Progressive Rock

It came out in February this year (2025.02.28) and likely going to be one of the most finest albums this year. It sounds very close to prog of 70th plus sound quality of modern equipment.

Track 1 is very diverse with many mood changes. Mostly soaring organ, mellotron (probably hammond too, because they used it extensively in Il Passo Del Soldato), some guitars and some nice vocals. Also has watery effects to match the theme of the album.

Track 2 starts with dreamy guitar and some keyboards I don't recognise. Then quickly transitions into powerful guitar play with just a bit of vocals.

I highly recommend trying this album yourself or this band's "Il Passo Del Soldato", which is perhaps their best work. I also liked their melancholic "Io E El Tempo" a lot, but I think it's just me and it isn't really that good.

I going to assume that it's a moog synthesizer, maybe it's a mellotron. What's interesting though, is that I opened this live performance to play in the background and randomly noticed what Keith was doing to that poor instrument.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u4HgJatKOY&t=891s (14:51) he jumped behind it and started tickling moogs innards, which resulted in a terrifying sound.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u4HgJatKOY&t=1182s (19:42) is just violent... Keith jumped on it's keyboard and started rocking it.

Jokes aside. ELP lives are quite interesting. There are these strange moments, improvisations, Lake might slide in a quatrain from Epitaph. In Karn Evil 9 there is a computer with wings.

Just wondering what people thought the great reunion/comeback albums were from Maxophone, Il Roverscio Della Medaglia, PFM, Banco, etc etc.

Hi. I would like to share my little review on Symphonic Prog album by Texan band "Hands". This band was doing warm ups with Gentle Giant back in the days and mostly performed compositions by popular prog groups under name of Prism. They later renamed to Hands after they started creating their own music. Hands recorded some tracks in 1977, 1978 and 1980, but material was only released on CD in 1996 as a Hands album (compilation).

Album itself feels light and is quite accessible compared to works by classic prog giants. Each track has a distinctive leitmotif and easily stuck in mind. Sadly, I can't provide any commentaries on lyrics, because of my language knowledge.

1. Zombieroch - Instrumental with rich set of instruments, I could recognize: harpiscord, piano, violin, percussion, woodwind, bass and distorted guitar. It consists of several energetic parts. Pace is frequently changing in speed, but mostly it's a fast paced track.
2. Prelude #2 - Second instrumental. Calm piano, flute, acoustic guitar, violin track.
3. Triangle of New Flight - Another instrumental, it transitions of calm mood of 2nd track to energetic guitar, violin, bass similar to track 1. Would like to note fascinating tuned guitar part at 4:48.
4. Mutineer's Panorama - Repetitive dreamy track, mostly flute with support of bass, mellotron and others.
5. World's Apart - in my opinion first strong prog composition in the list, also first one to include lyrics. Medium speed, more serious mood. Would like to note nice guitar, flute, bass part at 2:17.
6. Dreamsearch - One of the best tracks in the album. Being so long and quite complex contains superset of instruments from previous tracks. Starts with iconic acoustic guitar, flute and vocal part. At 3:07 starts epic instrumental parts. Slow deep bass and organ part, then multiple fast parts with variety of instruments. Ends on the same note as the start with continuation of the lyrics.
7. Left Behind - upbeat sandwich-alike track: vocal, long instrumental and vocal parts. Similar set of instruments.
8. Mindgrind - cheerful fast paced track. Special thing about it is the violin parts. It starts with 2 awkward violin parts, followed by solid violin part. And later by another great violin play at 3:31. I think this detail contributes to the cheerful atmosphere of the track. 9-10. Greensoap and I Want One of Those - simple instrumental tracks. They are nice, but I don't know what interesting can I say about them.
9. Antarctica - the longest one here. Mostly occupied by vocals. There is repeating verse saying about "the final blow", characterized by repeating wind samples throughout the song and grim part starting at 6:07-9:11.
10. The Tiburon Treasure - simple melancholic instrumental.

I think it's a great album. Maybe it isn't innovational or super sophisticated, but I was interesting to listen it once again to provide another review, it doesn't get boring.

YT link: https://youtu.be/2BT3BeJ067k (has comments of some of the authors btw)
Progarchives: https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=548

I’ll be honest, I got hooked on Bandcamp Friday when it started, and by extension Bandcamp, and I’ve found FAR too much good music.

Why Bandcamp Friday? All the money goes to the artist, I can listen to the whole album a couple of times ( critical for prog), some albums are “pay what you want”, and there are a ton of gems. And I want to support the artists more that streaming will. I want more of this!

Normally I don’t preorder, so I’ll buy them next month, but there’s a couple I want to shine a light on.

Specifically prog (i dig djent/math/post/prog metal but that’s separate) I’m planning on getting:

• Agusa - Prima Materia. Finnish folky psych prog.
• Jordsjø - Salighet. More folky Finnish prog
• Maxophone - La Fabbrica delle Nuvole. 70s Italian Symphonic by one of the classic bands of the genre. It sounds like im catching up on revivals two months running, after getting the wonderful Contaminazione 2.0 last month.
• The Chronicles of Father Robin - The Songs and Tales of Airoea (retro) - go read the back story and listen to the track they’ve shared. And FWIW, one of the members is in Wobbler. :)
• Earthside - Let The Truth Speak. I think this counts as prog and not metal. Loved their last album, looking forward to this.

What are y’all looking T?

If you like retro/folk-with-some-psychedelic Prog, this will probably be a treat.

Lovely Mellotron

The 7 minute album version of Blinded By The Light is so much better than the 3 minute single edit. The Road To Babylon is also fantastic.