through your stormy waves through your crumbled walls through your broken sky through your fractured soul Nothing truly prepares you for the death of a parent. The agonising numbness. The despair of grief. Cloying guilt and suffocating remorse. The unwelcome soul-aching rawness of naked emotions exploding from nowhere, drenching every thought, every feeling and every … [Read more...]
Iamthemorning – Bush Hall, London, October 2017
It’s my first visit to Bush Hall, a charming and exceedingly elegant music and dance hall originally built in 1904. Put to a diverse variety of uses throughout its history from WWII soup kitchen to bingo hall to snooker and social club, it was purchased by the present owners in 2001 and restored to an acoustically refined and beautifully understated venue which serves as the … [Read more...]
Bjorn Riis – Forever Comes to an End
‘Haunting’ is a word which is frequently used in relation to a number of progressive albums, signalling a disquieting and lingering sense of presence which inhabits and permeates the music, bringing with it associated feelings of wistful nostalgia, the pain of longing, the pang of regret and the dread of remorse. As a description of the darkly brooding and emotionally turbulent … [Read more...]
Kant Freud Kafka – Onírico
Javi Herrera’s website contains the rather delightful disclaimer that Kant Freud Kafka is not actually related to these three philosophers but is “just a joke amongst friends”. After all, he says, “throwing a bit of good humor to prog rock is not a bad thing”. He is, using the words of a fairly famous song title, “bloody well right” and this admirably mischievous and playful … [Read more...]
The Mute Gods – Tardigrades Will Inherit the Earth
The dance of death (Saltatio Mortis, Track 1) casts an ominous, foreboding shadow over the future of the human race. Roger King’s menacing funeral march for humanity is a ghastly premonition which sets an urgent and anxious tone for what follows on this second release from The Mute Gods. Tardigrades will Inherit the Earth effortlessly carries on from their disconcerting 2016 … [Read more...]
Damian Wilson – Built for Fighting
I can’t help feeling there is something of an unfortunate disconnect between the expectations encouraged by the forceful and uncompromising visual imagery portrayed by the cover artwork and the reality of the music you find yourself hearing in light of those expectations. Whether this is something to do with a perception of Wilson’s image or persona because of his involvement … [Read more...]
Tony Banks – A Curious Feeling
From the moment you hear the opening chords of From the Undertow there is a reassuring and comforting sense that you are in familiar waters. Both the style, as well as the tone, signal not only clear connections with And Then There Were Three (released the previous year), but also foreshadow many of the progressions which were to feature on Duke, released just a year … [Read more...]
Oak – Lighthouse
Progressive rock speaks to us directly, intensely, profoundly; it elicits all manner of feelings, evokes a gamut of passions and emotions and forces to the surface thoughts and ideas which startle and surprise. It takes hold of us, resonates and reverberates within us and becomes infused into the deepest levels of who we are and what we do. Progressive rock becomes a way of … [Read more...]