pushback, though. point you pick up a Voyager album and listen
Eurovision’s semi-finals, they sprayed people “The feedback we had during the whole to it,” Estrin states.
around them with water that they’d put in process was super-supportive,” the guitarist “We’ve always done things differently,
a champagne bottle. During the final, almost says. “People were stoked that we were putting but we’ve always sounded quintessentially
as talked about as Promise was the fact that, progressive metal on the map. Now, we’ve Voyager,” Canion adds. “I think that, now we’re
when the band were given top marks by the got sold-out shows across Europe and eight albums in, that’s never going to change.”
Portuguese jury, a camera caught them Australia. You could not ask for anything It may be hammering it down in Perth right
snacking on some ham sandwiches. Cue more than that.” now, but Voyager’s future seems bright.
memes aplenty across social media. Currently, Voyager are only weeks removed
“It was Marks & Spencer’s, so it was a quality from Eurovision, but they already have a full Fearless In Love is out now via Season Of Mist.
sandwich,” Estrin chuckles. “We were told off touring cycle directly ahead of them. Fearless See www.voyagerau.com for more information
after the semi-final for the splash incident, so In Love is out now and the band will headline and upcoming tour dates.

progmagazine.com 47
 In 1970, Barclay James Harvest caught the critics’ attention when they experimented with rock
and orchestra on their bold self-titled debut. Half a century later, John Lees‘ Barclay James Harvest are
preparing for their final live shows before the bandleader retires, including a special orchestral concert
in Huddersfield in September. John Lees discusses the band’s incredible career and the tracks that
made up their recently reissued second album, Once Again.
Words: Mike Barnes
Portrait: BJH/CherryRed

48 progmagazine.com
 T
he last time we played with manager, a local fashion entrepreneur
“ an orchestra was in Athens John Crowther. They moved into one
five years ago,” says Barclay of his properties, Preston House, an
James Harvest guitarist 18th-century farmhouse in nearby
and vocalist John Lees. Diggle. If that sounds like a cool way
“We played at the Odeon of Herodes to ‘get it together in the country’, the
Atticus, an amphitheatre on the slopes facilities were, if not quite 18th-century,
beneath the Acropolis. It was fantastic. The newly remastered then certainly primitive.
Standing there on stage looking up at Once Again. Barclay James Harvest – Lees, Les
the Acropolis in spotlight in front of an Holroyd on bass and vocals, Stuart
orchestra was quite surreal.”
Although Barclay James Harvest
might not have been the most flash
and virtuosic of progressive rock
bands, they were certainly one of the
most ambitious and broke new ground,
in early 1971, by touring with an
orchestra. And, as their Acropolis
concert demonstrated, they can still do
rock and grandeur like no other group.
But the road to Athens has been a long,
and at times difficult, journey.
They formed in 1967 in the Oldham
area and early on played at Middle
Earth and with Pink Floyd at All Saints Barclay James Harvest,
Hall, London. They established L-R: Les Holroyd, Mel
Pritchard, John Lees
a melodic style with blues and folk and Stuart ‘Woolly’
elements and attracted a sponsor and Wolstenholme.

“Marrying a rock band

to an orchestra was
seat-of-the-pants stuff.”

progmagazine.com 49
 ‘Woolly’ Wolstenholme on keyboards In 1971 the band and orchestra went
and vocals, and Mel Pritchard on on tour with Godfrey conducting. “It
drums – signed a one-off single deal was financially a disaster,” Lees recalls.
with Parlophone and released a single, “It’s not that the concerts weren’t well
Early Morning, in April 1968. The group attended, but there was no profit in it,
had already experimented with cello, it was all paying to play. You couldn’t
tenor horn, flute and recorder and charge ticket prices to make the money
although they didn’t have the budget to pay the expenses that were incurred.
for strings, they had been impressed by And the further we played from
The Moody Blues’ use of the Mellotron London, the smaller the orchestra
and hired one for the recording from became due to costs.”
a piano shop in Derby. Both Crowther and the band ended
“We were the first and only people up in debt, but for 1971’s Once Again,
to actually rent the thing,” says Lees. Barclay James Harvest decided to carry
“The guy didn’t want it back, so we got on with orchestration on some songs,
it at a knockdown price. And that was and they also signposted where they
the start of introducing orchestral were heading in a rock direction.
strings as part of the palette. We had Much is made of prog’s supposed
some other songs which lent relationship with JRR Tolkien’s The
themselves to that kind of sound Lord Of The Rings, but very few tracks
picture, and from then on it became actually reference it. Lees’ sweetly

PREES/BJH/CHERRY RED
synonymous with what we did.” sung, folky ballad Galadriel is one. “I’d
In 1969 Barclay James Harvest read Lord Of The Rings, but the song is
signed to EMI’s new progressive and not specifically about Galadriel, the Celebrating the
underground subsidiary Harvest character in the book,” says Lees. “It’s original album’s
release in 1971.
Records. They were one of the label’s just a general kind of a love song.” Ever
first bands and donated a part of their keen to avoid generic pop orchestration,
name in the process. Like The Moody Godfrey embellishes its simple conflict and showcases a tougher band
Blues on their 1967 album Days Of structure with busy string parts, high sound thanks to its impassioned
Future Passed, they wanted to use both brass and timpani rolls, which he vocals, Lee’s searing lead guitar,
Mellotron and orchestra, but whereas identifies as like Benjamin Britten. Holroyd’s animated bass lines and
Peter Knight’s orchestral passages were Norman Smith had gone to the gear Pritchard’s dynamic drumming.
largely standalone pieces, they sought store at Abbey Road and pulled out The acoustic Vanessa Simmons is an
a more integrated sound. a famous guitar for Lees to play on this affectionate look back to a former love:
The group’s agency Blackhill track, the Epiphone Casino that John ‘Vanessa Simmons, funny kind of name,’
Enterprises put forward a young Lennon had used on the Apple rooftop Lees sings. Here the group’s harmonies
arranger, Robert John Godfrey, who was concert a couple of years earlier. are reminiscent of Crosby Stills And
keen to work with them. He became Mocking Bird, originally written by Nash. “Yeah, it was West Coast
known as their Resident Musical Lees in 1968, remains one of Barclay inspired,” Lees admits. “We did have
Director – literally, as he had moved
into Preston House. By this time, Lees
had had enough of the “squalid” “When you look back on where
conditions there and moved out.
Godfrey was responsible for the
orchestration on their 1970 debut
we played and how many dates
album Barclay James Harvest – except
Mother Dear, which was arranged by
we did in a year, and how long the
producer Norman Smith, who told
Godfrey what he had written was “too tours were, it’s quite frightening!”
bizarre”. Godfrey has called Smith’s
arrangement “completely awful” and James Harvest’s best-loved songs. a good harmony, the three of us. We
claims that unlike some string Godfrey’s orchestrations on the album have very similar accents and voices
arrangers, he “knows how classical are particularly inventive but dense that just sit together really easily.”
music works”. On Dark Now My Sky, and complex, and at times feel at odds Ball And Chain is a tough bluesy
PREES/BJH/CHERRY RED

based on the ominous environmental with the vocal lines. Does Lees agree? rocker topped by Wolstenholme’s
warnings in Rachel Carson’s book “Well, over the years, I’ve just got rather overcooked vocals. “It was a bit
Silent Spring, his arrangement is very used to it,” he replies. “We play of a spoof and was meant to be a take
particularly intricate and expansive. our version of Mocking Bird live with on Led Zeppelin,” Lees recalls,
The orchestra on the album – the Mellotron and strings so it’s laughing. “He had this paper cup and
credited as Barclay James Harvest become a different beast by now. But was using it like a megaphone in front
Orchestra – were actually a London- some of the orchestration, like Dark of the microphone. It was hilarious.”
based student orchestra. “Marrying Now My Sky, is well heavy, isn’t it?” Less fun is Wolstenholme’s Happy
a rock band to an orchestra was seat-of- It was to be Godfrey’s last album Old World: a grim, ironically titled
the-pants stuff,” says Lees. “In some with the group; he went on to form song, with the protagonist’s threat to
instances, the orchestra goes out of The Enid in 1973. Personal frictions die by suicide. It’s inadvisable to be too
time. And you’d have thought that we and a dispute over the extent of his literal when linking a song’s message
would have had some leeway with the contribution to Mocking Bird and other with the singer, but Wolstenholme
students, but everything was done songs culminated in an unhappy exit. lived with depression and took his own
according to rule books, so even if we This was followed years later by life in 2010. How does Lees look back
had to have extra rehearsals because lengthy and unsuccessful litigation. on it now?
they weren’t playing it right, they Song For Dying is a powerful anti-war “That was probably written when we
charged us.” song, lamenting the loss of our sons in first started, when we were sending

50 progmagazine.com
 White Sails didn’t make it [on to record]
He did a lot of work on that.”
But the pivotal track on the original
album is the eight-minute-plus She
Said, which introduced the powerful,
dynamic 70s BJH rock sound. Written
by Wolstenholme and Holroyd, it was
originally two songs with folky and
rock elements which then morphed
into its recorded form. “It was a good
live number – still is,” says Lees.
Wolstenholme weaves together subtle
string and flute Mellotron, and Lees
gives his lead guitar lines an extra
edge with what became a signature
style of playing of two notes together
– “split notes”. The song dies down to
a ruminative middle section with
distant recorder, before surging back
up to its conclusion.
And that tune is an early example
of the underrated Mel Pritchard’s
expansion into a more adventurous
drumming style, playing towering
snare rolls before launching off – on
a wing and a prayer – into lengthy
full-kit breaks. It certainly upped the
excitement levels. Lees identifies
Vanilla Fudge drummer Carmine
Appice as a particular influence on
Pritchard at this time.
Playing with an orchestra affected
Barclay James Harvest in a number of
ways. It helped define their identity,
and while they have continued
sporadically recording and playing live
with an orchestra – Martyn Ford took
over from Godfrey in late 1971 for
…And Other Short Stories – they
pragmatically tried to achieve an
orchestral effect with a four-piece
band, through Mellotron, keyboards
and more dramatic playing style. This
can be heard on the 1971 Radio 1 In
Concert recordings on the expanded
Once Again – hosted by DJ John Peel,
who particularly enjoyed She Said.
The money they lost on their initial
orchestral tour had to be recouped, and
they toured relentlessly for a couple of
years to pay off their debts honing
their live show, which was captured in
full force on 1974’s Barclay James Harvest
Live. It included songs from Once Again
and ended up giving the band their first
Top 40 album.
Barclay James Harvest are currently
on their last-ever tour, but intend to
keep on recording and playing one-off
concerts “at festivals or special events”,
demos to publishers,” says Lees. (A Seascape). This, the full 12-minute Oh, the muddy glamour which may well involve an orchestra.
“That’s the way he was at that time. version, is a kind of pocket piano of your early-70s band “Up to the time we split with the
photo shoot!
He had that tongue-in-cheek, very dry concerto with orchestration by original BJH [in 1998] we’d done 940
humour; not everyone liked it. We Godfrey and the group notable by their gigs,” says Lees. “I don’t know what the
were great friends and it was typical of absence. Lees recalls that by this time, total is now. But when you look back on
Woolly. In retrospect, some of his later Wolstenholme had become a bit where we played and how many dates
stuff I felt was too dark for Barclay detached from the band, “so he would we did in a year, and how long the tours
James Harvest.” go off and spend this time doing one were, it’s quite frightening!”
Released at the beginning of this particular song like White Sails or In
year, the three-CD expanded edition Search Of England [from XII]. I was Once Again (Remastered) is out now via
of Once Again includes a remarkable quite happy with that, although not Esoteric. See www.bjharvest.co.uk for
outtake, Wolstenholme’s White Sails everybody was. But I don’t know why more information.

progmagazine.com 51
 Supersonic Revolution,
L-R: Koen Herfst, Arjen
Lucassen, Timo Somers,
Jaycee Cuijpers. Front:
Joost van den Broek.

52 progmagazine.com
After the seriousness of Ayreon and Star One, Arjen Lucassen is ready to let his hair
down with Supersonic Revolution. The Dutch polymath is shaking things up and
heading back to the 70s for some serious fun, and he’s gathered together a fantastic
group of musicians to help him.
Words: Jerry Ewing Images: Lor Linstruth

suppose it will turn some people “For me the 70s were the golden age “For drums, of course, I always work
“

I off. It’s not a typical prog album.

It’s not Yes or Genesis. But it’s
not a metal album either. The
concept is the 70s!”
Arjen Lucassen chooses his words
carefully. But, as always, the towering
Dutch prog rocker is spot on. We’re
of music,” Lucassen enthuses. “But
that’s purely personal! If I’d been born
10 years later, I guess it could have been
the 80s. I used to lie in bed under the
blankets and secretly listen to pirate
radio stations like Radio Caroline on
a little transistor radio. Those pirate
with Ed [Warby], but this time I had to
have the music within the week and Ed
doesn’t have his own studio, so I asked
Joost if he knew anyone,” he explains.
“He said there’s this guy, Koen Herfst,
the drummer of Vandenberg right now.
And he’s got his own studio. So I sent
discussing The Golden Age Of Music, stations played all kinds of weird some stuff to him, I got it back the next
the debut album from Arjen Lucassen’s underground music and I loved it! I also day and it was brilliant. And such
Supersonic Revolution, a new quintet loved 70s fashion, with the colourful a nice guy, too. It was an obvious
Lucassen has put together to celebrate shirts and bell bottom jeans.” choice. Timo I’ve known since he was
an era of music that has left an indelible
mark on the musician: the 70s.
However this time there’s
a difference. Unlike the long list of
“For me the 70s
projects that Lucassen has delighted
prog fans with over the years –
Ayreon, Guilt Machine, Star One,
were the golden
The Gentle Storm, Stream Of Passion,
Ambeon – Supersonic Revolution
feels different. True, as Lucassen
age of music.”
states, it’s not wholly a prog record. But it’s not just the music, a baby because I played with his dad,
But then neither is it a metal album. a delightful, big-sounding romp Jan Somers, in Vengeance back in the
Yet there’s enough within the record’s through the joys of most of what was 80s. Jan was the best guitar player in
11 tracks (not to mention a bonus disc great about the sounds of the 70s. Holland and his son is an even better
featuring covers of 70s songs by T. Rex, Lucassen has also foregone his usual player! So he was an obvious choice.
ZZ Top, Roger Glover and Earth, Wind practice of engaging singers and “And Jaycee, I worked with him
& Fire) to satisfy fans of both. Put musicians from the prog and rock about 20 years ago. After that,
simply, if you enjoyed Pink Beatles In worlds to create his musical visions, unfortunately, I kind of forgot about
A Purple Zeppelin, the second track and instead formed a bona fide band: him. We did the Ayreon shows and
from Lucassen’s 2012 solo album Lost In long-time keyboard player Joost van Russell Allen couldn’t do it at the last
The New Real, then you’ll probably den Broek, guitarist Timo Somers, moment and I thought, ‘Let’s try
enjoy Supersonic Revolution’s The drummer Koen Herfst and Praying Jaycee.’ He came to the rehearsal and
Golden Age Of Music too. Mantis singer John ‘Jaycee’ Cuijpers. I had him do Dawn Of A Million

progmagazine.com 53
 Souls [from Ayreon’s 2000 album
Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight Of The
Migrator] and he totally nailed it.
“If you see interviews with me,
He’s about my age, maybe five years
younger than me, so he grew up with I am always laughing and
the same stuff I did. And we are both
the biggest Dio fans in the world.
I guess it shows.”
having fun. I wanted a band
While there are plenty of references
for Deep Purple and Rainbow fans to
pick up on throughout The Golden Age
that reflects that.”
Of Music, the inspiration for the new As Lucassen himself says, he can be or ‘I want this.’ Instead I played the
project came not from such keyboard- viewed as a control freak. Yet giving part for the guitar player and said,
led heavy rock, but from some low- his fellow Supersonic Revolution ‘This is the basic, please make it your
slung, gritty southern blues and hard bandmates the space and time to bring own. Your solos, do whatever you
rock. ZZ Top’s 1975 rocker Heard It On their own character to the band’s music want.’ Sometimes I do complain.
The X, to be precise. makes the whole project buzz with Sometimes it’s like ‘Play this note,’
“Eclipsed magazine in Germany a vibrant energy. and they’re like, ‘Thank you, this
contacted me,” Lucassen explains. “I’m so glad to hear you say that Golden Age Of Music, sounds better.’ That’s the situation
“They asked if I had any cover versions because that was the idea from the Supersonic Revolution’s you want, basically.
debut album is out now.
lying around. I said, ‘No, but I’ll happily beginning,” he nods. “And again, it’s “It’s the same word that comes up
record one for you.’ So they gave me giving them as much freedom as can all the time and that’s ‘fun’. It was just
a list of bands and I saw a ZZ Top song be and they took it. I can only do that fun. And each time I got something in
I really liked and said, ‘Well, I can when I look up to musicians. I have from them, I loved it and it was better
record it for you.’ They then said it had to look up to them and think they’re than I could have imagined myself.
to be ready in a week and I was like, better than me and they can teach me. It was so easy. I can’t do that in the
‘Oh my God!’ So I contacted these I’ve got a lot of experience but they can big projects.”
musicians in Holland on WhatsApp teach me so much. I have to look up to
and literally in 30 minutes I assembled them and respect their opinion. Golden Age Of Music is out now via
five people. I sent a demo to each and “It was very important that I give Music Theories Recordings/Mascot.
Fun times: Supersonic
every one of them. And within a few them space. I wouldn’t tell the guitar Revolution bring the See www.arjenlucassen.com for
days I got all the files back from them. player, ‘I want it to sound like this,’ (much needed) laughs. more information.
“I’m a perfectionist, as you know,
so I’m always sending people stuff back
saying it’s not good, change this, etc…
It was all brilliant. We were calling and
WhatsApping and within a week we
had a complete product. It was so much
fun because working on Ayreon or Star
One… To get all those musicians, like
the last Star One, it had, like, 20 guest
musicians and it’s hell arranging all
that. I just wanted to have fun again.”
Fun seems to be the key here. It’s
a word that trips off the Dutch
musician’s tongue time and time again
during our conversation. In fact, this
writer hasn’t seen Lucassen so
positively upbeat and rocking about
a project for some time.
“I wanted to have a fun project,” he
beams. “Ayreon was pretty dark; the
last Star One was pretty dark. If you
see interviews with me, I am always
laughing and having fun. I wanted
a band that reflects that. I want five
guys to have fun. And since I did
ZZ Top I was like, ‘Let’s do a project,
let’s form a band and let’s write songs
in the style of the 70s because that’s
our formative years.’
“The whole glam rock thing – that’s
what started it for me. But I didn’t
want it to sound like the 70s you know
because that’s already been done, and
I can’t do it any better than Stargazer
or Kashmir. Which is good because the
guys are all young. They’re around 30,
so they weren’t alive in the 70s. So it
was a great way for me to make 70s
music with Hammond organ but to
update it to this time, basically.”

54 progmagazine.com
 The

Canterbury mainstays Soft Machine are back! As the group herald a new era without their longtime
drummer John Marshall and bassist Roy Babbington, the current line-up tell Prog all about their latest
studio album, Other Doors, and we find out more about their new drummer, Asaf Sirkis.
Words: Sid Smith Portraits: Korneeva Mariia

I
t’s been five years since Soft Machine and very much regarded as the drummer’s the can before then. “We booked into the
released their last studio album, Hidden drummer, Marshall enjoyed a long studio for five days, but John was only able to
Details. That’s a rather leisurely pace professional career that began in the early do the first three. However, they were three
compared to back in the 70s, when 1960s and would go on to encompass pop, really good days and we had enough to be able
bands signed to major record labels blues, rock and jazz. His incisive work with to finish the album. John sounds terrific.”
found themselves under a contractual Graham Collier, Nucleus, the Jack Bruce band Theo Travis, saxophonist, and flautist with
obligation to put out at least one, sometimes and Eberhard Weber’s Colours all form Softs since 2006, who first worked with
two records a year. These days, operating in a remarkable CV but it’s his association with Marshall in the late 90s, recording and
the independent sector, those kinds of Soft Machine for which he remains best releasing the album Bodywork, has nothing
external demands have all but disappeared. known. When he joined in January 1972, he but praise for Marshall’s qualities as a player.
Nevertheless there are other pressures and walked into a band in crisis following the “Many drummers will want to show you what
considerations to take into account, according sacking of Phil Howard in the middle of they can do with their best licks. But John
to John Etheridge, Soft Machine guitarist and recording Fifth. Marshall’s ability to reconcile plays what’s right for the music. He’s such
de facto leader of the group. freer percussive ideas with his clarity, a musical drummer and makes a lot of
“I was personally very keen to get this articulation and driving force would frame compositional-type rhythms and shapes
album done because I really felt it was our last the group’s rhythmic impetus and definition. within his playing. That’s just one of the great
chance to have John Marshall in the studio,” Beset by health issues, Marshall decided to things about what he does. We were really
he says, speaking about the drummer he first retire at the age of 81, so Etheridge urgently happy about what he did on this album,
worked with in Soft Machine after replacing wanted to get the new album, Other Doors, in contributing so much with his sound and
Allan Holdsworth in melodic approach.”
1975. “We’ve worked
through the years
“There’s such importance in this music Their latest album
finds them moving
together intermittently
ever since. His drumming
to so many people’s lives. I think it’s seamlessly between
spontaneous
always meant a lot to me.”
Something of a legend
touching that it means so much to them.” improvisation, pop-
tinged ebullience,
among industry circles Theo Travis muscular rock and

56 progmagazine.com
Soft Machine: bringing
back the classics.

progmagazine.com 57
 L-R: John Marshall,
John Etheridge, Theo
Travis, Fred
Thelonious Baker.

visceral jazz, often haloed in shimmering and old and a few women, strangely,” he laughs. Canterbury scene, having performed and
electronica and ambient overtones. As with The audience’s response to Soft Machine has recorded in a long-running duo with Matching
previous eras of the band, they resist easy been encouraging on a number of levels, he Mole/Hatfield And The North’s Phil Miller
categorisation. “I hate the word fusion,” says says. Whether it’s in large-scale venues or the and In Cahoots, whose line-up also included
Etheridge with passion. “When I think of smaller, more intimate occasions, the intensity Elton Dean and Pip Pyle, Baker recognises the
fusion, I think of some smart-arse Californian with which the band tackle old and new broad appeal that Soft Machine subtly exerts.
playing a million notes, bang on, absolutely. material alike suggests that punters are “We recently played a large theatre in Istanbul
Spot on. But we’re not a fusion band at all.” making profound connections to what they that was more or less sold out,” he recalls.
Though largely seen as something of hear that can be life-changing. “There’s such “There were lots of young people and they
a British musical institution, Soft Machine importance in this music to so many people’s were coming up after the gig wanting things
have always enjoyed an international appeal. lives. I think it’s touching that it means so signed, which was fantastic.”
Early in the band’s career they were celebrated much to them. There are many areas of music Being able to include new material and draw
in France’s pop and avant-garde scenes, and which I play with, such as a lot of jazz stuff, upon the older repertoire not only makes the
a little later in the USA, touring then with Jimi and you do it and afterward, people say things concert stage a dynamic place to be for the
Hendrix. Their particular blend of expressive like, ‘Good gig!’ or whatever, but not like it musicians, but breathes a fresh vitality into
virtuosity and sometimes sombre musicality means something in the same way as a band compositions that would otherwise remain
went down well in Europe throughout the 70s; that have history and a cultural significance in something captured long ago, preserved in the
more recently, Japan and South America have the way that Soft Machine have.” amber of vinyl or CD. “It’s keeping the music
also embraced the Softs. Travis recalls playing That’s a theme that bassist Fred Thelonious alive and in the present, enabling people to
in Chile in the summer of 2022 and the group Baker readily warms to. A veteran of the experience music that they might only have
receiving something of heard on record. I’m
a heroes’ welcome on
what was their first visit.
“When I think of fusion, I think of some so glad to be part of
it,” he says.
“It was amazing. It was
a big, big venue. I’d
smart-arse Californian playing a million If Other Doors
represents John
played there when I was
touring with Steven
notes, bang on, absolutely. Spot on. But Marshall’s final
recording with the
Wilson’s group. They
were very enthusiastic
we’re not a fusion band at all.” group, it also marks
Baker’s first. In 2021
and a mixture of young John Etheridge he took over as

58 progmagazine.com
 The Drummer’s Tale
He’s taken over the sticks from the long-serving John Marshall, but who
is Asaf Sirkis?

Soft Machine onstage in Leeds

this past May, with Asaf Sirkis
in the hotseat on drums.

JOHN BENTLEY/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

rummer and composer Asaf album Sirkis recalls hearing in “Obviously, I’m a relative
D Sirkis officially took over
from John Marshall in 2023 –
his teens was 1975’s Bundles,
featuring Allan Holdsworth.
latecomer compared to the
others but it’s the music I grew
though he’s no stranger to However, his favourite track is up listening to. It’s like the
the group, having previously The Tale Of Taliesin from 1976’s closing of a big, big circle for me.
filled in for him on recent tours. Softs. “I just love the way this Playing with John, Theo and Fred
Described by Bill Bruford as tune tells a story and the way is great for me not only because
a “master of creative surprise” that John Etheridge plays it.” of the music but because of their
and lauded by Robert Wyatt, who Aged 54 and already busy improvisational approach and
comments: “There’s nothing he with an international career, the artistic freedom I have as
can’t do when he puts his mind being part of Soft Machine is a drummer to express myself in
to it,” the first Soft Machine especially exciting, he says. the moment.” SS

bassist for the group after Roy Babbington’s done at Theo Travis’ suggestion and has been music going back over 50 years. For me, it’s
decision to stand down. Babbington, who first part of the group’s live setlist for a while now. a subtle combination of rock, jazz, improv,
appeared as a guest alongside Hugh Hopper on “I’ve added some extra harmonies and other melody, risk-taking, textures and experimental
1971’s Fourth, appears on two tracks on the things to it, so it’s got my stamp as well as looping. It’s all the things I like to play in.”
new album, including a duet with Baker on going back right down to Kevin Ayers’ For some long-lived groups, history can be
Now! Is The Time and providing the sinuous original. It somehow fitted in with all of the a millstone around the neck of players,
bass line for Penny Hitch, on which Baker solos. new material as well as the older tracks we tamping down creativity under the weight of
The Karl Jenkins-composed piece possesses do,” explains Baker. what has gone before. The current formation
a poignancy, with Babbington and Marshall Etheridge agrees but roars with laughter of Soft Machine, however, balances those two
replaying the parts they first jointly laid down when he remembers the number being potentially conflicting elements with verve,
on 1973’s Seven: a sense that one generation is recommended. “I’d never heard the original keen to renew the old material and infuse it
handing the baton over to another. version. I had to go and seek it out. It’s got with the spirit of the here and now. As John
Etheridge is especially pleased to see Baker a nice bounce about it and an atmosphere Marshall said when outlining his approach to
in the group. “I first played with Fred in 1980 that’s exactly what we’re after. As a group, joining the group: “The music begins here.”
when he was this 20-year-old whiz-kid, so we’re always looking for variety, not for its With Marshall retired, John Etheridge, now
Fred and I have had a relationship for years. own sake but to cover a broader territory. So, 75, is the last surviving member from the
He was exactly the right person to be playing the second-ever band’s 70s heyday. Despite his standing as
to take over from Roy. Not only Soft Machine single alongside a hugely respected player in jazz circles, he has
is he a great musician but he’s brand-new compositions is a no hesitation in declaring Soft Machine’s
got eccentricity and that’s what really good approach. It brings hybrid mix of jazz and rock to be his spiritual
we need. We don’t want a degree of eccentricity that’s home. “When I pick up the guitar and play
a straightforward fusion important to Soft Machine.” under the banner of Soft Machine I feel
virtuoso. Technically fantastic For Theo Travis, there’s different to any of my other gigs. Of all things
but not the sort of aggressive a rich combination of elements I do, it’s by far my favourite. When I play with
virtuoso, he’s absolutely the forming what he believes to Soft Machine, that is when I really feel like I’m
perfect choice.” be Soft Machine’s essence. contacting the player I want to be.”
Baker takes the lead on Joy “I like the freedom, I like the
Of A Toy, first heard on Soft variety of colours, the band’s Other Doors is out now on Dyad Records
Machine’s 1968 debut. The Other Doors, the band’s first studio album improvisation. The fact that it via Proper Music Distribution. See
rather whimsical number was since 2018. has such a strong catalogue of www.softmachine.org for more information.

progmagazine.com 59
 A
cancer diagnosis, that the music became a thing that gives a bit sound of the record, though, that you
pandemic, a broken of hope for the future, and something wonder why it’s taken so long for them
arm… the odds were that really meant a lot to all of us.” to give it a bash. But more on that later.
stacked against The There was not just change in the The London-based group have grown
Fierce And The Dead’s genre-defying quartet’s personal lives, over the last decade or so into perhaps
new album, News From The Invisible though. The album – their fourth – the epitome of a cult band, with dogged
World, from the get-go. features vocals; yes, after more than 10 determination, ear-catching yet
“Everything that could go wrong years of instrumentals, The Fierce And experimental tunes and a loyal fanbase
did go wrong,” guitarist Matt Stevens The Dead are now stepping in front of resulting in their stock steadily rising.
reflects. “But in many ways it gave us the microphone. That job has landed But News From The Invisible World
The Fierce And The Dead
a focus and gave us time to really put are loving life and loving on bassist Kevin Feazey (no pressure should see new doors opening for the
things under a microscope. And I think their band of brothers. then). It’s such a natural fit to the uninitiated. Stevens once described it

“Every gig we’ve done is

a conversation between us
and the audience, and
we’re really keen that the
vocals just continue that.”
Kevin Feazey

60 progmagazine.com
as the group’s
“Kid A moment”
– a nod to the 2000
Radiohead record that saw the
indie demigods diverge from rock
music and indulge in different sounds.
It’s proggy, heavy, melodic, dark,
light; some moments slathered in
soundscapes, some painted Crimson,
some fit for the radio. The band
continue to defy pigeonholing.
“The most commercial thing for us
to do was make the last album over
and over again, for several years and
play bigger and bigger festivals,”
Stevens says from his home via Zoom.
“That would have been the easy option,
but we just want to do different things.
If you repeat the same process, you

The Fierce And The Dead haven’t had it easy in recent years, but they’re ready to put all that
behind them with their fourth album, News From The Invisible World. It’s striking in many ways – not
least that, for the first time, they’ve recorded with vocals. Guitarist Matt Stevens and bassist Kevin
Feazey join Prog to lift the lid on how the quartet are enjoying a new lease of life.
Words: Chris Cope Images: Paul Mockford
progmagazine.com 61
 “We just want to
don’t get the same excitement and get The band are also clear that there was
the same results at the end. What you no comprise on the new album. It was a
have to do is throw everything up in
the air and start again. If you ever try do different things. record that they wanted to make, and in
some ways, what they needed to make.
to do the same things the same way
twice, it just doesn’t work.” If you repeat the “In the context of Matt’s [cancer]
diagnosis and stuff that was going on
One of those new colours sitting
proudly on the palette is the vocals. same process, you in the wider world, it’s just like, why
on earth are we worrying about if
Feazey – who has sung in bands before
– is said to have spent a great deal of
don’t get the same anybody’s going to like this?” Feazey
says. “Let’s just make something that
time working through how best to
present his singing, and the end result is
excitement and get we want to make.”
Rewind a few years, and it was
pretty impressive, all things considered.
There was no grand plan to introduce
the same results at shortly after the release of The Fierce
And The Dead’s well-received third
vocals, though. Like some of the best
things in life, it just kind of… happened.
the end. What you record, The Euphoric, that Stevens
began to fall ill. A tumour developed,
“It was the same as the decision to have to do is throw and the guitarist needed to have

everything up in the
not have vocals in the first place,” courses of painful treatment over
Feazey recalls. “There was no meeting a period of about two years.

air and start again.”

where we sat down and said, ‘Do you But even over the digital restraints
know what? We’re going to be an of a Zoom chat you can still feel that
instrumental band.’ If we decided Stevens has sought to morph a crushing
Matt’s going to start playing trumpet, Matt Stevens negative into a positive.
then we’d do that.” “I was having the treatment during
But the group are adamant that they lyricist – none of us are – to be able Covid, so [there’s] the level of
don’t really have a lead singer, as such. to have Nick Cave-esque grand lyrical complexity of having that kind of
The vocals are teased out and produced themes,” Feazey says with a smile. treatment during the pandemic where
in a way so it weaves into the rest of “But we were just writing about the everyone’s got to wear the masks,”
the music, and it’s all part of the multi- atmosphere that was around us. We he says. “But so far so good, I’m still
layered approach. had this existential threat from the being tested regularly, but I’ve seemed
“We’re a band – there’s four of us – pandemic, but at the same time people to have come through the worst of it.
and there’s no lead singer, there’s no were digging deeper into technology, It definitely gives you a different
lead thing,” Feazey says. “Somebody and this technology was allowing us to perspective on life: you realise that
said the other day that the vocals progress artistically, at the same time everyday you wake up is a bonus, and
sound like another instrument. That as society was crumbling around us. nothing is guaranteed.
was very intentional. It was done with “Several of us have been over the “It [the music] really felt like it gave
an audience in mind as well. We have years working in various types of care us some sort of sense of purpose
things that we wanted to say with the and things like that, so we’ve seen how
lyrics, but I didn’t want it to be the systems work. Through the band we’ve
L-R: Kevin Feazey,
outpourings of my sixth form college Steve Cleaton, Stuart spent a lot of time online, and seeing
poetry book. Every gig we’ve done Marshall, Matt Stevens. how that changed over the pandemic as
is a conversation between us and the well and all the misinformation coming
audience, and we’re really keen that around. It was a weird one because,
the vocals just continue that.” yeah, just this sense of the other: this
With a new platform to shout from, kind of thing in the future, but at the
much of the lyrical content remains same time being pulled to the past.”
enigmatic, but the group soaked in the
aura pervading the world at the time.
‘Are you counting up all that you have/Are
you making sure this too shall pass/And
you try to keep head up high/Keeping
pace, stand up to glorify,’ Feazey belts out
on Shake The Jar.
“They always say write what you
know, and I’m not a good enough

62 progmagazine.com
during a weird time. At one point we Everybody’s non-judgmental. It was Carries On Like This We Are Moving To
thought: ‘Is this ever going to come really something special.” Morecambe, to the depth of their last,
out? Is this ever going to be finished?’ It was back in 2010 when the group The Euphoric, which is described as
It got to a point where we thought: ‘Are first formed, as a trio, channelling their “breakthrough”.
we actually going to make an album? post-rock and having the brazen This time around things shift even
Will we ever play gigs again?’” chutzpah to smash out a 19-minute further; wanting to make an “ambitious
They did, thankfully – three festivals song as their first release. With record like Mercury Rev and the
last year, and a sold-out album release News From The Invisible guitarist Steve Cleaton joining to make Flaming Lips made in the late 90s”,
show is planned for London in October, World is out now. three into four – drummer Stuart News From The Invisible World, at times,
with more UK shows lined up for next Marshall is the other piece of the jigsaw feels a snug fit for the indie-leaning BBC
year. But getting out on the road and – they splashed onto the live circuit, Radio 6 Music, with Queens Of The
mingling with society feels a far cry ultimately ending up sharing stages Stone Age often flecked over the songs
from the process behind the creation of with Hawkwind, Anathema and and the vocals opening the door for
News From The Invisible World, with the Knifeworld. Their ethos is to not keep a whole new audience. But true to style
pandemic plunging the quartet into doing the same thing twice, and it there are still plenty of experimental
a digital-led world with home set-ups shows in their releases, from the post- jolts out of the blue; it’s easy to get lost
connecting via Zoom and Pro Tools. rock fun of their 2011 debut album, If It in the snaking bass line on Wonderful,
“We were all quite isolated,” Feazey for example, while What A Time To Be
reflects. “At that point three of us Alive chucks in some bouncy, doomy
were in London, one of us was outside stoner riffs, because why not? But with
London, and it was like: ‘What do we a seeming new-found energy The
do? Do we just sit here, or do we try Fierce And The Dead have already
and work out a way of doing this?’ ploughed headfirst into writing
We realised, as I think a lot of people material for a follow-up.
realised, that that kind of social element “We’ve started work on the next
of even just us four getting together album already,” Stevens reveals.
and playing music, was massively “We just spent the weekend at
important for our mental health.” a studio. It’s just a bloody joy to be
But the online world also gave The together in a room again.”
Fierce And The Dead something to For now, though, it’s all about News
hold onto during the trying times. From The Invisible World – an album
More than 5,500 people – AKA the that was once shrouded in doubt and
Fierce Army – are members of a fan uncertainty. Buoyed by Stevens’ new
group on Facebook. It might be small lust for life after going through the
fry for some, but for these guys it ordeal of cancer, the takeaway feeling
is treasured. is that the foursome’s eyes are
“All through this, that little firmly looking forward, not back.
community that we’ve been so lucky “You have to find the joy
to be part of online, it really was in everything, and try and
amazing because… even just like appreciate what you’ve got,”
people just checking in with each the guitarist reflects. “It’s
other, using our group page,” Feazey made me a lot more positive
says. “It wasn’t even about the band about things, it’s made me
at one point, it was just about these more optimistic. I think this
people, like-minded, just having is quite an angry record in
somewhere to hang out, having some ways, but it’s hopeful.
somewhere to express themselves. An experience like that will
change you, and it will give
you a feeling of gratitude to be
alive. I’m just grateful to still
be here, to be honest.”

News From The Invisible World is

out now via Spencer Park Music.
See www.fierceandthedead.com for
more information.

progmagazine.com 63
 Montreal-based Mystery put their planned ninth studio album, Redemption, on hold in 2020.
The ensuing break enabled Michel St-Père, who founded the band 37 years ago as a studio project,
to write some of its more grandiose tracks. He explains how a heroic Canadian soldier found his way
onto the album and why coming to the UK has always been a costly business for the Mysterons.
Words: Alison Reijman Images: Claude Dufresne

M
ichel St-Père is obviously a very enforced hiatus gave St-Père time to reflect, vocalist/flautist/frontman Jean Pageau and
happy man, thrilled to have finally his observations providing the overarching keyboardist/guitarist Antoine Michaud
released Mystery’s latest album, theme for both the title track and epic closer respectively. One song completed before Covid
Redemption – which, despite the Is This How the Story Ends? was Pearls And Fire and, as St-Père explains, it
global events of the last three Speaking to Prog from Mysteron HQ in was a fan’s suggestion via social media that
years, has exceeded all his expectations in Montreal, St-Père recalls: “The band were gave him the idea for the history lesson it tells.
terms of pre-sales and rave reviews. touring and it was going really well. There “I knew the song was about war, but I didn’t
“The comments about it are all positive so were many concerts prepared in 2020 – but know where it would go. This fan said to me,
far and the pre-sale went really well. It’s been all of them were cancelled so we lost track of ‘You go to the Netherlands very often and call
our best ever, so I think the fans did not forget what we were doing. We also lost the point it your second home. You know there was
about us during the past four years,” enthuses of rushing to do the new album, so we put it a Canadian soldier called Léo Major who saved
Mystery’s founder, guitarist, composer and aside and released the Blu-ray concert Caught a Dutch town during World War II? You should
producer. “We’re very happy about this, In The Whirlwind Of Time in 2020 instead. write a song about him.’ I went on the internet
especially as we have sold a lot of the records Meanwhile, I continued working on the album, and started investigating, and I said, ‘Okay,
in the UK.” making the new songs. that’s going to fit perfectly with the song.’”
From beginning to end, Redemption is “When we started touring again, we went For all its sonic loveliness, themes that
another Mystery masterclass in how to to the Midsummer Prog Festival in the Redemption covers include migration in hard-
channel influences from classic British prog Netherlands last year. It was there we decided hitting opener Behind The Mirror, inspired by
and US AOR, elevating them into panoramic to get the new album out. It was like kicking the heartbreaking photograph of a tiny Syrian
symphonic soundscapes, full of moments that our butt to get it finished!” boy’s lifeless body washed up on a Turkish
catch the breath and capture the imagination. St-Père wrote six of the album’s eight beach. Beauty And The Least is another
Though much of the album was written and compositions; the other two, love song Every morality tale about a prostitute looking for
half-recorded before the pandemic, the Note and the airy Homecoming, contributed by love and yearning for another life. Is This

“I have not seen Benoît [David] for about

four years and when we last spoke back
then, he wasn’t making music: he had to
start his life all over again.”
64 progmagazine.com
 ‘X’ marks the
Mystery spot.

progmagazine.com 65
 How The Story Ends? embraces all Mystery’s forced David to quit Yes in 2012, then Mystery One of the bands on his label are fellow
dramatic, intense storytelling, but St-Père the following year. Canadians Huis. St-Père has started working
kept his options open about how it should “It’s a sad story. I have not seen Benoît for with them on their new album, which he
appear on record. about four years and when we last spoke back hopes will get a release later this year. There
“There is something special about this song then, he wasn’t making music: he had to start will now be a lull in the Mysteron calendar
because it could have been in two parts, the his life all over again.” Ironically, St-Père says, until later this year when they play Progstock
first to open the album and the longer part to David’s presence in Yes meant Mystery got in the USA and a couple of shows in Canada.
close it,” he explains. “In the end, we decided some extra recognition when fans started St-Père has noticed that Canadian audiences
to leave it as one long song. It’s going to be a seeking out their music. They kept David’s are increasing on a par with those in Europe.
fun song to play live! It talks about everything departure from Mystery a secret for a year: “People tend to forget that Canada is a very big
that happened involving Covid, thinking how “We did not announce Benoît was leaving the country with a lot less people. That’s why
everything might have been finished because band as we hoped he would come back. we’ve never played Vancouver before!
of it. I put it in terms of a train passing by: you “It took us a good year to find Jean, who is Sometimes, bands from Europe contact me to
either jump on it or miss it. There’s a question a very charismatic singer and really tells the ask if I will help them with a tour of Canada
[implied] at the end: ‘Have I missed the train, stories of the songs. We tried other singers, – and I always say no!”
or have I arrived?’ It’s not predicting the end and it sounded like bad karaoke nights. It was As for coming back to the UK, St-Père hints
– it’s there to make us think that the end very disappointing for the band; we ended up a return is likely, their last visit being in 2019
could come at any time.” thinking we would have to go for second best. with a one-off date in Norwich. “It is always

Mystery, L-R: Jean-Sébastien

Goyette, François Fournier, Jean
Pageau, Michel St-Père, Antoine
Michaud, Sylvain Moineau.

“It is always fun for us to go the UK but the

paperwork and visas make everything
complicated and more expensive for us.”
St-Père is also heartened that the current “Jean had been in Styx and Saga tribute fun for us to go there, but the paperwork and
band line-up has remained stable for six years, bands, which is strange as I think I saw all the visas make everything complicated and more
each band member making a significant videos of Canadian tribute bands but never expensive for us. It’s funny in a way because
contribution to the musical arrangements saw one of him in them anywhere!” this has always been the case for us going to
before he Mystery-stamps them with his St-Père also runs Mystery’s record label the UK and now, I see all these European
meticulous production. Astonishingly, it’s Unicorn Digital, which, over recent years, has bands complaining about the difficulties
now nearly a decade since Mystery enlisted scaled back its commitments with other getting the visas to go to the UK and vice
Pageau. You can’t talk about all things bands: “It is very hard to work with the newer versa for UK artists. It makes me think that
Mysteron with St-Père without asking him artists as it costs a lot of money to put out an nothing has changed for us.
about the well-publicised chain of events album, so the investment is not always worth “The pandemic stopped many of our
that led to his arrival. That was when in 2008, it. There are many good bands out there who touring plans, but we hope to be back soon.
Yes recruited their erstwhile vocalist, Benoît have some difficulty reaching their audiences. It depends on the offers we get. The story is
David, who was previously with a Yes tribute Nowadays, they don’t believe the help a label definitely not over.”
band. The Canadians had to work their own can give them. Often, when the younger bands
schedule around when David toured and get in contact, it’s because they are desperate Redemption is out now via Unicorn Digital. See
recorded with the real Yes. In the end, illness so it does not start the relationship very well.” www.therealmystery.com for more information.

66 progmagazine.com
 EVERYONE’S A

Almost 15 years into their career,

Godsticks are still winning new fans
with their blend of dark and complex music.
Bandleader Darran Charles talks through
the highs and lows of making their sixth
studio album, This Is What A Winner Looks
Like, and tells us why he doesn’t mind if
you call them ‘prog metal’.
Words: Cheri Faulkner Images: Eleanor Jane

T
“ ake no shit!” vocalist Darran
Charles yells at us through
his webcam, pointing a finger.
“That’s my one piece of Winning formula:
Godsticks with new
advice,” he explains when bassist Francis George
we ask what he’s learned throughout (far right).
his 14-year tenure as a member of
Godsticks. “I actually never wanted to
be in a band,” he says. The group’s
formation was nothing more than
a college project that Charles was
forced into as part of the curriculum
at the London Guitar Institute. As
a module, he was expected to put
together a performance with other
members. “I didn’t like it at first
because it was just nerve-racking,”
he recalls, “I had to spend eight hours
a day studying and practising and that.”
Prior to this, Charles had had dreams
of composing music for other artists
and remaining behind the curtain, but
after a few live shows he decided that
he could see himself on the stage
instead. He dropped the “fantasy” of
composing for others, gritted his teeth,
and placed an advertisement for other
musicians to join him.
“The setlist I put together had music
from Zappa, George Benson, Steve Vai…
a mad variety of musicians,” he laughs.
“Just one person replied, that was it.”
That one person was Godsticks’ first
bass player, Jason Marsh, and together
he and Charles put together a setlist that
Charles says they had no audience for.
“It was just to challenge ourselves.
This is the music we like, we didn’t
give a shit if we had an audience or

68 progmagazine.com
not,” he remembers. Their search to
complete the band continued, but their
material limited the applications. “We
“Any time you use non-conventional
went through about 8,000 drummers
until we were able to find somebody
who could play it,” Charles laughs,
song structures or an odd time
“I think we were called Multistorey
Earthworm back then.” signature you get labelled
After those rocky initial years,
Charles says he “stumbled” into
writing his own instrumental music.
“I didn’t really appreciate lead guitar
as progressive.”
as the main melody instrument,” he listener. It’s raw, but it’s plain to see He sent the record out to labels but
adds, “I just didn’t think it was a strong Charles had a talent for writing even in released it independently, adding, “I was
enough instrument. Not as strong as Godsticks’ infancy. completely naïve. I didn’t have a clue.”
the voice. In the end I just put some Charles tells us of the struggles in From the reception to Spiral Vendetta
ideas down and Jason said, ‘Oh, that getting that release finished. “We though, a light shone in the dark cave
sounds okay’ and we went from there.” managed to put about five songs of the industry for Charles.
Charles makes it sound so simple, together but it was an arduous process
but one listen to Spiral Vendetta, because we didn’t like what any of the
Godsticks’ 2010 debut, and it’s clear producers were doing,” he recalls.
it’s anything but. Odd time signatures Far from blaming external factors for
are scattered across the soundscape, any sort of conflict, he acknowledges:
and crunchy, repeating riffs lure in the “We were just idiots, to be honest.”

progmagazine.com 69
 “I discovered the prog scene,” he
smiles. “There were people who might
actually want to listen to that music!”
It was this prog scene that convinced
him to carry on with Godsticks.
Charles explains that the sound of the
band since then has been a natural
evolution but puts their growth down
to the members’ interactivity and
chemistry with one another. When
Godsticks began, he says, he wasn’t
interested in socialising with anybody.
“I get on with my bandmembers
now,” he explains. “Not that I didn’t
before, but I never placed any
importance on having a rapport with
them. It was always just me leading the
way and dragging everyone along.”
He explains that he felt each member
was so talented at their own instrument
that he never needed to involve them
further than necessary, especially not
in the promotional side of the work.
“I just assumed I’d have to do it
myself,” he says, referring back to his
naïvety at the time. “It’s hard work, no
one wants to do it… it’s like a fucking
job!” he says.
That changed for Godsticks in 2015.
With the addition of guitarist Gavin
Bushell and drummer Tom Price as
well as bassist Dan Nelson, Charles felt
he could open the band up to a more
collaborative approach.
“They do as much as I do, and that’s
a big deal,” he adds. “Everybody
contributes and invests into the band,
and a shared success is treasured more.”
Charles is quick to add that he isn’t
disrespecting any former members by
saying this: “I’m not slagging the L-R: Francis George, Godsticks have taken though, as Charles the latest Godsticks album, This Is
previous members off, but I never Darran Charles, Tom explains: “Lyrics are an afterthought! What A Winner Looks Like, is inspired
Price, Gavin Bushell.
asked them to do anything.” It’s always been the music that’s come by TV shows. He quotes Succession,
He talks at length about how first and the lyrics are inspired by the Breaking Bad and The Sopranos as
difficult and arduous it can be to melody that’s written.” He adds, “Every discoveries throughout that time, and
promote your music, especially now single song that gets turned into a demo notes that their previous album,
everyone has access to the internet, is gibberish, as a rule.” Inescapable, has a much more personal
and getting your new release out there Laughing, he elaborates that he just feel in comparison. There’s also an
“So long Dan Nelson,
is as simple as clicking a button. and thanks for all likes the sound of certain words and element of self-preservation as well as
Times have been pretty difficult for the memories!” that because of the lockdown period intrigue, as he tells us: “I’m a lot more
Godsticks over the years, with Charles
wondering whether they were doing
enough promotion, getting enough
good luck, or even creating music in
a way that was appealing to people.
“It’s either you need a lot of luck, or
we’re really shit and I just don’t know
about it yet,” he grins. “There is
definitely a part of me that thinks, ‘Are
we just shit?’”
He’s smiling, but this is a genuine
concern for Charles, and he’s not alone.
The truth is, with music being so
accessible to everybody in the modern
age, more and more people are
composing and releasing it without any
prior experience, and seeing success.
The most important factor for
continuing as a band is evolution, and
if a release has themes that are relatable
to people then it’s easier for them to
take on board. This isn’t the approach

70 progmagazine.com
 Those ingredients often come from
years ago, sometimes more than
a decade. Although Charles and his
bandmates do write on the fly, there
are many ideas that get banked for
future reference. “I’ve got folders that
go back to 2005 full of ideas,” he
explains. “I’ve even got folders called
‘Shite’ for ideas that haven’t worked
out that I still don’t want to get rid of.”
Every now and then, if he has
writer’s block or is feeling uninspired,
he’ll revisit these idea banks.
“I started writing the song Throne
about three years ago. If I know there’s
a germ of a good idea somewhere, I’ll
just work. It can genuinely take months
to get something going. As long as there
is a tiny germ of an idea, I’ll continue.”
Charles says that he’s just trying to
retain the enjoyment in the process,
which is “worth everything”.
“This is different from every other
album because I know exactly when
I started writing and how long it took,”
he tells us. “During lockdown, I didn’t
do anything because we weren’t playing
live. I had no inspiration to write and
I never wrote a single, solitary thing.”
He tried, but claims he couldn’t force
anything and that most of his work was
filed in the ‘Shite’ folder. Performing
live again sparked Charles’ creativity
and he wrote 16 songs in eight months,
which was unheard of for him.
“I’d never written that many songs.
Arguably, I haven’t improved my
average because over three years it’s
still the same number of songs as I’d
normally have written,” he laughs.

“Everybody contributes and invests Godsticks have been placed under

various divisions of the prog genre
throughout their time, but Charles

into the band, and a shared success ponders the suitability of the prog
metal label specifically.
“Any time you use non-conventional

is treasured more.” song structures or an odd time

signature you get labelled as
progressive,” he says. “I understand
interested in other people than myself, “These are things that are not the importance of classification so
and I don’t expect anyone else to be.” necessarily consequential to the song’s you can have a discussion and it’s
Prog quizzes Charles on Godsticks’ structure but they’re layers that are probably a fair description,” he
tendency to lift up darker lyrics with really important.” continues. “But a lot of the time, prog
lighter, more upbeat melodies but he Charles explains that layering is conjures up images of the yesteryear.
bats this observation away: “Everything important to him in the creation of It’s interesting that prog metal has
is subconscious really,” he explains, Godsticks’ music: “Gavin will add become bigger than prog.”
“I’d like to take credit for it, but I can’t.” those layers and create really incredible To his mind, prog’s always been about
Charles is always the one to start the textures that inspire me to move being progressive and evolving and
writing process, “Because I’m a control forward with an arrangement.” trying new things. “Now it’s there to
freak,” he jokes. The real reason, though, The final step in this album’s process describe bands that haven’t progressed
is because he finds it difficult to sing or was to send the track to Dan Nelson and are just derivative. Bands like Soen
create music over other people’s ideas. (who officially left the band a month and Leprous are not strictly prog metal.
“I’ll come up with a riff and go ahead of the album’s May release, but I don’t even consider us prog metal, but
a certain amount of the way, maybe whom Charles calls an “incredible” This Is What A Winner I don’t see it as an insult.”
up to a verse or a chorus, and then I’ll bassist) so that everyone’s personalities Looks Like is out now! But what is it that’s made Charles
bring in Tom [Price] and he puts his and writing styles were combined in stick at it with Godsticks for so long?
personality over the top of it. That the finished product. He replies in his usual self-deprecating
enhances things and gives me ideas of “Whilst I am the main songwriter way: “Delusion.”
where to take things next as well.” since they’ve been involved I think
When the structure is in place, the they’ve improved the songs because This Is What A Winner Looks Like is out
music is sent to Gavin Bushell for new they add ingredients that I wouldn’t now via Kscope. See www.godsticks.co.uk
layers, sometimes adding synth parts. have thought of,” explains Charles. for more information.

progmagazine.com 71
 Stories To

A ghost train, aliens,

Captain Nemo’s famous
submarine and much
more besides inhabit
I Am The Manic Whale’s
Bumper Book Of Mystery
Stories. Frontman and
founder Michael Whiteman
talks to Prog about giving
voice to his lifelong love
of the uncanny and
the inexplicable.
Words: David West
Images: David Addis

A moment of calm!
I Am The Manic Whale,
L-R: Michael Whiteman,
John Murphy, Ben
Hartley, David Addis.

72 progmagazine.com
I
t all began with a book that, like would be a great theme for an album. continuous ride. It’s not a super-
a faded, wrinkled treasure map We already had a couple of songs about coherent narrative like some concept
discovered in a dusty attic, inspired some quite wacky things, so I thought: albums, but every song has an element
Michael Whiteman and I Am The why don’t we write a few more songs of the Ghost Train song somewhere.”
Manic Whale to undertake their about mysterious circumstances and The track Nautilus is a loving homage
latest musical adventure. The quartet’s put them all together?” to Jules Verne’s sci-fi classic Twenty
fourth and latest album, Bumper Book Each of the eight tracks on Bumper Thousand Leagues Under The Sea.
Of Mystery Stories, grew out of Book Of Mystery Stories weaves a tale of “I’m very happy with that song, that’s
Whiteman’s love of tales of the the fantastic, all linked together by the the big 15-minute epic on the album,”
uncanny, inspired by the 1963 The Boys’ Ghost Train, which is the title of the says Whiteman. “I was reading that
Life Book Of Mystery Stories. album’s opening song. book at the time we were working on
“I found a copy of that in a spooky, “The idea is that you’re on this ride, this album. I’ve always been fascinated
dusty secondhand bookshop when the train is taking you around, and by submarines; I love submarine films,
I was a teenager,” says Whiteman. “It’s each scene is a different mysterious I love the atmosphere of being enclosed
probably a bit dated now but I’ve always story and song,” says Whiteman. “The and separated from the world, a locked-
loved reading ghost stories and spooky themes from Ghost Train come back off community. That’s the track with
stories. I found the book again a couple loads of times throughout the album Ryo Okumoto on; it was great to have
of years ago, re-read it and thought this to remind you that you’re on this him involved, he did a fantastic job.”

“I’m not shy

about admitting
to being
a massive geek.
I’m interested
in science and
technology,
stories and
science fiction,
why not write
about that?”
The connection between Whiteman
and the Spock’s Beard keyboardist
began when Okumoto saw a video
that Manic Whale made for the
Fusion Online Christmas Cracker
event on YouTube during lockdown
in 2020. The band performed their
own One (Hopeful Song) and Chris
Squire and Alan White’s Run With The
Fox, catching Okumoto’s attention.
“He reached out to me and said,
‘I really like the Manic Whale video,
do you want to write something
together?’” recalls Whiteman. That
initially led to Whiteman working
on Okumoto’s solo album, The Myth
Of Mostrophus.
“It really was the dream,” says
Whiteman. “The people on the album
are a ‘who’s who’ in the prog world. I can
almost not believe that I’m singing
a song that’s got Steve Hackett playing
guitar on it. Then he had me over to
LA last year and we did the album live
with a phenomenal all-star band – we
did two nights in a studio near where
he lives. That was incredible.”

progmagazine.com 73
 Clearly, a band of
great taste when it
comes to literature.

In the case of Nautilus, Okumoto

went above and beyond what “Ryo Okumoto reached it got to around 5,000 words and we
realised we’d need three booklets to
Whiteman was expecting.
“Initially I just asked him to do
out to me and said, fit it in.”
The book ties the whole concept back
a Hammond organ solo,” says
Whiteman, “but then he said, ‘Can I do
‘I really like the Manic to its roots and that dusty bookshop,
before the next stage in the promotional
the piano as well?’ ‘Go for it!’ And it
came back with piano, Hammond organ,
Whale video, do process: the Maniacal Mystery Tour to
promote the album and book.
a Moog solo, so it was great. I didn’t you want to write “We’ve got five dates in the calendar,

something together?’”
want to ask too much of him, but he we’re hoping to put in a couple more,”
was very happy to go to town on it.” says Whiteman. “Early November, we’re
The subject matter on Bumper Book… going to be in London, in Leicester, in
is nothing if not varied. Ernö’s Magic From puzzles to deep sea voyages Lockerbie – that’s a first for us, we’ve
Cube, written by Whiteman and and aliens, the lyrical content is an not been up in Scotland before – and
guitarist David Addis, was inspired by expression of Whiteman’s realisation there are a few others in the pipeline
Ernö Rubik, inventor of the Rubik’s that there’s no limit to what you can we’re working out details for. We’ve
Cube. Released as the album’s main write about. He credits this approach to done festivals and one-off gigs, this’ll
single and video in June, lyrics proved the example of Big Big Train and their be our first UK tour, which is exciting.”
to be a mouthful and a half. song East Coast Racer about Mallard, The final piece of the picture will be
“The lyric at the end is about how the world’s fastest steam locomotive. choosing what music to present live.
many combinations there are on the “I’m a huge fan of trains, particularly Whiteman is keen to play the new
Cube, and trying to memorise that was steam trains and Mallard, which that material, but aware that if they perform
hard work,” says Whiteman. “‘Forty- song is about, and I’d never thought, the whole album, there will be little
three-quintillion, 252 quadrillion, zero- ‘Why don’t I write about steam trains?’” time left for anything else fans may
zero-three trillion, 274 billion, 489 million, he says “Everyone is writing love songs The new album and the want to hear.
856 thousand-times combinations….’ and clichéd lyrics, why don’t I write book that started it all. “We’re still working that out,” he
That’s a tough lyric to learn!” about stuff that I’m passionate about? says. “We want to come back with an
We Interrupt This Broadcast, which I’m not shy about admitting to being almost completely new set, because
closes the album, returns to the realm a massive geek. I’m interested in science we’ve been playing the same set for
of science fiction with its tale of an and technology, stories and science the last couple of years since Things
abortive alien invasion. fiction, why not write about that? And Unseen came out. We probably will do
“It’s based on a real circumstance,” that realisation was the birth of Manic a couple of songs from Things Unseen,
says Whiteman. “In the late 70s there Whale. It was a key moment for me.” but then the other songs we’ve been
was an interruption to a news broadcast The album release is accompanied playing from the previous albums
with the voice of this alien, almost by a limited-edition book containing we’re probably going to drop and pick
certainly a hoax recorded by a guy with 16 short stories, written by the band different songs so it’s going to be quite
a tape machine and a transmitter when members, that shares the same title, a fresh set. People who’ve seen us at
television was a bit less digital and less Bumper Book Of Mystery Stories. any point in the last five years or so
secure than it is now. It spooked some “Every story in the book connects are going to see something quite
people who took it seriously, most with the album, some very obviously, different in November, I hope.”
thought it was a hoax, but I thought, some more subtly,” says Whiteman.
‘What if it were real?’ and tried to think “I wrote a story that connected with Bumper Book Of Mystery Stories is
about the reasons this alien invasion was a couple of the songs on the album, out now via Bandcamp.
threatened then never happened. It’s and I thought, ‘Let’s put this in the See www.iamthemanicwhale.com for
a silly song really but it was a lot of fun.” booklet.’ The story just kept growing; more information.

74 progmagazine.com
 Avenged Sevenfold, L-R: Johnny Christ,
Synyster Gates, Brooks Wackerman,
Zacky Vengeance, M Shadows.

Far Beyond The

Lighted Stage
One of metal’s biggest bands has thrown caution to the wind, embracing psychedelics, absurdity and
a wilful disregard for the limits of genre. Avenged Sevenfold’s frontman M Shadows gives Prog an
insight into the philosophy, sound and pursuit of discomfort that all shaped Life Is But A Dream…
Words: David West Image: Brian Cattelle

W
“ e were cognisant of the
fact that this could get
industrial to lounge music, often within the
space of a single song. “We had this philosophy
real instruments to create the sounds they
were seeking instead of samples and plug-ins.
crazy,” says M Shadows where we didn’t want to stay anywhere too “There’s a 30-second piece in Beautiful
about his band’s genre- long,” says Shadows. “We wanted things to Morning where it sounds like Beach Boys meets
diverse new album. jump around and be more ADHD to get in Beatles and it goes down the rabbit hole. There’s
Despite their status as torchbearers for the and out of these ideas quicker. I think it flute, there’s Wurlitzer, there’s a whole other
next generation of heavy metal stadium-fillers, becomes a lot more exciting, interesting, drum kit, there’s all these things but we’re
Avenged Sevenfold first revealed their interest discombobulated. It’s all over the place.” recording 30 seconds,” says Shadows. “During
in colouring outside the lines on 2016’s The Many bands might feel nervous stepping so Nobody there are three drum kits. Somebody
Stage, which ventured into prog metal territory. far outside their comfort zone, but Shadows could say, ‘Well, that’s overproduction’ but to
However, Life Is But A Dream… goes above and felt it was essential “because the discomfort me there are three different sections of the
way beyond anything they’ve done before. we were feeling on the other side, from doing song that have a different feel. Overproducing
“As we started the writing, we were really the same, was worse.” to me would be to lay down one drum kit, then
attracted to the music that was making us feel While Avenged embraced the concept of go in and find samples of the tones you want
uncomfortable or things that would throw you using the studio as a creative tool, Shadows and just stick them in those parts and then
off-kilter,” says Shadows. The album moves wanted to avoid the slick, over-produced sound you’ve got a glossy, almost sterile environment
from metal riffs to lullabies, techno and that’s now commonplace in metal. They used where everything sounds the same. If you keep

76 progmagazine.com
it organic, you’re really playing instruments,
you’re getting what you want, then that “It was either, we’re going to make the
doesn’t cross the line of overproduction.
That’s getting what you want.”
things that really inspire us and make us
One memorable part of the creative process
involved spending a week with a shaman and
happy, or we’re not doing anything.”
consuming 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic that
induces hallucinations. Shadows describes the One significant influence was the writings What I love about his philosophy is that it’s
experience as “the most impactful thing I’ve of Albert Camus, the French philosopher who the meaninglessness that creates the meaning,
done in my life”, saying that the trip made him explored existentialism and absurdism, ideas it’s the mundaneness, you should be trying to
realise how short life is, “and how negative the that permeate Life Is But A Dream… and set it live in the moment. Smell the roses, it’s the
ego can be if you let it get out of control, and apart further from its predecessor. simple things. That’s what I love about it.”
also that if you’re going to make art, don’t be “Albert was an influence definitely on things Life Is But A Dream… is divisive among fans
a slave to audience capture, where people expect like Game Over and (D)eath,” says Shadows. as it marks such a departure even from the
something of you and you keep doing that “The Stage doesn’t have a lot of human prog metal of The Stage, but for Shadows, there
because you’re too afraid to let them down.” experience in it; it has bigger ideas, like the Big was simply no other way to move forward.
Shadows says he’s a classic Type A Bang and the starting of life on the planet, but “It was either this or nothing,” he says. “It
personality, but wanted to strip away his ego. it doesn’t explain how it feels to be a human.” was either, we’re going to make the things that
“What it really taught me was to be bold and What attracted Shadows to Camus was his really inspire us and make us happy, or we’re
just do the things you want to do, and once you musings on finding meaning in the face of not doing anything. When you get to that
are free in that sense, it helps with everything,” a universe that’s utterly indifferent. point, there’s no fear to have. Someone likes
he says. “It helps with not worrying about if “He talks about how the mundane things the record or doesn’t, it’s the same thing. The
people like it or not, worrying about how it’s in life are actually the beautiful things,” says art is out there, it’s part of the human
going to go over live. You’re just doing, you’re Shadows. “When you’re doing the mundane – conversation, that’s all art is anyway, and it’s
just creating, and so it had a bunch of positive watching a show with your family or getting in the ether and you’re going to let it be. For us
effects in my life in dealing with my family, lunch – you’re always thinking about the next it was about putting something out there that
my friends, love, understanding people better thing. But one day you’re going to be 80 years we really enjoy and something that inspired
and empathy. Lyrically, the whole record is old and you’ll look back on your life and go, us. That’s all we can do.”
based around the purpose and meaning of life, ‘Where the hell did that go? Did I do what
or the meaningless life that we have, how you I wanted to do? Did I love the people I wanted to Life Is But A Dream… is out now via Warner Music.
find purpose and make sense of this place.” love the most? Did I spend the time with them?’ See www.a7xworld.com for more information.

progmagazine.com 77
 IVAR
BJØRNSON
Every month we get inside the mind of one points out his large The Dark Side
Of The Moon tattoo among many
of the biggest names in music. This issue it’s other tattoos on his forearm.
Ivar Bjørnson. Enslaved’s guitarist and synth Bjørnson formed Enslaved with
player discovered Pink Floyd at an early age his friend Grutle Kjellson in 1991
and found an unlikely prog mentor in one of the
during the heady days of the
Norwegian black metal scene and
Music was about
founders of Bergen’s controversial black metal the pair still lead the band to this discovering
something new,
scene. His first group was a brass band, but he day. While their roots are in
extreme music, from the early
quickly moved from more traditional to extreme
sounds, eventually finding his place as one of
2000s onwards Enslaved have
introduced more and more
and it was
the pioneers of modern progressive metal. progressive elements to a selling point.
In 2015, he and Wardruna’s Einar
their sound – so much so
that over the last decade And now
Selvik reignited the Nordic flame they’ve risen to the everything is
forefront of the modern
with their By Norse label, and more
prog metal scene with the about what it
recently Enslaved celebrated their
30th anniversary with the even
albums In Times (2015),
E (2017) and Utgard (2020).
reminds you of.
proggier Heimdal. Here, the multi- And Bjørnson’s work
with Einar Selvik of
instrumentalist takes a break from Wardruna for their By
touring to recount his curious and slaved’s latest, Heimdal. Norse label continues to
En
unexpected musical journey so far. push further musical boundaries.
Of course, prog being prog,
Words: Jerry Ewing it’s not always been a smooth prog fans who jumped in to

W
ride, with some fans who take support the band.
hen it comes to backstage at the USF Verftet a dimmer view of heavy music It’s been a fascinating journey
prog, Enslaved venue, an old sardine factory, refusing to accept the band as for the group and especially for
rhythm guitarist situated on the dockside in their part of the fold. However, when Bjørnson, who was further turned
and synthesiser hometown of Bergen before the some gatekeeperish complaints on to progressive music by the
player Ivar band perform a special launch about Utgard ranking too high in unlikeliest of sources – the late
Bjørnson wears his heart on his show for their recent Heimdal the Prog writers’ Albums Of The Euronymous of pioneering black
sleeve. Or more specifically, his album and their own brand of Year appeared on social media, metal band Mayhem. But for all
love of Pink Floyd. Prog is seated beer, when Bjørnson proudly there were plenty of pro-Enslaved the twists and turns, the big,
bearded, heavily tattooed and
Enslaved in 1994, L-R: Trym Torson, hugely friendly musician has
Grutle Kjellson, Ivar Bjørnson. taken everything in his stride, as
he tells Prog.

What was your first memory

of music?
First was the music in the car,
I guess like everyone else. Back in
the early 80s we were driving for
holidays. Everyone in Norway
[would] drive around from one
end to the other, find a beach, and
in the car there would be this –
the Norwegian postal service had
a cassette aimed at families –
PRESS/HANS EINAR JOHANNESSEN

children’s music [and] something

for the grown-ups. I remember
some of that stuff: there was
PRESS/ROY BJØRG

a rockabilly song, it was a kids’

thing. And then it was watching
Kiss on this kids’ series that

78 progmagazine.com
Ivar Bjørnson:
the man, the myth,
the legendary beard.

progmagazine.com 79
 was going every Saturday about bands that may have been more before and I chose the double
this family that was sort of nutty disturbing. But Venom still had bass. I learned to play it over the
in a very straight neighbourhood. that showbiz thing: they weren’t course of two weeks. At some
The teenage daughter was very really good instrumentalists but point the conductor, a highly
pretty and she was always they put on a spectacular show. educated guy [who had] moved
dreaming about Kiss towards the from the city to the countryside,
end of the episode. She got
onstage with them – obviously
So Kiss and Venom are two early
inspirations. What else?
called my parents and said,
“He’s yearning for something We’re metal
it wasn’t the real Kiss, imagine
how much Gene Simmons would
The third path was when I turned
11 and my dad was getting rid of
more sonic. Every break he’ll go
back and find drums and make
people but
have charged for that? But there his vinyl. He had all the Pink noise. I’m not complaining, I’m I think we feel
was something about the whole
band thing that drew me into it.
Floyd albums and on my 11th
birthday I got all the Pink Floyd
just suggesting you get him an
electric guitar instead. I don’t
like a part of the
I wanted to be in a band first albums and it felt important that think this is enough for him.” prog scene too.
and foremost. I had a little bit of a collection. It was such a great thing to do.
I was lucky with the people When I got The Dark Side Of The My parents went out and
around me, they didn’t think too Moon that’s when something just bought a guitar and amplifier.
much about what kind of music it really changed. I could not stop I could be in the basement and
was. My granddad, a silent, strong listening to that album. I still do. just crank it and play some riffs.
kind of guy, was a bus mechanic. The minute I was 18 I got a tattoo And that was all because of the
He saw I was into music and he of it on my arm. brass band.
liked that. My dad was a big Elvis
fan, he led the local fan club Enslaved have moved
chapter. When [Elvis] died he from extreme metal to,
well, kinda prog, really.
locked himself in a room for
three weeks. Anyway, they gave
me Kiss’ Dynasty cassette the
Christmas I turned six. That was
great, I had something that was
mine. Then I got other stuff,
Europe’s The Final Countdown and
Bruce Springsteen. I’d play air
guitar along to the music.
I joined a brass band in school.
And my dad would play acoustic
guitar on the weekends when he
had friends over. I asked him at
the age of eight if I could play
with him. I got to borrow his
other acoustic guitar, but my
fingers were too small so I played
the bass lines. And then I learned
how to play the guitar at 15.
PRESS/ROY BJØRGE

That’s when I started learning

chords. And then my dad went on
a business trip, saw something on
a shelf with long-haired dudes,
bought it, didn’t really look at it,
gave it to me. And it was Venom’s At what point did you start What was your first proper band?
The 7th Date Of Hell. And that’s thinking you might want to be A band called Obnoxious. We had
when the little horns came up in a rock’n’roll band? something called The Crocodile
and I was like, “This is the shit!” The roughest stuff we were first but the problem was we were
They were smashing guitars. playing was The Beatles’ Ob-La- the only two guys in the village
It was beautiful. Di, Ob-La-Da. I was a rhythm that played instruments, both
guitarist already then guitarists. It didn’t go anywhere.
Was it the energy and I played a little I tried to convince people at school
of Venom that French horn, but to become a drummer. At some
appealed because I loved playing point I was told to stop harassing
you were young? with other people so the other students: “They don’t
I think so, but it I didn’t care. I was want to play in your band.”
was also tongue-in- eager, I wanted to So I gave that up. That’s when
cheek, and I liked learn more. I came we started Obnoxious. It was
that. They were forward when they modelled on Anthrax, basically,
singing about Satan Utgar had this opportunity thrashy. We got a rehearsal room,
d (20
and there were several Pro20), which pleased to go to summer camp people came in and out of the
g writers.
PRESS/THOR BRODRESKIFT

skulls on the cover, for kids that I went [to] band. They wanted to be a singer
but it was cool, I wasn’t afraid. two years in a row. One and they didn’t want to learn
I might have been if I was 10 class we had every day was called stuff by heart, [that] was like
years old and put on some of ‘Another Instrument’. You picked school. But we kept going, and
these second-wave black metal something you hadn’t played had a lot of fun with that.

80 progmagazine.com
Bjørnson is a fan of As an impressionable young rock
the Dark Side. fan, what was it like living in
Norway and having extreme black
metal happen all around you?
I don’t think I processed it at the
time. Euronymous of Mayhem
was a mentor musically and as
a guitarist. The single most
important thing as a guitarist
was his masterclass. He stopped
by our house, he had his guitar,
I kept asking him all the time:
“How do you get that sound?”
We were listening to the demos
and he decided to take the guitar
and show me. Everything good
[was] shaped from that. He was
the guy who showed me prog.
He gave me Klaus Schulze’s
Timewind, Tangerine Dream,
all this stuff I had liked. It blew
my mind, every second of
listening to those albums.
I was 14 or 15 when we would
go to his record shop, Helvete,
in Oslo with a packed lunch on
the bus. There was an article
[printed] two weeks before he
was murdered. He was in a white
turtleneck and he wanted to give
a message. He said, “I’m doing
this for my family but also for
other people. There is an element
of showbiz and charade to all this.
It’s art. But things need to calm
down because they’re about to get
out of control.”
That was his last media. I think
he understood at that time that
the other side was actually meant
for the public, it was directed at
him. That’s very sad.

Enslaved have never really

bought into the satanic side of
the black metal thing; you chose
to follow your own path with
Norse mythology.
If you didn’t have a satanic
ideology, you couldn’t be black
metal, it wasn’t even up for
discussion. It was inseparable,
so we didn’t think about it.
Satanism? Nah, 99 per cent of
the black metal scene is like that
these days. You’re a normal chap
during the week and then you
put on the wig and hail Satan on
weekends. It’s very different.
But [Euronymous] was serious.
It was bleak.

How did Enslaved form?

I saw this band, Witchhammer,
and everyone was moshing.
There’s one especially crazy
guy who ends up stage diving.
Of course it ends up with him
hitting me on the head and I pass
out. I woke up and that’s when

progmagazine.com 81
 I met Grutle [Kjellson]. He asked insight, like Heavy then dropped or Then you try and you realise you
if I was okay. I didn’t see him for Load from Sweden, went very different. have to do a bit more in-depth
a while, but someone told him but for us it was With us, we didn’t rehearsing. You start finding
about a really good guitarist, just Bathory. That’s want to lose what ways to integrate what you’re
and one day they’re outside the the only reference we had. In the looking for. We’re still working
rehearsal room and kind of point. And slowly same way you’re on it and will be forever. How
shocked I’m so young. They asked more and more a Norwegian or do we integrate all this great
me to join them and that’s when people came with m , Isa (2004). Bergen citizen, music we love so much into one
h albu
we started Phobia. black helmets and Enslaved’s eight you’re first and wholesome thing?
After a year or so, we had a lot woolly things and foremost a human. We’re music
of friends in that black metal suddenly we’re at the festival lovers. We happened to spring Your musical roots are diverse,
scene – Emperor and the guys and everybody else is a Viking out of the extreme metal garden, as is Enslaved’s sound. Yet many
in Burzum and all that – but and playing accordions. We’re but that doesn’t exclude other bands who shift their sound
we didn’t want to do satanism. like, “What the fuck happened?” types of music. We were always from extreme metal towards
That’s only fun for 10 minutes. And then we watched what we on the lookout. progressive music suffer the
We both said at the same time it were doing. We were like, “I hope Around 2000, our ambition chagrin of fans of the older
should be about Norse mythology this isn’t our fault!” And snuck was to make our favourite sound, while prog fans can be
because we read about it at home. out of there. Ha ha! music with our standoffish.
Our parents had books about it. favourite people and How do you deal
And then we started Enslaved. Isa [2004] and Ruun [2006] we have to stick with with that?
probably mark a turning that, whatever happens It’s fine. I don’t
Norse mythology seems almost point, where you evolved from as a consequence is think someone
timeless in its scope and it also being an extreme metal band going to be what it who likes all the
set you apart from the rest, and things began to get more is. You think because albums can say
didn’t it? psychedelic and proggy. Where you do well in in a quantitative
It did. It’s weird to think that we would you say that came from? extreme metal that way that they have
were the only band doing this. You had bands that were short- [playing] Yes or a better way of
Some people had historical term: they did one thing and Genesis is easy. The prog was ramped up on Ruu liking Enslaved
n.

Hanging out in one of

his favourite places –
a rehearsal space.
PRESS/ROY BJØRGE

82 progmagazine.com
 than the guy who just likes [1994 Taking part in the 2018
album] Frost. But what we’ve Prog Awards with host
and comedian Al Murray.
picked up on over the years is
we have respect for that. We can
relate with bands like that too.
I don’t have a particular reason,
but [with] some bands I’m really
into [I prefer] two or three albums
and I understand that’s what
happens. Also I think they hear
[what] we subscribe to – it’s
important to people in metal
that you have people who are
preserving history, tradition.

You joined us for the Prog

Awards in 2018 and presented
the Video Of The Year award
to Orphaned Land. Did you
enjoy that?

WILL IRELNAD/FUTURE OWNS

I loved it. I’m sitting there
[pointing and] saying, “Oh wow,
that’s that guy!” It was so cool.
We’re metal people, but I think
we feel like a part of the prog
scene too. Art lovers. Prog rock
is, like, the fans and the level of It’s dangerous to talk about something new, and it was a selling they’re exporting elements of
interest and dedication. identity, but for us the world is point. And now everything is prog rock.
becoming colder and I think it’s about what it reminds you of.
You’ve worked outside of because people are moving away “Do you miss your high-school Norway continues to have
Enslaved with Einar Selvik of from storytelling and the strain years?” What the fuck, man? a terrific prog scene. Why do
Wardruna on the Skuggsjá and when people start talking about you think that is?
Hugsjá projects, and with the identity and history, especially It’s a DIY thing: they have their
By Norse label. What does that since the Second World War – own labels, they’re active. That’s
give to you musically? it’s causing more trouble these where we found Håkon [Vinje,
It’s given me a lot. I think it’s days. When we meet people Enslaved’s keyboard player since
good therapeutically to not be from other countries who are 2017]. We were at a Seven Impale
the only guy calling the shots wearing their insides on the show and me and Grutle looked
musically. Einar’s not this up- outside, it scares us because Euronymous at each other going, “Is this
and-coming artist, he’s on a level
that’s just insane. And working
we’re not used to having thoughts
about that. Where do we come of Mayhem happening? Are we finding a new
keyboard player at this gig?”
with By Norse you can see that
too. He’s a fantastic guy, but
from? We are not used to
thinking positively about it.
was a mentor And we did.

also a great [But] talking to old people [about musically and Working with Shaman Elephant,
composer
and the way
the] history, all these wonderful
discussions came up. That’s
as a guitarist. as you did in 2022, helps with the
prog credentials, too.
he works when we realised this was He was the guy It’s great. We have Iver [Sandøy,

who showed
has been something we wanted to do drummer] in the centre of it all.
a learning both with music and with lyrics The octopus or puppeteer. He’s
curve. We
both have
and start singing again. It’s okay
to be what you are.
me prog. producing all of those bands in
the studio.
a great time.
As we Your involvement with Einar It’s been an incredible journey
Einar Selvik collab Skuggsjá… went on we and By Norse has certainly for you and Enslaved, from
discovered helped open more prog fans’ extreme metal to pioneers of
we were looking for more of ears to what you do, especially modern progressive metal…
a meeting of what I love about those who might have been I’m extremely happy. My
this rock and prog: mystic initially intimidated by It’s all retrospective and you’re daughter asked what I wanted
meets folk. There’s a lot Enslaved’s heaviness. embarrassed to represent to do when I grew up and I said
of that in Norwegian That’s interesting. something new. basically what I’m doing. It’s
folk music and People are missing great, but then we go to the
Swedish even more. that thing from It must be pleasing to see that rehearsal place. That’s the success
Swedish folk music music that you had development… of the band, 32 years now, album
is so much more during prog’s golden It’s great. From a Bergen 16. It’s so much fun. We want to
vibrant than era: nothing is so perspective, for many years we be at rehearsal to hang out. It’s
Norwegian. It’s serious or sacred or kept wanting something new the best thing we know to do.
close to our hearts. anything like that. from black metal bands. But then
It’s a localisation It’s superficial in you notice what’s happening in Heimdal is out now via Nuclear
opposed to a sense. Music was the prog scene [with] the Dark Blast. See www.enslaved.no for
globalisation. …and its follow-up, Hugsjá. about discovering Essence and Karisma labels, more information.

progmagazine.com 83
 Edited by Dave Everley
prog.reviews@futurenet.com

VOYAGER
They may not have won Eurovision, but the Australian keytar kings (and queen) deliver the feelgood
prog metal sound of the summer.
Words: David West Illustration: Kevin February

W
hether it’s serendipity at work regular co-producer Matt Templeman,
Fearless In Love
or simply good planning ahead, SEASON IN MIST
Fearless In Love is a step further down the road
the arrival of Voyager’s eighth from 2019’s Colours In The Sun, allowing them
album hot on the heels of their to give fuller expression to those moments
appearance at Eurovision seems when they reach for their 80s electro and
like a case of striking while the iron is in the synthpop influences. The band will often
fire. So, is Fearless In Love the album that can begin a song with a pop beat, Twisted being
help the band cross over to a wider, dare we a fine example, starting out with a synth
say mainstream, audience? It certainly melody and pulsing bass line that bring to
possesses plenty of qualities that should mind such 80s chart titans as Frankie Goes To
appeal beyond the borders of the prog world, Hollywood or Pet Shop Boys, before the song
with its big choruses and accessible melodies, shifts gear with the arrival of the guitars. The
but those are balanced out by fiery guitar solos two competing influences of prog metal and
and slamming breakdowns. pop work well together in the hooky yet heavy
One common criticism of progressive rock chorus, which encapsulates Voyager’s
is that the genre has become retrospective, approach in a nutshell.
forever harking back to its heyday of the The songwriting maintains a consistently
late 1960s and early 1970s. The birth of the high standard throughout. Submarine is
form was a reaction to blues-based rock, a standout, akin to Devin Townsend with its
experimenting with bringing in ideas from densely layered production, drop-tuned
classical music and jazz. Yet subsequent guitars, and huge, anthemic chorus. Prince
generations have brought new approaches to The competing Of Fire shows the band’s talent for building
the form, from the arrival of prog metal in the
1980s and then progressive death metal in the
influences of dynamic shifts into their arrangements. By
turns it moves between drop-tuned djent
1990s. Now, the bands who seem most likely prog and pop heaviness, open expanses where the drums
to carry prog into the future have their own work well together. and bass carry the song, and a soaring chorus.
distinctive influences to draw upon that Dreamer is a dance-metal chimera, and
inevitably result in a different sound. Voyager optimistic mood overall. It’s not all lollipops Daydream is a feelgood summer anthem that
belong to the rising wave of forward-thinking and rainbows; in The Lamenting Estrin looks sounds custom built for outdoor festivals.
prog bands like Leprous and Vola, drawing back over a failed relationship, and Twisted Purists who think that anything invented
upon 1980s synthpop, dance music and djent finds the vocalist, ‘seeking resolution that may after the Mellotron constitutes sacrilege may
to mix in with prog rock and metal. never come,’ as well as seeking answers to not feel attuned to Voyager’s vibe, but if prog,
Further to that point, it’s easy to hear whether he’s good enough and strong enough. in the widest sense of the genre, is to have
similarities in the vocal styles of Voyager’s Their Eurovision entry Promise is full of a future beyond legacy acts and not become
Danny Estrin and Einar Solberg from Leprous. yearning, venturing into early Coheed And trapped in retrospection, looking to some
While Estrin doesn’t have Solberg’s falsetto Cambria territory with Estrin pleading, heyday vanishing ever further into the past,
range, they possess similar tones and the ‘Promise me you’ll hold me ’til I die.’ Yet, the it needs fresh ideas. And it makes sense that
ability to pour their emotions into their song’s chorus seems designed to get an arena musicians who grew up against the cultural
performance. One notable difference between or festival crowd bouncing in euphoria. backdrop of the rise of electronic music since
the Australians and both Leprous and Vola is There’s a second point of comparison between the 1980s and modern developments like djent
the overall mood of their music. Solberg has the two bands and their latest offerings. would find ways to reflect their experiences in
used recent Leprous albums and his solo Coheed used pop punk producer Zakk Cervini their creativity. Voyager may have been denied
release 16 to explore depression and battling for last year’s Vaxis II: A Window Of The a Eurovision victory, but Fearless In Love
his demons, while there can be darkness and Waking Mind, giving them a contemporary pop captures a band that’s buzzing with
catharsis in much of Vola’s music. Fearless In sheen to their sound, particularly in the confidence, writing the most compelling and
Love, by contrast, has a much more uplifting, guitars. While Voyager have stuck with their energised music of their career.

84 progmagazine.com
 HAUNT THE WOODS BELBURY POLY
Ubiquity SPINEFARM
The Path GHOST BOX
UK four-piece deliver stellar, shape-shifting second album.
Hauntology pioneer returns with funked-up prog odyssey.

perating at the woozy pastoral melodies.

O intersection between
hypnagogic electronica,
The funky jazz noir
soundtracks of Roy Budd
library music and forgotten are a stated influence, but
TV themes, Belbury Poly is there’s also more than
the solo project of Ghost a hint of Gil Scott-Heron’s
Box mastermind Jim Jupp. The Revolution Will Not
The Path is, by some Be Televised in the cool
margin, their grooviest and flute and beats of the title
most accomplished album track. The swooping synth
to date. Author and poet Justin Hopper voices and dramatic bass of Highways
returns from 2019’s Chanctonbury Rings And Byways recall Jeff Wayne’s War
project to deliver a spoken-word anti- Of The Worlds, while The Exile Way
narrative about the mysteries of the could be a Rick Wakeman/Funkadelic
English landscape. But it’s bassist mash-up. There’s also a nod to John

T
he West Country has always felt like another world,
in the best possible way. Its history, its dialects, its Christopher Budd and drummer Max Barry’s Persuaders theme on The Wrong
legends, its music – it sits in the UK geographically, Saidi who make the biggest difference Spot. Yet The Path rises above its
but outside of it in many other ways. to the sound, creating a supple and references and points to a new direction
The second album from Haunt The Woods – formed by dynamic rhythmic foundation for Jupp’s for Belbury Poly. JB
four self-professed “Cornish hippies” currently based across
the Tamar in Plymouth – is imbued with that otherness. Not
in a ‘which ley line did I leave my piskie on?’ way, but in the BIG BIG TRAIN
Ingenious Devices ENGLISH ELECTRIC RECORDINGS
A beautifully strange Keepers of the classic prog flame mourn and regroup on five-track EP.
album, familiar
hough this revisit of featuring Longdon’s
yet different. T BBT’s much-loved,
technology-themed epics
successor Alberto Bravin
on a stunning live version
manner that it sits slightly apart from the influences of folk, – East Coast Racer, of Atlantic Cable from
prog and alternative rock that it draws on. Brooklands and Voyager September 2022, Ingenious
Ubiquity is steeped in drama and grandeur, but it feels – might at first seem Devices signals that Big Big
tethered to a very specific point on the earth. The giant superfluous, Ingenious Train’s expressive,
crashing chords of opening song Fever Dream usher in instant Devices is a completely inherently musical
theatrics, but it soon shifts shape, locking into a hypnotic, valid staging post prior to virtuosity is not easily
low-key psychedelic groove, before it all bursts upwards the release of the band’s derailed (East Coast Racer
again, stacked with epic-scale harmonies. Vocalist/rhythm new album proper in 2024. now also features the incisive Dave
guitarist Jonathan Stafford’s acrobatic voice swoops and dives Re-recorded from scratch save for Gregory guitar solo previously only
around the upper register but he never showboats – like Jeff David Longdon’s original vocals, these performed at live shows).
Buckley, a clear inspiration, emotional clarity is everything. new incarnations of those three gems Elsewhere, succinct strings
Buckley isn’t the only influence evident on Ubiquity, vocally are ornamented with a 17-piece string instrumental The Book Of Ingenious
or musically. Gold comes on like a more analogue version of section recorded at Abbey Road, Devices completes the album’s tracklist,
lending an elegiac quality as the band serving as a bridge between Big Big
post-Kid A Radiohead, its tick-tock rhythm tugging and
pay tribute to Longdon, who died Train’s illustrious past and their
nudging rather than nagging and cajoling to another dramatic
suddenly in November 2021. Also intriguing future. JMN
pivot point. Home’s golden-hour halo makes it sound like
a long-lost early 70s Floyd track lifted from some unreleased
Greek arthouse movie. And Now Is Our Time is a call to arms
that’s pure Muse, albeit a Muse that have been dumped in DORIS BRENDEL & LEE DUNHAM
a field by the aliens that abducted them the night before. Pigs Might Fly SKY-ROCKET RECORDS
But Haunt The Woods are far more than the sum of their British duo deliver classy album with some surprising twists and turns.
inspirations. They’ve taken what they’ve grown up listening
to and spun it into something distinct, layering it with detail ive albums into their Better The Devil You Know
that makes it all their own: the dislocated atmospherics of
Sleepwalking, the muted trumpet that drifts through Numb,
F recording partnership,
Doris Brendel and Lee
and Rock And A Hard Place,
as well as slow and sultry –
the lone violin that haunts the amorphous title track. Dunham have carved Good Deed Of The Day –
For all its moments of performative pomp, a streak of a niche for themselves. and the spacious yet
seriousness underpins Ubiquity, not least lyrically. ‘There’s By applying alternative/ powerful ballad Still Waters,
a line between myself and my reality/I often wish I could be madcap/steampunk patinas which showcases Brendel’s
someone else,’ sings Stafford over sparse, stark piano on The to what’s fundamentally extraordinary, husky Elkie
Line Part II, seemingly a sequel to the title track of their 2017 a catalogue of classic rock- Brooks-esque vocals.
debut EP The Line. Later, on Overflow, he intones: ‘Every time inclined, prog-adjacent Those in search of more
music that’s sometimes embellished unconventional approaches can take
I try and make sense of this/I just find a chasm, a great abyss.’
with unexpected instrumentation and a listen to mildly eclectic yet potent
A strange, nagging riff courtesy of guitarist Phoenix
genre influences, they’re not too “odd” confections like Ghost, the dark twists
Elleschild only adds to the sense of underlying discomfort. for good-time rock fans, yet not so of I Saw You and the nicely observed
Like the area Haunt The Woods come from, Ubiquity is mainstream as to alienate proggers. Rorschach. Redolent of music of the
a beautifully strange album – familiar yet different, Pigs Might Fly continues in a similar past, yet sounding quite unlike anybody
exhilarating yet dark. It must be in the water. vein to 2020’s well-received Mass else, Pigs Might Fly ticks many boxes for
DAVE EVERLEY Hysteria – great tunes with foundations fans of stylistically diverse yet
solidly in hard and heavy rock such as accessible rock. GMM

86 progmagazine.com
 CELESTIAL NORTH KARNATAKA
Requiem For A Dream IMMRAMA RECORDS
Otherwordly 1142994 RECORDS DK
All-new line-up stick to the familiar.
The arrival of a major new talent.

hile most albums take rhythms and fully rounded

W a few listens to reveal
their treasures or lack
synth pulses on the title
track. This is music that
thereof, the debut record takes flight and surveys the
from Scottish singer and vistas surrounding it.
multi-instrumentalist The gorgeous Yarrow
Celestial North (which may shares a sensibility with
or may not be her real Yann Tiersen as a gently
name) is an instant joy. twinkling piano coalesces
Ethereal, haunting and with with sweeping vocals and
a beauty shrouded by mystery, this is a comforting sense of weirdness.
a statement of seductive intent. Similarly, her cover of REM’s
Her relocation to the Lake District is Nightswimming is given a waiflike
in full evidence, for this is an album that makeover as elsewhere, The Nature Of
embraces both the splendour of nature

I
Light and When The Gods Dance are t’s been eight years since Karnataka’s last studio album
and the danger that lies within it. It driven and informed by a pagan and the core of the band seems to have been whittled
wastes no time in setting out its stall sensibility that’s life affirming. The down to founding bassist Ian Jones and mononymous
early as gloriously enigmatic vocals sound of a musician blossoming from new vocalist Sertari. Requiem For A Dream picks up the baton
blend seamlessly with skittering intriguing to essential in real time. JM from 2015’s Secrets Of Angels and keeps running in the same
direction. The album goes big on symphonic rock with grand,
sweeping arrangements married to a melodic sensibility that
CRACK THE SKY draws on musical theatre dramatics and AOR. However,
From The Wood ALUMINUM CAT RECORDINGS anything approaching musical surprises are scarcer.
A lacklustre acoustic collection from the legendary prog rock ensemble.
It feels like
eteran American band equally cringe-inducing Fun Karnataka are
V Crack The Sky have
released nearly two dozen
In Isolation (an on-the-nose
blues/folk romp about playing it too safe.
studio LPs since their corrupt politicians that
terrific 1975 debut, so it’d features some surprisingly Sertari possesses a comparable range to her predecessor
be foolish to expect hackneyed instrumentation) Hayley Griffiths, but brings her own personality to her
something close to the and the superficially performance. Where Griffiths’ classical training lent an
same level of quality and supportive Heart Of The operatic quality to her tone, Sertari’s style is perhaps less
freshness here. Even so, the Lion. There are some bright formal in character. She sounds at home in Karnataka’s
all-acoustic From The Wood spots, such as heartfelt symphonic prog rock, where some very schooled singers
can’t help but disappoint due to its ballad Don’t Close Your Eyes and hooky might appear to have wandered in from an operetta.
mostly mediocre songwriting and singalong My New World. None of them Jones is the only member here to have played on Secrets Of
occasionally rough performances. are outstanding, though, and they don’t Angels and, Sertari aside, the other contributors are listed as
Those issues are apparent from the make up for the surface-level lyricism special guests, with Luke Machin on guitar, Chris Allan on
jump, with generic rustic opener I Get and weary arrangements. drums, Gonzalo Carrera on keys, and Nightwish’s Troy
High finding frontman John Palumbo Kudos to the members – especially Donockley stopping by to play some pipes on the title track.
singing banally about combating Palumbo – for keeping Crack The Sky
Speaking of guest appearances, All Around The World features
modern woes by, well, getting high. going, but From The Wood should’ve
an extract from Greta Thunberg’s address to the UN Climate
A similar approach is taken by the stayed buried in the forest. JMB
Summit in 2019, including her famous ‘How dare you!’ line.
That gives a pretty clear indication of the subject of that tune,
with Sertari singing about melting ice caps and rising oceans.
DREAM THE ELECTRIC SLEEP The lyrics can be trite, despite the warmth that Sertari brings
American Mystic DTES.BANDCAMP.COM to them. ‘Hope to find a brand new day,’ or ‘Our dreams are lost in
The prog trio’s fifth LP is a fun and fiery time. time’ don’t feel born from personal experience.
The band favour a very particular slow- to mid-tempo
ream The Electric Forged In The Furnace and range, allowing Sertari plenty of space and time to put the
D Sleep’s terrific 2017
album Beneath The Dark
After The Fallout see the
trio tapping into largely
messages across. However, it does mean that there’s not much
variation in style and approach from one song to the next.
Wide Sky was always going softer and sparser ballads, Everything is beautifully played and performed, yet there are
to be difficult to surpass, whereas The Lessons only so many lighters-in-the-air moments that one album can
yet they do just that with They Bring and closer Lay comfortably hold before the light starts to dim. Don’t Forget
American Mystic. Prelude Down The Cross are more My Name, Forgiven and Say Goodbye Tomorrow are cut from the
And The Buried Rise or less apocalyptic same pattern, with their symphonic swells, steady as she goes
delights by mixing the progressive folk dirges pace, and AOR, hard rock guitar solos from Machin.
divine chants of Yes and highlighted by forlorn The 25-minute title track, Requiem For A Dream, is the
Circa with the cosmic trickiness of Rush harmonies. Steal The Love and the title
album’s centrepiece, yet despite its imposing length, it still
and Sound Of Contact. It segues track even dip their respective toes into
sticks to the familiar formula. There’s that same unhurried
seamlessly into Beyond Repair, too, Americana prior to their rousing hard
combining those aggressive prog rock rock finales, cementing how well
tempo suitable for big rock ballads, and the musical theatre
tendencies with pop-rock exuberance. American Mystic maintains a steady vibe to the vocals that defines the whole experience. The
While that formula steers some of identity amid infusing most tracks album is slickly produced and always well played, but after
what remains – particularly, the fast with their own flavours. The result is eight years away, it feels like Karnataka is playing it too safe.
and melodic Love Letters – the band do another encouraging and energetic DAVID WEST
a great job spicing things up as well. musical journey. JMB

progmagazine.com 87
 OUTLANDERS HEATWAVES
Outlanders EARMUSIC
Kappa APOLLON
Tarja Turunen enlists A-list guitarists for electronic side-project.
Norwegians bring the heady summer vibes on chilled debut.

azz prog can be a wilfully sharp corners here.

J knotty, tricky beast, but
Bergen’s Heatwaves smooth
Everything is wrapped in
the kind of heat haze the
out its thornier edges on band’s name suggests: Dirty
their impressive debut Rats and Hercule Poirot ebb
album Kappa. Closer in and flow, taking their own
spirit to late 80s/early 90s sweet time to get to
acid jazz than it is to whatever destination they
Mahavishnu Orchestra or have in mind. The
UK, it’s a languid affair that beautifully unhurried
mixes deep grooves and breakbeats Always Talking Shop is one of a handful
with gauzy psychedelia and the whiff of of songs to feature vocals, themselves
hipster folk (the title Kappa itself could as drowsy as a field of poppies swaying
equally refer to the Greek letter or the in an early afternoon breeze. Shaman
Italian sportswear brand popular with Elephant’s Jonas Særsten lays down

E
ighteen years after her departure from Nightwish,
people still have certain ideas about Tarja Turunen, so-called ‘acid casuals’ and actor some evocative keys, though it’s bassist
reducing her to one character: the symphonic metal Samuel L Jackson). Pablo Tellez who leads the groove
diva. But as the debut album from this largely electronic, Like Tame Impala’s similarly throughout. Laid-back and lovely, like
often instrumental project co-masterminded with German frictionless The Slow Rush, there are no a summer that should never end. DEV
EDM producer/composer Torsten Stenzel (Tubular Beats)
reflects, there’s more to her than basques and bombast.
HELD BY TREES
A unique marriage Eventide EP/Solace – Live At Real World EP SOUND CANYON
of electronic Gifted musicians let the music Talk (Talk).
atmospheres. his intriguing with just a hint more

Outlanders’ roots go back almost 20 years. Back in 2005

T instrumental collective,
led by David Joseph and
heaviness, at Real World
Studios. It’s a lovely listen,
Turunen was invited to sing on a record by the electronic primarily deploying with consummate guitarist
artist Schiller, from which an enduring relationship with musicians who worked with Robbie McIntosh cut a tad
electronic music began. A few years later, contemplating the Talk Talk on the peerless more slack to testify as
lack of guitar solos in her own records, she came across Alan Spirit Of Eden and Laughing well as tease. The other,
Parsons’ electronics-heavy album A Valid Path – specifically, Stock, improvised the Eventide, is all new, with
the two tracks featuring David Gilmour – and resolved to try album Solace last year, and five pieces aiming to evoke
something similar. By 2010 she’d brought a song to Stenzel, the pleasant surprise was the transition from daylight
with whom she worked on her solo debut. Ten years later, that it worked wonderfully. It paid to darkness. Moving tentatively away
work on Outlanders officially began. The result is a unique tribute to the unique feel and shape- from the Talk Talk template, the piano
marriage of electronic atmospheres, organic guitars and shifting abilities of those records while gets a little Bruce Hornsby in parts and
Turunen’s other-worldly tones. avoiding mimicry. It was gorgeous in places it’s a neighbour to Alan
For such a dreamy, soothing end result – one that nods music – perhaps post-rock, perhaps Parsons, but with less pomp. Subtlety
heavily to the 90s ambient, trip hop and new age likes of atmospheric prog – in its own right. is still cast as the one true religion. It’s
Evidently encouraged, they return essential that Held By Trees retain their
Enigma, Massive Attack and Enya – Outlanders is full of
with a pair of exquisite EPs. One sees lucid fluidity and don’t crystallise: they
twists. It’s also decidedly prog in nature. All except one of the
them playing the bulk of Solace live, have an uncanny grace. CR
songs are at least six or seven minutes long. Impressionistic
spoken-word passages take precedence over straight-up pop
narratives, with Turunen quoting Brazilian author Paulo
Coehlo (best known for 1988 novel The Alchemist) at select THE HOLY FAMILY
points. Indeed, for the most part, Turunen’s voice is deployed Go Zero ROCKET RECORDINGS
for texture, rather than the animated, wordy storytelling she’s A concentrated slab of psychedelic mysticism from ex-Guapo veterans.
known for. She’s a Galadriel-like presence, light but crucial,
while the guitarists take turns in the spotlight. he second album from hypnotic layers of sound.
Trevor Rabin brings a touch of Yes to a yearning Closer
To The Sky. Wave sounds, trip hop beats and hypnotic vocal
T The Holy Family feels
like both a distillation and
Bad Travelling sets the
scene, evil synth, bubbling
refrains mix warmly in Mike Oldfield collaboration Never intensification of their elemental voices and
Too Far. A cover of World In My Eyes features Living Colour visceral, ritualistic trance dizzying arpeggios
guitarist Vernon Reid (adding Zappa-esque psychedelia to rock. Yet there’s also conjuring the advance of
Depeche Mode’s original), while Joe Satriani lends his a sense of emerging from some dread forest army.
inimitable alien boogie to a pulsating The Sleeping Indian. darkness into light, and The rumbling Iron Age bass
And yet for all its star turns Outlanders feels like background a journey having been of Chalky’s Eyes is leavened
music, albeit with more bite than that image implies. An completed by its end. Led by chiming guitar, while The
by David J Smith, and featuring such Watcher’s soft wave of piano and organ
exception is Steve Rothery’s soloing in Mystique Voyage,
luminaries as Kavus Torabi, Emmett blossoms in slow motion. But the
a searing shot of heat in a record full of cooler colours.
Elvin and Thumpermonkey’s Sam circular riff and crashing percussion of
In a way, Outlanders isn’t unlike the music that made Warren, THF are essentially Hell Born Babel moves back into more
Turunen a star. Nightwish’s musical theatre kitsch might be a reconfiguration of Guapo, whose sinister territory, and leads into the
missing here, but the auteur’s commitment to scale and detail 2004’s Five Suns album is an avant-prog three-part, 15-minute title track –
– to creating exactly what she wanted – is all there. landmark – yet while Guapo could shoot a hi-energy release of cosmos-scraping
POLLY GLASS off in multiple directions, THF are about guitar and devil’s choir, finally resolving
developing a theme and building into a swathe of new age drones. JB

88 progmagazine.com
 IO EARTH SIGUR RÓS
Átta BMG
Sanctuary IOEARTH.COM
Icelanders return with surfeit of slow serenity.
Genre-straddling Midlanders’ sixth album fine-tunes the winning formula.

O Earth have long drawn symphonic metal. Similar

I on diverse sounds in
constructing their music,
levels of melodrama are
employed on the title track,
the breadth of those sounds blended with crackling
reflecting the ebb and flow electronic drums. Then
of the songs’ moods rather noodling, noirish slithers of
than dictating them. synth suggest something
Outside, the opening weirder is afoot, and
track of their sixth album, a strangely barber shop-
is a fine example, building style multi-part vocal comes
tension with faintly new age Spanish in, achieving an eerie, discombobulating
guitar patterns before the imploring effect before a rasping guitar solo
tones of returning Linda Odinsen (back attacks, then spins off into jazz rock
after returning to her native Norway in angularity. Odd, for sure, but oddly
2016) become haunted by an

G
riveting all the same. And every time órecki’s Symphony No.3 (better known as Symphony Of
increasingly menacing backing vocal it feels like the original thread of the Sorrowful Songs), as played by the London Sinfonietta
whisper and malevolent guitar riffs, track might be lost, a melodic hook or in 1991, was the best-selling contemporary classical
then the piece lifts off into pulse-racing addictive riff returns like bites of record across the 90s. In 1994, Sigur Rós formed in Reykjavík,
bombastic territory redolent of comfort food amid the smörgåsbord. JS first signing with the Sugarcubes-owned label Bad Taste.
Now that Sigur Rós have become a signifier of high-class
good taste, their eighth album – Átta is Icelandic for eight
L.O.E – indisputably shares its mood and DNA with Górecki’s
The World & Everything In It HOPEFUL TRAGEDY
British post-rockers artfully dissect the best and worst of mankind. It quivers along a thin
line between boring
n their stirring debut snapping riffwork. For
O album, Halifax’s L.O.E
take a holistic look at
People Like People Like
Them, the iconic monologue
and beautiful.
humanity. Each of its 10 from the classic 70s movie fusion of the avant-garde and the tear-jerking. It’d be daft to
songs set out to capture Network draws parallels say it was on the same level, but structurally it whispers and
humanity’s best and worst with contemporary Britain, murmurs, keeping its powder dry until, with a cathartic
achievements via a whirl of all to a bedrock of release, it lets out its tension like a storm breaking after much
reverb-soaked guitars, soundscapes that sound quietly stressful humidity. Which is, frankly, just as well,
atmospheric builds of both dreamy and because for almost an hour it quivers along a thin line
vibrant crescendos, doing nightmarish. Sunset between boring and beautiful.
so with emotion and grandeur. Silhouette then sounds like the coming It’s their first studio album in 10 years, and perhaps there’s
Although an instrumental band, they of nightfall, growing ever darker as a reaction here to 2013’s Kveikur, an uncharacteristically
weave spoken-word passages into a voice discusses the viscerality of life. aggressive act of industrialism that had more in common
their compositions to underscore their Throughout the album, their with rock than the band’s signature swooning. And perhaps
thematic intent. On Secret Societies crescendos are perfectly placed, some real-world stuff has subliminally entered their creative
Rule The World, John F Kennedy’s resulting in an impressive and world: the departure of drummer Orri Páll Dýrason after
famous speech on subversion and free introspective record that’s peppered
a sexual assault accusation (which he denied), plus four years
choice cuts above dark, droning guitars with enough intrigue to cater to more
of Sigur Rós battling tax evasion charges, ultimately
and sneering drum lines in between than just the post-rock crowd. POW
dismissed just months ago. Singer Jónsi Birgisson moved to
Los Angeles, disillusioned with his homeland. All this sits
uncomfortably with our view of Sigur Rós as magic moon-
LIFESIGNS faced elves making wonders directly mainlined from the
Live In The Netherlands LIFESIGNS MUSIC gods. So if Átta is them aiming high, holy and unworldly, one
Contemporary symphonic prog maestros’ near-perfect live document. can understand their motivation, their doubling down on
escaping from reality.
ifesigns’ three here that it’s hard to Keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson has rejoined after a nine-
L contrasting, yet equally
sublime, studio albums
cherry-pick, but the
jazz fusion-leaning intro
year sabbatical, so he, bassist Georg Hólm and all-rounder
Jónsi (whose sky-high voice flutters in and out, again keener
have set a high bar for of opener N, Dave on sounds and effect than literal meaning) play this pensive
21st-century prog. But Bainbridge’s guitar soloing music, with the London Contemporary Orchestra then
does the English band’s on Altitude and Last One overlaid at Abbey Road. Jónsi has spoken of intending it to be
involved and multilayered Home, the achingly “floaty, sparse and beautiful”, as they looked for balm after
arrangements, entrancing beautiful early sections of personal and global turbulence. And it is, in the main, calm,
melodies and top flight Ivory Tower, the power although something about its relentless churchiness, its
musicianship – all blessed prog-pop of Impossible and constant proximity to the religious can make one feel
with lush production – translate from Gregarious and the majesty of Fortitude
claustrophobic, compelled to be on best behaviour. An urge
the studio to the stage? The self- all vie for attention.
to kick down the statues has to be fought against.
explanatory Live In The Netherlands Topping everything off are the warm,
proves that it does. And then some. masterful tones of bandleader John
Filmmakers and wildlife documentarians will be queueing
Recorded on one night at De Young’s splendid vocals and rich up. Sad yet defiant, surfing slowly between dejection and
Boerderij in the Dutch city of keyboards. An album for anyone with euphoria, Átta is Sigur Rós doing their precious thing, but
Zoetermeer, this presents the full a penchant for prog’s glorious past yet moving more like glaciers than ever.
Lifesigns live experience. There are so looking for something refreshingly CHRIS ROBERTS
many great moments and stirring tunes modern. Exceptional stuff. GMM

progmagazine.com 89
www.classicrockmagazine.com
 EXPERIMENTAL PROG
Ambient, electronica and oddities through the
MATTEO MANCUSO monocle of Jo Kendall.
The Journey MASCOT
Italian virtuoso guitarist shows off diversity on debut album.

L
ongstanding Viennese trio Radian
icilian guitarist Matteo eloquent modern, virtuosic
return after six years with intelligent
S Mancuso has written
a love letter to the guitar
prog rock without ego. As
the record progresses, its
dance music six-tracker Distorted Rooms
(Thrill Jockey), which veers from dubby DIY
with this, his debut album. textures and tones slipping on opener Cold Suns to gently pulsating,
As The Journey sweeps between genres and styles, gonged improv on C At The Gates. Drums,
through progressive rock, each song has something guitar and bass crash, boom and scratch
shuffling blues, delicate unique to say. Samba Party in-between like Tackhead and Aphex Twin
jazz, rocky peaks and is delightfully vivacious, co-mingling through a shredder.
sumptuous samba, the its melodies floating on If the thought of scaling, or even looking at, a mountain
26-year-old’s playing feels a summer breeze before provokes a sense of horror, awe or light-headedness then this
fluent and authentic in every scene exploding into an elongated solo that is the right mindset for listening to Pauline
he paints. flirts with speed and intensity while Hogstrand’s drone two-parter, Áhkká (Warm
For an instrumental record where the staying melodically grounded. Blues For Winters). The Swedish violist pays tribute to
guitar is perennially the lead instrument John is as classy as it is smoky and the legendary peak massif, dubbed Queen Of
– save for rolling piano solo on the traditionalist, and the lullaby-esque Lapland (also known as a holy mountain by
sumptuous Polifemo – Mancuso has classical guitars of the title track close Sámi natives), with the steady ascent
proved a supple, tasteful player. Open out the album with a meditative beauty. of Herein and the darkness-turning-to light
Field offers rich clean guitars atop It’s easy to see why Steve Vai and Tosin
of Magnitude. Terrifying, sublime – and
minimalist jazz and Drop D delivers Abasi are among Mancuso’s fans. POW
highly recommended.
Taking guitar music to extraordinary levels, LA musician-
composer-producer Dustin Wong continues to dazzle with
MAUD THE MOTH + TRAJEDESALIVA his second album for the Hausu Mountain label, Perpetual
Bordando El Manto Terrestre TIME RELEASED SOUND/WOODFORD HALSE Morphosis. It’s nearly 20 years since he got his
Stunning musical biography of surrealist painter Remedios Varo.
start with Baltimore’s ADD art-rock group
Ponytail, and while the bubbling energy from
concept album based science and the occult, their catalogue and performances remain in
A on the life of exiled
Spanish artist Remedios
and the beguiling music
contained here recreates
his approach, his skill in sound design and
technical application has advanced. Using
Varo, Bordando El Manto and reflects those topics. a chain of numerous pedals, synths, vox and
Terrestre is a stunning Cuerpo De Gato is built on his hand-made Tele, Wong produces singing,
collaboration between layers of haunting drones ringing tones for some songs, stereo-panned
Maud The Moth (aka as the spoken-word lyrics arpeggio twitches and glitches for others in this rich,
Spanish singer and multi- recount Varo’s claim of maximalist release. His surf/Hawaiian background shows
instrumentalist Amaya transmuting into a cat. on the tipsy hula of Memory River but try Audhumla Thaw for
López-Carromero), dark Perdi Pie sees López- a pleasing ambient-tropical trip.
ambient duo Trajedesaliva and Scottish Carromero deploy her haunting talents Fans of The Durutti Column might gravitate towards
producer Scott McLean. to devastating effect, the eldritch tones
Fabiano Do Nascimento’s Das Nuvens, aka ‘The Clouds’
Sung in Spanish, this is a deeply of the music conspire to create a wholly
(Leaving Records). Here, Latin/choro influence
moving and affecting set of songs that ethereal effect. Throughout, McLean’s
from the guitarist’s Brazilian roots mixes with
overcome the hurdle of language subtle sonic flourishes keep the music
barrier by way of incredibly creative moving forward, and his pulses are jazz, synthwave and dreampop to form melodic
instrumentation and López-Carromero’s keenly felt on Fruta Alrededor De Una layers that can be uplifting (Yugen), meditative
mesmerising voice. Varo’s art was Vela. A beautiful album that comes (Aurora), flamenco Bladerunner or cinematic
informed by an interest in psychology, highly recommended. JM (Stranger Nights).
Bringing experimental pop music are
effervescent Brooklyn-by-way-of-Chicago duo
PAT METHENY Water From Your Eyes. Indie dance forms the
heart of Everyone’s Crushed (Matador), their fifth release and
Dream Box BMG MODERN RECORDS first their new album, where they have
Missouri guitar maestro goes solo. affinity with Pavement, Cornelius and Circuit
Des Yeux in grabbing for new sounds and
ouring involves long leans into his gentle
T stretches of empty time
between gigs and lots of
side, conjuring a sequence
of whispered tales,
rhythms, and in humour, both black and
absurd. Kicking against politics, capitalism
and personal struggles, they’ll get you
‘hurry up and wait’ on show impressionistic twilights moving with The Rapture-like punk-funk
days. Delving into a hard and thoughtful reflections but also explore wonky modern classical
drive as he shuttled that evince the ennui of
on Open and 14.
between cities and venues long-distance travel and
American composer Roger Reynolds celebrates his 89th
during 2020, Pat Metheny the loneliness of heartache.
year with the two-disc collection For A Reason (Neuma),
discovered a file stuffed full That prodigious technique,
of tunes and ideas that he’d which has so often seen featuring four collaborative pieces recorded over 30 years,
recorded over the years but had him reaching remarkable, expansive and adding a 44-page book fleshed out with elaborate graphic
forgotten all about. Listening to them heights, is here focused on a mood scores. Configuring organic instruments with electronics has
after all this time was a pleasant that’s altogether more intimate, been his fascination since the 60s, and For A
surprise. “I found that I had melodious, and downtempo. All of Reason pans from Spanish guitar manipulation
unintentionally gotten to a destination these guitar-only tunes come inlaid with on Dream Mirror to the challenging spoken
I had not planned for,” he says of his Metheny’s stripped-back luminous percussion drama on Here And There, featuring
decision to release a compilation of that tone and crystal-clear phrasing, distinguished conductor and Bang On A Can
folder’s contents. Mixing original pieces whose simple storytelling is utterly Allstar Steven Schick.
and one or two standards, Metheny absorbing. SS

progmagazine.com 91
 VIVIAN STANSHALL EDWARD REEKERS
Dog Howl In Tune MADFISH
The Liberty Project MUSIC THEORIES RECORDINGS
Long-lost final album from late national treasure.
Ex-Kayak frontman delivers portentous concept piece.

est known for two stints effective juxtaposition is

B as frontman with Dutch
prog stalwarts Kayak,
created by the lyrical Two
Lifetimes, which features
Edward Reekers has also an impressive vocal from
popped up in many of Oudshoorn and reveals
Arjen Lucassen’s projects. Reekers to have an ear for
His fourth solo album big Disney-style ballads,
(and the first in more than and The Disease’s fantastic
15 years) is the two-disc The rock bombast featuring the
Liberty Project – a full-on lung-busting vocals of
rock musical/concept album with sometime Ayreon singer Jaycee Cuijpers.
a narrative built around a love story It’s a long album and, while it
framed against a world in turmoil, demonstrates what a fine and perhaps
with contributions from a range of under-appreciated composer Reekers
weighty names including Damian is, there is the feeling that it could have

V
ivian Stanshall has been dead for 28 years but he’s
having a fine 2023 so far. In March, members of Bonzo Wilson, Steve Hackett and fellow Kayak been pruned very slightly here and
Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Rutles and The Mekons alumni Cindy Oudshoorn. there. Still, fans of Ayreon and Clive
marked what would have been his 80th birthday at Islington’s Although undeniably a rock tour de Nolan’s rock operas should be
Union Chapel with an emotional bash filled with musical force, there’s much variety here. An absolutely thrilled. GMM
comedy. He’s on the radar again thanks to Tubular Bells’
50th anniversary – Stanshall played the part of the MC on
that album and inadvertently gave it its title when he intoned SCAPHOID
Echoes Of The Rift SCAPHOID.BANDCAMP.COM
More cohesive than Prog, metal and much more from Texan multi-instrumentalist.
anyone could have
he third album from arrangements are rich and
hoped for. T Scaphoid – aka Austin,
Texas native Matt Hobart –
deep, there are big dynamic
shifts in the music and an
the titular words in his famously fruity delivery – is a collection of enticing interest in opening out to
a moment that clearly chimed with Mike Oldfield. And contrasts and broad explore different moods
Rawlinson’s End – perhaps his finest creation – returns for sonic palettes. These and textures. Hobart’s
a final instalment on a double LP, released in tandem with instrumental songs often range is demonstrated in
arguably something even more special still: Dog Howl In juxtapose heavy, drop- the space rock of Luna
Tune, the great lost Viv Stanshall album that many assumed tuned riffs against Sangre, the undulating
would never surface. melody lines played with grooves of Baikalian Relic,
Stanshall’s death in 1995 scuppered what had been a sparkling, clean guitar tone. There are while Petroglyph adds a Middle Eastern
intended as the long-awaited follow-up to 1981’s much-loved math rock odd measures and intricate vibe to the palette.
Teddy Boys Don’t Knit, which in turn had been the long- syncopations that can shift into Hobart plays everything himself, and
awaited follow-up to the wonderful, proto-world music expansive post-rock sections. while nobody likes a show off, we can
mélange of 1974’s Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead. Stanshall Gloom boasts a terrific fat, hefty make an exception here. With Echoes Of
was less a procrastinator than one who was easily distracted bass line that underpins some The Rift, Scaphoid has crafted an album
impressive soloing, but Hobart always that will both stimulate the grey matter
by the many plates he was spinning, which would sometimes
keeps an eye on the underlying melody and satisfy the most voracious appetite
lead to cracks. And so it proved here.
in his extrapolations. While the for tasty riff workouts. DW
Thankfully, multi-instrumentalist collaborator Andy
Frizell – who has played on records with Kevin Ayers and
Super Furry Animals – has done a fine job in finessing,
restructuring and producing 11 songs chosen from a pool of SOEN
about 60 incomplete recordings. The resulting album is more Memorial SILVER LINING MUSIC
accomplished and cohesive than anyone could have hoped for. Big sound but few surprises on Swedish prog metallers’ sixth album.
Made up mostly of blues numbers, Stanshall sometimes
eschews the characters he’d inhabit for moments that suggest oen will be hurriedly surprises. Opener Sincere
something more confessional: A Good Woman, where he owns
up to failings in a relationship (‘You give me sympathy/I give you
S hot-footing their way up
more rungs of the ladder
is a fun romp worthy of
gracing an arena, while
pain’) or Goodbye Mother, which is uncharacteristically towards mainstream metal lead single Unbreakable is
heartfelt and all the more touching for it. acceptance with Memorial, high on hooks as skilful
There’s still plenty of time for hijinks too, such as the title but what does that mean singer Joel Ekelöf struts his
track, where he growls his way through a priapic love song for prog fans? stuff. Then there’s the
like Leslie Phillips for weirdos. It has a similar Beefheartian Their last studio release, middle of Icon, a highlight
menace to the Bonzos’ The Strain, and while it’s mercifully Imperial, put clear water moment with creepy chord
not about going to the toilet, it sounds like it was recorded in between those early Tool progressions and devilish
comparisons and lazy links to drummer atmosphere. But the well-used formula
one. Perhaps best of all is a version of No Time For The Future,
Martin Lopez’s old associates Opeth. underpinning the tracks is in danger
which comes from Stinkfoot, A Comic Opera from the mid-
Memorial finds the left-leaning of derailing the momentum; Violence
80s, written with his long-suffering widow Ki Longfellow, the metallers in fine fettle, but adventurism threatens to be forgettable, and
novelist and playwright who died last year. feels at a minimum. Sure, the album Incendiary is pretty pallid until
Forty-two years after his last non-spoken-word solo album, wraps up with the surprise ballad Vitals, a dreamy middle section pulls it back
Dog Howl In Tune proves that every dog has its day. an expertly formed chunk of heart- to life. Memorial can be elegant yet
JEREMY ALLEN tugging lucidity amid the distorted powerful, but more detours out of the
bombast, but elsewhere there are few comfort zone wouldn’t go amiss. CC

92 progmagazine.com
 PROGRESSIVE FOLK
Paul Sexton travels from Nashville to
SOM IMAGINÁRIO Leeds in the latest bucolic grab-bag.
Banda Da Capital FAR OUT RECORDINGS
Newly uncovered 1976 concert of cult Brazilian jazz/proggers.

N
ashville-based Spencer Cullum won admirers
hen this Brazilian Unsurprisingly, Tiso’s
everywhere with his debut album, Coin Collection,
W quintet were busily
sifting through an engaging
supple playing is well to the
fore on A Igreja Majestosa
a delightful condensation of
rock and new wave influences from his
mix of native folk, rock, and the truly progtastic improbable Romford upbringing, all
psychedelia and jazz in the Armina, along with frantic made skilfully folky. Now there’s
1970s, they did so under guitar and rasping sax that Spencer Cullum’s Coin Collection 2
the baleful gaze of sounds like an intense (Full Time Hobby), created with
a military junta who mostly collision between early spontaneous speed in his adopted
viewed non-approved music Hawkwind and Gong. The American home city to equally
as tantamount to sedition. beautiful all-acoustic beguiling effect. What A Waste Of An
Opening with a parody of an army number Imaginados showcases some Echo, he purrs on its opener, like a folk-chilled Ray Davies,
march, they push at those limits to ecstatic wordless singing that brings to but there’s not a misused moment on a set that focuses less
subvert the military two-step with mind the great Milton Nascimento, with obviously on his inspirations and more on new ideas and
a raucous solo tenor sax. The band whom Som Imaginário had previously collaborations. Contributors include Japanese singer-
feature Wagner Tiso, whose keyboards toured. Accompanied by a cavalcade of songwriter Yuma Abe, who adds a further layer of charm to
make a decisive contribution across nimble lead lines skipping off the Kingdom Weather, as well as Dana Gavanski, Erin Rae
Wayne Shorter’s Brazilian-infused solo insistent rhythm guitar, it’s a gently and Caitlin Rose.
album, Native Dancer, recorded two mesmerising idyll in a set that generally
Holly Henderson has been creating
years before this live show. embraces a fiery, hard edge. SS
her highly original baroque pop for
quite a while, but her new album The
Walls (Ivy RecRods) is a discovery and
STEALING THE FIRE a revelation. Recording in a Sevenoaks
A Raven For A Dove STEALING THE FIRE farmhouse, she combines
Ideas aplenty from Norfolk prog trio.
unconventional songcraft with an
unerring flair for adhesive melody.
orfolk’s Stealing The Budgetary restrictions She regularly evokes traces of 60s
N Fire – vocalist Saffron
Paffron, guitarist Tim Lane
mean the guitar and drum
tones could be fatter and
pop, 70s prog and 2020s pertinence, all colour-washed with
piano, flutes, harpsichord, Beatley basslines and more.
and keyboardist Chris Bond fuller, but the quality of Cinder Well’s Cadence (Free Dirt) is a continuing tale of
– are in fine fettle on their the compositions and two cultures, and two west coasts. The entity invented by
third full-length album. performances more than singer-writer Amelia Baker recorded this second album under
There may only be five compensate. Slingshot the project name near Venice Beach in
tracks on A Raven For Round A Stranger takes her native California, but it also walks
A Dove, but even the them into groovy space the traditional folkways of County
shortest song is just under rock territory, and Beautiful Clare, where she lived before lockdown
10 minutes. Happily, this isn’t a case of Frown features spirited soloing, with took her home. Rooted in acoustic
overindulgence or a band chasing their Bond on keys painting a broad canvas
guitar but with reflective strings and
own tails in perpetuity. Each track is of melodic variations and shapes.
sometimes melancholy piano, it’s
packed with engaging ideas and shifts It’s tempting to wonder what
a record that won’t be rushed, from the
in mood and style. The Green Heart And a top-flight remaster could make of
The Summer Queen is a case in point: A Raven For A Dove, but this is measured pace of the title track to
one of two instrumentals herein, it nonetheless an exciting outing from the tasteful reverie of A Scorched Lament.
morphs between full-on prog rock and a band possessing talent and musical Malcolm Middleton, mainstay of Scottish indie staples
a swinging jazz feel. ambition in abundance. DW Arab Strap, and Joel Harries, of the duo Team Leader, solo EPs
and more, come together in Lichen Slow, who make their
debut on Rest Lurks (Rock Action). Their chance meeting has
STELLAR CIRCUITS led to an album of spur-of-the-
moment experimentation and often
Sight To Sound NUCLEAR BLAST dark lyrical humour. Pick Over The
US tech/prog metallers’ second album delivers on all fronts. Bones lives in an enticingly offbeat
space between Radiohead and Fleet
pening an album with arena bands. Jesse Olsen’s
O a screamed rap over
a tapped bass riff in 9/8 will
snake-like bass grooves
lead the way on an
Foxes, while the even livelier Preset
observes cheerfully: ‘Oh my God, shit
bands singing shit songs are everywhere.’
prompt some to instantly introspective For The Birds, Healthy cynicism is leavened by
hit the ‘stop’ button. But for offering a complex ballad plenty of elemental beauty and appealing vocals, as on It’s Not
those looking for something that’s a world away from
What We Thought.
a little less abrasive, the cutthroat attack of
Leeds-based Niall Summerton stares into his soul with
patience is a virtue. Witch House. Truthseeker
the title of his new album What Am I Made Of? (Tiny
On their second album, then blends atmospheric
North Carolina’s Stellar modern prog with stabs of Library). The results of such self-analysis are not initially
Circuits deliver a smörgåsbord of sharp, spinning metal and sweet vocals. promising, as he intones ‘I’m sick of
pointed riffs, aggressive hooks and, Much of Stellar Circuits’ music is, on trying’ on the opening Human, Dying.
in equal measure, airy refrains and the surface, direct and accessible, But soon hope is peeping through the
sugary, twisting turns. Their palette is albeit sometimes intense but repeat cracks, if wistfully, on such as the gentle
broad yet effortlessly balanced. listens reveal its knotted complexities. Playing Dumb and the rockier Wish You
Pleasure Cruise takes a prog metal Sight To Sound is a rich endeavour that Could Speak, Summerton’s almost
thump, all bass and kick grooves, and rewards your full investment, striking whispered vocals evoking his childhood
counterbalances it with an earworm the right balance between their varying lodestar Nick Drake.
chorus that draws from alt-rock and influences, brute and brains. POW

progmagazine.com 93
 STRAWBS DEVIN TOWNSEND
The Magic Of It All CHERRY RED
Empath Live In America INSIDEOUT
Cousins switches personnel to lay down Cape Town album.
The latest in the prog metal magus’ Devolution series.

ven before its Covid- Between-songs banter is

E related derailment, the
2020 North American tour
a speciality, but the main
pull of this mostly Montreal
Townsend undertook in and Boston-recorded LP is
support of his 2019 album of course the dazzling,
Empath was unique. heavy-riffing theatricality
Featuring a pared-down of Townsend’s music: here
incarnation of his including such firm fan
formidable Order Of favourites as Supercrush!
Magnitude band, it was and operatic sci-fi stomper
a raw, spontaneous affair, the nightly March Of The Poozers, and in fact only
setlist partly assembled in real time two songs (Evermore and Why?) from
according to audience whims, and the aforementioned Empath.
performed with joyous gusto by Townsend’s vocals are astoundingly
Townsend and company. good throughout, his voice sounding

W
ith Dave Cousins recently explaining why the
recognised line-up of his band don’t appear on this “Everything’s terrifying lately, right?” indestructible. Had Frank Zappa and
album (and receiving some pushback), it’s a relief says Townsend at the top, before citing Andrew Lloyd-Webber penned a prog
to find it feels like – and exhibits most of the strengths and “listening to metal and telling your metal musical together, it might have
weaknesses of – Strawbs. mom you love her” as possible cures. sounded something like this. JMN
There are disagreements ongoing with regard to who was
asked to participate on The Magic Of It All and who declined.
What is for sure is that South African documentary maker RJ TROIKA
Megalomania RJTROIKA.BANDCAMP.COM
Cousins’ voice is US proggers’ long-gestating but striking second album.
weathered by age,
his Boston trio put out into the album, though,
but still distinctive. T an eclectic but scruffily
promising debut album
there are more complex
instrumental passages,
Niel van Deventer asked Cousins to record in Cape Town as Plethora in 2013 under the as on the stuttering time
part of his film about the band. Blue Weaver came over to name Ryan Jackson Troika, signature, meandering
produce, and John Ford added parts from New York. Strawbs but their sound has instrumental meditations
remain well loved in South Africa since the resistance against matured considerably in and increasingly majestic
“the resettlement”, half a century ago, related to songs like the decade since. synth figures that light up
New World and, inevitably, the atypical Part Of The Union. Where 10 years ago they The Road and the choppy,
So the logic at play, it seems, was that this should carry the could be found juxtaposing riff-punctuated path
colours of 70s-era Strawbs. jerky-quirky alt-rock with funky grooves through more epic prog-metallic
With the help of an engineer who worked on Paul Simon’s and metallically inclined moments, territory beaten by Born Again.
Graceland, and assisting local musicians, one could be forgiven Megalomania aspires to a more ‘Maybe I should give up my dreams
for anticipating something highly rhythmic. Yet that’s not emotionally resonant, widescreen and get a real job,’ frontman/chief
what transpires. It’s a mix of pensive quiet songs and faintly sound. Foundation employs ghostly songwriter Ryan Jackson admits on Bow
more energetic upbeat tracks, very much in time-honoured falsetto-laced vocal harmonies set to To Fate, before adding: ‘That doesn’t
a slow-building synth-rock pulse, before seem like an option at all.’ And it’s one
Strawbs vein. A familiar well is tapped. Arguably it’s less
the foreboding riff of Greasy Man sets that would surely have denied us a very
muscular without the latter-day personnel, but the most
up a dreamily melodic chorus. Further likeable consignment of US neo-prog. JS
effective counterbalance to that is Bee Gees legend Weaver’s
skill in knitting smooth, cohesive keyboard sounds
throughout. Cousins’ voice is weathered by age and health
issues, but still distinctive: there is an emotive quality to LEAH WAYBRIGHT
his timbre which pulls at the sensitivities. It elevates Dreamed BIT.LY/WAYBRIGHT
moderately good material until it’s at least on nodding terms Piano-playing Earth Mother’s very long-awaited sophomore release.
with a higher plane.
He sings of memories (many concerning the history of the hile making a living frames Waybright’s piano
band, and a world seen via the medium of touring), of a degree
of wisdom acquired with age (which doesn’t stop him name
W as a “floral artist”
and “storyteller”, this
on Earth Rattle make for
a beguiling sonic
dropping Be-Bop-A-Lula and Jailhouse Rock) and of his belief former fashion model from framework that’s
that love and forgiveness are always within reach. (Whether Gettysburg, Pennsylvania increasingly enticing, then
the sidelined band members concur is probably another is also a pianist and Blu’s clarinet adds welcome
matter.) He also sings of a ‘lady of the night’ and a character songwriter specialising in extra flavour. Elsewhere,
called ‘Slackjaw Alice’: references that don’t exactly ring of Mike Oldfield-influenced Happy The Man’s Stan
modernism. Fortunately, the music is authoritative, as the instrumental reveries, and Whitaker and Rick Kennell
opener Ready (We Are Ready) asserts confidently. Both defiant although it’s been 24 years fill out the sound and offer
since her debut album Beauty Gone jazz-inflected guitar and rhythmic
battle cry and surge of optimism, it’s gloved in warm guitars
Wild was released, she’s kept in touch intrigue, but that’s also where, now and
which pack a punch and strides to an alluring groove which
with some notable musician friends, again, the sound drifts into muzak-like
unexpectedly echoes the indie-folk of a more contemporary who assist her on Dreamed. territory, with Blu’s sax sounding closer
outfit like Modern Studies. The sweet reflections of the title The flute that decorates the Camel- to Kenny G than, say, Mel Collins.
song and the choral charm of Our World also rouse the spirits. esque opener Candlewink, played by A minor gripe, though, because the
Regardless of personnel, sufficient magic flickers here. erstwhile Steely Dan and Boz Scaggs evocative quality of Waybright’s piano
CHRIS ROBERTS sideman Gary Blu, enhances its bucolic meditations would work regardless of
feel. The lurched time signature that taste considerations. JS

94 progmagazine.com
 AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
Grant Moon has a rummage down the back of
TUSMØRKE the Prog sofa for the ones that nearly got away…
Hestehoven KARISMA
Madcap Norsemen get back to winning ways on 11th album.

V
eteran multi-instrumentalist/
usmørke are at their by Turkish psyche. Cycle Of
producer Max Hunt’s CV includes
T most effective when
they’ve got their groove on.
The Gylfaginning is similarly
ebullient, propelled along
work with Steve Howe, Jon
Anderson and Fish, and these elements and
The prolific prog four-piece by a pinging ride cymbal more come together on Music From The Void
lost some momentum on and yet more enchanted (bit.ly/maxhunt). His absorbing, proggy and
last year’s Intetnett, which flute ostinatos. regularly beautiful musical interpretation
was packed with 21 There’s still room for of Tolkien’s creation story Ainulindalë is
unsatisfying vignettes. silliness elsewhere – the also one for fans of Steve Hackett, maybe
Lessons have been title track cruises its way Chris Squire’s solo work. Hunt’s layered
learned on Hestehoven (the through a medley from vocals are literally enchanting, and the mystical atmosphere
Norwegian name of a hardy perennial musicals and movies, including If I Was – by turns ominous and celestial – is expertly evoked in
that herbalists use to treat gout). Their A Rich Man and a squelchy synth cinematic style. He more than does right by his source
11th album is a bawdy, Norwegian- rendition of My Favourite Things. material here.
language concept record about randy Further promise of bacchanals featuring Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso founders Vittorio and Gianni
sorcerers enjoying an orgy of Dionysian satyrs and nymphs are only to be fully Nocenzi contribute to Prog Will Never Die
excess on tracks like The Wicked Ways enjoyed by those conversant in (Universal Music Italia/Progressivamente), the
Of Witches And Wizards, marrying Norwegian. Thankfully the inviting second album from The Divae Project.
frantic flute and harpsichord to grooves throughout override any
Featuring keyboardist Davide Pistoni and
a rhythm track undoubtedly influenced feelings of exclusion. JA
a host of high-calibre Italian prog musicians,
this highly satisfying pure-prog set features
a 22-minute instrumental that’s like a whistle-
VONN ZANDUS stop tour of the genre’s history. Vocalist Luca
Unimortal APOLLON Velletri brings quasi-operatic gravitas to
Norfolk percussionist turns synth leviathan in lockdown.
authoritatively rendered Banco covers La Città
Sottile, 750.000 Anni Fa… L’amore? and Bambino.
oe Burns is best known featuring odd time Moscow musos Aton Five bring a fresh, highly listenable
J as the drummer for
Norwich-based prog five-
signatures, marimbas,
glockenspiels, tambourines
slant to prog’s fiddlier, widdlier quarter. Over five tracks the
instrumental quartet’s second, self-titled
piece Guranfoe, a group and even a gong. Only album (bit.ly/atonfive) evokes 70s-era Pink
that have made a name for Latrominu, which wraps up Floyd or Dream Theater, with the energy of
themselves for the impressive the first suite abruptly, their coevals The Fierce And The Dead.
improvisational telepathy bears another musician Roman Makushev and Mikhail Zenkov are
the members appear to (Rob Baker on guitar). a formidable rhythm section, and
have in the live arena. Although there’s an array Alexander Seleznev’s thick-throated guitar
Burns is an intuitive of instruments, the and Anton Ablov’s retro synths wrap
musician and percussionist, and his new synthetic sounds drive the six tracks around each other in spacey, melodic style.
side-project Vonn Zandus proves that here, which at times are redolent of
The 22-minute closer Lethe alone marks
there’s more than one string to his bow. a more hyperreal Ozric Tentacles,
them out as ones to watch.
With time on his hands during the especially on the lengthy title track.
Dutch project The Foundation is the brainchild of
pandemic, Burns got busy with a Moog Burns ups the noodling on side two,
Sub 37 synthesiser, beginning to with Orin Talum in particular recreating keyboardist, co-writer (and Xymphonia Records
experiment and make home recordings a vintage video game vibe, which just owner) Ron Lammers, and their debut is
of compositions. Organically that grew adds to the sense that anything goes in the Bildungsromanesque concept album titled
into Unimortal, his first solo record, Vonn Zandus’ world. JA Mask (A Fairy Tale Of Real Life)
(bit.ly/thefoundationmask), an assured, highly
melodic symphonic/neo set of musical scope
ZOPP and philosophical heft. Vocalist-lyricist Mark
Smit is a likeable, tuneful presence throughout.
Dominion FLAT CIRCLE Experienced Scottish vocalist, drummer and
Brilliant must-have for Canterbury fans. multi-instrumentalist Tom Adamson leads
his eponymous band through their 15-track
chance encounter as rich melodies, the album is
A a teenager with his
dad’s old Egg albums
immensely rewarding with
You and Toxicity providing
album Old View Of The New World (Blue
Build). Their eclectic, song-focused and
gently progressive brand of folky classic
caused Zopp’s Ryan rousingly epic music that’s rock comes packed with hooks (Lead Me To
W Stevenson to fall down ambitious in scope and The Edge), folky moments (The Black Dinner)
a Canterbury-shaped rabbit scale. Stevenson handles
and an affectionate retro tinge throughout.
hole. On this follow-up to vocals, keyboards
The Supertrampy/Beatlesy I Am Mean is
2020’s audacious self-titled (including fuzzed-up
a highlight on an easy-going record imbued
debut, he’s emerged as Hammond and overdriven)
a composer of stimulating plus bass, guitar and the with charm and conviction.
pieces which acknowledge their debt to occasional frosting of Mellotron, though Danish multi-instrumentalist Jon
the Canterbury scene but thankfully he’s joined by guests contributing saxes, Braendsgaard Toft blends tales of sci-fi, cats and
don’t suffer from being, ahem, flutes, and female harmony vocals, with love on his quirky Brick By Brick (Solvind Records). With the
over-Egged. all of it underpinned by Andrea vibes ranging from Jethro Tull/early Bowie (Mr
Each of the seven tracks is crammed Moneta’s taut, agile drumming. Johnson, the title track) to Cat Stevens (Among
with constantly evolving themes, It’s rare to find someone who Vikings), these beguiling, catchy songs are for
packed with surprising twists, none transcends their influences to create those who like their progressive music on the
more so than the bonkers Reality their own musical identity but with regressive side, in a good way.
Tunnels. Combining complexity with Zopp, Stevenson does just that. SS

progmagazine.com 95
 ASIA ANDERSON/STOLT
Phoenix BMG
Invention Of Knowledge INSIDEOUT
Vinyl reissue for classic line-up’s aptly-titled 2008 comeback album.
Vinyl remaster for prog bigshots’ sole studio collaboration.

n the face of it, this surrender to the broken

O 2016 collaboration
between prog pioneers
tunes, promises that
drift around my voice
of different generations and I night and day,’ he
promised everything insists, and that sense of
and nothing. The optimism is if anything
project’s uninspiring, even more invigorating
legal-firm name on this remastered
suggested a belief that version as there’s
just cutting and shutting a slightly richer, warmer
two prominent musical sound to it. But just as
figures together would key to this album’s
automatically succeed, while the two success were the contributions of Roine
men barely met during the making of Stolt’s line-up of players, from regular
Invention Of Knowledge, as California- lieutenant Jonas Reingold’s shimmering

A
sia’s career through the 90s and early 00s was marked
by shifting line-ups, internecine strife and the based Jon Anderson sent demos for slivers of bass to would-be Kansas
occasional reunion between former members. But in European counterpart Roine Stolt to keysman Tom Brislin’s lively synth trills.
2006, after several false starts, the original line-up of Steve work on. Perhaps of most interest to fans will
Howe, Geoff Downes, Carl Palmer and John Wetton finally So what is it that made Invention be the remix of the three-part title track
got back together. After touring, they eventually set to work Of Knowledge a success, and worthy that covers side one of this double
on a new album, belatedly following the stunning success of of a slick remaster for this reissue (on gatefold affair. An extended reworking
their version of the band’s 1982 debut and the underrated 1983 transparent orange vinyl)? On the one of its second part, We Are Truth, adds
hand, it’s Anderson’s irrepressible florid new instrumental breaks and
follow-up, Alpha. And while the commercial success of that
positivity as a writer and performer. re-imagines the anthemic chorus with
era proved impossible to replicate, it was creatively positive.
In a musical landscape where dark and more uncertain minor key harmonies,
dystopian visions are routinely awarded before extending the segue into
A proggier prospect greater value and perceived profundity Knowledge. It may not justify
than their original than their more upbeat equivalents, re-investment for those already owning
passages such as Knowledge benefit this album, but it adds another layer
brace of albums. from Anderson’s inimitable way of of intrigue to a project that remains
throwing open the windows on brighter, a proud entry on the CV of both the men
Phoenix was the first of the three albums the reconstituted more optimistic vistas. ‘I will not whose names are above the door. JS
line-up recorded, and as with their original album, it’s
dominated by the Wetton-Downes writing team, which click
into place as if no time has passed. Indeed, anthemic opening KEVIN AYERS
track Never Again has Steve Howe playing a riff that’s
Falling Up ESOTERIC
somewhat anagrammatic to the opening seconds on Heat
Of The Moment. The lyrics, about no longer ‘taking up arms Ayers’ long-unavailable 1988 LP remastered and reissued.
against my brother’ set the agenda about the group’s disputes
ike many psych prog (Today), wherein Ayers
being very much a thing of the past. Also apparently
autobiographical is the surging An Extraordinary Life, with L artists who came to
the fore in the 60s and
sings of ‘trying to catch
stars in a spoon’ and
John Wetton in a confessional but joyous mood, determined
70s, former Soft ‘running around in the
to seize the day but ‘standing rightly accused’.
Machine man Kevin nude’. Elsewhere, lazy
Among the other more compact highlights, Steve Howe
Ayers had a testing 6/8 time blues Am
contributes the more sombre Wish I’d Known All Along, which, relationship with the I Really Marcel?, with its
with its musical twists and turns and tasteful flourishes from 80s. He would anti-rat-race sentiments,
both him and Geoff Downes, is pleasingly reminiscent of the subsequently disown also typifies a record
direction of recent Yes. solo LPs such as 1980’s celebrating Ayers’
Indeed, despite the sprightly radio-rock vigour of much of That’s What You Get existence as a boozy
the contents, Phoenix is definitely a proggier prospect than the Babe and 1983’s bon-vivant. Still, in
original brace of albums. This is particularly so on two three- Diamond Jack And The Queen Of Pain, revealing new sleeve notes written by
part compositions. The first, Sleeping Giant/No Way Back/ works somewhat hamstrung by nascent music journalist and Prog writer Mike
Reprise begins by expanding on the ocean of chorus vocals digital tech, and which producers Barnes, Ayers’ daughter Galen is frank
briefly heard on debut album highlight Time Again, expanding shaped according to their vision, not about the darker side of her father’s
the idea agreeably over the opening minutes, with trancey that of Ayers. seeming hippy idyll, noting “there was
keyboards from Downes and bursts of particularly Howe-ish Recorded in Madrid, Spain, with the too much isolation, loneliness and
guitar. This gives way to the keys-driven No Way Back great man commuting in from the access to cheap booze and drugs. Kevin
section, which echoes the pop-prog phase of Genesis that remote farmhouse where he was living was falling apart slowly but surely.”
reached its apex on Duke and Abacab. in Deia, Mallorca, Falling Up saw Ayers Falling Up is also notable for the
Even better is Parallel Worlds/Vortex/Déyà, which sounds grasp the creative reins again after Mike Oldfield-penned Flying Start,
like it was written as the soundtrack of a 60s sci-fi film by scoring a new deal with Virgin Records. which is a surprisingly commercial,
Working closely with pal and former unmistakably 80s pop song, and for
John Barry and celebrated lyricist Don Black; there’s
Patto/The Rutles guitar ace Peter ‘Ollie’ Ollie Halsall’s remarkable guitar solo
a widescreen opening ballad theme, the incidental music of
Halsall and gifted local Spaniards, he on Another Rolling Stone. For all its
Vortex with Carl Palmer at his most robust, followed by what made what’s arguably his best solo LP complex, sometimes poignant
sounds like a melancholy end credits sequence played out of the 80s, more simpatico producer associations – Halsall would die of
both acoustically and electrically by Howe. It surely rates Colin Fairley (Beggars Opera/String a drug-induced heart attack in Calle de
among the best works Asia have recorded. Driven Thing) at the helm. la Amargura, Madrid, four years later
PAUL GING Highlights include curious piano-led aged 43 – it’s great to have this Ayers
Halsall co-write That’s What We Did comeback available again. JM

96 progmagazine.com
 ENVY OF NONE CARDIACS
A Little Man And A House And The
That Was Then, This Is Now EP KSCOPE
Whole World Window THE ALPHABET BUSINESS CONCERN
Remixes and brand-new song from Alex Lifeson’s ‘other’ band.
Lavish reissue of debut studio album by much-loved British misfits.
lex Lifeson told further exposure, but
A Prog last year,
“Suddenly I felt, ‘I’m
the real meat here is
brand-new song That
a musician again!’” He Was Then. Accompanied
was chatting about Envy by a beautifully stylised
Of None’s eponymous pop-art video depicting
debut LP and his a screaming biker girl
involvement in the synth fleeing from a stalker-
texture-rich band – ish pursuer, it’s
comprising himself, a sequencers-and-live-
singer Maiah Wynne, drums-propelled tale of
former Coney Hatch an ailing relationship in
bassist Andy Curran and producer/ flux, Wynne’s breathy, ethereal vocals
engineer Alf Annibalini. It was initially intoxicating, and Lifeson bringing some
tentative, but Envy Of None’s dark, prog David Gilmour-esque lead-work on what

R
ight from Cardiacs’ inception at the end of the 70s,
and industrial-goth world transpired to might be described as his first ‘proper’ listeners who inadvertently stumbled across their
be an absorbing safety valve for Lifeson Envy Of None guitar solo. music could feel as if a wonderful, precious secret was
after Neil Peart’s passing negated Rush. Though the 50th anniversary of being revealed. Operating in the margins of punk, prog and
This five-track EP brings trippy Rush’s self-titled debut looms large next psychedelia, Cardiacs forged an absurdly unique path, both
remixes of Envy Of None’s Dog’s Life year, and Envy Of None’s Andy Curran musically and aesthetically; their song shapes were obtuse,
and Dumb alongside Lethe River and recently said of Lee and Lifeson, their melodic and harmonic approach extraordinary, their
You’ll Be Sorry, the latter two tracks “There’s a lot of race left in both those appearance grotesque. Anyone with an appreciation of British
previously only available on the deluxe horses,” That Was Then, This Is Now is
edition of the band’s debut. The Der billed as a prologue to further new
Dummkopf (translation: ‘thickhead’) music from Envy Of None, who are in It sounds as
remix of Dumb is especially playful, the studio right now. Though not every extraordinary and
Wynne’s vocals echoing around Rush fan has taken to their heavily
themselves, and samples of band processed sound, it’s clear EON have surprising as ever.
members’ voices intermittently an evolving and intriguing future,
intoning, yes, that’s right: ‘Dummkopf!’ regardless of any commemorative eccentricity would have been drawn into their orbit, and
With its spidery, mid-period Rush-like activities Lee and Lifeson might jointly over a series of singles, EPs, cassettes and explosive live
guitar figures, Lethe River also warrants undertake in 2024. JMN performances, their fanbase grew. By 1987, the secret of
Cardiacs was becoming hard to keep. Perhaps, after nearly
a decade of chaotic activity, it was time for them to make
ANDREW GOLD: THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE ALL a proper album (whatever ‘proper’ might mean).
The result, A Little Man And A House And The Whole World
Greetings From Planet Love ESOTERIC
Window would, at the time, have had a whiff of Greatest Hits
Lonely Boy hitmaker’s love letter-come-pastiche of the summer of love. for die-hard fans. Three of its most enduring songs, Is This
The Life, R.E.S. and A Little Man And A House had appeared on
ust like a comedian Andrew Gold’s love of
J delivering a killer
punchline, timing is
late period-Beatles and
The Beach Boys of
previous cassette releases, but were now given sparkly new
jackets courtesy of an expensive studio, The Workhouse in
south-east London, which had been booked on the cheap,
a commodity well prized Pet Sounds is evident
provided that Cardiacs were in at 7pm and out by 7am the
when it comes to music. throughout thanks to his
next morning. The sessions yielded an expansive, complex
Released in 1997, it’s attention to sonic detail
easy to see how singer and songwriting chops. work that’s treasured by the band as well as the fans. “It is
and producer Andrew The lush harmonies of probably my favourite album that we did,” says bassist Jim
Gold’s pastiche of and Tuba Rye And Will’s Son/ Smith in the book that accompanies this four-disc reissue.
homage to the sounds Balloon In The Sky and Had Cardiacs been a going concern today, it’s unlikely that
of the original Love Tonight would we’d know Jim’s feelings about the record, or discover how his
psychedelic era fell probably convince Brian brother Tim, the band’s driving force, conceived it. Theirs
down the back of rock’s sofa like Wilson that he hadn’t accounted for all was always a world of intrigue and mystery. But following
a misplaced naughty sugar lump. The of his outtakes. Elsewhere, Rainbow Tim Smith’s untimely death in 2020, the Cardiacs family
Beatles were enjoying a new lease of People doffs its cap to the Fab Four with evidently felt that the time for telling these stories was
life in the afterglow of their Anthology a particular nod to George Harrison, overdue, and writer Cathi Unsworth does a superb job.
documentary and attendant albums, while the musical interludes of Swirl, The record itself, remastered with Tim’s input before his
the 90s Britpop kids were about to Twirl and Whirl recall the orchestration passing, sounds as extraordinary and surprising as it ever
crash in with their own version of the of Strawberry Fields Forever and I Am did. In A City Lining sustains itself with four glorious,
swinging 60s while the neo-psychedelia The Walrus. Alas, Gold’s pastiche of late repeated chords for nearly two minutes before stumbling
of Spiritualized was about to peak with 60s record industry stiffs in the shape into a carnival of a chorus, descending saxophone lines
the breathtaking Ladies And Gentlemen of Mr Plastick Business Man is too undercutting a joyful singalong. By contrast, The Whole World
We Are Floating In Space. With Mike obvious to score thanks to a second- Window is probably the most emotionally raw and powerful
Myers’ Austin Powers movies providing hand impression of Bob Dylan’s nasal
song they ever recorded, truly fit for an otherworldly stadium.
enough comedy on their own, the world tones, while his take on The Doors with
The other discs in the package, featuring radio sessions, a
didn’t need another wry, winking look at – yes – Ride The Snake feels mean
an era that had been raked over. spirited at best. live show and studio outtakes, demonstrate what a formidable
Yet, taken on its own terms, there’s The accompanying faux band biog prospect Cardiacs were up close; the ferociously burning
much to enjoy within the grooves of sails perilously close the narratives of vision of one man, surrounded by people – both bandmates
Greetings From Planet Love, albeit with The Rutles and Spinal Tap, but the and audience – who trusted him to the Moon and back.
caveats. Best known for the hits Lonely whole project is best enjoyed as an RHODRI MARSDEN
Boy and Thank You For Being A Friend, elaborate gag. JM

progmagazine.com 97
 Find Your
Perfect Tone
Every issue, Guitarist brings you the best gear,
features, lessons and interviews to fuel
your passion for guitar
ON
SALE
NOW

Guitarist magazine is also available on iOS and Android

Also available to order online at www.magazinesdirect.com/guitarist-magazine

 LINDISFARNE HAWKWIND
Warrior On The Edge Of Time ATOMHENGE
Fog On The Tyne PROPER MUSIC
Steven Wilson’s emboldening 2013 remix gets a belated vinyl release.
Geordies’ brilliance shines on vinyl reissue of their breakthrough second LP.

hough the bedrock of and anchor; a fine song

T Lindisfarne’s appeal
lay in the distinctive,
unfairly tarnished by
the novelty, Lindisfarne-
politicised songwriting aided Paul ‘Gazza’
of charismatic frontman Gascoigne cover, which
Alan Hull, it was Top 5 reached No.2 in the UK
single Meet Me On The in 1990. January Song
Corner – penned by is wonderful too,
bassist Rod Clements, its simple acoustic
and sung by the band’s arrangement building
mandolin/harmonica in support of Hull’s
player Ray Jackson – fabulous vocal melody.
which made them stars. A window onto What this 180g audiophile vinyl
Fog On The Tyne’s pointed Hull songs of reissue makes clear is just how versatile
northern pride and identity, …Corner’s and truly musical Lindisfarne were.

M
uch like the debate surrounding the inexorable rise
skiffle-ish arrangement was arrived at There’s funk in Rod Clements’ folk rock of Artificial Intelligence, the vexed question arising
after various permutations including bass lines; Hull, Jackson and guitarist from the remixing of classic and not-so-classic
a rocked-up Vanilla Fudge-style version. Simon Cowe sing fine three-part vocal albums shows absolutely no signs of abating, or indeed the
It also helped Fog On The Tyne become harmonies on Passing Ghosts, and with practice coming to an end any time soon. And with pretty
the biggest-selling UK album of 1972. sometime Bob Dylan/Leonard Cohen much every band from The Beatles down having worked or
Relocating to London had been producer Bob Johnston at the controls, are working their way through their back catalogue, this is
a stipulation of Lindisfarne’s contract Lindisfarne’s eloquent rusticity makes one genie that ain’t going back into its bottle.
when signing to Charisma alongside a case for them being England’s answer
such unlikely bedfellows as Genesis and to The Band.
Van der Graaf Generator. Hull, in Crucially, Fog On The Tyne also shone Steven Wilson’s magic
particular, was a reluctant capital- light back on Lindisfarne’s hitherto touch is in evidence
dweller who would eventually move undervalued 1970 debut Nicely Out Of
back north, hence City Song’s ‘You tried Tune, home to such magical Hull songs in the mix.
your best to strangle me/But I could as Lady Eleanor, a mystical augury of
take the pain.’ Elsewhere, Fog On The death that he’d penned while working Steven Wilson’s remix of Hawkwind’s fifth album will
Tyne’s anthemic title track is a heartfelt as a psychiatric nurse. But that’s already be familiar to anyone who bought the three-CD
celebration of cultural identity as shield a whole other story. JMN reissue 10 years ago and to a great number of people – this
writer included – it’s become the go-to mix. Wilson’s skill
as a remixer is in serving the material or, as he describes it,
MAGNUM “polishing the Sistine Chapel”, and it’s true in this case.
Originally released in May 1975, Warrior On The Edge Of Time
Great Adventure – The Jet Years 1978-1983 HNE RECORDINGS
was as characterised by its dense, murky mix as it was by
A ride back to the early days of the Brummie pomp rock veterans. some of Hawkwind’s most daring material. Even drummer
Alan Powell decried the original recording and mix as “awful”.
onsidering the often into pomp rock.
C magical nature of
their music, Magnum
Although 1979’s
Magnum II and the
And finally, here is the Steven Wilson mix on vinyl. The
original gatefold album cover with the fold-out shield and
extended front artwork is wonderfully recreated, and there’s
deserved better than single live set Marauder
an undeniable joy about removing the vinyl from its sleeve
being tied to hard-nut (produced by Leo Lyons
and placing it on the turntable. Equally, there’s a sense of
Black Sabbath manager of Ten Years After)
Don Arden’s Jet Records. were both extremely comfort as Lemmy’s bass coalesces with Simon House’s
The label kept its purse- credible, everything Mellotron on Assault And Battery/The Golden Void. This is
strings tightly shut, came together perfectly where Wilson’s magic touch is in evidence. By adding
either sitting on their with their third album, a greater degree of separation between the instruments, the
work for extreme Chase The Dragon. sound becomes wider and more immersive. Nik Turner’s
lengths of time, as with Soldier Of The Line, flute blows free and there really is no need to demand more
1982’s Chase The Dragon, or forcing The Spirit, Sacred Hour and The Lights cowbell. Likewise Dave Brock’s poignant voice and lyrics that
them to self-produce their records Burned Out are all quintessential cut through the pensive side-one closer, The Demented Man,
before being quite ready to do so. Magnum songs. Had Jet cared enough so giving the song an extra bittersweet flavour.
Eventually, Magnum faked splitting up to engage a ‘real’ producer after Elsewhere, the motorik joy of Opa Loka benefits from
to escape the label’s clutches. Magnum’s liaison with Jeff Glixman of a panoramic and sonic attack. Propelled by the twin
Though an unspoken sense of ‘what Kansas fame on Chase The Dragon, drumming of Simon King and Alan Powell, and Dave Brock’s
if?’ clouds the atmosphere of their five instead of putting a gun to guitarist minimal yet highly effective bass playing (Lemmy was
Jet-era albums – four studio and one Tony Clarkin’s head to oversee its otherwise occupied), it’s easy to see why Hawkwind were
live – collected in this CD box set, the successor, The Eleventh Hour, their tale so highly regarded by German kosmische explorers (and
music itself is, for the most part, might have turned out very differently. labelmates) Can and Neu! And while perennial favourite
outstanding and sometimes even It goes without saying that the first Magnu properly flexes its mystical muscles, no amount of
breathtaking. Released as punk waned, five Magnum albums have been
remixing will prevent the carbon-dating of the album’s
1978’s debut album, Kingdom Of re-released many, many times before,
spoken-word pieces but hey, those were different times.
Madness, sees Magnum at their most though Great Adventure represents an
proggy, Clarkin’s sword and sorcery- opportunity to own them all in one Accepting that these remixes empathetically match
themed songs rich and satisfyingly clamshell box, plus bonus tracks on all existing material to contemporary modern technology, would
complex, coloured by the skylark flute but Kingdom Of Madness, and a further it be too much to ask Mr Wilson to have a go at Hall Of The
of keyboardist Richard Bailey. disc of demos, outtakes and alternate Mountain Grill please?
As the years passed, those takes. For the newbie, it’s a highly JULIAN MARSZALEK
progressive elements evolved gradually convenient starting point. DML

progmagazine.com 99
THE UK’S BIGGEST HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE

Available
from all good
newsagents and
supermarkets

NEW ISSUE ON SALE NOW

THE BIGGEST BANDS. THE HEAVIEST MUSIC.
WORLD-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS.

BUY YOUR ISSUE TODAY

PRINT EDITION AVAILABLE FROM
HTTPS://TINYURL.COM/METALHAMMERMAG
DIGITAL EDITIONS AVAILABLE ON IOS AND ANDROID

WWW.METALHAMMER.COM
/metalhammer /metalhammeruk /metalhammer
 MELLOW CANDLE RICHARD WRIGHT
Wet Dream PARLOPHONE
Swaddling Songs DERAM
Pink Floyd keyboardist’s underrated solo debut remixed.
Sought-after sole release from deceptively feisty Irish prog-folk quintet.

arly 70s progressive As the album

E folk records are
among the most
progresses, though, if
that band name had led
valuable vinyl treasures uninitiated listeners to
out there – and the sole expect soft, bucolic,
studio outing by this late-night listening all
Irish five-piece can fetch the way, they’re in for
£2,000 in its original a surprise.
vinyl incarnation. While The girls’ vocals
many similar collectors’ channel the acid-queen
holy grails from that era contralto of Grace Slick
are valuable due to on the mystically
supply and demand – independent acts charged The Poet And The Witch, and
used to press up fewer than 100 copies they dip toes further into murkier
of an album to avoid purchase tax, so mythological waters on Dan The Wing,

W
hen it was originally released in 1978, credited to
there are barely any left in existence – where they crow, ‘I think I smell the Richard Wright, Wet Dream was largely ignored by
Mellow Candle’s Swaddling Songs gates of Hell, I think I smell the Devil.’ all but the most hardcore Pink Floyd fans. That’s
was well distributed through Decca’s Soon after, Reverend Sisters offers a pity because plenty of the keyboard player and sometime
Deram imprint, and it’s the quality of eerily gorgeous atmospherics over vocalist’s debut solo album has much in common with so
this record, appreciated by reviewers undulating keys. Throughout, though, many familiar songs. Scattered throughout are numerous
at the time and hidden-gem seekers the song structures are beguilingly Floydian references including the uplifting chorus of Echoes,
more recently, that has made it so shape-shifting, taking the folk tradition The Great Gig In The Sky’s gentle chordal embrace, and the
prized and worthy of this remastered and twisting it as the mood swings take
doppler-shift notes Wright added so effectively to Dogs.
vinyl reissue now. them. By the end, it’s a positively
The focal point of Mellow Candle’s raucous affair, as the lively Buy Or
sound is the voices of Alison Williams Beware skips over an urgently shuffling Some of it has much in
and Clodagh Simonds, still in their teens beat as they proclaim in unison: ‘I own common with many
when this album was made, dovetailing the evening and the stars completely,’
in fluttering harmony across the then insist, ‘I want no water with my familiar Floyd tunes.
Mellotron-created harpsichord wine.’ Sounds like they’re already
accompaniment of Sheep Season intoxicated enough, to be fair, but who This musical déjà vu is no surprise, given his musical
and the gentle piano of Silversong. are we to argue? JS identity and harmonic sensibilities were an integral
component of what made Floyd interesting. But his regular
band were more than just a sonic presence. When Wright,
STACKRIDGE always the most diffident of vocalists, plaintively sings,
‘Something’s gotta give, we can’t carry on like this/One year on and
The Man In The Bowler Hat ESOTERIC
more, unsure where do we go from here?’ on the stately Summer
Singularly kooky 70s prog-pop heads back. Elegy, he could be describing life inside Floyd rather than the
deterioration of his marriage at the time.
he only band to be seductive ballad. Prior
T described as
“quirky” more times
to that, all the jumping
around between
Recorded between the end of the psychologically gruelling
tour supporting Animals and the beginning of the psycho-
drama that marked The Wall’s creation, Holiday’s lyric,
than 10cc, Stackridge genres, exhibited by
‘Between these lines you see a man who’s not quite sure who he is
were a big live draw in Fundamentally Yours
or where he stands,’ could again be applicable to his professional
the early 70s, but never and To The Sun And The
quite constructed their Moon, is somewhat life rather than his personal situation.
defining progressive fatiguing, although Intimate and earnest, Wright’s restraint both as a singer
pop album. The a fleet of songs that and keyboardist brings a distinctive character instantly
charming The Man In evoke Gilbert O’Sullivan recognisable and appealing to Floyd fans. ‘Let’s drink to absent
The Bowler Hat from channelling Todd friends, how they cared and all they shared,’ Wright sings
1974 is the closest they Rundgren are never less poignantly, at one point. Mel Collins’ expressive sax and flute
came, their manager having sweet- than interesting. The Indifferent and guitarist Snowy White’s textural, bluesy imprint both
talked George Martin into producing it Hedgehog grows some spikes, and help the four songs and six instrumental numbers shine.
at Air Studios. He decorates the string concluding instrumental God Speed The The obvious criticism of Wet Dream’s languid poise is
arrangements with customary elan and Plough brings the group’s secret epic that it sometimes lacks the structural bite or expansive
there’s a distinct flavour of Sgt. Pepper- ambitions to the fore. architecture had these tunes been welcomed into the Floyd
style experimentation to it, yet Re-released alongside the machine to be inflated to fit the band’s exalted status and
Stackridge, for better or worse, were subsequent album Extravaganza, this sense of itself. While there are several songs on the album
never anybody but themselves. package adds a second disc of BBC that are easy to imagine projected onto the big stage, given
Seemingly keener on satire than sessions from 1973, one for In Concert how rancorous Floyd’s creative processing was becoming it’s
straight-up rock, here they mix and one for Bob Harris. The first easy to understand why Wright didn’t want to enter into
elements of folk, music hall and word captures them at their most wilfully what had rapidly become a damaging toxic environment.
games. Yet the precision of the eccentric – song titles like Anyone For
Although Prog was unable to access the Atmos or 5.1 mixes
melodies and Martin’s layers of warmth Tennis and Dora The Female Explorer
undertaken by Steven Wilson, the new stereo version bears
make it more accessible than much of suggest they were hell-bent on diluting
their earlier work, and fans of Sparks, any mystique. However on the Harris his customary focus and clarity. While it may lack the
ELO and Supertramp will certainly session they’re beginning to dabble in conceptual thunder which Floyd could muster, Wright gently
find plenty to love here. The album’s arc the relatively more mature music, which steers a credible piece of work, which, in this new edition, will
gets less vexatious and try-hard as it characterises this record. Beneath the hopefully now reach the wider audience it always deserved.
settles in, with The Road To Venezuela joviality, there’s a depth about it which SID SMITH
rather lush and Humiliation a delicately lures the listener back. Hats off. CR

progmagazine.com 101
 PETER GABRIEL
VENUE O2 ARENA, LONDON
DATE 19/06/2023

W
hen it comes to giving the people
what they want, Peter Gabriel has
always delivered musically, but in Dad dancing
doing so he’s rarely opted for the easy path. show. We’re firmly in the at its finest.
Quitting Genesis for a solo career that melded latter camp. Things start low-key, with Gabriel Biko brings things
(horror!) new wave and world music into his addressing the audience in a self-deprecating to a close, its anti-apartheid message as
prog rock base, having one of the world’s biggest manner, poking fun at his and their own haunting and impactful now as it was when
albums of 1986 in So and then waiting six years advancing years, before settling around a mock he recorded it in 1979.
to follow it up, not to mention waiting a decade campfire with his live band for Washing Of The It’s a really great performance, with
to follow that album up and another 21 years to, Water from Us, followed by Growing Up from a stunning stage show that’s heavily reliant on
hopefully, deliver another new album on top of Up, before dipping into the new material. This the music Gabriel makes. But an even more
that! And then drip-feeding your new album as includes a vibrant Panopticom, Four Kinds Of lasting impression is to consider that within
singles every full moon to a fanbase who very Horses and I/o, all introduced by Gabriel – who the space of two weeks, two of prog’s elder
often want you to do things the way they want, also discusses much of the accompanying video statesmen have graced this stage, and the
not the way you want. It’s not what you’d call work with an audience that features many of contrast between the two couldn’t be more
taking the easy route. those artists themselves. Jazz pianist Tom stark. One – a review of which you’ll find on
It stands to reason that Gabriel is going to Cawley joins Gabriel for Playing For Time, while p106 – sees its protagonist reacting to pressure
want to play as much of his upcoming album an upbeat Digging In The Dirt and Sledgehammer he’s largely brought upon himself (for the
I/o as he can when he takes to the stage and, offer something old against the ultra-new Olive record, this writer too recognises that being
as reports from other dates in the tour have Tree and This Is Home. against the actions of a government does not
shown, we do indeed tonight get all six tracks The second half of the set offers more back mean you’re against their native creed) with
released thus far, plus another six the audience catalogue fare to appease those disgruntled by bitterness, vitriol and petty jibes. Meanwhile
won’t have heard before tonight. Forewarned so many brand-new songs, and the applause is Peter Gabriel continues to strive for good and
is forearmed, as they say, but in this day and decidedly more upbeat than earlier in the to point out injustice, looking for answers to
age of the immediacy of the internet, this is evening. The audience are back up on their feet help others.
potentially hazardous given that Kaptain dad dancing like Gabriel, bassist Tony Levin So yes, there may have been one or two
Keyboard Warrior lurks in every corner, waiting and guitarist David Rhodes for Red Rain and people exiting the O2 Arena grumbling about
to tell the world how awful you are because Big Time, while multi-instrumentalist Ayanna the lack of older songs on display tonight, but
you haven’t played every song they alone Witter-Johnson duets on a devastatingly there were far more people with smiles on
wanted to hear. poignant rendition of Don’t Give Up. their faces, totally engrossed in the evening
Needless to say, by the time Prog returns As expected, Solsbury Hill – the only offering of art and music they’d just been privy to.
home from the O2, some people are venting at this point from the first four albums – near A powerful statement from a totally committed
their frustrations online, but probably more are raises the roof, while a first encore of In Your artist. Fantastic.
pointing out how much they’d enjoyed the Eyes is simply superb, before the ever-emotive JERRY EWING
Ayanna Witter-
Johnson earns Gabriel throws
a well-deserved some shapes.
high-five.
PRESS/YORK TILLYER

102 progmagazine.com
Peter Gabriel: always
looking forward, as he
ruddy well should be.

“A powerful
statement from
a totally
committed
artist.
Fantastic.”

Men at work: Tony

Levin, the boss and Keyboardist Tom
David Rhodes.
Cawley looks on as
Levin takes the mic.

progmagazine.com 103
 in Zeuhl?

THE ARISTOCRATS
VENUE MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2, MANCHESTER PORCUPINE
DATE 17/06/2023

here’s no support act tonight for

TREE
T The Aristocrats, and the show is
respectfully sold, but not packed out.
VENUE
DATE
CASTLEFIELD BOWL, MANCHESTER
29/06/2023
SUPPORT MAGMA
Prog is glad to find a comfy spot near
the front barrier to vibe to the dance

I
n the concrete of the
music pounding through the venue for Castlefield Bowl, beneath A proper Ma
the few minutes before the band take to the shadow of time-
gma
sprawl onstage.
the stage, even if our pint is lukewarm.
worn railway bridges,
It’s difficult not to describe The
tonight’s show carries
Aristocrats as a supergroup, when the
a sense of celebration and
line-up consists of prog royalty: Guthrie
Govan (guitar), Bryan Beller (bass) and relief. It’s been 13 years
Marco Minnemann (drums), but that since Porcupine Tree’s
seems the most apt way of describing conspicuous hiatus and 14
what we’re about to witness. since they last performed
As the trio stride nonchalantly in the city. Despite
onstage, humbly waving and smiling at guitarist John Wesley and
the cheering crowd, no one in the room bassist Colin Edwin not
has time to brace themselves for the being part of the reunion,
impending onslaught of a “few billion and replacement bassist
notes”, as Govan eloquently describes Nate Navarro forced
it. After opening with Stupid 7, they away from the tour due
take their time explaining the origins of to a family emergency,
each track, who wrote it, and quip the joy of having the
sarcastically between themselves. band back onstage, in any form at all,
A particular favourite origin story is remains palpable. Navarro’s playing comes instead
the tale of Sergeant Rockhopper, which It’s difficult to gauge Magma’s set from the through a pre-recorded backing track. Even
Govan wrote. The track is inspired by brief encounter that Prog gets, but talking to when absent, he leads the way with a brooding
the cover of 2021’s Freeze! Live In
the crowd, the band remain as divisive as ever. shuffle. Yet, as much as eyes are cast lovingly
Europe 2020, which depicts the trio
Its 11 members close out with a thick slew upon Messrs Wilson, Harrison and Barbieri,
turned into Lego figures, being
reprimanded by a large and of heady rhythms and wailed vocals as some touring guitarist/vocalist Randy McStine
intimidating police penguin. Govan punters hail their brilliance. One gig-goer, proves to be their secret weapon. It’s not just
explains that he was troubled after its meanwhile, likens their performance to musical the way he effortlessly cuts through the band’s
release. “Have we really heard enough anxiety, describing how he was left feeling knotted back catalogue that’s so impressive:
about this policeman penguin?” he increasingly itchy as their set unfolded. If they from the sky-skimming high notes of Harridan
wondered. He asks the audience to aren’t universally appealing, then, Porcupine through to his harmonies on a collectively
envision a penguin in full officer regalia, Tree certainly are. spell-binding Chimera’s Wreck,
charging around the permafrost of the The droning loop of Even Less’ Randy McStine’s vocals are
Antarctic, reprimanding baby seals. This intro welcomes the band onstage delivered with aplomb.
is swiftly followed by an apology that but proves to be a red herring as Knitting together crowd
they “don’t actually know how to play they launch, nonchalantly, into favourites, like a sharply executed
it” yet, as the song is brand-new. Blackest Eyes. It’s a statement Open Car and the ever-sleazy
Despite this, they storm through opening: Gavin Harrison’s “As much as Sleep Together, new tracks and
Sergeant Rockhopper almost flawlessly. drumming is like the stomp of an eyes are cast oddities, two hours fly by. Of The
The chemistry between the
bandmates is equal parts endearing and
angry god as Steven Wilson’s gold lovingly upon New Day is however vastly
admirable. As Govan improvises yet
top Les Paul glistens in the sun. Messrs Wilson, overshadowed by its Closure/
As its singalong chorus comes Harrison and Continuation bedfellows. Dignity’s
another guitar solo, Beller contorts his
around, nearly a decade-and-a-half monochrome melancholia is well
expression to one of mock disgust Barbieri,
melts away. juxtaposed alongside the angular
before breaking out into a grin, and
With Closure/Continuation’s lead
Randy McStine and angry, anti-industry romp of
later in the set as both disappear to give proves to be
Minnemann time to blast out a face- single Harridan next, Wilson’s The Sound Of Muzak setting the
soft timbre is quick to address their secret mood for Chimera’s Wreck, which
meltingly impressive seven-minute
drum solo, it’s clear there’s a huge Navarro’s absence. “Through the weapon.” turns from pensive to punchy
amount of respect between the three. power of technology,” he says across a near-perfect nine minutes.
That solo, for what it’s worth, is
potentially the best display of
drumming many people in the room
have witnessed live in their lifetime.
The most striking thing about this set No Closure yet for
Porcupine Tree.
is the skill and musicianship on display.
As Govan breaks a string during tango-
esque Furtive Jack, he simply picks up
another nearby guitar, tuned differently,
and continues to flawlessly execute the
remainder of the song. Beller adapts his
bass playing to complement Govan’s
whimsical tangents, and Minnemann
keeps the outfit collected, in time, and
adds tasteful flair at every opportunity.
What a delightful night, and rare live
MARK LATHAM

music experience.
CHERI FAULKNER

104 progmagazine.com
Steven Wilson looks
to the heavens.
DAVID CROSS BAND
VENUE TRADING BOUNDARIES, FLETCHING
DATE 28/04/2023

he evening begins with a brief Q&A

Strutting
the stage
.
T session with David Cross and Larks’
Tongues In Aspic lyricist and solo artist
Richard-Palmer James. Cross is cryptic
and evasive, and proceedings are
truncated with a number of audience
members’ hands still hopefully raised.
Palmer-James then plays a solo acoustic
set of intriguing, observational songs,
including Cologne 1977. He throws in
a version of Crimson’s The Night Watch
from Starless And Bible Black and is
joined by the headliners for In The Court
Of The Crimson King, which is enjoyable
despite a few uncertain moments.
Wilson warbling.
The David Cross Band deliver a short,
dynamic set. The bandleader plays his
five-stringed electric violin with intensity.
Drummer Jack Summerfield and Mick
Paul on six-string bass relish the time
changes and dropped beats that make
Black Ice and Starfall shift on their axes.
Moving on to Larks’ Tongues In Aspic,
Cross reckons that the episodic …Part
One presents the most difficulties in
A backdrop that interpretation as its dynamic range is so
doubles as an eye tes
t. extreme and it represents the
personalities of the 1973 band
members, but they deliver a thrilling
version. In homage to percussionist
Jamie Muir’s virtuosic introduction on
Until the band’s reunion, Last Chance To
mbira, or thumb piano, all five members
Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled play the instrument.
hadn’t been performed live since 2003 and it’s “The guy in the music shop must
gleefully received tonight. Then I Drive The have been pleased,” Palmer-James
Hearse’s shaded storytelling gives the crowd quips to Prog later. Cross’ rising violin
a chance to breathe in the wake of a breathless lines lead the whole band into
Anesthetize. For 18 minutes, it’s as if the sequences of brutal power chords and
world outside the venue doesn’t exist as then vocalist and guitarist Jonathan
the song slithers menacingly through Casey tackles Robert Fripp’s knuckle-
a rather different flavour of musical anxiety. busting picking passage with brio. After
Wilson’s self-reflective lyrics are hissed and a furious improvised section, Cross’ solo
hoarse, McStine playing venomously off intermezzo is an oasis of calm. Book Of
biting riffwork while Richard Barbieri’s delicate As Wilson introduces the evening’s closer, Saturday is a palette cleanser, faithfully
Rhodes piano slow dances with Harrison’s Trains, he expresses his hope, with a wry reproduced with keyboardist Sheila
jagged beats. smile, for tonight’s backdrop – via a little Maloney playing samples of the
Throughout the set, energy is contrasted help from Network Rail – to deliver a moment original’s backwards guitar. The band
with evocative turns. Collapse The Light Into to savour. In true public transport fashion, have been developing Exiles live for
Earth tenderly kicks off their encore after the two trains arrive at once as McStine sweeps years, and it now features Maloney’s
sequencer patterns, with Cross
swagger of Sleep Together, and precedes through a luscious solo and the crowd erupt,
achieving a cello-like sound with an
a ravenous rendition of Halo. Their dual- icing the set with an air of poetry. As the band
octave divider. Only Paul’s flamboyant
minded approach ensures they never delve too walk offstage, satisfied and triumphant, they
bass solo feels out of character.
deeply into either bodies of water for too long; leave behind more than just one moment The second half of the album is
Collapse… is a minimalist apéritif to Halo’s to savour. played brilliantly – a groovy Easy
adrenalised and ardent plat principal. PHIL WELLER Money, before the gathering storm of
The Talking Drum, which breaks
spectacularly into Larks’ Tongues In
Aspic Part Two. Cross is delighted with
the reception and announces, “We
didn’t know what you’d think. We took a
lot of liberties with it but it’s our version.”
Cross’ violin is the lead instrument
throughout with Casey attending more
to the structure and after Palmer-James
drolly reads out some Dylan Thomas,
the first encore is a powerful reading of
Starless from Red. Cross plays Fripp’s
verse melody line from the studio
recording, but it had originally been his
own. The evening ends with a funky
version of 21st Century Schizoid Man:
fun, but maybe just one liberty too far.
MIKE BARNES

progmagazine.com 105
 THE DEAR HUNTER
VENUE
DATE
THE GARAGE, LONDON
21/06/2023
ROGER WATERS
VENUE THE O2 ARENA, LONDON
that are regularly aimed at him from his
many detractors.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. His
SUPPORT REDWOOD DATE 06/06/2023 current This Is Not A Drill tour is a technically
ravishing production that’s presented in the
ith eight albums – including five
W with connected material – behind
them, Rhode Islanders The Dear Hunter
“Do your research, you…”
round. Above Waters and his well-drilled nine-
piece touring band that faithfully recreate many
of Pink Floyd’s highlights are banks of video
arrive at The Garage in London off the

R
oger Waters pauses as he tries to find screens that carry endless images of state
back of their 2022 concept record the word to sum up his feelings towards violence, surveillance, slogans, war, suffering,
Antimai. Whimsical, creative, and funky Bury South MP Christian Wakeford, who paranoia and dystopia, each rammed home by
– all aspects of the band’s personality claimed incorrectly in the House of Commons Waters’ vitriol. Such is the relentless delivery
are at the forefront of this performance, that he should have called this outing And
recently that the former Pink Floyd singer and
part of their 2023 UK & Europe tour.
bassist had “dressed as an SS soldier” and used Another Thing…
For those unfamiliar, The Dear
a Star Of David on the side of an inflatable pig Waters sets his stall out early. A silky voice
Hunter formed in the mid-2000s and
kicked off with 2006’s Act I: The Lake at a recent concert in Berlin. intones through the impressive sound system,
South, The River North, a multi-album Shaking with rage, Waters digs deep within “If you’re one of those ‘I love Pink Floyd but
concept story currently with five acts in himself for his counterpunch. I can’t stand Roger’s politics’ people, you might
total, with a sixth said to be on the way. “You cripple!” he spits. do well to fuck off to the bar right now,” which
Supporting the band tonight are Oh. is immediately followed by a funereally-paced
Redwood, who are perfectly paired And there you have it. re-reading of Comfortably Numb. Animated
with similar levels of creative flair to the With just one simple word Waters adds images of a broken society illustrated by bomb-
headline act. Theirs is a blend of indie ‘ableism’ to all the other ‘isms’, ‘ists’ and ‘tics’ damaged skyscrapers and a shell-shocked
rock, post-rock, and a sprinkling of population are swiftly followed by police batons
prog, which could well describe The breaking heads during The Happiest Days Of Our
Dear Hunter too. They open with an Lives. And so it goes, blow-by-blow, hit-by-hit.
instrumental that leaves us wanting Of course artists
more, then the vocals kick in with their should be able to
second track, which is packed full of tackle the state of
luscious harmonies, their set focusing the world, but
on their single studio album release,
Beside A Shallow Sun from 2020.
A notable audience rendition of Happy
19th Birthday split up their support set, “For all of the
Roger Waters leads
showing how young this band are a ravishing production music and
before they finish up. with questionable visuals on
The Dear Hunter’s Casey Crescenzo messaging. offer, the
walks out onstage with his sparkly pink overriding
guitar to show the audience he means
business. And how can we not take him
mood is that
seriously? Leading the show with Ring 7 of emptiness.
– Industry from Antimai, the headliners No sense of
are off to an audacious start before urgency or
moving back in time to the mellower purpose, just
The Squeaky Wheel, from Act IV: feeling
Rebirth In Reprise. The crowd are
uncomfortably
receptive, grooving and dancing away to
the funky licks as the band dart through numb.”
a non-stop river of prog with tracks
from their back catalogue blending
seamlessly through the show. There’s
double keyboard action from Maxwell
Tousseau and Robert Parr, who play the A rare smile
from Mr Waters.
intricacies of the music and ensure all
details are covered, even during the
most complicated of material that
heavily features brass and orchestra.
A brief rendition of George Michael’s
Careless Whisper has the crowd dancing
and jumping around before running into
Shame followed by Whisper, their
strange choice of cover allowing for
Basking in the
some clever wordplay on the track title. applause of
The Dear Hunter’s eccentric compositions 20,000 people.
provide some seriously disco-friendly
moments, which are great fun.
“Encores are peekaboo for adults,”
states Crescenzo as the band stay
onstage to finish with The Old Haunt,
and Ring 3 – Luxury. The latter of which
infects the audience with goofy dancing
and smiles all around as The Dear
Hunter recount a little more of the
Indigo Child saga that lies at the heart
of Antimai. It’s the perfect conclusion to
PRESS/KATE IZOR

a fantastic night.
GRACE HAYHURST

106 progmagazine.com
 GODSTICKS
VENUE FUEL ROCK CLUB, CARDIFF
DATE 22/06/2023
SUPPORT TEMPLES ON MARS

ith sixth album This Is What

W A Winner Looks Like earning
good notices, Wales’ Godsticks open
their four-date UK tour in Cardiff’s cosy
premier rock club, Fuel. In the coming
days they’ll play Edinburgh, Newcastle
and London too, where the support will
be Leon Russell’s Warmrain. Tonight,
Ah, it’s the Floyd of
yesteryear… but isn’t that role’s taken by prog metallers
someone missing? Temples On Mars, who have made the
trip down the M4 from ‘That London’ for
a wall-shaking, fan-making six-song set.
nebulous slogan urging us to “Resist Fascism” Cardiff can only offer them a modest
there’s no road map out of our current global audience – south of 30 people – but the
mess. And with a nasty and weary predictably, quartet give their slot an arena’s worth
the “Israeli lobby” and “masters in the Foreign of heart. From centre-stage and up on
Office in Tel Aviv” are blamed for Labour’s the speaker cabs and down in the pit
worst electoral defeat since the 1930s. with the crowd, affable, muscle-plated
Despite urging collective unity among the singer/co-guitarist James Donaldson
masses, Waters is never too slow to blow his leads Temples through the catchy,
own trumpet. “I wrote Animals as a tribute to heavy When Gods Collide, Gods & Kings
A green piece. George Orwell,” we’re told, and it becomes and ever-more-prescient Sleepwalking
difficult not to think of the Ummagumma Into Extinction. Current single
Waters lacks the necessary parody meme that did the rounds this year Daydreamer and new tunes Smile and
political nuance and insight. For example, with all of the band replaced with Roger Waters Human Fiction are hefty, highly
there’s a horrible irony at play as he decries and repeated ad infinitum in the pictures on infectious slabs of rock that deserve
Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as “war the wall. a fuller crowd.
criminals” (he says Joe Biden is Godsticks have the home advantage
and hit the stage running with current
“warming up”) while pointedly ignoring A bit of fun single If I Don’t Take It All. They’re
Vladimir Putin on the day of the with prisms.
confident and their sound is big, but
destruction of the Nova Kakhovka dam detailed and airy too. Frontman Darran
in Ukraine. Charles has a salty line in good, sweary
For someone who criticises dictators, humour. He ranks our applause for each
Waters isn’t above behaving like one song out of 10 (we peak at 9.5 after a
himself. During an extended dip into head-bangingly brilliant Hard To Face).
Wish You Were Here’s treasures – witness When metronomically adept drummer
Have A Cigar, the title track and Shine On Tom Price has tech issues cuing up the
You Crazy Diamond – Waters does backing track of Throne, Charles is quick
a convincing impersonation of ‘Uncle Joe’ to take the mick, to the delight of the
Stalin by completely removing David crowd: “Come on, Tom! All you have to
Gilmour out of the accompanying shots of do is push the button and play all our
the Floyd on the screens above. There are fucking parts! Fucking drummers!”
plenty from the Syd Barrett era, but it’s The beauty of Surrender is similarly
hard not to laugh in disbelief as studio shots For all of the music and visuals on offer – the undercut by Charles dedicating the song
from Abbey Road circa 1975 pan across Rick run-through of The Dark Side Of The Moon’s to himself, “Because I’m a self-indulged
Wright, Nick Mason, Roger Waters and… second side finally offers some respite from piece of shit!” Broaching the recent,
and... oh, look… there’s the Floyd of the Waters as three guitarists substitute David amicable departure of bassist Dan
Nelson, he explains that he’d watched
swinging 60s again. Gilmour – the overriding mood is that of
Nelson grow from a young man into
His polemics are rammed so far down the emptiness. No sense of urgency or purpose,
“a miserable old bastard, and there
throat that they skewer. Sadly, Waters doesn’t just feeling uncomfortably numb.
wasn’t enough room in the band for two
offer anything by way of a solution. All we have Should’ve fucked off to the bar, really. of those…”
is a litany of what’s wrong, but beyond the JULIAN MARSZALEK Nelson’s replacement, Francis
George, is introduced as an “Adonis”,
and he does indeed bring glamour to
Head down, doing the Godsticks stage, along with tight
what he does best. bass and on-point backing vocals.
Co-guitarist Gavin Bushell seems to be
genuinely enjoying George and the vibe
of Godsticks 2023, moving freely, doling
out the widdle with aplomb. The band
are tight, and for all the gags, Charles is
a sensational musician – Mayhem, Time,
Ruin and Victim hit home with the
crowd, which by closer Exit Stage Right
numbers just 65 souls. Where was
everybody? Araldited to their armchairs
and bemoaning the death of live music
on Facebook? If they’d been here they’d
know it’s alive, well(ish) and in good,
hard-working hands.
GRANT MOON

progmagazine.com 107
 MUSE
The Huddersfield
PAT METHENY crowd sing along.
VENUE THE PAVILION AT RAVINIA, HIGHLAND
PARK, IL, USA
VENUE THE JOHN SMITH’S STADIUM, HUDDERSFIELD
DATE 20/06/2023
DATE 20/06/2023
t’s a cool spring evening in Highland
I
T
hrough the eyes of many, the worlds
Park, a suburb of Chicago, Illinois.
of pop and prog have always been
A respectable crowd has gathered
under the outdoor venue’s pavilion,
opposing factions. Prog, by its very
with more than a few others filling the extravagant nature, is the antithesis to
lawn, snacking from their picnic baskets formulaic three-minute pop tunes. Muse,
and enjoying a sip or two of wine. however, make a mockery of such beliefs.
Regardless of positioning, we’re all They’re a band that have always blurred
about to spend the night in the presence such lines, and the gathering throng in
of a legend. Huddersfield tonight reflects that, with ELP
It’s hard to imagine guitarist Pat and Pink Floyd T-shirts as numerous across
Metheny as one of jazz’s elder The John Smith’s Stadium stadium as Coldplay,
statesmen until one considers that Dua Lipa and Oasis tees. Tonight, the 25-song a heartbeat ago. It’s a pleasure to see the song’s
he released his first solo album nearly set from the Devonshire trio – bolstered, wounded piano lines, throbbing tom work
50 years ago. But make no mistake – as ever, with the addition of regular face and Queen-does-Broadway turns remain
he’s about to prove to us why he’s still Morgan Nicholls – powerfully a setlist staple. Gritted nu metal
relevant on the music scene today. encapsulates that interdivisional riffs then colourfully play off steel
Metheny makes his way to the stage aesthetic beneath a sky that drum-laced verses and a euphoric
right on schedule, takes a seat and refuses to darken. chorus of Won’t Stand Down’s
positions his harp-guitar, one of his Unsurprisingly, they launch pop metal stylings.
signature instruments, on his lap. Of course, it wouldn’t be a Muse
into Will Of The People, the
He opens with an improv called
opening track from their ninth “Of course, show without an array of spectacles,
Pikasso that makes the most of each
album of the same name, first. and the band’s seemingly limitless
guitar and harp string on this unique it wouldn’t
instrument. To the surprise of Itself a tale of two pop/prog halves, imagination sparkles again tonight.
its gleefully silly blend of gang be a Muse From flames that flicker and dance
absolutely no one, Metheny’s tone and show without into the shapes of the letters W, O,
technique are on point from the first chants and camp, Muse-meets-
note. This musician is here to play! Prince pomp rock sets the scene an array T, P on demand, to a giant mirror-
With that tune in the books, the rest before a seismic Hysteria and the of spectacles, masked figure, onto which videos
of Metheny’s Side-Eye trio – Chris sweeping synths and pain-panged and the band’s and trippy lights are beamed,
Fishman on keyboards and Joe Dyson melodies of Bliss take centre stage. seemingly this is another larger-than-life
on drums – make their way to their What is surprising is the limitless show. Part theatrical pomposity,
stage positions. Jazz icons Miles Davis, velocity in which they churn out imagination part Floydian love affair, it
Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul understood
the importance of surrounding
the tunes. As the 1984-inspired, sparkles again heightens the drama of their
defiant love story of Resistance storytelling. Aided by video
themselves with young talent. Metheny tonight.” screens that flank the stage, their
rolls across the Yorkshire hills,
is no exception. There’s no chance of it feels like the set began just visuals bring a new dimension to
the music sounding stale here, because
the youthful injection just won’t allow
that to happen. The energy is more
than palpable.
Fishman’s organ also plays the role
of bassist, and his grooves are as solid
Chris Wolstenholme
as they come, while his right hand is is unfazed by the
allowed to roam free over the rest of occasion.
his keyboards. Dyson’s drums are warm
and upbeat, blending in nicely with the
rest of the onstage happenings.
Metheny offers a nice representation
of his career, going all the way back
to the song Bright Size Life, one of
his earliest works. He plays with the
intensity of a man possessed with his
eyes closed and that massive mop of
hair flopping back and forth. This also
means there’s no time for stage banter
with us, as Metheny keeps the music
moving, allowing the band to play for
two solid hours.
As the sun goes down, the music
heats up, including a blistering version This is a stick-up!
of Trigonometry from the album Song X.
Metheny also makes the most of his
guitar synthesiser and MIDI pedals,
triggering sounds that seem to come
from nowhere, including from an
unmanned percussion station behind
the band. By the closing strains of
Are You Going With Me?, everyone in
attendance knows why they came to
PRESS/WORK OF JAR

the show. This is the work of a genius

undertaken before our eyes.
CEDRIC HENDRIX

108 progmagazine.com
 SCI-FI ROCK NIGHT
VENUE THE FIDDLERS ELBOW, LONDON
DATE 06/07/2023

our-piece Splink set their joyous

F and sometimes mischievous space-
folk-psych-rock ball rolling with the
pulsating Slightly Burnt Toast hinting
at Solstice or a laid-back Curved Air.
Kozmosis heavies things up and adds
in madcap vocal shapes from guitarist
Matt James. Although quality players,
Splink don’t take themselves too
seriously and, with violinist Vikki Ings
sporting an almost permanent smile,
Matt Bellamy is
in his element. their enjoyment is infectious. In The
Pocket’s bubbling bass and unison
guitar/violin themes evoke Hawkwind
walkway that stretches out into the crowd, meets Zappa’s Hot Rats, while the
Praise riffs! engaging with the barrier, hugging audience Middle-Eastern vibe of Cavendish
members to his sides. channels the spirit of Ozric Tentacles.
Will Of The People’s tale of fighting against After a raucous Plug In Baby and a confetti- Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate
tyranny. Psycho’s drill sergeant character laced Starlight, the best is left ’til last. Just as demonstrate their credentials with
– a great trope for crowd participation – is the sky above begins to creep towards a darker references to science fiction authors
reimagined as the Baphomet character that fills hue, a gigantic, horned Baphomet-inspired Ann Leckie and Alastair Reynolds and
tonight’s villainous role, ensuring a thematic creature replaces the mask-mirrored character a setlist covering sentient spaceships
thread runs throughout. at the back of the stage, lights pulsating under (When I Was A Ship), the implications of
Elsewhere, the stomping sci-fi of Thought its torn rib cage, flames belching out from the AI and the future of our planet. Kicking
Contagion is a sheer delight before the luscious side of stage. Kill Or Be Killed, the band’s off with the Floydian-cum-post-rock
balladry of Verona and the evocatively stirring take on progressive metal, and the title cut from forthcoming album The
apocalyptic The 2nd Law: Isolated System show galloping space opera of Knights Of Cydonia Light Of Ancient Mistakes, bassist Mark
what this band are capable of when they dial might just be the finest encore the band have Gatland bounces around his corner
up the prog. Ringleader Matt Bellamy satisfies ever delivered. of the stage, while guitarist/singer
Malcolm Galloway delivers a series of
his love of classical as Bach’s Toccata And Fugue As they throw themselves around the
impassioned, sometimes raw vocals
In D Minor whirrs through the PA before the flame-licked stage under the shadow of this
alongside some Gilmour-esque guitar
rollicking You Make Me Feel Like It’s Halloween stunning – and staggeringly massive –
colours. Highlights include poignant
goes down a storm. Meanwhile, Madness – showpiece, Muse seamlessly entangle the new single Burn The World, the EDM-
a song that raised a few eyebrows on its release eccentricities of prog rock with the sumptuous flavoured Glitter Band and the almost
in 2012 thanks to its blend of warbling dubstep hooks of pop, unifying a dancing and wildly funky Nostalgia For Infinity.
synths and brooding, George Michael-esque diverse crowd like only Muse ever could. Attired in NASA-branded overalls
vocals – has since evolved into a live staple, PHIL WELLER and with titles including Gravitational
and tonight that’s no different. Bellamy looks Lensing and I Believe In Astronauts, the
in his element as he parades the stage and the Yuval Ron Trio are an apt headliner.
Playing ambitious instrumental music,
Mighty Muse: always drawing on eclectic influences and
guaranteed to put
on a good show. oozing virtuosity, they surprise many
here with how astounding they are.
Opening with the futuristic march
meets twisted computer game music
of the title track from Ron’s 2019 album
with über-drummer Marco Minnemann,
Somewhere In This Universe, Somebody
Hits A Drum, Ron, bassist Victor Nissim
and drummer Yatziv Caspi career
through sonic whirlwinds and
exhilarating soundscapes. Like math
rock intersecting with a tightly
constructed Mahavishnu Orchestra
for the 21st century, this is cerebral,
exploratory and exciting music
exemplified by tracks such as WiFi In
Emerald City. Heavy jazz influences
emerge in the cool vibes and beautiful
bass textures of Watching Over
Shizutani-Kou Bay… and The Discovery
Of Phoebe. It’s far from po-faced and
humourless – Ron has a light and
disarming manner introducing each
tune. His guitar-playing with voicings
and phrasing bring to mind the likes
of Zappa, Fripp and Holdsworth while
not sounding quite like any of them.
Wrapping up with Greetings, Earthling!,
potential theme music for a surreal, art-
house sci-fi flick, the Yuval Ron Trio are
simply out of this world.
GARY MACKENZIE

progmagazine.com 109
 Puscifer bewilder the assembled
throng.

LES CLAYPOOL’S
FEARLESS FLYING DOWNLOAD
FROG BRIGADE
VENUE
DATE
THE SALT SHED, CHICAGO, IL, USA
02/07/2023
FESTIVAL
VENUE DONINGTON PARK, DERBY
DATE 08/06/2023–11/06/2023
sold-out crowd are on hand to see
A
D
Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog ownload’s always a weird one for prog
Brigade in a new multipurpose venue in fans. Sometimes there’s barely
Chicago. In what was once a Morton’s any prog on offer, and at set, which offers the relatively
Salt factory, built circa 1929, the now- others, like this year, there’s plenty punchy Taurus, Prosthetic and In
fittingly named Salt Shed has become of proggy delights on the various Memoriam, before closing with the
the talk of the town. Adding to the stages. And although spending epic The Architect, by which time
intrigue is the fact that Primus bassist four days in a field in the East they’ve packed out the tent and,
Claypool hasn’t played under the Frog Midlands is understandably not judging by the reaction, made
Brigade moniker for 20 years, but a new “Coheed And
for all readers, there are plenty of a load of new fans too.
line-up and a prog-leaning setlist are prog fans in the dustbowl of the
Cambria bring Despite Download’s inherent
very good reasons to reform the group.
festival who, like the Prog reviews one of the party atmosphere, AA Williams
In the band this time around there strongest sets brings a gothic gloom early in the
team, seem to be having a grand
are two sons of rock royalty: John of the weekend weekend. The London singer-
old time of it.
Lennon’s son Sean plays lead guitar and
Roger Waters’ son Harry plays keyboard. Ukrainian prog metallers Jinjer for veteran songwriter arrests the Dogtooth
Tonight, the Frog Brigade will play are one of the proggiest bands and new stage with the evocative post-rock
music from Harry’s father in the form on the entire weekend, taking fans alike.” of Evaporate and Murmurs – until
of the Pink Floyd album Animals in its the main Apex stage in Friday hard rockers Halestorm take the
entirety. But first, fans are treated to afternoon’s blazing sunshine. But main stage outside and drown out
an opening cover of epic proportions in that doesn’t mean they’d go down as well much of the emotional nuance.
King Crimson’s Thela Hun Ginjeet from as they did here with many of our readers, During their second stage set in Friday
the Discipline album. Waters’ Moog much of which has to do with singer Tatiana afternoon’s sunshine, Within Temptation’s
synthesiser is loud with a bite from the Shmayluk’s quite stunning vocals. Although grand, symphonic prog feels perfectly at home.
onset, Claypool’s bass is distinct and she can sing like an angel she can also roar Singer Sharon den Adel’s impressive vocals
pronounced in the mix, and Lennon like a demon, which means only the hardiest lead this open-air opera, while the industrial
plays aggressive guitar. The extended progger is likely to enjoy the band’s knotty and electronic
jam is prog at its finest. rhythms and obtuse time changes.
The Frog Brigade soon shift to Offering thanks for worldwide ace
Claypool Lennon Delirium’s Blood And support in their nation’s struggles Green Lung embr riff!
Rockets: Movement 1 from 2019’s South the power of the
against the Russian invasion, the
Of Reality. Lennon’s handling of the band go down an absolute storm.
vocals and music is reminiscent of The
“Holy shit, there’s a lot of them,”
Beatles’ trippy Magical Mystery Tour
exclaims Maynard James Keenan as
as vast layers of sound cascade on top
of each other to create a dreamy and he surveys the crowd surrounding
LIVE NATION PRESS/JINJER: TODD OWYOUNG, WITHIN TEMPTATION AND COHEED AND CAMBRIA: ANDREW WHITTON, PUSCIFER: JAMES BRIDLE, GREEN LUNG: ABBIE SHIPPERLEY

hypnotic landscape. the Opus stage. It’s likely due to

It’s when the Animals portion gets Puscifer’s reputation for a powerful
underway that the band shine the live show, but they fall short today,
brightest. A thoughtful and faithful as the intimacy is lost to the open air
rendition of the album commences and the result is more bewildering
with Dogs. Claypool and Waters trade than captivating.
vocals and Lennon plays majestic guitar, No such problems for Haken on the
doing his best to make David Gilmour Dogtooth stage, resplendent in their
proud. Dogs has memorable riffs as colourful Fauna shirts. There’s only
well as leads and the spotlight is often time for four songs in their half-hour
on Lennon, and he answers the bell.
Pigs is up next, where Lennon has
a masterful solo utilising a talk box.
The result is weird, cool, and satisfying.
Sheep features Lennon on lead vocals
once more. Hearing him belt out
‘hopelessly passing your time in the
grassland away’ while his voice fades
into a soaring synthesiser is worth
the price of admission alone. While
Claypool’s bass is a major catalyst and
Lennon is at the top of his game, the
contributions from Waters are just as
notable. Every synthesiser sound and
effect is meticulously plugged in
throughout the evening; Waters
impressively recreates the cosmic
sounds of Richard Wright.
This segment draws to a close with
Pigs On The Wing (Part 2). The short
acoustic tune has a beautiful melody
from Claypool and caps off a great hour
of Floyd proving that Les Claypool’s
HAKEN: JAKE TEN.

Fearless Flying Frog Brigade aren’t just Haken making new

another brick in the wall. friends and looking
TREVOR WOODS stylish in the process.

110 progmagazine.com
 alike. Their blend of genres ZIO
means that no matter when VENUE THE 1865, SOUTHAMPTON
you rock up to the tent DATE 02/07/2023
Coheed And
Cambria mix up crammed with bodies, you’ll SUPPORT HEATHER FINDLAY
the genres. find something that appeals to
lmost four years have passed since
you and the flawless execution
means you’ll want to stick
around until the end.
A Zio, the Anglo-French ensemble
spearheaded by former Karnataka
Young London quintet Green drummer Jimmy Pallagrosi and vocalist
Lung bring with them a host Hayley Griffiths last graced this stage.
of Atomic Rooster-like Much has happened during the
interregnum, including the acquisition
of new guest vocalist, Charlie Bramald
Jinjer: heavy (Ghost Of The Machine, Nova Cascade)
as he
proggy as youll but and Italian bass ace, Alex Lofoco.
like.
Barefoot Heather Findlay, who sang
on Zio’s debut album Flower Torania,
makes a welcome return to the stage.
flairs lend these 70 minutes an Her all-too-brief set covers personal,
experimental edge. Given the size reflective songs both old and new, her
of the crowd, a promotion to the expressively pure voice sounding
main stage seems in order. magnificent, especially on Evergreen.
Prog metallers Monuments A sci-fi fascination informs Zio’s
pack out the Dogtooth stage on songs, composed by Pallagrosi, guitarist
Saturday afternoon, and the Marc Fascia and keyboardist Olivier
shit-eating grin plastered across Castan, also reflected in the show’s
each member’s face says it all. occasional accompanying visuals. The
It’ll be a struggle to find a more spoken opener Truewaves provides the
refined display of progressive, technical lull before the ensuing explosive storm
metalcore across the entire weekend, and the riffs and Hammond of full-on high energy. There are no
set is over far too quickly for our liking. organ and lashings of folklore imagery in breaks in the performance, even when
Later on the Avalanche stage, Coheed And a fantastic set. Vocalist Tom Templar’s Findlay returns halfway through to
Cambria bring one of the strongest sets of impressive voice soars over the Dogtooth deliver a heart-felt Ma Petite Histoire
and partner Griffiths on Flower Torania.
the weekend for veteran and new fans stage as Woodland Rites and Old Gods have the
Griffiths sparkles sartorially and
massed throng singing along. Word is their
vocally, whether belting out the metallic
The only way is up next album, their debut for Nuclear Blast, Untenable or lilting on the acoustic
(the bill) is their most prog-friendly to date. As the
for Within Temptatio Amused, accompanied by Castan.
n.
powerful Let The Devil In closes one of the most Bramald brings a dramatic and edgier
enjoyable sets of the weekend, that’s a quite dynamic, but shows a lighter side on
thrilling proposition. duets with Griffiths, highlights being
Alas, things don’t go quite so well for Soen rocker Space Heater and the cabaret-
straight afterwards. Sound issues mess up like Straight Up From Underneath. On
the start of the band’s set, meaning they only Wings Inside, from the first album,
get to play four songs. The quintet are just there’s a nod to Joe Payne who appears
getting warmed up with the symphonic over the band in the original promo film.
grandeur of Lotus and suddenly they’re gone. The sprawling Inner City: Shorroma
No goodbyes, no thank yous, sound off, band reveals a deeper, more intense side to
disappeared. A pity. the band. Pallagrosi uses it as a spring-
For the different stands of progressive music board for a sustained flamboyant drum
on offer, Download played their hand well. solo during which he puts on then
JERRY EWING/CHERI FAULKNER/MATT MILLS removes a metal mask mid-flow. It ends
when they unexpectedly launch into
a few bars of Rush’s Tom Sawyer.
Bramald’s back in full theatrical
mode, stalking the stage on Erwin’s
Opera, during which the cultured, stylish
playing of both Fascia and Lofoco come
to the fore. Zio hit their groove on the
stately, proggier I Hear Them Whistling,
which features a lingering keyboard
interlude, the return of Findlay on
vocals and Bramald playing flute. The
encore includes the soulful instrumental
Lonely Diamond Pt 1, during which
Fascia coaxes out some Floydian licks
from his guitar. Closer Interstellar List
sees Griffiths and Bramald hitting some
eye-watering vocal heights.
It’s a shame that the head-spinning
loud sound levels often detract from
enjoying the fantastic voices interacting
with such intricate instrumentation.
However, Zio continue to impress as
a multi-faceted, evolving musical unit,
delivering their brand of virtuosity with
showmanship and panache.
ALISON REIJMAN

progmagazine.com 111
 SUBSCRIBE TO

AND GET
†

Keep Prog close to your heart with our branded T-shirt, bag and pin badge

WORTRH
OVE

£25!
CHOOSE YOUR SUBSCRIPTION
PRINT + DIGITAL: £41.49 every 6 months, saving 36%*
or
PRINT ONLY: £28.99 every 6 months, saving 35%*

SAVE
36% MONTH
LY
ON A 6-& DIGITAL
PRINT RIPTION
SUBSC

BENEFITS OF
SUBSCRIBING
X Never miss an issue
X Stay in the know
with the stories behind
classic albums & tours
X All the latest from
the world of modern
progressive music
X Convenient
home delivery
X Three free Prog
branded gifts!
X Pay less than you
would in the shops
SIMPLY VISIT
www.magazinesdirect.com/progbundle
OR CALL
0330 333 1113 quoting code and size
PROG T-SHIRT XMEDIUM - B65H XLARGE - B65J XXL - B65K X2XL - B65L X3XL - B65M
*Terms and conditions: Offer closes September 8, 2023. Offer open to new subscribers only. Direct Debit offer is available to UK subscribers only. Advertised rates payable by
six-monthly Direct Debit. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue (up to eight weeks overseas). The full subscription rate is for 12 months
(10 issues) and includes postage and packaging. If the magazine ordered changes frequency per annum, we will honour the number of issues paid for, not the term of the
subscription. †Your gifts will be delivered separately within 60 days after your first payment has cleared. Gifts only available to subscribers on the UK mainland. In the unlikely
event that we run out of this gift, we promise to offer you an alternative gift of the same or greater value. For full terms and conditions, visit www.magazinesdirect.com/terms.
For enquiries and overseas rates please call: +44 (0) 330 333 1113. Lines are open Monday-Friday 8.30am-7pm, Saturday 10am-3pm UK Time (excluding Bank Holidays) or
email: help@magazinesdirect.com. Calls to 0330 numbers will be charged at no more than a national landline call, and may be included in your phone provider’s call bundle.
 Where’s home?
Los Angeles, but I spend a lot of
time in my home town of Miami
Beach, Florida.

What’s your earliest prog memory?

Me, one-and-a-half years old,
singing and dancing along to
Heat Of The Moment by Asia.
It was caught on video by my
brother and mother!

What’s the first prog album

you bought?
The Yes Album at

FUTURE OWNS
the Flagler Dog
Track Flea Market Genre weaver:
Todd Rundgren.
in Miami. I was
nine, my mind was Ever had a prog-related date?
blown wide open I’ve experienced love on Cruise
and I fell in love To The Edge, and it’s truly
with Yes. romantic to be ‘out to sea’ with
such amazing music and
And the last? a beautiful woman.
Yes’ Mirror To The Sky and Bill
Bruford’s box set Making A Song What’s the most important piece
And Dance. of prog music?
The Ikon by Utopia. No side-long
Your first prog gig? epic covers as much ground as
Styx on the Return To this masterpiece. It’s equal parts
Paradise tour with Kansas Mahavishnu, Beach Boys, Miles
opening [1996]. I was completely Davis, Aaron Copeland, and 100
PRESS/TIM JANSSENS

mesmerised by Steve Walsh, per cent thrilling.

who was doing handstands on
his keyboards. Recommend us a good read?
On And Off by Stephen Bishop
And the latest? and Last Chance Texaco by Rickie
Dawes in the Ace Hotel, LA. FERNANDO PERDOMO Lee Jones. I’m a sucker for
Their latest album Misadventures The great and good of progressive music give us a musician’s biography.
Of Doomscroller is prog whether a glimpse into their prog worlds. As told to Grant Moon
they know it or not – Americana Which prog musician would you
that goes where no Americana’s Guilty musical pleasure? which inspired my song De most like to work with?
gone before. The Cardigans and Lisa Loeb – Boerderij on Out To Sea 1! Seeing Judie Tzuke, Curved Air, Todd
two of my absolute favourites Focus there and then playing Rundgren, Caravan.
What’s the best prog gig you ever who are also huge influences. with Dave Kerzner later was
saw in your life? absolute heaven. Great sound, Which proggy album gets you in
King Crimson in Sunrise, Florida, What’s your Mastermind specialist amazing people. a good mood?
in 1995, during the Thrak double subject? Ambition by Aviary is so
trio tour. I was 14 and was as Disasters, especially air disasters. Your prog hero? overwhelming, it just makes me
thrilled as I was terrified. It’s a strange fascination that Todd Rundgren. He can weave in smile all the way through.
actually makes me feel better to and out of prog and other genres
And your latest prog discovery? do as much flying as I do. Water so well. He is my career and Your favourite prog album cover?
Blank Manuskript from Austria. Landing from Out To Sea 4 album life template. Never Forever by Kate Bush. All
I met them at the ArtRock was directly influenced by this. those things coming out of her
Festival in Reichenbach, Outside of music, what are skirt – it perfectly matches the
Germany, they’re so cool and Your favourite prog venue? you into? album’s magical music.
unique… and young! The Boerderij in Zoetermeer, Driving, eating out, going
to thrift and charity shops and What are you up to at the moment?
flea markets. I’ve just released my second
album with Carmine Appice,
Running Up That Hill, and Shadows
I was nine In A Jar by Life On Mars, featuring
Billy Sherwood. I produced
when I bought
ALEJANDRO MELENDEZ/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

a cover of Genesis’ Your Own

The Yes Album. Special Way with a 20-year-old

John Wetton vocal and violin by
My mind David Cross, and I’m planning
a deluxe box set celebrating my
was blown four Out To Sea albums.
A “huge influence”: indie band
The Cardigans at Vive Latino wide open. See www.fernandoperdomo.com
festival in Mexico City in 2020.
for more information.

114 progmagazine.com
9000 9001