UK

Believe me or not UK was my first Prog band. Leave alone PINK FLOYD and their “Dark Side of the Moon” which I heard a few months before, they are almost mainstream! I read about UK in rock encyclopedia issued in USSR in 1990; they were said to be as good as classy bands like GENESIS, ELP and KING CRIMSON. I never listened to any of them in that time, but I was caught by it at once. By some wonderful coincidence (caused by faith’ circumstances probably) I chanced to pick UK 2-CD set (two studio albums and a live one) from my father’s friend. I fell in love with it immediately. It was the most challenging, unique, strange, captivating yet melodic and enjoyable music I ever heard!!! Some songs became my earworms; I tried to learn more about the band members; I even made a cover on “In the Dead of Night”! Now I see some obvious flaws in it: lack of strong songwriting talents, show-up in musicianship, complexity for its own sake…fortunately, they are not so frequent and far from being annoying. Unique fusion of Symphonic Prog with Jazz-Rock provided with strong vocals, stunning guitar solos, excellent keyboards layers and violin shots and based on the best rhythm-section Prog ever known. After all, with persons like John Wetton, Bill Bruford, Eddie Jobson and Alan Holdsworth it simply couldn’t went wrong! Probably, the best example of Prog supergroup for me and many others. Highly recommended!