Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

Before moving onto Symphonic Prog, there's just one more Neo Prog artist to add that I almost overlooked, mainly because he's listed here under Crossover Prog. 

STEVE HOGARTH      He's one in a million and he's the singer with Marillion, but you already knew that anyway. One thing you didn't know about Steve though, is he once described Marillion as "the least hip band in the world" - but that was before he joined the band. 

  1997: Steve Hogarth - Ice Cream Genius - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kzNaglNmJyWbVBmZjaHKRSvz38tr9mak4

Abel Ganz - Live in Glasgow (2016) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_tboC1BRLI

Arena - Welcome to the Stage (1997) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qi-o25m62OM

Caamora - She (2008) - http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3vJ0AyC8Ob5aQ72D4XKYjq2b2YxosM_8

Cyan - The Sorcerer (Live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF0baC0upBw

The Emerald Dawn - To Touch the Sky: Live at Dragon Studio - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WlVzckjZJg

The Far Meadow - Travelogue (Live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXxQJGOuZkA

Fish - Night of the Jester, Night of the Company - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_cqtZFK6Z8

Frost* - Milliontown: Live in the Studio - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U0dD4CLG_4

Galahad - Empires Never Last: Live in Poland - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzKgGYphQcM

Grey Lady Down - Live at the Grange (1997) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek2iX6z-A9g

IQ - A Show of Resistance (2020) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxVyO1ld5xU

It Bites - Full TV Concert at the Forum, Kentish Town - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p741KitxWbA

Jadis - Live in Poland (2003) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3U3dgn4g9nQ

Tony Kaye - YES 50 Interview (2019) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPGcnymTwdU

Landmarq - Turbulence: Live in Poland - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AvL-4hp55ng

Lifesigns - Different: Live in London - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INBRMtxZK_0

Magenta - Spectral Mornings (Live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwZP7X02AX4

Marillion - Live from Loreley (1987) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIthObx7SKY

Clive Nolan - Caamora Norway: A Documentary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeRXk6EPLo4

Pallas - Live at Loreley - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csb3gCR3VSA

Pendragon - Concerto Maximo (2009) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO8aH-aUDLI

Steve Rothery Guitar Solos, Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfeJ4hhNNu0

Steve Rothery Guitar Solos, Part 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4E6qbMyHyM

Shadowland - A Matter of Perspective/The Hunger (Live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9XoXPdZtME

Solstice - Live in Veruno (2022) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6dRplzGuGM

Thieves' Kitchen - The Clockwork Universe  trailer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHxYBV_aXic

Tiger Moth Tales - Tigers in the Butter (Live) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwusJy0N8i4

Twelfth Night - Live in Concert - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWQrc5Rx7YQ

ZIO       Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who are the heaviest Neo Prog band of them all? That would be Zio, without a doubt! The final British Neo Prog band and what a band they are! If the two female leads on Zio's first album "Flower Torania" sound strangely familiar, that could be because they are none other than Hayley Griffiths of Karnataka and Heather Findlay of Mostly Autumn. Zio's recently-released sophomore album "Truewaves" is a curious - but highly listenable - combination of Pop and Heavy Metal, sounding like no album you've ever heard before. 

YAK      Words cannot describe the outstanding music of Neo Prog band Yak - mainly because their albums all contain songs without words, commonly known as instrumentals, but to describe the grandiose, symphony majesty of Yak's albums as "instrumental music" would be a bit like calling Elgar's magnificent Pomp and Circumstance march an "instrumental". Yakety-Yak, Don't talk back. 

WILLOWGLASS     Neo Symphonic Heaven! Three stunning albums of earth-shattering beauty from multi-instrumentalist Andrew Marshall. Maybe not quite as earth-shattering as the dramatic events going on at Radio FAB FM though, where it's quite literally, The End of an Era for DJ's Smashie and Nicey. 

THE VIOLET HOUR     Cometh The Violet Hour, cometh the prog... The Violet Hour were a short-lived British band who released just one album - The Fire Sermon (1991) - before going their separate ways due to the age-old band problem of "artistic differences". They're listed on PA as a Neo Prog band, although sounding more like a Prog Folk band, with their main claim to fame having been the support band for Marillion on a couple of early 90's tours. The Violet Hour's singer, Doris Brendel, has been described as a cross between Janis Joplin & Bonnie Tyler, and according to some, the band may have created a whole new sub-genre of music, known as "Dream Prog". 

UNTO US     .....a prog legend is born! Unto Us are a Neo-Prog band who sound so good, I feel like shouting it from the Tower of Babel. Oh Boy. Are you in for a treat. This is one of the best prog albums you're ever likely to hear In a Lifetime! The Human Landscape is the name of the album and just between These Four Walls, the singer sounds remarkably like Mike Hollis of Talk Talk. This is the one and only album from Unto Us, so there's no Plan B. Enjoy! 

TWELFTH NIGHT     "If music be the food of love, then play on." - Duke Orsino in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, which later provided the inspiration for a Fleetwood Mac album. Separating Fact and Fiction now, it's a fact that Twelfth Night were one of the first Neo Prog bands with their first Live album recorded back in February 1981, which must have been A Night to Remember. They also released two studio albums in 1982 which preceded Marillion's first album by a whole year. Twelfth Night are masters of Art & Illusion with their masterpiece Sequences album destined to become a treasured Collectors Item. 

The album cover of the Tr3nity record looks like one of those early 3D tech demos.

It didn't age well.