VARIOUS ARTISTS – A Prog Rock Christmas

Billy Sherwood is no stranger to an all star compilation. Over the years, he’s helped mastermind tributes to all manner of artists, often with mixed results. His 2019 project ‘A Prog Rock Christmas’ can seem as scattershot as many of those previous all star affairs, but by bringing together various prog legends to put their own stamp on a few familiar yuletide ditties, there are a several things to enjoy along the way, ranging from the traditional to the bespoke.

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Prog rock legends Pallas offer free festive download

Hot on the heels of the Bad Elephant Music 2019 sampler, here’s some more prog rock goodness for you!

For the Christmas period, the legendary band are offering their fans (and potential new listeners) a Christmas themed download. Joining a few reworkings of familiar songs, the download also includes some cracking live material, which is reason enough to add this to your collections even if you’re not festively minded.

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Sun On The Edge Of Time: A Real Gone 2019 Playlist

It’s long been a tradition at Real Gone that we bring you an easily digestible reminder of some of the year’s best new music as December starts to draw to a close. This year, we’ve got some great stuff to share with you – it’s probably our most varied selection yet!

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JATK – JATK EP

JATK is a DIY project fronted by singer songwriter Matt Jatkola that celebrates the louder end of the power pop spectrum. The three piece band love distortion and fuzz almost as much as they love a sun-filled retro hook and the result is, perhaps, one of the noisiest power pop discs since The Genuine Fakes released ‘The Striped Album’ back in 2011.

Beneath the layers of guitar and fuzz are four absolutely cracking songs. Tunes that evoke the kind of excitement you first felt when you dropped the metaphorical needle on a Beat Angels or Ryan Roxie album for the first time. The kind of unbridled joy you feel from playing The Wildhearts’ ‘Vanilla Radio’ at full volume exists within at least a couple of these songs…and that feel-good quality is obvious from first play. Subsequent spins only confirm what you suspected within the first minute or so of hearing this band for the first time. Yes… Power pop fans should be aware that this is potentially that good.

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Charlotte Carpenter looks back on ‘Another Year’ on new xmas single

Charlotte Carpenter is no stranger to Christmas songs – in 2018, she recorded a gloriously downbeat version of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’. Nor is she a stranger to reflective, semi-autobiographical works, as evidenced in her own ‘Burn’ and ‘Shelter’.

With her digital single ‘Another Year’, both elements collide as Charlotte reflects upon her place in the world in the build up to Christmas 2019. Continue reading