Here’s some music that various members of the Prog team have been grooving to this week…
EDITOR - JERRY EWING
JELLYFISH - THE KING IS HALF UNDRESSED
Some might say that you can tell what we’ve been working on by the choices made for our weekly round up of cracking tunes. I would say we possibly couldn’t comment. Suffice to say that Jellyfish’s ebullient power pop, with added 10cc, Supertramp, Queen and Beach Boys has had the whole office singing all afternoon. So I thought I’d share it with you. Was also thinking of getting the team to come to work dressed up like Jellyfish from now on. What do you think?
DEPUTY EDITOR - HANNAH MAY KILROY
SWEET BILLY PILGRIM - COLOMA BLUES
Sweet Billy Pilgrim’s jangly electro folk has won over the hearts and ears of many at Prog Towers, particularly after watching them recently at Desertfest. This jaunty little number is especially enchanting, and Jana Carpenter’s soulful and uplifting vocals are a notable highlight.
ART EDITOR - RUSSELL FAIRBROTHER
CYCLOBE - YOU’RE NOT ALONE, YOU’RE DREAMING
So you like progressive music, you like ambient meditative music and you are partial to a bit of drone coupled with a smidgeon of folk. Well here in one handy box are Cyclobe, the now infrequent partnership of Stephen Thrower and Ossian Brown whose past collaborations include Coil and Derek Jarman This piece is instantly accessible and easily will annoy your family on a Sunday morning. It’s not the soundtrack of a new world you’ll be bringing to their party, but of a whole new universe
NEWS EDITOR - NATASHA SCHARF
THE RECEIVER - TRANSIT
We’ve had Tangerine Dream and Dream Theater and now we’ve got dream-prog. US duo The Receiver are the founders and although their new album All Burn won’t be out until next month, they’ve reworked the sublime lead track Transit and uploaded it to YouTube. It’s part of a session that was recorded at a local barbershop and summarises the definition rather nicely
REVIEWS EDITOR - GRANT MOON
MEW - SATELLITES
The Danes return with their excellent new album +-, replete with highly intelligent other-pop like Satellites. And if you never really considered them prog, just have a listen to the none-more-neo transition from verse to chorus (around the 1min 33 sec mark). Upbeat highlights like this abound, but if you can seek out closing track CrossThe River On Your Own - that one’ll break your bloody heart.
“RUS, WHAT’S THAT GUY THAT SITS OPPOSITE YOU DO?” - PATRICE MANNEQUIN
GONG - FLYING TEAPOT
First released on my birthday (25 May 1973), Flying Teapot from the album of the same name, is nearly 12 minuets of bass, piano, sax, drums and spacey sound effects. Now crank up the volume and give me my cake!
LIMELIGHT BAND
SURF CITY - BEAT THE SUMMER HEAT
New Zealand psych rockers Surf City at first drew a bit of a blank when Prog wanted to talk to them. ‘Why?’ was essentially their pitch. Well, if you dig Aussies Tame Impala or Pond, then we reckon you’ll love this mob. It’s as simple as that. Fortunately they warmed to the idea as swiftly as we did to their melodic and compelling summery tunes.
