Welcome to 2021! So far it’s been a shitfest with the pandemic still raging and tangerine hued poser politicans who don’t know how to make a graceful exit when they know that they’re no longer wanted or loved anymore.
But I’m not here to talk about that.
Although the year 2020 was faltered with false starts and many fallacies, especially in the arenas of live television, concerts, and practically the closure of all cinemas across the country- two industries that are both still endearing to me managed to thrive: the comic book industry and the music industry. Even while under lockdown, people were exercising their creativity to dizzying new heights – even over here at Casa de la Coatney, my roommate and his brother are buying up new musical equipment like there’s no tomorrow in order to compose their new auteur progressive style music entirely on computer software alone and I’m sitting here behind my company loaned computer equipment churning out an script for an ideal new Deposit Man Sunday style newspaper strip schedule to debut later this year on this VERY SAME BLOG. Also be on the lookout for new blogs this year on animation, hopefully a new YES LOG, and more hemmoroid itching social commentary that I usually pride myself on.
Last year the Progressive Rock genre came to a disasterous crawl during the early months of 2020. Nothing was more suffering to me than was my streak broken in purchasing every monthly issue of Prog Magazine at my local Studio City newsstand. For the first time since I’ve been buying every issue of my favorite imported music magazine, I suffered gaps because of distribution from the U.K. had gone tits up and couldn’t deliver issues across the Atlantic due to Covid 19 complications. I ended up missing two months in a row and Future Publishing does offer the option of obtaining back issues.
New releases had suffered as well. The new Steven Wilson album, The Future Bites release date had to be shuffled from early June to the end of this month. But Mr.Wilson didn’t rest on his laurels due to the setback, he went back and wrote new songs to be included on the deluxe printing, some of which he debuted on his youtube channel to show the process in how he recorded them. Word going around is that the box set is very limited, even already sold out through some online distributors, that I’m freaking out wondering if I’m able to cough up a $100 bucks only to be told that everyone is all out of stock.
It wasn’t until early June, after nearly two and a half months of total shutdown for non-essential businesses, that the new releases started to pile on with delayed products and such, that they started coming so rapidly as if they were shot of out a COVID 19 cannon I’m here to give little capsule reviews of the best ten that I got to listen to throughout the year – plus one honorable mention to a local artist that I know through facebook who cheered me up by sending me a sample copy of his band’s brand new album that they worked on before the panademic began widely circulating.
Certainly a better turn out than 2019’s outpouring was. I don’t even think I even purchased 10 albums from the year 2019.
So what follows is ‘my personal’ top ten new progressive rock releases for the year 2020. I’ll conclude by speculating on some upcoming releases.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 10 is… Steve Howe – Love Is (BMG)
The little short and sweet half song and half instrumental package (total running time is only 43 minutes) was probably the closest thing to a new Yes product last year. thanks to the participation of current Yes singer Jon Davidson‘s wonderful harmonic accompaniment on all the even numbered tracks. You could say, along with drumming contribution by Steve’s current surviving son, Dylan, that the trio were trying to pick up where Yes’ 2014’s Heaven & Earth left off, and that’s certainly evident if you give the stand out catchy fourth track Love is A River a try. It’s a very grandiose pop sounding and sleekly produced affair that invokes images of living in a suburban sunny Southern Orange County town where there’s a bodega on every other block as you make your way towards the beach while breathing in the crisp sweet smelling salted air. Instrumental then pop track, instrumental then pop track, and just as you’ve adjusted to this formula, you will have reached your destination. Howe’s ever elevating blend of guitar styles never detoriates and proves that he always has new tricks to demonstrate on instrumentals such as Beyond The Call and Sound Picture his loyal following.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 9 is… Rick Wakeman & The English Rock Ensemble – The Red Planet (Madfish)
It’s always a nostalgic treat to return to those glorious days of yesterday’s singularly themed concept albums that was once prevalent in the early days of Rick Wakeman’s side job as a derring do solo artist. If you’ve had a hankering to make a worthy addition to such stalwart Rick Wakeman classic 1970s albums such as The Six Wives of Henry VIII, The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of The Round Table and No Earthly Connection instead of trying to rehash Journey To The Centre of The Earth for the umpteenth time, then The Red Planet is the one you’ll want to put on your shelf alongside them. And no wonder it sounds so grandoise: it’s the reunion of the English Rock Ensemble, even right down to bassist Lee Pomeroy’s perfect playing that rivals previous bass players Chas Cronk and Chris Squire that came before him. From the opening church organ toe tapper Ascraeus Mons to the Saturn ringed nod and wink to Holst’s The Planets closer Valles Manneris, this eight track wonder of instrumental prog is everything you’d want in a homage to your schoolday Wakeman days, even down to the long forgotten 1979’s Rhapsodies double album.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 8 is… Ayreon – Transitus (Music Theories Recording)
I’m not going to be able to give this one a fair shake since it’s a grievious error on my part that I’ve should’ve been more vigilant in ordering the freaking damn deluxe packaging, because I’m so instantly lost in following what’s going on. The version I bought was the standard jewel packaging. If I had splurged another $20, I could’ve have two cds, a blu ray 5.1 mix and a comic book that propels the story along, let alone inform me on who’s who and who’s doing what. I had to download the lyrics on the computer in order to keep up with the storyline. So now that I got my personal neuroses out of the way, the grand poobah of prog, Arjen Anthony Lucassen on this go around is flipping the script on his continuously encompassing Universal Migrator storyline this time to delve into a gothic horror story narrated by Doctor Who‘s Tom Baker and somewhere in the middle of all this is a great Marvel Team-Up sidebar of Joe Satriani and Dee Snider in a four minute crunchy rocker entitled “Get Out Now!” I have to admit, on this go around other than Satriani and Snider, I don’t even know who half these musicians are other than the exception of Lucassen himself and ex-Arena singer Paul Manzi, but I have to give props to Lucassen for discovering Houston Texas area singer Cammie Gilbert culled from her hometown metal rock band Oceans of Slumber. The platitudes pouring in for her partcipation on this record are richly well deserved.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 7 is… The Flower Kings – Islands (Insideout)
The Flower Kings goes beyond the call of duty to be the first progressive rock band to produce and release an album remotely under quarantine from each of the members individual’s standard base of operations . No lengthy monumental half hour extravaganzas here. Commander Roine Stolt is saving those for the next Transatlantic album coming out in a couple of months. Rather on this under one hour and half double disc, you get nothing beyond a occasional nine minute mark, everything else is condensed in easily to digest perfect musicianship sized chunks, mostly prepped by mostly lead singer Hasse Froberg‘s Freddy Mercury type approach to tracks such as “Black Swan” and “Broken“. All the various prog rock giant influences are there such as Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant and ELP are there, but I’m hearing interesting this time on other things things such as nods to UK on instrumental “Journeyman” and light touches of Zappa and Weather Report on the mini-epic “Solaris“. This is my first Flower Kings album in a very long while and I’ve noticed for the first time that they have a new keyboard player by the name of Zach Kamins who sounds capable of following in his predecessor Tomas Bodin‘s sustain pedal’s footsteps. Drummer Mirkko DeMaio is another new name to me, joining in the constant revolving door of previous drummers.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 6 is… Lunatic Soul – Through Shaded Woods (Kscope Music)
The sixth effort by all hands on deck, Riverside‘s band leader Mariusz Duda recording under the monkier Lunatic Soul has a different approach to this outing than his previous five efforts that it derives from more of a Jethro Tull/Fairport Convention type homage with hints of electronica sparsed throughout, particularly in the foot tapping druid opening track Navvie. What’s remarkable from I’ve learned from watching several of Duda’s youtube on the making of this album, what you may think is Duda sounding awfully agressive with his hypnotic acoustic playing is indeed not the case, it’s his bass guitar tuned to sound like an acoustic guitar. And of course, one can’t let Duda get away without exhibiting some kind of his former Riverside bandmate’s influence and that is most evident in the second half of the eight minute The Passage, where electric riffs come and take over without missing the beat that the first acoustic guitar riff has already previously established. Free form is the key operative word around here. Nearly all the tracks metamorph into something that may have not been originally intended such as the ballad starter Summoning Dance, that by its’ end becomes a cacophony of a dancing multitude of shouting riffs . Another highlight I walked away from intital listening is the shout out to Mike Oldfield on the nearly half hour long self exploratory self recorded “Transition II ” which invokes pleasant memories of listening to “Taurus II” from his 1982’s Five Miles Out for the very first time complete with breathing exercises and the scraping of toothbrushes.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 5 is… Mark Kelly’s Marathon (Ear Music) is this year’s progressive rock equivalent of being able to outrace faster than a speeding locomotive other than any new progressive rock act’s debut. Initially I had my doubts when the long time Marillion keyboardist announced that he was finally starting work on a solo effort. I was thinking to myself: ‘oh geez, will it just wind up in the dead sideman solo effort pile like the rest of Hogarth, Rothery, and Trewavas’ previous albums (Transatlantic excluded of course)? However my roommate acting on gut instinct and touting to me that this might be bigger than Kelly’s work on Marillion itself. I wasn’t willing to believe a word of my roommate’s inane proclamations and he persisted to harangue me day in and day out on whether or not I was keeping up with Kelly’s e-mail updates. I was shrugging my shoulders so much that my roommate simply got pissed off and sent away for a extra copy of the deluxe version for me regardless. Gladly his persistence paid off because the freshman effort made the middle of my top ten this year. And let me just say, this is a record that you have to pay strict attention to as far as the lyrics are concerned because there are so many hidden treasures within if you happen to be a buff on history and classic science fiction films. This debut album by mostly a group of remarkable unknowns gathered by Kelly is bookended by two epics; the opener “Amelia” is a nod to pioneering aviator Amelia Earhart (a North Hollywood native) and the closing epic 2051 is about Kelly’s appetite for science fiction book reading gone amok with not so much hard to conceal references to Arthur C. Clarke, Stanley Kubrick, Spielberg and Marvel Comics. Some are just flat out cringeworthy, but thrown in a mix invoking some IQ inspired majestic bits, you can forgive their frank nerdiness. Mark Kelly should hand over the coveted best newcomer award to his nephew, bass player Colin making his particular approach to playing sounding the ever more sweeter. Singer Oliver Smith is a gem of a find too. He reminds me a lot of a singer who would fit in singing on a Mike Oldfield record as well. I’ll be definitely be here eagerly awaiting their sophmore disc.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 4 is… Pure Reason Revolution – Eupnea (Insideout)
I ‘d be remissed if I didn’t include the much welcomed reheralded return of the one of the best new bands to emerge from the new millennium in this year’s top ten. I previously blogged about my unfettered loyalty for the Jon Courtney/Chloe Alper collaborated psychedelic rock reverence styled act with hints of Pink Floyd and Beach Boys sprinkled throughout. No longer than a year of posting that blog, I thought maybe I was living in a post apocalyptic dream academy world when the surprise announcement that Courtney and Alper were willing to give it another go. And so the result is their fourth effort, Eupnea (of which I remarked to Ms. Alper on her facebook page, isn’t it a strange coincidence you titled an album based on the respiratory systems of animals during while a pandemic is happening?) that I’ve been on the promotion wagon for ever since the album’s announcement came out pre-Covid 19, and after many delays in getting units shipped to the US, Eupnea was the very first 2020 prog release that I got to finally listen to in the middle of last May and it’s very much in the similiar vein of where I left off with them when I picked up their 2006 debut album, The Dark Third at the Sony Pictures studio store of where I used to work. Their next two albums were only available as a import and no independent record store would order it for me. It seems with the sale of Insideout Music to Sony Music, we’ve come full circle again, and now they once again have American distribution. It’s safe to say that Eurpea is a bright ambassador of a bright hope in a severely fear ravaged world. Every song on this album is a sonic fullfilled masterpiece, even without the advent of a 5.1 surround mix to propel it along (even though they more than deserve it). I heard this effort has sold extremely well, that maybe Alper and Courtney will make it more of a band effort for their fifth release as they are the only two credited musicans with an occasional mention of a drummer and a string conductor pitching in. Chloe Alper once again firmly cements her hold as the female equivilent of a Chris Squire with her noticeable bass playing contributions (even though the credits say otherwise) and her warm complementary harmonies to Courtney’s upfront dancetronical ode to The Dead Can Dance’s Pete Burns. On this effort, perhaps because of age catching up to them, both Alper and Courtney don’t tread too much in rapid fire lyrical mouthfuls of soliloquies like they used to do on several verses together for their debut disc, but rather rely on their individuals strengths as trading lead vocal duties. Alper delivers soothing beauty solely on the ballad, ‘Beyond Our Bodies‘ while Courtney takes up the majority of the slack on hard rocking opener “New Obsession“. Two whirlwind ten minute plus epics “Silent Genesis” and the closing title track are the true highlights to enter into the annals of the PRR pantheons.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 3 is… The Pineapple Thief – Versions of The Truth (Kscope Music)
It’s been over a year now since I’ve seen my last live concert and was sure one heck of live concert back in December 2019 when The Pineapple Thief finally made their Los Angeles debut at the El Rey Theater, the exact same theater where I saw another Kscope Music act Anthema play live. Unfortunately Anathema recently made a mournful announcement that they have called it quits due to the effects of the pandemic. The Pineapple Thief, however are pledging to forge ahead during these trying times with the optimtism of hoping to perform these songs one day live on stage. Version of the Truth is the band’s 13th studio release and their 3rd with drummer Gavin Harrison, who has now been christened ‘official band member’ with this release and is no longer regaled as ‘special guest star‘. This may be a crucial crossroad facing a band on their 13th album being released during a raging world rifed with disease, but in no way or no form, will you feel that your luck has ran out after listening to this incredible batch of new songs – which would have been even greater if Bruce Soord at least previewed one or two of them during the last tour before we were forced to say our extended goodbyes. It’s a strong release right out of the gate showcasing the power of Soord and Harrison’s collaboration in usual blast off fashion on the kenetic frenized title track and it doesn’t slow down until you reach the end of this disc. Each track is a nearly miniturized gem and barely go over the seven minute mark, particularly on Our Mire that gives us more Gavin to stretch out. If only this band were embraced more by mainstream and alternative radio stations especially when you got powerhouse rockers like “Break It All” lying around, we’d have something resembling normal music on FM radio for once. Knowing my expectations with the par excellence in percussion that Harrison is known for supplying, I splurged for the deluxe version which includes 2 CDs (the 2nd disc being alternative takes and bonus tracks), one DVD and I think this makes my first ever official foray in hearing a 5.1 surround mix mastered on a blu ray all housed in a giant lp sized book package. Even though it’s packed with pretty photos and illustrated lyric sheets, I should have settled with the plain DVD package since I don’t really have room in my house to store lps.
From high atop thunder prog review mountain, No 2 is… Gazpacho – Fireworker (Kscope)
I’m going to say this up front and now: I’ve become a more rapid follower of this adventurous Norweigen sextet than the band that they originally sought to emulate, which is Marillion. The band’s name, Gazpacho, obviously is their nod to the opening track of Marillion’s 1995 Afraid of Sunlight album and they’ve kept pretty much writing in the similar style of that band’s mid 1990’s output (they did after all, got their green light to debut their original material at a Marillion Weekend from the Marillo Boys themselves), but they’ve grown more bold and parlous with each new release, and Fireworker is no exception in the band’s tradition of blending grand philosophical quandaries, stimulating literary leanings, and haunting personal turmoil.. I previously profiled the band and a handful of their latest batch of efforts a few years back. At the central premise being that humanity has always been controlled by an infallible and omniscient creature determined to propagate at any cost or you could just schuck it all away and enjoy for it for what it truly is: a 5 song epic to touch your experimental progressive rock soul. The glue constantly holding it together is keyboardist Thomas Alexander Andersen whose less is more motifs propels the various motions through vocalist Jan-Henrik Ohme‘s necromancing clear and concise delivery, every wonderful penned lyric perfectly enunciated and emotionally thrilling. Although it’s a slow build to get to the halfway point of “Space Cowboy” where everything immediately cuts loose in bombastic fury of cacophonus sampled choirs and syntheized percussion; it’s the small numbers that does most of the heavy lifting like “Hourglass”, “Antique” and title track “Fireworker” (which I vote for as my favorite song of the year) that really devotes my highest appreciation for trying to twist Stephen King’s The Shining into a lyrical mesh jammed between mentions of Iberian nights and Jesus Christ before tying itself into a fading fifteen minute epic melancholic final bow entitled “Sapien“. Every new Gazpacho record (each sleeve a work of wonder illustrated by artist Antonio Seijas) always leaves me musically fulfilled and eagerly awaiting for what they will have up their sleeve next. Fingers crossed that the double bill of the aforementioned Pure Reason Revolution and Gazpacho European tour will still be a go for later on this year. (They are due to play London together in October. Maybe a call to my travel agent is in order).
And the No 1 album from high atop thunder prog review mountain is… Fish – Weltschmerz (Chocolate Frog Records)
If you’re going to go out on your last hurrah, at least go out in with deluxe styled packaging as a momento to honor your lifetime achievement. I saw it immediately in the stars back when Fish released a youtube video previewing the new track, “Man With A Stick” and it sounded so uniquely different than anything he’s previously done before. My intitial reaction was: ‘oh, my goodness, is this Fish’s ode to Paul McCartney‘s “Temporary Secretary” from his 1980’s McCartney II album?’ And will there be more? I later found out, yes, there will be- but with one caveat; Fish announced that this will be his final studio album before he rides off into the sunset. With personal health regarding him and family members, Fish has decided to cultivate one final Garden Party (and he actually has professional gardening to fall back on, just like Ian Anderson falls back on salmon farming during Jethro Tull hiatuses) for his fans in writing and directing a giant double sized SERIES finale in his polarizing epic song anthology – Weltschmerz. Like my roommate was on for his big promo push for Mark Kelly’s Marathon, I went full tilt for Fish’s final goodbye by devouring every e-mail of his and watched along with every facebook weekly podcast from his home every Friday until I giving the thumbs up when I had received my deluxe package delivered to me on a Saturday evening in November. Weltschmerz derives from the German language meaning world weariness or world pain and Fish certainly brings it in tenfold especially during the heart wrenching opener “The Grace of God” and “Little Man What Now?” which directly addresses the death of his father and “Garden of Rememberance” which deals in small part about the deterioting dementia of his mother. However, all is not doom and gloom in Fish’s final farewell, for there are many Scottish toasts to be had aplenty with “This Party’s Over” and “C Song (The Trondheim Waltz)“. There are nods to past efforts such as a reprise of 1997’s “Jungle Ride” spoken word rhythm section from Sunsets on Empire on the new album’s first major tour de force “Rose of Damascus“. I was personally effected by the near fourteen minute penultimate tune “Waverly Steps” – from what I gather is a post apocalyptic survival story of a man down on his luck with his dog in tow that brought back a tear to my eye reminding me of the life of futurist writer Harlan Ellison and his particular remarkable novel “A Boy and His Dog“. The closing title track may bring an omnious dread to the previous presentation with Fish’s voiceover declaration that ‘the rapture is near” at the very end – but with promise of new hope and change in world politics permeating in the air these upcoming days, that declaration may now prove to be moot. Fish went all tilt in the deluxe packaging and it’s accompaning visual book in giving us more than we ever bargained for (I’m not even done going through all the blu ray extras yet) and the most incredible feeling you’ll ever have after listening to these final songs of salutations is that you’re instantly left clamoring for more.
Honorable mention… Scarlet Hollow – A Window to October (Melodic Revolution Records)
I’d like to give a special shout out to my fellow facebook friends Allison VonBuelow and Gregg Olson for giving me some musically starved solace during this pandemic when they sought to privilege me with a review copy of their band’s new album.
If you happen to be a fan of mixing a little atmospheric folk in your prog latte in the morning in the merrytime tradition of Mostly Autumn or Marillion guitarist’s Steve Rothery’s solo project, The Wishing Tree, then Scarlet Hollow could be the perfect filler while those two bands are currently on hiatus. Allison channels her innermost Heather Findlay vocals in heartwarming ways in ballads such as “The Forgotten” with some heavy handed lyrical swordplay ‘she was beautiful as a waterfall’ as demonstrated on “Slipping on Frozen Fire” in accompaniment to Gregg’s slick studio production and equally engaging musicanship. Some real great instrumental death defying dueling happens in the title track as well as the jazzy new ageist “Jupitar’s Calling“. You may contact the band’s label website for more information. Thanks again Gregg and Allison!
So, those are my favorite ten prog release of 2020 and 2021 certainly looks to be almost on equal footing with new releases by The Anchoress, an acoustic album of Saga‘s greatest hits (wha- ?), Transatlantic and the mighty Steven Wilson ready just around the corner.
PPGuru 