AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
GRANT MOON has a rummage down the back of the Prog sofa for the ones that nearly got away…
Freshly Cut Grass are a new band made up of recent graduates of the Royal Welsh College Of Music And Drama, and their highly promising debut’s well worth a toke. Bright, brassy and brimming with ideas, Topiary (self-released) is clipped from prog’s jazzier (h)edges, its nods to Zappa, Herbie Hancock, Steely Dan and Snarky Puppy smuggled in via accessible, clever tunes. Their funky blend of mathy guitars, clever horns and sultry female vocals makes The Grass pretty unique in their, er, field.
Speaking of horns, Samuel Sharp (formerly known as Lossy) returns with Patterns Various (Boot Cycle Audio), a collection of “cyclic pieces for saxophone and electronics” inspired by “patternistic phenomena”. This is lovely, heady stuff. Sharp’s sweet sax lines are treated with digital delays to supply rhythmic movement, making for minimalist, hypnotically beautiful music that’s part Steve Reich, part Theo Travis.
Power Trip Career Aspirations and Inevitable Union Of Contentious Factions are just two tracks on Síndrome De Estocolmo (lucaslee. bandcamp.com), Lucas Lee’s deep dive into prog’s Crimson netherworld. Discordant pianos, doomy electric guitars and a narrative about an evil state assuming control will give you shivers down the spine. Multiinstrumentalist Lee is well up to the task and guest drummer Marco Minnemann’s on his usual unimpeachable form here.
In their time Argentina’s Treiyer have been invited to support Steve Hackett, Sons Of Apollo and Anathema, and their debut, Scars (Journey Through A Lifetime) (treiyer.bandcamp.com), is a passionate, ambitious coming-of-age tale. Lead singer Paul Parisi’s metal rasp is definitely ‘an acquired taste’, but guest guitar slots from Jakko Jakszyk, Steve Rothery and Hackett himself add class and credibility.
Lighter by comparison, Let’s Go There (Turn Blue) is the affectionately rendered new album from Essex artist Stewart Clark, who has a winning way of taking conventional song forms and giving them an oblique, proggy skew, be it a romantic acoustic piece (When), or some XTC-worthy pop (I’m Scared Of Music).
Rising Australian acoustic duo Opal Ocean take Rodrigo y Gabriela’s genrebending, nylon-strung talents and dial up the prog – their infectiously frenetic LP The Hadal Zone even features a bonus turn from Dream Theater’s Jordan Rudess. And if DT’s your thing then do check out Sonic Birth (Metalville), the grandiose, Queensrÿche-alÿche debut from The Progressive Souls Collective, an impressive line-up of session guns assembled by guitarist Florian Zepf.
For pomposity-free virtuosity dosed with off-the-wall humour, nothing beats Detroiter Danny Mulligan, aka Exodus To Infinity (Vortx Studios). His brilliantly imaginative Archetype Asylum dishes up a mash of metal, musicals, bluegrass and jazz that’ll leave you with a dumb smile on your face, and maybe even a mild concussion.