progressive rock
CD: Muse - DronesSaturday, 06 June 2015
Almost a decade ago, I went to a disappointing festival in Holland. Driven to distraction by the crowd – a sixth-form disco stuck between the third and fourth circles of Dante's inferno – I, on the advice of a friend, went to see Muse. Their... Read more... |
CD: Todd Rundgren, Hans-Peter Lindstrøm and Emil Nikolaisen – RunddansMonday, 11 May 2015
Todd Rundgren is not known for sitting on his laurels and churning out the same old stuff year after year. Since Runt, his debut solo album from 1970, he has tried out a vast array of genres from heavy metal to prog rock, EDM and power pop, as well... Read more... |
CD: Pombagira – Flesh Throne PressSunday, 29 March 2015
Flesh Throne Press is the sixth album from heavy doom-rock duo Pombagira. Guitarist and singer Pete and drummer Carolyn Hamilton-Giles’s massive sound is characterised by portentous riffing soaked in reverb, vocals that could easily be mistaken for... Read more... |
Album of the Year: Jane Weaver – The Silver GlobeSaturday, 03 January 2015
2014 has seen a fair few late lunges for the line in the race to be my best album of the year (a contest fought more for prestige and honour than hard cash in all honesty). I’m a mild-mannered sort, and hate disappointing the recording artists... Read more... |
Brian Pern: A Life in Rock, BBC TwoTuesday, 09 December 2014
BBC4’s The Life of Rock with Brian Pern introduced us to the former frontman of Thotch and creator of world music. With a promotion to BBC2 for Brian Pern: A Life in Rock, it seems that Pern, the comic creation of The Fast Show’s Simon Day and Rhys... Read more... |
Sci-Fi Week: Space RockSaturday, 29 November 2014
In 1971, the British rock group UFO released their second album. Titled One Hour Space Rock, its cover bore the subtitle Flying and, yes, images of UFOs in the form of flying saucers and a bald, naked and pink humanoid with claw-like fingernails.... Read more... |
CD: Pink Floyd - The Endless RiverSaturday, 08 November 2014
The Endless River, a contemplatively ambient opus comprising four pieces made up of 17 instrumental sections and a concluding song, is Pink Floyd’s second “last” album. Their first sign-off was 1982’s dreary The Final Cut, virtually a Roger Waters... Read more... |
Genesis: Together and Apart, BBC TwoSunday, 05 October 2014
Despite a 47-year history which has taken them from pomp to pop and established them as a top-selling global institution, there's still a lingering sense that Genesis don't think they've been taken seriously enough. This was detectable in Phil... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Black WidowSunday, 28 September 2014
Black Widow: SacrificeIt wasn’t John Lennon’s fault, but things weren’t the same after the “bigger than Jesus” scandal of 1966. Pop music had been connected to religion in a way slightly edgier than Cliff Richard or the Salvation Army's The... Read more... |
CD: Fish - A Feast of ConsequencesThursday, 24 April 2014
Back in the Eighties fans of Fish (of Marillion) considered his groovy wordbending to be art. Others begged to differ. Lloyd Cole and Atzec Camera-types would rubbish him as a slightly preposterous merchant of sixth-form poetry. Perhaps both had a... Read more... |
Celebrating Jon Lord, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 05 April 2014
Jon Lord may have tickled his last ivory in 2012, but last night his spirit lived defiantly on. The great and the good from both heavy and contemporary music gathered in his memory. It was for a serious purpose - to raise funds for pancreatic cancer... Read more... |
CD: John Harle & Marc Almond - The Tyburn Tree: Dark LondonFriday, 21 February 2014
It's hard to countenance sometimes that there was an era where Marc Almond could have been a bona fide, chart-smashing pop star. His ability to parlay the archest of high camp and the most grotesque of low life into something digestible by genuine... Read more... |
