AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
GRANT MOON has a rummage down the back of the Prog sofa for the ones that nearly got away…
As the singer for the Steve Rothery Band and Dave Kerzner’s project In Continuum, Gabriel Agudo has been eclipsed by the ‘name’ members of these groups. With his self-released solo debut New Life (gabrielnewlife.bandcamp.com) however, Agudo can at last get some acclaim for his own soulful talent and songwriting skills. This is a gentle and thoughtful work of spiritual scope, and it certainly doesn’t hurt that he can call on Rothery, Kerzner, Arena’s Clive Nolan and other progerati to render his highly listenable tapestry.
Keyboardist/musical director Ed Roth has a CV that includes Top 10 US jazz albums and sessions with the likes of the Eagles’ Joe Walsh, Judas Priest’s Rob Halford and ELP’s own Keith Emerson. Roth’s latest album, Can’t Find My Way Home (Funzalo) includes his own pianistic interpretations of hoary covers like Smoke On The Water,
plus Pink Floyd’s Us And Them, Brain Damage/Eclipse and Any Colour You Like.
The Doors’ Robby Krieger adds some jazzy guitar to Roth’s stunningly fluid and tasteful reharmonisations.
Manchester guitarist/composer Rob Thorpe serves up some big, brainy prog on Is There Any Tea On This Spaceship?, his self-released tribute to the work of the great sci-fi satirist Douglas Adams. The tunes (sample title: A Slice Of Lemon Wrapped Round A Large Gold Brick)
draw on djent and jazz, with sax, violin and Chapman Stick all in the mix. Mastered by TesseracT’s Acle Kahney, it’s widdly, avantgarde and melodic fun – and the kind of organised chaos that Thorpe’s chosen subject would have surely appreciated.
Bent Arcana is a hip US supergroup assembled by Thee Oh Sees’ questing multi-instrumental leader John Dwyer. Released on his Castle Face label, the LP is a selection of cool jazz, funk and fusion culled from five days of improv in the studio. The nine members draw on everything from Mahavishnu to On The Corner-era Miles Davis – vintage keys bleep, tenor saxes parp, and 70s-style percussion peppers one Greenwich Village-cool odyssey.
Then we have Dice. The brainchild of composer, multiinstrumentalist and vocalist Christian Nóvé, these Leipzig prog rockers have been going since 1974. Their 26th CD, Crazy Little Dreams & Maps For Ramona (Scene) is another selection of retro-spacey, atmospheric pieces. It’s all a little one-note, but vintage synths burble nicely and Nóvé’s guitar echoes and wahs with gusto. It’s the kind of record that’ll happily take your mind off the past 40 years if you let it.
And finally to France, where Grandval offer up their second album Descendu Sur Terre (grandval.bandcamp.com). The record starts off very Crazy Diamond-era Floyd and continues in a reassuringly traditional, song-based prog rock style. But there’s an arty, well-intended heart to it too, with Henri Vaugrand’s sweet, chanson-style French voice adding a fresh layer to the whole grand bouffe.