At the beginning of 2020, Porcupine Tree fans were given reason to celebrate when their popular ‘In Absentia’ album was given the box set treatment and a four disc super deluxe version of one of their best-known works hit the shelves.
The year hasn’t brought much to celebrate, but here’s ome more good news… On November 20th, Transmission Records will issue a massive thirteen disc set of Porcupine Tree’s early – and best material.
Procol Harum’s 1975 album, ‘Procol’s Ninth’, is hugely disliked by some fans. A far cry from the pomp, adventure and bombast of their early work, it took them in more of a pop-rock direction under the influence of producers Jerry Leiber & Mike Stoller. Against the band’s wishes, the record included covers of Leiber/Stoller’s ‘I Keep Forgetting’ and The Beatles’ classic ‘Eight Days A Week’. Although, in many ways, it remains a true oddity within the Procol canon, its an album to which time has actually been very kind, sounding better decades on. …And regardless of what you may have thought of the original LP, the two discs’ worth of live material appended to the Esoteric Records deluxe reissue in 2018 created a fine package.
On October 30th, Swedish prog rock legends The Flower Kings will release their fourteenth studio album ‘Islands’. Another epic work, the double disc set will be the band’s fifth double album since forming in the 90s.
By the end of the 60s, jazz fusion band The Web had recorded and released two interesting but commercially unsuccessful albums. 1970 found the struggling musicians in a period of minor flux: a change in line-up saw frontman John L. Watson replaced by vocalist/keyboard player Dave Lawson (ex-Alan Bown) and a change of label took the newly christened Web [no longer the definitive; that was so last decade – just ask Pink Floyd] from Deram to Polydor. The new phase saw the release of their third and arguably best known LP, ‘I Spider’. ‘I Spider’ became their most famous work not through any increased exposure or notable sales, but by eventually becoming one of the era’s most sought after rarities.
By 1971, the final Web line-up changed their name to Samurai, switched record companies again and released one sole LP on the Greenwich Gramophone label. Like its predecessors, ‘Samurai’ failed to convince the record buying public and eventually faded into relative obscurity. Much like ‘I Spider’, the Samurai LP gained interest on the collectors’ market over the following quarter of a century, but never really got the mass re-appraisal it deserved. Despite the band showing lots of talents that should have found them mentioned in the same breath as Gentle Giant, King Crimson and early Soft Machine, the name Samurai is likely to be greeted with a shrug.
Two years on from their ‘Belly of The Whale’ album, this six track release from Ambassador presents the band in a slower and heavier mood than ever before. Throughout ‘Care Vale’s half-hour playing time, The Baton Rouge based post-rockers tackle a world of slow and intensive riffs, taking their sound further towards the gothic/doom variety, but without completely abandoning their previous love for a few proggy quirks. It’s worth noting that, from the outset, this slight musical shift means there isn’t anything on offer as immediately likeable – or melodic – as ‘Feral As They Were’, or necessarily as atmospheric as ‘Diorama’, but in terms of riffs, extant fans should still find something to enjoy.
Continue reading