progressive rock
12 Stone Toddler, Green Door Store, Brighton review – experimentalism can still be popMonday, 24 July 2017
Ten years ago Brighton band 12 Stone Toddler burst onto the scene with two off-the-wall albums of madly inventive pop-rock. They then vamoosed back out of existence. Now they’re back, preparing a third album for the Freshly Squeezed label, and... Read more... |
CD: Mastodon - Emperor of SandSaturday, 01 April 2017
Emperor of Sand is Mastodon’s eighth album and showcases a band that exhibits absolutely no sign of letting up on the epic riffing and thunderous beat or of edging towards the mainstream. Make no mistake, Mastodon remain resolutely heavy in both... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: WigwamSunday, 26 March 2017
Over 1972 to 1975, Finland staged a small-scale invasion of Britain. A friendly one, it was confined to music. First, the progressive rock band Tasavallan Presidentti came to London in May 1972 and played Ronnie Scott’s. The Sunday Times’ Derek... Read more... |
CD: Mike Oldfield - Return to OmmadawnSaturday, 21 January 2017
New releases by Mike Oldfield don’t exactly grow on trees, but nor can they be deemed rarities. For the first three decades he brought out roughly half a dozen a decade. But Return to Ommadawn is only his second since 2008. As the title announces,... Read more... |
David Gilmour, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 24 September 2016
A single guitar note rang out over smouldering synth-chords. It was bent up a tone and then wavered in the air before gracefully falling. And so began the final residency of the Rattle That Lock tour. No hype. No support act. Just David... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Pink FloydSunday, 03 July 2016
Pictured above is the label of an exceptionally important Pink Floyd record issued last November. Only a thousand people bought a copy. That was the amount that hit shops. Pink Floyd 1965: Their First Recordings was a double seven-inch set with a... Read more... |
CD: Kiran Leonard - GrapefruitWednesday, 23 March 2016
In the run-up to the release of his second album Grapefruit, Kiran Leonard has revealed the musical touchstones which map out his world. Boredoms, Kate Bush, the jazzy French Canterbury-rock types Etron Fou Leloublan, Fela Kuti, Swans, Scriabin and... Read more... |
Disappears perform David Bowie's Low, 100 Club, LondonTuesday, 24 November 2015
The 100 Club is dark. Really dark. People are shrouded in the ink-light. I think it’s to save their embarrassment as they order a drink and realise they’ll have to either apply for a loan or sell a child in order to get drunk. In any case, the... Read more... |
David Gilmour: Wider Horizons, BBC TwoSunday, 15 November 2015
Had he not become one of the pivotal members of Pink Floyd, it's not difficult to imagine that David Gilmour might have become an academic like his father Douglas (who was a lecturer in zoology and genetics at Cambridge), or maybe a high-flying... Read more... |
CD: Jeff Lynne's ELO - Alone in the UniverseSaturday, 07 November 2015
There's something reassuringly resistant to modernity about Jeff Lynne. In much the same way that his cast iron Brummie accent and demeanour have remained unchanged despite decades in Los Angeles, so his music remains in a late 20th century... Read more... |
Psychedelic Britannia, BBC FourSaturday, 24 October 2015
As part of BBC4’s continued course of musical regression therapy, we revisited a time of wide-eyed innocence, when ideas were big and pupils even bigger. The Sixties had swung and now they were set to start spinning as people looked to the past for... Read more... |
CD: Zombi – Shape ShiftMonday, 19 October 2015
As well as releasing electronic music on Ron Morelli’s feted L.I.E.S. label, and the sporadically brilliant Ghost Box, as well a particularly impressive outing on Static Caravan (as Primitive Neural Pathways), Steve Moore is the bass- and synth-... Read more... |
