A song from “Bottled Out Of Eden”, filmed at Bush Hall earlier this year.

“Bottled Out of Eden” is their third full-length album, following 2014′s excellent “The Unravelling”. As we have come to expect by now, it’s full of typical Knifeworld song titles like “I Must Set Fire To Your Portrait” and “Lowered Into Necromancy”, and combines dark and enigmatic lyrics with swirling kaleidoscopic instrumentation.

The album beings with chants and drones heralding “High/Aflame”, a rocker that might be familiar to those who have seen the band live in the past year. From then on it’s a blend of psychedelic rock workouts and slower and often sinister atmospheric numbers. Highlights include the dark and brooding “Foul Temple” with it’s haunting near-orchestral instrumental section, and “I Must Set Fire To Your Portrait” with its great interplay between Kavus Torabi’s growling guitar riff and the horn parts swirling around it. “A Dream About A Dream” is as dreamy as the title suggests, again with some evocative work by the horn section. Even the half-minute bridge between two songs, “Vision of the Bent Path” makes an impression, an instrumental featuring just the horn section playing in multi-part harmony.

Earlier albums emphasised Kavus Torabi’s psychedelic guitar and layered male/female vocal harmonies. While those elements are still present, this time they bring the horn section centre-stage and make them the focus of the record. The resulting arrangements recall Frank Zappa’s early 70s big band albums “The Grand Wazoo” and “Waka Jawaka”, with horn-driven instrumental passages taking the place of traditional solos. While it’s a logical progression from what has come before, by strengthening the most distinctive elements of their sound, Knifeworld take things to the next level with this record. And there is nobody else remotely like them.

Psychedelic rockers Knifeworld release a promo video for the track from their forthcoming album “Bottled Out Of Eden”.

Kavus Torabi’s psychedelic rockers have produced a teaser video for their forthcoming third album “Bottled out of Eden”. They’ve also announced an album launch gig at Bush Hall on Thursday 12th May

Though they headlined the Prog Magazine sponsored “Stabbing A Dead Horse” tour in 2012 and have appeared on the bill of several progressive rock festivals including Summers End and most recently HRH Prog, Knifeworld are not exactly an old-school prog band. They have feet in other camps. Certainly the healthy-sized crowd in the small north London venue was rather younger and more fashionable than a typical middle-aged prog audience, though were still quite a few of the London prog regulars present.

The first of two supports were Barrington, a power trio based around angular riffs with strong echoes of 80s King Crimson, and some very muscular drumming. So much so that stage by the kit was covered in feathers; unless there had been a fight between a pigeon and a cat which had ended badly for the pigeon, he’d burst the pillow inside the bass drum. The band did have one or two interesting ideas but ultimately came over very one-dimensional, and had little in the way of stage presence.

The second support, Cesaraians were an awful lot more entertaining, a bonkers six-piece with a keyboard-heavy sound, trumpet and violin replacing guitar, and a compelling frontman who understood stagecraft in a way most bands don’t. Their music defies easy genre classification; there were elements of 80s new-wave plus an occasional blues flourish, and an awful lot of rock’n'roll attitude. Not many support bands are this good, and it was good to see Kavus Torabi himself in the front row for a good part of the set.

Knifeworld were a sax player short (I was told this was purely a temporary absence), but the temporary reduction to a seven piece did little to diminish their sound. Armed with his distinctive gold and white Gresch guitar, Kavus Torabi led his band through a spellbinding set of psychedelic grooves, Zappa-style horn arrangements, intertwining guitar and bassoon lines, and layered vocal harmonies. One of Kavus’ solos emphasised the Zappa vibe, very evocative of the great man himself.

The setlist drew heavily from their latest and best album, 2014′s “The Unravelling” along with highlights from their earlier discs and some new as yet unrecorded material. Even when a man short the intricacies of the records come over strongly live. The whole set flowed as a seamless whole, making it hard to single out highlights, though the encore of “Me To The Future of You” was particularly mesmerising with Melanie Wood and Chloe Herrington’s harmonies at the end.

It was all very heady stuff; regardless of how you try to classify them genre-wise there is nobody else quite like Knifeworld. They proved yet again that they really are quite a remarkable live band.

Pwllheli is a long way from anywhere, at the far end of a winding single-track railway line, and the train stops many, many times at little request stops where the train might only stop if you know how to pronounce the station. So by the time I finally got there after a whole day’s travelling I missed the opening band. But I did catch most of The Dream Circuit’s set, with a space-jam sound that owed a lot of Ozric Tentacles.

Knifeworld were the most eagerly anticipated band of the Thursday night. They opened with a brand new song which Kavus Torabi dedicated to his great friend, the late Daevid Allen of Gong. With his white and gold Gresch guitar, Torabi looks most un-prog, but with it’s Zappa-style horn orchestrations, psychedelic soundscapes and layered vocal harmonies the music is as progressive as it gets. There were one or two who didn’t ‘get’ what they do, implying they’re not “proper prog”, but it’s their loss. Knifeworld are the real thing.

Thursday headliners The Skys, hailing from Lithuania had a far more traditional prog sound, but were very good at what they did. They displayed some strong Floydian atmospherics at times, with a harder-rocking edge at others. They had a great keyboard sound with big washes of Hammond, and one guitar solo in particular was brain-melting.

Friday kicked off with Kitten Pyramid, a foursome playing psychedelic rock with two bassists and therefore a lot of bottom end in their sound, with moments of bluesy guitar that come up as meld of “Albatross” and “War Pigs”. As the sole completely unfamiliar act on the day’s bill, they made a good first impression.

Next up was Sanguine Hum. Despite their reputation on record, with intricate arpeggios and layered atmospherics that have drawn comparisons with Porcupine Tree, they’d previously failed to convince live, at times coming over like Thom Yorke fronting the Vision On gallery theme. This time they were much better, with a set drawing heavily from their latest album “The Weight of the World”, a meatier sound with a bit more passion. Their stagecraft still needs work, but they’re now orders of magnitude better live than when they started.

A couple of weeks before the festival Touchstone announced that frontwoman Kim Seviour was leaving the band, and they were going on indefinite hiatus while the remaining members worked on other projects. This festival was to have been the band’s final live appearance, though popular demand saw the band announce a couple of headline farewell shows later in the year. Farewell or not, it was a roof-lifting performance, with hard rock focussed set that emphasised their shorter, punchier material rather than their epics, ending in a monstrous version of “Wintercoast”. Even though they were only third on the bill, this was a headline quality set.

Lifesigns, fronted by keyboard player and singer-songwriter John Young were the closest band on the bill to the archetypal neo-prog sound, with swirling harmonies, keyboard flourishes, and melodic overdriven guitar lines. They delivered a tight and passionate set of strongly song-focussed material drawn largely from their self-titled album. After decades as a sidesman for some far bigger names, it’s good to see John Young getting some recognition fronting a band himself.

Anna Phoebe was something completely different, a violinist leading an all-instrumental band that included Simran Ghalley on Tabla alongside more traditional rock instruments. Their kaleidoscopic sound cannot be contained within any traditional genre pigeonholes, seamlessly blending elements of rock, classical, celtic folk, jazz and world music. Anne Phoebe herself is not only a stunning virtuoso musician but has a dramatic stage presence to match.

The Enid are a national treasure. Over their long and illustrious career playing what often amounts to classical music played with rock instruments, they perhaps more than anyone else embody the spirit of everything progressive music is about. Their set perhaps wasn’t quite as rock-orientated as some of their recent festival sets, but they’re mesmerising if you “get” what they do, and Joe Payne has matured into a very impressive frontman. His falsetto showcase “The One and the Many” from 2012′s “Invicta” was stunning, and you could have heard a pin drop. With leader Robert John Godfrey likely to have to step down for health reasons in the relatively near future this is a band that needs to be seen while they’re still around in the current form.

It fell to Mostly Autumn to headline Friday’s show, and disaster struck fifteen minutes before they were due on. While setting up his kit, drummer Alex Cromarty fell and broke his hand. But powered by a combination of adrenalin and painkillers he managed to play a hastily-rearranged set one-handed. Even with three-quarters of a drummer, this was still a powerful set, starting with a low-key opening with Floydian ballad and flute showcase “The Last Climb” and ending with the emotional punches of “Questioning Eyes” and “Heroes Never Die”. Though by necessity they were only able to feature a couple of songs from their masterpiece “Dressed in Voices”, the set can only be described as a triumph over adversity.

Saturday started with the guitar-shredding metal of Collibus, just the thing needed to wake everyone up. Although their twin-guitar sound was more straight metal than prog, and quite old-school, a tight performance and some strong songs made a good impression. In contrast, Agent had a more streamlined modern sound with elements of metal and alternative rock.

Landskap were the discovery of the weekend, with a superb late 60s/early 70s vibe with elements of Black Sabbath, The Doors and Uriah Heep, with a guitarist worshipping at the altar of Tony Iommi and a singer channelling Jim Morrison. But after them came the low point of the whole weekend. Black Peaks were truly awful, alternating between very bad death metal and generic indie-rock. The singer was painful to listen to, and it’s difficult to decide which was worse, his cookie-monster-with-laryngitis screaming or his embarrassing out-of-tune clean vocals.

Things got far better with Jump, who played one of the best sets I’ve seen them do. They’re a hard band to classify, with elements of prog, hard rock and folk with a strong emphasis on John Dexter Jones’ storytelling lyrics. Tonight the played a rocked-up set with a lot of energy, with songs about real-life subjects ranging from shipwrecked sailors to Twisted Sister fans, with “Down Three Times” a particular highlight. They even threw in a few bars of “Whole Lotta Love” and “Running Free” thrown in for good measure.

Now back in action following Christina Booth’s cancer treatment, Magenta were simply stunning. They’ve always been a band for whom hearing them on record doesn’t prepare you for the intensity of their live performances. Christina was on superb form vocally, with the greatest emotional depth of any performer of the weekend; “Pearl” in particular bought a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. And given the complex nature of their music, it’s always amazing just how tight they always are live. In true prog fashion, Christina followed the words “This is our last song” with “But it’s a long one”, before ending the set with the epic “Metamorphosis”. This was the performance of the festival.

70s folk-rock legends Steeleye Span took the special guest spot on Saturday, With Maddy Prior, one of the greats of the folk world, on excellent form and a virtuoso violin player in Jessie May Smart they delivered another thoroughly entertaining set. They went from traditional folk ballads about young innocents abducted by the Queen of the Faeries to more rock-orientated songs from the most recent album “Wintersmith”, inspired by the writings of the late Terry Pratchett. They did insist that they would only play their hit “All Around My Hat” if the audience helped sing it. When first announced they had seemed an odd band to appear high on the bill at a prog festival, but they ultimately turned out to have been an inspired choice.

Rick Wakeman’s solo set was a strange way to end a festival, just him and a grand piano, alternating between anecdotes drawn from his fifty years in the music business and instrumental piano pieces. The stories included humping inflatable dinosaurs, escaping from Wexham Park Hospital to go to the pub, and Arthur Brown exclaiming “How can I be the bloody God of Hellfire if my helmet won’t light?”. The music covered both his solo work and the many artists he’d worked with over the years, pieces from “The Six Wives of Henry VIII” and “Journey to the Centre of the Earth” alongside Yes’ “Wondrous Stories”, Bowie’s “Life on Mars” and even “Eleanor Rigby” in the style of Prokofiev. It was all entertaining stuff but you couldn’t help wondering if Steeleye Span’s more energetic set might have been the better way to finish the day.

So ended HRH Prog 3. As a residential festival, most of the festival-goers stayed on-site in chalets that accommodate up to eight people, though if you’re not part of a group it’s cheaper to buy day passes, book a B&B locally and stay off-site. One quibble that remains is the lack of any of the excellent local ales in the bar; prog fans are known for preferring something other than Interbrew generic lager, and while Hobgoblin is better than nothing, there are plenty of local brewers who can do far better than that.

One odd quirk this year was the way the festival shared the site with a science fiction convention. This saw a lot of cosplayers wandering the site, and we even had the sight of Batmen and Judge Dredds in the audience. Someone really needs to have dressed as 70s Peter Gabriel just to mess with people’s minds.

Despite the remoteness it’s a great festival, and the organisers put together a hugely varied bill that showcased progressive music in all its varied forms. The quality was if anything more consistent than last year. The festival will be back at the same time and place with HRH Prog 4 in 2016.

Cloud Atlas – Beyond the Vale

Yet another York-based band (Is there something in the water?), Cloud Atlas is the band put together by Heidi Widdop following the dissolution of Stolen Earth. Their impressive début album is big widescreen rock with an epic scope, with Heidi’s distinctive bluesy vocals setting them apart from many of their obvious peers. But this album’s sound is as much about Martin Ledger’s soaring melodic lead guitar, with strong echoes of Marillion’s Steve Rothery.

Gazpacho – Demon

Norway’s Gazpacho have come up with one of the darkest and most sinister-sounding records of 2014. It’s what Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden might have sounded like if Mark Hollis had spent a lot of time listening to Black Sabbath. Sinister violin-led pastoral soundscapes with are intercut with bursts of hard rock, motifs recur across the album, and there’s even an irruption of accordion-led central European folk at one point. An ambitious album which is by no means an easy listen, but one where you can keep finding new layers after many listens.

Knifeworld – The Unravelling

A major step forward for Kavus Torabi’s eight-piece band, and reflects their current live sound far more than any of their previous recordings. It’s a record that takes psychedelia, jazz, hard rock and all kinds of other things, and puts them in a blender to produce something that sounds quite unlike anyone else. Fans of the late, great Frank Zappa should find a lot to like about this record, as should anyone who thinks there should be more bassoons in rock.

Luna Rossa – Secrets and Lies

Luna Rossa started out as a side-project from Panic Room emphasising the acoustic side of Anne-Marie Helder’s and Jon Edwards’ music, but seems to have taken on a life of it’s own. Their second album is a logical progression from the first; perhaps not quite as eclectic, but with a slightly clearer musical identity. Luna Rossa still defy easy genre pigeonholing, though the album does show occasional hints of artists as varied as Goldfrapp and Renaissance. There’s some very raw heart-on-sleeve emotion, with the music revolving around and complementing Anne-Marie’s always remarkable vocals.

Steve Rothery – The Ghosts of Pripyat

This Kickstarter-funded project is Steve Rothery’s first proper solo album in more than three decades as lead guitarist of Marillion. It’s an instrumental album with a band including Panic Room’s Yatim Halimi and Mr So and So’s Dave Foster, Rothery’s lyrical and emotional playing both soars and rocks, the numbers building in intensity from slow-burning beginnings. The whole thing shows just why Rothery is one of the best guitarists of his generation, one of the few players good enough to pull this sort of thing off without descending into self-indulgence.

Their second full-length album is their first record to feature the current eight-piece version of the band, and it successfully captures their big live sound of eight instruments and five voices. It’s a record that takes psychedelia, jazz, hard rock and all kinds of other things, and puts them in a blender to produce something that sounds quite unlike anything other band in the current scene. Jagged angular guitar and woodwind riffs alternate with rich vocal harmonies and sometimes sinister atmospherics. There are hints of the late Frank Zappa’s off-the wall approach to melody and arrangements, and occasional flashes of various 70s King Crimsons. Torabi’s occasionally goofy lead vocal contrasts with the layered harmonies of Melanie Woods, Chloe Herrington and Nicki Maher.

It’s an ambitious and very varied record. “The Skulls We Buried Have Regrown Their Eyes”, which has to be the song title of the year features electronic soundscapes interrupted with a brief but frenetic squalling burst of free jazz. Then there’s the stripped-back spookiness of “This Empty Room Once Was Alive” with its atonal guitars and piano. The minute-and-a-half long “The Orphanage” has a punk feel. There are strongly Zappaesque jazz-rock instrumental passages in “Send Him Seaworthy” and “Destroy the World We Love”. But if anything characterises the power of Knifeworld in full flow it’s the big wall-of-sound workouts “Don’t Land On Me” and the closing epic “I’m Hiding Behind My Eyes”.

“The Unravelling” is a major step forward for Knifeworld, and reflects their current live sound far more than any of their previous recordings. Fans of Zappa should find a lot to like about this record, as should anyone who thinks there should be more bassoons in rock. But this is a record for anyone looking for something determined to strive beyond existing stagnant music forms. Which Knifeworld certainly do.

A taster from Knifeword’s forthcoming album “The Unravelling”, due in the Summer. You want bonkers psychedelic rock from an eight-piece band with a brass section and a bassoon? Of course you do!

A tour featuring three bands from the more avant-garde end of the progressive rock spectrum, Knifeworld, The Fierce and The Dead, and Trojan Horse. There are allegedly bassoons involved, although as for which of the three bands might feature such instruments, that would be telling.

This progtastically bonkers extravaganza can be seen at the following venues:

• 27th October – The Stag & Hounds, Bristol.
• 28th October – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
• 29th October – The Ruby Lounge, Manchester.
• 30th October – The Brudenell Social Club, Leeds.
• 31st October – The 13th Note, Glasgow
• 1st November – B2, Norwich
• 2nd November – The Lexington, London

Full details including ticket info can be found at http://www.stabbingadeadhorse.com/