Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, or simply, Banco, is highly regarded as one of the greatest prog rock bands to come out of Italy, and after hearing this album, as well as their 1973 followup, Io Sono Nato Libero, I am willing to believe it. The band was known for the near-operatic vocals of Francesco di […] Continue reading →

Ege Bamyasi is Can’s followup to Tago Mago. This time around, the band decides to get even funkier, with a more percussive-oriented approach. The album opens with “Pinch” which, during the first few listens, seems pretty pointless, as it sounds like a groove and little else, with some rather bizarre and unintelligible voices from Damo […] Continue reading →

Hawkwind, like Gong, and much later, Ozric Tentacles, was one of the biggest names in space rock. If it wasn’t those first two groups I mentioned, it’s hard imagining there being a band like the Ozrics out there. And like the Ozrics, Hawkwind was (and surprisingly still is) a fixture on the British free festival […] Continue reading →

I won’t forget that day in 1996 I was in Rod’s Second Hand Store which was in Port Orchard, Washington. Now this isn’t the kind of store for the hippie in mind. Basically the store sold used Nintendo and Sega Genesis games and game machines, some crappy portable radios, and CDs and tapes. The CDs […] Continue reading →

Earth & Fire (do not confuse with the well-known American R&B band Earth, Wind & Fire), was one of the leading prog rock bands to come out of the Netherlands, along with Focus, Ekseption, Kayak, Trace, Supersister, and Alquin. 1971’s Song of the Marching Children is their second album and is by far their best, […] Continue reading →

One year after Banco del Mutuo Soccorso gave us the amazing Darwin!, they proceeded to give us another incredible album, Io Sono Nato Libero. Again, the semi-operatic voice of Francesco “Big” Giacomo (aka. “Mr. Chubbs) dominates, with the duo keyboards of brothers Vittorio and Gianni Nocenzi. Di Giacomo’s voice seems less operatic on this album, […] Continue reading →

Just when you thought you’ve given up on prog rock after 1978 or thereabout, there came a Swedish prog rock band in the early 1990s, in which half the band members were still teenagers, playing prog rock like the 1980s never happened. Who can blame these kids anyway? When crappy bands like Asia got called […] Continue reading →

After Brainticket released Celestial Ocean in 1973, they seemed to have vanished for a number of years, until 1980, when they gave us Adventure. By that time, the band became an all-instrumental outfit, with Joël Vandroogenbroeck, as always, handling the keyboards and flute, percussionist Barney Palm, whose been with the band since 1972’s Psychonaut, and […] Continue reading →

If you’ve ran out of Van der Graaf Generator albums to buy, let me suggest to you, Island, a Swiss prog rock band that released this one and only album in 1977, Pictures. I actually think this album is much more how I wished VdGG’s Godbluff and Still Life were like. Island’s music tends more […] Continue reading →

Everyone knows who Arthur C. Clarke is. He wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey and invented the communications satellite. Unless you happened to be watching the Discovery Channel in the 1980s and 1990s, you might not be aware of Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World, a 13 part series from Yorkshire Television in England from 1980 on […] Continue reading →