Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

LIFESIGNS    Nothing much happens in Leighton Buzzard (36 miles northwest of London), but there are signs of life there in the 21st century, with Neo Prog band Lifesigns being the most exciting thing to happen there since The Great Train Robbery in 1963. Lifesigns' self-titled debut features prog luminaries Steve Hackett and Thijs van Leer with the wonderfully-named Frosty Beedle on drums. Lifesigns are a band with lofty ambitions, with their second album - Cardington - recorded as a tribute to the early pioneers of air travel at the Cardington airship works. Clearly,  this is a band with Altitude!  

 2013: Lifesigns - Lifesigns - http://lifesigns1.bandcamp.com/album/lifesigns

 2017: Lifesigns - Cardington - http://lifesigns1.bandcamp.com/album/cardington

 2021: Lifesigns - Altitude

LORIEN    It's in the trees! A Neo Prog quintet named after J.R.R Tolkien's magical forest, where composing great music is just a force of Hobbit for this band of tree-dwelling elves. 

MAGENTA     If you're going through a bit of a purple patch, then what better band can there be than Welsh band Magenta - an all-time favourite Neo Prog band that's more tasty than Welsh rarebit. And in the unlikely event that you ever tire of listening to Magenta, you'll discover this band has more varied shades than a Dulux colour chart, all of which feature ubiquitous founder member Rob Reed, including Cyan, Chimpan A, Kiama, Trippa, and the Fyreworks, as well as solo albums by Magenta band members, Rob Reed, Chris Fry, and Christina Booth - the third most famous soprano in Wales (after Charlotte Church & Katherine Jenkins). 

Other Shades of Magenta 

MARILLION     A band for your Friends & Family too... Marillion are the most popular and most commercially successful Neo Prog band of all time - bar none - with a career spanning over forty years - or five decades if you prefer. Marillion sound like the kind of band Genesis might have been in the 1980's if it wasn't for Phil Collins' ambitious dreams of pop idol stardom. Marillion's long discography spans two distinct eras:- The Fish Era: 1982-1988, and The Hogarth Era: 1989 to the present day. Marillion bravely went where no band had gone before with their New Wave of British Progressive Rock (or Neo Prog) often being credited with giving a second life to older established prog bands, although You & I know that's just Smoke & Mirrors and there was never any danger of prog dying out like the dinosaurs - or is that just a case of Anoraknophobia? Long Live Prog! 

A well-known painting from The Hogarth Era

MOBIUS     A half-twisted Mobius strip is an abstract mathematical concept embedded into three-dimensional Euclidean space, and so it is with the band Mobius, whose music twists and turns in endlessly complex and multi-dimensional ways, designed to amaze and confound the listener in equal measure. This is Neo Prog, Jim, but not as we know it, and I can confidently Make the Promise that Mobius' 5-star album sounds like no album you've ever heard before. 

MR. SO & SO    Another stonkingly good Neo Prog band who may have passed you by. Mr. So & So were an impressive band right from the get-go, but they were about to get a whole lot better in the new millennium when they reunited with the angelic voice of Charlotte Evans adding a nice delicate feminine touch to the band's sound. It's on the band's fourth album though where they really let rip by ramping up the amps to eleven (ala Spinal Tap), or is that just a combination of Truths, Lies & Half Lies? You be the judge. 

  2013: Neon Leaves - Cinema Verite - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ngE_4a86Iw-yhH_eJ0ezQrPA9moA_Ci7A

  2016: Neon Leaves - A Room Full of Strangers - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mZKh24TmxDZoAXh53tUs7CwWNkpX9MMHs

  2013: Clive Nolan - Alchemy - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ncYYh8SLR6jq87sCvdzeSwFiKLdRHsteA

  2013: Clive Nolan - Otra Vida - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k53TW5mtM6JjahzdITV6qdmIW9W-4MblQ

  2015: Clive Nolan - Hidden Treasure - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbCNav2HuS0

  2017: Clive Nolan - King's Ransom - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6_ZWCWkKM

  2021: Clive Nolan - Song of the Wildlands - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k2R-u2u1PNlrL02FPK6PNIG7R9k6hB7kk

  2022: Clive Nolan - El Valle de los Cedros - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpcogb_mDYFMzL6Bo4ZkJnjidLjEnCqcQ

  1999: Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman - Jabberwocky - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kRNzuC_raR9uuKARO42tGdSHYyL3Wn79g

  2002: Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman - The Hound of the Baskervilles - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lTHQYyisLyUGXgY9rkU7hxRxL_Lkvc5Q8

  2021: Clive Nolan & Oliver Wakeman - Dark Fables - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lsfx_N5E_RLQ_5vSgljMp3OgtY1LiyngQ

  2019: Nth Ascension - Stranger Than Fiction - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nCMcCzwGUlSlX_psrhaNeOVkIOeDqSxFE

CLIVE NOLAN    The Grand Wizard of Neo Prog presents six epic albums of rock opera with a cast of characters longer than the biblical epic: Exodus (1960). Yes, it's England's answer to Ayreon! Clive Nolan has the singular distinction of being the youngest ever musician (aged 16) to gain a diploma at the prestigious London College of Music. The prodigious number of bands Clive's been involved with over the years reads like a veritable Who's Who of Neo Prog:- Arena; Pendragon; Shadowland; Strangers on a Train (with Tracy Hitchings); Caamora (with Agnieszka Swita); Casino (with Geoff Mann); and Nolan & Wakeman (with Oliver Wakeman). No doubt it would cost a King's Ransom to own Clive Nolan's entire discography, so why not sample some free Hidden Treasure that Clive has sprinkled with his invisible touch of keyboard Alchemy on YouTube. It's magic! 

Nth ASCENSION     Blackpool Rocks! Nth Ascension are a little-known Neo Prog band from the seaside town of Blackpool. Be warned though: the earnest, overwrought vocals of Michael Alan Taylor are an acquired taste. They should appeal to fans of Gentle Giant or Van der Graaf Generator though. 

 

 2016: Nth Ascension - In Fine Initium - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kpitg7cz79wJ54uEuUGiqbdbCkUV5_QcM

 2019: Nth Ascension - Stranger Than Fiction - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_nCMcCzwGUlSlX_psrhaNeOVkIOeDqSxFE

MARTIN ORFORD     Keyboard player Martin Orford is Living Proof that there's life after being a member of a major Progressive Rock band. Prog fans will know him best as a founder member of IQ until announcing his departure from the band back in 2007.  Martin's also worked with increasing Frequency with John Wetton and Jadis too and in The Wake of leaving IQ, he's created one of the best Neo Prog albums you're Ever likely to hear - "The Old Road" - even if you have some Resistance to Neo Prog generally.