CD REVIEWS
SIGNED BANDS OLD & NEW

This section is for some of our favourite new releases or reissues for which we've been lucky enough to have copies supplied to us by the label or the artists.

CLICK HERE FOR ESOTERIC LABEL REVIEWS

BLOW UP HOLLYWOD – Blow Up Hollywood CD
The cover is fold-out, in black and white, forbidding and foreboding yet strangely hypnotic, tells you nothing except the very basis of what you need to know yet invites you in to a world of mystery.
The same could be said of the album's musical contents!
It opens with disembodied voices as a gorgeous synthesizer/keyboard fog rolls in from the ocean in riples of shimmering beauty, to roll away again almost as swiftly. Immediately, the sound of a mournful cello is heard as an acoustic guitar strums quietly alongside. Then in comes the singer – a voice full of yearning emotion that's somehow full of satisfaction at the same time as it's inviting you to share his feelings and observations. It's a voice that's emotionally charged and yet warm, comforting and fragile as it is strong. A waft of keys and synths heralds the arrival of slowly flowing rhythm section, keys and guitars as the song strengthens its hold, tightens its grip yet becomes a thing of uplifting, mesmersing charm, gradually flowing into the hook-as-chorus, at which point you are completely taken over by everything this world has to offer on a song that's simply spellbinding, beyond ballad, above mere feelings, and instead a supreme majesty of drama, delicate intensity and hypnotic bliss. The song is called “It's Not Me” and already it's the third track on the album, but it is the point at which you fall deeply in love with the album and the thinking, arranging, playing and singing behind it. From there on in, you plunge with eager tranquility and taut emotion into a sea of songs where the greatest of feelings is provided by the sparest of playing, band-driven all the same, as they make every note count, every slice of haunting intensity from the sinewy violin/cello, through the throb of drums and distant deep bass, to the more melodic counterpoints of keyboards and occasional guitar, the instrumental passages speaking as many volumes as the songs, “Descend” leading the way into the darkness yet eerily towards the star in the horizon. “Heaven Or Hell” agains flows tenderly into existence as the warm, strong, gorgeously emotive vocal sings a song that simply can't fail to make it straight to your heart as the multi-tracked verses with deep textural backing give an added dimension to the song, the spirit so deep, the eyes so wide, the longing ever greater, on a song that is truly spellbinding as cello, acoustic guitar and deep rivers of texture make the hook achingly mesmerising and the song the sort of experience you want to have, time after time. “Beyond the Stars” opens with cascading, deliberate piano chords, deep synth bass rumble and cosmic wind as the piece lifts off in a fogbank of distant train-like electro-percussive bliss, the piano climbing above in slowly unfolding steps of splendour as the piece gathers pace and intensity to become this wondrous slice of shoegazing beauty almost like a cosmic instrumental stripped-down decelerated version of essential early Bruce Hornsby, and just awesome. “Sweetest Moment” opens with sampled preaching voice, heartbeat percussive throb, deep piano/synth chords and an almost early seventies Pink Floyd feel, before the vocal emerges with another song that's immediately got you caught in its spell as the composition echoes a male answer to emotive Tori Amos, truly spellbinding yet again, so different from anything else around, but so much finer at the same time, a song, yet again, so perfect in the context of the album and gradually rising to a peak that surveys its kingdom and finds strength, peace and purpose, once again, intense but in a wholly hypnotic manner. This segues into a huge swathe of synthesized orchestral sounding cosmic gorgeousness as the reprise of the earlier “It's Not Me” is heard in all its uplifting charm and emotive wonderment. Over a final quintet of songs and instrumental amazement, the album continues without once losing what makes it so enthralling, so hypnotic, so full of feeling and so much the sort of album you know you are going to play and play and never once tire of its undoubted charms. Possibly the most underestimated genius debut album of the last 10 years.

BLOW UP HOLLYWOD – Fake CD
Two years later, to 2004, and things have changed – for the better. The songs and playing are every bit what made them so special on the debut album, but the fragility of exploration and yearning is now replaced by this driving, dramatic sense of purpose as the songs, the singing and, above all, the playing, come crashing into the electric heavens, as, right from the start, a parallel universe Pink Floyd is heard in all its glory, the sound of electric guitar leads, textures and breaks over slowly flowing rhythm section and melodic keys, is completed by the even stronger and no less emotive lead vocal that delivers the song in all its glory, the song is “Born”, the playing incredible and the effect utterly breathtaking as this majestic epic of an opener catches you in its spotlights and keeps you there for the duration. You'd buy the album for this track alone!! The even better part, however, is that it's all just as hot as this. The weeping cellos are still present, but even these possess a greater strength, a greater depth of emotion than before, as it immediately segues its orchestral splendour into the strains of acoustic guitar, distant synths, deep bass and lilting melody that back the quietly emotive vocal of the title track as the drums come in and provide the backbone of the piece. Then, as the electric guitars break waves, the vocal lifts off and the song veers between sky and earth with incredibly ease and stunning effect, a song that is as hypnotic as it is dramatic as it is romantic, slowly building into this huge sounding epic that's truly a sight to behold and admire. A short instrumental excursion that is the calming qualities of “Just Before Dawn” leads us into the uplifting song that is “nde” with shimmering guitars, haunting rhythms and textural keys before another Floyd-like break opens the song out into dramatic prog-rock realms as the vocals strengthen, intensify and stride out, eventually dropping back to the peace of whirlpools of shimmering electric guitars, cosmic electronics, shuffling drums and yearning vocal, all arranged to perfection and a joy to hear, an experience to be had as long, loud and as often as possible. “Darkness Falls” is an instrumental interlude that features more of that emotive, warm sounding cello with distant cosmic electronics far far away, creating a mood that's endearing yet eerie at the same time, but above all, truly blissful that dies away slowly to herald the arrival of “Oceans”, a warm-sounding ballad that's not only one of the finest tracks on the album, but one of the finest songs written in the last ten years. So emotive, so full of feeling, so passionate, it is sung with yearning intensity and imploring meaning, with a stirring, slowly rising undercurrent and playing that's got that total seal of parallel universe Pink Floyd stamped right across it as this slide electric guitar break is heard in all its glory above the strong and gathering density of the rhythm section, the whole thing rising up to a crescendo before diving back down to deliver the gorgeousness of the song's final moments in the quiet calm of how it began. “Rise” is an altogether stronger slice of instrumental orchestral sounding river of dreams, full of synths and strings, spotlighted with melodic keys and rippling currents, as short as it is sweet, and drawing the listener into “White Walls”, starting with swirling clouds of electronics and echoed pulses, as the vocal emerges, softer this time, almost lazily intoned, but gradually conveying the emotive charm as the band strengthen, drums begin the drive, cellos and guitars provide the depth, texture and more strength as the vocal is almost submerged but then it does away to give the song its own breathing space as the emotionally charged calm of the vocal carries it all the way through to the end, diving between the loud and the lilting with dextrous ease. “Being There” is the sound of hope, the sound of loss and the sound of longing, all in one cello-led sea of wondrous emotion, an instrumental composition of spellbinding beauty. Finally, we hit “dmk”, as the album ends on an instrumental mix of eerie, calm, spacey, other-worldly charms with electronic textures, haunting shimmering melodic emotion and a sense of adventure, telling you that there's so much more to the universe, and yet giving you just a glimpse of its spellbinding glories, as an almost early Klaus Schulze-like piece brings the album to a calming close. Overall, this is even more essential than the first album, not a wasted second on the whole thing, played and sung and arranged to perfection and one of the most fantastic albums you'll hear - anywhere!!

BLOW UP HOLLYWOOD – Collections CD
Just when I thought I'd got the handle on what Blow Up Hollywood is all about, along comes a fourth album to defy that theory and absolutely blow me away. For a starts the majority of the album is instrumental, but that also means that the actual songs carry even more emotional weight when they appear and the whole arrangement of the album is nothing short of magical.
Kicking things off we get “DDK” where a lurching drum beat is overlaid with funky percussion, a rich bass undercurrent and deep textures, all topped with this stabbing, melodic, resonant, beautifully strong piano lead as it all rolls along and gradually becomes enveloped in textural, almost buzzing, strings, giving the piece a flavour of the Pacific as well as Western, just one wonderful opening track. From here, there's the calm of “JCK” where the ping of keyboard that opens it makes you think of Pink Floyd's “Echoes” but this is only for a few seconds before, with a rush of wind that's more like a gale, in comes a searing heat electric guitar lead over another strongly lurching sea of rhythms and more strings surrounding the heart of the piece as this huge tower of melodic gorgeousness, strides out with the guitar lead hotly followed by a deep piano motif and the strings. Abruptly a synthesizer lead takes over from the guitar and this massive sounding slice of of mid-paced orchestral rock – some would arguably call it “prog-rock” - just pours its heart out as it spreads its wings and flies majestically upwards in a stream of strings, synth, piano, bass, drums and distant guitar.
“Crash” starts with resonant piano and in comes this husky sounding female vocal as the mix of tension, beauty, emotion and melody is all mixed up in an air of stark fragility, the silent force of voice and piano possessing a strength that's emotionally wrung out with passion and pure love, and if you wanted a comparison, “a female answer to Peter Gabriel doing “Here Comes The Flood” with just a piano”, wouldn't be far from the truth. It's simply wonderful!! Up next is “Cello_Piano_Radio_Woodwinds”, where what you'd call a slightly unorthodox instrumental, wends its amorphous and free-form way through a maze of ripples, melodies, rhythms and textures, on what you'd call the extremely listenable and engaging side of “challenging”, a sort of “free-classical-jazz for the beginner”, nothing too extreme, but giving you a glimpse into a world that will either open or shut its doors to you.
“Slow Down” returns to earth with a rolling piano melody and more of that husky female vocalising as a brooding kind of song shines in the dark, the voice possessing a slight air of menace and mystery as well as angst and passion, the combination of piano and vocals this time embellished with violin and deep bass, as it all slides and glides with huge emotion for such a stark sea of instrumentation, that voice so full of feeling and the arrangement just matching it to perfection. By contrast, “When Its Over” opens with chunky acoustic guitars and deep bass, before the main man behind the project reveals his first vocal on the album a voice that's very similar to a more melodic answer to the lead singer of rock band Seether, a vocal that's packed with emotion and very distinctive but at the same time, warm, strong and pure of heart, the arrangement now embellished with piano and deep-in-the-mix violin and organ, the song so absolutely magical and emotive, it brings a tear to your eye, sung superbly, arranged brilliantly and, once again, you never thought you could experience so much from something so relatively simple and almost completely acoustic – genius!! “Caged” is a silently flowing slice of rhythm-less cosmic music as dark, eerie space electronics, drift and resonate, darkly textured but at the same time, strangely beautiful, a lengthy piece that would be proud to have graced an early seventies Tangerine Dream album. “Nck” is another instrumental which opens with gently rippling, strummed acoustic guitar that erupts into a massive sounding electric guitar lead and accompanying ocean of strongly lurching bass, drums and organ, to such a brilliant degree that, in a blindfold test, the only two words that would pop out of your mouth when asked who it was, would be “Pink Floyd” - it's that close and that good, the main difference being that the guitar has a bit more bite to it. “For Jessica” features piano and viola and is just gorgeous, while at the same time strong and emotive, the piano slowly choppy, again with a bit of a “Dark Side”-era Floyd touch to it, while that viola lends that sinuous air of mysterious strength which makes it a perfect accompaniment on what is a really melodic slice of strange beauty. “Kitty Kite” is another song featuring the wondrous voice of the female singer (there are no credits on the album sleeve to anyone), again husky, gorgeous, emotive and so full of feeling, the smouldering passion and deep strength of the vocal accompanied by strummed acoustic guitar, strings, keys and electronics, with a deep feeling bass river underneath. As the song expands, the vocals are occasionally multi-tracked for even more beautiful effect, the strings also enveloping the piece as the guitar and piano provide the melodic heart to the song, which is now spiralling slowly to the heavens on that majestic, warm and hugely emotional vocal, taking you with it and filling your heart with unbridled passion on what is one absolute stunner of a song, again, making acoustic into something that's so much more than you'd ever have thought possible.
“More Caged” is electronics only this time sounding massive and filling the expanse with huge waves of cosmic soundscapes that are the other side of the black hole, a world of chaos, density and blackness, the rhythm-less electronic intensity pouring down like rain with droplets made of glass.
The album ends with a song - “Sweet Memory” - the main man singing a song of great tenderness set to a rolling piano melody, a bit like a mix of that guy out of Seether and acoustic Peter Gabriel, and just one gorgeously emotive and gloriously strong sounding way to round off what's been a simply incredible album, an album with not one second wasted or out of place, produced, arranged, played and sung to perfection, and an album that should be recognised as a work of nothing less than absolute genius.

CLUES – Clues CD
I have no idea who, what or where this band is all about. OK, so I could look it up on the web but that would spoil the fun. You see, the label have supplied me with an mp3 of the album along with track titles and nothing more. So, uncoloured by any detail, all I have are 11 tracks – just the music. Trust me, that's all you need...........
The first track is “Haarp” - normally I would say something like “this sets the scene for what's to come” - but it doesn't – this album's so eclectic, it couldn't. But let me tell you that it's wonderful – starts with a gloriously high register vocal as a crash of instrumentation, primarily guitars, enters, fades, leaves the plaintively mournful vocal, that's then joined by this distant explosion of electronics that also then rumbles and fades, only for the light vocal and a pleasant guitar to stay behind before the guitar rings out in melodic fashion accompanied by this huge lurch of a drum beat as deep bass comes in, the guitars well up and the drums get heavier but rumble along nicely. This then stops abruptly to leave melodic guitars that then fire up a salvo of staccato riffing as the vastly accelerated drums crunch in, the guitars roll along and the slightly more urgent vocals carry the song along – as it all then stops – for good – and this is only the first track!! “Remember Severed Head” continues pretty well from where that left off, as the rhythm continues, this time with a more layered, less urgent, more distant vocal as the massive drum beats are accompanied by ringing guitars, eerie electronics, chiming guitars, percussion and more, the rumbling main part dropping down to a whisper before the whole thing twists and turns down a path that sounds like seventies Krautrock mixed with Sigur Ros – wild and wonderful. “Approach The Throne” starts with stuttering guitars and electronics, solid, heavy, driving, again echoed, drums as the instrumentation gathers strength and texture, weight and pace, before the soaring, multi-tracked vocals fly in and this huge molten mass of driving glory just sounds fantastic, the song floeing along to perfection on a wave of high register vocal-lite and this awesome mix of Germany's Can, Dundee's Mason and Russian cossack music just crashes into your heart and mind. “In The Dream” opens with strummed guitars, layers of spacey electronics, a higher register sea of vocals as a whole mix of out of focus, eerie, squally and strangely emotive, almost unsettling, song structure, almost sets your nerves on edge yet at the same time, absolutely hypnotizes, with tons of layers and textures into which you are suitably immersed, without any semblance of rhythm, hook, chorus or melody – yet it's a siren call to the depths of your heart. “You Have My Eyes Now” starts on a bed of droning guitars as this languid, emotive vocal enters and slowly unfolds its lyrical riches, almost sounding like a decelerated indie-rock answer to Brother Brown's ambient dance hit “Under The Water”. Guitars shimmer, percussion washes on the shore, the vocals start to lift off, then – kerboooooommmmmmm!!!!!!!!! - the band come in with an explosion of drums, guitars, bass and electronics as this slow, lumbering beast of a track lifts drives unstoppably forward in a blaze of textures, melodies, riffs and solid layers. Then it stops – to leave electronics that sound like cellos – all very Godspeed and simply wondrous. OK – there's 6 tracks to go – and they're all amazing. But, I'm gonna leave it there – I think by now you've got the flavour of this album – it's contemporary, it's different, it's superbly played and produced, sung and arranged, it's inventive yet it's utterly accessible, enjoyable and undeniably uncommercial, a completely new affair with which you can link arms and walk into the sunset together, as love takes hold. In a word, “fantastic”!!

ALAN DAVEY – Cyber Tooth CD
Across the combined fields of space-rock, heavy metal, electronic music and progressive, this guy has to be one of the most underrated, unheralded talents that we have in the UK – from albums that would give Motorhead a run for their money, through albums with and without Hawkwind at his side but which are prime directive space-rock, to instrumental offerings that give fans from cosmic to progressive rock a thrill, this guy's done the lot. So, here we are with a new studio album – what will it bring......
The answer is, perhaps unsurprisingly bearing in mind how long he's been going, a bit of all of the above and more. The 11 tracks average around 4 minutes apiece so nothing is allowed to outstay its welcome. The opening track starts with an almost cosmic orchestration as electronic expanses cover the horizon over which the almost delicate, treated vocal flows before deep bass runs underneath slowly and the drums crunch in, again slowly, as that gruff Lemmy-esque vocal intones the verses as vast expanses of synths and the rhythms, effortlessly expand in slo-motion, all absolutely beautiful and wondrous. Around the three and a half minute mark, the whole vast sparkling galaxy of sound just explodes into this driving sea of searing heat electric guitar lead, monstrous bass and crunching drumming, all the gaps filled with vast space synths as the track powers ahead and segues into “Bootkiller” where the rhythm section pound with that bass right upfront where it belongs, swirling space synths all around as the space-rock element rises up in a whirlwind of instrumental excellence, the track possessing melody and muscle as it assaults the senses with bass-driven strength and synths-driven expanse, but gtahering speed and becoming this instrumental tornado that mixes space- and prog-rock in equal measures, with the emphasis on rock as it hammers out of the speakers like a Saturn 5 in flight.
“Metamorphic Code” starts as the sort of cosmic music that you'd have hear on a very early seventies Tangerine Dream album as it drifts, soars and flows through a galaxy of synthscapes to beautifully spacey and spacious effect, the perfect slice of space music that used to come in between two driving Hawkwind rockers in Alan's ye olde days. Despite what you might think from the title, “Harmonic Orgone” is not like Hawkwind – instead it starts slowly with gently flowing rhythms, treated vocals of extraordinary spaciousness, all of which develops into an almost bossa-nova/tango-esque rhythm as the piece bounces and glides along in an almost space-jazz fashion, in context, a mix of surprising, enjoyable and positively inspired, the last thing you'd have expected to hear on an Alan Davey album but yet another string to the man's musical bow.
At a shade under 5 minutes long, comes “Doomjuice”, a tumbling, busy instrumental that's almost orchestral sounding space rock at the beginning with mellotron-like textures and bouncing rhythms that lead into this gorgeous fog bank of electronics before deep bass, rattling percussion and more of the space-synth canvas, all drive forward with this jazzy feel to it but also full of drive, texture and intensity as the syanhts provide the melodic hooks and the rhythms provide the foundations on which the rest of the instruments play and fly.
The 5 minute title track starts with space synth swooshes, deep bass throb, soaring space synth comets, distant textural electronic expanse, all of which are the propelled by this dramatic drumming as what sounds eerily like the backdrop to “Silver Machine” comes and goes in a heartbeat before the track suddenly pans out into this slice of classic Davey space-rock songwriting, but with a sound and arrangement a mile wide as the rhythms crunch and drive, synth choirs add the depths and the vocals are pure Hawk-style space-rock singing at its best. The track twists and turns but generally stays where it most belongs, as a consummate mid-paced space-rocker. The 4 minute “Rootkit” is, initially, more electronic space/cosmic music before it positively thunders out of the airwaves into one driving piece of music that successfully mixes both cosmic music and cosmic rock in one huge-sounding instrumental anthem that spans the universe with energy and density.
“Fractal Eyes” is an out and out rocker, starting with big, beefy bass, and developing into one driving slice of space-metal that, once again, has a vast orchestral electronic universe as Davey's vocal hammers out and the instrumental hook that gets repeated, lodges itself in your head, the extra presence of what sounds like mellotrons alongside the mighty bass, the huge melodies and the rocket-ship drumming, meaning that this is one superheated rock inferno. “All Over The Place” sees the return of some searing heat electric guitar work as the instrumental drives, bounces, charges and spirals upwards with juddering intensity, superb use of dramatic dynamics and a whole universe of sound from heavy to spacey and all points in between. At over 6 minutes, “Polymorphic Code” is the longest track on the album, and a sliding, gliding, wide-ranging, mid-paced, bouncy, expansive, melodic, biting and memorable instrumental with tons going on as it travels and one mighty muscular sound. The album ends on the near 6 minute “Bioscan” which chugs along on waves of electronic and electric instrumental heat and texture, bouncy once again but deep, expansive and explosive in a more restrained manner as the vocals flow over the sky-high musical backdrop. Piano softening the rock, Pink Floyd-like choirs adding the extra texture to what is to all intents and purposes, a more sedate space-rock river of song.
Overall, then, a seriously strong album, predominantly instrumental, never straying from its themes, arrangements, and massive sounding mix of electronic and electric instruments propelled by huge bass throb and drumming crunch, complete with plenty of space music soundscapes and swirling space synths along the way.

DISAPPEARS – Pre Language CD
Chicago band who start off an album with a hammer blow of a rhythm that's something akin to the start of Roy Orbison's “Oh Pretty Woman” played on a jackhammer constructed from electric bass and solid drums, providing the feel of an express train in full flight as resonant guitar chords add to the propulsion. Then this disembodied laconic American vocal intones the lyrics over an echoed guitar before the thing suddenly erupts in flames of guitars as solar flares shoot out and all the while the rhythm beats away like some massive heartbeat. The voice returns and it's a bit like Lou Reed crossed with Jonathan Richman in one seriously evil mood and this time the next phase is even more amazing as shards of guitars splinter and explode in gloriously nuclear fashion – and all the while the beat goes on. It is one absolute stunner of a track, worth the price of the album on its own – and this is just the beginning!! The title track judders into life with shuddering rhythms and nasally intoned vocals as this huge swathe of guitars rises up like The Smiths on uppers and the train ride that is the rhythm section starts to drive. The vocals soar, the guitars climb even higher, the layers utterly mesmerising and then it ends – short, but leaving you wanting more. Then you get that “more” in the form of the three and a half minute “Hibernation Sickness” where the rhythms fall over themselves in the rush as this memorable riff cycles – but then it all drops back to a moment of calm – before erupting once again in a blaze of guitars and riffs as this massive lumbering juggernaut of rhythm section and guitars expands to fill every corner of your inner and outer space, the vocal another extension of the overall sound as this immense sounding sea of melody cuts right through and makes the track even more memorable as you find that riff stuck in your head before the guitars take off like a thousand rockets and this huge swirl of guitar-blazing psychedelia takes you to a roaring end point.
At 4 minutes, “Minor Patterns” slows things down a tad, shuffling but solid drums, deep pounding bass and echoed stripped back guitars, herald the arrival of the almost disembodied vocal as it all bounces and shudders, at the same time sounding huge with all its rhythms, riffs and layers veering between menacingly eerie and seismic, a song that is as unnerving as it is adrenaline-rousing. The 3 minute “All Gone White” starts with the shuffling crunch of drums, resonant twangy bass and then this searing heat feedback guitar unleashes a sea of sound as the almost disinterested vocals intone some more, almost drowned out by the guitar density, as the song rises up, the rhythms intensify and it all swirls, drives and throbs, like some other world Velvet Underground in a Can-like timewarp, and the effect is jaw-dropping as the guitars take psychedelic by the scruff of the neck and wring every gram of life right out of the song, heated leads setting you on fire.
At just short of 6 minutes, “Joa” is the longest track on the album and starts with more solid rhythm work that's somewhere between PIL and Can as a razor sharp guitar riff resonance kicks in and it all just drives unstoppably forward to glorious degree. The distant echoed vocal enters the fray and the likeness to Can in their heyday set in a New York universe, is just incredible. Along the way, bass resonates, guitars range from choppy riffs to red hot leads, the rhythms are pure Can and the vocals are Americanised Damo Suzuki to a tee, possibly the finest track Can never recorded. “Fear Of Darkness” is less than three minutes long but is the closest we get to something resembling commercial, as this sea of melody replaces the forest fire, guitars boom and resonate, the rhythms flow rather than drill and the vocals actually fly out as the intensity rises and just as the thing's taking off, abruptly stops and, with a mere heartbeat in between, flies into the 5 minutes of “Love Drug” as rhythms, bass, riffs and chiming leads all splinter drive and crunch as this wall of melodic musical memorability just cycles round and round, lurching, driving and pounding to mid-paced dramatic effect as the vocals go back inside the echo chamber and it al;l takes on some kind of menacing approach to bitter anthem mixed with mighty rocket-ship lift-off, the density and intensity pouring out like molten rock from a slowly erupting volcano as the guitar gather layers, strength and sound like the volcano itself is actually about to explode before leaving your brain a mere hum of its former self.
Finally, the album finishes with 4 minutes of “Brother Joliene” as this massive rhythm scythes back and forth with pendulum slices of bass, grungy guitars set on stun, drums crunching like a giant on a snow slope, squalling psychedelic guitar leads swirling out as the vocals provide the barest hints of a song before the whole steaming cauldron of instrumentation burns and growls, resonates and intensifies, taking out everything that stands in its way with a rampaging heat of blistering bass, buzz-saw guitars and skull-crunching drumming before it all ends with a few seconds of feedback, then it's gone – and you've just experienced one of the finest, most innovative, most moving examples of “East Coast-inspired Krautrock for a noise generation” that you're ever going to hear – it dares to go where others fear to tread and towers above everything that any other band can throw at it.

END OF LEVEL BOSS – Eklectric CD
If you've never heard of this band before, if you've never heard this band before, then this is a release that you should hear. They are a rock band, in fact a metal band, this is their third album and they're from London. They play songs – songs that have killer riffs, more twists and turns than Hampton Court Maze, rhythms so varied that if you tried to dance to any of it, you'd need hospital treatment. On top of all that they have a singer with a serious sense of angst and anger, a guy who's got a lot to get out of his system, and – hellfire!! - does he do just that. Across the ten tracks, the band riff , burn and roar with enough electricity to light up Manchester, as searing heat guitars move, snake, drive, flow and erupt with an absolute force that, while largely mid-paced, is nevertheless on fire. The rhythm section work is astounding, the bass creating this permanent undercurrent of bottom-heavy throb as the drums sound like there's an octupus playing the thing, as rhythms go all over the place, tumbling like rocks down a mountainside or hammering down like a demented blacksmith. Above all this, that singer delivers songs of totally relentless intensity, again, nothing overly fast, and you can hear every word, but the sheer emotional density that this guys injects into the songs, is positively jaw-dropping. Every so often he'll let the band rise to the surface as the wall of sound spreads its wings and flies, only then to drop back into the steaming cauldron of riffs, rhythms and solos that break off like shards of glass, as the band drive, bounce and explode. Song after song features this mix of stunningly produced intensity, superbly written and arranged variation, and an instrumental range which runs the scale as the singer runs his mouth off with conviction, passion and biting power. It's unusual, it's addictive, it's not metal as we know it and it's largely the most uncommercial slice of rock that you'll hear in a long while – all the exact reasons, along with what I've already said, as to why you should get down on this, get into its intensity and get tons of listening pleasure right back at you.

LANA LANE – El Dorado Hotel CD
In many ways, the unsung Queen of progressive rock – she may not be a household name here in the UK – heck! She's probably not that anywhere in the musical world – which is unfortunate for she has elected to unleash one of the finest female voices on the planet on a musical style that, to all intents and purposes, died a mass-appeal death in the seventies and eighties. But this does not in any way take away from the fact that she has had a career where virtually every album have been filled to the brim with songs of great strength, power, dynamics and emotion, all led by that full-sounding, soaring, passionate and completely unmistakable voice.
So, the arrival of her first new album in several years, is one you treat with reverence and respect – will she continue what she knows and, if so, what new things will it bring? - or will we see a side to her that we never knew? The answer is both – but within a context that is most definitely progressive rock based, one that is brought up to date and yet, thanks to some excellent arranging and writing from long-time musical arranger Erik Norlander, comes out sounding way more contemporary than it really should.
The opener is over 8 minutes long, yet justifies every second -first there is the crash of rhythms, the thud of guitar and bass riffs, the river of organ and synths, the backdrop of heavenly choirs and the sound of progressive rock – but out of this comes this memorable slide guitar figure which brings this right up to date – until finally, that voice enters, things calm down and we're left with this silky smooth, husky, pure-sounding vocal that rises up into a fiery chorus as she piles on the intensity and that track marches on. While it's not metal, it owes way more to a modern band such as Firebrand Superrock than the past such as Curved Air, with a vocal that's not a million miles away from Firebrand when it comes down to it. The track itself, twists and turns through driving verses, high-flying choruses, instrumental sections that are deep, textural, full of bite and not overblown, an important part of making the genre more widely acceptable in this day and age – and all through it, that slide guitar comes and goes to be the pivotal point around which the rest of the instrumental work revolves on what is a distinguished mini-epic that heralds the potential of the album.
There follows the 5 and a half minute “Maybe We'll Meet Again” which is a mix of radio-friendly prog-rock such as that embodied by – a song I detest, I have to say - Europe's “Final Countdown”, in that it has a memorably synth riff and a repeated hook, but thankfully they change the shape of the song halfway through by dropping it down to keys, choirs and bass before a guitar break erupts and takes the song to great heights before that Europe-esque synth riff returns and Lana just flows her way through the magical strength of what is arguably the most radio-friendly rock song on the album.
The 6 minute “El Dorado” starts with mellotron river, Fleetwood Mac-esque bass, strummed acoustic guitar and then the guitar wanders out as Lana's vocal wanders in and the song positively glides forward on a deceptively strong but rich-sounding voice that leads the almost African sounding instrumental rhythms into an arena where mellotrons drive the song into a crisp and clean electric guitar break, while Lana's vocal gradually climbs from sultry passion to ascending heights but rather than the song then lifting off as you might expect, it drops back to reveal a new solo break, this time the synthesizer, while underneath those hypnotic rhythms continue to propel the track.
“Darkness Falls” starts out on what you think is going to be a delicate ballad that flows under a lower vocal that's dripping like honey, but then, with a sudden blitz of blazing guitar riffing, thunderous bass and massed backing vocals, she rises to a chorus of sorts before it all just suddenly dies away and reverts to the serenity of the beginning, this time led by an upfront acoustic, before a Floyd-esque electric enters the fray to solo quite magically over the now huge-sounding instrumental background. Finally the song returns to its roots and the effect is as uplifting as it is dark.
At a shade under 4 minutes, “Hotels” really is a ballad – but this is absolutely exquisite – as just Lana's extraordinarily pure sounding vocals and piano provide what you might be surprised to find to be one of the best songs on the album – sung from the heart about a lonely life on the road, lightly embellished with synthesized strings and brass – and a hook that will stick in your head long after the album has ended, truly an immaculate vocal performance kept simple but so effective.
“Believe” is 6 minutes long and a mid-paced monster of prog-rock proportions, with a vocal that's partly vocoded so it sounds at times like Cher leading Marillion but mostly it's the untreated Lana Lane on solo and backing vocals that takes the song through a solid surge of greatness, belied by the song's hook-as-chorus that really lifts you up as the song marches towards your heart and soul with intent and passion, the mix of synths, crashing rhythms, multi-tracked vocals and strident early Genesis sounding undercurrents, all make a song that somehow spans 40 years of prog rock in one gloriously sounding melting pot, at the same time as being the most enduringly memorable song on the album, a high point of high points. “Life Of The Party” is an out and out rocker as four minutes springs into life with a huge sounding vocal that spans sultry to fiery in a heartbeat and a massive chorus in there too, while the 6 minute “Gone Are The Days” is a solid driving chugger of a track where Lana's vocal just flies through the song, rising and falling through verses and choruses without sacrificing one solitary second of that totally tuneful, emotional and charming strength qualities that make her such a seriously amazing singer.
The 5 minute “Moon God” is to a degree what you'd call a power ballad, but is more rock than ballad, chugging along once more into a more commercial sounding world that doesn't lose it's prog-rock tendencies, although it's probably the one track on the album that does break away from the mould more than any other.
However, any fears you may have that she's trying to be pop more than rock are blown away by the final track which is a near 12 minute epic of grandeur, simplicity, instrumental excellence and eloquence, firmly in the vein of contemporary songwriting that mixes every element of what's come before, led by the wide-ranging and absolutely stunning vocal performance with which Ms Lane crowns a completely glorious song and long-lasting listening album.

LITMUS – Aurora CD
Everything changes – nothing remains the same for ever – Hawkwind have been the kings of space-rock for 40 years – finally, their reign is over – welcome, King Litmus!!
You don't believe me?
OK – listen to the opening track on this album – 11 minutes of “Beyond The Sun” which eclipses any studio track to come out of the Hawkwind stable in the last ten years. It's unbelievably awesome. The rhythm section drives things forward with purpose, vengeance and thunder. There's no pissin' about – right from the start, the track enters in hurricane force, the vocals multi-tracked for maximum textural impact as it all roars ahead. There follows an extended instrumental section with a guitar lead that goes supernova, rhythm guitar that surges ahead, synth swooshes, swoops and surges that evoke the sounds of the cosmos, in addition to mellotron textures evoking days of “Mountain Grill” and “Warrior”-era Hawkwind, not to mention a sense of dynamics that allows the track to “wind down” without losing its edge, intensity, drive or impact, only for the whole vast musical volcano to erupt once again as the whole things rises up like a rocket and tears forward to the immensity of the final part of the track. As space-rock goes, this is genius personified and is possibly one of the greatest space-rock tracks of the last 40 years.
But there's more...........
“In The Burning Light” is segued into without a pause for breath, and this erupts right from the start with surging guitars riffs, rhythms and leads, synth swoops, thunderous drums, pounding bass, lead and chorus vocals duelling away with urgency and bite as the whole thing stomps its way through a nuclear heat of urgent verse, repeated hook and vast space-rock metalscape, the band refusing to compromise to anything but the rocket powered trip upon which they've embarked, a headlong rush to the heart of a blazing sun – and it's absolutely stunning!! Even as a song it's amazing – but with its instrumental breaks, and guitars blazing the trail set against the synths and mellotron, it's just jaw-dropping, as the rhythmic propulsion energises the journey to infinity and beyond. “Eos”, as you might have expected – and perfectly placed in the context of things – is a slice of gloriously seventies-influenced cosmic music as synths, glissando, mellotron, bass and drums evoke memories of “Flying Teapot” trilogy-era Gong with added mellotron, all of which then slowly lifts off with the huge mellotron textures and subtle guitar riffing at the heart of the track as the rhythms gradually drive forward and this epic mix of classic seventies cosmic space-rock combined with classic seventies-sounding prog-rock, makes this wholly instrumental track a thing of expansive beauty and cohesive strength. Unbroken – as is the case with the album so far – it's straight into the storm of “Miles Away” as another slice of driving space-rock song and classic sounding space-rock vocals, again multi-tracked for maximum effect, roars into life, this time the song portion leading into a red hot lead guitar break over the mighty rhythmic propulsion and this huge sound of synths, guitars and mellotron, as the whole thing once again lifts off like a Saturn 5 to wondrous effect, a world where every instrument can be heard clearly and yet the sum of the parts is eclipsed by the whole as this huge comet of a track flies through the cosmos. “Stars” is another massive adrenaline-rush of a song in a decidedly classic space-rock context, while “Kings Of Infinite Space” begins wit the band chiming as one and staring at the universe in all its glory as the slowly flowing song is almost anthemic in its delivery, sung on a wave of harmonised vocals that's positively celestial in its effect yet strong as steel, cohesive, determined, full of yearning and built on purpose. Soon, the drums enter in slowly rumbling fashion, as a ringing lead guitar rises from the mix and the instrumental break, with bass and synths to the forefront, too, weaves a path to the stars, added mellotron providing extra textural depth to the mighty rhythmic river of a track. “Ma:55oN Rift” starts in celestially cosmic vein before opening out into this giant driving slice of vintage space rock that's got the lot and stands shoulder to shoulder with the opening track for sheer adrenaline-rousing, head-shaking, fist-waving enjoyment, the massive combination of verses and instrumental energy producing a blast of space-rock intensity that's out of this world. Finally, “Red Skies” sees things out in a blaze of space-rock glory with what is, quite simply, THE classic style of song in this genre, surge and dynamics coming into play as epic sounding guitar riffs combine with Hawkwind-styled vocals as the rhythms drive headlong into the stars with synth comets swooping all around and this huge amalgam of space-rock sound swirling and flowing in a galaxy-sized soundscape of epic proportions, even throwing in a touch of classic sounding seventies prog-rock into the mix that fits to perfection as a soaring lead guitar break erupts from the depths and lights things up with the power of the sun, the bass pounding away at the forefront as the band take it all to the greatest heights with depth, energy, texture, bite, and drive, the whole thing climbing higher and higher as it heads off into the cosmos on that stunning lead guitar-driven, extended instrumental break that brings the track back into the song, to end the album on a truly stunning, absolutely awesome climax. In short, space-rock perfection – quite simply, if you don't own this album, you're not a true space-rock fan. NOSOUND - Lightdark CD
I'm about to tell you that this album sounds an awful lot like classic proggy Porcupine Tree without the rock element. Then you're going to query why you should buy something that sounds like Porcupine Tree when you've got the real thing. Then I'm going to look you straight in the eye and say, with all seriousness, "because it's a fantastic album that you'll want to play over and over and over again, that's why!!!"
But it's not a case of copying the Tree - oh no - it's a case of distilling the parts of Porcupine Tree that generally fall into the realms of atmospheric, lush, flowing, harmony-laden, layered and making you feel like you're flying - think of "Piano Lessons" slightly decelerated and without the rock idiom, think of those magical qualities a song like that possesses - OK, now you're on the right track. This album opens with a brief instrumental intro before "Places Remained" comes ebbing onto your shore complete with that relaxed but firmly solid rhythm, the multi-layered lead and vocal harmonies, perfectly pitched to sound uncannily like Steve Wilson, with lush synthesizer textures to add to the dreamy nature of it all, and finally, out of nowhere, as gorgeous a guitar solo above the atmosphere to take out four and a half minutes of elegance and grace. Another four and a half minute track, "The Misplay", continues this feel with vocals ebbing and flowing above a backdrop of cosmic synth expanse, as the purity of the vocal immediately endears itself to you, a rippling piano lead as icing on the full-sounding, atmospheric cake, and as beautiful a track as they come, as it all slowly builds, the addition of a restrained cello providing extra depth to perfection. Then comes the fifteen minute "From Silence To Noise" - opening with an equally atmospheric drift of synths and fx before the ripple of a strummed guitar chord enters to exquisite effect, the heartfelt and yearning vocal slowly glides on top, then all of a sudden in comes this sublimely rich mellotron, slowly solid drums and deep cosmic bliss, as the vocals gather their harmonies to glorious perfection and the whole thing just spirals to breathtaking effect, as the hairs stand up on the back of your neck and a mile-wide smile - that recognition inside your heart that you are hearing superiority at work - lights up your face. Gradually but purposefully it flies, as the synth clouds gather, textural guitar is added to the mellotron, then it all drops down to a whisper, as almost flute-like distance is heard above the clouds of synthesized bliss. Then, at absolutely the perfectly right moment, a lead guitar soars from nowhere to take it all into the realms of genius, as all the elements of the track come together to produce something that is just out of this world, so amazing that you don't need to categorise or dissect it - this is musical purity of the highest order, nirvana on earth. What separates it from the real Tree is that word "rock" - this has passion, emotion, beauty, depth, strength and direction - but it doesn't rock - and in this case, that's perfect - why take the effort of powered flight when you can glide effortlessly!! The near nine minutes of "Someone Starts To Fade Away" open with cascading piano, distant cosmic synths and hushed lead vocal as mellotron adds the extra texture, lightly chiming guitar gives that necessary edge as yet another example of expansive immensity starts to open up, the beauty of purpose matched only by the elegance of execution. This time a distinctly David Gilmour-esque lead guitar emerges from nowhere and takes things onto a wholly different but totally pleasing realm as the backdrop flows like a river and the piece attains its required magical status, the guitar sending shivers down the back of your neck as it soars and climbs above the slowly flowing background of synths, mellotron, piano and guitar. "Kites", at eight and a half minutes, provides the mix of atmospheric and solid that you'd witnessed in the epic track, only here with more distinction between the two and less of a melange effect as the piece switches back and forth from drifting to driving, all the vocal and instrumental qualities we've by now come to expect, firmly in place. Finally, the album ends on the near nine minute title track to see things out with this huge-sounding mass of mellotrons, keys, lush vocal harmonies, sublime lead vocal and gorgeous electric guitar, the mix of Floyd and P Tree provided with flair, originality and heartfelt gratitude, as wondrous a closer as you'll find.
This is one of those rare albums - it doesn't put a foot wrong, there's not a second wasted and once you start to play it, you'll stay with it right to the end. The whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and the parts are stunning. In short, it's fantastic!

NOSOUND – A Sense Of Loss CD+DVD
Third album – onwards and upwards.............
There's no way you'd call this “prog rock” yet there's no way you'd call it anything else. Strip that term down - “progressive” and “rock”. It's progressive in that it takes 40 years of influences from bands such as Pink Floyd and Genesis to Muse and Radiohead, passed through all time frames in between, and come out with an album that's vastly superior to the sum of its influences. Yet it doesn't rock – it doesn't try to – what it does do is rise up into this vastness of exquisite beauty and fragility, of strength and delicacy, purity and passion – a crystalline entity of magical proportions.
Across 6 tracks from five to fifteen minutes long, the overriding emphasis is on the songs – sung in a typically languid style like a cross between Floyd and Radiohead – and the seamless, timeless flow of the vocals, full of depth and emotion, provides the songs with a seemingly magical quality of which you never once tire of hearing. Musically, the guitars, keys and synths, embellished with a string quartet, have this canyon-sized exotic sound to them, as sumptuous as classical rock gets, yet a thing of rare grace and pleasure – the wondrous butterfly caught under glass, destined never to die, always beautiful. You're always conscious of the huge soundscapes that appear before you, while oblivious to the individual instruments that create them. Occasionally, the electric guitar will soar into view, or the drums will create a suitably dynamic statement, but largely, the combination of wondrously produced instruments and vocals will ride the waves as a surfer in slow motion, the songs welling up and ultimately crashing on the shores of your consciousness to extraordinarily amazing effect. For this is, as I said, an entity – a new form of musical life that's come into being and is every bit as spellbinding as you'd think. Rarely has such an exotic sea of sound been quite so palatable in an overtly “progressive” setting, rarely has it created the potential to crossover to many an audience who want songs of a huge, rich sounding laid back quality. A magnificent achievement. The DVD features a 5.1 surround sound and 24 bit mixes of the album, plus video footage, picture gallery and more.

RPWL – The RPWL Experience
That's about right – the title, that is!! Because this is certainly an experience – especially so, for the fans who have stayed with them on the journey so far, since this is a whole new ball game. With Pink Floyd and Porcupine Tree before them, it becomes increasingly obvious that if you're a wide-eyed prog band with visions of space and all things psychedelic, that, at the point when you've tripped out to the nth degree, explored every avenue of the cosmos possible, journeyed to the heights – when you've achieved all that and explored the limitless boundaries it all has to offer, there's one inevitability – you fall back to earth – and fight back!! The Floyd found the past, or more specifically, Waters' past. Porcupine Tree found heavy metal. This lot have found themselves – and they like what they see – but will you?
You should – you really should – since this is one quality album with a capital “Q”.
Forget whether it's prog rock or rock prog or prog or rock – stuff like that just goes out of the window when you get something as amazing as this album. It opens with the near ten minute “Silenced” that is one gigantic epic of a track, enveloping you in layers of emotion, passion, power, strength, grace and absolute magic not to mention a spine-tingling arrangement, wide-eyed delivery, dynamic playing, truly sung vocals with meaningful lyrics – christ, it's all here and it's all good. The guitars and synths shine, but in a tight, controlled and thoroughly tight manner, with not a note out of place, while the rhythm section lay down foundations that are simply sublime. That this is followed by four minutes of the best song that Porcupine Tree never recorded will tell you just how stunning this album this is. It's got a hook that makes “Piano Lessons” look difficult, a flow that is absolutely glorious, a full sound that covers you in warmth, an adrenaline rising build of an arrangement and feeling much longer than its four minute running time, in the best possible way. Seven minutes of “Where Can I Go” put you in seventh heaven as the lurching stridenmt rhythmic propulsion introduces a vocal that sails out of the speakers, underpinned by a sea of chiming guitars, with an almost classic Beatles feel to it, as sixties meet contemporary in a blaze of epic sounding prog-goes-nostalgic songwriting. The whole thing just cruises effortlessly on this impassioned open-top drive which allows you to take in the full majesty of the surroundings, harmony vocals that lift you up, guitars that take you off, synths that sweep you away and heartfelt lyrics which are sung to perfection. In short, this is a song which can't fail to move you in the best possible way, a song that is huge and yet somehow emotionally fragile at the same time, but filled with an inner strength and a flame that refuses to die. The six minute “Masters Of War” starts with a decidedly “Lapse/Division”-era Pink Floyd styled arrangement with lush synths, deeply warm and emotive Gilmour-esque vocals, spacious synths, and bursts of searing guitar that are punctuated with power and yet filled with passion, the song slowly flowing forwards with more hypnotic lyrics which take you into their world in the best possible way, once again, the vocals sung perfectly, and the whole thing as perfect a Floyd-styled slice of angst and strength as it's possible to have but the originality taking nothing away from the fact that this is yet another gem of a track. A stunning guitar break puts the icing on the cake as you sit there open-mouthed at the sheer brilliance of it all – and you're less than halfway through the album!!
The fact that the 5th track is a five and a half minute slice of driving magic called “This Is Not A Prog Song” signals that this band has both humour and a point to make. In this case, the point is that a prog band can record a song that is totally commercial and yet serious listening at the same time, this one having choruses that lift you up and take you off above arrangements that exude the joy of delivery, the lyrics actually about the band's music and even name-checking Pink Floyd along the way, but in a way you'll just have to hear to find out. With a razor sharp guitar break during the flying song, this is simply a dream, and never has this style of music sounded so commercial and yet so accessible and long-lasting enjoyable at the same time – it's genius!!
That's half way – there are 5 tracks to go and every one of them is brilliant – I'm not going to go into any more detail as this review's already long enough and if you've not yet got the fact that this is one absolute 100% gem of an album by this point, then you're either ignorant or dead! Essential listening for anyone into great songs, great arrangements, great vocals and superb production with enough invention and enjoyment to make this album occupy a place on your favourites list for years to come.

SPIRITS BURNING – Alien Injection CD
The unique project that is Don Falcone's Spirits Burning, continues with a brand new album. If you've not yet caught up on how this works, Don comes up with the nucleus of a track, passes it to a musician or singer who then adds their bit, passes it on to another musician who adds a bit and so on until the track is deemed to be finished by the hands of Falcone.
So, on this album, there are just shy of 40 musicians and singers at work from bands such as Gong, Hawkwind, Dark Sun, Alien Planetscapes, Mooch, High Tide, Bevis Frond, ST 37, Secret Saucer, Quarkspace and many more, so as you can see, the emphasis is firmly on the mix of space-rock, psychedelic and prog rock. The remarkable thing about a project such as this is that it works at all, let alone works as well as this album illustrates, a testament to the calibre of the musicians involved.
The album itself has 14 tracks averaging about 5 minutes each, the range being from two and a half to nine minutes long. It opens up with a quite bouncy example of space-meets-prog rock songwriting as mellotrons meet space synths and the piece is very much a “trad” song structure complete with chorus and verses which is propelled by lurching rhythms and where the bass rumbles along upfront as the space synth swoops and mellotron provide the musical atmosphere and a heated guitar break provides the bite as the track rumbles along and vocalist Kev Ellis provides the well enunciated singing, sort of Bob Calvert-esque only less distinctive. “New Religion”, instrumentally, is very much in the hands of Gong guitarist Daevid Allen and the synths of Don Falcone, with Adrian Shaw peoviding a muscular bass line and the track propelled by rolling resonant drumming as this time Karen Anderson sings the lyrics as the almost Native American feel of the rhythm track rumbles overhead until, ultimately the bass, the guitar and the synths each take on their own slice of upfront action in the mid-section instrumental bit. The vocals then return over the rumble and the distant glissando guitar as the song erupts once more. “Alpha Harmony” is a 7 minute track which, initially, features the driving rhythms that are overlaid with some biting lead guitar work as Thom The Poet provides echoed reciting over the sea of rhythms and textures. Then, just shy of 3 minutes in, the track suddenly changes pace, drops the intensity of the rhythmic drive as the next part kicks in and here a whole new host of musicians comes into play as the cosmic interlude changes into a rolling slice of poetry-driven space-rock that's like a more restrained early Hawkwind, the overall result being a seriously magical track with outstanding guitar work throughout. “Every Gun Plays Its Own Tune” is a more acoustic piece that's a mix of space-rock rhythmic undercurrents, multi-textured backdrops and Michael Moorcock reciting in a way that sounds more like Tom Waits as the whole track sounds like something out of an other-worldly wild-west movie soundtrack. The 9 minute “Logger's Revenge” is mostly instrumental, features rhythm section and no less than 3 guitarists, including Daevid Allen once again along with Doug Erickson and Erik Pearson, has a few lyrics courtesy of long-time Hawkwind fan Brian Tawn's recital, but most spends its life as a slice of driving, atmospheric psychedelic rock of the sort that you might have found on Gong's “Continental Circus” album and is one absolutely stunning track.
“Augustus” is a beautiful 6 minute instrumental that starts in slowly rhythmic fashion, languid, jazzy and very summery, as the soothing sax and flutes of Purjah weave spells over the tumbling rhythms and the backdrop of mellotrons, synths and electric + acoustic guitars. Then all of a sudden they accelerate and the the piece sounds like a Hawkwind mid-song section that could have easily come off their second album. Then it changes shape yet again and although pacey, takes on more of the jazz-meets-prog flavour as flutes, synths and mellotrons provide an almost Middle Eastern psych brew, but overall, one superb track. “Future Memories” is essentially space-rock band ST37 playing Don Falcone, as this solid, mid-paced juggernaut of a song gives you 6 minutes of deliberately rumbling, bass-heavy, searing heat space-rock where the guitar flies sky high and the track's got a density to it that's almost stifling in its intensity, but one heck of an engaging song.
The 3 minute “Entropy Tango”, with Moorcock on properly sung vocals is a bit of a throwaway in that it really is a tango, an outer universe tango, but a tango neverthless, sounding more like a quirky track that you'd find on a Daevid Allen solo album yet, oddly, he's got absolutely nothing to do with this one – the influence must be in the water. “Another World” features Bridget Wishart on soaring, distant, beautiful sounding vocal purity as the drums roll, the bass rumbles and Mooch musician Steve Palmer plays electric guitar over the keys and synths of Falcone as this wondrous slice of slowly flowing psychedelic-prog-jazz mix flowers into bloom on a truly breathtaking song.
At 4 and a half minutes, “The Hawk” is a track where Falcone gives a seriously close Arthur Brown-esque feel to the lyrics as the song itself dives and soars, drives and roars, with guitars, more mellotorns, more space synth swoops and the driving rhythm section, all make it into a solid, rolling slice of space-rock action that, once again, works a treat, both in terms of rock propulsion and spacey atmospherics. “Imported Serpents” is just short of 4 minutes, instrumental, and features some sizzling lead guitar work over solid, crunching drumming, deep rolling bass and sounding for all the world like a head on collision between early seventies prog rock and late seventies Can, the result being one incendiary track that you wished could have l;asted one hell of a lot longer.
At 2 and a half minutes, “Ingleborough” is a semi-orchestral sounding piece with three cellos, electro-acoustic backings, a short “theatrical” voice-over from Moorcock and a piece where a lot goes on in a very short space of time, full of layers, textures, melodies and atmospherics propelled by mid-paced tumble of percussion and upfront resonant bass. “Upturned Dolphin” features a distant, recited vocal from Daevid Allen – which remarkably doesn't sound like Daevid Allen – told you this was one am,azing album – above a backing that slowly flows and where mournful violin weaves its spell over a sea of textures from synths, keys, guitars and percussion, all creating this seriously unnerving feel to the track as synths sparkle, the violin continues to cry and the vocal has a slight air of menace to it, all very strange and unusual. “Salome” is 5 minutes of mid-paced songwriting with Bridget on vocals once again and this time we stray from space and psych into a world of gorgeous, multi-textured vocals over Fleetwood Mac-esque rumbling rhythms, upfront bass, expansive textures and one superb song that wouldn't be out of place on Claire Hammill's “Voices” album if she'd gone into prog-space rock mode. Montfallcon” is pretty much an acoustic track with guitars, mandolin and cellos, plus a few lyrics courtesy of Moorcock, delivered in “cod-operatic” style, all very mournful and the sort of thing you'd find in a play about some 16th century tragic comedy, taken into a whole new dimension, Instrumentally, its mix of almost “free” playing and the glue-like cohesion of the cello work, makes it a most extraordinary track that you feel you'd only ever hear on an album such as this.
The album ends on “Heaven” where a trio of Alan Wall on acoustic guitar, Don Falcone on mellotron and Mooch's Steve Palmer on synths, slide guitar and percussion play us out with just over 3 minutes and a delightful mix of surreal acoustic-prog that's like a cross between John Fahey and Celluloid, a truly amazing end to a seriously superb album, an album that only Don Falcone could ever come up with, and yet another successful addition to the amazing series of Spirits Burning albums.

CARL WEINGARTEN – Panomorphia CD
For those of you who've not been keeping up, let me tell you that Carl Weingarten is one of the most underrated guitarist-composer's on the planet. That he does not occupy one genre, that his releases have covered a wide range of ground that's always had quality and enjoyment at its heart and that you never know what to expect with a new album – all that and more have made this guy's instrumental musical output one of the finest there is. Now, for the first time in a number of years, we have a brand new studio album – so what's he come up with this time.....
The answer is actually one of the very best albums of his entire career! To quote from a letter he sent me, “the music stems from a series of loop guitar improvisations. The tracks were then developed into full ambient space-jazz compositions with bassist Michael Manring, drummer Celso Alberti and, on two tracks only, trumpet player Jeff Oster, all apart from two tracks which are solo loop guitar pieces.
The album opens with the near 8 minute “The Simian River” and here, over a beefy resonant bass-pitched rhythm, the guitar chords and textures just soar and flow, dive and float, and the whole piece is like a cross between an early seventies John Martyn backing track slowed right down, mixed with Manuel Gottsching's “Inventions For Electric Guitar” styled excursions all given a suitably spacey, spacious and positively cosmic feel, but with those bouncing looped guitar rhythms as the foundations on which the drones, sustains, soaring harmonics and drifting, deep chords are based. It's an absolutely incredible piece, so spacious and expansive yet so warm and heartfelt, the sort of track you wish could have lasted about an hour in that it would command your attention for every second of the way. What follows is “Tango” at over 13 minutes and here the rhythms are slowed right down, more like waves lapping on the shore, the cycle of the seasons ebbing and flowing. As slowly ringing guitar notes dance on the intro, a river of bass from Manring appears, and another electric guitar provides a decelerated Dave Gilmour-esque lead that leaves as fast as it appears. Gradually assorted textures come and go as the music undulates, flows and drifts. But through all of the textures and layers, notes, chords and gently flowing rhythms, the sound of that sustained lead guitar, almost like a decelerated pedal steel, weaves this tapestry of guitar notes that shimmer and fly in front of you, all the while a backdrop of cosmic textures providing the background on which the other sound-scapes and slo-mo melody lines continue to flow. With the sound of drums slowly crashing on the shore, adding an extra dimension to the music, the track occasionally beefs things up and provides some superbly solid passages to the more spacey arenas covered in between, and the overall effect is as just jaw-dropping as it is beautiful. At just over 11 minutes, “Flow Of Stars” is breathtakingly beautiful. As the sound of implied rhythms ebb and flow, the tracks features an assortment of textures which expand slowly on top, all very cosmic, but all unmistakably guitar. As the track unwinds, so the huge sounding drift envelops you with bliss as, from the depths, a less bass-y sea of layers provides an unending canvas of chilled-out textures set to this ebbing and flowing slo-mo rhythm that continues unceasingly underneath. “Bluescapes” follows at just over 6 minutes long, and this time the track opens with that slowly twangy bass over guitar drift, gently thudding drumming, cymbal splashes, as the lead guitars provide a seriously chilled-out Ozric Tentacles feel to the music, the addition of trumpet to the rhythm layers absolutely inspired as it all drives forward, the sea of textures, slow rhythms and cosmic chords, giving way to the lead melody from the trumpet that, odd as you might think until you hear it, just could not sound this good were it any other instrument, and here you actually leave the piece, wanting more. The 11 and a half minute title track follows with echoed guitar notes ringing, chiming and drfiting, wondrous bass rivers flowing gently underneath, as the rhythms continue in pendulum-esque fashion, drums provide an extra bit of crunch to the foundations, as the notes and chords fly, soar and float. There's a feel of the more ambient tracks from guitarist Wayne Johnson to the lead work, only the glorious thing is that it's all decelerated to a lazy, slow-moving, unhurried, multi-layered, multi-textured, ringing and deeply resonant ambient space-jazz of immaculate cosmic proportions, dominated by that slowly scything undercurrent of rhythm and the superb lead guitar soundscapes that rise and fall on top. At over 6 minutes, “Tapper” is the most “French” sounding piece on the album a slice of drifting jazz ambience that you could imagine emanating from a Parisian flat and wafting upwards on a fine summer's day as you stand on the balcony and wallow in the absolute gorgeousness of it all, trumpet and guitar textures and layers and notes in perfect harmony, eventually giving way to just soaring rainbows of guitar drifts, loops and ripples that are simply jaw-dropping as the cosmic trumpet returns briefly, a lead guitar slowly cuts through the summery haze, the deep drift rises up and the two instruments just shine – simply awesome. The album ends on “The Ship The Dream” with near enough 11 minutes of space guitar soundscapes but the difference from the gazillion other artists that do this is that Mr W makes the whole thing sound like guitars, not some dreadful electronic landscape that's been done to death. So, you have slowly chiming guitar leads, drifting undercurrents, spiralling clusters of guitar notes and chords, again beautifully laid-back, and it all ends the album on a truly emotional high.
The beauty about this album is that every note is played with feeling, every passage, every texture, every layer, full of emotion and it's all from the heart. At no point do you ever tire of it, at no point do you wish it needed anything else to go with it. Recorded, played, arranged and composed to perfection, this culmination of 4 years work has resulted in a landmark album in the world of laid-back guitar music – it really is THAT good.

CARL WEINGARTEN – Lost In The Air CD
In truth, it's one of the most beautiful acoustic guitar instrumental albums around. An over-the-top statement? Not once you've heard it, no!! For the whole of this album is played live in various studio and venue settings by a master of the dobro, slide and acoustic guitar who just makes that guitar sing. I've yet to hear any guitarist who could inject so much feel into not only his playing, but what he plays. You can't put it into words – it's just magical, in sound, feel and effect. A track such as “Western Overnight”, with added depth from legendary bassist Michael Manring, is simple to hear, beautiful to enjoy and a marvel to behold. Slowly unfolding, it carries more riches than a king's ransom, and the way it slides and glides has you falling deeply under its spell, the first, and every time, you hear it. The opener, “Maybe Sunday”, lasts under two minutes, yet the joy it brings in its soaring sea of melodic rippling magic, is simply breathtaking. “Hey Leo” is a kind of slightly fractured take on the Kottke magic, while “Pick It Up” strums away to its hearts content, soaring and diving to wondrously emotive effect as the rippling and purposeful pace is an absolute joy to hear. This is the key with the whole album – it's like falling in love – you feel the music to the depth of your heart, wanting nothing more once it's over than to repeat the experience once again. A work of absolute genius, this is surely one of the top 5 acoustic guitar albums ever made – and that's no word of a lie!!

CARL WEINGARTEN & WALTER WHITNEY – Dreaming In Colours: Expanded Edition CD
Effectively 12 paintings in sound as electric and acoustic slide guitars, delay, keyboards, fx, synths, percussion and processing are all combined in these two musicians' hearts and minds to create exquisite instrumental compositions of truly wondrous proportions. The first couple of tracks work by creating either a cosmic electronic (in the case of “Mermaid”) or more rhythmic sequenced/percussive rhythm (“Pipe Winds”) over which the sliding, gliding electric guitar layers from Weingarten soar and shine to heartfelt effect. “Pathways” opens with a lone hi-flying guitar figure that both cosmic and almost symphonic, even for a lone guitar, as distant swathes of synth fog bubble up. Then in comes this Tangerine Dream-like sequencer rhythm, over which more synth layers, echoed piano and further synth layers, textural and melodic, all combine to make for a track that could easily have been an outtake from Vangelis' “Blade Runner” soundtrack. The title track is right out of the Fripp and Eno “No Pussyfooting” style of things and is absolutely gorgeous while “Rainsong”, the first of four previously unreleased tracks presented here, starts with storm effects as a shimmering electronic world unfolds amid distant percussives and gull-like fx, sort of cross between early cosmic T Dream and “Echoes”-era Floyd, but all seriously cosmic and strangely serene as layer flows over layer. “Ritual” has a deep, bass rhythm from the synths that resonates and booms, while an assortment of shimmering electronics, deep bass, flowing synths and textural backdrops serve as a foil to the glare of electric guitar work that leads the way and shines like a star in a universe of darkness, this spiralling searing lone guitar figure, a world unto itself. “Maiden Flight” does what it suggests and flies into being with a seriously strong melodic majesty from the lone string synth motif that's flowing ever forward, as a guitar at the same pitch and tone joins the slowly moving might of the amorhous, veering on melodic, primarily synths and treated guitars, but the effect is amazing. “Painted Lake” shimmers, ripples, hisses, bubbles up and glides as a gentle sea of synths, piano chords, fx, sustained guitar and cymbals, all wash on the shore with wave-like motion as the whole thing produces an air of enormous calm in the listener, the primarily cosmic flow, varied, multi-textured and supremely assembled. “Obsession” once again shimmers and soars on waves and towers of Fripp-like guitar excursions, throbbing synth undercurrents, spiralling space synths and gloriously textural synth/guitar soundscapes, a slowly moving rhythm giving the track more motion than most of what's gone before.”In The Sun” is barely two minutes of crisp acoustic guitar melodies and space synths that bubble up and soar like delicate comets. “New Colors”, at 6 minutes, the longest track on the album, adds sax to the cosmic synths and textural guitars, once again coming across like some lost track from “Bladerunner” or even hints of “DSOTM”-era Floyd, with sax well to the fore. The album ends with nearly 6 minutes of slowly moving sequenced synth rhythms, echoed bass synths, and masses of soaring melodic synth layers over which that high-flying, spiralling cosmic guitar sustain rings out to great effect. Overall, a predominantly cosmic music affair, busier than most of its European counterparts, free of cliches, more vari-textured and a work to be enjoyed time after time, for years to come.

STEVEN WILSON – Insurgentes CD
If you have a musician, singer, writer and producer who is so talented that he can exist in multiple disguises across the musical worlds of prog-rock, psychedelic, Euro-rock, electronic and avant-garde and produce albums of the highest quality and enjoyment by each of those disguises, then you know you are dealing with someone who is as musically legendary as Frank Zappa. But, if you then allow that musician to create a solo album where he blends all of those elements together, if anything substituting a touch of classical where the avant-garde should be, and then manage to achieve a work that can only be described as truly outstanding in every last detail, then you have a musician who is, quite simply, beyond legendary.
“Harmony Karine” opens the album with rippling guitars, distant synths and dramatic drums before the unmistakable wistfulness of Wilson's vocal just sails into view, only then for the whole musical canvas to erupt in a blaze of progressive glory amid a hail of expansive almost mellotron-like backdrops, before dropping back down to earth once more, a skilfully delivered song with soaring vocals that rises and dives as good as any Porcupine Tree track but infused with such an expansive canvas, as a searing lead guitar is added to the magnificence, as the track then subsides, lifts, twists, turns and drives, as good as opener as you'll find on any modern prog-rock album, only this is way beyond prog-rock – it's in a category all its own. “Abandoner” opens with crunchy fx, distant electronic mist and an even more wistful vocal as wooden block-like percussion cracks away underneath. Delicate acoustic guitar, distant organ, strains of Floyd-like slide guitar and all manner of guitar and keyboard subtleties are added to the frame as the whole thing moves slowly forward in a magical blend of romance and substance only this time infused with a sense of darkness as the vocals fall away to leave the shimmering and beating heart of synths, guitars and percussion to roll forward, mutating into something extraordinarily charming, only for the whole mood to be shattered by this massive thunder roar of electronics and guitars that fills the entire musical spectrum before stopping to equally shattering degree and ending on a series of electronic clipped notes as it segues right into “Salvaging” which adds prominent bass guitar to the driving expanse of keys, synths and guitars as a more Gilmour-esque lead vocal cruises above the now powerful onslaught of riffing guitars, soaring lead synths and that massive sounding juggernaut of a rhythmic undercurrent, as the menacing mix of psych, space, prog and rock all collide head on to create this monster, only once again for it all to drop suddenly and leave this sea of real mellotrons, rippling keys and orchestral-sounding bliss, the nearest he's ever got to sounding like “Foxtrot”-era Genesis mixed with classical elegance and simply THE most gorgeous, heartwarming musical finale that you'll have heard in aeons – only it isn't a finale – the mood is shattered once more as this beast of electronic grandeur rises from the depths in a hail of keys, synths, fx, piano, drums, bass to provide this enormous soundscape of epic and deathly proportions – and THAT'S the finale – amazing stuff, indeed! “Veneo Para Las Hadas” starts with slowly flowing warm cosmic synth bliss, gorgeous piano chords and shimmering spacey and spacious guitars as the wistful yearning of the lead vocal flows in as naturally, the whole thing pure and deep, shining like a diamond, more emotion in so few chords than most musicians achieve in a whole album, a mix once more of elegance, feeling, warmth and beauty, a simply wondrous slowly moving spacescape with purpose and structure, and an equally expansive yet closer to the heart vocal perofrmance, on yet another slice of Wilson magic. “Twilight Within The Courts Of The Sun” starts with rolling drums, a stinging slice of lone lead jazz-rock guitar chording, deep bass and guitar background as it all tumbles forward, gradually coalesces as wah wah guitar enters, the lead guitar takes on positively Brand X proportions before then going into this wild solo more worthy of Fripp at his most fiery mixed with Mclaughlin at his most dextrous, all the time the background becoming ever busier until the whole lot erupts into a storm of prog-fusion riffing and seriously roaring rock – then it stops – abruptly. A whispered vocal enters over the backdrop of drums and shades of Matt Johnson at The The's finest most menacing hour that was “Infected” album comes eerily into play before that, too, erupts, then that drops away to leave rippling keys and guitars over a sea of synth-based undercurrents and the ever rolling drums, as this gradually gathers pace, adds a lyrical and solid lead piano to the fray and it all moves forward in finest seventies prog-rock fashion before fading on rolling piano chords. By now you've got the message – this is one amazing album. There are a further five tracks after this, some of which are even better than what's come before, none of which are any less so, all of which are the epitome of everything that makes an album into something that you'll play and play and play for years to come without ever once tiring of hearing it, an album that WILL one day be assigned the moniker of “legendary”, an artist the likes of which we should all be privileged to have in our midst.
Welcome to the amazing, magical, mighty and truly awe-inspiring world of Steven Wilson - legend!!

Click here for Scottish unsigned review page

Click here for Dead Earnest home page