Caught In The Wake Forever - Against A Simple Wooden Cross (2012)

This type of albums is an oddity even for this blog. But it is a local project and it deserve some attention.

Caught In The Wake Forever is the project of Fraser McGowan and this album has been recorded in his home. I have accidently walked through his street many times to and from a Tesco supermarket without knowing that one of the houses contained a good home studio or a good computer. The sound is actually excellent and gives home recording a new meaning.

We are not talking 110 piece symphony orchestra here though. The music is shoegaze, ambient and with Fraser's vocals coming out of the speakers as if he was sitting inside them. He is not. I have made sure of that (it carries a life sentence in this country to keep someone hostage inside a speaker cabinet). The sound is that good. The music is very personal. The album starts with a pretty untypical track for this album; Scottish Grief. A distorted samples filled doomy track. From there on in, Fraser's voice, piano and guitar takes over. That with some slightly distorted keyboards in the background.

The music is somber, shoegazing and very personal. For good and/or worse; you feel you get his soul spilled out from the speakers. It is full frontal attack personal and somber, this album.

Strangely enough, I like this album. I like the barren desolation it carries. Scottish Grief is a great track. The rest too is very good. My only gripe is the lack of some more great tracks and my unfamiliarity with this type of music. I have always been a fan of somber music though. I have always loved desolate landscapes more than typical rich in life landscapes. This album works on both those levels. It resonates with me.
This is a very good album which I recommend. Check it out on the link below.

3.5 points

Quasar Lux Symphoniae - The Dead Dream (1977)

This album was originally released in 1977 and re-released earlier this year (2012) on Lizard Records.

Quasar Lux Symphoniae, or QLS as they prefer to call themselves now, has been around since 1975 and released their so far latest albums Synopsis in 2009. That as their sixth album. Six albums in 32 years is not particular productive, though.

Quasar Lux Symphoniae/QLS are from Italy and is widely regarded as a symphonic prog band. The Dead Dream is a bit everywhere, even dabbling into heavy rock, space rock and Italo pop. The vocals are in English and their sound is the US symph prog sound. There are plenty of keyboards and guitars here in addition to bass and drums. The sound is a bit sterile and not as flowery as we are used to from the Italian scene. I would not label this as an Italian scene album at all. If my memories serves me right, ditto for their other albums too. I need to get around to review my other Quasar Lux Symphoniae albums too.

This is not a bad album at all. It feels like a debut album where the band is a bit all over the place. Mostly in the symph prog genre though. My main gripe with this album is the lack of quality. The songs are simply not good enough and the screamo vocals pretty annoying. It is a very decent album though and I need to get around to their other albums too. I hope this re-release is the sign of life from this band.

2.5 points

Idiot Saint Crazy - 12.12.12 (2012)

This is the first sign of life from Idiot Saint Crazy, Valentin Carette's side project. His daytime job is the French avant-garde band Yolk.

12.12.12 has a lot of personalities and voices. From post-rock, industrial metal to jazz, prog metal, guitar shredding, shoegaze and some more atmospheric rock. All of it is instrumental and you get 80 minutes of this not particular good music. The quality is only half decent throughout. The album is (not officially) divided into segments with one kind of music in each segment. That is how it feels to me.

It is almost impossible to review an album as diverse as this. 80 minutes is far too much for an album like this. The method of lumping it all together into one album is the curse of Bandcamp and digital albums. I have received a lot of them lately and most of them is suffering from the lack of editing and self control. This album is a prime example of this. This album is not an album. It is a collection of unrelated songs from various projects lumped together under the moniker Idiot Saint Crazy. This project and this album need edit and tight control. Full stop. If edited, a listeneable product could had been delivered to the marketplace and being enjoyed by others. That is not the case for this album. I am really sorry as I got it from Valentin. But that is my view. Edit.

1 point

Fruitcake - Room For Surprise (1996)

The third album from this Norwegian band. A band who inspired many musicians in Oslo to take up prog rock. The drummer Paal Soby was pretty central in the prog scene in Norway when I lived there. He also ran his own record label. This album though was released on Cyclops Records.

Fruitcake's music was pretty much middle of the road neo prog. Pendragon is a good reference. The music performed with synths, guitars, bass and drums. That and some less than satisfactory vocals. The vocals is the achilles heel of this album. Ditto for the sound which does feel too cold and not particular organic. I get a Depeche Mode feel throughout this album because of the sound. The music is in the Pendragon mode, though. In short; medium long songs in the symph prog mould.

The songs are pretty good. They are let down by the sound and the vocals. Fruitcake's music is pretty generic neo prog though and I don't feel they really added anything to the genre. Neither is this album. That is the problem with this album and that is reflected in my rating of it.

2.5 points

Winter Tree. The - Guardians (2012)

This band is not resting on their laurels and has released their second album under their new name The Winter Tree. They released five albums under the name Magus.

Andrew Laitres is still at the helm here as he was on the first album (see review). The music is still song orientated neo prog, bordering to pop rock, AOR and folk rock. The sound is light and flowery. Ditto for the music. The tracks here are a mix of mediation instrumentals and verse-chorus-verse songs. The music is performed with keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. The vocals are great.

Guardians is a pretty enjoyable album. It is also very much in the middle of the road, music wise. No offensive or tricky music can be found on this album. The music is still interesting enough to give this album a long longviety. This is by all means a good album too and one I enjoys. There is no great songs here though and that is a problem with this album. It is still well worth checking out though. Do it.

3 points

Spirits Burning - Alien Injection (2008)

Spirits Burning is Don Falcone's project and it has released ten albums so far. Alien Injection is the fourth album. A lot of musicians has taken part in this project. The likes of Steve Wilson and Daevid Allen. But not on this album.

Spirits Burning and Don Falcone operates within the confines of the space rock genre. Not so tight confines, though. Alien Injection is as much a krautrock album as a space rock album. It meanders it's way from some bars of Beatles classic Eleanor Rigby to some weirdo pop and outright space rock trips. The music is not hardcore space rock. Neither is it commercial space rock. This is reasonable proper space rock.
References are Gong, Can and numerous space rock bands.

The music is performed with guitars, keyboards, tonnes of samples, a thumping rampant bass and drums. A few of the tracks has vocals. The sound is good.

The music is good throughout. I find it very eccentric and funny at times. The weirdo pop moments are fun. The rest of the album is a bit too orthodox space rock too really hold down my interest. This is a good album though. Get it from Black Widow records.

3 points

Ocean Architecture - Animus (2012)

Ocean Architecture takes a stab at everything on this, their debut album. A Name Your Price album.

Ocean Architecture is a band set up by at least one Until Sunrise (a post rock band, if not mistaken) member and some others who wants to broaden their horizons. Which it is fair to say they have achieved on this album.

Take some hardcore with ditto vocals, some folk rock, prog metal, some jazz, some melodic AOR, some post rock and some classical music. Mix it together on one album. Yes, it sounds like confusion and some of this album is a bit too many styles converging on one plate. It is progressive music though.

The end result is a good album which will please people more young at heart and in their birth certificate than myself. I find the band guilty in trying out too much and being very progressive in their philosophy and music. Some of the music here is very good though. But the hardcore vocals is not to my liking and scares me off a bit. I awards it a weak three pointer and suggest the band should continue their good work. But not in my retirement home where their music has an unsettling effect on my rocking chair.

3 points

Cirrus Bay - A Step Into Elsewhere (2009)

The second album from this band who has disowned their first album The Slipping of a Day and regard this as their real debut album. Something I can understand as The Slipping of a Day was a pretty bad album.

A Step Into Elsewhere showcases a band fronted by a female vocalist. Her vocals is in the Kari Rueslaatten delivery and the music reminds me a lot about Genesis, Marillion and Renaissance. It is being performed with keyboards, guitars, bass and drums. The sound is great. The music very lush.

I am really surprised by this album as I expected an aural assault of neo prog. It is not. The sound and music is an upgraded version of the 1970s symph prog. Which for some means neo prog. But A Step Into Elsewhere does not have that dry neo prog sound at all. It is a lush, sometimes pastoral album.

Not all songs here are great. But Sharra Acle's vocals is brilliant and the sound too is great. I reward it a weak great award and is really looking forward to some listening sessions with their new album. Cirrus Bay should be added to the list of great female fronted prog bands.

4 points

Pi2 - Dema sera un altre dia (2000)

The second album from this Spanish band. It has also been titled Tomorrow's Another Day.

I reviewed their first album Retorn back in 2009 and was not particular impressed. So I put their remaining three albums back into their box and forgot about this band. That until I dug them out again in my quest for more Spanish bands.

Pi2 plays symphonic prog in the vein of the big British bands in the scene. Retorn was an instrumental album. Dema sera un altre dia is also largely an instrumental album. But it starts with a Lionel Ritchie opening of their twenty five minutes long Tomorrow's Another Day, the title track of this album. The vocals is slick and very American like. The song goes more into a mix of Camel and Genesis from there on and out. The same goes for the rest of this album too. A mix of Camel and Genesis. Mostly Camel. That and some slick piano pop in the vein of Lionel Ritchie and Billy Joel.

This makes Dema sera un altre dia a good album and a vast improvement on Retorn. The keyboards and guitars are really good. Ditto for the vocals, bass and drums. This is not a particular exciting album which will enthuse anyone. But it ticks nicely over and makes the listener really listen to the album instead of treating it as a nice background ambience. This album is recommended.

3 points

Codice - Alba Y Ocaso (1999)

The so far one and only album from this Mexican band. A 2 CDs album, no less.

A 2 CDs album lasting 106 minutes, that is one and a three quarter of an hour, is a very ambitious thing to do. The first disc is the proper album and the second disc is some more bonus and an EP like disc.

We are talking symphonic prog here. Very pedestrian and pastoral with church organs and some low in the mix vocals. The sound is pretty dire throughout. The music is bordering to new age. It is difficult to really get my head around this music as it is pretty dull at times. The second disc is much more lively though with some neo prog thrown in. The guitars and keyboards is lively too. The music is much more fluid and I find a lot of interesting details on this disc.

In short; this is a big mouthful of an album and only for the very dedicated symph prog fans. It is a good album though which has it's Jekyll and Hyde qualities.

3 points

Reasoning. The - Awakening (2007)

I discovered this English band through their And Another Thing EP released earlier this year and I went forthwith and purchased the rest of their albums. That includes their new album.

Awakening is their debut album. The Reasoning was formed by ex Magenta and Karnataka members. They falls into this British female vocals lead prog/art rock bands category. A category with a lot of fans and support from Prog Magazine and the rest of the rock media. With good reason, I have to admit. I have previously slagged off Prog Magazine for supporting these bands. When facing up to albums like this album, the medias who hypes this genre has a good cause.

The Reasoning is one of the better bands in this genre and proves that on Awakening. Very intelligent neo prog/art rock with both some folk rock and prog metal influences. All songs are good. The use of both male and female vocals is great. Both Rachel Jones and Dylan Thompson deserve praise for their vocals on this album. Vocals which reminds med a lot about Touchstones, the first band from this scene I really got into. No wonder these two bands are touring together with sponsorship from Prog Magazine.

The best song is the Mostly Autumn like closing song With Cold Glass. The other songs are also very good and that makes Awakening an impressive debut album. I am intrigued.

3.5 points

Ave Tierra - Elefantes Negros (2012)

The debut album from this Argentine band. They released the Fuegos EP back in 2010 though.

Ave Tierra is situated in the hard rock/hard prog landscape. Take a lot of blues, some jazz, some latin rock, raspy Spanish vocals, some King Crimson and some Led Zeppelin and you get this album. This album is very much a return back to hard rock anno 1970-71. Elefantes Negros is not an all out hard rock attack, though. There are also some acoustic and more pastoral pieces here.

The music is performed with plenty of guitars, bass, drums and some keyboards. That and some very good vocals. The result is an album in the South American prog/hard rock tradition. Not to mention the Spanish tradition with Medina Azahara. The ethnic flavours are strong.

I am not entirely won over by this album. The lack of any great or even good songs are a bit of a problem for me. This album is bubbling just below the surface for me as South American hard rock is not really my cup of tea. For those into this kind of music, this is very much a worthy download from a band I hope we will hear a lot more from.

2.5 points

Corima - Quetzalcoatl (2012)

The second album from this US zeuhl band. I have not heard their first album yet and that one is on the top of my shopping list. If I can get it, it is.

Zeuhl is going through a renaissance now and Corima is one of the bands keeping this very small scene alive. Quetzalcoatl draws as much from the likes of Aranis and Univers Zero as from the likes of Magma and Koenjihyakkei though. This heady brew of RIO and zeuhl is very lively and humourous.

Quetzalcoatl is very much a party zeuhl album with it's many funny details and melody lines. The use of female vocals is great. Ditto for the woodwinds and jazzy parts. The album is a rhythm fest with a lot of weird things going on. The repetetive vocal lines is what we know from the Japanese scene and Magma. Their music is not as dark as Magma's music. That is why I label Quetzalcoatl as a party zeuhl album. An album you can play to your normal friends and have a party around. A good party, that is. Not a wake.

Quetzalcoatl is also a great album with it's many nods and winks towards the Japanese zeuhl scene. The art work is also a wink and a nod towards that scene. The result is an album which proves that the zeuhl scene anno 2012 has a lot to offer. It is an album everyone into zeuhl should purchase. I am really enjoying this album and has done that for many weeks.

4 points

Pez - El sol detrás del sol (2002)

The sixth album from this Argentine band.

Pez has been in transformation over the last couple of albums from a garage punk rock band to a much more sophisticated latin rock band. A transformation which has taken them to this album.

The sound is good. The music is pretty much jazzy latin rock with Spanish vocals. The old garage punk rock feel is still present here as the band's playing is a bit unhinged and not particular tight throughout this album. Hammond organs and woodwinds has mostly taken over from the cascades of heavy guitars.

The result is a good album and their best so far. It is a charming album too with a lot of zest and personality. This is a free download and a worthy one too. It comes highly recommended on a freezing Sunday. It is bound to warm you up a bit.

3 points

Annexus Quam - Osmose (1970)

The debut album and the first of two albums from this German band.

The band name and album title very much hint towards krautrock. Which is the correct answer. Recorded in 1970, that also hints towards a pretty poor sound quality. Again, the right answer.

The sound is pretty poor and the music is in the cosmic jam area with some guitars chiming in over some woodwinds, flutes, bass and drums. That and various percussions and some very sparse vocals.

The result is an aimless meandering album which does not really do much for me. It is not as disasterous bad as some other albums in this genre (Amon Duul, raise your hands now). There are some sporadic good stuff here. Most of this album is pretty poor, though. Hence my not so generous sprinkling of points.

2 points

Twenty Four Hours - Intolerance (1994)

Their second album. I reviewed their first album back in April this year.

Twenty Four Hours is a bit of a strange Italian band who has been operating well below the surface. Their sound is a mix of English indie rock, space rock and Italian prog. That and some folk rock too. Their music is strange with piano, accordion, synths, bass, drums and vocals as the main ingredients. It gives their music a pretty strong gypsy flavour. The music also has some country flavour.

The sound is not bad at all, this being an album from the 1990s. The music on this album is follows up from their debut album, the pretty good The Smell of the Rainy Air album from 1991. Intolerance follows in the same path. Good melodic music with good vocals and a lot of interesting details to keep the listener interested. This is not a great album though. Some great songs is missing. But this is still a good album and a more than good free download from an intriguing band.

3 points

Giardino Onirico. Il – Perigeo (2012)

The first album from this Italian band after the release of an EP in 2010.

Il Giardino Onirico is a band who perform their music with guitars, plenty of keyboards, bass, drums and some spoken vocals.

When researching this band, I was referred to The Metal Archives and other metal places. The opening minutes of this album also starts with some pretty typical prog metal guitar riffs. Then the album takes some strange turns. Some pretty long ambient keyboard runs takes over and the album moves more into an atmospheric area. There are also a lot of symph prog on this album. Pink Floyd is a good reference. So is Goth Rock too. The same goes for experimental metal.

The music is mostly instrumental with some spoken narrative included. The melodies are drawn out and dream like. Almost ambient. I think the metal crowd will find this too ambient and melodic. The prog crowd will find too much metal here. I find this album plainly too confusing. I like the ambient stuff. But I am not sure where the band are going and what they are doing. This album feels like some of the earlier Tiamat albums. I am referring to their 1994 album Wildhoney.

Strange album, Perigeo. I like most of it and rate it as a good album. A bit more action would had been good, though. It is a good album and check it out on Youtube.

3 points

Teoremi. I - I Teoremi (1972)

One of the many one album wonders Italian bands from the 1970s. Nothing has ever been heard about this band again after they disbanded.

I Teoremi was making music somewhere in the border area between Led Zeppelin and the Italian prog rock scene. The music is Led Zeppelin like with Italian lyrics and flavour. The music is pretty intricate though with rampant bass, guitars and drums. The vocals too is pretty rampant. Very good vocals, though.

The result is a pretty decent to good album without the really good songs, but still with some good stuff on it. Mostly the rhythm figures the band comes up with and the very good vocals. I would not really label this as a good album though. But those interested in hard psych and hard rock from Italy should really check out this album.

2.5 points