AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST
GRANT MOON has a rummage down the back of the Prog sofa for the ones that nearly got away…
London collective Dawnwalker return with their fifth album, House Of Sand (Room 132), and while they’ve filed down the metallic edges this time, they still defy categorisation. Lead songwriter/ vocalist Mark Norgate leads a band equally comfortable with sweeping, tough shoegaze (R.I.P), eerie spoken word (The Witness) and beautifully melodic, pumped-up post-rock (Repeater). This is assured, dark stuff with some delicious musical turns – the title track could be the most unsettling Elvis cover ever recorded.
Formed in 2018, The Round Window are an English quintet making what they call ‘widescreen music’, a brand of melodic, hooky rock that nods occasionally to neo and classic prog. Mixed and mastered by Cosmograf’s Robin Armstrong, their self-titled debut (theroundwindow.bandcamp.com) is promising stuff. With his clear, natural tone, lead singer Rich Lock carries the songs well. With shows planned for next year, The Round Window may well be worth looking into.
Cymbalic Encounters is a project from US drummer/songwriter Mark Murdock, who was part of original Yes guitarist Peter Banks’ band Empire for their Mark III record. On Cerulean Cathedral (cymbalicencounters.bandcamp.com), Murdock is joined by guests including former Brand X bassist Percy Jones, with a posthumous performance from that band’s John Goodsall (he died in November 2021). The fusion is fresh, often funky and clearly cut from vintage cloth, with Tim Pepper’s vocals a welcome addition to Murdock’s highly agreeably retro instrumentals.
Drummer for Sweden’s Hellsingland Underground, Patrik Jansson made his one-man album Game Changer (Sneaky Foot) during the pandemic. It’s more prog-adjacent than prog really, but still a rootsy, bluesy record reeking of the 70s. With his own grooves behind him, Jansson proves to be a gifted guitarist with a soulful voice and real songwriting smarts. Well worth a listen.
Stockholm-based multi-instrumentalist
Nicklas Barker (Anekdoten/Kosmogon) cites minimalist composer La Monte Young and Eliane Radigue as influences, and these feed into his excellent current solo record, Epektasis (Tonbad Grammofon). Recorded in a remote village using two Mellotrons, an ARP Odyssey synth and four looping pedals, this vintage-modern music is utterly entrancing and transportive – Himlarymderna is glacially lovely, Offret’s imperious, while Celest Mekanik is downright terrifying. Barker’s a truly skilled and instinctive texturalist.
Finally, there’s more minimalism from Hats Off It’s Adequate’s Malcolm Galloway. He was last in this column two years ago with his excellent Wasp 76b, and Patterns (malcolmgalloway.bandcamp.com) is his sixth solo album in the Steve Reich vein. Far from his Adequate work with Mark Gatland, these are mesmerising explorations of the world of interweaving piano, synth and marimba lines. He’s allowed to wear more than one Hat, after all…