(39:30; Soniq Theater) One always knows it is the New Year as there will be an email from keyboard player Alfred Mueller telling me about his latest album. He has only missed one year since 2000 when he commenced his solo career (he was previously in Rachel’s Birthday. This is his 26th album, and I have reviewed them all, and whenever I listen to them, I always feel he should be far more recognised, not just for his longevity and commitment but also because he has released some very nice material over the years. This album finds him turning more to Wakeman than Jarre, especially on numbers like “King’s Enchanter (magic mix)” which has some nice punch and power and rocky elements, although the programmed drums are always an issue. However, he provides multiple keyboard layers, and it fairly bounds along which is nice. Over the years Alfred has experimented with vocals here and there, and it is rare that it is a positive outcome and sadly that is what we have again here on “Tears” which ...

(64:00; Moonjune Records) Soft Machine has had probably one of the most convoluted membership histories of any band, but there is no doubt in my mind that the current line-up has continued to keep the name alive and are directly linked to the original band. Hugh Hopper and Elton Dean were both in the band in the Sixties, and it was they who formed Soft Ware in 1999, alongside former Soft Machine drummer John Marshall plus Keith Tippett, who had played with Dean at the turn of the Seventies. After a few line-up changes, Hopper, Dean and Marshall invited ex-Soft Machine guitarist John Etheridge into the fold, at which point the name changed to Soft Machine Legacy. Sadly, Dean passed away not long afterwards, and he was replaced by Theo Travis (ex-Gong), while the death of Hugh Hopper led to another ex-Soft joining the band, Roy Babbington. Marshall and Travis are still there today, while Babbington and Marshall have since passed away and been replaced by Fred Thelonious Baker and Asaf Si...

(33:27; Dur et Doux) Back with their third album, the French trio of Alice Perret (keyboards, vocals), Lucas Hercberg (bass, big guitar, vocals) and Corentin Quemener (drums, vocals) continue to make music which is designed to make life incredibly difficult for reviewers like me. This issue all reviewers have when listening to an album is how to put into words what we are hearing, and this is something which defies all normal categorisation. In many ways it is a soft, very French, pop album from the early Eighties which has been influenced by Devo, Thompson Twins and the angular approach of Talking Heads. But there are also influences from Frank Zappa, The Doors, psychedelia and The Seekers, which when thrown together should sound terrible, yet there is something here which is fresh and exciting, creating a pop sound which invites the listener in, even if they have forgotten all the French they learned at school nearly 50 years ago. There is a sweet innocence throughout this release, a...

(46:00; Paul McLaney) I have known Paul McLaney for some years now, primarily through Gramsci, but he has also worked with other artists as well as being an author. This album is the first in a series which he plans to release solely through Bandcamp as opposed to making it available through the normal streaming services, hoping to not only maximise revenue but also that those interested will listen to the album in its entirety in the order in which it is supposed to be played (the person who invented shuffle is just behind those who invented autotune and programmed drums on my personal hitlist). This instrumental release is comprised of two lengthy pieces, each in excess of 20 minutes, which falls somewhere between the fields of classical, chamber, ambient and progressive. The main instrumentation is acoustic guitars and piano, but there are also  glockenspiels, Mellotrons, celestas and organs, and we are taken on a journey which feels relaxed but with purpose. Almost as if we are...

(52:26; Cuneiform Records) NeBeLNeST were an adventurous and energetic young band who emerged onto the avant progressive rock scene in the late 90’s, but after the departure of founding guitarist Cyril Malderez in 2003 they went into a somewhat chaotic state and although Sébastien Carmona  stepped in to assist in recording the third album he soon left again afterwards. Eventually the band regrouped as a quintet with Olivier Tejedor (keyboards), Michael Anselmi (drums) and Gregory Tejedor (bass) being joined by Matthieu Sassier (guitar) and Julien Wack (saxophone, flute, guitar). They were to play three major dates in 2007, the first being the Rock in Opposition Festival in Carmaux, France, the second was NEARFest in the United States, with the last being the Saalfelden Jazz Festival in Austria. Afterwards, the band kept going into the studio but the fourth album was never completed, and the last set ended up being the final gig the band ever played. Given the energy and tightness o...

(71:10; Öresund Space Collective) There is no doubt that 2026 is already lining up to be an incredibly busy year for Dr. Space who has already released a few albums outside of ØSC, and here in May that band have already released ‘Espaço 3’, with a split LP with Psychedelic Source Records also due out any time, along with this album as well, which is out at the end of the month. It is being released on double vinyl and double CD, with the second CD full of material not available on the records, and the CD version has a running time of just under 150 minutes. Given “Cakefakebake” is a short synth-based piece of less than five minutes one can see just how long the rest of them are given the double CD contains just six numbers. Recorded over a six-day period in 2022, it was mixed in March 2024 and apart from a few overdubs on the title cut it was recorded totally live. This is a rather more expanded line-up than the version which recorded ‘Espaço 3’, with no banjo this time, and a few musi...

(68:58; Öresund Space Collective) The joys of listening to a collective such as ØSC is that one is never really sure of what one is going to get, as when they start recording, neither do the band. Also, as it is a collective, they happily shift membership based on who is available and what they want to achieve each time, with the only true constant being keyboard player Dr. Space. As one may infer from the title, this is the third in a series of albums, and here tracks are often in a longer form. This time around there are five songs, and if one removes the one which has the temerity to be less than eight minutes in length this collection is still more than two hours long. Mind you, there is both the full version of “Warbled Cactus Roots” which is 40 minutes long plus a heavily edited version which is only 23. Apart from Dr. Space the only other person to appear on all three releases is Jonathan Segel (violin, lap steel, guitar) with the rest of the line-up this time being Jiri Hjort (...