(33:38; Nefarious Industries) There are plenty of arguments to be made that Nefarious Industries are one of the most progressive labels around, and yet again we see evidence of that with the second album from New York’s Bassoon. Created in 2007, they initially started as the drum-machine-powered duo of Stuart Popejoy with Harvey Milk bassist Steve Tanner before evolving into the current trio of Popejoy on bass and keyboards with Sean Moran on guitar and John Mettam on drums. They received a great amount of critical respect for their debut release in 2012, but it took until the end of 2023 for their second to be released, and we can only hope it will not take as long for the next one to appear.   This is a very heavy album indeed, almost sludge in its appeal at times, doom at others, but incredibly this is all brought together with a huge dose of RIO and Krautrock to create something quite unlike anything else I have heard recently. It blasts with the force of Mastodon in some areas...

(48:52; Arthur Offen) There are quite a few reasons which have kept me writing about music for more than 35 years, and one which certainly cannot be discounted is insanity, but probably the main one which keeps me coming back is that I am fortunate enough to hear music which very few others ever come across and then can do my bit to try and promote them in some small way. Last year I came across the 2021 Air Raid album, ‘Freedom Calls’, which I really enjoyed. Not long afterwards I heard from the man behind that project, Arthur Offen, who wondered if I might be interested in his solo album from 2016, so of course I agreed. I knew Arthur had been in Air Raid in 1973 and that their debut album was produced by none other than Eddie Kramer but was not aware that he had also been the main person behind Flag, who released a trio of albums starting in 1994. He says that in many ways this is a direct continuation of that project, but here released under his own name. Yet again we have a Sevent...

(39:26; Brian Tarquin) Following on from the success of ‘Brothers In Arms’, here we have the next in Tarquin’s series of collaborations when he is looking to raise money for charity. He plays all instruments except drums, where studio percussionist Reggie Pryor lends his services, as well as composing the music, engineering and producing the final result. The album’s mission is to support ‘Hope For The Warriors’, who provide medical, mental health, and professional services for ill and injured Marines and Navy members, and to assist in that he brought in a real star-studded line-up. Musically this is prog fusion we have some stars from that scene as well as others who are not normally associated with this style of music: Jean-Luc Ponty, Eric Johnson, Robben Ford, Steve Morse (Deep Purple), Dean Brown (David Sanborn), Hal Lindes (Dire Straits), Chris Poland (Megadeth), John Tropea (Billy Cobham), Steve Kindler (Jeff Beck), Carl Verheyen (Supertramp), Larry McCray (John Mayall), Phil Nar...

(50:15; Steamhammer) It is always difficult to review a band when there has been a death, especially so when it is the main composer, and even more so when it is a band I have been following for more than 40 years. From the day I saw their ‘Live’ double single available for the princely sum of 50p I was keen to hear what they sounded like which led to me buying it, soon getting ‘Marauder’ and then the two studio albums they had released at that point, ‘Kingdom of Madness’ and ‘II’. There then followed the golden period for Magnum, with ‘Chase The Dragon’ and ‘The Eleventh Hour’ leading directly to ‘On a Storyteller’s Night’. In December 1985 I saw them for the first time (supported by some outfit called IQ!), something I repeated over the years, always in awe of Bob Catley’s vocals and Tony Clarkin’s songs. Magnum broke up in 1995, before Tony asked Bob to sing on his new project Hard Rain, which in turn led to the reformation in 2001, and they have been going ever since. Tony has alwa...

(66:00; OOB Records) What we have here is an enhanced re-issue of an instrumental album originally composed for television series, ‘Conquer The Arctic’ (1991). These pieces were then released under the pseudonym Orion, with the album being called ‘Orion’. Now, some 30 years later Ton has revisited this, has rearranged several tracks, added two new ones, and has now reissued it under his own name with new artwork. At the time of the original recording Ton had been a member of Camel for some eight years, following the breakup of his own band Kayak (which of course would later reform), and there is no doubt being involved with them had an impact on this release. In terms of comparisons with other keyboard players, two in particular come to mind as while Rick Wakeman is the most obvious there is no doubt that Jean Michel Jarre has also had an impact, but there is also definitely a Camel feel to much of this, even though this is layers of synthesisers. I have not previously come across the ...

(38:50; Swell Brothers) Here we have the debut album from the wonderful new hip duo of the brothers Moses Swell and Dewey Swell. On the cover it says that is who is involved, and according to Bandcamp, Dewey provides flute, clarinet, alto clarinet, bass clarinet, soprano, alto, tenor, and baritone saxes, piano, organ, Wurlitzer electric piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, electric bass, double bass, violin, cello, and kanun while Moses provides drums, percussion, marimba, vibraphone, glockenspiel, xylophone, piano, organ, synthesizer, trombone, trumpet, tuba, cimbasso, bassoon, lots of strings, electric and acoustic bass, and pan pipes. Then looking down further it is possible to see they have two guests with Dave Newhouse on pennywhistle and Michael Bass on triangle. Now take a closer look at the cover, and you will soon realise that the Swell Brothers are in fact these esteemed musicians who used to be in The Muffins, and this is a pisstake. That they also then cover “Brix”, which t...

(26:37; Space Kitchen) Hailing from Ontario, Canada, Space Kitchen is a duo formed by Rob Howell and Robbie Carvalho, with the former providing keyboards and the latter bass, drums, guitar and lead vocals (apart from closing number “Pain Goblin” where Rob takes the lead and also provide bass and acoustic guitar). I must admit the first time I listened to this I really wasn’t sure as it all felt a little prog lite to me, along with vocals which were more alternative/indie even than neo, but the more I kept playing this the more I realised the issue was more with my own perceptions and attempting to pigeonhole the sound as opposed to really listening to what was going on. The thing is, this actually isn’t a prog album per se, but rather it is an Eighties pop rock album with progressive influences, and once one just listens to the songs without any preconceived ideas of what it should be like it seems all so much better. There are plenty of hooks contained within this EP, which is just se...