(49:02; Cuneiform) It took fifteen years for Bubblemath to produce their excellent second album, ‘Edit Peptide’, but it has only been five for them to release their third, ‘Turf Ascension’, which we should all be grateful for. There are less Cardiacs influences in this one, more Gentle Giant plus King Crimson, and a definite switch to the more melodic and less challenging while losing none of the quirkiness and charm one finds within their music. Apparently, this was a deliberate approach on behalf of the band who felt that possibly they spent too long on their second release, due in no small part to setting up their own recording equipment which allowed them to spend as much time as they liked without worrying about cost or being kicked out of the studio. Just four songs, but only one of these has the temerity to be less than 10 minutes in length (by three seconds), yet when one falls headlong into the world of Bubblemath time has no meaning, as all that exists is their creation. Whil...

(19:37; Melodic Revolution Records) If one was to be given the opening track of this progressive album from multi-instrumentalist Andres Guazzelli to play without knowing the concept, then one might wonder what on earth was going on. It starts normally enough with delicate underlying piano but soon becomes fractured, dissonant, with instruments coming in and taking over, switching melodies and styles, sometimes forceful, and others quiet, and what on earth is that noise in the background? Andres has been public about his suffering with ADHD, described by Sarah Young like this, “The hardest thing about ADHD is that it’s ‘invisible’ to outsiders. Living with ADHD is like being locked in a room with 100 televisions and 100 radios all playing. None of them have power buttons so you can’t turn them off and the door is locked from the outside.” The concept behind this album is an attempt to put this into music, with the six tracks each portraying a symptom of the disorder. The first four nam...

(56:22;  Beautiful Bedlam) This is the debut album by Melbourne-based prog band Beautiful Bedlam and was released last year. While Melbourne is a hotbed of music, as well as being one of my favourite cities, I am not aware of too many prog bands hailing from there apart from of course the mighty Aragon. Formed by Luke Ancell (guitars) and his brother Scott (drums, programming, backing vocals) who both used to be in A Lonely Crowd, along with Ross Taylor (keyboards, vocals) and James Van Strien (bass, vocals) this appears to be a mix between a band and a project as they also have six guest lead vocalists, and they mix up many different styles which has resulted in an album which for me is fractured and not as cohesive as many others seem to feel. Opening track “Flaking Paint” is an absolute killer, dynamic, driving and in your face, bringing in huge elements of XTC with a jagged approach and plenty of powering guitars and riffs. It moves, changes, and is a wonderful introduction and...

(67:00; Circuline) This 2016 album was the second release from Circuline, and as of 2022 their most recent studio effort, although there have been some live releases and of course keyboard player Andrew Colyer has been working with Robert Berry in 3.2. Coming to this album fresh, one can hear just why Andrew was invited to take part in that band given he is so obviously influenced by Keith Emerson, and there are times when Circuline do come across as a more commercial outfit than ELP but following in similar veins, which given they originated out of a covers band is perhaps not that surprising. However, there is a much stronger focus on vocals and vocal harmonies which definitely takes the music in a different direction. The line-up at the time was  Andrew Colyer (keyboards, vocals), Billy Spillane (lead vocals, guitars), Darin Brannon (drums, percussion), Natalie Brown (lead vocals), Paul Ranieri (bass, bass pedals) and Beledo (guitars) yet they also felt the need to bring in addi...

(79:00; Inside Out) This was the fourth in a series of quarantine concerts undertaken by Devin, and he calls this the “green screen” concert as the guys are all in different cities when they performed this, quite an advert for the speed of the internet in some parts of the world. This has now been made available in all formats, and some of this is on YouTube if you want to check it out. One would never guess from the performance that the guys were not actually playing together, and of course one gets the highly polished sound and use of backing tracks that one has come to expect with Devin’s shows. The one thing which does seem weird is that at times Devin talks to those people watching when this was originally streamed, but of course there is no response, no crowd noise. I am not sure what is left to say about the mad canuck, as he has been consistently releasing great albums for a long time now, and it is incredible to realise that the mighty ‘Infinity’ will be 25 years old next year...

(40:39; Christopher Scott Cooper) Before the plague hit us, I was contacted by Christopher Scott Cooper of New Sun, and we discussed him sending me the back catalogue to investigate, and then I promptly forgot all about it until the other day when an email arrived containing just that. Given it was more than two years since I had heard from Christopher, I was somewhat surprised to be honest, but it has certainly given me the opportunity to listen to nearly all their albums, in sequence. I previously reviewed their third album, 2001’s ‘Expectations’, when it was released, but have never heard any of the others so this was new to me. Also, I did not realise that Christopher had released a solo album back in 1991 which in many ways is a precursor to the New Sun journey (and is available through their Bandcamp page). Originally released on cassette, it has now been remixed and remastered, and was basically a completely solo effort with a guest playing bass on one song, someone providing pr...

(61:45; New Sun) Two years on from his solo release, and multi-instrumentalist Christopher Scott Cooper joined forces with guitarist D.L. Erickson in 1993 to form New Sun, and by the time of their 1995 debut they were completed by bassist Alex Kley and drummer Chris Trujillo. One can see the journey from the debut through to this one, as this carried on many similar ideas, but as is often the case when there are more players involved, each with different influences, the music has transformed. In this case it is way more polished, and while there are more people the arrangements often contain more space. Take “Glass” for example, there are times when it is solid drums, a dynamic bass (love some of the different styles Alex shows on this), a little guitar and Christopher’s vocals, yet there are others where they more far more solidly into prog metal territory, taking a leaf from Threshold as opposed to Dream Theater, so it is not surprising that PA list them as Heavy Prog. Indeed, while ...