PROFESSOR TIP TOP

Hybrid Hymns Apollon Slow dancing Scandi-prog with social comment.

The fifth from Bergen, Norway’s Professor Tip Top purports to tackle contemporary issues such as alienation, technological spirit-sucking and political shenanigans. These age-old concepts promise to get a suitably idiosyncratic reading after the blurb lists early Gong, Floyd, Canterbury scene and Yes among reference points. It’s only really the latter’s more pastoral moments and winsome vocal harmonies that show prominently in a set dominated by slowies. After the portentious Black Holes spoken intro, in which singer-mainstay Svein Magnar Hansen considers matters universal, the album becomes an exercise in exploring different styles of prog balladry, including dramatic (Passion), chamber-prog (Turing Machines), flutey reflection (The Final Night) and yes, Yes (Hybrid Minds). Thankfully, the band’s arsenal of vintage analogue keyboards provide lustrous backdrops, shining when they step forward on the Floyd-like The Dogs Are Coming, dynamic on An Awkward Choice and Genesis-like in the middle section of Machine Emotions. More than anything, this album shows that when it comes to flying prog’s trustiest tropes, Scandi bands plunge in with unbridled pride.