Released to raise money for victims of the Kobe, Japan, earthquake, this Amon Düül II disc from 1996, like the very similar Eternal Flashback, is actually material from 1969 to 1971 reworked through the wonders of plunderphonics by members of the group into one seamless, 65-minute-long space rock epic. It's not quite as radical as the John Oswald remix of the Grateful Dead's "Darkstar" on Grayfolded or the Can remix album Sacrilege, though it's still a quite fascinating bit of trickery, as bits of tracks from the first two albums, Phallus Dei and Yeti, are blended with previously unreleased material. The rhythms are often looped to retain the essence of the original album, but drawn out into long, hypnotic passages with oozes of guitar floating around them, while most of the vocal sections have been completely excised out, leaving this a complete instrumental workout…

After Family concluded their second stateside tour in mid-1971 they were to again face personnel changes as John Weider (bass) was replaced by John Wetton (bass/guitar/vocals) just in time to chip in for Fearless, their sixth long-player in four years. Listeners who had enjoyed their most recent platters might have been a bit nonplussed when confronted with this disc, as the combo's direction was notably altered. Wetton brought along his trademark propulsive performance style, which is immediately evident on the heavy midtempo opener, "Between Blue and Me." Charlie Whitney (guitar/mandolin/percussion) presents some expressive strings weaving through Wetton's full bottom-end bombs. The decidedly English "Sat'd'y Barfly" recalls the inebriated vibe of lighter-weight numbers à la the Faces, and the Ladbroke Horns do little to help as a prominent tuba rhythmically poots along…

Batelages is Etron Fou Leloublan's first LP, recorded in late 1976 for the French label Gratte-Ciel. It has all the flaws of a first album: meager sound quality, overlong songs, a group identity still in its infancy. Despite all that, it remains an interesting record for two main reasons. First, it is the only Etron Fou featuring original singer/saxophonist Chris Chanet (aka Eulalie Ruynat). Second, what this group was playing was completely nuts. Ferdinand Richard's bass work had already reached a virtuosic level, enough for him to lead in two cuts. Guigou Chenevier's mad drumming, neurotic, depressive-compulsive - a cross between Magma's Christian Vander and free improv's original madman, Han Bennink - challenged recording engineer Thierry Magal, who poorly captured his dynamics (with the exception of the drums solo "Sololo Brigida," crisp)…

Pioneering early-70's Spanish progressive band, Granada was the musical project of multi-instrumentalist Carlos Carcamo.
For their third and final effort 'Valle del Pas', Carcamo got rid of his previous partners and recruited four new ones: Carlos Basso (guitars), Julio Blasco (bass), Antonio Rodriguez (drums & percussion), and Joaquin Blanco (bagpipes and other Northern Spanish woodwind instruments). Blanco's presence is mostly due to Carcamo's interest on exploring the Northern Spanish folklore, in order to add its peculiar Celtic spice into Granada's prog style: this is particularly noticeable in tracks 4 and 7, which are expressions of successful progressive rock translation of folk joie de vivre. But that is not to say that 'Valle del Pas' is your regular acoustic folk album. This is a prog rock album…

In February 2022 Van der Graaf Generator embarked on a UK tour which had been rescheduled several times due to the Covid pandemic. The final show on these dates took place at The Forum in Bath on March 1st and the event was captured by a film and recording crew.
‘The Bath Forum Concert’ is the first live CD and film fully controlled by the band and it captures Peter Hammill, Hugh Banton and Guy Evans at their finest performing vintage tracks such as ‘Masks’, ‘Childlike Faith In Childhoods End’, ‘La Rossa’, ‘Man Erg’ and ‘House With No Door’ along with newer pieces such as ‘Interference Patterns’, ‘Every Bloody Emperor’, ‘Go’, ‘Alfa Berlina’ and ‘Room 1210’.

Pattern Seeking Animals is the quartet featuring the talents of current and former Spock's Beard members Ted Leonard, Jimmy Keegan & Dave Meros as well as long-time contributing songwriter-producer John Boegehold! The group’s third studio album, Only Passing Through, is the third effort in just 3 years and proves the colossal output these guys have. With this work, Pattern Seeking Animals offer an outstanding and unique prog rock journey with strong and infectious melodies, strong dynamics and impressive song structures.

The best collection yet devoted to Procol Harum's classic early period ties together the many facets of their sound and their early history, including numerous outtakes and all of the music on four albums from 1967 through 1970. The clarity of the sound makes the first album - which was roundly criticized, especially in England, for having been cut in mono in late 1967 - seem a lot more muscular and progressive here than it did in its original release form. The producers have tampered with the song order on A Salty Dog, moving that record's title track in amongst disc three's single sides for time considerations while still leaving "Whiter Shade of Pale" and "Homburg" off of the first CD (the original commercial flaw with the debut album in England was the absence of either of those songs, and the seven-month-plus delay in getting it out)…

Popoloddities is a compilation, which included previously unreleased material.
Having roots as far back as 1959 with The Scavers and later releasing a single Arman Stumpe Dur Express, this Norwegian quintet that released two albums under the Popol Vuh moniker (a Maya mythology-related name), until they became aware of a German band using the same name, they changed their names to Popol Ace. The group went on to release another two albums before folding at the end of the decade. Musically, they sounded much straigjhter progressive rock than their German mystical homonyms: mellotrons and flute parts , funky jazz-rock and softer ballads were among their usual tricks found in their first two albums (S/T and Quiche Maya) under the Vuh name…

Live 1990 is a live album released by a reformed line-up of Canterbury scene band Hatfield and the North. This marked the band's first manifestation since its 1975 break-up. Original keyboard player Dave Stewart declined to take part and was replaced by French jazz pianist Sophia Domancich, at the time a member of drummer Pip Pyle's band Equip'Out. This line-up's activity was limited to this one appearance on Central TV's "Bedrock" series. In addition to a number of tracks from the band's classic repertoire, a large part of the concert was devoted to more recent material. This was to be Hatfield's swansong until the 2005-06 reformation.

Excellent progressive hard rock from Norway with that typical cold scandinavian sound. The guitars are heavy and vocals are clear and sometimes evil-inspired. The first Flax album sold poorly at the time of release in 1976 and has become something of a collector's item. It contained theatrical heavy rock (vocalist Hermod Falch was occasionally dressed in a skeleton costume when the group performed live), strongly influenced by Deep Purple (at the time of Machine Head) and, to a lesser degree, Uriah Heep and Queen. Their music also had some symphonic elements.

One of the early and by many considered to be one of Norways definitely best prog bands. Their music is a mix of heavy hard-rocking tunes, combined with clear influences from the symphonic genre. The more symphonic sound however didn't appeared until their third, and last studio album, "Janus". High-skilled musicians combined with good, creative melodies makes Aunt Mary a important Norwegian band to become acquainted with.

A Progressive/Jazz-Rock band from Denmark, Coma came from the city of Frederikshavn in the northern part of the country and were around since 1971. The main line-up consisted of five members on bass/drums/saxes/double guitars and their debut ''Financial tycoon'' was recorded at Plexus Studios in Ringsted with three guest musicians on vibraphone, trumpet and violin. The album was released in 1977 by Genlyd Grammofon.
A quite daring band not afraid to mix different sights and sounds, Coma travelled from Zappa-esque Jazz-Rock to Psychedelic Heavy Rock and back. The majority of the tracks falls into a Jazz-Rock, often meeting straight Jazz on the way, with huge and interesting sax solos by Jakob Mygind in the style of Out Of Focus and technical playing by the rhythm section blended with obscure vocals with a humurous edge…