Porcupine Tree was basically a project lead by Steven Wilson. Their earliest albums was recorded all by Wilson himself, but once he decided to tour, he assembled a real band. Like the Ozric Tentacles, Porcupine Tree got started by releasing privately-issued cassettes. Those cassettes were Tarquin’s Seaweed Farm (1989) and The Nostalgia Factory (1991). Their […] Continue reading →

It’s really interesting to hear how Van der Graaf Generator progressed over four albums from the folky psychedelic proto-progressive sound of The Aerosol Grey Machine (1969) right up to the far more aggressive and hard-edge sounds of Pawn Hearts, their fourth album released late in 1971. Pawn Hearts is regarded by many as their high […] Continue reading →

You may know C.J. Stone for being a past Guardian columnist, but it is this book where he really allows the reader into his past. An autobiography, The Last of the Hippies is a quirky insight into the life of the extraordinary Brummie, complete with graphic details of his past drug habit and rampant sex […] Continue reading →

After experimenting with a couple of big band jazz fusion albums in 1972 with Waka Jawaka and The Grand Wazoo, Zappa decided to record an album of more standard rock songs, but with Zappa’s usual eccentric lyrics. Zappa decided to resurrect the Mothers, but by this time, the Mothers only existed by name only (he […] Continue reading →

I generally don’t consider myself a fan of Kraftwerk, at least not the electronic pop albums they released from the mid 1970s to the 1980s. I admit they were largely influencial, for good or for bad, the electronic pop and new wave of the early 1980s (you wouldn’t have the likes of Gary Numan, Human […] 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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →