Record Reviews Blog

Album, EP and DVD reviews, with an emphasis on the UK progressive rock scene.

The Raven That Refused To Sing

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Tim Hall

I wasn’t really surprised when Steve Wilson recently announced that Porcupine Tree would be going on indefinite hiatus. His two solo albums released since that band’s last album “The Incident” have taken a quite different direction, and it’s looking as though PT’s heavy metal Pink Floyd sound isn’t the sort of music SW wants to make at the moment.

“The Raven That Refused To Sing” features the supremely talented band put together to tour the previous solo album “Grace for Drowning”. It includes virtuoso bassist Nick Beggs, a man whose career progression from cheesy pop star to respected prog muso resembles that of Phil Collins in reverse, plus Theo Travis, Marco Minnemann, Guthrie Govan, and Adam Holzman, significantly credited not for “keyboards” but “Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, piano and Minimoog”. Guthrie Govan plays most of the lead guitar, while Steve Wilson himself plays all the Mellotron which features heavily on every track.

As the follow-up to “Grace for Drowning”, it’s a similar mix of Canterbury-style jazz-rock workouts, grandiose Mellotron sweeps, pastoral sections with layered vocals, and passages of heavy sax-and-Mellotron, with the spirit of 70s King Crimson never far away. But the whole album is far more focussed and concise, a much tighter single album rather than a sprawling double.

The album opens with “Luminol”, with an opening section with jazz-inflected drumming and fluttering flute line recalls Ozric Tentacles before taking off in another direction entirely. The gorgeous “Drive Home” wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a mid-period Porcupine Tree album, and features a great solo from Guthrie Govan. There is some of the dark intensity of Grace For Drowning’s “Raider II” in both “Holy Drinker” and “The Watchmaker”, and early part of the latter also has a touch of Storm Corrosion’s spooky atmospherics. Concluding title track finishes off the album with a glorious soaring Mellotron-drenched ballad.

It’s probably fair to say that this is an album that wears its influences on its sleeve, and just doesn’t care. But it’s all done so well that it doesn’t really matter.

There was a feeling that the last Porcupine Tree album was the sound of Steve Wilson constrained by the expectations of how an album released under Porcupine Tree’s name ought to sound. In contrast, The Raven That Refused to Sing is the sound of Steve Wilson free to follow his muse, backed by a band skilled enough to bring that vision to life.

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Luna Rossa – Sleeping Pills and Lullabies

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Tim Hall

Luna Rossa is an acoustic project from Anne-Marie Helder and Jon Edwards, best known as members and principle writers of the highly acclaimed Swansea-based rock band Panic Room.

The words “acoustic album” tends to suggest rootsy folk-orientated or heavily stripped-down recordings, but “Sleeping Pills and Lullabies” takes a rather different approach. For much of the album the dominant sounds are Jon Edwards’ expressive grand piano and Anne-Marie Helder’s remarkably versatile voice, supported by strings and sparing use of acoustic guitar. Occasionally you’ll also hear some spidery electric guitar, programmed rhythm tracks, some of Anne-Marie’s flute, and all sorts of other strange instruments.

After an initial drone, opener “The Dark Room” starts with a rolling piano figure accompanying the vocal and gradually adds layers to build into the closest thing the album has to a conventional rock song. The following “Heart on my Sleeve” is a spine-tingly beautiful atmospheric ballad with the string section prominent, and I love the moment towards the end where Anne-Marie uses her voice as a solo instrument with a wordless vocal line while the strings take up what had been the piano line. Then “Mad About You” is a complete change of pace, an uptempo love song based around acoustic guitar and percussion.

Aside from the delicate cover of The Magnetic Fields’ “Book of Love”, all songs are co-written by Anne-Marie and Jon, and quite a few of those songs wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Panic Room record despite the absence of any crunchy guitars or a rock rhythm section. But I’m also reminded of Jon Lord’s post-Deep Purple classical work, especially on the instrumental “Leaving for the Last Time” with some evocative flute from Anne-Marie. The laid-back improvised feel of “Cloud” recalls the mood of Kate Bush’s “50 Words for Snow”. There are moments recalling Massive Attack at their most song-orientated, especially on the powerful closer “Gasp”, with it’s dramatic piano chords and multi-tracked backing vocal that some might recognise as the intro tape used in Panic Room’s most recent tour.

It’s an extremely varied record; rich and layered in places, sparse and minimalist in others, experimental in some ways yet anchored in melodies that get stuck in your head after just a few listens. This a work that’s pointless even to try and pigeonhole, It’s not really a rock album as such, certainly not prog-rock in the traditional sense, yet with its elements of classical music and touches of electronica it’s progressive in the original meaning of the word. The quality of the songwriting combined with Anne-Marie’s ever amazing voice should appeal strongly to Panic Room’s existing fans, but I can also see this record also having a far wider crossover appeal.

For more information, including how to pre-order the album, visit the Luna Rossa website at www.lunarossa.co

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Ebony Tower – The Magic Box Pt 1

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Tim Hall

Ebony tower have existed in some shape or form for well over a decade. The band made a strong impression at the 2011 Cambridge Rock Festival with an interestingly varied sound, including electric violin, and frontwoman Zanda King’s strong stage presence. With earlier recordings featuring a previous singer, “The Magic Box Pt 1″ is the band’s first release with Zanda King on vocals.

Despite their occasional use of the term “prog” in promotion, they don’t really go in for grandiose epics. The EP is made up of short punchy songs with little in the way of extended soloing; all four numbers clock in at around the four-and-a-half minute mark, but they still manage to pack plenty of music in a short space. There are a lot of musical influences on display; some classic rock with a strong psychedelic flavour mixed in with a bit of garage-style rock’n'roll. Recorded in Real World studios, the record has a raw, live-sounding in-your-face feel, especially on the rockier numbers.

The four songs are individually quite different, starting with the opening rocker “The Passing” based around a serpentine guitar riff, and continuing with the shimmering but sinister “The Labyrinth”. “LSD” has a raw, almost punky feel, and the closing “The Vision” has a summery West Coast vibe with some delightfully atmospheric organ. Despite the variety, when added together they still make for a coherent sounding whole.

Throughout the record, Zanda King demonstrates both a strong voice and a very feisty rock and roll attitude. Instrumentally Wilson McQueen’s guitar is the dominant sound; his playing emphasises inventive riffs rather than flashy soloing. The record might have benefited from greater use of Skye Sheridan’s electric violin. It’s particularly effective weaving around the guitar line in “The Passing” but elsewhere it’s used more for colour and isn’t always that prominent in the mix.

Ebony Tower plan to release a full-length album later in the year, and on the basis of this EP, it should be well worth waiting for. The EP has a physical release on May 6th, but you can hear it now at http://www.reverbnation.com/ebonytower.

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Threshold – March of Progress

Posted on February 16, 2013 by Tim Hall

Over a twenty-plus year career Threshold have established themselves as one of Britain’s premier prog-metal bands; a sort of British version of Dream Theater, only with a greater emphasis on solid songwriting rather than technical showboating. The band has changed lineups over the years with guitarist Karl Groom and keyboard player Richard West the only constant members, although the rhythm section of Johanne James and Steve Anderson have now been in the band for many years.

Their ninth studio album “March of Progress”, is the first since the return of the band’s original singer Damien Wilson in 2007, replacing Andrew “Mac” McDermott who sadly died in 2011. It also sees the band back to a six-piece twin-guitar linuep with the addition Pete Marten. After the attempt at something slightly different with the rawer production of 2007′s “Dead Reckoning”, this new release sees the band revert to the more polished approach of earlier albums.

All the Threshold ingredients are here; the lengthy and complex song structures, the big anthemic choruses, the soaring solos and, as ever, immaculate playing. Damien Wilson’s voice has an impressive power and range, and sometimes it’s a relief to hear some old-style ‘proper singing’ on a metal record. There is perhaps slightly more emphasis on atmospherics on this record, but it’s still balanced by plenty of metallic riffery, and quite a few vocal hooks get stuck in your head. There are big epics such as the closing “The Rubicon”, and the obligatory power-ballad in “That’s Why We Came”. Though song titles like “Return of the Though Police” and “Liberty, Complacency, Dependency” imply a political line, the lyrics are far more thought-provoking than preachy.

Threshold certainly have a clearly identifiable sound, which is both their greatest strength and their greatest weakness. There quality is consistent throughout, no filler, but neither is there much that we haven’t heard on previous Threshold albums, and there’s a feeling that we’ve heard a lot of it before. When other bands are taking progressive metal in new and more challenging directions, they leave Threshold’s old-school style perhaps sounding a little dated by comparison.

On the other hand, Threshold are still very, very good at what they do. If you’ve liked their previous albums, there’s a lot to like about this one too, and after a long absence a new album is very welcome indeed. If you’re a Threshold fan, you probably have this album already. And if you’re completely unfamiliar with their music, this is as good a place to start as any.

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Rob Cottingham – Captain Blue

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Tim Hall

Captain Blue is the second solo album by keyboard player and vocalist Rob Cottingham, best known as a member of Touchstone. Rob has described that album as “a cross-genre-ational album covering the themes of time, self-realisation, death – and not taking yourself too seriously“. It’s a concept album, telling the tale of the mysterious Captain Blue.

The album also features the delightfully named Dr Goatius Foot on bass, Touchstone’s Adam Hodgson on guitars, Gary O’Toole on drums, Heather Findlay on vocals, and on one track, the guitar legend Steve Hackett. While all of these make great contributions, the emphasis is on Rob’s own vocals and keys.

It begins with the dramatic voice of Shane Rimmer, the voice of Thunderbirds’ Scott Tracey, on the epic spoken word “Condemnation“, which reinforces the Gerry Anderson feel of the whole album.

Parts of the album sound far lighter version of Touchstone, whether it’s rockier up-tempo numbers or lush ballads, with the dual male-female harmony lead vocals recalling that band’s early years when Rob handled a greater proportion of the vocals. In a couple of places it veers into dance-pop territory, and I can easily imagine a club remix of “The Drowning Man“. At times it strips right down delicate to piano and vocals. It’s all very song-orientated and highly melodic throughout, made up of of shorter numbers rather than sprawling epics, with the occasional instrumental bridge piece, and the instrumentation is more about atmospherics and colour rather than pyrotechnics. Although Rob does indulge in a keytar solo at one point. The production is immaculate, with a clear and crisp yet rich sound.

Rob Cottingham has taken a supporting role as a vocalist in Touchstone of late, but here he sings the majority of the lead vocals, with a voice that’s been compared with the clean vocals of Opeth’s Mikael Ã…kerfeldt. Heather Findlay takes more of a supporting role here, adding harmonies as well as duets with Rob, only taking sole lead on one or two songs. Her contributions are sublime, with some ethereal yet sensual performances that are as good as anything she’s ever done.

It’s a consistently strong record with little in the way of filler despite a 70 minute running time. High points include “Only Time Will Tell” with so many multi-tracked harmony vocals it sounds like the Mellotron of early King Crimson. It almost makes me wonder if Heather took a trip back in time in Captain Blue’s timeship to lay down the original “choir” settings for the first Mellotron. The album closes with the big wall of sound epic “Soaring to the Sun” with Steve Hackett on guitar, before The Magic Roundabout’s Zeberdee tells us it’s “time for bed”.

This is an impressive piece of work that grows on repeated listens. Any fan of either Touchstone’s music or of Heather Findlay’s vocals ought to love this. But so should anyone that likes atmospheric and melodic rock, written and performed by real musicians and real singers.

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2012 Album of the Year

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Tim Hall

And finally we get to the album of the year. I can’t really imagine this one’s going to be much of a surprise for most regular readers – I’ve written about this album a lot over the past year, and even interviewed the band for Trebuchet Magazine.

Panic Room – SKIN

In a year that’s seen the release of many great albums, there is still one that manages to stand out, and that’s the third album by Swansea’s Panic Room.

Their 2008 début was the sound of five supremely talented musicians searching for a new collective musical direction. The second was the sound of a band with a clear vision of what they wanted to be. With SKIN, they’ve consolidated that vision and taken it to another level. With the combination of Anne-Marie Helder’s award-winning vocals, and the amazing vituosity of the band, the result is a an ambitious cinematic work that defies simplistic genre pigeonholing. It’s a hugely varied record, with songs ranging from shimmering jazz and heartfelt stripped-down ballads to hard rock numbers that sound like Kate Bush fronting Led Zeppelin.

For years, Panic Room have been one of the British rock scene’s best-kept secrets. With “Skin”, their strongest and most assured album to date, they’ve delivered a record that deserves to be heard by a far wider audience.

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2012 – A few more records of note

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Tim Hall

I decided to restrict my best-of-2012 list to full-length studio albums of new material with a 2012 retail release date. But there are a few great records that fall outside that definition, and would be difficult to place in any kind of ranking. But they’re all too good not to give a mention, so here they are.

The Heather Findlay Band – Songs From The Old Kitchen

A delightful album of acoustic reworkings of Heather’s songs from Mostly Autumn, Odin Dragonfly and more recent solo work, with the band featuring the now-departed Dave Kilminster and Steve Vantsis. The organic chilled-out arrangements are a very good match for the natural warmth of her voice, making this perhaps the best record she’s made since going solo.

Karnataka – New Light, Live in Concert

Live album (also an excellent DVD) capturing the band on their first tour with new vocalist Hayley Griffiths, fronting the short-lived six-piece lineup with multi-instrumentalist Colin Mold, whose violin playing enhanced the Celtic side of their music. Aside from Hayley’s imaginative re-interpretation of old favourites, this record is also a showcase for Enrico Pinna’s phenomenal guitar playing.

Crimson Sky - DawnCrimson Sky – Dawn

Excellent four-track EP from the new lineup of Crimson Sky with Jane Setter and Moray McDonald, with two brand new songs and two reworked older numbers. As with their previous work, it’s an intriguing blend of progressive rock and 80s-style new-wave, and benefits from a far more polished production than earlier recordings.

Twelfth Night Live and Let Live - Album CoverTwelfth Night – Live and Let Live

The classic and long out-of-print single LP-length album from the seminal 80s neo-proggers, reissued and expanded into a two-hour double-CD capturing the entire two-hour show, which must have been a painstaking labour-of-love to put together.

Rob Cottingham – Captain Blue

One of those records where the pre-orders shipped in December, although the retail release isn’t until the new year There will be a full review of this forthcoming, but let’s just say this is a good one. Will it make the 2013 end-of-year list? Time will tell on that…

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2012 Albums of the Year – Part Three

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Tim Hall

Counting down from Five to Two, we get to the year’s Superb releases. In many previous years any of these might have been a strong candidate for my album of the year. Indeed, the previous album by one of these bands was my album of that year, even though the album listed below is the stronger album. That’s how good a year it’s been. Again, the order is simply alphabetical; these albums are so good it’s next to impossible to rank them into any kind of order.

Big Big Train – English Electric Part One

With music reminiscent of “Wind and Wuthering” era Genesis with hints of Barclay James Harvest and Gentle Giant and lyrics about the industrial revolution, this is a quintessentially English record steeped in the nation’s history and landscapes. With varied instrumentation including strings and brass, it transcends obvious influences and evokes the spirit of 70s pastoral progressive rock far more strongly than any 80s style neo-prog band can hope to.

Mostly Autumn – The Ghost Moon Orchestra

Olivia Sparnenn finds her voice on her second studio album since taking over as the band’s lead vocalist, and makes her mark with some soaring leads that make it clear just why she was shortlisted for the gig with Nightwish. With their signature guitar-driven celtic-tinged classic rock on one side, and a more modern symphonic metal feel on the other, the result is a strong record with one foot in the past and one in the future. It delivers a powerful riposte to those who wrote the band off a couple of years ago.

Riversea – Out Of The Ancient World

Years in the making, the collaboration between singer-songwriter Marc Atkinson and keyboard player Brendan Eyre along with an all-star cast of guest musicians resulted in one of the progressive rock surprises of the year. Marc Atkinson’s emotive vocals recall Marillion’s Steve Hogarth and the keyboard-led arrangements range from simple piano accompaniments to moments of heavy symphonic rock. An album that proved to be well worth the wait.

Stolen Earth – A Far Cry From Home

The band that grew out of the short-lived final incarnation of Breathing Space get off to a very strong start with their début album. The combination of Heidi Widdop’s soulful vocals and Adam Dawson’s effects-laden guitar gives a rich sound based around big wall-of-sound rock ballads. There’s a hint of early Mostly Autumn in the Floydian atmospherics, especially with Heidi’s low whistle, but this is a band with their own sound and their own identity. It will be very interesting to see how they progress from here.

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2012 Albums of the Year – Part Two

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Tim Hall

Continuing the end-of-year list, these six are the year’s Great releases. Again, though they represent nos 11 down to 6, I haven’t attempted to rank them in order, and have just listed them alphabetically. It says something about the quality of this year’s releases in that any of these would have been top-3 contenders in many other years.

Anathema – Weather Systems

With their intense and atmospheric sound, it’s hard to imagine that Anathema started out as a death-metal band. It has a lot in common with 2010′s “We’re Here Because We’re Here”, and like that it’s best experienced as a single piece of music that builds in emotionally intensity as the album proceeds. Anathema are precisely the sort of band who deserve wider mainstream recognition.

Gojira – L’Enfant Sauvage

The strongest modern-style metal release I’ve heard all year. This release by the French technical metallers is the sort of thing that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go. It’s a monstrously heavy and unrelenting piledriver of a record that sounds like something out of the twenty-first century rather than anything out of the 1970s or 1980s.

Marillion – Sounds That Can’t Be Made

Thirty years into their career, at a stage where most bands have long since burned out and turned into their own tribute acts, Marillion prove that they’ve still got something to say in their own inimitable style. It’s an album of lengthy epics, with three songs extending past the 10-minute mark, and yet again Steve Rothery’s fantastic less-is-more guitar playing demonstrates why he’s one of the best guitarists in the business.

Morpheus Rising – Let The Sleeper Awake

Classy old-school twin-guitar hard rock with echoes of NWOBHM bands like Iron Maiden and Diamond Head without ever sounding like a derivative pastiche. It contains some very strong songwriting combined with great guitar harmonies and tight arrangements. It’s all unashamedly retro, but none the worse for it. If they’d been around in 1981, they’d have been huge.

Muse 2nd LawMuse – The 2nd Law

This is the one big mainstream stadium-rock act in this list. With their mix of rock, metal, glam, funk, opera and God knows what else, they put it all in a blender resulting in prog-rock with a pop sensibility. It’s all completely and gloriously over the top, of course, and they steal shamelessly from many other bands and somehow manage to get away with it in a way that Oasis didn’t. But that’s precisely what’s great about Muse.

Storm Corrosion – s/t

One of the most “out there” releases of 2012, the collaboration between Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson and Opeth’s Mikael Ã…kerfeldt sees them take off into uncharted territory, eschewing the expected prog-metal in favour of dark and sinister semi-acoustic soundscapes. A clearly experimental record, the result sounds like a cross between “Simon and Garfunkle on magic mushrooms” and the soundtrack of a 1970s horror film shot in grainy back-and-white.

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2012 Albums of the Year – Part One

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Tim Hall

Yes, it’s that time of year again, when everyone who fancies themselves as a music critic lists the records that have defined their year.

The usual disclaimers apply, of course. They’re selected from the albums of 2012 that I’ve actually had the chance to hear over the course of the year. It’s also a personal list of albums that have made an impression on me rather than any attempt to declare them the “best” of the year, whatever that might mean. Which is why there are very obscure independent releases alongside heavily-promoted major-label albums.

My self-imposed rules exclude both live albums and studio restatements of past material, although Steve Hackett’s “Genesis Revisited II” and Heather Findlay’s “Songs From The Old Kitchen” deserve mention.

It was going to be a top 20, but once I’d got my list finalised someone went and released a record in the middle of December that really deserved to be on the list. So now it’s a top 21. I’ve given up trying to rank all 21 album in any kind of order, and have gone for grouping them under Good, Great, Superb and Legendary, the last being my album of the year.

So here are the ten Good albums, which form numbers 21 to 12 in the list, ordered alphabetically.

Joe Bonamassa – Driving Towards The Daylight

Excellent album of guitar-shredding blues-rock from one of the most exciting guitar players of his generation, with electrifying takes on blues standards from the likes of Howlin’ Wolf and Willie Dixon alongside a handful of original numbers. Yes, the ever-prolific Bonamassa can probably turn out albums like this in his sleep, but that’s just a measure of his talent.

Delain – We Are The Others

A seamless blend of in-your-face metal riffs and chart-friendly pop choruses, featuring the remarkable vocals of Charlotte Wessels, all of which makes it more of a mystery why a major label sat on this record for months before releasing it. If only daytime radio wasn’t afraid of big-sounding guitars.

Enslaved – Riitiir

Symphonically-dense wall-of-sound metal which mixes moments of brutal heaviness with a surprising amount of melody. There’s plenty of death-metal growling, but there are also passages that prove how well metal riffs and Gregorian chants go together.

It Bites – Map Of The Past

The 80s pop-prog veterans reformed a few years back, with the talented John Mitchell at the helm.  Although the latest album doesn’t quite top 2008′s “The Tall Ships”, it’s still an impressive work that combines emotionally-rich songwriting with all the widdly soloing you could possibly want.

Mermaid Kiss – Another Country

A move away from the symphonic prog-rock of their previous album “Etarlis”, with a beautiful semi-acoustic record with touches of Americana and gospel. Not many bands have Cor Anglais as a principle lead instrument.

Sankara Guided By Degrees CD ArtworkSankara – Guided By Degrees

An impressive melodic hard rock début from former members of The Bluehorses and The Reasoning. It’s a rich, multilayered record in which Gareth Jones’s excellent vocal performance proves he’s more than capable fronting his own band.

Shadow Of The Sun – Monument

Former Reasoning guitarist Dylan Thompson returns with some prog-tinged hard rock/metal with guitars that go up to Eleven. A record that’s only been out a few days and I’ve only given a handful of listens. But that’s enough convince me it belongs on this list.

Howard Sinclair – The Delicious Company of Freaks

Lyric-driven semi-acoustic balladry from the Bristol-based singer-songwriter who supported Panic Room on their November tour. Some memorable songs, with one high point being the spellbinding “These Dark Hills” sung as a duet with Panic Room’s Anne-Marie Helder.

Squackett – A Life Within A Day

Two of the most distinctive instrumentalists in the prog-rock world combine their talents for a polished and song-focussed album. At times this collaboration sounds like Steve Hackett with a different bassist, at times it’s Yes with different guitars and vocals. “The Tall Ships” with it’s bass groove and soaring vocal harmonies is a particular highlight.

"I fireball the gazebo"Winter in Eden – Echoes of Betrayal

With a great vocalist in Vicky Johnson, the Durham-based band prove if the songwriting is good enough it’s possible to do female-fronted symphonic metal without needing the choirs, orchestras and kitchen sinks of the more extravagant European bands.

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