Discography

Live at the Cleveland Agora (80, Live 12" EP) Splitting Ions in the Ether (98, Live, contains all of EP plus new material) Artifacts of Passion (01)

Reviews

St. Elmo's Fire circa 1980 - Paul Kollar, Elliot Weintraub, Mark Helm, Erich Feldman, Steve Stavnicky St. Elmo's Fire was a band from Cleveland, Ohio who played in the early '80's. This was a combination destined to make this a short-lived band, but while they were together, they made some pretty good music. The roots of their style were definitely in Lizard-era King Crimson, but their branches stretched out into lots of new territory. They have two CD releases available. Splitting Ions in the Ether is their first. This is a live album of a concert recorded in 1980. Some of these tunes were put out on a limited-edition EP entitled Live at the Cleveland Agora, but they were remastered for CD in '98 and also contains some additional tunes. Some of the guitar work actually anticipates King Crimson's 1981 release Discipline, with its sequencer-like arpeggios. The tunes are mostly instrumental with a couple of exceptions, and except for the 2 bonus tracks, this CD is mostly a recording of a single St. Elmo's Fire concert. This concert featured excellent technical guitar work, good synth parts, and fairly drips with Mellotron in most of the songs. I wish I could have been there ... this is some excellent material. There is one low point on Splitting Ions ... "Aspen Flambe", a metal rocker with almost no progressive content (except for some paranoid guitar fills and solo) and hackneyed cookie-monster growling vocals griping about his insane girfriend. I really hate it that this song sometimes gets stuck in by mind and I can't get rid of it.* St. Elmo's Fire disbanded for many years, but have recently "reformed" for a "reunion" of sorts. 2001 has seen the release of their first "studio" album entitled Artifacts of Passion. These words are all in quotes because I'm not using them in the traditional way. The band has "reformed" by long-distance, since they are all living in separate cities now. The "reunion" is an electronic one, made in a "studio" composed of recording facilities in California, North Carolina and Iowa. Original members Erich Feldman, Elliot Weintraub, Mark Helm and Paul Kollar are joined by new members Philip Wylie (drums and perc) and Miner Gleason (violins). This CD was mostly being made by mailing ADAT tapes between members so that each could add their own part. This can work very well, or it can result in a catastrophe, depending on how comfortable the musicians are with working in the studio, how careful the composition is, how well people can adapt their parts to unforseen quirks of the other players parts which they hadn't heard yet, and how compatible the studios equipment is. In this case, it's worked out quite nicely. Artifacts of Passion is a very cool CD. The musical range of the individual cuts is quite a bit more diverse than the Splitting Ions CD. The King Crimson influences are definitely still there for some cuts, especially in "Contortions of the Balrog" and "The Abduction of the Adolescents" which also appear in their live versions on the Splitting Ions CD. "Balrog" especially is a fantastic piece, the spirit of Robert Fripp is obviously energizing this Balrog. This one cut alone is worth the price of the CD. But other cuts go off in very different directions ... for example, "The Nemo Syndrome" is a mellow piece with an almost Beatles-like storybook feeling, and has a very nice psychedelic ending that reminds me of "Little Neutrino" from Klaatu's first album. "Erin and the Green Man" is an acoustic instrumental with a Celtic folk dance feel, and "Dog-Eared Page" sounds like ... well, Kollar says his intention was to invoke a Led Zeppelin III vibe. Or maybe "jammin on a front porch of a shanty on the river in the evening in the summer with a bunch of kinda drunk friends in the early days of the 20th century". I'll buy that. On the other side of the musical planet, the first cut, "The Dead Sea Scrolls" begins with a plaintive middle eastern prayer caller and then moves into a heavy Mellotron part. Definitely not an easy album to to pigeonhole. But all the songs are interesting in their own way. I would have never guessed this CD was done piecemeal by musicians who couldn't even see each other for the most part. Both albums are recommended. -- Fred Trafton *Note: Bassist Paul Kollar has since told me that this song was supposed to be a joke. He says, "It was designed to be annoying, simple, crude and just catchy enough to get stuck in your head. You see, back in 1980 most booking agents and club owners wanted the trendy punk and new wave acts on their stages and we were regularly admonished to create works like The Dead Boys or The Plasmatics if we were to have any hope of getting booked with any regularity. Thus, we unleashed 'Aspen', this was as far as we were willing to go in this direction, we used to introduce this song as 'a bad song about a bad girl'. In the end, it proved to be an act of futility ... One recent reviewer compared this tune to Spinal Tap. He hit the nail on the head with that one but he seemed to miss the point entirely." So I was right not to take it seriously. Glad to know my ears aren't that burned out.

Links

[See Brain Forest | Kollar, Paul] Click here for Sprawling Productions web site

Discography

Stackridge (71) Friendliness (72) The Man In The Bowler Hat (74, a.k.a. Pinafore Days) Extravaganza (75) Mr. Mick (76) Do The Stanley (78) BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert (92)

Reviews

Witty folk/chamber-music/prog mix from England. This, their first album is probably best known for "Slark," one of the few 14-minute prog-epics which includes no synth, no Mellotron, and no electric guitar, relying solely on violin, flute and acoustic guitar to carry it along. There is some electric guitar on the album, but the only keyboard-instrument on the album is piano, and this album includes one of the earliest known uses of an acoustic bass-guitar, at least that I know of, although most of the bass is electric. Augmented by cellos, trumpets and oboes on a few tracks, it's on these (notably the instrumental "Essence of Porphyry") that the band becomes a veritable mini-chamber orchestra. Add to this a cheery Caravan-esque attitude, and clever, silly lyrics that alternately suggest 10cc ("Grande Piano," "The Three-Legged Table") and The Bonzo Dog Band ("Percy The Penguin," "Marzo Plod"). A joy to listen to, and lots of fun. (A good deal more Stackridge albums followed. After the band broke up, the central writing/singing axis of Andrew Creswell-Davis and James Warren became The Korgis, who made three albums in the early '80s.)

The only Stackridge album I have heard is Pinafore Days. I can't say I'm very impressed, particularly from a progrock viewpoint. The album is an eclectic style of mix of basic '70s rock, with influences ranging from classical to country-rock to folk. About half the songs are in the 2-3 minute range and the other have are only 4-5 minutes long. There aren't any prog overtones on this album, and I found it boring even from a rock standpoint. This experience hasn't made me eager to check out their other albums. -- Mike Taylor

If any one phrase can be used to best sum up this West Country band it would probably be "King Crimson with a sense of humour". They were a group with a tremendously loyal following, "The Stackridge Rhubarb Thrashing Society", their fan club had sub-groups all over the country. Essentially Stackridge were a group with, what remains to this day, a unique line-up of guitars, drums, flute and violin. There was always Jethro Tull with flute, of course, and Curved Air and It's A Beautiful Day with violin, but no-one had combined the two instruments within the confines of a rock group. They remain a group who almost made it big; they had the essential loyal fan base already mentioned, their third album, "The Man in the Bowler Hat," hit the charts for one week at number 25 in early 1974 and was listed in Melody Maker as one of the month"s best albums on its release. In a Melody Maker "Brightest Hope" poll they finished fourth above Genesis, Wings and Beck, Bogart and Appice amongst others. They were also a great stage act and their recorded output does nothing to reproduce the tremendous sheer exuberance of their live performance. The band was idiosyncratic, offbeat and humorous, eschewing the standard stage "uniforms" of the times and opting instead for an eccentric assortment of what looked like Oxfam cast-offs, (baggy trousers, tweed jackets, bri-nylon shirts, suit waistcoats, plimsoles and carpet slippers). "Early gigs were a bit ragged." according to guitarist James Warren, but they were spotted in their home base of Bristol and signed to MCA in 1971. Their first album, cunningly titled Stackridge soon followed. Despite receiving favourable reviews the album initially sold a mere 4,000 copies, largely due to delays concerning the cover artwork (which featured a flock of eyeless seagulls, whether they were intentionally eyeless remains a mystery to this day). At the time the band were receiving plenty of exposure touring as support to Wishbone Ash. A review in Bristol underground magazine "Pre-View" had the following comments to make. "It offers an amazing spectrum of sounds and lyric ideas ... In all these songs the highly inventive music never swamps the simple tale-telling. The flute, fiddle, mainly acoustic guitar and tasteful percussion explore intelligently and with maximum light and shade ... it's a fine record and will find favour with everyone with a liking for high grade pop." The band set about building up a larger following through countless one-nighters and appearances on major UK tours as support. The results were favourable, though it took some time for the bands highly stylised approach to sink in with rock punters, particularly when they threw in such items as "She Taught Me How to Yodel" with vocals by Mike Evans which cause both amusement and bemusement at the same time. With Mike "Mutter" Slater as manic frontman dragging some amazing sounds from his ancient flute the band made a virtue out of their stage eccentricities. Dances, rambling stories by Mutter, long and meandering introductions by James Warren ("If you can't make out the words to any of the songs it's probably because it's an instrumental.") and props such as dustbin lids (for banging) and rhubarb stalks (for "thrashing") were part of the repertoire and a growing number of dedicated fans turned up to gigs with their own lids and rhubarb. In December 1971 the band ran a wildly successful series of 15 "Christmas Parties" where during a 30 minute rendition of their magnum opus "Slark" violinist Mike Evans would emerge dressed as Father Christmas and drift into a chorus of "I'm Dreaming of A White Christmas" and distribute presents to all and sundry. The traditionally "difficult" second album received critical praise in the music press with comments such as "... typical of Stackridge's ability for combining the ... hilarious with the musically stunning." Despite all this chart success seemed to elude the band. The Man In The Bowler Hat proved to be a tour de force for Stackridge. The producer turned out to be none other than George Martin, famous for his work on all the Beatles albums. Geoff Brown's "Melody Maker" review noted various similarities and influences ranging from The Beatles through Frank Zappa to English Classicism (remarking that "God Speed The Plough" was very evocative of Hardy's Dorset). It seemed typical of Stackridge to go through a change of personnel just when hard won financial success was guaranteed (the album charted briefly soon after its release). It also saw a move to Elton John's new Rocket label. The fourth album Extravaganza saw not only a new record label but also a change in direction for the band. Their quirky humour was still in evidence the highlights being the distinctly risque "The Volunteer", the Zappaesque "Who's That Up There With Bill Stokes?" (the title being taken from an old joke about someone, Bill Stokes, who is recognised wherever he goes and eventually appears at the Vatican with the Pope, to be greeted by, the title of the song!) and "No One"s More Important Than The Earthworm", written by ex-King Crimson bassist and vocalist Gordon Haskell, who had joined the band very briefly. Once again the critical response was very positive. Geoff Brown in "Melody Maker" reviewed the album thus "... Theirs is a two tiered music. Outwardly the subjects are whimsical, rhythmically they plod like the archetypical jovial country copper - much of the time they sound like ... all those lighter songs off Sergeant Pepper. Beneath the tunefully familiar surface however is a sly, smiling cleverness, which reveals itself as a fondness for cloaking the commonplace in a whimsical fog blurring the edges just enough to mark it as something extraordinary ..." However the album failed to meet with the expected commercial success and it was next year that the fifth album hit the streets. Yet another lineup change included Dave Lawson (formerly of Greenslade) on keyboards. It was probably no coincidence that Mr. Mick started with a Beatles song, the comparisons had been made for such a long time, but this was a reggae version of the old favourite "Hold Me Tight". The rest of the album was a concept built around the theme of an old man, Mr. Mick, who was cared for and loved by no-one. "Fish In A Glass," the last song on the album, contained the lines "So it's the end of the story, It's time for us to go, We've told you everything We want you to know" and that was just about it. There were no more public appearances and Stackridge disappeared. Two years later a compilation of album tracks, singles and a previously unreleased "live" crowd pleaser "Let There Be Lids" was released. In many ways Do The Stanley was a fitting tribute to the demise of Stackridge, its release was unheralded, to describe it as low-key would cause accusations of hyperbole. It served the purpose of putting on an album, some tracks which were not available in that format, "Purple Spaceships Over Yatton", a real crowd pleaser at live gigs in the early years, their very own dance craze song "Do The Stanley," "C'est Lavie," the dustbin lid bashing, "Let There Be Lids" and the single, a stripped down and in many ways castrated version of "Slark". As the album notes so rightly pointed out, "They made you laugh, they made you dance, they overwhelmed you with the brilliance of their instrumental abilities, they made you sad, they made you think, they made you nostalgic for our vanishing culture. At all times they entertained you." Just when everyone thought they had finally heard the last of Stackridge, in 1992 Winsong International released BBC Radio 1 Live In Concert which their fans never got to hear. Success finally came the way of Davis and Warren when they teamed up to form The Korgis and had a number 4 hit single in the USA. They made four albums before splitting. Davis has to date issued one album Clevedon Pier under his own name, it contains a hauntingly beautiful rendition of "Woman of Ireland". -- Gerry Prewett

Links

[See Greenslade]

Aquamarine (??), Moonstone (88), Songs Of The Heart (??), Medicine Dance (92)

Formed by Jim McCarty and Louis Cennamo, two of the main movers in the first Renaissance lineup. The music here is typically ethereal and drifty, mostly instrumental, with catchy melodic hooks, and very little edge. This is ostensibly new age music, although the presence of Jane Relf's voice and the keen melodic sense would make it appreciable to any fans of Illusion or the first edition of Renaissance. All albums are late '80's to present.

[See Armageddon (UK) | Illusion | Renaissance]

Discography

Andre' Sulla Luna (79) E Il Pavone Parlo' Alla Luna (87) Syriarise (92) Racconti Brevi + E il Pavone Parlò alla Luna (94) Flowers (95) Circles (98) coolAugustMoon (00) Rings - il decimo anello (02)

Reviews

Arturo Stalteri Syriarise is a solo instrumental effort by the keyboardist of Pierrot Lunaire, a pretty well regarded Italian prog outfit from the '70s. The keyboard/piano style on this is influenced by the French Romanticists.

Links

[See Pierrot Lunaire] Click here for Arturo Stalteri's web site

Discography

Standarte (95) Curses and Invocations (96) Emmaus (98, Promotional release) Stimmung (99)

Reviews

Standarte - Machele Profeti (keyboards), Davide Nicolini (guitar), Daniele Caputo (drums, vocals), Stefano Gabbini (bass) Very much Hammond based music, with a big slab of Mellotrons, harpsichord and Moog synths. The bass guitar takes on the role of the electric guitar. Add to that a singing drummer and youīve got Italian Standarte. Not so much a symphonic prog band as a true retro band. Incredibly "authentic" early 70īs sound that could fool anybody who didnīt know they were a 90īs band. And itīs not just the sound, itīs the way they play that all contributes to the genuine retro feel of the records. All records consists of basically the same kind of music: hard rock, a little psychedelia, with a hint of kitschy rock opera/art rock approach to the songs. Long songs with many parts and subtitles, and on the first album youīve even got spoken narration to link it all together. The lyrics leave a little to be desired; a lot of repetition and crummy english, but in a way you forgive them īcause theyīre so damn cool. Really groovy riffs and distorted organ solos, plus suprisingly catchy melodies. Stimmung is half live, half studio. The live parts were partly recorded at the progressive rock festival in Stockholm 1997 (I was there, and I fell in love on first sight). All warmly recommended, and it doesnīt matter what record you buy; the songs differ a little, but the sound and the style stays the same. -- Daniel

Links

Click here for the Standarte web site

Stanza Della Musica (78)

Very bad acoustic band.

Discography

The Sadness of Things (91, w/ David Tibet) Revenge of the Selfish Shellfish (92, w/ Tony Wakeford) Musical Pumpkin Cottage (96, w/ David Tibet) Octopus (98)

Reviews

The Sadness of Things and Musical Pumpkin Cottage are Steve Stapleton/David Tibet collaborations and Revenge is a Steve Stapleton/Tony Wakeford collaboration. These have classic Nurse With Wound touches and thus should appeal to Nurse With Wound fans.

Sadness of Things is more ambient than almost anything Stapleton (Nurse With Wound) or Tibet (Current 93) have done before, two very long abstract tracks of drone that unreel slowly and have a Japanese feel to them. Musical Pumpkin Cottage seems inspired by krautrock, two long tracks with weird drones under building rhythms and unrelenting beat and unique psychedelic guitars and electronics and a lot more of Tibet's vocals, and is one of the best works by either of these artists. Octopus reworks completely the two pieces from Musical Pumpkin Cottage, adds a couple other long tracks of electronic doodling. All are recommended for the experimentally inclined. -- Rolf Semprebon

Links

[See Current 93 | Nurse With Wound]

Discography

Starcastle (76) Fountains Of Light (77) Citadel (77) Reel To Real (78) Concert Classics Vol. 5 - Starcastle (99, Live) * Chronos I (01, early demo & unreleased material) Shine on Brightly (02, Live) * Song of Times (07) * These albums were released without authorization from the band, and are not legitimate releases.

Reviews

Starcastle A Yes clone. I bought their self-titled album on the recommendation of Yes-fans, but I never expected them to sound this much like Yes. Perhaps a bit more new-age flavored, hence the common nickname, "Yes-lite."

A six-piece band. The only one I have is the first, self-titled album. They sound quite a bit like Yes, and have very vocal music. The lyrics also are reminiscent of Jon Anderson. The lineup consists of two guitars, bass, organ/synth, drums, and vocals. The lead vocalist sounds a bit like Chris Squire. If you're really into Yes, then you have to check the first album out.

They started out as a pretty faithful Yes clone, but had, by their third album, Citadel, begun to develop some of their own unique idiosyncracies. None of their albums are bad, but the first one is very derivative for the most part.

While sounding at first listening like a Yes clone, careful listening will reveal these musicians were NOT Yes wannabees, and are very talented players in their own right. Comprised of two guitars, keyboards, bass, drums and a lead singer with an apparent bass-heavy sound due to bassist Gary Strater's melodic approach. Substantial poly-rhythymic and poly-chordal writing. Exceptional clarity of tone with all instruments, and a tremendous resource for those musicians studying this style of music. Well worth locating usable copies of [the first] four albums. -- Andrew Woodard

I know it's been said before, but they're the ultimate Yes clone. The first album and Citadel even attempt to copy Roger Dean's distinctive cover art style. The only album I have is Fountains Of Light. Not original for a second. Keyboards are definitely patterned after Rick Wakeman, with ascending Moog runs a la "And You And I" (to which "Portraits" bears more than a passing resemblance). The inclusion of two guitarists presumably makes up for the lack of anyone as talented as Steve Howe. The singer, while he doesn't have Anderson's range, is clearly trying to impersonate his phrasing (too many examples to give, but "True To The Light" and "Portraits" are the best ones). Only if you've run out of Yes albums to collect and don't give a damn about originality. -- Mike Ohman

Trivia: Vocalist Terry Luttrell was the original lead singer for REO Speedwagon.

Links

Click here for Starcastle's web site

Stardrive (73), Intergalactic Trot (74)

Synthesizer rock.

Vogt Dem For Efterligninger (78)

[See Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Secret Oyster]

Discography

Starglow Energy (93, self-distributed LP and CD) Time Machine (95 LP's issued in black, brown & yellow vinyl, also CD) 100% live (96, 2LP and CD) Gate to Celdan (98, LP and CD) Abschiedskonzert (01, Video of their last concert)

Reviews

Starglow Energy started as a 5-piece for the first album, but then lost one member and continued as a 4-piece band for the remaining albums. They did a lot of live gigs in Germany and Switzerland, but broke up in 2000. I've only heard Gate to Celdan. It's an interesting album with lots of catchy tunes, but it skirts the edges of what I would call "Progressive". Starglow Energy is really a psychedelic retro "Classic Rock" band. They sound like groups that played FM-radio AOR with heavy Hammond organ in the mix, like Uriah Heep or Deep Purple, walking the fence between Rock and Prog, but never quite falling over into Progland. That being said, there's plenty to like about Gate to Celdan. You have to admire the audacity of a band who starts an album with a long '70's-style drum solo! There's also some good Rock'n'Roll guitar work and some scorching Hammond organ, though both are more about rockin' sound than demonstrating technical dexterity. The songs are mostly verse-chorus structure, but have that "Classic Rock" tendency to break into lengthy solos for both guitar and organ. Plus, as I said, catchy melodies that stick in your head and a sort of overall psychedelic science-fiction feel, though I can't say I can really put a story to it, so I wouldn't call it a concept album. Lyrics are sung in English, quite powerfully, with barely a hint of German accent. If you want to "flash back" to the "good old days", try this CD out! If you're interested in that sort of thing, it also comes in an interesting "gimmick" CD case that folds out, reminiscent of ELP's original Brain Salad Surgery album cover. -- Fred Trafton

Links

Click here for Black Rills Records, where you can order Gate to Celdan and Abschiedskonzert, the concert video

Discography

Gin No Tsubasa (85, a.k.a. Silver Wings) Song of Silence (92) Wish (92, EP)

Reviews

Those expecting a band named Starless who once had a private label called Bible Black to sound like King Crimson can stop reading now and go back to their Bi Kyo Ran albums. Osaka-based Starless instead looked up to the Kansai superstars Novela as a musical model. This is not surprising, since bassist Jutaro Okubo was once member of Scheherazade, the group that supplied half of Novela's genome, and Novela leader Terutsugu Hirayama produced Starless' first album Gin No Tsubasa in 1985. I have not heard that one, but their 1992 releases, the album Song of Silence and the EP Wish, now both on one CD (Musea FGBG 4269.AR), are a bit more mainstream take on the metallic progressive sound prevalent in the Kansai area in the 1980s. Half the songs on Song of Silence are eighties-style pop-metal tunes stretched with Novela's method of incorporating angular riffs, symphonic synthesizer textures and extended solo breaks from both guitarists and occasionally keyboards (Gerard's Toshio Egawa lends a hand on two tracks). The rest are ballads giving a lot of room for acoustic guitars and vocalist Mayumi Minematsu's high-register rhapsodising, moving to areas where Renaissance and Heart meet. Minematsu's vocals are confident and quite restrained considering the aggravating mannerisms of heavy metal and the sometimes hair-raising standards of Japanese female vocalists. All the lyrics are in Japanese, though some songs use the old Eurovision Song Contest trick of dropping a few English-sounding words in the chorus. The five-track EP Wish keeps the same overall style, but is a bit more aggressive and adventurous. Its highlight is the two-part title track. The first part uses vocals and weepy guitars on a solemn, "Hairless Heart"-like melody, while the second part orchestrates it with synthesizers and serves it as a pseudo-classical instrumental. Put together, this is 77 minutes of nice, melodically attractive, metallic progressive rock music whose main problem is that it probably is not nearly heavy enough for progressive metallers nor progressive enough for the symphonic rock crowd. Starless themselves did not survive the economic and psychological aftershock of the Kobe earthquake in 1995 but disbanded. Okubo and keyboard player Shouichi Aoki later joined Teru's Symphonia, lending a bit more metallic edge to the group's 1999 release The Gate. -- Kai Karmanheimo

Links

[See Gerard | Novela | Scheherazade | Teru's Symphonia]

Wrong Line (??)

Hard-rock/prog with modern sound.

Discography

Curse Of The Pheromones (87) Lifepulse (91, Soundtrack) Skin (94?, w/ Biggie Tembo)

Reviews

This album [Curse ...] has no lineup listed, although it sounds like a four-piece of dual synthesizers, guitar, bass and possibly electronic percussion. No vocals. Hard to describe, electronic oriented and a little edgy, but essentially harmless. Reminds me of Kit Watkins and Coco Roussel, but less pretty and with guitar and bass added to the mix.

Links

Click here for Startled Insects page within the Second Sight Records site

Discography

Hot Ice and Wondrous Strange Snow (99)

Reviews

Stealing the Fire - Chris Bond (Keyboards, Drums), Saff Edye (Vocals), Tim Lane (Guitar, Keyboards, Bass, Percussion). Not Pictured - Chris Phillips (Bass) Stealing the Fire's only (so far) release is sort of a follow-up to Earthstone's Seed, though this one is Chris Bond's brainchild with Chris Phillips helping out rather than the other way around. If you've heard Seed, Hot Ice and Wondrous Strange Snow is along the same lines, but Hot Ice a lot more interesting in several ways. The most obvious improvement is the addition of Saff Edye's vocals on most of the tracks. She likes to double-track her vocals, singing 2-part harmonies. Like Seed, the music is symphonic, emotional and hypnotic by repetition, though on this CD there's more variations on the themes within the repetition than on Seed. There are also real drums on this CD, which is another big improvement. Imagine, if you will, Ozric Tentacles with some Floydian guitar solos and female vocals on top, singing lyrics that often allude to mysticism. If you can imagine this, you'd be in the ballpark of what this music is like. There's also one piece, "The Moriarty Cube" which has a guitar part that reminds of Discipline era Crimson, at least rhythmically. If you care, Seed was said to be a "techno-pagan" album, and I'm guessing by some of the lyrics that one of the band members of Stealing the Fire may be a follower of Thelema or some related spirituality, but I'm not sure. The album is crisply recorded and performed ... some of the songs are a bit too long for my taste, especially "Unknowing Angel", but on the other hand I haven't had a chance to really sit quietly and space out to this CD, which it seems like it would be very good for. Bottom line is that I recommend it. Check out their web site for ordering info or the Kinesis site for some song samples. -- Fred Trafton

Links

[See Earthstone] Click here for Stealing the Fire's web site Click here to download RealAudio samples from the Kinesis web site

Discography

Ancient Leaves (78) Sustaining Cylinders (78) Jewel (79) Planetary Unfolding (80) Lyra Sound Constellation (83) Light Play (83, re-released as M'Ocean in 1984) Chronos (84, Soundtrack) Plunge (86) Novus Magnificat (86, guest on this Constance Demby album) Floating Whispers (87) Encounter (88) Desert Solitaire (89, w/ Kevin Braheny and Steve Roach) Baraka (92, Soundtrack, w/ L. Subramaniam, David Hykes & Dead Can Dance) Sacred Site (93, Soundtrack) Singing Stones (94, w/ Ron Sunsinger) Kiva (95, w/ Steve Roach & Ron Sunsinger) The Lost World (95) Collected Ambient and Textural Works 1977-1987 (96, Compilation) Collected Thematic Works 1977-1987 (96, Compilation) Within (99?) Spirits of the Voyage (99?, Soundtrack) The Middle of Time (99?, Soundtrack to Anna Sofaer's documentary "The Mystery of Chaco Canyon") Sorcerer (00 w/ Ron Sunsinger)

Reviews

Michael Stearns Although much of Stearns output would probably be categorized in the "New Age" genre (and that's where you'll find his CD's in the record store), if Sorcerer is any indication, it's very GOOD New Age music. This is a difficult enough ambient CD that I would think it would turn off many of the "goody goody" New Age types. It would be very difficult to put on this album and ignore it, therefore one can hardly call it "ambient" music. This is a CD to put on and listen to, not let go into the background, and you won't want any background noise to ruin the more delicate parts, so headphones are highly recommended to shut out the outside world. This album is dedicated to Carlos Castaneda, and before you roll your eyes and mutter "not another one", let me just say that this is an excellent lyric-less atmospheric composition and you don't need to care about Mr. Castaneda one way or the other to enjoy it. Since I do happen to love the Castaneda books, this only improves my personal experience when listening to Sorcerer. There's not much melody in Sorcerer, it's mostly a "collage of sounds" type of album. But no synthesizer bleeps, tweets and swooshes here, these are very organic sounds, from thunderstorms to wood blocks to shakers and skin drums. It's very dark and mysterious, and a perfect soundtrack for Castaneda's books. I like this album a lot, and I think anyone who likes Steve Roach (with whom Stearns has worked) or Jorge Reyes should find this album to their liking as well. It's as good for your head and spirit as Mescalito, but it won't make you lose your lunch like He does. -- Fred Trafton

Links

[See Braheny, Kevin | Dead Can Dance | Demby, Constance | Roach, Steve | Subramaniam, Dr. L] Click here for Michael Stearns' web site

Discography

Steamhammer (69, aka Reflection) Mk II (69) Mountains (70) Speech (71)

Reviews

Early British band that included future Tangerine Dream member Steve Joliffe. Classic UK rockers.

Links

[See Mogul Thrash | Tangerine Dream]

Green Eyed God (75)

Grinding guitar hard rock.

Discography

Hark the Village Wait (70) Please to See the King (71) Ten Man Mop (71) Below the Salt (72) Parcel of Rogues (73) Now We Are Six (74) Commoner's Crown (75) All Around My Hat (75) Rocket Cottage (76) Storm Force 10 (77) Time Space (77) Live at Last (78) Sails of Silver (80) Back in Line (86) Tempted and Tried (89) Tonight's the Night ... Live (92) Time (96) Horkstow Grange (98) Bedlam Born (00) The Very Best of Steeleye Span - Present (02) They Called Her Babylon (04) Winter (04)

Reviews

Steeleye Span 1974 Who on Earth put them on this list? Ok, ok, they are a good band, and the "progressive"-minded will find some good syncopes here, and not forgetting the world's only heavy-metal track without drums, the amazing "Alison Gross" on their Parcel of Rogues. But seriously, this is folk rock, so be warned if you are a very conservative "progressive" fart who can't stand lyrics about broken love, because Steeleye has plenty of them. Of course, since their lyrics come a different era they are quite different from the standard rock cliches, so the lyrics are one more reason why they are fun to listen to from time to time. Not prog. First albums are electric folk, later folk-rock. Good stuff, just not prog. I'd recommend Please to See the King to those interested. Maddy Prior has a great voice, but she had better not creep up in the next edition :-). I certainly don't blame the above reviewer for his resistance to seeing this band in the GEPR. They are not prog rock, it's true. But they are quite progressive and there are many other artists listed that are more out of place. In fact, Span achieves one of the most successful blends of Celtic folk with hard rock in history and if I didn't know better, I would recommend them to anyone who likes Jethro Tull. But I do know better and the two bands have a much different impact. Steeleye Span are essentially acoustic players with a traditional Elizabethan foundation that incorporate rock, blues and jazz into the mix. It is a more refined music than Tull's and they bring an authenticity to their compositions that Ian and the boys don't quite match. The albums are delicately crafted and arranged into real collections of solid songs, and the music has a courtly quality that American folk-rockers like CS&N can't touch. Best period is probably anytime between 1973 and 75, with Parcel of Rogues and Now We Are Six especially good. An easy contender for Britain's best Celt-rock band, SS remain an underappreciated outfit with much to offer those wishing for less bombast in the progressive experience. -- David Marshall

Links

Click here for an unofficial Steeleye Span web site

Discography

The Simon Lonesome Combat Ensemble (93) The Zombie Hunter (95) Led Circus (99)

Reviews

If categories are necessary, Simon Steensland is easy to classify as a Univers Zero-lovin', Daniel Denis-diggin', Stravinsky-admirin', this-ain't-prog-it's-classical-music musician. Said only half tongue-in-cheek, The Zombie Hunter comes squarely from the Univers Zero/Daniel Denis axis of musical dimensions. Steensland cites influences of Zappa, King Crimson, Magma, Univers Zero, Art Bears, Stravinsky, Bartok, Ives and Schnittke. A percussioninst by nature, Steensland plays a variety of instruments, including guitar, keyboards, bass, harmonium, accordian and quadraphant, whatever that is. Of course, a variety of percussion instruments are heard. His work is supplemented to a small extent by additional musicians but most of the playing is largely his own, making The Zombie Hunter a solo effort rather than an ensemble cast. Still, with few solos, the effect is very much as an ensemble. Steensland has also focused on writing difficult compositions with a "contemporary classical attitude." Themes are stated, mutated and tortured into new existences as the compositions move from start to finish. I will say straight up that The Zombie Hunter is a great album chock-full of excellent compositions but I have two problems with it. At 60 minutes, I could rarely listen all the way through without the music getting somewhat tedious. This relates to my next problem. I always have to be in just the right frame of mind to get into Univers Zero properly. To me, this means that I'm only a passing fan of the style, not an ardent fan. As I already have all of Univers Zero's albums, and find enough diversity among them when I am in the mood, I don't really feel I need another album of the same style. Bear in mind that this is just my perspective. If you are an ardent fan of Univers Zero and Daniel Denis, then by all means, you will want to hunt zombies with Steensland. -- Mike Taylor

The Simon Lonesome Combat Ensemble is made by ex-Landberk drummer Simon Steensland and released by Musea. Steensland plays most of the instruments (drums, percussion, keyboards, programming; but also accordion, berimbau, cello, cittra, flute, fretless fuzzbass, machines, marimba, and tapes). He also get some help from, among others, the keyboardist Mats Öberg and the drummer Morgan Ågren (both have played with Zappa). It is an instrumental album, some kind of progressive fusion with occasional elements of electronic or industrial music. -- Gunnar Creutz

A musician whose mind is the most polluted with Univers Zero sound and appearance, what me doesn't perceive as negative at all. While Simon usually intermingled sound of UZ with the least humourous Zamla M. M., Led Circus is a bit more his own, though it does not screaming that. This "ownness" starts to envelop after "certain" number of listens, but what is "certain", me cannot tell exactly. Recommended anyway. -- Nenad Kobal

Links

[See Agamon | Landberk | Sandell, Stan]

Discography

Opening Act (83) The Abyss (06)

Reviews

From Stencil Forest management 10/11/04: I have noticed reference to Stencil Forest on your Encyclopedia site. Stencil Forest Opening Act has been remixed and remastered and released on CD for the first time. The original LP frequently brings $150-$250 used on sites such as Ebay, and is in high demand in Europe. We have produced 1000 copies, and from the looks of things will have to go back to the duplication house within 45 days for 1000 more. Stencil Forest will also record The Abyss a new CD by end of the 1st quarter of 2005. -- Ron Perron

[Editor's Note: The following was written for the Ambrosia "Travellers" message board, which explains all the references to their work. This is the same article that is published on the CD Baby site where the album is being sold, so beware: this is an advertisement. But it also seems to be a heartfelt article written by someone who really likes the band. I've asked the band to send me a promo for review, and if they do, I'll try to give a less fanatical review of the album. But in the meantime, here ya go:] It was in 2003 that I was invited round to a fellow Ambrosia fan's house to listen to several Ambrosia tracks as well as other obscurities on vinyl and tape. That friend was Mike Jones, an AOR aficionado who knew about many more "Good Music" albums and groups than I could ever hope to discover. After pleasant hours listening to Mike's rarities, he played a couple of tracks from a rather battered old cassette tape. In my amazement, I asked him why he had not told me about these tracks, which I insisted were previously unknown early Ambrosia songs. "Not so, kennyboy" he scoffed. "It isn't Ambrosia at all, it's Stencil Forest". That was my first encounter with Opening Act, Stencil Forest's first (and at that time only) album. Now, after the impossible has happened, and Stencil Forest has re-formed, I am sat here reviewing SF's new album, The Abyss. If you haven't heard it, I have not the slightest doubt that, after this review, you will want to hear it. It is an amazing assembly of songs put together as if the band had woken from a quarter-century of cryo-sleep and continued without realising that the band had been in the freezerinos all this time. It is continuity to the "N"th degree. Only last week I wrote about Ambrosia and how the guys needed to put aside their apprehensions about a new album and just "get out there and DO it". Joe, if you are reading this, get ahold of The Abyss and see how Stencil Forest just got out there and DID it! Track 1: "Lifetime Suite" (11:01) -- This one starts with a tinkling piano accompanied by the wash of the sea on a faraway shore ... with the vocal kicking in courtesy of Doug Andresen ... after this intro there's a terrific piano-drum hectic session which you will slap you around the ears and shout "top that, Ambrosia" ... if you loved "The Brunt", you'll die for this. Around the 5:00 mark, Doug returns with a wistful vocal accompanied by some beautifully understated background harmonies along with the recurrent "Life is a bitter pill" ... theme. Track 2: "You Pull Me In" (5:26) -- I got half-way through this track and had to go back to the start ... it was so good ... especially the bridge of the song ... I just couldn't wait for the end of the track ... I had to hear the beginning again ... right now. This track has a guitar-drum-orchestra mix to die for ... it alternates from accoustic rock to sweeping rock to semi-orchestral silky smoothness. The vocal has so many hooks that you could go deep-sea fishing ! Thanks, Doug Andresen, for a superb track. If your feet and fingers don't tap along to this, then double-check to see if you are still alive! Track 3: "The Captive Heart" (4:57) -- This reminds me very much of Ambrosia's Somewhere I Never Travelled album. It's sparse in places, poppy in places, but with piano and guitar segments that show Stencil's musical taproot source in the heady days of late 70's / early 80's "new music". Track 4: "Morning Glory" (4:30) -- Again and again, Stencil Forest fashion a song using all the ingredients of the great 80's. It's like they have found a cache of musical memories that have lain frozen in time ... and they have thawed them out, brought them back to life, nourished them and are now parading these songs as fully revived musical mammoths for all of us to hear, gawping in astonishment. Track 5: "Our Little Secret" (3:33) -- A thudding piano intro that could have been written by Brian Wilson himself opens this quirky, lyrical track. It has a spiritual feel to it which reminds me of all my favorite bands (Sneaker, Player, and, yes, Ambro too). This tune is a real grower and it's yet another song for me to karaoke along to in the car. Track 6 "Here Today" (4:10) -- No, not the old Beach Boys toon ... This song starts with a cute little intro and bursts into life when the vocal kicks in with a plaintiff cry ... but what appears to be a straightforward song belies the slightest hint of menace in the song ... (well, I thought so!). Track 7 "Broken" (4:35) -- Another wonderful tune, with soaring vocals and that now-familiar piano with a hint of double-vocals and that oh-so-catchy arrangement which begins with a harmonica-sounding intro. This brought more than a tear to my usually bone-dry eyes. This song sums up Stencil Forest perfectly ... a band that released a stunning first album in 1980 and then broke up and disappeared from view, only to find each other again at the cusp of the 21st Century. The liner notes of this album very generously credit me (Ken Whowell) with "precipitating all of this". I'm truly flattered, honored and proud to be involved in the ressurection of this fine band. And this track symbolises, better than any other, the joy and enthusiasm of these guys getting back together and continuing where they left off, some thirty years ago. A magical, joyous track which celebrates the rediscovered camaraderie of Stencil Forest. This is my favorite of the whole album. Track 8 "Room With a View" (4:38) -- The jangling guitar, percussion and thudding bass along with a great angst intro propels listeners into a thumping rock track with a knockout keyboard mid-section. Track 9 "Is Love Enough to Save You" (5:24) -- A light, airy confection filled in with a eerie, ethereal vocal from Doug, another "spiritual" feel permeates this penultimate track. It's so much more than just another song about drifting apart ... the lyrics describe an almost forlorn, nay, lovelorn plea for another start, a fresh beginning. Great track. Track 10 "The Abyss" (24:16) -- When I saw the running time for this track ... (24 minutes) ... I thought to myself ... this conjures up all the old images of those groups who inflicted those unbelievably dull 20-minute drum solos ... the sort of self-indulgent pap that tolled the death-knell of "progressive" music in the late 70's and 80's. So, fearing the worst, I resigned myself to 24 minutes of endurance. Well, I have been wrong before, and boy was I wrong this time. "The Abyss" is a slap-your-face-told-you-so ride on a harmonic roller-coaster that I haven't heard since Ambrosia's "Cowboy Star". It has everything you could wish for ... pipe-organ, accoustic guitar, piano, "ol' west" country-n-western segment ... you name it ... it's there. So many other groups and songs are evoked ... but don't get me wrong ... this isn't an attempt at copying Ambrosia, Player, Sneaker, Steely Dan, early Genesis or any of the other eclectic heroes of my youth ... this is clearly Stencil Forest. Just close your eyes and relax ... and suddenly you are on a journey ... full of adventure, discovery, danger, excitement and thrills, but right from the start ... you feel instinctively that you are in safe hands, as Stencil Forest Tours Inc take you on a journey around the musical world ... and you know all along that you will reach that safe haven, that rainbow's end, of harmonic heaven. I enjoyed the trip immensely. You will, too ... The whole album was written by Frank Cassella with additional lyrics by Doug Andresen on "Face in the Mirror", part of track one. But this is no one (or two)-man job. Jim Cassella on percussion, and Rick Cassella with additional keyboards, plus groupmeister Ron Perron on bass and additional guitar ... combine to make this a true group effort. And Doug can certainly hold a tune, too. How can guys who have been apart for so long just get back together and pick up where they left off twenty-five years ago? I don't have a clue, but if I was pushed to answer, I'd say that these are wandering friends who went their own separate way, but who, eventually, heard that inner voice telling them that they had "unfinished business" to attend to ... and they certainly have heeded that voice. I have one hope ... and it is that Stencil Forest have many more albums to release before that "unfinished business" is well and truly finished. You really should give this album a try! -- Ken Whowell

Links

Click here for Stencil Forest's web site Click here to order Opening Act from CD Baby Click here to order The Abyss from CD Baby

Step Ahead (82)

A great band that will appeal to neo-prog fans and sounds like Marillion, but is much more talented that any neo-prog ensemble. Sort of like Marillion crossed with Drama-Yes. Get it.

Step Ahead is one of the better regarded progressive releases of the '80s, by a French band with an Irish vocalist. The music combines some of the aggressiveness of the early-eighties prog revivalists such as Marillion and mid-period Yes with a melodic and atmospheric style reminiscent of the '70s style. The LP was originally released in pretty limited quantities in Japan, but the Musea CD reissue surpasses that in all respects, with an extensive booklet (characteristic of most Musea products) and five additional tracks. The quality of the bonus tracks is variant, but they are included "as documents and for their musical value -- and for the benefit of all [their] fans...."

Step Ahead was one of France's best symphonic bands and their only release was a quite a rarity, not only in availability but also in quality. In the early '80s, few bands kept the progressive flame alive while all too many decided that sounding like Genesis was the best way to appeal to progressive music fans. Step Ahead managed to derive a certain amount from Drama-era Yes and some others but remains original in composition and atmosphere. Driven by Christain Robin's searing guitar work, the band created and pleasant yet powerful symphonic album that deserves a listen by prog-heads and neo-proggers alike. Keyboardist Claudie Truchi plays with a wonderful style -- she doesn't just bang chords during guitar solos or vocals lines -- instead she plays complex multi-threaded semi-classical lines. Her rhythm playing is fantastic. Perhaps the best since Keith Emerson. Vocalist Danny Brown has a high pitched, strong tenor, and the band is rounded out by a solid rhythm section, capable of making the album worth listening to for the bass and drums alone. This disc contains five extra tracks, two of which are previously unreleased, destined for Step Ahead's second album, which never was finished. These two and the three live tracks are mediocre quality and not worth buying the Musea pressing for if you already have the out-of-print Japanese pressing. However they do add a nice touch for completists. Step Ahead may have been a precursor to the Marillion sound that dominated the mid-eighties, but I maintain that they are the most worthwhile of all bands that adopted that sound. They were original, yet their music contains a familiar flavor, thoughtful lyrics and listenable groove that makes its underlying complexity almost deceptive.

This CD includes Step Ahead's only album recorded in 1982, three live tracks recorded at the Theatre de Verdure, Nice, November 1982, and two previously unreleased tracks recorded at Step Ahead's rehearsal studio in 1982. The additional five songs are not of the same technical quality as the rest of the songs. Step Ahead was Christian Robin (electric guitars), Danny Brown (vocals), Gerard Macia (Ovation Adamas acoustic guitar), Claudie Truchi (keyboards, Bosendorfer Imperial grand piano), Antoine Ferrera (bass), Jean-Yves Dufournier (drums), Alain Lejeune (keyboards), Philippe Recht (bass), and Emmanuel Riquier (drums). Together they produced symphonic progressive music along the lines of Yes, FM, and Rick Wakeman. Christian's voice sounds like Jon Anderson with more body. If you appreciate middle of the road progressive music, Step Ahead is an album to explore.

Step Ahead's self-titled album was released in 1982, the year generally credited as giving birth to neo-prog. Led by the fiery guitar of Christian Robin, Step Ahead represent what "neo-prog" should be: a tasteful blend of old styles with new ideas and technologies rather than a mere imitation like so many mid-'80s neo-prog bands. While there are arguably Genesis influences, Step Ahead show strong French tendencies and influences such as Asia Minor. The guitar work is very up-to-date (for 1982) and the keyboard work treads the narrow line between modern digital and mid-'70s analog. When the singing starts, the band falls into more simplistic rock rhythms that characterize the neo-prog genre but the instrumental passages are well-crafted blends of old and new ideas into very creative progressive rock. The Musea CD release contains five bonus tracks, three live versions of songs from the original LP plus two previously unreleased cuts. -- Mike Taylor

[See Carpe Diem]

Discography

Ki (01) Promosfera (03)

Reviews

Stereokimono - Alex Vittorio (bass), Cristina Atzori (drums, percussion), Antonio Severi (guitar, midi guitar) Italian instrumental ensemble, consisting of Antonio Severi (guitars and keyboards), Alessandro Vittorio (bass and keyboards), and Cristina Atzori (drums and percussion). So far, Ki is their only release, but it has been enough to catch the attention of many European prog magazines and e-zines during 2001: in fact, it has been acclaimed to the point of being awarded by many of these as one of the top prog releases of the year. The musicians themselves prefer to label their musical style as "psychophonic oblique rock" - or something like it -, which may seem humorous and self-satirical, but may as well serve as an accurate description, after all. Let's focus on the terms "psycho" and "oblique". Their tracks are usually semi-free-form jams (some of them more extended than others) performed on the basis of a few sequences of atonal chords, which give a kind of "crazy" mood to their music in the energetic numbers (e.g., "Eh! Ah!", "L'Altra Marea"), and a somber air of obscure mystery in the slower ones (e.g., "Phileas Fogg"), an occasionally, even some exotic atmosphere (e.g., "Istanbul Di Giorno"). Major influences in Stereokimono's music are 80's King Crimson and Henry Cow's less aggressive side, plus some touches of contemporary jazz fusion. Even though their repertoire shows a high level of proficiency in the performance aspect, there is not a display of over-the-top exhibitionism here: it is the musical ensemble as an organic unit what is emphasized here, and the solos are not as prominent as the harmonic textures, which are more featured and fill every single space in each track quite efficiently. A couple of supporting musicians (an extra guitarist, and occasionally, a violin player) manage to help successfully in building the sound textures. In short, highly recommendable for anyone who can properly appreciate the jazzier side of progressive musical tradition, which Stereokimono so wisely absorbs and recycles for the new millenium. -- Cesar Mendoza

Stereokimono's second CD Primosfera is an excellent blend of symphonic prog, fusion and more than a little space rock. The recording quality is excellent, the songs are well composed and superbly executed, and the overall impression is ... well ... impressive. To my ears, they don't sound particularly "Italian" in the usual way, in fact they probably sound the most like a mixture of spacey Daevid Allen-era Gong and fusiony post-Allen Gong (in particular some Allan Holdsworth-timbred guitar solos) with some contemporary jazz leanings thrown in. In addition to Tim Blake-like synth swoops, pulsations and electro-flatulence, there are also some excellent high-speed melodic synth solos. The songs are all longish, the shortest being about 4:30, with most clocking in at around 7-8 minutes. There's plenty going on in each piece to maintain interest for the duration of the songs. The pieces are all mostly instrumental, though there are some spoken voice sections rambling about odd subjects occasionally. One of my favorite cuts is the last one which contains a long "homage" sound collage consisting of sound effects from many famous progressive rock albums. I've identified parts of Yes' Close to the Edge, Gentle Giant's In A Glass House, Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Tangerine Dream's Rubycon, ELP's Brain Salad Surgery, Camel's The Snow Goose, Gong's Angel's Egg and probably a few more I didn't recognize. After this, it's hard to deny being "prog". An excellent album that needs to be in every prog fan's collection. -- Fred Trafton

Links

Click here for Stereokimono's web site

Discography

Stern Combo Meissen (77) Weisses Gold (78) Der Weite Weg (79) Reise Zum Mittlepunkt Des Menschen (80) Stundenschlag (82) Taufrisch (85) Nächte (87) Live (96, Live, Recorded 1976) Sachsendreier (98?) ... several compilations

Reviews

Stern Combo Meissen 1965: Werner Bertram, Gottfried Sieber, Martin Schreier, Detlev Hesse, Werner Kunze, Norber Jäger Stern Combo Meissen (SCM) started way back in 1964. After numerous changes in musical style and personnel, they settled on classically influenced prog in the mid-1970s. Finally, after 13 years, their first eponymous album was released in 1977, which is actually a live recording from that same year. Highlight of the album is the opener "Kampf um den Südpol" ("Battle for the South Pole"), about Scott and Amundsen's race for the South Pole. As most of their music, it is characterized by a strong keyboard presence. Even though ELP are cited as an important influence, most of the time the keyboard sound owes as much to Wakeman as to Emerson, I would say. The most notable exception is side two of this first album, with some true ELP-style organ work, especially on the first track "Eine Nacht auf dem kahlen Berge" ("A Night on Bald Mountain"), which is (again in true ELP style) a Mussorgsky adaptation. The second album is a concept album, dedicated to SCM's hometown of Meissen in East-Germany. Entitled Weisses Gold (White Gold), it tells the story of the 17th century alchemist who in his quest for gold accidentally invented the china ware that the city is renowned for. It's a great album with lots of classical influences, and again a keyboard-heavy sound. The only negative point would be the dull narrator at the start and middle of both sides of the record. And take a close listen to the end of side one: there's a bit in there that I could swear comes right out of "Watcher of the Skies". The third album Der weite Weg (The Far Journey) is slightly inferior to the first two. Although it contains some nice songs in the vein of the previous albums, there are also a few poppier songs that are less interesting. The highlight for me is the keyboard interpretation of Vivaldi's "Spring" from his Four Seasons concerto. You've got to hear it to believe it, but it actually sounds quite nice. Die-hard Vivaldi fans will probably be appalled, though. I'm a bit surprised they got away with the album's opener "Die Sage" ("The Legend"): the lyrics are clearly about dictatorship, which must have made the band rather unpopular with the East-German leaders, I would think (allegedly some of their concerts were indeed banned, but I don't know whether this song had anything to do with it), but it nevertheless got released on the state owned Amiga label! SCM's (or rather SM's, as they had dropped the "Combo" from their name by then) fourth, Reise zum Mittelpunkt des Menschen (Journey to the Centre of Man) is my favourite. It relies even more on keyboards, which have a more electronic feel to them than on their previous work. It's a concept album about ... er ... a journey to the centre of man, whatever that may mean. Listening to the lyrics is not going to help elucidate the strange title I'm afraid, even if you understand German. How about this bit, for instance: "Menschenzeit im Tropfsteinkleid, bizarr und starr, was lebend war" ("People's time in stalactite dress, bizarre and rigid, what was alive"). Never mind those lyrics, though: the music is excellent. With the next album Stundenschlag (Striking of the Hour) their sound starts to change, but – you guessed it – not for the better. The first side contains some good stuff with the nine minute "Das Paar" ("The Couple") as a highlight. The music here is still rather progressive. The second side on the contrary, is filled with pop material. The music is still palatable and well executed, but progressive it's not. After some personnel changes SM recorded their next album Taufrisch (Dewy Fresh). There's only very mediocre pop music on this one, and a different singer (pity, as the original singer had a very characteristic voice), which can lead to only one conclusion: to be avoided at all costs. I haven't heard Nächte (Nights), but it's supposed to contain the same kind of rubbish as Taufrisch, so I don't think I want to. After this album they disbanded, but in 1995 the band was reformed, with most of the original line-up (including the lead vocalist), and under their original name (including the "Combo"). They're still touring (only in East Germany), sometimes together with two other East German bands, Lift and Electra, under the moniker of "Sachsendreier" (which means something like "Saxony threesome"). Material from their concerts has been released on a CD with the same name. I haven't heard this one, though. A live recording from 1976 was released in 1996, with two original compositions (their concert favourite "Der Kampf um den Südpol", sounding very much like the version on the debut album and the previously unreleased "Wenn ich träume" ("When I Dream")) and three adaptations: Sibelius' "Finlandia", Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" and Brian Auger's "Happiness is Just around the Band" (sic!). I don't know the originals, so I really can't say how these adaptations relate to them. The overall sound of this live album is very much like SCM's debut album that was released the following year. It's a nice enough album, though not essential: the songs sometimes tend to go on a bit too long, and hearing the vocals on the Auger composition I'm glad they chose to write the lyrics for their own songs in German. The sound quality of this release is outstanding, though. There's also a couple of best-of albums. I get the impression it's all a nostalgia thing these days for SCM, so I don't think there'll ever be any new material unfortunately. Overall conclusion: all albums up to and including Reise ... come highly recommended, buy Stundenschlag only if you can find it at a budget price, and don't bother with Taufrisch or Nächte. -- Bas Janssen

Links

Click here for a Stern Combo Meissen web site (in German) Click here for another (also in German)

[See Cosmic Jokers, The]

Discography

With Egg: Egg (69) The Polite Force (70) The Civil Surface (75) With Hatfield and the North : Hatfield and the North (74) The Rotter's Club (75) Afters (79) Hatwise Choice (05) With National Health: National Health (77) Of Queues & Cures (78) D.S. Al Coda (80) Complete (90, 2CD Compilation of all three albums) Missing Pieces (96, Compilation of outtakes & unreleased material) Playtime (00, Live from two concerts in 1979) With Bruford: Feels Good To Me (77) One Of A Kind (79) The Bruford Tapes (79) Gradually Going Tornado (80) With Stewart-Gaskin: Up From The Dark (85) The Singles (86) As Far As Dreams Can Go (87) The Big Idea (90) Spin (91) With Others: Arzachel (69, w/ Arzachel a.k.a. Uriel) Space Shanty (72, w/ Khan) Fish Rising (75, w/ Steve Hillage) 7 Year Itch (98, w/ Pip Pyle)

Reviews

Dave Stewart One of the foremost progressive keyboardists, you owe it to yourself to own at least one album from each band he has played with, from Arzachel to his work with Bill Bruford. Once you own one, you'll want the others. His Stewart-Gaskin collaboration with Barbara Gaskin, is well-crafted pop in its own right but not at all like his work for which he is most famous among Prog fans. Stewart was a master of the Hammond organ and its vast tonal palette. In comparison to Stewart, Emerson had no idea of what a Hammond was capable of sounding like. My personal favorites are National Health and Khan (which is essentially a Steve Hillage project), but his work with Egg and Hatfield are also essential. If, out of all the bands in this list, you have not heard works by Dave Stewart, you have indeed found the place to begin. -- Mike Taylor

Links

[See Arzachel | Bruford | Campbell, Mont "Dirk" | Egg (UK) | Hatfield and the North | Hillage, Steve | Khan | National Health | Stewart-Gaskin] Click here for the "progressive section" of Dave Stewart's web site

Discography

Up From The Dark (85) The Singles (86) As Far As Dreams Can Go (87) The Big Idea (90) Spin (91) Selected Tracks (93, Compilation)

Reviews

Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin Adult-oriented, intelligent pop with a whimsical recall for the '60s. Not at all similar to his early Prog work for which Dave Stewart is most famous. Gaskin is Barbara Gaskin, one of the Northettes for Hatfield and the North, and a vocalist for the folky band Spirogyra. -- Mike Taylor

Links

[See Arzachel | Bruford | Egg (UK) | Hatfield and the North | Khan | National Health | Spirogyra | Stewart, Dave] Click here for the Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin web site

Discography

Still Life (70)

Reviews

Hammond-organ hard rock with enough twists and turns to justify their presence at GEPR. I really like the songs on this album; they're a little different from a lot of the early 70's rock music. The Repertoire release doesn't give many clues about the band, but the band photo suggests a quartet, although there's seemingly no guitarist (some acoustic guitar on "Love Song No. 6"). The main thing here are the songs, with some nice vocal harmonies and well-balanced organ- and piano solos. The track "Dreams" starts of with quiet organ and some theatrical speaking ("No more dreams!!!") in a manner no conventional pop/rock band would do it. Probably nobody's favourite band, but good enough. -- Daniel

Telenn Geltiek (59), Reflets (70), Renaissance de l'harpe celtique (71), À l'Olympia (72), Chemins de terre (74), E Langonned (74), À Dublin (75), Trema'n inis (Vers l'île) (76), Raok dilestra (Avant d'accoster) (77), Journée à la Maison (78), Tro ar Bed (International Tour) (79), Tir na nog (Symphonie celtique) (80), Terre des vivants (81), Légende (83), Harpes du nouvel âge (86), The Mist of Avalon (91), Again (93), Brian Boru (95)

A Breton harpist with a slew of albums of Celtic Harp music out. One of his albums may be of interest to prog fans, esp. fans of Celtic/folk progressive stuff like Mike Oldfield's Ommadawn, Rare Air, or Fairport Convention's early work. A symphonic work for 75 musicians in three movements, ranging from quiet harp and orchestra textures to fairly decent Celtic rock as well as some other very interesting elements. Hard to get into, and can sometimes be even cheesier than Yes' Tales from Topographic Oceans, but an interesting thing to check out nonetheless.

It's tempting to say that Alan Stivell was France's answer to British bands like Fairport Convention, Horslips, and Steeleye Span, but that would be incorrect. Stivell was fusing Celtic folk music and rock long before those guys, even though he did not release any full-length albums until the early 1970s. His earliest albums Reflets, Renaissance de l'harpe celtique, Chemins de terre, and the live À l'Olympia are widely considered to be his best, containing a compelling blend of rocked-up traditional music and original compositions ranging from hard-edged psychedelic folk to delicate acoustic pieces only lightly flavoured by the occasional organ or electric guitar flourish. Much of the music is instrumental, with Stivell playing harp and bombarde with a band that uses a mixture of rock and folk instruments, although Stivell does sing in Breton, English, and French on several tunes. Many other French prog-folk musicians, including Dan Ar Braz and Gabriel Yacoub (of Malicorne) and Dan Ar Braz, got their start playing with Stivell. The music from this period is highly melodic, tightly constructed, with rhythms and melodies clearly derived from Breton, Irish, and Scottish folk traditions. Towards the end of the '70s and in the early '80s, Stivell's music started to move into what would probably now be called "new age." Raok dilestra, a concept album about the history of Brittany, is still pretty rocking, as is Tro Ar Bed and parts of Symphonie Celtique, but Trema'n inis, Journee a la Maison, and especially Harpes du nouvel age are much softer-edged, featuring loosely constructed, mostly-acoustic harp pieces with a faint Celtic influence. It's pleasant enough, but a lot Stivell fans think it pales in comparison to his earlier work. Since the late '80s, Stivell has been returning to his Celtic rock roots. The Mist of Avalon has a definite rock feel, although it isn't quite as melodic or as Celticky as his earliest stuff. Again consists of a number of remakes of his classic material and is quite hard-edged. It also features a number of guest musicians, including Kate Bush and Shane McGowan (of the Pogues). A good introduction to Stivell's music would probably be one of the numerous compilation disks that are available. Currently, Polygram France has a CD on its Master Serie label that features a collection of Stivell's early material, including a number of pieces were only released as singles and do not appear on any of his studio albums, and I heartily reccomend this. Any of Stivell's three live albums would also be a good introduction for a prog fan who likes Celtic-influenced progressive folk. (Many people, including several Celtic rock musicians, feel that the three live ones are Stivell's three best releases.) Outside of France, Stivell's later work is generally a lot easier to find than his classic material, but it's definitely worth it to seek out the early stuff. One final discographical note: Stivell's albums have often been released with translated, or in some cases, completely changed, titles in different countries. For instance, in the UK and Australia, Chemins de terre was released under the title From Celtic Roots. A complete list of Stivells albums, and the different titles that each has been given is available in the discography on the Alan Stivell web server.

Discography

Fantasia (80) Behind the Walls (85) The Lonely Heartbeat (89) The Flower King (94) Hydrophonia (98)

Reviews

Roine Stolt The Flower King is a very good symphonic progressive album by ex-Kaipa guitarist Roine Stolt. "We believe in the light, we believe in love". This little portion of the lyrics sums the feeling of the whole album. Stolt believes in the Good Powers and the whole album is about love, peace and happiness in good Yes fashion. Hans Bruniusson (Samla Mammas Manna) play some of the drums. -- Gunnar Creutz

Stolt is a veteran of the Swedish scene with multiple talents. He is producer, engineer, composer, bassist, keyboardist, singer (in English) but most of all an accomplished guitarist. He is surrounded by excellent musicians on drums, bass, vocals, keyboards and saxophone. The style of the compositions (very melodic symphonic rock) is deceivingly simple but contains expert performances with rich, tasteful and meticulous arrangements. The Flower King is a superb production that serves the best elements of accessibility and virtuosity. Deserves a close ear by a large variety of listeners. -- Paul Charbonneau

Roineīs all instrumental '98 solo-album [Hydrophonia] was reportedly a way for him to clear away with some old songs, and put to use all those little ideas that werenīt good enough for The Flower Kings. Whether that is entirely true or not, this sure sounds pretty tired. I think Roine is an amazing guitar player and a great improviser, so if you have him soloing over some new age-like music it would still be worthwhile listening to, but thatīs about as interesting as this gets. Some new age, a little nordic folk music, some minor progressive-light elements, and a lot of great soloing. If thatīs the kind of music you like to listen to, go right ahead and buy this, but donīt expect this to come anywhere close to The Flower Kings quality-wise. The upbeat happy happy-feel gets annoying after a while, but it would probably be impossible for Roine to record an entire album without stumbling on some great melodies, but what I really miss are the odd chord progressions that make a great prog band. Jamie Salazar and Ulf Wallander are the featured flower guys on this release. -- Daniel

Roine cut a couple of pop albums between Kaipa and the Flower Kings, and Fantasia and The Lonely Heartbeat are two of them (haven't heard Behind the Walls). Main vocalist on Fantasia is Mats Löfgren who sang on Kaipa's Solo, and personally I think he's a great singer. The vocals are in Swedish, and sometimes the subject matters are prog in the Swedish sense of the word, namely politically left-oriented (as were a lot of Kaipa's lyrics). Second half of the album is instrumental. Fantasia isn't too poppy; it's actually not that different from Solo, but it has a few sappy ballads that aren't very successful, and the overly peppy ditties tend to get on my nerves. This is around the time when Roine starts to come into his own as a great guitar player, which makes for fun listening. "Grodballetten" ("The Frog Ballet"; reminiscent of many a Kaipa title ...) is very prog (in the international sense of the word)! The Lonely Heartbeat makes you wonder who the hell the guy fronting The Flower Kings is. This simply isn't very good, with its pseudo funk-pop, cheesy radio-pop, some 90125ish rockers (that's not a compliment!), cocktail lounge jazz with a little dixieland clarinet choruses thrown in for good measure. The sole profit from this sordid affair is Roine's guitar solos. The Flower King comes from another part of the universe. Amazing songs and musicianship throughout. For about two years this was my favourite album and I still listen to it frequently. Symphonic in a way that doesn't get pathetic (as so many neo-prog bands tend to do). The central thing is the incredibly strong songwriting, but the fact that it's dressed in flawless progressive rock makes it perfect. Roine has never sung better, and the climactic finale of the 21 minute epic "Humanizzimo" gives me gooseflesh like you wouldn't believe. When his voice dramaticly cracks and he hits the falsetto-shout -- now that's safe-sex if I ever had any! When I interviewed Roine in late '97 he also held that piece of music in very high regard. Take some of your favourite Genesis, your Yes, even your melodic King Crimson, season it with a little Kaipa, and you've got one of those rare 90's must-have albums. Consistently better than the Flower Kings outings (although Retropolis comes close), I cannot recommend this enough. -- Daniel

Links

[See Bodin, Tomas | Fantasia | Flower Kings, The | Kaipa | Triangulus] Click here Roine Stolt's page on The Flower Kings web site

Discography

Le Idee di Oggi Per la Musica di Domani (69) L'Unitá (69) Un Biglietto del Tram (75) Cliché (76) L'Apprendista (77) Macchina Macceronica (80) Pinocchio Bazaar (80, EP) Al Volo (82) Megafono (82?, '76-'82, double live) Un Concerto (93, reunion live)

Reviews

Started as a left-wing political folksong group. But fortunately they met Henry Cow, and the music changed to a very interesting fusion between classical music, North Italian folk music and Henry Cow. Georgie Born appears on Macchina Macceronica which reminds me of Henry Cow's Concerts, but with a stronger melodic feel. Al Volo is more electric and compositions are less complicated, this was the last one. The singer Umberto Fiori has a strong interesting voice, maybe the result of classical training. Members of the band appears on a Recommended Records Quartely volume 1. nr 3. 1986, playing one side live, together with Chris Cutler. -- Michael Bohn Fuglsang

For my opinion the most peculiar and at the same time the least opposing band from RIO movement. Their first two albums from sixties may suite well to completists. Although I read of L'Unita as having early Soft Machine influences, I usually skip it when I trace it in a catalogue of my favourite vendor. In six years long hiatus they ascertain how they would like to sound. Since including Biglietto del Tram, Stormy 6 reared sounds within primeval Giantish pastoral fashion of blending non-rock idioms such as medieval, barocco, classical, folk, etc., albeit in north-Italian and Mediterraenean loam. Such approach continued through release of Cliché, written for movie of the same title, and culminated with L'Apprendista, for me personally their best ever. L'Apprendista is in essence indigenous lyricism combined with vernacular traditions and spiced with chamber contempo sonorities. It is, perhaps, the most beautiful recording to emerge from the difficultest camp of progressive rock forms, with the possible exception of Henry Cow's Leg End. This album is definitely a slow-grower. Its sonic appearance is not striking, but certain quantity of listens define it as a nice and important album. At times it can overcome Giants at their most dissonant, other times at their most lyrical. This could also be Giants taken on the next, higher level. Macchina Maccheronica is their RIO classic and incorporates plenty of characteristics of Henry Cow at their most shamelessly experimental, but S6 went furtherly into weirdness, which at first even to me seemed too zany. I prepared myself for headfirst jump into dissonances and quirky rhythmics, but ... eponymous opener served me something completely different. Just like one would listen to one small-town wind orchestra on march through their very town. Next track, "Le Lucciole" sounds very contemporary, but along with the rest of similar tracks may be heard as if circus orchestra performs it. As I haven't heard any of Italian contemporary classical (Nono, Dallapiccola, etc.) I don't know whether this is derived from them, but again I'm suspicious about such un-gravity of mentioned composers. "Madonina" is a title for four differently arranged miniatures, which heavily mock San Remo festival musics. There's also one theater tune inspired by Samla (a lot of mumbling, tittering and childlike/gnomic conversation). So, RIO-maniacs and other interested, what more do you actually want. Here's everything and even more than such a genre can deliver. Al Volo is another one of a kind. It (still) puzzles me beyond the limit of usual. Perhaps straighter, but also stranger than previous efforts. While somewhat sable, it embraces features of post-punk (Killing Joke), synth wave (Ultravox), early 80's era King Crimson, Italian lyricism, etc. I don't know how close it is to albums of bands like early XTC or early Godley and Creme. "Opposing" features have gone, god alone knows whither. Seems that they take wavy trend of the era a bit more seriously than Etron Fou. Instead of Gentle Giant, which inspired Stormy 6 more than any other band, I hear something I easily mistake for Genesis circa Lamb. Sunken, classically trained voice of Umberto Fiori comes unbelievably close to that of Peter Gabriel. While recording Al Volo band relinquished both Giant and folk inspirations. Well, almost, as only one track includes choral medieval singing from the whole band fortified with lute-like guitar playing. As a farewell studio album this one is the oddest of all. As all their albums are "slow-growers" this one is no exception. With many patient listens it's slowly revealing all the beauty which usually permeates Stormy releases. Somewhat inferior to previous recordings but still quite good when taken into account alone. Live recordings are said to be quite necessary for fans, but I haven't heard 'em yet. L'Apprenista, Macchina and Al Volo all come highly recommended!!! -- Nenad Kobal

Stormy Six were part of the cultural-political-musical movement Rock In Opposition. Considering the musical radicalism and astringency of many releases that the original RIO bands produced, L'Apprendista is surprisingly lyrical and accessible. That doesn't mean that it isn't challenging, it is just that the band show their colour in their openly political lyrics (or liner notes at least) and the riotous innovation and hybridisation that subtly subverts many of the diverse styles they draw from. The sound is predominantly acoustic and open, with acoustic and clean electric guitars, mandolins, tuned percussion and especially a nimble string quartet and an occasional woodwind supporting the restrained male vocals, which are prominent on every track. The first couple of songs are pretty melodic and straight-forward in the verse-chorus format, yet accentual and rhythmic irregularities, touches of dissonance and sudden interjections, like the contrapuntal string intermezzo on the title track, keep things slightly out of kilter; the mock-stately vocal style on the title track also suggests the influence of contemporaneous agit-prop songs. Things get more experimental from there on, but an underlying influence of Italian folk follows through the Gentle Giant-ish "Carmine" and "Rosso", a Slapp Happy-style skewed chamber work with processed vocals. The only thing holding "L'Orchestra dei Fischietti" together is an infrequently recurring power chord guitar riff, between which you can find folky violin, an acoustic ditty, Samla Mammas Manna-style percussion weirdness and even a three-voice vocal fugue. At the other end, the stately, Hackett-like guitar melodies, solemn vocals and subtle string-synth flourishes of "Il Labirinto" could be at home on many of the more traditionally symphonic Italian prog albums, but the band have to disrupt this with a wonky piano bridge and a saxophone solo that owes more to psychedelia than to contemporaneous prog. Overall, a cheerfully irreverent album that may also evoke the Canterbury scene in its ability to make things both ear-pleasingly catchy and subversively experimental at the same time. While hard-core RIO fans may not consider it extreme enough, those who normally wouldn't venture near the genre are advised to give it a try. -- Kai Karmanheimo

Links

Click here for Stormy Six info on the BTF CD distributors page

Maida Vale (79), Figli dei Figli della Guerra (82)

Get Straight (78), My Time Hour Time (79), Flying Straight (81), 5 (83), Movin' Outside Movin' Inside (84)

German hard-rock band featuring ex-Streetmark vocalist Georg Buschmann who supposedly incorporated prog elements on early albums. My Time is supposedly the best. I only have 5, which includes no prog elements and really sucks. -- Mike Ohman

[See Streetmark]

9 Parts To The Wind (75)

Four-piece UK progressive band led by guitarist/songwriter Graham Ward. They released one album and faded into oblivion. Their music encompassed folk, rock, pop and classical influences, but could be conveniently categorized as none of the above. Each side of the album started off with an intelligent pop cut, rounded out by two longer progressive tunes featuring multiple parts with interesting changes, yet even these were fairly accessible in a lot of ways. For those who need comparisons, the Strawbs circa Ghosts could be a starting point, yet Strange Days folk element was not as obvious, residing just below the colorful melodic surface. Excellent lyrics and vocals. This is an outstanding album, one that appeals on many levels.

Discography

The Key Part I: The Prophecy (90) The Key Part II: The Labyrinth (93) The Key Part III: The Revelation (Not recorded yet)

Reviews

Strangers On a Train circa 1990 - Karl Groom, Tracy Hitchings and Clive Nolan Updated 10/11/01: Strangers on a Train is undeniably a Clive Nolan solo project: on The Key Part 1: The Prophecy (Verglas VGCD011) he not only wrote all tracks but also performs all instrumental parts, with the exception of some guitar and bass from occasional studio collaborator and future Shadowland partner Karl Groom. He mostly plays piano or piano-like synth patches, which tends to give the music a rather sparse, demo-like feel, though the sound quality is quite professional. Music tends to be melodic, at times classically influenced, at times more in tune with Nolan's neo-prog background, at times closer to what you might expect to hear on a movie soundtrack. This doesn't sound like a formula for success, but The Key manages to produce some excellent melodies and songs and make them seem fuller than their embryonic format would suggest. Actually some of Nolan's best keyboard work rises out of this minimalism, such as the percussive piano style he uses on a song like "Crossing the Wasteland". It's exhilarating to hear a typically progressive riff being hammered out on just piano and bass while Nolan blasts out an analog-style solo; unorthodox but it works. Another high point is the more New Age-oriented "Silent Companion", whose haunting theme would be reworked on Arena's "Crying for Help" cycle. Most of the tracks feature the strong and rather dramatic vocals of British neo-prog's diva-in-residence, Tracy Hitchings. While some may find her pop mannerisms irritating, I think the theatricality of her delivery complements the music perfectly, with only "From the Outside In", a torchy duet with Nolan, sounding a bit too much like Mariah Carey's garage band days. While a bit sketch-like in its arrangements, I find The Key Part 1 an infectious little album that seems to endure where many more bombastic works fail (e.g. Arena's first two albums). It may have trouble finding a right audience, though: neo-prog fans, who would be the obvious target group, may be turned off by the austerity of the arrangements, while those who want their prog with more complexity and depth will find the music far too simplistic. Note that there are three versions of this album, of which the Verglas version is a 1997 remaster of the out-of-print 1994 SI Music version, which itself was a remixed version of the now long out-of-print original release, also on SI and titled simply The Key. Confusing, isn't it? The Key Part 2: The Labyrinth (Verglas VGCD013) adds a heavier palette of synth patches, a bit of electronic drums here and there, and the voice of Pallas' Alan Reed to complement Hitchings and to please all those who believe neo-prog and gruff Scottish vocals are a match made in heaven. The sound is now more expansive and the music consists of just three long suites and two shorter compositions, but otherwise little has changed and several themes from the first album are reprised. It makes for a more accessible album, but somehow also a less compelling one. Highlights include the mock-orchestral instrumental "Hijrah" with its contrapuntal chamber approach that stands pretty unique in Nolan's oeuvre. "The Vision Clears", on the other hand, is a relatively standard rock tune, and could be a rough demo version of Hitchings' later adventures with Landmarq. An ear-pleasing album as this is, the first one had the kind of simple charm that this just doesn't have. A third album, The Key Part 3: The Revelation, supposedly exists but has not seen release yet. With Nolan getting his hands on just about every neo-progressive project in the British Isles, I wouldn't hold my breath for this one. -- Kai Karmanheimo

[Regarding The Key Part I, which the reviewer evidently thought was their only release:] This one-off project by a bunch of neo-Pendragon dropouts isn't even remotely progressive. Only redeeming factor is Tracy Hitchings' vocals.

Links

[See Arena | Casino |