PA's Top 100 Prog Albums, Year by Year

The album opens in rousing and rollicking fashion with "It Wasn't for You", a lively saxophonic blast of good old-fashioned bluesy Jazz-Rock, very much in the style of those other fine purveyors of uplifting funky fusion, Ginger Baker's Airforce and the Graham Bond Organisation. The singer has the same kind of rough raucous voice as Graham Bond. In other words, they both sound like they eat gravel for breakfast in the morning, but that's no less than what we'd expect from the best of British blues singers. In fact, this is just the kind of energetic and spirited Jazz-Rock we could all do with listening to first thing in the morning to get us up out of bed and instil a spirit of vim and vigour and get-up-and-go energy to face the day ahead. Alternatively, you could listen to some gentle and relaxing New Age music and roll over and go back to sleep again. Now that Titus Groan have grabbed our attention with the lively opening number, it's time for the extended four-piece suite "Hall Of Bright Carvings". This epic song is a real musical tour de force, featuring flamboyant flutes, heavy guitar riffing, booming bass-lines and pounding percussion. The dynamic contrast between the gently melodic pastoral passages combined with sudden explosive outbursts of musical artillery fire are what really sets this music alight with power and passion. Titus Groan can really carve their names with pride for producing stunning Jazz-Rock like this.

Side Two opens with "I Can't Change", which ironically, is a song full of constant change. It's a resonant flute-driven refrain that draws obvious comparisons with Jethro Tull, although the song takes a very unexpected turn midway through with a pleasant Country Rock diversion, before a return to more familiar fluty Jazz-Rock pastures. Either way, it's a great song that barrels along relentlessly and features enough sudden tempo changes to delight devotees of Jazzy Prog-Rock. The next song "It's All Up with Us" is very commercially appealing, which would have made it an ideal choice for release as a single. The impassioned silver-toned singer is positively bursting with optimism here and the heart-warming music sounds as bright and uplifting as a radiant sunburst of rainbow colours after a summer shower. This is timeless evergreen music where all the brightly-coloured flowers in the garden are blooming. And talking of flowers, along comes "Fuschia" (a misspelling perhaps?), which is sadly the final song on the album, although all good things must come to an end, unless of course you're lucky enough to possess the CD reissue with three bonus tracks included. "Fuschia" refers to Miss *Fuchsia* Groan from the Titus Groan novel. The music is another flawless funky fusion of pounding Jazz-Rock energy, which is altogether upbeat, up-tempo and uplifting.

Titus Groan have delivered a memorable timeless Jazz-Rock classic with their one and only album release. This energetic evergreen album sounds just as good today fifty years on as it ever did back in the halcyon days of the proggy 1970's.

The album opens impressively with "To Play Your Little Game", featuring plaintive vocals and a beautiful organ solo before launching into some fast-paced Jazz-Rock played in an unusual time signature. "Winter is Coming Again" is a pleasant sounding melody, featuring a wild psychedelic guitar and Hammond organ solo in the middle section. "Time or Bed" opens with an acoustic guitar before transposing into another up-tempo Jazz-Rock number in an irregular time signature. The title track "Cressida" is probably the most Jazzy track on the album with an upbeat Jazzy 5/4 time signature. "Home And Where I Long To Be" is a beautifully complex song, and ranks as one of the most impressive numbers on the album with it's sudden changes of tempo, soaring vocals and virtuoso Hammond organ and guitar accompaniment. The song is very much in the style of the Moody Blues and would deserve pride of place on any of their albums. "Depression" is a very fast-paced song, very reminiscent of one of the Moody Blues rockier numbers. Side Two of the album opens in similarly impressive style with the jaunty song "One of a Group" with the sound of the Hammond organ very much at the forefront and featuring a brief fuzzy guitar solo with a few Jazzy piano motifs included for good measure. The eighth song on the album "Lights on My Mind" is an up-tempo rocker with some bright and breezy Hammond organ playing and another far-out fuzzy guitar solo. "The Only Earthman In Town" begins with a haunting refrain and launches into some dextrous and intricately fast-paced organ-playing. Track 10 "Spring '69" is a gentle melody featuring a solo acoustic guitar which blends in nicely in between the orchestral and Jazzier numbers. The penultimate song on the album "Down Down" opens with a beautiful organ solo and features the haunting sound of the Mellotron. The song has several interesting changes of pace throughout and includes a Jazzy interlude. The album concludes in full grandiose splendour with "Tomorrow is a Whole New Day", a song very much in the symphonic style of the Moody Blues classic "Night in White Satin".

This is a superb album of musical virtuosity featuring a very talented group of musicians. The album should delight Symphonic Prog lover's everywhere. It should also appeal to any aficionados of early Jazz-Rock with special appeal to fans of Justin Hayward and the Moody Blues symphonic sound. It's no exaggeration to say this album is a masterpiece and it deserves repeated listening to fully appreciate the beautifully complex nature of the twelve well-crafted songs. There's an abundance of melancholy melodies, fast-paced Jazz-Rock songs and grand masterpieces of symphonic virtuosity to entertain and enthral the listener in equal measure and it's an essential album for any classic Symphonic Prog collection.

Opening the curtain on "Act One" comes "Poet and Peasant", a fast and furious fugue of supersonic Emersonian organ virtuosity. This booming and bombastic Baroque piece is very loosely based on the music of the obscure Austrian composer of light operas, Franz von Suppe. Light opera has NEVER sounded quite like this though. This is a wild and dynamic organ jamboree where traditional Classical music is thrown completely on its head and given a healthy burst of pompous and powerful Prog-Rock, in true "Roll Over Beethoven" fashion. The wonderfully expressive singer sounds like he's having a great time too with some magnificently over-the-top operatic vocals, in the style of David Byron of Uriah Heep. Hold on tight now because entering stage right is "Passaglia". Can you handle it as this is George Frideric Handel played as you've never heard him played before. Again, the keyboard player is going hell for leather on the Hammond organ with no let-up in the incredible pace. There's also a flambuoyant flourish of funky guitar in an exhilarating extended solo in the middle section. This powerfully percussive piece has all the unstoppable power and explosive energy of an Exocet missile, with you the listener as the target. The next song "Memory" is another rapid-fire machine gun delivery of sound with the dynamic duo of Hammond organist and wild guitar player battling it out together while the drummer pounds away relentlessly on percussion. Apparently, when Beggars Opera acted as the support band for the Tremeloes way back in 1970, they blew the Tremeloes off the stage, and it's easy to see why when you listen to this energetic high-voltage album. This explosive music has all the flash and thunder brilliance of a boxful of fireworks that's been accidentally set alight.

Side Two is occupied by two 12-minute-long suites. There's more manic musical mayhem with "Raymond's Road". It's a soaring and symphonic sonic blast of incredible intensity with the amplifiers turned all the way up to eleven. Is it Bach or is it Mozart? One thing's for sure, you've never heard Classical music played quite like this before. You may not have heard Symphonic Prog played quite like this before either. This is no Moonlight Sonata. This is more like Widor's Toccata on anabolic steroids. It's an adrenalin rush of rip-roaring organ-powered Rock and there's even a riotous rendition of the William Tell Overture thrown in for good measure too. Rossini would be rocking and rolling in his grave to this music. The breathtaking speed of the high-energy Hammond organist on this album is just phenomenal. You really have to hear it to believe it. We're charging ahead next with "Light Cavalry" and this cavalry aren't stopping for anyone. The band of musical brothers are charging ahead with all guns blazing in a storming symphony of sound. The music gallops along relentlessly at incredible pace in this canorous cavalcade. It's time to dismount now though as we've finally reached the end of the album. Phew! That was a blast!

It's Bach to the Future for this dynamic, classically-inspired blast of powerful Symphonic Prog. It's an album to put on your Chopin Liszt the next time you head Orff into town on Debussy, although you may have to Handel disappointment and come Bach empty-handed, as it's a case of Haydn seek with finding this rare album treasure in the record stores these days.

"Smoking the Day Away" opens the album in a swirling 8-minute-long purple haze of wispy psychedelic smoke. It's a heady and intoxicating flower-power acid trip that takes you right back to those wild and crazy, hazy lazy days of summer in San Francisco in 1967, without ever having to leave the comfort of your front room. These three guys in May Blitz have probably never been anywhere near San Francisco either, but you'd never guess that from this acid-drenched psychedelic trip. They sound like they were born to be wild within sight of the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. They're probably in their rocking chairs by now though - if they're still around - bearing in mind this album was recorded back in a distant bygone age, half a century ago. You can almost picture yourself riding on the back of Peter Fonda's Easy Rider motorcycle whilst listening to this music, even if the sad reality is that you're more suited to riding 'round in the back of Henry Fonda's family station wagon. I don't Know about you, but I'm in the mood for some heavy Blues-Rock, and that's exactly what you get with the second song, "I Don't Know", a mean and mighty blues number, bringing to mind classic Cream, only this band sound even more raw and earthy than the Rock God power trio of Clapton, Bruce & Baker, if that's at all possible. This bluesy music is probably more similar in style to the other well-known heavy British blues trio, The Edgar Broughton Band. Our third song "Dreaming" opens as a laid-back acid-tinged excursion into a dreamy Twilight Zone world of transcendental meditation, where the hazy-voiced singer sounds like he's stoned out of his mind. Don't get too laid-back though, because the music soon goes off the rails completely - a bit like this album review - and takes us on a harum scarum wild phantasmagoric nightmare ride along the highway to hell and back, followed by a return to calmer restorative climes for the mellow flower-power peace and love conclusion. This is wonderfully heady stuff and the glorious highlight of the album so far. After "Dreaming", it's time now to wake up and smell the coffee and get ready for Side Two.

We may need to delve into the lyrics of the mysteriously-titled "Squeet" to find out what it's all about, so here goes:- "Squeet, All over a wall, Dying to have a ball, It's been too long, I feel, I feel it coming on, Squeet, all over the wall." ..... No, it still makes no sense whatsoever, but who says hazy, acid-influenced Psychedelic Rock has to make any sense anyway!? One thing's for sure, it's a real storming humdinger of a song, despite the crazy lyrics being like a riddle wrapped inside an enigma. This great song represents a perfect example of early 1970's psychedelic stoner rock long before Stoner Rock with a capital "S" had even been invented. After the wonderfully dreamy (and occasionally nightmarish) excursion of "Dreaming" on Side One, along comes "Tomorrow May Come", another hazy lazy fantasy ride aboard the brightly-painted magic bus. You can really chill out and relax to this moody and mellow music, so just close your eyes and be transported back in time to the late-1960's hippy- trail along the magnificent Golden Gate highway of dreams - and you don't even need a bus ticket to travel there. FIRE IN THE HOLE! Take cover, because it's time now for the fiery sonic outburst of "Fire Queen", a fast and furious blazing trail of Psychedelic Rock which explodes into life like a grenade and then bombs along relentlessly at full steam ahead for four solid minutes. Sensational! What we need now after that supersonic assault on the eardrums is a return to calmer seas, and that's precisely what we get with "Virgin Waters". Prepare to sail away and let the calming music wash over you in a blissful sea of dreams for this wonderful trip back in time to the psychedelic sixties. It's groovy, baby!

May Blitz have delivered a storming blitzkrieg of heavy Psychedelic Rock with this superb debut album. It's not ALL heavy and thunderous Rock though, as the album's sprinkled with a nice liberal helping of laid-back trippy tunes too. All in all, there's enough variety on offer here to keep everyone entertained, even if you're not a flower-power child of the sixties.

The opening song "In Ancient Days" conjures up a spooky Hammer horror movie image of a graveyard at night, where the haunting sound of the solo organ gives the impression that some ghostly apparition is about to suddenly leap out of the shadows. Don't have nightmares though, because this is just a prelude to some uplifting funky Jazz-Rock. It's easy to see why some religious conservatives might have been spooked by these sinister demonic lyrics though:- "Here in my thirteenth life the mystic power of old returns, and as I say these words, my soul again in Hell, I conjure thee, I conjure thee, I conjure thee, I conjure thee appear, I raise you mighty demon, come before me, join me here." ..... The lyrics might be dark and occult, but the music is really jaunty and Jazzy and proggy and the satanic sacrificial imagery in the lyrics and video never did their album sales any harm. The lively and invigorating Jazz-Rock of Black Widow bears no relation to the dark Heavy Metal of Black Sabbath, who the band have sometimes been compared to. There's more doom and dark satanic gloom on the way with "Way to Power", where the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are mentioned in the sinister lyrics, although the rollicking music is another solid slice of foot-stomping British Jazz-Rock. This lively feel-good music is more likely to inspire jumping and jiving on the dance floor, rather than giving the listener a scary touch of the heebie-geebies. The next song "Come to the Sabbat" DOES sound very sinister though, so it might be time to hide beneath the bedcovers, especially when you hear the repeated sinister refrain of "Come to the Sabbat, Satan's There". There's really nothing to worry about though, as we live in far more enlightened times these days, and this stirring harum scarum Jazz-Rock hokum is no more scary than a candlelit pumpkin at Halloween. Side One closes with "Conjuration", which rumbles along nicely to a slow marching rhythm with the rousing horn section weaving their magical spell.

Black Widow have conjured up a big romantic power ballad for the Side Two opener: "Seduction". You're sure to be seduced by the lush string arrangements and the playful and pleasurable Jazz organ solo. This song is like a bright ray of sunshine breaking through the clouds compared to the dark satanic imagery conjured up in Side One. The singer sounds like he's head over heels in love with these warm and tender lyrics:- "Would you have me stay with you, Squeeze and hold you tight, Smooth you with my tender touch, Share your bed at nights." ..... From the sound of things, it could be his lucky night. Next up is "Attack of the Demon", a rompin' stompin' barnstorming display of Jazzy prog to stimulate and invigorate the senses. We end the album with the powerful 11-minute-long title track "Sacrifice". It's an all-out sonic assault of thunder and lightning for the final song. The music barrels along at a relentless pace with the manic drummer and frantic Hammond organist hammering away in a non-stop cacophonous frenzy of high-decibel sound and energy. This is music designed to hit you straight between the eyes with the awesome power of a thunderbolt.

Black Widow represents British Jazz-Rock at its brilliant best. The band weave a wonderful web of timeless timbral tunes, ranging from raucous rockers to romantic refrains. It's no "Sacrifice" to say this stunning album deserves to be in any discerning Jazz-Rock connoisseur's collection.

"Dorian Deep" has an eerie opening, sounding like a wind blowing over some vast windswept plain. Be prepared to be taken on an unpredictable journey into hitherto unexplored soundscapes of musical mayhem and delight. If this awesome 8-minute-long opening is anything to go by, this could well turn out to be an album of Astounding Sounds, Amazing Music - to paraphrase Hawkwind. "Dorian Deep" is such a perfect blend of all of the ingredients you'd expect from the very best of Prog- Rock, that it's almost impossible for any self-respecting prog aficionado not to like this. Not only will it delight Progressive Rock fans, but there's something here to suit Psychedelic Rock and Krautrock fans too, which is inevitably the reason why Marsupilami have found themselves in the Eclectic Prog section of ProgArchives. It's practically impossible to pin them down to one particular genre. If this band were ever pigeon-holed, then it would have to be a VERY big hole to include the tremendous variety of music on offer here. "Dorian Deep" is as multi-faceted as The Picture of Dorian Gray. It's the spooky musical equivalent of a crazy LSD-induced acid trip, so get ready for a wild ghost train ride on a Journey to the Centre of the Eye. This creepy manic music verges on hysteria, and almost goes off the rails - a bit like this album review. It may send a shiver up the spine and bring you out in goosebumps, so don't say you weren't warned!

Hallelujah Freedom! Be wild, be free, because it's time to celebrate another great piece of music with "Born To Be Free". This is a flighty flute-driven melody which opens as a fairly laid-back Jazzy refrain. Get ready for some more Marsupilami magic though, because barely midway through the song, freedom reigns with a wild excursion into supersonic Jazz-Rock territory with the afterburners glowing on full power. This tremendously inspiring music will take you soaring up into the stratosphere, where you can slip the surly bonds of Earth and touch the face of the Prog Gods. You can always expect the unexpected though with the complex and endlessly unpredictable music of Marsupilami, because there's a return to calmer Jazzier climes again for the extended play-out session. "Born To Be Free" has all of the unpredictability and latent energy of an untamed sleeping Lioness named Elsa, but that's another song and movie altogether.

Tie me kangaroo down, Sport! Never in the field of prog has so much been achieved by so few. Again, this scintillating sextet venture Where Eagles Dare to fly and other prog bands fear to tread with the inspirational epic: "And the Eagle Chased the Dove to its Ruin". The sound of the haunting ethereal organ in the opening instils the music with something of a religious devotional air. This first impression is soon shattered though by a crazy journey into the wild uncharted territory of prog. If Marsupilami were Australian, then this wild untamed music would represent a Walkabout in the wilderness of the baking hot outback. Marsupilami are as wild as a wandering band of wombats and wallabies. This extraordinary song may be less than seven minutes long, but there's plenty of exploring to do in this endlessly diverse piece of music. It's a song and album you'll want to boomerang back to again and again. Be prepared for the very sudden ending though.

When in Rome, do as the Romans do and learn Latin, and then we can translate the title of the opening suite on Side Two: "Ab Initio Ad Finem (The Opera)", which literally means "From the Beginning to the End" (with a little help from Google Translate). It might be an opera (in brackets), but you won't hear the likes of Pavarotti, Domingo & Carreras on this outstanding piece of music. This par excellence song and album is worth three tenners of anyone's money. The music opens to the tinkling sound of a musical box and this 11-minute-long epic is indeed a musical box of delights. This song has everything! There's something here for the hippyish Folkies, the psychedelic acid-heads, and even the religious spiritualists amongst us too. Above all though, this is a Progressive Rock masterpiece of unparalleled pomp and glory. From the beginning to the end, this album has been an absolute phantasmagorical dream of a prog-fest, which could give any of the major prog bands a good run for their money.

Hells Bells! Get ready for the wild men of prog to unleash Merry Hell for our final descent into the maelstrom. It's another Latin-themed 10-minute-long epic: "Facilis Descencus Averni", which translates as "Descent To Hell". It's a very apt title, as all Hell is let loose in the wildest and most unrestrained piece of music on the entire album. This epic suite represents a crazy helter-skelter ride into the darkest depths of prog and psychedelia. Don't despair though, because there are several uplifting Folky and Jazzy interludes thrown in for good measure to pull the listener out of the dark abyss. The crazy laughter and off- kilter vocals of the psycho singer only adds to the manic intensity and brooding atmosphere of the music. Even more bizarrely, there are brief spoken-word pieces too, voiced in an unmistakable charming English accent. This superb closing suite is undoubtedly a magnificent album highlight, combining all of the elements heard in earlier songs into an all- encompassing strange but magical Witches Brew of enchanting beauty and sheer delight. It's prog, but not as we know it.

Put another tinny on the barbie and drink a toast to the weird and wonderful music of Marsupilami. They're a breed apart. Join them as they go ape- crazy with an intoxicating blend of Wild in the Jungle Jazzy psychedelia and proggy Folk. Marsupilami explore the Outer Limits of Prog-Rock, so expect the unexpected. This superb debut album has to be heard to be believed. Dare you explore The Twilight Zone of Prog where nothing is quite as it seems!??