This is it, the debut by Caravan, one of the biggest names in the Canterbury rock scene. This was the original (and best, in my opinion) lineup of Caravan, with vocalist and bassist Richard Sinclair, organist David Sinclair (cousin of Richard), vocalist and guitarist Pye Hastings, and drummer Richard Coughlin. Their self-entitled debut, recorded in […] Continue reading →

It was only going to be a matter of time before a book dedicated exclusively to progressive rock would hit the market, and this book from Edward Macan was one of them. It’s easy to forget just how popular prog rock was back in the early 1970s, because of all the musical fads that would […] Continue reading →

I, never in my wildest dreams, ever thought Mexico was a hotbead of prog rock, until I found out through a certain prog rock mail-order catalog. Turns out that country had quite a few such bands, particularly in the 1980s, in an era where the old 1970s prog bands in Europe had either ceased to […] Continue reading →

It’s strange indeed to think that Mexico is actually a hotbead of prog rock, but it’s true! I could hardly believe it, in a land of mariachi bands, it’s nice to see some musicians down there more hip to the music of Yes, ELP, Genesis, and the Italian prog scene. Several Mexican prog bands I’m […] Continue reading →

Le Orme is regarded as one of the greats of Italian prog. They initially started as a psychedelic pop group and released Ad Gloriam in 1969 (I have also reviewed that album right here on Hippyland). They quicky figured that psychedelic pop was no longer where it’s at, so they changed labels to Philips, and […] Continue reading →

Atem was the fouth album by Tangerine Dream and their last album for Ohr before signing up to Virgin Records and recording more synthesizer-dominated electronic music. It was also their second album with the lineup of Edgar Froese, Christophe Franke, and Peter Baumann (this lineup would last until 1977). Atem still finds TD being weird […] Continue reading →

I was a bit hesitant to buy this album. Sure I heard comparisons to ELP, Genesis, etc. But the album was released in 1980, a time where usually little good can be said of prog rock, this was an era where many of the prog greats gave us albums like Duke (Genesis) or Drama (Yes), […] Continue reading →

Cervello was like too many Italian prog rock bands out there: they release one album and vanished. When it comes to one-shot Italian prog bands, I honestly can rank it up there with Museo Rosenbach’s Zarathustra. It’s that great. Cervello was lead by guitarist Corrado Rustici, who was around 16 years old at that time! […] Continue reading →

Led Zeppelin are mostly known for hard- and blues-rock, which is quite interesting, as they have loads of excellent material that just cannot be squeezed into either of these categories. Houses Of The Holy is a fine example, indeed, as it is an album of exploration of different musical styles that are bound together by […] Continue reading →

In the world of progressive rock, there are inventors, and there are followers. The inventors were bands like Yes, ELP, Genesis, etc. The followers happened to be bands that were either obviously influenced by already existing bands (Camel is an example, another would be certain German prog bands like Eloy, Grobschnitt, and Novalis), or sometimes, […] Continue reading →