Progressive Rock Focus

After the very sad death of David Longdon in November 2021, I can't have been the only person to wonder whether that would be it for Big Big Train. Let me nail my colours to the mast straightaway - I absolutely adore this band. Longdon's vocals were such a big part of their sound that I feared for them. English Electric Parts One and Two form the great modern prog double album in my opinion. If you haven't heard them, put down whatever you're doing (wait - you're reading this - get to the end first!) and go and listen. Welcome To The Planet, the previous full studio album, was released after Longdon's death in 2022 but mostly featured his fine work. The Likes Of Us is then the first album of new material to feature singer Alberto Bravin. There have been other personnel changes along the way, the departure of Dave Gregory the one most notable for me, being a big XTC fan. How do they sound? Well, in the past you could never mistake the outright Englishness of Big ...

So what's on Prog Radio today? https://www.progradio.com/ Intimate Plan by Catching The Selfish is a 6 minute song of classy modern prog. I can't find any information about this band online except for what's written on the YouTube clip. The song is provided to YouTube by DistroKid (a music distribution service which sends your song to streaming/download platforms). It says it was recorded at Bodega Recording Studio which a quick Google reveals is in Stuttgart, and the band members mostly have German names so I'm guessing this is a German band. The song was released in March 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGEC-CHUXas I would put this in the same category of prog as Porcupine Tree, which is not to say that it sounds like them particularly, just that it captures a similar kind of vibe. This is not your grandad's prog (sorry grandad). It opens with a cool slow guitar riff which develops into the verse. The chord sequence is unquestionably prog, you'll know wh...

So today on prog radio ( https://www.progradio.com/ ) the band Gryphon turned up. Now Gryphon are unique. They are a 70s prog band formed by classically trained musicians and include elements of folk and renaissance music. That could be terrible, but it's not. They have recently had something of a revival, and if you look on their website ( https://www.thegryphonpages.com/ ) you can see that they've recently come up with two new albums. The track I'm listening to is from their 1974 album Red Queen To Gryphon Three, which contains four tracks, each of 8 to 10 minutes. This is very thoughtful, well-written, cleverly transitioning prog. It's sectional, but not jarringly so and it sounds like a whole rather than a bunch of different songs stuck together (a personal bugbear of mine which puts me off quite a lot of Marillion for example). There are repeating themes throughout. Above all, it's smart. This is music made by people who know what they're doing in terms of ...

Terry Draper was the drummer of the progressive rock band Klaatu and he has released an impressive number of solo albums since the band's heyday in the seventies. This is my first introduction to his music. I should say that I'm writing this blog not because I'm an expert (I'm not) but because I'm trying to catch up on all the great music I've missed out on over the years. I love progressive rock, but I've stuck mainly to Genesis, King Crimson and Yes over the years, and there's so much more. In The Beginning was released in January 2024. I'm focussing on the first and title track. I guess you could call it prog pop. There are no signs of pointless virtuosity, no weird time signatures, no sudden changes in tempo. Harmonically it stays mostly in one key and has a standard minor verse/relative major chorus, until it doesn't later on. I like the vocals, they're up-front and nicely mixed. Overall, the arrangement is simple, but masterful. Nothing...

Today's Progressive Rock Focus looks at Drifting Sun's 'The Thing', which is the second track on their album released today, March 22nd 2024. I caught this one on Prog Radio ( https://www.progradio.com/ ) which specialises in 'melodic and accessible' prog, which very much matches my kind of thing. This is an excellent track, I really enjoyed it. It has kind of a viking folk vibe, and the lyrics feature Valhalla and 'men of the north'. I haven't worked out what the Thing actually is, it might take a few more listens, but it feels like a consistent and well-written set of words with no jarring phrases. One of the things I liked was the interesting vocal phrasing. The master of this is of course Jon Anderson - a style which has been copied by other Yes singers - but this really adds something to a song if you're surprised by how the singer fits the words into the tune. Singer Jargon, who joined the band recently, has done a great job. When the choru...