Folklore is the ninth studio album released by BBT, and was an instant top five album for me in 2016. It develops the themes inherent in English Electric, particularly the second part, and sees, for me, the band developing very nicely into the natural successor to one of our finest, and best loved, pastoral progressive rock acts of the classic era.

What, another Genesis tribute allegation, you ask? No, not a bit of it. This band, not particularly in terms of approach, but most definitely in terms of their use of English lore and joyous storytelling of our heritage are, to me, the modern day Jethro Tull. Think of that band's wonderful folk rock period between Songs from the Wood and Broadsword...., transport it into the 21st century, and here we go. London Plane, with its tale of a boat squadron on course to Runnymede, could quite easily fit in on any one of those Tull masters. The chorus of this soars.

The album explodes into sound with the title track. Pure folk prog, with Longden's flute and Rachel Hall's exceptional violin playing right to the fore. The latter, to me, is a very welcome addition to this band. Her playing on this and the live set released on Stone and Steel are exceptional, and her backing to Longden's feeling lead vocals complement each other very well.

The band now boast eight members, living in disparate areas of not just the UK, but literally the world, with Rikard Sjoblom adding important textures on guitars and keyboards, and the drummer from America who I regard as being the finest modern exponent of the trade, Nick D'Virgilio. His work shines on this, and both also contribute backing vocals, making the band sound throughout as a vocal and instrumental symphony.

Along The Ridgeway uses both Hall's violin and the welcome return of the brass section to great effect. It segues effortlessly into Salisbury Giant, a huge figure which one adorned pageants in medieval Wiltshire, now housed in a museum there. These are gentle pieces, with intelligent use of orchestration creating a solemn, thoughtful, mood. Longden sings it beautifully. I fell in love with his voice on the wonderful Martin Orford swan song, The Old Road, and he is, to me, a world class vocalist.

Brass and violin also introduce us to the exceptional The Transit Of Venus Across The Sun. The lyrics, vocals, and music take me back many years to when I was a young man fascinated by the vastness of the visible night sky, and wondering just what it would be like to fly there, a la James T Kirk. You are taken to this place on the "so many words left unsaid" sequence, before Dave Gregory produces a scintillating guitar solo leading the entire outfit in a symphonic burst of pure noise. Quite lovely.

Wassail has attracted some criticism. It is beyond me why. When I first heard it on the EP release of the same name in 2015, I knew we were in for a real old treat with the forthcoming album. Whilst the accompanying video, costumes and all, might seem a tad corny, this is prog folk at its most powerful, with swirling keyboards and thunderous riffs, led by Spawton on bass and D'Virgilio on drums moving things along at a fair old pace. The story itself is of pagans travelling between houses and orchards wassailing, boozing to hearty effect on Wassail, a rather strong mulled cider.

There is one track on the album that I still struggle to "get", and that is Winkie. The story behind the song is straightforward enough, that of a World War Two flying hero. It is played well enough, with the drums especially moving things along swiftly, and Longden evokes true emotion in The North Sea passage when radio contact with the plane is lost. However, it is, to me, slightly too breathless and wordy at times to truly impress. Great in parts, but not as a whole.

The epic length track on the album, clocking in at 12.40 minutes, is Brooklands. This venue, of course, was the world's first motor racing circuit, and the track evokes all of the romance and thrill which that venue brought to the pioneers who raced there, the smells of the engines, and the crowds who followed the sometimes dangerous exploits of the participants. I love the thoughtful guitar lead, whilst D'Virgilio excels on a tuneful drum pattern, with Spawton producing a deep, growling, bass line. A great story and tribute to a time long passed away, this is intellectual prog folk at its peak. The section leading to the denouement has the entire band, keys, flute, violin, rhythm, guitar stretching themselves to the limit, before we come down to earth gently with a delicate vocal.

All which precedes, though, leads up to the biggest thrill, the final track, the sumptuous and beautiful Telling The Bees. I didn't think that the band could better Hedgerow, to me a highlight of prog rock in all the time I have listened to this great genre. This one does it, in spades. It plays to every strength this great band have. It aches with emotion, and has, at its heart, the memories of a loved father, honoured in old custom by telling the bees of a life and love. "The joy is in the telling", and the telling is a wonderful noise. This song evokes memories of loved ones no longer with me, and I sing it at the top of my voice, but with love and fond memories, not sadness, the way such fond memories are meant to be. This is a gloriously uplifting track, and yet another reminder of why this band are so special. Listen and let the emotion wash over you.

This is yet another fine release by a band who I hope will continue to carry the torch of quality English progressive rock for many years to come. Four stars, and simply excellent.

There's only one Frank Zappa and only one that can do this kind of music! This concert made in Halloween presents the late 70's and early 80's music of Frank with many songs that could have been even shorter if they did not include the usual Frank guitar solo. My mind is drifting away when I hear his guitar solo. I prefer to see him conduct his musicians and hear the funny lyrics and music when it's going in his unpredictable direction. The songs are flowing smoothly into each other so that you can see the show as one long song. It is impossible to enjoy everything the man has done in his career because he has played too many styles with the Mothers of Invention or with his synclavier albums, but everyone can see how original was his music and the man who have always stick with his views on many subjects with satire and cynism. This DVD is a great place to start for someone who can be disturbed by the experimental nature of some others videos he has done. This one shows you how the musicians are perfectly synchronized to play this complex music the Zappa way. I just imagine how much more albums he would have done if he was still alive...

Misplaced Childhood represents a significant moment in my music listening history. At the age of 14-15 I was listening to the vinyls of my elder sister and brother, Dire Straits being my first favourite band. There were a bunch of prog oriented early 80's albums too, by e.g. Asia, Saga, Rush, Yes and Jon Anderson that I found interesting. At the time I didn't yet buy vinyls myself, I used to tape music on cassettes. And then I saw this band on TV, it was some New Year's night concert featuring many artists - I don't remember who the others were. I do remember the line "do you remember" repeated several times, and the singer had some red paint on his face. I purchased Fugazi as my first vinyl and persuaded my friend to get Misplaced Childhood. So begun my most dedicated fandom period of my life, lasting for a couple of years.

Since it feels awkward for me to write a review for such heavily reviewed album, I first thought to write one for the 'Kayleigh' single. I'm getting tired of reviewing singles so much, so here's my very subjective view on this famous Neo Prog milestone. I bought it on CD several years later at the early 90's, but it isn't my favourite of the Fish era, that honour goes to Clutching at Straws. And up to this day my reception of Misplaced Childhood is somewhat ambivalent. Like many other prog listeners, I find it a bit cheesy as a whole, with the super-clean production, sugared synth carpets and sentimental guitar solos.

'Pseudo Silk Kimono' is irritatingly all cheesy synths, but it functions as a conceptual mood-setter, followed seamlessly by the radio-friendly song for lost love, 'Kayleigh' (which I have as a ringtone on my phone nowadays!), which is seamlessly followed by another radio-friendly love song, naively romantic 'Lavender'. What is this? A potpourri of pop songs? Luckily, 'Bitter Suite' and 'Heart of Lothian' are multi-part compositions with various moods. I love the quietest, more mystified parts ("A spider wanders aimlessly...", and later, "It's getting late for scribbling and scratching on the paper...") whereas 'Blue Angel' and 'Wide Boy' sections are really cheesy, especially for the guitar solos. On the next album there's a lot more diversity in guitar and keyboard sounds. Is Misplaced Childhood perhaps over-produced in a way, emphasizing the sentimental concept?

The album is practically two side-long, pauseless entities, and that's definitley one of its strengths. The second part (side of the vinyl) contains the ultimate highlight, but there are also songs that feel like fillers to me. 'Waterhole (Expresso Bongo)', terribly boring. 'Lords of the Backstage' is refreshingly bold and bright. 'Blind Curve' is a magnificent journey into deep, sore emotions, and finally there's new blood on guitar parts too. The melody in 'Mylo' is spellbinding, and the creepily quiet section 'Perimeter Walk' gives goose bimples. Unfortunately the 'Threshold' section returns to the cheesiness and the similarily wailing guitar solo by numbers heard on the first side. 'Childhoods End?' is a fine, sunny and powerful catharsis after all the dark emotions the concept album has gone through. The synth solo at its end sounds very Genesis-like. But for me 'White Feather' is a boring anti-climax.

This is definitely an important album, but the certain weaknesses and the overall cheesiness make me round my 3½ stars downwards. This is not to say I wouldn't understand five-star ratings perfectly well!

— First review of this album —

Assumed they should be another incarnation of a British legend England, but surprisingly they've finished recording this material in November, 1975 already. Their definite masterpiece 'Merry-Go-Round', that features enthusiastic voices, dramatic plus psychedelic keyboard works, deeply heavy drumming and bass explosions, must drive me crazy and thoughtful.imaginative. Their days when progressive rock scene might be upon the phase of decline should be full stomach in another sense I guess, and even such a low-qualified, unpolished album 'poorly produced and mixed' (it says this album was created as a demo version for the following album and it might not be known why P'le Records released this material, but who cares?) can make the audience dream a fantastic dream with their rough but flamboyant passion for progressive rock. There are a lot of cases a well-refined album cannot impress us anymore, I imagine?

We can call this obscurity as another art rock salad mixture with heavy, psychedelic, and symphonic directions. Variation of soundscape cannot be heard enough but rough, fuzzy diversity in kinda 70s progressive cage we can find out via this album. Ethnicity or weird keyboard-oriented colourful psychedelia sound excessive especially in a short track "Death Rebirth". Bluesy battles of guitar and keyboard plays with dry-fruity female voices give us a hint of French-based fashionable vibes in "Viens Voler Avec Moi". There are other cool but poppy catchy song messages here and there (and pity that not all of them cannot be felt innovative) but well understood they might have got massively inspired by psychedelic rock / art pop vanguards, and it makes sense this 'demonstrated' work would have been dedicated to their pioneers. Basically unpolished but splendidly powerful intention we can notice via their mystic creation. Worth listening to.

— First review of this album —

Quite comfortable.

"Kore Wa!" is the second album of SUBURBAN SAVAGES that has been recorded / produced for seven years and finally released in mid 2017. Actually I've mysteriously got impressed at the sleeve and the title of their newest album (a Japanese phrase "Kore Wa!" means "this is!" in English), and currently I appreciate stumbling upon their fantastic stuff and themselves. Not only the exterior but also the musical contents have completely knocked me out. I have assumed they would feel familiar with Japan and Japanese culture, and made sure of this via their soundscape seasoned with Japanese (or related) folksy melody lines. Well understood why seven or more years were needed for creating material for "Kore Wa!". Via this stuff we can hear a variety of melodic appearances they might possess in their inner space.

It's crazy amazing that avantgarde complexity and pop, catchy intensity come one after another like a merry go round. Such a well- matured, melodically-balanced movement cannot easily be heard even in progressive rock scene or something. The opening starshine "Fade Into Obscurity" lets us know enough (and their fragile chorus is fantastic too). In "As I Am Dying" deep, heavy, and mysterious anxiety will pop up and hide out under the complicated cloudy sky. The titled track might be sung in (especially old-fashioned) Japanese language but I cannot understand their "words" but unique and challenging sense.This song (with "hoy hoy hoy!") could not remind me of Japanese kabuki nor kyogen lol, but we can find their strong motivation to adopt every element all over the world and digest enough for the sound launcher rich in their originality.

Eventually I've got immersed in this creation not because I'm a Japanese but I'm fascinated by sound innovation. Woohoo.

Nude is a conceptual album, like many in the Progressive Rock scene, but it has to be analyzed by its different aspects, the musical composition, the originality, the depth of the theme. The first time I listened to it, I was fascinated by Andy Latimer's melodies that showed a deep connection with the story that makes up his concept. In the end, it shows us a story with the sensitivity that impresses on the music and the history written in the lyrics. Well, to the subject, Nude tells us the story of a Japanese soldier at the time of the Second World War. The album begins with the experience of living in a country like Japan at that time, calling on the armed forces to fulfill their country and sees in its own flesh the horrors of war on an island in the Pacific. These horrors paralyze him and make him lose his sense, which he recovers perhaps days later. To his surprise, he is alone on a deserted island, he was simply so indispensable, he did not figure or maybe if, like a low in the Japanese army. History takes its turn, he has to stay there and follow the rules that were established, to fulfill his duty, hoping that help will soon arrive to take him with them. This was a real story of that soldier, Hiroo Onoda who spent 30 years on an island, thinking that the war was still going on. It shows the human side of a soldier who, being only one piece on a huge board in that war, was ignored and left to his fate. Musically it is very well done, in my particular taste Drafted and Lies are my favorite, but it really is to listen complete. I liked it a lot as they carry a style of narrating a story with a very good development and in the end the climax and resolution that leave us the message of the album.

For the 20th anniversary of the "Masquerade Overture" album, the band recorded this show in their familiar venue in Poland. But you wouldn't know it is filmed at the same place because the lighting is very different using not as much various colors. The picture quality is ok as the sound and camera work. The band has a new drummer, Jan Vincent Velazco who has played in various styles of music and his now working with the band in London. He does a good job replacing Scott Higham. The band played the complete "Masquerade" album in the first part and some new songs in the second part. It seems to me that they didn't choose the best songs they could on those new songs, I might have to listen to those again to make sure. I don't think this DVD is better than the previous ones, so I don't think it will appeal to the old fans, but a new fan can't go wrong buying this because the band is constant as the stars shining at night. Their music still shows some Pink Floyd influence with a little modern approach in their later material. Pendragon as never been to me my favorite Neo-Prog band, probably because their music doesn't have enough of that darker style of IQ and that I will always prefer Genesis to Pink Floyd...

Actually 3,5.

The best part of the EP is the contrast that is created between instruments especially in songs "Psalm 6" and "Prophet". Musicianship is excellent. I warmly recommend this album to those who like surprises and complexity in the music.

Album reminds me about the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) by Joseph Campbell, which tells universal story of the hero's travels.

EP starts with song "Psalm 6" a quite nice and rythmic start with bass and drums, then the trumpets set in. Trumpet seems to play totally different song. Nice contrast. After the start it almost turns to church music with organs. It reminded me what it was to sit in the church and listen psalms. Then the music flows quite melodically with fluit, keyboard and guitars leading the music to the end.

Second song "Trattamento 2" is melodic keyboard driven peace.

Third song "Prophet" starts again with keyboards quite serenely but when bass comes along it starts to feel more threteaning, again contrast between different instruments is quite apparent. And towards end the whole song seems to get quite disturbed. You can easily create a story in your head about the travels of a prophet.

Fourth song "Denial of access". Once more the instruments are playing different songs creating interesting tensions inside the piece.

Fifth song "Passing over". The music gets more light and cheerful here. Keyboards are leading the music forward. I find the bass playing in the background nice.

Sixth song "Trattamento 3" ends the EP. This is again keyboard leaded music.

An interesting debut album. The early version of the band claimed influences by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and AMM. The experimental side is heavily on display as some songs wash in and out, barely hanging to a thread of structure. We've Come For Your Children and Waterwheel are the most 'normal' pieces here, drum machine driven with powerful guitar. Anu is a nice building piece, like a melodic Saucerful of Secrets filtered through Gong and several hits of acid. A cover of Hawkwind's Sonic Attack gives another point of reference. The final two tracks have the band down to a three piece and more in the Amon Duul side of space rock. Chaotic, but to a purpose, I'd recommend this for fans of really out there freak out bands of the late 60's and early 70's.

As a hardcore prog and YES fan, I am surprised they released a decidedly non-prog album. I can empathize with the disappointment voiced by many long time fans of Yes- the archetype of Prog. And that's where my criticism ends.

After my initial WTF experience hearing this mostly sedate and decidedly non-prog album, I realized there was something else unique and artistic happening here. I keep listening to this album- not primarily as a prog fan, but as a fan of emotional and complex pop music long gone from the airwaves. YES remain great songwriters, composing amazing hooks with top production- this album puts current popular music to shame. There is not a bad track on this album.

This is Yes's most innovative album since Drama.