(48:08; PeacockSunrise Records) Track list: 1. The Illuminating Sands of Time 12:28 2. Deep Waters Glow Brightly 14:30 3. Frequency Modulation 10:39 4. The Rhodes to Discovery 10:31 Line-up: Gayle Ellett - keyboards, guitars, sitar, bouzouki, soundscapes, effects Mark Cook - bass, Warr guitar, soundscapes, effects Craig Kahn - drums Prolusion. US band Gayle Ellett & The Electromags is the latest venture by US composer and musician Gayle Ellet, which in progressive rock circles may be better known for being a central member of long lasting US progressive rock band Djam Karet. Since 2002 this latest venture of Ellet has released three studio albums. The most recent of these is called "The Painted River of Light", and was released through US label PeacockSunrise Records at the start of 2025. Analysis. Instrumental progressive rock is the name of the game for this production, and in this case with long, complex compositions being the default feature: All of the compositions c...

(20:53; Unicorn Digital [2022 Edition] ) Back in the Nineties, before the internet and email (yes, there was such a time), the only way for fanzine editors and bands to communicate was through snail mail and by sending physical CDs through the post. I have no idea who contacted who first, but Michel St-Père and I were “talking” to each other in that manner back then, which is how I came to review the first two Mystery albums. It could be argued that Mystery have had three distinct phases to their career, defined by three different singers and the gaps created when one left. The current singer is, of course, Jean Pageau, while the singer prior to that was the one pinched by Yes, Benoît David. But when I first came across the band they sounded quite different, and the singer was Gary Savoie. There was a break of nine years between ‘Destiny?’ and ‘Beneath The Veil of Winter’s Face’, while there had only been two between the latter and the debut, ‘Theatre of the Mind’, but what I had not r...

(22:20: Hydrogen Band) Here is the third in a series of releases from Hydrogen Band, the name given to Barney Jones (guitar, bell tree, tape machine, metal clarinet), Dave Newhouse (e piano, organ, bass clarinet, flute) and Bev Stephenson (synth, bell tree, organ, penny whistle) who recorded these sessions in 1980. Barney and Bev are no longer with us by Dave has worked in Ian Beabout to bring to life these old recordings and make them into something new. This time we have just one long track, “3 Eye”, which is actually four sections edited together from two separate sessions, with some overlaps/fades.     Given it is from the source, it is no surprise that this is a logical follow-on from the other two EPs in this series, with all three musicians heavily into experimental improvisation, going where the mood takes them. The different multi-instrumentalists switch between what they are playing with an almost hypnotic repetition on keyboards at times and is definitely one o...

(71:00; Barock Project) The last album I heard from this Italian outfit was 2017’s excellent ‘Detachment’, at which time the core quartet brought in three singers to help out. However, by the time of the next album, 2019’s ‘Seven Seas’ they had brought in one of those singers, Alex Mari, firmly into the fold and now the quintet is back with the next. The rest of the band is still Luca Zabinni (keyboards, backing vocals, acoustic guitars), Eric Ombelli (drums), Marco Mazzuoccolo (electric guitars) and Francesco Caliendo (bass), so there is real continuity in the line-up. I am pretty sure if I played this to a proghead and they did not know the country of origin they would never pick Italy, as what we have here is a band who are bringing in multiple elements of the American AOR scene with more in common with the likes of Timothy Pure than the classic RPI outfits we all know so well. Now, that is a style of music I have long enjoyed, but while this is pleasant there is always the feeling ...

(43:04; Alberto Nemo / Claudio Milano / Niccolo Clemente) The latest release featuring Claudio Milano finds him again working with electronic artist Borda (Teo Ravelli) plus two pianists/electronic artists, Niccolò Clemente and Alberto Nemo. In English, the title means ‘Fracture/Appearance/Fade’ and it is worth understanding the concept behind this, which is that it is a  “musical and scenic action on a text by Niccolò Clemente aka Whale, which stands outside space and time, creating a world of its own, liturgical, cathartic, therapeutic, 'other'. It places conscious man at the centre of a sonic display without latitude or time (Western and Eastern modes, ancient and contemporary), without any pretence of clamour.” Given there is also a statement that the value of history “has lost the value of spirituality and a consciousness of the Jungian archetype in order to overcome its own limit” we can also state this is not a ‘normal’ release. However, I firmly believe that anything in...

(55:31; Off - Record Label) Although The Wrong Object were formed in the early 2000’s, it was not until 2006 that their first album came out, when they collaborated with the iconic and legendary Elton Dean on ‘The Unbelievable Truth’. A couple more albums followed in quick succession, but then there was a gap until 2013, and releases have been somewhat sporadic since then, but given how the musicians are also involved in other bands that is not surprising at all. What we have here is not a new album, but rather a collection ten previously unreleased or unavailable compositions, most of them rescued from flash drives, minidisc recordings and reel-to-reel tapes. Some of it was recorded in the studio, some at gigs, and while they are often planned recordings there are also some here which were recorded by a fan. According to the label these recordings are mostly before the band began to stabilize around founder Michel Delville and drummer Laurent Delchambre, but what it doesn’t tell me is...

(40:44; Wormholedeath) The Wring were brought together by guitarist Don Dewulf in 2015, since when they have had a different line-up on each album, this being the fourth. Bassist Reggie Hache played on the last release, 2022’s ‘Spectra’ and he returns, adding vocals and keyboards as well while on drums there is new member Kyle Brian Abbott who has quite a seat to fill given that Marco Minnemann played on the last album. Mind you, if he has any nerves, he certainly does not show it, as this is a blast from beginning to end. What we get here in the eight songs, just over 40 minutes in length, is a band who are coming at this from heavy rock roots with progressive and jazz influences. There is something about this band which reminds me of a combination of Mastermind and Rush, but given they are Canadian it is perhaps not surprising that they have picked up some of those influences along the way. There is no room to hide in a trio, and each of these guys are on fire, happily blasting away ...