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Aethellis - 2023 - The Affinity Oeuvre

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(51:45; Melodic Revolution Records) Multi-instrumentalist and singer Ellsworth Hall started Aethellis as a solo project in 2002, releasing his debut album the following year. He then brought in some other musicians so he could perform the music live, and in 2011 returned to the studio with them to record ‘Northumbria’. This was as a full band, but there have been some changes again since then and now Aethellis comprises just two other musicians, both of whom were involved in that, Mark Van Natta (guitar, vocals, bass, keyboards) and Erik Marks (bass), while Ellsworth provides keyboards, vocals, guitar and drum controller. I must confess this never sounds like a modern album, but instead has its heart very much in the very early Eighties, combining American melodic rock with lightweight progressive so it has a very different feel to what we were hearing in the UK with the likes of Twelfth Night, Marillion, Pallas, Dagaband and others. That is due to it being mostly soft melodic rock wit
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Residuos Mentales - 2023 - A Temporary State of Bliss

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(43:54; OOB Records) Residuos Mentales is a studio project from Athens, Greece, formed by  Stratos Morianos (keyboards, synthesisers) and Alexandros Mantas (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flute, bass)  in 2012. It took until 2018 for their debut album to make an appearance, ‘Introspection’, and now a further five years for the next one. There are a lot of guests on this which turn it into a full band with Dimitris Radis (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass), Yiannis Iliakis (drums, percussion), Leonidas Sarantopoulos (saxophone, flute), George Karayiannis (guitar), Vaggelis Katsarelis (trumpet), and Maria Tseva (wordless vocals). Yes, this is an instrumental prog album (way too few of these around), and in true old school fashion it opens with a dynamic track which is more than 17 minutes in length. Actually, there are only four songs on this 44-minute-long release which gives plenty of time for the band to move and shift.   Here we have instrumental music with real purpose and d
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My Own Army - 2023 - A King On Every Corner

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(43:44; OOB Records) My Own Army is an alternative/progressive rock band hailing from Rotterdam, and currently comprise Herman de Kok (vocals, guitar), Sven Spierings (drums, electronics), Ferry Westdijk (bass) and Vincent Hekkert (guitar, backing vocals). They have been around for quite a while, releasing their debut album back in 2014, but it has taken until now for them to return with a follow-up. Apparently, they used to be more grunge based, but these days state they are influenced by A Perfect Circle, Tool, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Wheel, and Porcupine Tree which is certainly quite different to what most prog bands would reference. But MOA are not most prog bands, while Porcupine Tree are an obvious starting point it has definitely been moved more into the grunge and rock area, and I would be interested to see where PA would put them as there are grounds for them to be included in neo, or crossover, or even excluded from the site altogether as they are not “Prog” enough. Giv
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Jeremy Morris - 2021 - My Shining Star

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(71:00; Jam Records) I did a little bit of a double take when I started playing this album, as while “You’re Amazing” ended the previous album, here it starts this one but performed in a very different manner indeed. This album finds Jeremy (vocals, guitars, bass, drums, piano, mellotron, synths, mandolin, dulcimer, e-bow) being joined by Dave Dietrich (drums), Peter Morris (bass), Matt Willsea (guitar) and Stefan Johansson (guitar) as we find ourselves again in power pop territory but this time with a full band and much more of a rock edge. 13 songs this time, and a much longer running time with 71 minutes, so in many ways this is quite different to the last release with the opener being given a new life altogether. This all comes to a head with the closing track, but I’ll get to that in a minute. What makes Jeremy such an intriguing and interesting artist is his ability to record albums in different genres, with different line-ups, yet somehow make each and every one sound as if it i
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Jeremy - 2021 - Distant Dream

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(41:20; Jam Records) This 2021 release finds Jeremy (vocals, guitars) being joined by Ken Stringfellow (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards, drums) of The Posies in a very pleasant psychedelic and power pop romp through a dozen songs with a total running time of 41 minutes. Included in that is a cover, namely Big Star’s “Thirteen”, which is one of their most well-known and best-loved numbers, but here it fits in very well with the rest of the material and if the listener did not know the classic, they would presume this was yet another Jeremy original. He often conjures up thought of The Byrds, and this album is no different in that respect, although there are plenty of The Beatles here as well. I have no idea how many of his albums I have reviewed over the years, “lots” is the best I can come up with without tracking through every bit of writing to date, yet it is rare for me to not enjoy what I am listening to and again that is the case here. It would be very easy to equate such a large
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Itoken / Klimperei / Frank Pahl - 2023 - IKP

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(52:50; Cuneiform Records) I always get excited when a promo arrives from Cuneiform as I know my musical experience is going to be somewhat expanded, and that is definitely what happened here. IKP is Itoken (Kenji Ito, Harpy, etc.) Klimperei (Christophe Petchanatz, etc.) and Frank Pahl (Little Bang Theory, Scavenger Quartet, etc). Kenji answers to Itoken, Christophe answers to Klimperei and Frank answers to Frank because he’s never adopted a cool stage name. Individually they have collaborated with a wide range of musicians including Otomo Yoshihide, Tadahiko Yokogawa, Eugene Chadbourne, Amy Denio, Pierre Bastien, David Fenech, Shugo Tokumaru, Ferdinand Richard, Luc Houtkamp, Nick Didkovsky, Daevid Allen, Grimo, Harpy, Anthony Moore, Only a Mother, Shaking Ray Levis, Voxfazer, Madame Patate, Brian Poole, etc. Itoken and Frank have collaborated on and off for more than 20 years, while Frank and Christophe have released albums together (albeit they have never been in the same room at the
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Emerson, Palmer & Berry "3" - 2018 - Rockin' The Ritz NYC 1988

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(83:33; Liberation Hall) In 2017 Rockbeat Records gained permission to release this radio recording of 3 in concert at The Ritz in New York City, NY on April 14th, 1988. It was this recording which caused Keith Emerson to rethink his views on the band, contact Robert Berry, and for them to start collaborating again on songs which would appear on ‘3.2 – The Rules Have Changed’. Towards the end of 2023 Rockbeat reissued the album again as a double vinyl set with new artwork, and this is what I am currently listening to. When it came to recording the second 3 album Keith had passed away, and Robert undertook the project on his own, but on that night in 1988 it was the full five-piece live band of Keith Emerson (keyboards), Carl Palmer (drums, percussion), Robert Berry (bass guitar, vocals), Paul Keller (guitar), and Jennifer Steele (backing vocals).   I loved 3 when the debut came out, even though I was a diehard ELP fan and had no idea who this American was they had brought into the rank
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