The River I & II (This Winter Machine, 2023)

English vocalist and song-writer Al Winter started this West Yorkshire-based quintet in 2016 and even if you could label it as a neo progressive act, I'm happy to say that those musicians had their own signature sound since their debut album. A mildly distorted electric guitar marks their rock moments, full of energy and beautiful changes, but I admit that their atmospheric songs and passages are my favourites by far. 

This is the band's fourth studio album.

This 11 minutes song is the opening mini-suite of their 2023 album, titled "The Clockwork Man", a concept around a future society where human clones are enslaved to perform hard and dangerous jobs. "The River" includes both sides of their production: after an electronic crescendo, the first part is a tough mid-tempo  prog rock, while part II is an awful, poignant piano driven ballad, something really, really well written and well sung with a perfect guitar solo. This Winter Machine seem to like a  thorough but also essential prog rock and they skip any useless ornament. That's not so common, after all, and certainly is a refreshing approach.

A Way out (Unifaun, 2008)

Same old question: should we like bands like Unifaun that explicitly revive classic prog bands' style? Well, the answer is simple to me: yes, if they know how to write good songs and to play them. This is the case with Swedish duo Unifaun, whose only album to date include some very good and very Genesis oriented songs. This Swedish duo includes singer and multi-instrumentalist Nad Sylvan of Steve Hackett live band fame and keyboardist Christian Thordin, AKA Bonamici. 

Above: the dark original 2008 cover art. Below: the Genesis-oriented 2023 reissue painting.

Their self-titled album features many musical solutions related to the ex Charterhouse pupils, but with a distinctive nordic and slightly folk taste I appreciate. The track I choose here is a prog ballad full of dreamy passages and based on really good melodies. The overall effect is mostly similar to Genesis' "Selling England by The Pound" era. Is this a good reason to despise such a song? I don't think so, but let me know your opinions.