Tag Archives: prog

HATS OFF GENTLEMEN IT’S ADEQUATE – One Word That Means The World (Arkhipov) / Music For Dancing

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When approaching a fusion based style, London’s Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate are rarely anything less than interesting. Since their inception, the musical duo have painted an art rock canvas that’s blended prog, pop, funk and ambient textures in a way that – for the want of an easy descriptor – sometimes makes them sound like The Pineapple Thief jamming with the rhythm section of early 80s King Crimson. At other times, you might stumble upon the atmospheres of later Talk Talk, or swathes of guitar work tipping their more than adequate hat in the direction of ‘In Absentia’ era Porcupine Tree, but almost always with the Gentlemen’s own, slightly odd, twist. Simply put, you can rely on them to tease your ears with something pleasingly complex.

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THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #48

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Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore the various individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This time around, we bring you a very melodic number from a sometime Ministry collaborator, a complex one man show from a British prog musician, a quick hit of country, a near flawless slice of power pop, and more besides. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy, or something that gives you the curiosity to dig a little deeper.

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VANDEN PLAS – The Empyrean Equation of Long Lost Things

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When it comes to prog metal, there are few bands as consistent as Vanden Plas. Like many of their peers, the band are able to deliver the expected heaviness and complexity, but marking them out from others on the scene, these German musicians often display a strong sense of melody. That doesn’t necessarily make their work entirely accessible or commercial – prog metal is always a marginal subgenre on that front – but an on form VP feels so much more streamlined than most. Even when approaching massive concept works like ‘Chronicles of The Immortals’ or the excellent ‘Ghost Xperiment’, their decision to split these epic works into separate volumes made their bombastic traits far more digestible. The likes of the ego driven Dream Theater would’ve likely released each one as a double CD and added more material to create one of their preferred full three hour borefests each time.

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THE PROG COLLECTIVE – Dark Encounters

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For this fifth outing from Billy Sherwood’s Prog Collective, the Yes bassist has brought together an impressive array of musicians to bring his fluid all star project’s music to life. In a sidestep from previous releases, however, there are moments throughout ‘Dark Encounters’ that appear somewhat moodier than before. The bulk of the record takes an instrumental route, and a couple of the tunes go much deeper into jazz fusion. That’s not to say that fans of the veteran musicians involved won’t find anything to enjoy, or even something familiar to cling onto – a Sherwood Project will almost always include material that nods in the very definite direction of Yes and World Trade – but at least fifty percent of this record isn’t exactly what most people will be expecting.

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The Real Gone End of Year Round-Up 2023

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We seem to say it every December, but this year has gone so quickly. We’ve fit a lot into twelve months, of course. Over the last twelve months, Real Gone has picked up a truckload of new followers and regular visitors; we’ve discovered new bands, reconnected with a couple of familiar faces, and given more column inches to old favourites.

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