UK prog band The Tangent will release their eleventh album ‘Auto Reconnaisance’ in August. For those who can’t wait to hear the whole thing from start to finish, the band have shared the audio for ‘Life On Hold’, a relatively short and really punchy track that showcases the band’s more chorus driven material.
UK post-rock band The Fierce And The Dead have made some fine recordings over the past few years, but as the fans know, it’s in the live setting they really start making their most impressive noises. Two live recordings sourced from festivals are available already (2017’s ‘Field Recordings’ and 2019’s fantastic ‘Live USA 17’), but on 1st May 2020, the band will complete a live trilogy with a download only release, ‘Show Me Devon: Live At Kozfest’.
Guitarist Matt Stevens calls the recording a record of “…a very special gig.”
Swedish prog band Isildurs Bane formed in 1976. They’ve recorded a string of albums, but their 2016 collaboration with Steve Hogarth really helped to bring them to a new audience. Their work, ‘Colours Not Found In Nature’ was given a live premier in November that year. A studio recording of the same name appeared in 2017.
In January, London based art rockers The Bloody Mallard kicked off the new year by sharing the heavy and complex ‘Subject To Entropy’. A month on, the band have returned with another taster for their upcoming album ‘Realm’.
In the band’s own words, the new single ‘Ceremonious Synapses (ii)’ “signals the most climatic point of the album”. From a listening perspective, it shows the band in a more melodic light than before, but without losing any of their riff-based strengths.
For British progressive and art rock, the relatively short period between March 1973 and December 1974 was particularly fruitful. Roxy Music released ‘For Your Pleasure‘ and ‘Stranded’, Genesis released two of their most ambitious works in ‘Selling England By The Pound’ and ‘The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’, while King Crimson gave us ‘Larks’ Tongues In Aspic’ and Emerson, Lake & Palmer tipped the scales of self-indulgence with their ‘Brain Salad Surgery’. Meanwhile, Yes continued their long voyage into the epic with the help of ‘Relayer’, and Pink Floyd and Mike Oldfield released albums that would eventually become worldwide all-time best-sellers. Given the quality and love for each of these records, it’s hardly surprising that, in comparison, ‘Turn of The Cards’ – the fourth studio release from British symphonic rock combo Renaissance – hardly ever gets talked about.