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Yak - 2025 - The Pink Man & the Bishop

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(54:00; Yak) After Martin Morgan read my review for the latest edition of Camel’s ‘The Snow Goose’ he felt inspired to get in touch and see if I would be interested in hearing his latest release, which I why I am now listening to the first Yak album in ten years, and the first where Martin played everything (apart from one of the bonus tracks which includes ex-bandmates Gary Bennett and Dave Speight). I must confess to not having previously come across Yak, as they were originally playing between 1982 and 1984, before Martin decided to resurrect the band in 2003. There have been a few albums since then, and I am obviously going to have to seek them out as this shows a great deal of promise. We will move rapidly past the drumming, as that is the one area where this album could be improved, and instead concentrate on some incredibly lush and wonderful keyboards which are combined with some wonderful guitar patches to create music which sounds as if it is coming to us straight from the Se...
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Transport Aerian - 2025 - Darkblue [Anniversary Edition]

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(40:49; Melodic Revolution Records) This album was originally released in 2015, and it features just Hamlet (vocals, guitars, keyboards, bass, programming, drums, samples) with Rachel Bauer (spoken word, vocals). According to the label, this 10th Anniversary release has enhanced production, refined arrangements, and a deeper exploration of its themes, but given I have not heard the earlier release I cannot say what differences have been made. It is quite a strange album to listen to, as probably the biggest element is the use of atmospheric elements, and there are times when it is dark and gothic, others where it is far more in the listener’s face, which means that one needs to spend a great deal of time listening (preferably on headphones) to fully understand where Hamlet is coming from. There are some songs, such as “Sand Horizon”, where the majesty and depth is almost off the charts as Hamlet’s vocals combine with piano, reverb and not much else, to create something which is truly r...
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Tinn Parrow & Co [Laurence Bond Miller] - 2025 - My Gymnasium Museum

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(74:59; Cuneiform) Although the above band name will be new to many, I am sure there are plenty who will instead recognise Laurence Bond Miller (Sproton Layer, The 4th World Quartet, Empool, Destroy All Monsters, Nonfiction, The Empty Set, Larynx Zillion’s Novelty Shop, The Mister Laurence Experience, Exploded View, Laurence Miller and The Love Maniacs, etc.). He comes from a very musical family as one of his brothers is Roger Clark Miller (Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Dream Interpretations/Solo Electric Guitar Ensemble, The Anvil Orchestra, Mission of Burma, etc), while along with his identical twin Ben Miller (Destroy All Monsters, God Knows Who, Solo Multiphonic Guitar, Sensorium Saxophone Orchestra, etc) Laurence was on the Miller Twin’s ‘Early Compositions (1973-1976) which I have previously reviewed. Both brothers have joined with Laurence on this album, which has a fairly large cast, but Laurence shows his multi-instrumentalist talents by contributing vocals, clarinets (Bb, alto, ...
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Time's Forgotten - 2025 - Songs of Awakening

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(50:26; Melodic Revolution Records) When I reviewed this Costa Rican band’s fourth album, ‘Shelter’, which was released in 2022 I said I really hoped we would not have to wait as long for the next one as there had been a ten-year gap from the previous release. Mind you, part of that may have been caused by the change in vocalist from Francisco Longhi to Priscilla Ruiz, and just three years on from the last album we have the same line-up as last time around with founder Juan Pablo Calvo (keyboards, guitar, vocals) again joined by Priscilla, Jorge Sobrado (drums), Chalo Trejos (bass),  and Ari Lotringer (lead guitar). Here we have a prog metal act who are more than happy to crunch the riffs, and although formed by the keyboard player, Juan is more than happy to play a supporting role. More Threshold than Dream Theater, this is a guitar-based metal outfit who come to prog and technical metal from a melodic viewpoint, and while they have a singer who provides them with a certain Doro p...
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SWRM - 2025 - Lights Out

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(43:03; Cuneiform) This is the second album from Alec K. Redfearn (vocals, Moog Matriarch, Sequential Circuits Trigon 6, Korg ms20, Eurorack modular synth and field recordings) and Matt McLaren (drums percussion, harmonica and neyanban), and while I have not heard the other one, I do know both these guys from Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores. According to PA these guys are Krautrock, while the label recommends this for fans of Neu!, Faust, Suicide, Gary Numan, Silver Apples, Alec K. Redfearn and the Eyesores, and I think they’re both wrong. While there are indeed elements of all of the above in this, I believe they have far more in common with pronk, and bands like Cardiacs and (especially) early Poisoned Electrick Head.   Although the music is based around synths and percussion (plus a hauntingly weird harmonica), it feels very “real’ and earthy, bringing in influences of psych, prog, space rock, minimal wave, and post-punk. It is experimental, yet it is also somewhat commer...
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Stephan Thelen & Markus Reuter - 2025 - Rothko Spaces, Volume 4

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(51:46; Iapetus) Following rapidly on from ‘Promise of a Better World’, which was Markus & Stephan, here we have ‘Rothko Spaces Volume 4’ which is Stephan & Markus. As one can surmise from the title, this is the fourth in the ‘Rothko’ series, but only the second where Markus has been involved as the other two feature David Torn (Vol 1) and Jon Durant (Vol 3). Markus played his touch guitar in a large room with multiple tube amps and microphones where the amplifiers were set loud enough that feedback and distortion became part of the creative process. They had a few discussions ahead of time regarding  sounds, key centres, tempos and moods, but the pieces are freely and spontaneously improvised. Stephan then took the parts he liked most which he felt he could work with, then digitally edited them, sometimes adding additional effects (in a similar manner to how Robin Taylor used to often work with TFU), and sometimes brought in additional instruments to enhance the overall so...
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Roswell Six - 2025 - Terra Incognita, Uncharted Shores

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(51:47; Inkind Music)  Back in 2009 a new project was unleashed on an unsuspecting world, Roswell Six. The concept had come about when author Kevin J. Anderson had a conversation with ProgRock Records’ owner Shawn Gordon which led to the idea of having a book/music tie in with three albums containing lyrics by Kevin and his wife which would tell the story of the Terra Incognita series of books. I really enjoyed the first two albums, 2009’s ‘Terra Incognita: Beyond The Horizon’ and 2010’s, ‘Terra Incognita: A Line in The Sand’, but sadly while the third book was released in 2011 there was no album, and it seemed the originally envisaged project was at an end. Musician, composer and record label boss Bob Madsen has been involved in multiple projects over the years, one of the most notable being The Grafenberg Disciples who had written and recorded a tribute to Neil Peart after his untimely passing, entitled “No Words.” Not long after the video was made public, Bob received an email t...
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