Rob Harrison - 2024 - Explode My Head

(45:06; Rob Harrison)

Having only recently come across Rob with his excellent ‘Overflow’ release it seemed fitting to go back a few years and investigate his 2024 debut, ‘Explode My Head’. At the time of this release he was playing in both Mascot Moth and The Felix Subway Band, had co-founded Z Machine with Owen Rosser and Gareth Piper, and had been under the wing of Ian East (Gong) for four years to improve his sax playing. On this release Rob provides all guitars, saxophone, bass, vocals & sfx, but he has also brought in a few guests to make this much more of a band release as opposed to a one-man project, including the aforementioned Mr. East who contributes both flute and bass clarinet. The excellent drummer Eliseo Salverri is utilised on most tracks, and it is no surprise that Rob also used his talents on his second album.

Rob is very much influenced by British progressive bands who are more experimental than many, with Cardiacs and pronk being very much the major style combined with elements of jazz fusion, Steve Hillage, Gong, Gentle Giant, VDGG, PO90 and others. Sax is sometimes the main musical lead, at others it could be the guitar, or it may even be the voice, one just never knows where this meandering musical journey is going to lead next. Often jagged, never mainstream, this is music which feels as if is from a time gone by when anything was possible with a refusal to conform to what many expect, even within the prog scene. Apparently, Rob was first influenced by guitarist Tony McPhee from The Groundhogs, a band one rarely sees mentioned today, but who released some phenomenal albums (check out ‘Thank Christ for the Bomb’ and ‘Split’, both essential), so he has a different starting point to many which undoubtedly has impacted his eccentricity.

At the heart of this album is melody, but sometimes that is almost subliminal with chaos all around, yet it always makes sense. Rob is a real artist, one who goes where the muse takes him as opposed to following the herd, which is probably why he decided he needed a video to go with this so spent three frantic months building a set from scratch, making 30+ plasticene figures to inhabit it and then three long weeks of animation (for a total of about a minute and a half of footage!). The cover artwork is taken from this.   

There is a sense of lightness within this release, yet it refuses to compromise and the result is something which is thoroughly enjoyable indeed, and progheads looking for something a little alternative to the norm will thoroughly enjoy this. 

Kev Rowland, August 2026

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/RobHarrisonMusic