For nearly four years, The Verge’s mystifying self-titled debut album sat unreleased, waiting. Written by four musicians during their time at the NTNU jazz school in Trondheim, Norway, each member has since gone on to form their own projects. But they never forgot about the record they created together, one full of heady complexity, jagged […]
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Soulfully charged UK prog foursome explore humanity’s place in the universe on powerful second album. “I’ve waited a lifetime to have this kind of band,” declares vocalist and keyboard player Carola Baer, as she looks back on Ruby Dawn’s beginnings during Covid in 2022. “I have played with loads of people, but this band has […]
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Wardruna-approved quartet filling the gap between Norwegian folk and ambitious prog. Katrine Stenbekk was studying music at the Liverpool Institute Of Performing Arts when she came up with what would become Kalandra. “I really missed vocal techniques from all over the world being a bit more mainstream,” the Norwegian singer tells //Prog//. “I felt like […]
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Leaning back on a swivel chair in his studio stroking his hairless Devon Rex, Peter Miles could easily pass for an evil genius hell bent on world domination. The bearded West Country doyen of the studio is more interested in the underworld however. i Häxa – his joint multimedia project with the London-based singer Rebecca […]
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Symphonic post-rock pulled from the throes of mourning Pijn’s name is pronounced ‘pine’. “There’s a list on our Google Drive of all the possible pronunciations that we’ve heard so far, and it’s very long,” laughs guitarist and band leader Joe Clayton. “The weirdest one is ‘pinge’ – they were just moving the letters around to […]
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“Writing this album has reassured us that it’s good to push each other and break out of our comfort zones,” says Alex Coates. He was the last member to join Manchester’s post-rock quartet Civil Service and has been the one to give them drive and focus since. They wear their melting pot of reverb-soaked inspirations […]
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Bouncy Newcastle proggers out to make their genre as accessible as possible Giant Walker want to open up prog metal to the masses. “Someone who wouldn’t necessarily listen to rock or metal liking our music, that would be a win,” says the Newcastle four-piece’s drummer, Alex Black. “I think prog, by itself, is very pigeonholey. […]
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“Music is a way to express the deepest parts of being a human,” conceptual pop artist Ebony Buckle begins. “It is a universal language, a way to explain things you can’t always put into sentences.” Music has always been a part of Buckle’s life. Growing up in Townsville, Australia, she was part of a close-knit […]
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In a world obsessed with instant gratification, Ex-Easter Island Head are living proof that taking your time and sticking to your guns can be immensely rewarding eventually. The Liverpool outfit have been making idiosyncratic music for the best part of 15 years, with their persistence now paying off on several levels. Their fourth album //Norther//, […]
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Edinburgh’s sci-fi-inspired quintet are rocketing up the UK prog metal ranks. To misquote the Bible, the geeks shall inherit the earth. Science-fiction saga //Dune// is currently one of the most valuable properties in pop-culture, thanks to a pair of blockbuster adaptations by Denis Villeneuve. Meanwhile, the band that took their name from the same franchise […]
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By its very nature, psychedelic rock was always meant to be adventurous and exploratory. It was initially meant to be full of bright colours and to have a perpetually beatific disposition, but humanity’s tendency to be awful soon put paid to that. Purveyors of psych with melancholy at its core, We Are Space Horses also […]
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The prog jazz keyboardist taking her sound on a voyage into the Atomic age “When we first started out, it was a bit trial and error,” says keys player and bandleader Emily Francis. Inhabiting the space between prog and jazz fusion, the Emily Francis Trio produce a sound that’s sometimes cosmic or ethereal, sometimes earthy […]
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Magic Fig “Being in Magic Fig brings out the Jester in me,” says Inna Showalter, the frontperson-vocalist with this brand new psychedelic prog act who’ve been together for not-quite a year. This is evident in her costuming for recent single //PS1// where she and the rest of the band are sporting their best Ren Faire […]
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Meet the angular shoegaze duo flying the flag for beautiful and chaotic Irish music I get asked by people what we sound like, and I just say ‘‘it’s weird, man’” laughs Dara Tohill, one half of Irish duo A Burial At Sea. His assessment isn’t inaccurate, they //are // weird, but amid restless time signature […]
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Dawn Chorus Dawn Chorus And The Infallible Sea make meditative electronic music with edge, and for good reason. Their soft ambient textures evolved from the hard, distorted lacerations of Indianapolis post-rock outfit Pillars. Zach Frizzell and Marc Ertel of Pillars formed DCATIS in 2017, with Texan musician Damien Duque joining them for their second album, […]
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The genre-bending Aussies poised to take on the world with their hook-refined anthems Since day one, Reliqa has been a band underscored by camaraderie, passion, and evolution. The release of their second album, //Secrets Of The Future//, and their first with major label backing, is both the end of a very long, musically rich journey, […]
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Meet the atmospheric London trio who struggle to be pigeonholed “It is very much soundscaping and atmosphere above melody.” It is hard to believe Talie Rose Eigeland had barely played guitar or sung before launching Teiger around two years ago, given the depth and conviction of their self-titled debut album. “It’s happened very fast in […]
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Cosmic French duo Alber Jupiter hail from Rennes in North West France which is best known for its medieval half-timbered houses and neoclassical cathedral. The pair grew up there listening to artists like Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, though the real epiphany for them came when, as teenagers, they accidentally caught the Chilean space rockers […]
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In 1996, when Nils Erikson released his Swedish Grammy-nominated debut //Spår//, Anders Lundquist took a fateful call from Sony records. “The guy said, ‘You like Peter Gabriel, right?’ I said, ‘Well, my son’s name is Gabriel – that’s a clue!’” A music journalist, musician and lyricist, Lundquist was soon hired to write the bio for […]
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For folk-prog duo Sharon Cannings and Martin Nicholls, music has always been a thread running throughout their lives. Prior to entering the music industry however, both had careers as actors and first met while performing in a local Shakespeare production. “It was one or the other really for me,” Cannings begins, “Music has always followed […]
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It took Plantoid three moves around the UK – from Lincoln to London to Brighton – for roots to form, to find a supportive record label, for their career to blossom further. Although the bandmembers are still young in age, theirs is certainly not an overnight success. “We’ve probably been going for about eight, nine […]
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UK prog trio explain that their conceptual trilogy was never meant to get this far. Final Coil was originally a solo project born from the mind of Phil Stiles [vocals, guitar, synths] back in 2002, but didn’t remain a one-man band for long. After meeting guitarist Richard Awdry through a mutual friend, the duo would […]
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Celebrated doyens of progressive doom metal, Pallbearer became legendary almost immediately. Their debut album, //Sorrow And Extinction//, emerged in 2012 to widespread acclaim, as this mysterious band from Little Rock, Arkansas, skilfully blended enormous, post-Sabbath riffing with strange, crestfallen melodies and several tons of haunting atmosphere. 12 years on, Pallbearer are certified legends in the […]
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Finnish composer enlists Stephen Fry for a symphonic love letter to the universe The tapestry of Lauri Porra’s musical identity has been sewn together by a myriad of threads. A fourth generation musician raised in a classical household in Helsinki (he’s a direct desecenant of composer Sibelius), he went in the search of new musical […]
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Quirky, upbeat jam band accidentally goes prog and doesn’t shy away from getting weird “I have a theory that all band names are bad,” says Squeaky Feet guitarist/vocalist Colin Shore. “Once you’ve heard a name enough, you kind of trick yourself into thinking it sounds cool. But I think Squeaky Feet is deceptive; it implies […]
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Literary lyrics bound with thoughtful music in an international band that couldn’t have existed without Big Big Train Quote// I’d like to think Robin played a few snippets to Greg Spawton, who nodded sage approval The story of The Bardic Depths is entwined with that of Big Big Train. Helmed by Lanzarote-based Dave Bandana, the […]
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When Bedford band Wolf People crossed //Prog//’s threshold in 2010, it was like discovering a long-lost Vertigo classic, or finding that Jethro Tull had jammed with the Groundhogs. Adding supernatural folk stories in for good measure, theirs was a style and sound that inspired authors such as Benjamin Myers and Tom Cox. With Wolf People […]
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Forming a band with your dad may not be on everyone’s to do list, but for siblings Willow and Lula Beggs, it seemed like a natural next step. Nick Beggs, aka ‘dad’, fostered his daughters love of music from a young age, inspired by his own musical success in the band Kajagoogoo during the 1980s. […]
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US prog metallers look to the past and future in style. “We knew we had really done something special.” “We want to make this a lifestyle,” Nospūn vocalist Phillip Rich says. “We want to spend our time writing music like this, and sharing it with the world. We’d like to go wherever this music is willing […]
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Meet the Boston sextet writing progressive metal for the head and the heart Formed while the core of the band was studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Aviations have been diligent in not letting their theoretical knowledge hinder their ability to write genuinely heartfelt music. “There’s music that’s for your heart and music […]
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Rose Tiger is not an easy tiger to pin down. The glam trio’s debut album is a rock opera with prog leanings that could be described as a labour of love for its chief architect Cyprien Jacquet. //The End Forever// is a trashy, surrealist gesamtkunstwerk that incorporates manga and video games into its universe, as […]
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The former Midlake man’s solo direction looks to medieval England and 80s music production for inspiration. The lone figure in a cloak holding an acoustic guitar on the cover of //Albion// might seem familiar. That’s because it’s Tim Smith, co-founder of popular Texas alternative folk-rockers Midlake, and the artwork for his debut LP as Harp […]
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Swiss rockers run high on psychedelic journey with latest release “I grew up listening to bands such as The Doors, Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd, but when my mother asked me to listen to //Led Zeppelin IV//, that day changed my life. I listened to that record and thought it was music made by the […]
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Prog metal alumni band together for pulse-driven project with a little help from Mike Portnoy They’re a new multi-national prog metal project driven by the principles of electronic music and boasting established names within their ranks, but if it wasn’t for Mike Portnoy, they simply wouldn’t exist. Whilst touring with The Shattered Fortress in 2017, […]
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The Irish artist has evolved into a creator of totally immersive states. “When I listen to drones, I feel I listen with all my being,” says Hilary Woods as she considers her voyage into the far more esoteric waters than has ever been hinted at during her career. “It moves through me, but it also […]
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Multi-layered instrumental and vocal trio find that they are prog, much to their surprise. Being labelled prog is still something of a novelty for Bristol-based trio Hands Of The Heron. But following a scene-stealing appearance at October’s Summer’s End Festival, they are starting to adjust. “I really enjoyed how shocked some of the audience members […]
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Japanese folk reimagined for the 21st Century with classic prog influences. “Our new EP is heavily influenced by //Close To The Edge// by Yes”. This comment leaves //Prog// momentarily speechless. Australian Youka Snell is discussing the forthcoming release by her Berlin-based group Mitsune. Given the band’s love of Japanese folk, which includes dressing in traditional […]
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The composer-astroscientist duo that are cloudbusting in mythical, eclectic style. In Hinduism, a Deva (pronounced dayva) is a god; someone supernatural who shines and is literally dev-ine. Add extreme weather, and emotion, and there’s a substantial concept manifesting. So when Leeds-via-Hertfordshire composer, vocalist and pianist Carollyn Eden chose this name for her work she was […]
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Meet the forward-thinking singer-songwriter and composer who juggles catchiness and complexity “I try to make things that people have a reason to return to over and over again.” Gabriel Kahane has been furrowing his own path in folk, singer-songwriter and compositional circles for years, but he quips – mainly by virtue of his many, many […]
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Outlandish Aussies battle overcome mental health battles to make show-stopping return Body//As vocalist Christopher de Cinque delicately puts it, Closure In Moscow’s story went from the cliché tale of high school kids jamming, to “a fucking whirlwind” in the blink of an eye. Their 2008 debut EP, //The Penance And The Patience//, quickly earned the […]
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Berlin’s Zahn like to have their cake and eat it. As hard as the boney incisor they named themselves after (Zahn means tooth in German and is pronounced with a “s” rather than a “z” sound), they are the purest distillation of the instrumental power trio, but also an experimental electronic outfit at the same […]
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Christophe Voisin-Boisvinet spent his childhood in the Loire Valley in central-western France: a stunning, rural region defined by its series of sky-piercing castles. So it really shouldn’t be a surprise that he grew up to be the multi-instrumentalist of a historical prog/folk collective. “As a child, I was quite introverted and surrounded by these mediaeval […]
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Genuinely eclectic combination of jazz rock and art pop from multinational quartet Bands that claim to play without musical boundaries very rarely follow through on such claims. But one group of musicians that seems to buck the trend are Amsterdam-based quartet Jerboah. Indeed a live set by the band feels like a trip through the […]
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“The thing I’m admiring most in other bands and musicians, and striving to achieve myself, is an acute attention to composition and how albums function as wholes and not merely as collections of independent songs,” vocalist and main composer Gustav Jørgen Pedersen explains after //Prog// asks what sets Norwegian instrumental post-rock collective Spurv apart from […]
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The guitarist mashing up prog genres to build his ultimate wall of sound. “I want it to be a celebration of instrumental guitar in all its forms,” says Michael Astley-Brown, the man behind Maebe. Raised in The Cotswolds, Astley-Brown grew up on grunge and pop-punk before discovering the joys of post-rock at university, where hearing […]
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Incorrigible oddballs always find their way to prog in the end. For the first part of his musical career, multi-instrumentalist Craig Schmuhl was guitarist and frontman with a death metal band called Hate Storm Annihilation. Today, he releases music as The Mystical Hot Chocolate Endeavors. The project’s latest release, //A Clock Without A Craftsman//, is […]
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Canadian prog metal multi-instrumentalist reflects on the rise of AI with jam-packed third album Pullquote//“Whatever happens when the album comes out, I’m not going to have any regrets.” Body//“The feeling that I wanted to come out of this album was that I wanted, absolutely under all circumstances, to love every second of passing music,” Pomegranate […]
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On the day //Prog// speaks to him, session gun and solo artist Ben Reed is re-shelving and re-alphabetising his enormous vinyl collection. He has around 10,000 records, only a few of them on CD, and he doesn’t do digital – he’s never downloaded nor streamed a song in his life. “I would never listen to […]
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Meet the young Italian guitarist who’s wowing virtuosos with his fluent blend of jazz and rock When most artists release their debut album, they do so with little expectation weighed down upon them. By the time Sicily-born guitarist Matteo Mancuso had written and recorded his first album, //The Journey//, however, he had the likes of […]
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Italian instrumentalists shredding their way through outer space The twisted terrors from the minds of H.P. Lovecraft and manga horror maestro Jinji Ito meet J-pop and sci-fi cinema in the musical melting pot of Italian instrumental trio Infinite Rising. The band’s self-styled spatial prog inhabits the corner of the cosmos that Plini and Animals As […]
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Multifaceted session guitarist turns to writing his own naturally chaotic instrumentals Loam may not be a familiar name, but there’s a good chance regular gig goers will have heard him play in some guise or another. In recent years the Aberdeen guitarist has quietly carved out a reputation as a multifarious session guy. His most […]
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It’s long been understood that the Canterbury scene extends far beyond the geographic boundaries the Cathedral city that members of Caravan and Soft Machine once called home. The organic growth of the movement over the years has come to include bands from across Europe, Scandinavia, the USA, and even Japan, all judged to have an […]
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Studio project turned band proper deliver dark, poppy and synth-infused prog metal. Few bands can state that their origins lie in memes, but without them, British prog metallers Ihlo may not exist. “Back in 2016 I was posting a lot of memes in Facebook groups,” says vocalist and keyboardist Andy Robertson, “and I was also […]
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Canadian proggers The Anchoret merge together virtually to tell a tale of loneliness. “This was a one-man project in the beginning,” Eddy Levitsky explains, when we ask about the theme of loneliness that runs through The Anchoret’s debut album, It All Began With Loneliness. “I built the band to connect with other people through the […]
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Spaced-out US collective reach new heights with debut album. “The whole band is a concept. We play our live shows in character. It kinds of brings an air of theatrics to our stage show.” WHEN A BAND describes itself as “cosmic doom opera” and calls its members names like Nova 10101001, it’s clear pressing play […]
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Canadian progressive metal quintet Osyron didn’t leave themselves much wriggle room when they called their third album Momentous. Fortunately, these residents of Calgary, Alberta genuinely seem to have struck upon a new, potentially game-changing formula. While owing plenty to the hallowed likes of Dream Theater and Symphony X, Momentous also harnesses the cutting edge heaviness […]
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A fortuitous loan of a drum kit has led to a meeting and melting of minds. Few are the musicians for whom sharing their instruments with members of other bands is a pleasure, but for Reto Mäder and Dahm Majuri Cipolla the request from the latter to the former proved fortuitous – they ended up […]
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“I feel this is a miracle record,” says Emma Tricca of her new album //Aspirin Sun//. London-based, Italian-born, and currently talking from her rented apartment in Manhattan’s East Village, she’s certainly created a thing of great beauty. Written as she grieved her father, its gentle psych melodies and fingerpicked guitars bring decades, even centuries, of […]
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The nihilistic Norwegians with prog rock running in their blood AVKRVST’s name is pronounced “Aw-crust”. Don’t worry if you ever get that wrong though: the band have made the same mistake as well. “We pronounced the first V at first,” singer and multi-instrumentalist Simon Bergseth admits on a video call with //Prog//. “We used to […]
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Meet the much-loved YouTube guitarist who finally gets to indulge his progressive temptations Put Leipzig-born guitarist Martin Miller’s first album side by side with his second and you wouldn’t believe it was the same artist. But a lot has changed in the ten years since //The Other End//. Namely, Miller has spent a decade honing […]
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Futuristic and thoroughly human soundscapes from the electronic mind of 65daysofstatic. “I still have a lot of faith in human beings. It’s just the system we have built around ourselves, the miserable machine, causing all the problems.” Paul Wolinski laughs as he says this, almost surprised by his own view of the state of things. […]
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Life-affirming and joyful storytelling from a modern-day guitar master. Cowboys walking off into the sunset across vast deserts. Wizards stood in the middle of forests practising spells. Heroes riding into certain danger to save citizens from burning buildings. Storytelling is one of the most powerful tools we have in the world, and for Yvette Young, […]
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Swedish duo Us & Them do a wonderful line in folkish beauty undercut with a generous helping of foreboding. It’s no surprise then to discover that they’re big fans of //The Wicker Man//. The pair are all set to release a new compilation of their work via the gloriously fecund Surrey-based Fruits de Mer label, […]
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Ireland-based progressive metallers The Enigma Division formed in 2019 but their story begins much further back in time, 1977 to be precise. //Star Wars// had fired the world’s imagination and Nasa launched the Voyager Program to observe the outer limits of the Solar System. Guitarist Conor McGouran explains “People began to take an interest in […]
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Patrik Berger’s new music represents something of a radical left field turn though the Swedish record producer certainly doesn’t see it that way. “When I make stuff it’s all the same in my head,” says the man whose CV boasts collaborations with bona fide superstars like Diana Ross, Kylie Minogue and Taylor Swift. Taking a […]
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Lavish, adventurous and unashamedly weird, Yemrot’s first album //The Sunken Garden// is one, as we used to say, for the heads. The brainchild of Margate-based multi-instrumentalist Jimi Tormey, it has occasional echoes of psych forebears like Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt, but Yemrot’s musical world is far stranger than that. Partly based around the escapades […]
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As much as it pains us to admit it here at //Prog//, words are not always necessary. Residents of Bergen, Norway, instrumental duo Natt have dispensed with the human voice and embarked on a fascinating, atmospheric journey on their self-titled debut LP. Three tracks and 45 minutes long, it’s a profoundly imaginative piece of work […]
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Puerto Rican guitarist who mixes the flavours of home with a contemporary flair. As far as debut albums go, few come with as fully formed as Jan Rivera’s, //Existential Paranoia//. For the Puerto Rican guitarist, it’s the result of a lifetime obsessed with the guitar. “Growing up, our house used to be the happy place,” he […]
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Soft Ffog and Krokofant musicians team up for unpredictable prog-psych joy. INCREASINGLY ONE OF Northern Europe’s most prog-friendly creative epicentres, Oslo has become a hotbed of strange and exciting bands. Wizrd may be the most exhilarating of the lot. With a sound that unfolds from some unexplored midpoint between psychedelic prog, jazz fusion and angular […]
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Epic and ambitious post-rockers… to the power of three JOINING THE VERITABLE host of excellent instrumental bands that have emerged over the last couple of decades, London-based Cabiria have been working hard to build their profile over the last three years. With a self-confidence bordering on hubris, the trio self-financed and self-released their debut album, […]
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Heavy sounds from French brothers-in-prog with no strings attached! “WE MAY BE the only band in France that plays with just an organ and drums,” says Colin Goallen, drummer of the Reine-based hard progressive psych duo Moundrag. “For many people, the first time they hear us, it’s a real shock!” Having released their debut album, […]
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Gutsy, authentic and multifaceted rock from these Scottish proggers FOR MANY BANDS, living communally is part of the rock’n’roll dream – for EBB it’s simply what they do and an important element of their shared identity. Wintering in their base, an arts collective in rural Scotland, lead singer and guitarist Erin Bennett, Kitty Biscuits (percussion, […]
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