ROUnD-UP: Prog
The Fierce & The Dead The Euphoric Bad ElEpHant
To their surprise, london four-piece TFaTD remain embraced by the prog community, despite a lack of mellotron-based epics, multipart suites and theatrical costuming. more Big Black than Tangerine Dream, what they
do have is innovator matt stevens in the band, armed with his guitar-’n’-pedals set-up and renowned for experimental loopage and collaborations with The Tangent’s andy Tillison. and so TFaTD sneak beneath the beam alarm, bringing boisterous, instrumental post-prog that’s found favour with Hawkwind, Tony levin’s stick men and PFm, to name a few.
The euphoric is their third album and it’s a belter. kicking off with the, er, driving Truck and two-stepper 1991, the eerie title track pulls some John carpenter into the mix. But wait, there’s also disco
(Dancing robots)! synth psych (cadet opal)! and a two-part pronk odyssey to close, featuring piano (steady on lads, you’ll be Firth of Forth-ing next).
it’s a step on from the bouncy, math-based crunch of old, with the looming shape of weird shit to come.
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Ryley Walker Deafman Glance dEad oCEans
a grower, this. Five albums in and the 29-year-old guitarist sweeps a warm blanket of psychedelic jazz-folk around us, born from sessions in studios and kitchens in chicago. Flute, saxophone and trippy synth add whimsical touches to intricate, thoughtful episodes, with the odd avant-garde curveball (accommodations) thrown in. it’s Tim Buckley to Beefheart to Bert Jansch and beyond.
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Armonite And The Stars Above ClEopatRa
With their new label’s background in horror and film soundtracks as inspiration, italy’s armonite follow up 2016’s excellent The sun is new every Day. led by Jacopo Bigi’s violin and Paolo
Fosso’s piano, the two are joined by P-Tree’s colin edwin, among many others, in a bold, eclectic endeavour that takes in the golden era, fusion, jazz and musical theatre.
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Coldbones
Where It All Began
CRookEd noisE
it’s not just post-rock fans who will enjoy this strong, cinematic debut album from the kent trio, centred on the life cycle of a butterfly. What this writer thought was tinnitus opens the album
(carpases), before the dreamy elevations of lost and bombastic surges of moments.
new Heights sees the band reaching just that, awash with colour and confidence.
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Emmerhoff & The Melancholy babies
Circle Six apollon
This quota motorpsycho-esque month’s comes hairy from the rock e&TmB. searing riffs But from it’s not the all Bergen vets. With well-placed acoustic pluckings and heaped-on harmonies, there’s Pretty Things psych (the glorious
aerial especially), sundazed americana, woozy exotica and – hoorah! – some cosmic exploration (astral nomad).
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