(48:38; Glassville Music) Giant Sky are a side-project created by Soup keyboard player Erlend Viken (here working in a multi-instrumentalist role) and they released this their debut album in the middle of last year. Now, I notice this has been getting some rave reviews in different places, yet to my ears it is somewhat bland, and in opening number “The Further We Go the Deeper It Gets” there are so many Pink Floyd keyboard sounds that it gets somewhat embarrassing. With different singers and drummers on different tracks, this has very much a project feel about it as opposed to a proper band, and suffers for that. There is a lack of continuity within the different songs, so while the opener is Floyd, “Broken Stone” is very much Mike Oldfield, and then the short “Interlude” is more of a classical duet with piano and flute. I am not sure what it is trying to achieve as it meanders with little in the way of direction. By now I was halfway through the album, and not really looking forward t...

(38:44; Acid Test Recordings) Here we have the debut album by Great North Star who are Dean Thom (guitars) and Phil Considine (percussion, production), and a mighty fine release it is as well. It takes significant confidence to release an album which is as sparse as this one, as it relies on the listener to spend time doing just that, something which is in short supply these days. They have roots in multiple areas, most notably Ambient, New Age and Progressive, and they combine these with other influences to create something which is cinematic and expansive, dynamic, and enthralling while never in your face. Every note and melody has been thought through, as while there are layers they are like gossamer threads which are being woven together with care. Phil is listed as providing percussion, but in truth there is very little of that on the album as this is all about the music being provided by Dean combined with the arrangements and production which then bring it all to life. They desc...

(36:48; Dave Newhouse) When it comes to Canterbury-style music there are few who can compare to Dave Newhouse, who first with The Muffins and now with Manna/Mirage somehow manages to keep producing wonderful songs over a career which is now 50 years in the making. This album is somewhat more diverse, with quite a few different musicians  (I note his Moon Men compadré Jerry King is on a few), so I wonder if it was taken from different sessions or if it is a clean-up, but whatever it is, we have yet another wonderful album which contains plenty of jazz mixed in with the Canterbury sounds. Dave is wearing multiple hats on this one, with keyboards as well as multiple woodwind and brass instruments, and even adds some vocals and drums as well. This is less of a band album and more of a Newhouse release, as he is very much at the centre of everything, adding in different musicians as the need arises, and the result is something which is compelling, diverse, fascinating, and full of focus...

(31:29; Oliver Birch) This is the debut album from Auckland musician, Oliver Birch, although older versions of many of the songs contained within have already been made available as singles. When the album started with the lengthy keyboard chords and feedback intro I thought it would fall into krautrock, but instead it quickly changed into a psychedelic experimental art rock number with emotionally charged vocals and an outright refusal to conform to any expectations. In many ways this is totally different to the rest of the album, yet it also fits right in as this experimental pop continues all the way through, albeit in different styles. While Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is an obvious reference, so are the likes of David Bowie, Peter Gabriel, Jonathan Richman, David Byrne and others who like to push the envelope.      The album is multi-layered, and the use of brass is inspired, while the guitar can be fractured, distorted, fuzzed, clear or acoustic and k...

(62:00; English Electric) I am always nervous when it comes to listening to a BBT album, and especially when writing about it, as I am probably the person who has been reviewing them longer than anyone else in the world. The band have reinvented themselves multiple times over the years, but the one constant has been Greg Spawton, and last year’s ‘Common Ground’ saw them take another jump sideways as the band undertook a serious culling. Although they had some guests (including the wonderful Dave Foster who cut his teeth on the same circuit as the original BBT), the band was now David Longdon (lead vocals), Gregory Spawton (bass), Rikard Sjöblom (guitars, keyboards, vocals) and Nick D'Virgilio (drums, vocals). BBT’s style has changed over the years, but somehow, they have always seemed very English, even though that has not been the nationality of all those involved. Here that pastoral sound has been combined with a freshness and openness as they used David’s vocals to even better e...

(47:16; English Electric) On 20th November 2021, BBT vocalist David Longdon died in hospital after an accident at his home. This obviously had a major impact on the band and everyone who knew him, yet they had just completed their latest album so what to do with it? David was very proud of the recording, and in conjunction with his partner, the band made the decision to release it in January 2022. Of course, this meant I had not heard it prior to David’s passing, so it is quite possible that my review is impacted due to that knowledge, but I will attempt to remain as objective as possible. Although the band had changed to a quartet for the previous release, ‘Common Ground’, they were now operating as a septet with no guests whatsoever. David Longdon (lead vocals), Gregory Spawton (bass), Rikard Sjöblom (guitars, keyboards, vocals) and Nick D'Virgilio (drums, vocals) were now joined permanently by three musicians who all performed on the previous album as well, Carly Bryant (keyboar...

(50:53; Khepra Records) I must admit to doing a bit of a double take when I saw this new album, as I only discovered the underground progressive scene in 1991 and Castanarc had already pretty much finished by then. I reviewed their 1984 debut, ‘Journey To The East’, as it was reissued on CD by Kinesis but had not given much thought to them in a very long time indeed. Mark Holiday (vocals) and David Powell (keyboards) are back from the band who released four albums in the Eighties, with guitarist John Spence being the additional member plus there are some guests, including Neil Duty who was guitarist back in the day. I must confess to having not played their debut in many years but checking out my 1994 review of the debut I said they were produced melodic and progressive rock which fans of Camel or Pendragon should check it out, and that it was based very heavily around Holiday’s vocals. Much of that is still true today as Castanarc are still based around Holiday’s vocals, but in some w...