(77:29; Cuneiform Records) Rascal Reporters have had a somewhat unusual career in that they were formed in 1974 by multi-instrumentalists Steve Gore and Steve Kretzmer, with the latter taking a step back from composition after 1995’s ‘Purple Entrapment’ before taking a break from music altogether. Steve Gore continued working under the name, utilising guests such as Dave Newhouse (The Muffins) before Gore died in 2009. Kretzmer later decided to revisit old material with bassist and multi-instrumentalist James Strain, releasing the two ‘Redux’ albums in 2019 and 2021, and now the pair have shared writing and performing on the first album of new material since 2008’s ‘The Mind Boggles’. There are again a series of guests including long-time collaborator Dave Newhouse (The Muffins, Manna/Mirage) and Guy Segers (Univers Zero), along with Jessica Martin Maresco (Pili Coit, Le Grand Sbam) and Dario D'Allessando (Homunculus Res). With a career stretching nearly five decades, and with this...

(39:56; Dur Et Doux) The first four albums from French avant garde outfit PoiL featured the trio of Antoine Arnera (keyboards, vocals), Boris Cassone (guitar, vocals) and Guilhem Meier (drums, vocals), but since then they have been joined by Benoit Lecomte on bass, a role previously also undertaken by Boris, but in early 2023 a new outfit came together called Poil Ueda which also includes Japanese musician Junko Ueda (satsuma biwa, vocals). Their debut self-titled release was very enjoyable indeed as they mixed European avant-garde with Japanese styles to create a new artform with two genres crashing into each other to tell a traditional Japanese tale. This time around we have the epic story of samurai hero Yoshitsune. At the naval battle of Dan-no-Ura, he brought victory to the Genji clan in the long war against the Heike clan.  Yoritomo, Genji general and Yoshitsune's elder brother, suspects that our hero secretly intends to seize power, and orders his assassination. Despite Yosh...

(40:41; Cuneiform Records) This is the first time I have come across Italian Canterbury-inspired band Picchio Dal Pozzo who released two albums in the Seventies before disbanding in 1980. They reformed and released two albums in the early 2000’s, but since then there has been nothing. Then in 2020, just before the lockdown, guitarist and founder Paolo Griguolo received a CD labelled ‘Valdapozzo 05/30/2004’, from an unknown sender. He remembered they had played a fully improvised gig at the location where they had earlier recorded their last album, which at the time he thought had gone really well but when he played the CD, he was not so happy. But perhaps it could be cleaned up? The result is the first new album from Picchio Dal Pozzo (‘Woodpecker from the Well’ according to Google, what a great name) since 2004. It features founders Paolo and Aldo De Scalzi (keyboards, sampler, programming) along with long-time drummer Aldo Di Marco and saxophonist Claudio Lugo who joined the band whe...

(93:00; Inside Out Music) I am glad to see that Spock’s Beard have various tours lined up as it would not take much for fans to assume that band no longer exists, given they have not released an album since 2018 (the return to form ‘Noise Floor’), but the band formed out of it have now released their fourth since then. Both Ted Leonard (lead vocals, guitar) and Dave Meros (bass) are still in the line-up of Spock's Beard, drummer Jimmy Keegan was in the band for a large number of years, while keyboard player John Boegehold is a long-time collaborator (and nearly joined them prior to Ryo Okomuto). I have been a fan of Ted’s since the debut Enchant album a million years ago, and he never disappoints (so pleased I managed to catch that band in concert), Jimmy Keegan has always been an exciting player who adds to every band or project he is involved with, Dave Meros is one of the most exciting and constructive bassists around (listen to any of his live work in particular to see just wha...

(41:41; Atomic Fire) I have been racking my brains but cannot remember another situation like this, where we have a brand-new band releasing a sequel to an album by another. Richard West didn’t feel ready to leave the world Threshold brought to us in their mighty ‘Legends of the Shires’, but his bandmates did, so nothing was going to come of it. Richard then started writing for his own pleasure, until he realised this was a viable release so brought together some old friends to make it a reality, hence Oblivion Particle. Here Richard provides lead vocals and keyboards, and he has been joined by Guitarist Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation), bassist Simon Andersson (Darkwater) and drummer Darby Todd (Devin Townsend) while Karl Groom (Threshold) provides solos on a couple of numbers. Richard may not be the strongest singer in the world, but he has composed and arranged the album in such a way that he comes out very well indeed and demonstrates why he did not feel any need for anyone else to t...

(57:36; FTF-Music) It is always a difficult decision as to whether to maintain a band when a key person leaves or sadly passes away, and I am sure there were many discussions as to what to do when multi-instrumentalist Eric Bouillette passed away way too young. He was also the most high-profile member, having been involved with multiple other bands as well, but it is nice to be able to report that Nine Skies have not only kept going but have returned with a very enjoyable album indeed. It is a concept, telling the story of Rudy who is living his 1001st and final life and is retracing some of his existences through different characters and he reflects on these. They have dispensed with saxophones, so Laurent Benhamou is no longer with the band, but the rest of Nine Skies are the same as on ‘5.20’. They have again used guests, but this time around they have used multiple singers, and since the recording have brought in a new lead vocalist themselves in Charlie Bramad (who here provides l...

(48:02; Dur et Doux) Here we have the third album from Anthony Béard (guitar, scream), François Mignot (guitar), Nicolas Bernollin (drums) and Benoit Lecomte (bass), following on from 2019’s ‘Pantophobie’. Yet again they refuse to sit happily inside any particular musical genre and even the record label asks the question are they math rock, noise, metal, jazz or something else, or all of it and more. I enjoyed their last album immensely so was looking forward to this one and am glad to say I was not at all disappointed. There is something inherently strange about a band who can pummel like Meshuggah, be insanely shred happy like Protest The Hero yet have the progressive inclinations of King Crimson and the off the wall avant garde of Markus Reuter, yet somehow it all works. I am not surprised it took four years between the debut and the second album, and then four more between that one and this, as this is insanely complicated yet all four are linked in incredibly tightly. It is dense ...