(43:46; La Societe Du Spectral / Bang Bang Booking / Atypeek Music / L'étourneur / Do It Youssef) Track list: 1. Three to One 1:00 2. About Time (part 1, 2 & 3) 33:03 3. Not the End 9:43 Line-up: Not stated Prolusion. French band Spectrum Orchestrum have a history that dates back to 2007, and have a handful or so of album releases to their name as of 2024. The album "It's About Time" dates back to 2018, and was released by a handful of niche labels, as well as being made available digitally through a Creative Commons licence. Analysis. There will always be a little bit of an argument to be had, I guess, for whether music of an improvised nature can truly be described inside the progressive rock category or not. For me it all depends on whether music is conventional, as regarded from a mainstream point of view, and in that regard improvisations will also fit the bill. In this case with a band that know and love their improvised jazzrock. While the line-up isn't

(54:03; Reigning Phoenix Music) I admit I did some digging around on this album to check I had the details correct, as what we have here appears to be a re-recording of the second album from Amorphis, originally released in 1994. However, what we actually have is the band playing the album in its entirety at the Tavastia Club, but without an audience. I understand how that makes it much easier to get all the cameras in place (this is available in multiple versions, including Blu-ray), and for things to be repeated if there is a need, but when just listening to the audio one wonders what is the point? I have always preferred live albums, where the band use the energy coming back at them to lift the performance and make it special and many bands have released albums in that form which are head and shoulders above anything they achieved in the studio (Nazareth, UFO, Kiss, just to name a few), but to the listener this just sounds like a studio re-recording. Yes, they play the whole album i

(40:43; Proximity Records) I have been reviewing music by Steven McCabe for the best part of 30 years now, and have always enjoyed his releases as Elegant Simplicity, even still owning some of his early cassette tapes as well as many CDs. At the end of 2023 he found himself experimenting with a musical style which was far more ambient in nature, and very electronic, so much so that it would not fit in with his normal band, which is sometimes him as a multi-instrumentalist and a few others or a full set of guests to bring out the sound. The sensible course was to create a new entity to deliver the music away from the norm, and although the new site of course references his history this not a subset of Elegant Simplicity in any way, but instead is a new outfit in its own right. There are six instrumentals, with a total running time of 40 minutes, but given the title cut is itself some 24 minutes in length the others are not too long. Steven provides some guitar or bass here or there, but

(38:25; Lynx Music) This is the first time I have come across Adam Jurczyński (guitars, vocals , bass, keyboards), who has been joined on this release by Bobi (drums) and guest Małgorzata "Margo" Szkoda-Hreczuch who provides vocals on the title cut and is the frontwoman for Moyra who released their debut album last year. I would have liked to have heard more from her, as she definitely adds an additional element, but even with her only being involved on the first song this is quite an intriguing album which never sounds like a solo project but a full band. This is a concept album where we find Adam moving between technical metal and prog metal with a harsh vocal style and crunching guitars. Then just when we think we have a handle on what is going on we get oriental guitar on “Tears of the East” which is quite distracting and means we no longer make the assumptions about what may be coming next. Given that Adam is shown on the album cover with a guitar and a samurai side stra

(46:07; Mega Dodo) Tír na nÓg are an Irish folk duo who were formed in Dublin, Ireland, in 1969 by Leo O'Kelly and Sonny Condell, and are widely considered to be one of the first progressive folk bands, having a major impact on the scene and gaining a considerable following before breaking up in 1974. Since then they have reformed multiple times, releasing a new album in 2015. I must confess to not knowing if any of the material on this set has previously been available, given everything is taken from recordings made for radio broadcasts, but is a fascinating insight into the band when they were at their peak. This is available as a download on Bandcamp but has been made available as a limited-edition vinyl (250 copies) and is designed with that format in mind.  Side one features six songs recorded in the studio, with the DJ spoken introductions removed, and Side Two finds them in concert with the irrepressible John Peel before each song. I don’t know when the tracks on side one we

(39:50; Shueh-li Ong) When I heard from Sheuh-li earlier this year she told me she had heard about me from a friend in the progrock scene that I was a reviewer, and would I be interested in her latest album? We swapped emails but I never asked her who the friend was, and it was only when I came to write the review that I realised I had come across her playing previously as she was a guest on the last (hopefully not final) album by 3rdegree, ‘Ones & Zeros - Volume 0’, so guess the friend is probably Robert Pashman. What interested me was the way that Sheuh-li says she is first and foremost a theremin player, providing additional instrumentation as well. She thinks of this album as a concerto, containing six movements of various sections with contrasting tempi, the appearance of motivic repetition and variation, and solo cadenzas. However, this is far removed from classical music as there is a high level of Oriental influences as well as progressive. It is not a solo work, as she has