Here’s some music that various members of the Prog team have been grooving to this week…
EDITOR - JERRY EWING
SWEET BILLY PILGRIM - JUST ABOVE MIDTOWN
Having witnessed a fine performance at Desertfest last weekend, Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s blend of 10cc-like awkward pop and more progressive passages went down a treat. This, from their excellent new album Motorcade Amensiacs (out on May 25 through Kscope) is further evidence the band are maturing into one of the finest modern progressive thinking acts Britain has to offer…
DEPUTY EDITOR - HANNAH MAY KILROY
KONTINUUM - BREATHE
This track is from what could potentially be from my favourite album of the year – beautiful, gothy post rock from Iceland. [Is that it? - Ed.]
ART EDITOR - RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER
ALRIGHT THE CAPTAIN - BEN & BARBARA From Derby-based Alright the Captain’s new album, Contact Fix, comes a finely balanced slice of intricate fretwork, whimsical melody, frenetic noisy rhythms and a fine coating of fragile instrumentation.
NEWS EDITOR - NATASHA SCHARF
NORDIC GIANTS - RAPTURE Taken from Nordic Giants’ slightly delayed debut album, Rapture combines almost every opposite into one seamless track. It’s dark but light, experimental but accessible and I love Beth Cannon’s vocals. The rest of A Séance Of Dark Delusions is equally as hypnotic and will finally be out on Monday through Kscope.
REVIEWS EDITOR - GRANT MOON
ANEKDOTEN - GET OUT ALIVE It’s a good day at Prog Towers when the postman brings new music from Anekdoten. Powered by Mellotron strings and gazing meaningfully at its shoes, this brooding anthem comes from their upcoming album Until All The Ghosts Are Gone. If my first few listens to this dark, knotty and utterly compelling work are anything to go by, they’re going to have a very good year…
WRITER - TUSHAR MENON
BLIND GUARDIAN - TWILIGHT OF THE GODS For years, I have maintained that Blind Guardian is among the proggiest bands outside the genre. The orchestrations are dense, the harmonies complex and the listening experience often simultaneously exhausting and gratifying. While their high water mark, for me, is 2002’s Night At The Opera, virtually anything from the last twenty years of their back catalogue is worth getting acquainted with. The song I’ve chosen here is Twilight Of The Gods, the first single off their most recent album, Beyond The Red Mirror. Their first experiment with seven string guitars, this has some significantly heavy riffing, characteristically great vocals from Hansi Kursch and an instrumental section which, although in 4⁄4, still catches me off guard with its extremely odd syncopation (time stamp 2:54). The whole album has been in constant rotation chez Tushar for the last couple of months. This song in particular is a good, if shallow, introduction to this band which transcends their genre in a way that many great bands do. But their real depth only reveals itself on a journey through an entire album.
LIMELIGHT BAND
JUNG PEOPLE - ORIENT B./TO A PLACE YOU DON’T COME BACK
Canadian art rock collective are described the new issue as atmospheric post-rock with a progressive twist. This little film they’ve created certainly hints at the progressive and artistic side of the band, and we’re sure you’ll enjoy it.
