(182:44; Esoteric) There is no doubt in my mind, nor in those of many others, that Bill Nelson is an exceptional songwriter and while he has released in excess of 100 albums over the last four decades or so, it is those which he released with Be-Bop Deluxe for which he will probably always be most closely associated. That they only released five studio and one live albums before ending has nothing to do with record label pressures, but rather down to Nelson’s dislike of the touring treadmill and a stated unhappiness of having to play “Ships In The Night”, and the lengthy essay from Nelson in the booklet contained in this collection details that he only provided the last album if he was then given the licence to break up the band and do his own thing. Here we have one of the greatest live albums of all time, ‘Live! In The Air Age’ sandwiched between ‘Modern Music’ and ‘Drastic Plastic’, the last two BBD studio albums, as this is the companion set to ‘The Albums 1974-1976’, so in just tw...

(44:27; Viajero Inmovil) There has been quite a change in Argentinian band Akenathon since I reviewed their second album ‘Como Hormigas’, which was released in 2020. Back then they were a guitar/bass/drums trio with all musicians providing vocals, but this time around Aníbal Acuaro (guitar, vocals) and Guillermo Rocca (drums, vocals) have a new bassist in  Fernando Chavez Gonzalez and have become a quartet with the addition of Marcela Crusat (keyboards, vocals). While I enjoyed the last album I did feel there were times when it was somewhat unsettling, and I was not always sure what they were trying to achieve. However, there has been a dramatic change now with the introduction of keyboards as an additional musical element in a band that often plays instrumentals. They say their music is  progressive rock which also contains  influences from tango, hard rock, and others, and for the most part I would define this as heavy prog which works very well indeed with intense melo...

(44:56; The Laser's Edge) What we have here is the debut album by Agropelter, which may seem like a band but in reality, is more of a project from multi-instrumentalist Kay Olsen. Kay provides guitars, bass, church organ, and keyboard leads (including Mellotron, Hammond organs, ARP, cembalo, Minimoogs, and Taurus bass pedals) on the album  while there are also contributions from Jonas Reingold (Steve Hackett, The Flower Kings, Kaipa, Karmakanic) on fretless bass, Andreas Sjøen (Umpfel, VÅDE, Sean Ashe) on drums, and Mattias Olsson (Änglagård, White Willow, Molesome) on percussion plus further guests providing various strings and woodwinds. The result is an instrumental which is influenced by both classic prog bands such as Genesis, Camel, King Crimson, and Eloy, and classical composers such as Rachmaninoff, Beethoven and Bach. In many ways it feels like a classical album, but there are also times when it feels as if we have been taken back into the Golden Age when Wakeman produced ...

(35:17; Cuneiform) I have written millions of words and many thousands of reviews in the last 30 plus years of writing, but I honestly believe this is the first time I have ever said “power cello trio”. Janel Leppin (cello, Minimoog) and Anthony Pirog (electric guitar) surely need no introduction as the husband-and-wife team have been working together for many years, while they first became aware of Mike Kuhl (drums, percussion) when they met while being a part of Adam Hopkins' Out of Your Head Collective in 2010. The coming together towards the end of last year and recording this album has resulted in something which is special, indescribable and undoubtedly beautiful. There are some songs which are percussion led, with the others finding a place within the groove, while others have Anthony at the front and the others supporting, while Janel is able to coax sheer beauty out of her instrument, bringing in classical overtones while at others it is like a heavy rhythm guitar often, b...