SPECIAL K

Ten essential Kscope albums.

The PineaPPle Thief

Tightly Unwound (2008)

The album that kicked off the Kscope revolution, and one that would help shape the sound of things to come: artful, intelligent post-progressive rock that looked forwards rather than back.

engineers

Three fact fader (2009)

The second album from arguably the most overlooked band in the Kscope family, Three

Fact Fader sits somewhere between indie rock, dream pop and the epic soundscapes of Sigur Rós. Even on a label where no one sounds like no one else, this really sounds like nothing else.

anaThema

We’re here Because We’re here (2010)

The Liverpool band hadn’t put out an album of new material in seven years when Kscope signed them. The Floydian We’re Here Because We’re Here was the perfect comeback and the start of their metamorphosis from a metal band into something else.

sTeven Wilson

grace for Drowning (2011)

Wilson played a pivotal part in founding Kscope, and remains the label’s best-selling artist. The breadth of his sprawling second solo album (his first following Porcupine Tree’s split) summed up Wilson’s restless spirit – and that of the label, too.

BrUce soorD WiTh Jonas renkse

Wisdom of crowds (2013)

On paper, the union of The Pineapple Tree’s Bruce Soord and Jonas Renkse, singer with one-time Swedish death metallers Katatonia, should have been a disaster. In reality, their evocative, hands-across-the-ocean approach turned out to be a thing of beauty.

norDic gianTs

a séance of Dark Delusions (2014)

The debut album from mask-wearing post-rock duo Nordic Giants brought together evocative electronica, movie soundtracks and general weirdness in one striking package.

iamThemorning

lighthouse (2016)

Prog, classical and East European folk music came together on the second album from Russia’s iamthemorning. In pianist Gleb Kolyadin, the band have one of the most prodigious talents in modern music.

The anchoress

confessions of a romance novelist (2016) Catherine Anne Davies’ first album as The Anchoress is surely the most left-field release yet on this left-field label: vivid, baroque pop that was as perfectly placed on daytime radio as it was within

Prog magazine.

PaUl DraPer

spooky action (2017)

The ex-Mansun singer had taken a step back from the frontline before he signed with Kscope. But the deal revitalised him – as well as releasing his long-gestating debut solo album, the label also reissued a lavish deluxe version of Mansun’s classic Attack Of The Grey Lantern.

TesseracT

sonder (2018)

Showcasing the edgier side of the label’s aesthetic, Brit prog metal mainstays TesseracT signed with Kscope for their third album, 2015’s intricate

Polaris. This follow-up brought the mammoth riffs back without returning to their ‘djent’ sound of old. For both band and label, the future looks bright. Dev