My Progrock Specials Database

As a huge fan and collector of (rare) video’s and DVD’s I am glad to present you my special about the lesser known and unknown progrock bands with the emphasis on symphonic prog. You will find many items that are hardly reviewed so take your time to read my recommendations.

                    VIDEO AND DVD  

ANGE — Live Tour 2003-2004 Par Les Fils De Mandrin 

- A few years ago I attended a gig from this Ange world-tour near my hometown The Hague in Holland. It was the first time I saw them on stage, what an impressive performance and what a powerful and exciting, modern sound Ange delivered that memorable night! Their legendary frontman Christian Decamps has a great, very expressive voice and his stage antics are humorous and often dramatic. He is accompanied by female singer Caroline Crozat who often joins Christian on vocals and with his theatrical acts. The lightshow is wonderful and the band sounds outstanding: the ryhthm-section plays creative and dynamic, the keyboards by Christian his son Tristan sound varied and tasteful (moving solo spot in Le Bal Des Laze on keyboards and vocals, he's obvious a son of his father!) and guitarist Hassan Hadji does an excellent job delivering lots of fiery and distorted soli, what a killer guitarplayer this is! The track list contains early and new work: the climates on the 17 songs are very alternating, from emotional ballads or bluesy to rock and heavy bombastic. My highlights on this DVD are the jazzy flamenco guitar improvisation and the dancing from Caroline in Autour Du Feu, Caroline with a white sheet around her, accompanied by howling electric guitar and soaring strings in Atlantis - Les Géants De La Troisième Lune, a Middle Eastern inspired atmosphere with a duel between theatrical vocals from Tristan and rocking electric guitar in Quasimodo and a catchy rhythm with powerful duo-vocals and biting electric guitar in the final track Docteur Man. If you like Ange, Christian Decamps solo or adventurous progrock, this DVD is a must!

BANCO-Cio’Che Si ede E      

- This is a concert from a Banco-reunion tour in ’92, the line-up includes four original members. The crowd is very enthousiastic, now wonder because Banco plays an inspired set, featuring lots of ‘classics’. This DVD is not a pure concert because at some moments black-and-white images are shown (from nature to short early Seventies live footage). On one hand hand this creates a special atmosphere, on the other hand it’s sometimes a bit disturbing. The first track “Il Volo” contains black-and-white images from the soundcheck. Then, in color, we can enjoy the song “R.I.P.”, singer Francesco Di Giacomo still has an impressive, very warm voice and the crowd goes wild. The second part evokes goose bumps when Francesco sings a bit melancholic, supported by compelling piano. The next composition “L’Evoluzione” starts with sumptuous keyboards, followed by a swinging rhythm, delivering swirling keyboards in the vein of KEITH EMERSON (“Works-era”). “Moby Dick” is a ultra-sweet ballad from the later, more commercial period. The long and alternating track “Il Giardino Del Mago” includes virtuosic interplay, vocal harmonies, a wonderful intermezzo with classical piano and often KEITH EMERSON-like keyboards, amazing! Next is “750.00 Anni Fa ... L’Amore, a captivating composition featuring sparkling keyboards, a warm piece with warm vocals and piano, again goose bumps. The final song is the catchy “Non Mi Rompete”, it contains  virtuosic interplay, this time with acoustic guitar and electric piano. In the end all kinds of figures from the famous Venetian carnaval enters the stage, what a splendid and spectacular conclusion from a magnificent performance by these skillful veterans from Banco. A monumental DVD!!

EARTH & FIRE — Greatest Hits - Clips, Interviews And TV-Specials

                                             

- The legendary Dutch progrock band Earth & Fire is an acclaimed one on this site, I enjoyed to read the cascades of positive reviews. To my surprise the last year released DVD was not included on Prog Archives so I did my chauvinistic job!

This DVD features their 20 'greatest hits' as tv clips and an interview and live footage from the German television. The tv clips can be divided into three parts. The first part contains the rock/Sixties oriented sound: the clips “Seasons”, “Ruby is the one”, “Wild and exciting” and “Invitation” show windmills, typical Dutch landscapes (pine tree forests, dunes, sea) and a gorgeous, very sexy female singer Jerney Kaagman. The second part features the wonderful symphonic rock-era, based upon melodic and often moving compositions with wonderful violin- Mellotron work, sensitive electric guitar and warm vocals: “Storm and thunder” (what a splendid Mellotron sound!), “Memories” (on the German television), “Maybe tormorrow, maybe tonight” (on the most famous Dutch pop programm Toppop) and “Love of life”. The final part delivers the commercial period: Earth & Fire sounded very smooth with a blend of rock, pop and disco, very professional but to me awful! Most of the clips features ex-Focus bass player Bert Ruiter, he is living with Jerney for more than 20 years. And on “French word for love” ex-Kayak and Camel keyboardplayer Ton Scherpenzeel can be seen.

The most interesting part of this DVD is on The Extra’s/Bonus material (at about 25 minutes) that contains an interview (in German) with Jerney Kaagman and outstanding live footage from an inspired early Earth & Fire on the German television (Swing In and Musikladen): an excerpt from “Song of the marching children”, an extended version of “Storm and thunder” (including a compelling solo on the Mellotron) and “Maybe tomorrow, maybe tonight” (great interplay between guitar and keyboards from the twin- brothers Gerard and Chris Koerts). For me it was an emotional experience to look at these wonderful live scenes from this great Dutch symphonic rock band, EXCELLENT! This is essential dutch progrock, now on DVD!!

GERARD — Chaos Live       

- This video delivers Toshio Egawa, the Japanese #1 keyboard wizard. He has Eddie Jobson his androgyn looks, Keith Emerson his bombastic approach and Rick Wakeman his elegant virtuosity. Toshio his mother was a piano teacher, she can be proud of her son, what an extremely talented and creative keyboard player he is! On this video Toshio is accompanied by a very dynamic, adventurous and energetic rhyhtm-section, the drummer and the bass player sounds like the Japanese counterparts of Neil Peart and Geddy Lee, an incredible level for such unknown musicians! Toshio will certainly please progheads who love bombastic and virtuosic keyboard driven progrock: splendid runs on his Korg Trinity synthesizer with often, very spectacular use of the pitchbend button and powerful work on the Hammond organ along warm and sensitive piano play. It’s great to look at Toshio who combines pleasure and virtuosic play. His sound and style incorporates the best of early Keith Emerson, UK (mark II) and Rick Wakeman solo, he delivers one after another flashy and exciting solo, mighty close to the famous keyboard heroes from the Seventies. One of the highlights of this video is ELP’s cover Toccata, it even sounds better and more exciting than the original! But also the renditions of the songs from their early albums are absolute phenomenal, even without the sound of the guitar player because Toshio plays so exciting synthesizer. Another highlight is Toshio his sensational play on the Yamaha Key-tar (a hybrid of a guitar and keyboard), especially when he stands back to back with his bass player, the stunning interplay evokes the best of mid-Rush! JAPANESE PROGROCK AT ITS BEST!!!

(Steve) HOWE — Remedy Live    

- Early 2004 I wrote his biography for Prog Archives as a tribute to my first guitar hero. On this DVD you can witness Steve Howe's incredible virtuosity and versatiliy. On the first part he plays with his own band featuring his two sons Virgil on keyboards (he looks very similar to the young Steve Howe) and Dylan on drums. You can enjoy his play in a wide variety of styles: cheerful country in "Country viper", Ventures-inspired guitar rock in "Diary of a man who vanished" and bluesrock in "Pennants. Not everybody will be pleased with the way Steve turned the bombastic archetypical progrock composition "Close to the edge" into a mellow camp-fire song but I love the warm atmosphere. One of the higlights is the track "Raga" (the most popular ethnic music from India) in which Steve delivers a splendid sitar-like sound, very compelling! It is followed by the Tomorrow (Howe's early steps to success) song "My white bicycle" (strong rendition) and "Wurm" (strong guitarwork but I miss the synthesizer duel). To me Steve Howe plays very well with his band, I enjoyed their music. The second part features Stve Howe solo on the acoustic guitar, what a stunning performance, from "Excerpt from The ancient" and "Mood for a day" to "Intersection blues" (exciting blend of blues and ragtime) and the inevitable but amazing "Clap". GREAT! The final part includes a "Tour story", a nice bonus. I award this DVD with 3 stars for the average proghead and 4 stars for the guitar freaks!

(Los) JAIVAS — Alturas de Macchu Picchu (DVD)   

- Have you ever seen a Minimoog that conquered Peru? Did you ever witness a progrock band on a height of 6000 kilometers? Well, watch this video featuring the splendid and very unique blend of folk, rock, classic and symphonic that Los Jaivas made on their album "Alturas the Macchu Picchu"! I have nothing to add to the other reviews on this site so, I can only say: DISCOVER THIS BAND THAT MIXES SKILLS AND EMOTIONS IN A SUPERIOR WAY!! By the way, did National Geographic sponsored this DVD?

(The Best Of) Krautrock Vol 1 – Various Artist   

- WHAT AN INCREDIBLE EXCITING EXPERIENCE THIS DVD IS!! Since the second half of the Seventies I am a Krautrock fan, in that period I started to collect albums from Novalis, Jane, Grobschnitt, Eloy, Hoelderlin and Ramses. I remember that I witnessed concerts by some of these bands on the German television (our neighbours) like Grobschnitt and Jane. And now this DVD contains live footage from that era (1970-1978).

The featured bands on this DVD are Amon Düül II, Can, Frumpy, Lucifer’s Friend, Epitaph, Birth Control, Passport, Guru Guru, Popol Vuh, Kraftwerk, Embryo, Novalis, Lothar Meid, Eloy and Jane. These bands deliver a lot of variety, from psychedelic (Amon Duul II), experimental (Popol Vuh) and jazzy (Passport) to symphonic rock (Novalis and Eloy), bluesrock (Frumpy) and hardrock (Lucifer's Friend). I was very delighted about the tracks by Frumpy (great Hammond organ sound), Amon Duul II (captivating psychedelic rock with raw guitar, a powerful violin solo and lots of weird synthesizer sounds), Eloy (wonderful and lush sound with Hammond, Minimoog and fiery electric guitar along the warm and distinctive vocals by Frank Bornemann), Jane (simple but very compelling symphonic bluesrock with great interplay between fiery guitar and powerful Hammond waves) and the absolute highlight Novalis delivering their epic Sonnenwende (17 minutes): wonderful keyboards by Lutz Rahn (beautiful flute-Mellotron intro, then tasteful work on Hammond, Minimoog, string-ensemble and clavinet), inspired vocals and sensitive, very flowing electric guitar, GREAT! The 42 minutes docu is very interesting but also a bit sad because it confronts you with the difficult situation in which the many promising Krautrock groups had to survive, only a few managed because most of the bands got no support from record companies and government! The docu contains very exciting live footage from bands like Udo Lindenberg & Panikorchester, Amon Duul II in 1968, Pell Mell, Kraan, Hoelderlin, Atlantis (with Inga Rumpf), Conny Plank Studio with Grobschnitt, Can and really great live scenes from mid- Seventies Tangerine Dream, including Edgar Froese on the Mighty M400 Tron!!

NOT TO BE MISSED!!

LANDMARQ – Turbulence Live In Poland   

- I have seen this fine band a few times and still remember vividly one time when I was invited to join the band after a concert on a dinner. During that dinner I discovered that bass player Steve Gee had seen Genesis performing The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. I am a ‘Lamb Freak’ so asked him to tell his experiences. Gradually more and more people on table got involved and eventually everybody was talking enthousiasticly about “the Peter Gabriel dummie”, “Slipperman”, “the slide-show” and “Rael”, an unforgettable evening! Back to the music by Landmarq, I know this band from the very first beginning because they were on the label of SI Music, part of SI Magazine I worked for at about five years. On this DVD four members of the original line-up (the debut CD Solitary Witness is from 1992) are still Landmarq musicians and female singer Tracy Hitchings joined the band in 1998. You can hear that while listening and watching Turbulence Live In Poland because the band sound tight, inspired and they play with pleasure. From the first moments on this DVD there is also a great atmosphere and the concert is filmed very tasteful with lots of good shots on interesting musical and visual moments. I am (still) delighted about guitarist Uwe D’Röse his performance, this man has such a wonderful flowing and emotional sound, especially on the intro in Solitary Witness (soaring and sensitive), the mid-part of Calm Before The Storm (powerful and propulsive) and lots of great soli and riffs in most of the tracks. I was stunned by Tracy her powerful and inspired voice, she sings a bit theatrical but that matches with her ‘progrock vamp presentation’! On the bonus video (five tracks) I enjoyed Between Sleeping And Dreaming (live recorded on The Whitchurch Festival in 2000) and Dancing On Stones - Why Am I Standing featuring a Nineties Tracy, the song Killing Fields (recorded in my home country Holland in Uden, 1993) with the original singer Damian Wilson (what a very distinctive voice, even Rick Wakeman was impressed!) and Janison Egde - Beneath The Boy (also recorded in my home country Holland on the annual Progfarm Festival) including a flashy syntesizer solo. The bonus audio contains a great and exciting instrumental medley

(live recorded in Belgium,1998) with the tracks Killing Fields , Cutting Room, Ta'Jiang en Narovlya, Uwe D’Röse on his best! Other extras are an interview, the band history and a photo galery along lots of other items.<p> Personally I am a bit more in the earlt Landmarq era but if you like Langdmarq or you are up to melodic, tasteful and modern neo-prog, this DVD is yours!

MALIBRAN – 10 Anni In Concerto     

- In the early Nineties I bought the LP “A wood of tales” (from 1991) after I had read a positive review. I was delighted about the long track “A pyrimid’s street” featuring hints from Jethro Tull and an ethnic touch. Since then I follow this fine Italian band that showed a more early Marillion influence on their next albums. This DVD (running time 150 minutes) is a very comprehensive musical view on their progrock carreer spanning the period between 1988 and 1999. You can divide “Malibran 10 anni in concerto” into three parts. The first part contains live recordings from the second half of the Ninities. Remarkable is the powerful, tight and enthousiastic approach by the band, live Maliban is on its best: great shifting moods (from dreamy with flute, twanging guitars and mellow organ to a propulsive rhythm with Eastern inspired flute work) in “Pyramid’s street” and classical interplay between flute and guitar and a Ritchie Blackmore-like guitar solo (between classic and heavy metal) in “Prelude”. Most of the other live tracks delivers powerful and sensitive guitar soli from the two guitar players, some nice work on the keyboards, a dynamic and adventurous rhythm-section (especially the bass player) and swirling flute play (often Thijs van Leer inspired). The second parts features Malibran on tv specials, mainly playback, on one moment the flute player starts its solo too early! The final part contains amateur live video shots, a bit bootleg but very worth to watch because it showcases the enthousisastic performances from Malibran on stage featuring the funny stage antics from the fluteplayer with his ‘air-playing’ on his flute during several guitar soli and at one moment he takes oneof the guitarists on his shoulders! One of the highlights is “Le porte del silenzio”, a very compelling but short rendition in the vein of the early Marillion. You can argue about the value of the tv specials and the (bootleg) amateur shots but in my opinion this DVD is almost worth buying because of the first part (almost an hour) featuring the EXCITING SOUND OF MALIBRAN ON STAGE!

MEDINA AZAHARA — En Gira (Live 2000)    

- This is the second DVD release by Medina Azahara, the popular 'heavy progressive' rockband from Spain. It's an official video release (1991) from a concert in 2000 and has been put on DVD in 2003. If I compare it to the other DVD entitled "En concierto" this DVD will appeal more to progheads although most songs are tasteful mainstream rock featuring strong harder-edged guitarwork (with echoes from Blackmore and Vai) and functional keyboardplay (some soli on organ and synthesizers). The rhythm-section sound very tight and propulsive, the hugh blond lead singer has a very warm and often emotional stage peformance. The lightshow is beautiful (including pyrotechnics) and the crowd reacts enthousiastic to the music, often due to singer Manuel who runs around and search for contact with the fans in the vein of David Byron and Mick Jagger but less theatrical and self-indulgent. The best moments on this DVD are the harder-edged renditions from the Triana songs "Abre la puerta" (great vocals) and "El lago" (emotional community singing), the exciting guitar/keyboard solo-duel, the wonderful ballad "Otono", the flamenco- inspired "Paseando por la mezquita" and the final track "A toda ese gente", a warm goodbey from a very tight and enthousiastic band that is still alive and kicking after 25 years! VERY DRIVEN PROG AND ROLL!!

NIACIN-LIVE! BLOOD, SWEAT & BEERS (1997)  

- A few years ago I got a promo from Niacin and was stunned by the wonderful Hammond B3 organ sound from John Novello. His play reminds me of Greg Rolie (Santana) and Vincent Crane (Atomic Rooster): lots of organ floods and short soli. The title of the CD was “Time Crunch” and most of the songs delivered a very dynamic rhythm-section and exciting organplay. But I was most delighted about the two covers “Red” from King Crimson and “Blue Wind” from Jeff Beck’s excellent  solo album “Wired”. The live DVD “Blood, Sweat & Beers” (recorded in Japan in 1997, running time 57 minutes) mostly contains songs from the eponymous debut-CD, all sound as a pleasant mix of blues, jazz, funk and rock with good interplay, some nice work from bass player Billy Sheehan and powerful support from drummer Dennis Chambers. But again my conclusion was that two covers were the best part, this time “Birdland” from Weather Report and “You Keep Me Hanging On” (great rendition) from Vanilla Fudge were the most mature compositions. In my opinion Niacin is a great band to witness during a concert but they have to work on their own compositions that sound more as a jam, this in order to keep my attention when listening to one of their studio albums.

OMEGA – Zsuperkoncert - Nepstadion 2001     

OSANNA — Osanna Live Uomini E Miti    

- Osanna was one of those many captivating Italian progrock bands from the Seventies. They made some fine albums, perhaps “Palepoli” is their most acclaimed one. In the autumn of 2001 Osanna gave a reunion concert and the band even decided to make new songs. Two years later Osanna performed live in Napoli with contributions by members from other Italian progrock legends from the Seventies. This is all put on a CD and a DVD, beautifully packaged in a double fold out cover entitled “Osanna Live – Uomini e miti”.

The CD delivers a bit more polished and groovy sound than the more raw and agressive sound in the Seventies. But the performance from all the musicians is outstanding, these veterans love to play their music and they are so talented and experienced! Osanna plays material from their Seventies albums like “Ce vulesse – ce vulesse” (exciting ethnic sounding clarinet), “There will be time” (wonderful piano and warm vocals), “Mirror train” (propulsive guitar riffs, powerful clarinet and organ and strong vocals) and an abridged version from “Oro caldo” (swinging bass intro, catchy rhythm and great work on clarinet, fiery electric guitar and vocals), one of the highights from the album “Palepoli”. If you like the early Osanna I’m sure you will not be disappointed by this reunion band concert (featuring three members from the Seventies line-ups). The four studio tracks sound pleasant and varied with strong guitar, saxophone and clarinet but I wonder how many fans from the early Osanna will be pleased by this quite modern and more polished Osanna.

The DVD is very worth to check out, especially because of the contributions by members from Area, Il Balletto Di Bronzo, Area and Banco. The concert (12 songs) is recorded on December 2nd 2003 in a theater in Napoli, the (in)famous city in the poor southern part of Italy. Osanna plays powerful and inspired, most of their songs can also be traced on the aforementioned CD. Very interesting are the tracks by the Italian progrock legends Vittorio De Scalzi from New Trolls with “Signore, io sono Irish” (tender piano and expressive vocals) and “Ti ricordi Joe?” (strong acoustic rhythm guitar), Francesco Di Giacomo and Rodolfo Maltese from Banco with “R.I.P.” (very compelling ‘unplugged’ version with splendid work on a blue Ovation guitar and great moving vocals, goose bumps halfway!), Patrizio Fariselli from Area with “Luglio, agusto, settembre (Nero)” (sparkling piano and guitar with talkbox, it sounds a bit experimental) and Gianni Leone from Il Balletto Di Bronzo with “Love in the kitchen” (very distinctive with bombastic keyboards, classical orchestrations and theatrical vocals). The final 13th song entitled “Everybody’s gonna see you die” is recorded on a festival in 2003 and features Osanna with again Gianni Leone, it sounds swinging and it rocks featuring clarinet, saxophone and heavy electric guitar riffs.

An impressive return from the legend Osanna!!

PFM-LIVE IN JAPAN 2002 (DVD)    

- This is a real treat, what an amazing music from Italian progrock legend PFM, featuring three original members. Some hair was lost or has become grey but the band sounds very inspired and so virtuosic! PFM plays 25 songs including strong and exciting renditions from ‘classics’ like La Carozza Di Hans”, Photos Of Ghosts”, “Dove .. Quando”, “Il Banchetto”, “Mr 9 Till 5”, “E Festa” (aka “Celebration”) and “La Luna Nuova” (aka “Four Holes In The Ground”). Lots of outstanding soli on piano, acoustic – and electric guitar, keyboards and violin (special guest Lucio Fabbri). Some tracks from the later, more commercial era sound a bit polished but in general this DVD delivers outstanding progrock (the Japanese fans go wild, what a perfect atmosphere) from the best Italian progrock band ever. GREAT!

PFM+PAGANI-PIAZZA DEL CAMPO (CD/DVD)  

- Here’s another, even more exciting and captivating DVD (also including a CD) from PFM after their DVD entitled “Live in Japan 2002”. It’s from a concert in the beautiful Italian city Sienna so PFM played a homegame, you can feel it in the air, what a enthousiastic atmosphere on stage and what a warm interaction with the crowd (many 40+ fans!). On the DVD “Live in Japan 2002” PFM played almost in the original line-up and in Siena former violinplayer Mauro Pagani joined the band on stage, along other guest musicians Piero Pelu (vocals), Lucio Fabbri (violin, keyboards, rhythm-guitar), Roberto Gualdi (drums) and some classical musicians. After the short opener “Rain birth” PFM showcases their class with the composition “River of life”: a wonderful harmony of classical guitar, flute and piano, followed by sparkling and dynamic interplay by piano, flute, electric guitar, Minimoog and violin. What a lush and captivating sound and what a warm performance, these veterans love to play progrock, it comes straight from their hearts! The rest of the concert is a succession of  ‘classics’: a splendid violin solo, accompanied by a propulsive rhythm-section in “Photos of ghosts”, exciting interplay from flute and electric guitar and lots of changing climates in “La carrozza di Hans”, fat Minimoog runs and cheerful violin in “Fourholes in the ground”, stunning interplay from sparkling piano, harder-edged guitar en sweeping drums in “Mr. 9 till 5” and the catchy rhythm from “Celebration” featuring the known Minimoog flights, flute and violin, everybody is cheering, clapping and dancing! The long live improvisation “Siena rock jam” delivers lots of soli (from a ‘western’ violin and sensational Minimoog with pitchbend to a short Blackmore/Gillan variation). Also worth mentioning is the duo-violin performance resulting in “Rossini’s William Tell Ouverture”, an excellent encounter from classical – and progressive rock music, very appreciated by the fans. The DVD contains 15 tracks and the CD 12 (slightly different) so you can enjoy this outstanding Italian progrock legend both on CD and DVD. HIGHLY RECOMENDED!

Erik Neuteboom

PLACKBAND – Visions    

- The first line-up from Plackband existed between 1977 and 1981, then they disbanded due to the usual problems like musical disputes and lack of money and interest from record companies. While other Dutch symphonic rock bands like Differences, Taurus, Ywis, Cirkel and Arkus succeeded to release a LP in thsoe days, Plackband only managed to release the single Seventy Warriors. But in the late Nineties the band members started to meet each other again, everybody was super enthousiastic and one decided to re-found Plackband. And what a contrast: during their early years Plackband released only that single and now, after their re-union, the band has released the CD The Lost Tapes (a concert from 1981) in 2000, a CD-single entitled Remember Forever in 2001, a new CD After The Battle (with some re-recodings) in 2002 and this week the eagerly awaited DVD/CD entitled Visions, how prolific in comparison with the poor early years! The lion share of the DVD contains a concert recorded in November 2004 featuring new singer Karel Messemaker. Plackband showcases their huge potential, what a professional and inspired band! We can enjoy their wonderful mid-Genesis inspired symphonic rock sound. But  Plackband was more than a copycat, at some moments they added distinctive elements like the pleasant vocal harmonies, a jazzy flavor by keyboard players Michel Van Wassem and a rocky approach by guitarist Ronald Brautigam. Especially in the long first track The Battle/After The Battle delivering a great solo on the ARP Pro Solist synthesizer, a powerful and catchy guitar riff and a fiery wah-wah solo on guitar. Drummer Tom Van Der Meulen does a decent job and the bass work by Albert De Keijzer is very flowing, he is a very underrated musician. Singer Karel Messemaker his voice is very similar to Peter Gabriel (he even has that hoarse ‘timbre’), in the covers Red Rain and Carpet Crawlers he sounds excellent! Almost 1,5 hour Plackband treats us on strong renditions of their ‘classics’ See The Dwarf and Hunchback with great Mellotron samples, fat Moog Taurus bass pedals notes, sensitive electric guitar and fluent synthesizer runs. In The Good Earth is a captivating instrumental jam in which Ronald (subtle build-up solo) and Michel (exciting pitchbend driven synthesizer soli) show their skills. Way more than Genesis, their heroes, Plackband on stage played a lot of improvisations, extended soli and sursprising musical ideas, you can witness these distinctive elements on this DVD/CD. Plackband also delivered some less known songs like Little Minds, Pillow and Blue Flashes In The Red Light District but the ‘total chemistry’ is during the final song, ‘stage favorite’ Seventy Warriors: Michel plays a flashy synthesizer solo, Ronald a very compelling guitar solo and both gentlemen deliver exciting improvised interplay, their combination of skills and pleasure reminds me of Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson from Rush, almost emotional to watch this! The extra’s on the DVD are the tracks Visions Of Another Life (featuring the distinctive voice of  Kees Bik and dia-images of the young died fan Paul Jeczek) and L’Enfant Du 92ème (with beautiful vocals from the recent singer Koos Sekrève), the docu The Making Of Visions Of A Concert and the ‘collage’ Guests that contains pictures from Plackband die-hard fans like Jan Vrolijk and Jerry Van Kooten. This set also includes a CD that contains the concert from 2004 in De Boerderij and a 16-page booklet with wonderful, often nostalgic pictures. In my opinion this dvd will appeal to many mid-genesis fans and symphonic rock aficionados, what a wonderful dvd/cd set from the most overlooked Dutch symphonic rock band

(Jean-Luc) PONTY — Jean-Luc Ponty In Concert DVD

- This DVD is a registration from a concert on the Jazz Jamboree 1999 in the Polish capital Warsaw with Jean Luc Ponty on electric violin, supported by William Lecomte on keyboards, Guy Nsangué on bass, Thierry Arpino on drums and Moustapha Cissé on percussion. During the concert you will be delighted about these musicians, what an incredible skillful and creative band!

1. Rhythms of Hope (7:57) : Enjoy JL Ponty his flowing and dynamic jazzy-inspired style. The long violin solo has a great build-up and an exciting finale, supported by splendid play on the piano, drums, bass and percussion, very rhythmic!

2. Jig (8:07) : A very swinging track featuring propulsive bass work, a Latin- American percussive undertone, swirling violinplay and an outstanding piano solo, virtuosic and varied (from jazz to Caribbean).

3. No Absolute Time (10:38) : This long composition is mainly based upon strong soli from violin and piano, the atmosphere is mellow.

4. Pastoral Harmony (8:25) : First a dreamy climate with sensitive violin and tender piano, then the piano culminates into swinging. The violin solo is very intense with those typical fast runs from monsieur Ponty.

5. Caracas (8:36) : The intro contains a swinging and pleasant bass and percussion, then a cheerful sounding violin. Halfway an exciting percussion solo on conga’s and bongo’s which goes into a duet with the drummer, the big smiling faces reveal the pleasure from the musicians, including JL Ponty himself!

6. Memories of California (5:41) : This is an electronic inspired piece delivering synthesizer sounds from Ponty his electric violin and soaring keyboards. Halfway a wonderful, very sensitive violin solo with a classical undertone.

7. Mouna Bowa (8:59) : A catchy rhythm and swinging violin work, then a strong and enthousiastic bass solo, supported by South-American-oriented piano play. Again lots of joy on stage, goose bumps from me while watching this!

8. Enigmatic Ocean, Pt. 2 (7:16) : A splendid rendition from one of his best compositions featuring swirling and dynamic violin work, including an exciting duel between the piano and violin. The rhythm- section is great delivering a short but propulsive drum solo.

9. Open Mind (5:14)1 Rhythms of Hope (7:57) : The final song contains a catchy rhythm with swinging piano and magnificent interplay between all the musicians, a perfect grand finale!

If you are up to jazzy/fusion/jazzrock inspired prog, this excellent DVD is yours!!

QUIDAM – The Fifth Season Live In Poland  

- In the late Nineties I witnessed a gig by Polish progrock band Quidam, my strongest memory about that concert is the wonderful version of Genesis their masterpiece Firth Of Fifth, say no more! I won’t say that I didn’t like Quidam but they didn’t make music that manage to keep my attention. This DVD is another story, perhaps because of the fresh blood in the line-up? Anyway, the first track Hands Off showcases Quidam their sound: a wonderful balance between dreamy parts (with warm vocals, sensitive electric guitar and flute) and more bombastic pieces (howling electric guitar and fuent work on organ and synthesizers). The neo-prog sound is blended with progressive poprock bands like U2 (guitar sound) and Talk Talk (especially the vocals). My highlights are the Led Zeppelin cover No Quarter (fine Fender Rhodes piano sound, flute and then a ‘symphonic rock Camel turn’ to the original quite raw climate), the long and alternating titletrack (halfway a jazzy piano solo along fat guitar riffs and a propulsive rhythm-section) and Everythin’s Ended (first dreamy, then more and more lush and bombastic delivering howling electric guitar). The song Jestes contains Polish vocals and the final track Not So Close has a final part with the vocal harmonies of Hush Hush by Deep Purple.

This DVD also contains lots of many extra’s like recording sessions, video clips, festival and concert reports, an interview and a biography, discography and photo galery.

I was very pleasantly surprised by the high level of Quidam and their tasteful and inspired modern progrock sound, along with the extra DVD value (beautiful lightshow, pleasant images and nice crowd participation) this DVD is highy recommended!

ROXY MUSIC – Musikladen Live 74/75  

- This DVD ( recordings from the famous German rock shows Musikladen and Beatclub) showcases a band that looked like glamrockers but for sure their sound was progressive rock! The focal point was the handsome and versatile (vocals, keyboards, mouth-organ) singer Bryan Ferry but some members were mighty close like a spacey dressed Brian Eno (great to see him on that odd Synthi-A synthesizer during “Virginia plain”), the underrated guitarplayer Phil Manzanera (loads of powerful and moving soli) and the androgyn joung genius Eddie Jobson (monumental duel on his transparant violin with bassplayer John Wetton on “Out of the blue”). And don’t forget Andrew MacKay (strong and distinctive work on the sax and oboe) and a magnificent rhythm-section featuring the very dynamic drummer Paul Thompson. Roxy Music plays most of their best material, enjoy splendid renditions of “Do the strand”, “Remake re-model”, “Mother of pearl” and my highlight, the classic composition “Out of the blue”. Let’s not argue about their musical direction, art-rock or progrock or just poprock, enjoy this great band during their progrock heyday.

SATELLITE – Evening Dreams   

- While listening and watching to this DVD, to me it seems that this DVD experience succeeds to keep me more involved in the music than their last CD entitled Evening Games. The reason is that I feel much more emotion and to me the music sounds more powerful and compelling on this DVD than on the CD.

During the start of this concert (recorded live in Poland, 2005) the atmosphere is great with enthousiastic crowd participation (clapping and cheering). Then we can enjoy the wonderful lightshow and the modern, very tasteful and often emotional sounding neo-prog by the Polish four piece band Satellite: inspired vocals, howling electric guitar, pleasant keyboard layers and runs and lots of dynamics. The next track is Evening Games, a perfect example how Satellite manages to keep my attention, despite the long running time of this composition (more than 15 minutes): a wonderful intro with soaring violin-Mellotron samples, followed by warm vocals, sensitive electric guitar and some exciting bombastic eruptions. In the other seven songs Satellite also delivers wonderful, very melodic neo-prog with flowing shifting moods and beautiful work on guitar and keyboards, emotional vocals (early Fish inspired) and compelling work on keyboards and guitar (lots of very beautiful soli with hints from Latimer and Rothery).

The bonus video contains the video clip Love Is Around You, the docu Satellite Offstage and extras like a biography, discography and  bonus audio tracks (On The Run, Now, Rush and Why). The total running time of this DVD is more than 200 minutes, this is a must for any neo-prog fan!

SPOCK'S BEARD — Live At The Whiskey A Go-Go (Los Angeles 1999)    

- In the mid-Nineties I ordered some CD’s from Greg Walker his progrock mailorder- service/label Syn-Phonic in the USA. When I received a few weeks later Greg his parcel, it appeared to contain one CD more, accompanied by a small letter. On it was written that Greg had added a brandnew CD from his latest discovery named Spock’s Beard, he finished his short letter with the unforgettable words “I am sure you will like it!”. Well, this almost turned out to be an understatement, what an exciting and captivating progrock Spock’s Beard presented me on their debut album The Light! A few years later I finally could witness my new progrock heroes during a concert in Utrecht, Holland. This video captures Spock’s Beard on their Day Of Night tour during a concert in the known Whiskey A Go-go in Los Angeles in 1999.

The USA progrock band Spock’s Beard features five excellent, experienced musicians. Their varied musical backgrounds have resulted in very dynamic music with sparkling chemistry, mighty close to the excitement when I discovered Marillion in the early Eighties! On this video (not DVD!) you can enjoy lots of great compositions from their first four studio albums and many sensational solo excertitions. In those days for me Spock’s Beard’s progrock was a pleasant blend of Genesis, Yes, Gentle Giant and The Beatles, the music alternated from rock and pop to bombastic and complex progrock featuring tasteful vintage keyboards (Mellotron, Hammond, Moog), fiery and biting, often wah-wah drenched guitar soli (using a Fender Stratocaster with the word ‘Mellotron’ on it!), a dynamic and adventurous rhythm-section and the enthousiastic and humorous multi-talented eyecatcher Neal Morse on lead vocals, keyboards and guitar, AMAZING! Highlights are the long Go The Way You Go (great final part delivering a moving guitar solo and majestic choir-Mellotron), a spectacular solo from Ryo on his ‘key-tar’ (a keyboard body and a guitar neck) with outstanding support on powerful Rickenbacker bass and creative drumming (it sounds like mid-ELP), virtuosic duo acoustic (6 – and 12-string) guitar play in The Doorway from Neal and Alan, lots of exciting shifting moods and soli in their magnum opus The Light and a harder-edged version from Squonk (by Genesis) with a funny acting Nick on vocals. Perhaps later Spock’s Beard sounded more original, for me this video captured Spock’s Beard, despite some more poppy oriented songs, at their pinnacle!

STAMPING GROUND - Various Artists  

- In late June 1970 the Kralingen Pop Festival (named Stamping Ground, derived from the pioneers in the West who gathered to celebrate and do spirituals things) took place in Rotterdam as a Dutch answer to the Woodstock and Isle Of Wight festivals. The band list was impressive: Santana, Al Stewart, Canned Heat, T-Rex, Jefferson Airplane, It’s A Beautiful Day, Family, Country Joe, Dr. John & The Night Trippers, Flock, The Byrds and Pink Floyd! The video is a very tasteful registration of a festival with lots of great bands and a crowd that looked so happy: many hippies with water pipes, hasj and coloured cloths, people who jumped naked into the water, made love or went asleep because of the drugs and accohol, wonderful and legendary scenes. You also see  images from The Netherlands: flat and green landscapes with windmills and Amsterdam with their typical houses, canals and bridges (young tourist Brian Aydair will show you his pictures from that!).<p>But of course the focus is on the music and there was a lot to enjoy on that point: Al Stewart a few years before his breakthrough with Year Of The Cat, Marc Bolan with T-Rex a few years before his death, Family with an appreciated vocal performance by Roger Chapman (raw and so distinctive), Dr. John & The Night Trippers with flaming torches in the dark, The Byrds, always pleasant to hear and the brand new Prog Archives addition Jefferson Airplane with a compelling (sometimes bit unpitched) version of White Rabbit. The two highlights on this video are two famous bands that still make music. First Santana, they stunned the crowd with their latin-prog sound, based upon the powerful and emotional guitarwork by Carlos Santana, the propulsive percussion play (conga’s and timbales) and the swirling Hammond B3 organ sound by Greg Rolie. And second the final act from this 3-day festival, Pink Floyd: although the images are a bit dark, the sheer psychedelic atmosphere is amazing with mindblowing, very inspired versions from Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun and A Saucerful Of Secrets. It seemed that Pink Floyd enjoyed themselves so much that they stretched the latter song to eternity, we can witness fine views on Rick Wright playing the Farfisa organ runs and David Gilmour delivering his emotional vocal contribution, goose bumps!<p>There is also a DVD version but in my opinion it is illegal (from Brasil) so I have added this video, a historical muscial document, loaded with progressive rock moments.

STRAWBS – LIVE IN TOKYO ‘75/GRAVE NEW WORLD THE MOVIE (DVD)   

- In the Seventies the Strawbs were an interesting progressive band. Their music was a blend of folk, rock and symphonic (in the vein of THE MOODY BLUES and BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST), topped by the distinctive vocals from Dave Cousins. RICK WAKEMAN was in the early line-up but he had a minor role. After he left to join YES the band, how ironically, blossemed and made some captivating progrock albums. The driving force behind the band was (and is, recently they re-united and even made a live-DVD) singer/guitarist Dave Cousins, a kind of progrock answer to DONOVAN or BOB DYLAN. This DVD showcases their unique progrock in their artistic and commercial heyday (the albums “Hero and heroine” and “Ghosts” sold well). The first part of this DVD is a concert in Tokyo from 1975 (running time 40 minutes). It shows an inspired band that plays songs like “Lemon pie”, “You and I, when we were young”, “New world”, “Hero and heroine”, “Just love” (straight rock with fiery guitarwork from Dave Lambert) and the highlight “Down by the sea” (compelling twanging electric and majestic choir-Mellotron waves). The bass player was Chas Cronk, later he joined THE STEVE HACKETT BAND. The second part includes the movie “Grave new world” (from 1972, almost 30 minutes), featuring the songs from that album, all visually embellished by a ‘video-clip’. The result ranges from impressive (the gospel-like “Benedictus” and the bombastic “Tomorrow”) to funny (“The flower and the young man” and “Ah me, ah my”). I my opinion this movie has an undertone of typical British humor, not everybody’s cup of tea! The last part is a special bonus (10 minutes): Rick Wakeman’s television debut in the song “Til the sun comes shining through” (he already shows his sparkling piano-play), an interview with Dave Cousins on a lifeboat and a preview from the album “Wakeman and Cousins” with the song “The young pretender” (wonderful violinplay).

A good and comprehensive DVD that shows The Strawbs at their best.

TRIANA-SE DE UN LUGAR (2CD/1DVD-double-fold-out-digipack version)       

 

 

- This is the best progrock you can get from Spain ! Triana was the most pivotal band that blended symphonic rock and flamenco, the ethnic music from the Andalusian gypsies. Their first album “El Patio” is a classic, the second is good but from the third the albums gradually sounded less symphonic and more as polished rock. Nonetheless the Spanish people loved their music and Triana became the most popular rockband in the Spanish rock history, they often played for massive crowds and most their albums got the platinum status! Unfortunately in ‘83 band member Jesus De La Rosa died in a car accident and Triana was no longer. They released a lot of compilation albums, this one contains two discs with 24 tracks (many from their best three albums) and for the first time a DVD. That DVD is a 55 minute documentary with footage from several TV music programs like Mundo Pop, Ahora, Popgrama (beautiful scene in a Morish palace) and Aplauso (from ’74 until ’81). Most of the 13 songs are interrupted by commentary from the band members, people who worked with Triana and who are influenced by Triana, like a musician from Ketama, the known ‘new flamenco movement’. This DVD (13 songs, most are long excerps) gives a good impression from the innovative and exciting sound from Triana: propulsive flamenco solo – and rhythm guitar, howling electric guitar (great double-neck guitar), warm string-ensemble, distinctive Fender Rhodes piano, slow Moog synthesizer runs, lots of Banks-like organ play and great Andalusian vocals (expressive and a bit wailing). Some songs from the later period sound a bit polished (like “Corre”) but in general this DVD shows a stunning and very talented band that delivers music that has a perfect balance between emotions and skills and electric – and acoustic music. If you are up to discover the wonderful world of flamenco this historical document is a splendid Christmas gift. Feliz Navidad y un prospero ano nuevo para todos los aficionados de Triana, el grupo numero uno!

                   THE BEST OF THE REST

                     PART ONE : THE PAST

After specials about countries like Italy, Spain, the USA, Germany, Latin-America, Japan, the UK and France, this time I recommend you ‘the best of the rest’ from countries like Poland, Hungary, Australia and Belgium. I took the ‘artistic freedom’ to include some bands that are not pure symphonic prog or not categorized as symphonic prog on this site, I hope you forgive me about that ...  

 

 

AFTER CRYING - Struggle For Life      

— In the mid-Nineties I discovered the incredible progrock from the Hungarian formation After Crying. This 2-CD set is a very comprehensive musical compilation of their best work and their stunning skills on a wide range of instruments. You can compare After Crying with Gentle Giant concerning the complexity of the music and versatility of every musician. The sound of their music has elements from ELP (bombastic keyboards) and King Crimson (Fripperian guitar) but in general it's a unique blend of classical, jazz, rock, symphonic and avant-garde: a combination of Keith Emerson keyboards, trumpet, fiery electric guitar in "Viadukt", soaring keyboards, repetetive guitarplay and powerful drumbeats in "Stalker", howling electric guitar, a wailing cello and powerful trumpet in "Suburban night", piano, cello and contrabas in the Gentle Giant sounding "Goblin dance", sensitive Fripperian guitar (like Edhels) in "Pilgrim's march" and a superb rendition of King Crimson's classic piece "Starless", goose bumps! After Crying doesn't make very accesible progrock because the combination of classical instruments (please, take a look at the track listing) and modern electric equipment and the variety of styles begs for an adventurous taste and most progheads are very conservative. An example: a few years ago I attended a gig in Holland during their world tour, I was one of the 40 visitors....! But this didn't bother the band, they played very inspired and enjoyed the hugh response from the 40 fans. Excellent and unique prog!

AIRLORD - Clockwork Revenge 

— This is progrock from Wilmington, New Zealand, the other end of the world for us Dutchmen! This five-piece band that was rooted in ’76 and disbanded in ’78 has delivered an amazing album.

1 – Clockwork revenge: This is an impressive opener that has a fluent rhythm, sensational synthesizer flights, great duo-guitarwork (both guitarplayers has their own sound) and very distinctive duo- vocals (one sound as ‘the Very Down Under nephew of Peter Gabriel). The final part includes a powerful, very biting guitar solo.

2 – Pictures in a puddle: The first part is very mellow with emotional vocals, soaring keyboards and acoustic rhythm- guitar, then a mid-tempo featuring fiery electric guitar and beautiful choir-Mellotron drops.

3 – Ladies of the night: It opens with a slow rhythm and a bit folky climate, then lots of shifting moods including majestic choir-Mellotron waves and fiery and biting, wah-wah drenched guitar soli. The excellent duo vocals give an extra dimension to the music, very disctinctive!

4 – Earthborn pilgrim: This is a mellow song with twanging guitars, good vocals and in the end a bluesrock inspired guitar solo.

5 – Out of the woods: A very alternating track that ranges from bluesy to mid-tempo delivering a splendid build- up guitarsolo, from sensitive to howling and biting, accompanied by lush organ waves.

6 – Is it such a dream?: Here the string-ensemble and a sensitive guitar perfectly blend, in the end there’s a biting electric guitar solo.

7 – You might even be: Another very alternating track, the vocals reminds me of the early Peter Gabriel (“Nursery cryme”-era), the duo-guitarplay is very strong, supported by a dynamic rhythm-section. The final part contains the sound of many ‘laughs’, this emphasizes the original approach from Airlord. This band has delivered a great, very unique album!

ANOMALY — Anomaly  

- Anomaly was a very promising Dutch progrock band with members who all had a different musical background, this led to an exciting chemistry! Unfortunately their record company run out of money, soon they disbanded. OK, this is more metal and fusion than symphonic rock but in my opinion Anomaly deserves more attention so here is the maverick in this special!

1. B-YOND 2K (5:34): This an alternating piece with fine breaks, metal-guitar riffs and propulsive drums, orchestral keyboards and Holdsworth-like guitar runs.

2. >4TH&X (4:06): A very exciting tension between the propulsive metal-guitar riffs, classical keyboards and jazzy, Holdsworth inspired guitar work. It sounds very dynamic.

3. 101101001 (4:58): The first and final part contain a harpsichord-electric guitar duet, halfway fiery electric guitar, a virtuosic guitar-keyboard duet and a powerful rhythm- section.

4. Xtreme (4:54): The intro contains beautiful acoustic piano play, then sensitive electric guitar, great guitar-overdubs and a break with the captivating blend of metal-riffs on guitar, a choir and orchestral keyboards.

5. Mt Chamber (4:40): This one is very fusion inspired featuring vibraphone, warm fretless bass, wonderful strings and in the end a spectacular synthesizer solo.

6. XS D-NIED (5:06): Here a metal-fusion climate, very powerful with a freaky Moog- like synthesizer solo, vibraphone runs and Holdsworth-like guitar play.

7. VIR2AL (8:36): First strings and vibraphone, then a fusion atmosphere with fretless bass, a swinging keyboard solo and a great build-up delivering fiery electric guitar and splendid Fender Rhodes and Moog samples.

8. None Of The Above (4:48): Here we can enjoy a swinging clavinet and again Holdsworth-like guitar work along a flashy duel between the bass and keyboards.

This is a dutch progrock album to be proud of!

(JOSE) CID - 10,000 Anos Depois Entre Venus E Marte  

After a first listening session I know why I was not impressed at first: this is a very varied album and it is not layered with Trons as you might expect. The climates ranges from mellow with spacey synthesizers to up-tempo rock with distorted electric guitar. The Portuguese vocals sound very warm and all compositions are tasteful arranged with pleasant work on piano, some sensitive and howling electric guitar soli and frequently the majestic sound of the choir-Mellotron (my favorite one), subtle or surprisingly blended with the melodic and pleasant progrock Jose Cid has created.

This is a wonderful, often compelling progrock experience!

 

CLIFFHANGER — Hope And Despair  

- I have followed Dutch formation Cliffhanger almost from the beginning and was impressed by their skills, musical ideas and enthousiasm. Their sound is strongly rooted in the Seventies symphonic rock tradition with obvious echoes from Genesis, Yes and UK. Although they earned contracts from the defunct Dutch progrock-label SI Music and the known French progrock label Musea, Cliffhanger never broke through. On their debut-CD "Cold steel" (SI Music) the band played a pleasant and melodic blend of YES, GENESIS and UK with exciting work on the keyboards by Dick Heijboer, wonderful electric guitar by Rinie Huigen (Hackett-inspired) and inventive play on the Rickenbacker bass by Gijs Koopman (both now in Knight Area). On "Not to be or not to be" (Musea) Cliffhanger sounded more complex, for many progheads too complex and the large cult-following from the beginning became smaller and smaller until I was one of the 10 remaining fans that kept on visiting the concerts!

On this live-CD you can enjoy an inspired and entertaining Cliffhanger playing their best work. The only flaw are the vocals: I didn't mind about it but many progheads were complaining about Rinie's voice. OK, I can understand but on "Hope and despair" their is so much good instrumental work I am sure this will not be a barrier to check out this interesting and underrated Dutch progrock band.

 

EELA CRAIG - Symphonic Rock 

— The often overlooked Austrian progrock band EELA CRAIG epitomizes the entire Austrian progressive movement. The music on the great compilation-CD “Symphonic rock” (including the songs from the albums “One Niter” and “Hats of Glass”) is hard to compare, maybe some hints from RICK WAKEMAN solo, ELOY, PINK FLOYD and CAMEL can be traced. The melodic and harmonic music from EELA CRAIG is build upon beautiful interplay between four members with their keyboards (ranging from soaring strings and bombastic choir- Mellotron to the typical sound of the Fender Rhodes electric piano, sensational Moog flights, swinging clavinet and powerful Hammond organ runs) and sensitive and howling electric guitar play. The moving compositions sound warm and are coloured with lots of instruments, from the aforementioned keyboards to flute, acoustic guitar and assorted percussion. This is wonderful symphonic rock that deserves more attention, especially ‘Tron- maniacs’ will be delighted about the omnipresence of this unique keyboard.

 

FINCH - Beyond Expression  

- Finch evokes very pleasant adolescent memories. I had a kind of competition with one of my best friends who discovered the best prog. In general it was me because of my fanatic attitude (close to compulsive behavior) but he came with Finch and I was so jealous! But what a fine coincidence that many years later, when I worked for several progrock magazines,  I was invited to write the linner notes for Finch their 2-CD “The making of galleons of passion../Stage 76”. As an adolescent the Finch musicians were my heroes and 20 years later I was allowed to do interviews with them, very emotional! Finch band has always played in the shadow of the more famous Dutch progbands Focus,  Ekseption. Earth & Fire and Trace. But they were excellent musicians who created an own sound on their best album “Beyond expression”. The longest suite “A passion condensed” starts bombastic with a fiery electric guitar, delicate piano and a soaring string-ensemble. It slows down and after a short bass-run the focus is on the excellent guitarplay of Joop van Nimwegen (famous Focus guitarplayer Jan Akkerman called him a great talent when he saw him on a German festival!). The music contains lots of changes in movement and climate with a strong and adventurous rhythm-section (with Chris Squire inspired bass play) and tasteful keyboards (fine solos on the ARP synthesizer and Hammond organ). Halfway a twanging electric guitar starts to blend with a Wurlitzer electric piano, a beautiful combination. Suddenly the electric guitar speeds up the rhythm to culminate in an exciting solo with lots of biting runs. Then again twanging electric guitar and electric piano, joined by another exciting electric guitar solo with inventive keyboards (organ, strings, piano). The music continues with a swinging rhythm, flights on the synthsizer and a phaser-drenched electric guitar. After a short piano break a sensational duel between a flashy synthesizer and a biting electric guitar follows. The music continues with a swinging rythm to end with a bombastic grand finale containing beautiful strings, a powerful electric guitar and a propulsive rhythm-section. Technically this music can compete with the other, more famous bands but commercially it didn’t reach that sales to make a breakthrough to a wider audience, unfortunately. This is a Dutch progrock classic!

 

HEMLOCK-Exordium 

- This Canadian ‘heavy progressive’quartet includes John Brown (electric – and acoustic guitars, violin, recorders, flute and backing vocals), Dean Roberts (fretless bass), Todd Nesbitt (drums and percussion) and Jim Rose (vocals, electric -, acoustic – and classical guitars, bass pedal, synthesizer and percussion). In ’94 they made their debut-album entitled “Exordium”, a blend of folk, hardrock like Metallica and progrock like Rush. Unfortunately Hemlock turned out to be another promising one-shot band.

In my opinion the album “Exordium” is a bit overlooked gem. Due to frequent accellarations, shifting moods and heavy outbursts, Hemlock sounds often very exciting. Another strong point is the constant tension between on one side the acoustic instruments (classical guitar, flute and many violin solos) and on the other side the electric guitar and powerful rhythm-section. The beautiful epic song “The immortal” (almost 20 minutes) is the only composition that contains flute and synthesizer. The guitarplay on the whole album is magnificent (howling and biting solos and strong overdubs), it could have been a tribute to Alex Lifeson, one of the most underrated rock guitarplayers.

 

KYRIE ELEISON - The Complete Recordings 1974-1978

— This Austrian band is rooted in 1973 when 3 schoolfriends decided to make music in the vein of their heroes Yes, Genesis and ELP. They made some albums, joined VDGG, Colosseum, Amon Duul and Eela Craig (my favorite Austrian band) on festivals but eventually Kyrie Eleison ran out of money, the same old story as so many small progrock bands discovered when the record companies ignored them! The music on this 3-CD set (limited edition of 1000 copies) varies a lot in sound - and musical quality. On disc-1 the music is in the vein of Iron Butterfly, Deep Purple and early Jane (the keyboardplayer is obviously classical educated), the tension between the guitar and keyboards evokes early Wallenstein. The compositions and sound quality are amateurish but contain many strong moments featuring a church- organ intro, sparkling piano, compelling organ, some Floydian organ and a bluesy Dave Greenslade-like organ piece. Disc 2 is more symphonic (Mellotron, synthesizer soli and a solo classical piano piece) with strong echoes from early Earth & Fire (but in a more raw version) and Genesis. Comparing to Dutch bands, I trace also Finch during the fiery electric guitar parts. The five compositions deliver some beautiful symphonic rock but the vocals are mediocre. Disc-3 has the focus on the key-album "The fountain beyond the sunrise", I suggest to read the reviews on Prog Archives (and other progrock sites), these are ranging from boring and poor Genesis clone to wonderful Genesis inspired symphonic rock, it's up to you!

 

                        MACHIAVEL   

 

- The CD Original Hits (  ) is a comprehensive compilation to discover my favorite Belgian symphonic rock band, it contains 13 tracks of Machiavel their first five studio albums, recorded between 1976 (Machiavel) and 1980 (New Lines). Fortunately the emphasis is on the more symphonic rock era, later Machiavel made more polished and rock-based music (as you can hear on the tracks Fly, Over The Hill, Champagne In Amsterdam, Turn Off and Fade Away). Machiavel was inspired by Genesis and Yes but managed to create an own, very distinctive sound, based upon good, a bit high-pitched vocals, wonderful vintage keyboards, varied guitar work and a decent rhythm-section. The compositions sound elaborate and alternating: dreamy with twanging acoustic guitars, mellow synth drops and Mellotron waves and warm vocals in Rope Dancer and Mary, dynamic and ultra bombastic (exciting Moog flights and choir Mellotron) in Beyond The Silence and varied in Jester (from mid-tempo rock to compelling symphonic rock with lush keyboards ans sensitive electric guitar), Wisdom (howling guitar and great synth sounds), Rebirth (sparkling piano, majestic choir- Mellotron and flashy Moog runs) and Johan's Brother Told Me (wonderful string-ensemble sound and warm vocals in a melancholic climate). This is a good introduction to the best Belgian symphonic rock band!!

 

MORSE CODE - Les Grands Succès De Morse Code 

— I know that some very die-hard record collectors will pay a lot of money for the Morse Code LP's, it's a kind of cult band for them! I prefer to listen to CD's, this compilation with 12 tracks features 5 songs from their acclaimed debut album. These are the most captivating and progressive moments on this CD. The long opener "La marche des hommes" (at about 11 minutes) delivers delicate guitarwork, ominous, Wetton-like bass play, a mellow organ sound and soaring Mellotron. Most of the following songs sound powerful and alternating, Morse Code succeeds to make both wonderful dreamy (tender acoustic guitar and emotional French vocals) as harder-edged prog (fiery electric guitar). Unfortunately most of the other songs are very polished and not really progressive. But the two final tracks are almost worth buying this CD: "Magie de musique" is very bombastic featuring Pallas-like Mellotron and the instrumental "Cocktail" delivers fine flute and Mellotron. This is a nice introduction to the acclaimed Canadian progrock band.

 

OMEGA  - Live At The Kisstadion 

— This legendary Hungarian prog rock band made some beautiful albums in the Seventies but ‘live’ they were at their best. This originally 2-LP from ’79 (on the 1-CD release the song “Rush Hour” has been deleted) showcases an inspired and powerful performance (more than 50.000 spectators!) from OMEGA, playing most of finest material like “Gammapolis” (great howling guitar licks), “Help To Find Me” (strong Minimoog solo with sensational use of the pitch bend button), “Time Robber”, “High On The Starway” (rock and roll with heavy duo guitar work) and “Metamorphosis II + II. The massive crowd reacts very enthusiastic to the warm, melodic and varied ‘heavy progressive rock’ featuring tasteful keyboards, fiery and sensitive electric guitar and inspired Hungarian/English vocals. I’m pleased with the typical melancholic mood from Eastern Europe in some songs (like “Russian Winter”), very original that makes OMEGA to a band worth to discover for the younger ‘prog heads’.

 

PLJ BAND – Armageddon 

- This album by the formation PLJ Band is often considered as the most acclaimed Greek progrock music. It was released in ’82 but immediately forbidden because of the blasphemical lyrics and the albums had to be destroyed. Fortunately at about 300 records survived and ended as highly sought after ‘collector items’ (value more than US $ 300,-) in the arms of some very lucky and wealthy progheads many years later! The progressive German label Second Battle re-released “Armageddon” on CD from the original LP because the mastertapes were lost. The musicians: Laurentis Macaeritsas (lead vocals, 12-string guitar and keyboards), Antonis Mijelos (lead guitar, acoustic guitar), Jimmy Vasalakos (bass, backing vocals), Pavlos Kikrilis (rhythm – and classical guitar) and Tolis Skamajouras (drums and percussion). The sound is very unique: a captivating progressive blend of acoustic – and electric folk and (space) rock with a strong psychedelic undertone. The stunning surrealistic cover art is in the vein of Salvador Dali. Perhaps his mind reigns over this album?

The album “Armageddon” is one of the most original progrock albums ever made. The tension between the acoustic – and classical guitars (twanging and rhythm) and the soaring and spacey keyboards on one hand and the fiery and howling, distorted electric guitarplay on the other hand creates a lot of tension and compelling climates, emphasized by the hypnotizing vocals. If you want a psychedelic experience without drugs, this one is yours.

 

SBB- Follow My Dream  

- The name from this known Polish band is an abbreviation from Silesian Blues Band. In the early Seventies they started as members from a musical project by musician Czeslaw Niemen. From 1974 they decided to make their own music and S.B.B. started to give concerts and to make albums.

This album is from 1978 and contains two long parts (each has a running time from at about 20 minutes). The first one entitled “Going away” starts with the powerful and distinctive sound from the Hammond organ, then soaring keyboards and Gilmourian guitar work (“Meddle”-era). Due to the vocal similarities with Steve Hillage the music evokes Gong and early Hillage-solo. The more fluent parts feature flashy Moog synthesizer flights and other vintage keyboards like the clavinet and string-ensemble, a very pleasant colouring. The second composition “Follow my dream” delivers more jazzrock inspired music, the Moog work often reminds me of Jan Hammer (Mahavishnu Orchestra and Jeff Beck solo). We can also enjoy swinging parts with a fat bass sound and Fender Rhodes piano and some good guitar soli. Unfortunately the final part sounds more poppy, not a very representative ending of this fine and varied album.

 

SOLARIS - Marsbéli Krónikák (Martian Chronicles) 

— The Hungarian formation SOLARIS was originally founded by some school friends in 1980. The band’s name was derived from the title of book by SF writer Stanislaw Lem. In ’84 SOLARIS released their first album “The Martian Chronicles”, it sold almost 40.000 copies. On “The Martian Chronicles” SOLARIS creates a very dynamic and compelling progressive mix of classical and rock music. It’s build upon sensational interplay between fiery electric guitar, tasteful keyboards and a powerful flute with lots of changing climates, surprising breaks and bombastic outbursts. Although SOLARIS sound rather unique, elements of JETHRO TULL (flute), MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND (Mini-moog solos with pitch bend) and JEAN MICHEL JARRE (electronic intro in the first part of the title track) can be traced. For me this CD is one of the highlights in progressive rock. What a powerful and great prog rock!

 

SOLARIS - Solaris 1990     

— Many years ago I ordered the 2-LP “1990” in the USA. But they send me the CD-version on which the ‘side-long-track’ “Los Angeles 2026” had been deleted! What a disappointement but fortunately a few years ago I managed to purchase the reissue 2-CD “1990” , including some fine bonustracks and... the lost track “Los Angeles 2026”. It contains dynamic and propulsive with spectacular synth runs, fiery electric guitar and beautiful flute-play. Remarkable is the spacy keyboard sound in some songs and the obvious classical influences. The tracks from the mid-period (1986) sound rather accessible: a catchy and often funny combination of classic, pop and rock. But the most impressive composition is their ‘magnus opus’ Los Angeles 2026 (almost 24 minutes long). It opens with alarm sirens and SF sounds to evoke a menacing atmosphere of a future Los Angeles. Then it starts to swing with propulsive guitarplay, powerful drums and some funky bass-play, followed by lots of changing climates and short pieces with modern keyboards. Suddenly a mid-long solo piece from the piano begins, from tender to sparkling until the captivating interplay from electric guitar, flute and keyboards takes it over, enjoy the spectacular synthesizer flights! A howling electric guitar and bluesy organ is next and then the ‘essential Solaris’ appears again with splendid interplay between the fiery electric guitar, swirling flute and spectacular keyboards (Manfred Mann meets Jethro Tull and Focus). Slowly the same climate as during the intro returns, topped by a fat synthesizer sound. I hope that once the video Progfest 1995 Day One will be relased on DVD, it contains almost 30 minutes of Solaris playing live, excellent, what a stunning progrock band!

 

SYMPHONIC SLAM-Symphonic Slam  

— Many years ago I gave this album a try because of the wonderful painted album sleeve, in the vein of the usual progrock albums featuring a surrealistic/magical-realistic painting to dream away with. My first session caused mixed feelings because of the poppy atmosphere on some tracks. But gradually the music grew and grew and eventually I was delighted about the exciting mix of pop and symphonic: at some moments I trace hints from The Tubes, at other moments the music is more in the vein of "Utopia"-era Todd Rundgren. The strong point on this album is the tension in the music (from pop or art-rock to bombastic prog or electronics) and the use of fat sounding Oberheim synthesizers and a polyphonic guitar synthesizer, culminating in a very spectacular sound that often blows me away. This is unique progressive poprock!

 

TRACE — Trace  

- The late Dutch keyboard-wizard Rick van der Linden got worldwide recognition with the ‘classic-rock formula’ from EKSEPTION but he wanted his own band to work out his own ideas. He founded TRACE with bass player Jaap van Eik (CUBY AND THE BLIZZARDS, The MOTIONS, SOLUTION, LIVING BLUES) and drummer Pierre van der Linden (TEE SET, BRAINBOX, FOCUS), a real Dutch supergroup. TRACE sounds like the Dutch equivalent to early ELP but Rick has a wider array of keyboards, including Hammond B3 organ, Hohner clavinet and pianet, ARP – and EMI synthesizers, harpsichord, Solina string-ensemble, Mellotron and church organ. He even used the sound of a bagpipe. The music on the eponymous debut album is a treat for fans from bands like The NICE, ELP, TRIUMVIRAT and early LE ORME. It delivers exciting, often sumptuous, keyboard driven symphonic rock: the mainly instrumental music is loaded with virtuosic keyboard runs, swirling Hammond organ and majestic Mellotron, supported by a powerful and propulsive rhythm-section. The Musea CD-release contains two bonustracks (“Progress” and “Tabu”) and the history of Trace with nice pictures. Recommended to all progheads who want to be blown away by ‘keyboard pyrotechnics’ in the vein of Keith Emerson, Patrick Moraz or Toshio Egawa (from GERARD).

 

TRESPASS- In Haze of Time  

— Three years ago this keyboard driven trio from Israel delivered an amazing debut-CD: bombastic and dazzling synthesizer flights, impressive Hammond runs, swinging piano and some majestic harpsichord, this is the realm of keyboard-wizards in the vein of Keith Emerson, Rick van der Linden, Eddie Jobson or Toshio Egawa, what an excellent keyboardplay and what an extremely talented guy this is! But the seven compositions deliver more than just breathtaking keyboardwork (and some howling electric guitar). The climates range from classical (Bach) and rock to jazz and symphonic. Some songs contain surprising elements like the tin whistle, vibraphone and even some boogie woogie piano! The rhythm-section is very dynamic and propulsive, this trio rocks and swings! Unfortunately the vocals are mediocre and the music sounds far from original so I rate this for three stars.

                       PART ONE : THE PROG ANDALUZ

TRIANA, the band that spearheaded the Prog Andaluz 

 

- This Spanish four-piece band made two fine albums, this is their first one. It’s released in a beautiful digipack FOC that contains the lyrics, a band picture, a short story and the tracking-list. If you compare AZAHAR’s music to TRIANA, MEDINA AZAHARA or MEZQUITA their sound on the nine compositions (between 3 and 6 minutes) is more laidback and more atmospheric, featuring tasteful keyboards (lush Solina string-ensemble waves, warm piano chords, sumptuous synthesizer runs), sensitive, often howling electric guitar, some fine flamenco guitar and strong, typical Spanish vocals (emotional and expressive). The running time is only 37 minutes but here it’s quality above quantity. A nice album but their next (and final) eponymous album is their best.

AZAHAR - Azahar

- In the early Nineties I bought a few Sirius magazines (former Spanish progrock fanzine) in order to improve my poor school Spanish. I noticed an add in which the known Spanish proghead Angel Romero was offering his entire progrock LP collection. I got in touch with him (we shared a negative view on the awful tradition of bullfights!) and he explained that he was suffering from an increasing dust-allergy, how sad. I asked him for advise to buy Spanish progrock records from him. Nowadays AZAHAR’s second eponymous album is still one of my favorites, the debut-album was entitled “Elixer”. The difference between these two CD’s (released by Fonomusic) is that the second sound far more mature. The eight compositions (running time between 2 and 10 minutes) are more varied and elaborated. The guitarplay is sensitive featuring short but powerful soli and some exciting flamenco guitarwork. The Spanish vocals has a typical Spanish undertone, very warm and expressive. The keyboards sound lush and have a pleasant variety: strings, organ, synthesizers, clavinet and acoustic – and electric piano. The rhythm-section plays dynamic, Spanish people have a natural feeling for rhythm! This CD is a very fine example of the unique Spanish progrock: harmonic, melodic and tasteful compositions above self- indulgence.

CAI - Noche Abierta

- CAI was a harmonic Spanish quintet with Diego Fopiani Macias (drums/vocals), Jose A. Fernandez Mariscall (guitar), Francisco Delgado Gonzalez (guitar), Sebastian Dominguez Lozano (keyboards and piano) and Jose Velez Gomez (bass/vocals). They released three albums entitled "Mas Alla Mentes Diminutas" (’78), "Noche Abierta" (’80) and "Cancion De La Primavera" (’81). The second and third album are released as a 1-CD. The album "Noche abierta" (1980) is one of the gems of Spanish progressive rock. The seven tracks sound pleasant with warm Spanish vocals, tasteful keyboards (piano, strings, synthesizers and organ) and sensitive electric guitar. The integration of "the art of the flamenco" guitar gives this progrock an extra dimension. If you like melodic and tasteful seventies prog, embellished with some flamenco, this one is for you!

GUADALQUIVIR - Guadalquivir

- Once Gualdalquivir was the support act from Spanish legend Triana and they also were the support-band for another Spanish rock legend named Miguel Rios. The music from Guadalquivir is instrumental progressive jazzrock/fusion on a high level, it reminds of Return To Forever: tight, powerful, excellent soli and dynamic and pleasant compositions. I’m delighted about the guitarplayers, one of them sounds like the Andalusian Carlos Santana! If you want to discover Guadalquivir, start with their first eponymous album.

MARTIN, JUAN - Picasso Portraits      

- Juan Martin is a flamenco player who wanted to broaden his musical horizon, just like PACO DE LUCIA did by founding a trio with JOHN MACLAUGHIN and AL DIMEOLA in the early Eighties. Juan moved to England, wrote books about the flamenco guitar technique and played together with rock musicians. This album is one of his many musical projects and in my opinion his best and a great one to discover for the visitors and reviewers of this site. On this album Juan Martin has invited an impressive list of guest musicians: drummer IAN MOSLEY (TRACE/MARILLION), bass player JOHN GUSTAFSON (QUATERMASS/ROXY MUSIC), SIMON PHILLIPS (one of the best session drummers) and keyboardist TONY HYMAS (both on the splendid JEFF BECK albums “Wired” and “There and back”). The result is an exciting meeting between the world of the flamenco guitar and the progressive rock, this is one of my favorite LP’s and recently released as a digitally remastered CD version.

1. Harlequin: First soaring keyboards from Tony Hymas and then exciting interplay between the quick flamenco guitar runs and a dynamic rhythm-section (Phillips/Gustafson), embellished by the typical flamenco handclapping.

2. Desire Caught By The Tail: This is a sensitive duet from the flamenco guitar and the synthesizer (Memorymoog). Halfway there is a sensational break featuring sweeping drums, spectacular synthesizer sounds and rattling castannettes followed by a mid-tempo with splendid runs on the guitar and a fine colouring by the keyboards.

3. Three Musicians: We can enjoy a swinging and catchy rhythm with a funky bass by John G. Perry, powerful drums from Ian Mosley and exciting rasgueado play (quick downward strokes from the nails on the guitar strings).

4. Sleeping Girl: This piece is in the vein of the famous romantic guitar piece “Romance d’amor” delivering a sensitive duet from a twanging acoustic guitar and mellow sparkling piano, WONDERFUL!

5. Self Portrait: The start is like “Spanish caravan” from The Doors: a bit sultry flamenco guitar, culminating in spectacular and propulsive interplay between the flamenco guitar, rhythm-section (Mosley/Perry) and keyboards, it sounds pleasantly bombastic.

6. The Aficionado: An exciting blend of typcial flamenco elements (based a ‘bulerias’, one of the more complex flamenco rhythms) and the technical sound of the progrock: handclapping and quick flamenco runs blended with a funky bass (Gustafson) and pitchbend-driven Moog flights from Hymas, VERY SPECTACULAR!

7. Girls Of Algiers: This one is based on a ‘zambra mora’, the most Arabian-influenced flamenco rhythms. First swelling keyboards, drums and bass, then great interplay between the flamenco guitar, keyboards and rhytm-section, its sounds very dynamic. The tension between the spectacular Moog flights from Hymas and the quick runs on the flamenco guitar delivers a captivating climate, in the end there is a magnificent duel, this is perhaps the finest moment on this album!

8. Weeping Woman: Here is the only solo guitar track from Juan Martin, it introduces you to the wonderful art of the flamenco guitar and sounds very varied with halfway a great build-up, very moving.

9. The Picador: The ‘malaguena’ is perhaps the most famous flamenco rhythm, you will recognize it for sure! It is a cheerful climate with catchy and powerful interplay from the flamenco guitar, rhythm-section and keyboards featuring sensational Moog runs. Halfway the music slows down and then goes faster and faster until an ebullient atmosphere, what a ‘grand finale’! This album is not just another smooth rumba-drenched blend of flamenco and rock but an excellent meeting of the flamenco guitar and the progressive rock, highly recommended!!

MEDINA AZAHARA - En Al-Hakim 

— This my favorite studio-album from MEDINA AZAHARA, in my opinion their most mature, varied and symphonic effort. The opener “Al Hakim ... otro lugar” has that typical Morish climate, strong and expressive Spanish vocals and pleasant synthesizer flights (in the vein of Mark Kelly). The ballad “Otono” has become one of the ‘crowd-pleasers’: a slow rhythm featuring emotional vocals, tender pianoplay, bluesy guitar riffs and some fiery and howling electric guitar. Next is “Velocidad”, a simple but catchy up-tempo rock song delivering some fine synthesizer runs. On “La guitarra” guest musician Vicente Amigo (nowadays one of the leading flamenco guitarists!) enters the scene with a compelling acoustic guitar intro and then quick runs, accompanied by expressive vocals (this is the flamenco spirit) and later a fiery electric guitar and sensational synthesizer flights, what an exciting contrast with the acoustic flamenco guitar play! It’s bluestime in “El destino” but MEDINA AZAHARA adds an extra dimension by blending expressive flamenco guitar, moving mouth-organ, wailing Spanish vocals and harder-edged electric guitar, what an emotional experience, goose bumps! “Dejame vivir” (heavy electric guitar solo) and “Tal como es” (swinging piano solo) are two simple up-tempo rocksongs in the vein of “Velocidad”, tasteful but predictable. The final track “Desde Cordoba” features again the excellent Vicente Amigo on flamenco guitar, this time he delivers exciting duels with Paco Ventura’s hard-edged electric guitar, again goose bumps!

MEDINA AZAHARA - En Vivo (Live)

— This is the most popular Spanish rock band in the post-TRIANA era. In 1990 they released the double-LP “En Vivo”, on this live recording the band succeeded to capture the great live atmosphere and it contains all their best work. MEDIANA AZAHARA delivers on my 1- CD release version “En Vivo” (running time almost 75 minutes) a powerful blend of rock and ‘heavy progressive’. The keyboards from Pablo Rabadan have obvious hints from Mark Kelly (synthesizer flights), Manual Martinez his vocals sound inspired and emotional and the rhythm-section Randy Lopez on bass and Manuel Reyes on drums is strong and tight (sometimes too). But the focus is on Francisco Ventura’s varied and powerful guita rplay, he gives the tasteful arranged compositions a special flavour with his harder-edged but sensitive play, like Ritchie BLACKMORE meets Carlos SANTANA! Discover this top notch Spanish prog rock band: from the catchy “Velocidad”, the beautiful ballad “Otono”, the stage favourites “Amiga”, “Se” and “Hacia Ti” to the highlight “Paseando Por La Mezquita” (compelling Morish undertone and moving crowd participation, goose bumps!) and the up- tempo rock version from “El Lago”, a legendary track from TRIANA’s eponymous debut- album.

MEZQUITA - Recuerdos De Mi Tierra     

— The album ”Recuerdos De Mi Tierra” from ’79 contains six inventive and compelling tracks with exciting interplay between electric guitar and synthesizer, strong and expressive Spanish vocals, the emotional flamenco guitar and some handclapping (palmas). This is certainly one of my favourite Spanish prog rock albums because the atmosphere has such a typical Morish and Andalusian undertone like early TRIANA.

TRIANA - El Patio 

— TRIANA is the most legendary and pivotal progressive rock band in Spain. Their stunning debut-album “El Patio” (1975) was a seminal blend of flamenco and prog rock and paved the way to flamenco-inspired prog rock in Spain, culminating in bands like AZAHAR, CAI, ALAMEDA, QUALDAQUIVIR, MEZQUITA and MEDINA AZAHARA. The opener on “El Patio” is “Abre La Puerta” (almost 10 minutes), it starts with choir-Mellotron, piano and flamenco guitar (tremolo-technique). Then the typical sensitive and skill full flamenco guitar blends with piano and soft synthesizer chords. A fluent and tight rhythm-section carries the music to a powerful acceleration with the typical flamenco vocals, expressive and a bit wailing. The rest of this song contains lots of shifting moods that range from mellow with flamenco guitar and choir-Mellotron to propulsive with powerful drums and howling electric guitar, very moving. Most of the other six compositions are in the vein of “Abre La Puerta”: beautiful shifting climates with typical flamenco elements like palmas (handclapping), rasgueado (quick downward strikes across all strings) and picados (quick runs on the guitar with two fingers), along with tasteful keyboards (organ, synthesizers, Mellotron and piano) and fine electric guitar play. The final two tracks are splendid compositions: beautiful interplay between the flamenco – and electric guitar and a bombastic finale with rasgueado, organ and electric guitar in “En El Lago” and powerful drums and a howling and biting electric guitar in “Recuerdos De Una Noche”. If you are up to the typical flamenco mood or you want to discover this perfect marriage of folk and sympho, try this album. For me it’s one of the few CD’s that can compete with the Seventies prog rock from YES, ELP, KING CRIMSON and GENESIS!

TRIANA - Hijos Del Agobio

— This album is in the vein of their debut LP featuring a wonderful and exciting blend of symphonic rock and flamenco. This ethnic music comes from Andalusia where the poor gypsies sublimated their misery into music, this often culminated in very emotional results. The songs on "Hijos del agobio" delivers an unique tension between the the flamenco elements (waling Spanish vocals and the art of the flamenco guitar) and the electric guitar and keyboards (vintage sound). WHAT AN EMOTIONAL EXPERIENCE! By the way, in the same year most members from Triana and Granada joined flamenco guitarist Diego De Moron on his eponymous album (on Fonomusic). If you like flamenco guitar DON'T MISS THIS CD: the focus is on playing the flamenco guitar but many songs delivers a combination with lush keyboards (string-ensemble, synthesizers), VERY EXCITING!!

VEGA - Andaluza

- In the early Nineties I bought some Spanish progrock magazines (Sirius) in order to improve my ‘one-year-Spanish’ and to discover more of the exciting world of Spanish progressive rock. In one Sirius I noticed an add in which Angel Romero (a known Spanish proghead from Madrid who later moved to the USA) offered his entire progrock LP collection because of a dust-allergy. I felt like a vulture but it was no problem to him, he was happy with my appreciation for the socalled Rock Andaluz, the wonderful blend of Spanish flamenco and progrock. I asked him for advise and bought albums from Cai, Azahar and Vega. On this debut LP guitarplayer Tomas Vega delivers a pleasant progressive blend of flamenco and rock.

1. Triana (3:55): This track is a transition from Spanish composer Isaac Albeniz his work. It contains a cheerful climate and a swinging rhythm-section featuring jazzy inspired flamenco guitar runs, a bit polished string-arrangements and an exciting duel between flowing electric guitar and fast flamenco guitar.

2. Zona rosa (5:53): The first and final part sounds romantic with warm flamenco guitar and tender acoustic piano runs. In between a swinging rhythm and splendid flamenco guitar work, great electric guitar overdubs (howling with echoes from early Triana), propulsive conga percussion and a dynamic rhythm-section.

3. Origen (5:07): This song delivers the most obvious Morish atmosphere (for many years Andalusia was occupied by the Arabs in medieval times): a mid-tempo with an adventurous rhythm-section, exciting flamenco guitar and fiery electric guitar (again some great overdubs), evoking bands like Triana, Mezquita and Iceberg (also Rock Andaluz).

4. Arco Iris (3:30): It starts with warm and sensitive flamenco guitar and soaring strings. Then an accellaration delivering a mid-tempo with powerful electric guitar, sparkling Fender Rhodes piano and again exciting flamenco guitar play.

5. Andaluza (5:32): The titletrack (a transition from Spanish composer Enrique Granados) has a romantic undertone due to the romantic string- arrangements, bringing Alameda to my mind. The jazz inspired flamenco guitar work reminds me strongly of the pivotal and innovative flamenco guitarist Paco De Lucia, outstanding!

6. Lamentos (6:06): The final song delivers great interplay, sensational electric guitar overdubs and alternates between mellow with romantic piano and sensitive flamenco guitar and swinging with fiery electric guitar (an Andalusian undertone).

Essential spanish progrock!!

                 THE SPANISH PROGRESSIVE ROCK:

PART TWO : THE PAST:

ATILA - Intencion & Reviure    

- The Spanish band ATILA was formed in ’73 and made three LP’s: “The Beginning of the End” (’75), “Intencion” (’76) and Reviure (’77). At the end of ’78 the band dissolves but in ’99 they reformed. In the same year this ATILA did a reunion-concert, playing their best material. The sound of ATILA has elements from VANILLA FUDGE, CREAM, The NICE and ELP but in general ... it’s ATILA! The remastered second album “Intencion” (considered as their best) and a concert from ’99 are put on 1-CD (entitled “Atila: Intencion + Reviuvre”), this is a treat for the lovers of ‘vintage-keyboards’ (Hammond, Moog, Mellotron) with some mind blowing moments (swirling organ and fat Moog runs) but the guitar work is also worth listening, a bit harder-edged but very inventive, at some moments with a Spanish flavour. The songs from the live-concert (’99) are more original and belong to the best Spanish prog rock ever made: intense, compelling and exciting climates and shifting moods (a bit like the Italian Il BALLETTO DI BRONZO but less complex) with lots of great solos. Recommended to the fans of Seventies inspired prog rock.

AZABACHE-Días De Luna

- As a fan from Spanish flamenco inspired band Azahar I was curious to their offshoot named Azabache. After a first listening session I concluded that the music has echoes from Azahar but more polished and a less Spanish flavored atmosphere. In fact I was a bit disappointed but when I gave it another chance, I started to appreciate it more and more. The compositions sound melodic and often accessible but the arrangements are very tasteful with beautiful colouring of the keyboards (piano, lush strings, short synth soli and guitarwork (some great howling soli). The vocals are disctinctive, sometimes a bit high pitched but they sound warm and inspired. The ‘magnum opus’ on this CD is the composition “Algun dia” (7.22): lots of changing climates (from mellow acoustic guitars and swinging to bombastic and propulsive with echoes from “The gates of delirium” from Yes), excellent guitar soli (from bluesy and rock to fiery). A wonderful and elaborated progrock gem from spain.

BLOQUE - Musica Para La Libertad

- I purchased this album when I reacted on an add in the former Spanish progrock magazine “Sirius”. Spanish proghead Angel Romero (now living in the USA) offered his entire LP collection because of his ‘dust-allergy’. How sad for him, how lucky for me! This album is a good example of the unique and delicate Spanish progrock.

The first two tracks Pesadilla De Vivir and El Poder De La Libertad are tasteful mid-tempo rock songs with strong vocals and nice work on guitar. The third Anoranza is very beautiful featuring a kind of bluesy symphonic rock with warm Spanish vocals and wonderful choir-Mellotron waves. The final song on side 1 entitled Camino Del Universo sounds pleasant and catchy delivering delicate and varied work on keyboards and fine rhythm guitar. Side two starts with the catchy track Tau Ceti featuring a tight and propulsive rhythm-section, lots of powerful and fiery electric guitar runs and some beautiful choir-Mellotron, what a captivating combination! Then Detinido De La Materia, an alternating piece with strong electric guitar work along powerful Spanish vocals, fiery saxophone and wonderful keyboard sounds.

CRACK - Si Todo Hiciera Crack

- This Spanish band came from Gijon, the northern part of the Iberian Peninsula. Their only album “Si Todo Hiciera Crack” (1980) is one of the jewels of the Spanish progressive rock. It contains seven tracks, all with a beautiful harmony between keyboards, guitar and flute. There are hints of early GENESIS (sensitive piano chords and moving Mellotron waves) and JETHRO TULL (flute) but the typical Spanish climate and the elaborate compositions makes this album to an enthralling and emotional experience.

FUSIOON - Minorisa

- FUSIOON is a Spanish quartet, in the first half of the Seventies they released three albums entitled “Fusioon I” (1972), “Fusioon II” (1974) and “Minorisa” (1975). Their best effort is the third record entitled “Minorisa”, containing three long tracks. The first two tracks are an amazing blend of KING CRIMSON, GENTLE GIANT, ELP and even TANGERINE DREAM (flute- Mellotron like the “Phaedra-era”) with lots of captivating musical moments, lush keyboards and strong interplay (guitar, keyboards, flute, bass). The third song is a maverick: a kind of sound collage, very electronic like TANGERINE DREAM, SYNERGY and Klaus Schulze with flute Mellotron, all kind of synthesizer sounds and fat Moog runs, a bit weird and not really satisfying end of this good album.

GOTIC - Escenes

- This is a re-release from one of the Spanish progrock gems, the album Escenes (1978) from Gotic. In the first track you will love the plesant sound from the Fender Rhodes electric piano and the soaring, very distinctive string-ensemble. The melodic and harmonic, very warm climate and the flute play evokes early Camel, this is the most obvious reference on this album. At some moments Gotic surprises us with a fat Moog sound, the swinging underrated clavinet, a church organ piece or a fiery electric guitar solo. But in general the music is a beautiful blend of folk, jazz and symphonic featuring interesting work on flute, Fender and strings. The final, very alternating composition (running time 10 minutes) is the highlight delivering many great instrumental ideas, a strong build-up and a wonderful theme. These musicians play with pleasure and there music is fine progrock. A band to discover!

GRANADA - Hablo de Una Tierra

- GRANADA was the musical project of multi-instrumentalist Carlos Carcamo: flute, violin, acoustic – and electric piano, mellotron, clavicordio, 12-string guitar, percussion and vocals! The debut-album “Hablo De Una Tierra” (1975) is their most original album in my opinion and a good example of the original Spanish approach towards progrock. The six compositions sound very varied (from rock and bluesy to Latin and symphonic) with strong Spanish vocals, powerful guitar (some biting solos), pleasant keyboards (many beautiful Mellotron waves) and IAN ANDERSON inspired fluteplay. The titletrack includes a splendid and very unique duet from the Mellotron and flamenco guitar of guest-musician Manolo Sanlucar, goose bumps!

ICEBERG - Tutankhamon 

— This Spanish band ICEBERG came (like Manuel from Fawlty Towers) from Barcelona. Their debut album “Tutankhamon” (1975) is the most ‘symphonic’ release: tasteful songs with many shifting moods, ranging from fluent with biting and howling, wah-wah drenched guitar solos to dreamy with floods of choir-Mellotron and tender Fender Rhodes piano. The vocals are often passionate and the interplay between guitar and keyboards is flowing. Recommended.. !