Music Reincarnate (Rick Wakeman, 1976)

Here you are a true old progressive rock suite, coming from one of the men who mostly contributed to the definition of the genre. "Music Reincarnate" comes from Rick's album "No Earthly Connection" and spans over 28 minutes of duration. This track is divided into five parts (The Warning, The Maker, The Spaceman, The Realisation and The Reaper) each one featuring its own spirit, but all fitting very well into the big picture. Due to the length of the suite, its last part opened the original LP's B-side. 

The original LP included instructions to "bring the cover to life"...

 

...by placing a reflecting cylinder as shown!

 

The lyrics about God being musically deceived by humans probably aren't Wakeman's best literary achievement, but the music is excellent, including several well found melodies, tons of tempos, moods, vocal harmonies, orchestral arrangements and - of course - keyboard solos. Ashley Holt's vocals are another good reason to dig up this song: a warm, bittersweet voice going up and down your spine, especially during the second section of the epic, likely my favourite one (but I'm also partial to part 3). Well, it's about time to let you listen this pearl once again.

Save Our Land (Vantasma, 2006)

Believe it or not, a growing number of Indonesian bands play prog and even neo-prog. Take this Vantasma, strongly influenced by IQ, Pendragon & friends, but with their own recognizable mix of keyboard progressions and guitar solos. This song is taken from their debut album called "Beyond Fallen Dreams" and is a very well written and performed example of progressive rock. Opik's vocals are strong and rather high-pitched, in the vein of some metal-prog acts when the music gets heavier, but also sensitive and even delicate when the volume gets down.

The Indonesian Progressive Society produced this debut work.

The track is rather long (some 13 minutes) and diversified, and its instrumental sections really are good and highly dynamic. I also like the way these musicians prepare the tempo changes, and their taste for bright largos, something reminding me of Kansas. Vantasma learned their lesson very well and picked up all they needed to bake a fragrant, tasty musical cake ready for my little afternoon prog tea!

The Untold Want (Lady Lake, 2005)

The story of Progressive Rock is full of deceiving reunions, as many bands of old come up with new albums, usually far less interesting than the Golden Era ones. Strangely enough, this wasn't the case with Lady Lake. These Dutch musicians disbanded after their first album "No Pictures", released in 1977 and came back in 2005 with a very good CD called "Supercleandreammachine". "The Untold Want" is the opening suite of this second studio work, divided into twelve musical sketches, most of them  in a melodic and evocative mood, not too far from Camel, and with a touch of ambient music.

There's a trio line-up in this album: keys, drums and guitars.

This epic is a pleasant journey, a series of intense and slightly acid landscapes, where each instrument adds its own touch, like colours do in a Manet's painting. Despite its melodic texture, this track is deep and unpredictable, both fluid and diversified. If I could welcome all reunions as I did with Lady Lake's, well, that would be great to be a progfan in the 21st Century!

Snowballs (Horizont / Горизонт, 1985)

The first Horizont's album actually is a prog gem and definitely can be considered as one of the best fruits of Russian prog. It only includes three long tracks and this is the opening one, called "Snowballs". That's an excellent example of what we used to call descriptive music, so that you can actually see a snowball battle going on and an enchanted, wintery landscape all around.

Horizont in concert during the '70s.

Ranging from symphonic to electronic arrangements, this instrumental track includes effective choral harmonies and some beautiful guitar / piano interplays. It's a puzzling mix of Yes and Kraftwerk, Focus and Magma... in short, it's Horizont themselves. I don't know how it will seem like to you, but I bet you won't be bored at all!

The Cross & The Crucible (Pallas, 2001)

Pallas made their way into the progressive hearts thanks - among many other qualities - to their energy and to their brilliant tempo changes. That's exactly what you'll find in the title song of their 2001 album. A beautiful, deep background supports Alan Reed's vocals in the first part of the track, while the guitar and some pseudo-gregorian choirs introduce a largely instrumental final section, full of epic effects and including a wonderful guitar solo by Niall Mathewson.

"The Cross & The Crucible" was the fifth studio album by Pallas.

 

This song presents in a highly dynamic way the concept of the album, based on the double option of faith and science and on their relative risks. What I especially like here is the round, somewhat tridimensional sound, and also the pleasant contrast between smooth and rough instruments, something Pallas know how to set up since their debut album. Thank you for that, guys!

Scarescrow (Albion, 1995)

Taken from this Polish band's second album, "Scarescrow" opens the record with a sweet but never sweetish ballad, not so far from Marillion's mid-period ones, featuring the distinctive female vocals of Ania Batko and a well found melody. This is one of those songs between pop and prog, both traditional and modern, including a good, dreamy guitar solo and a big deal of background keyboards.

This album features songs in both English and Polish languages.

It seems to me that such a calm, evocative music requests a great amount of good taste to be put down in notes and words. This is exactly what Albion have, with the welcome addition of an irreproachable technique. So, if you need a short break between two endless, experimental epics, this is what you need. Nothing more and - believe me - definitely nothing less.

De futura (Magma, 1976)

This long epic by Magma, taken from the album "Üdü Ẁüdü ", proves how unpredictable and still pleasant their music can be. Yes, Magma aren't always arcane and tricky: this song starts like a sci-fi soundtrack, with a well recognizable  riff, then goes through a jazzy bridge and here you are an ironic and also military choir. When the bells sound, a funky-rock passage comes in and weird vocals play with the bass and the drums to bring back the military and funny theme.

This was Magma's sixth studio album.

Next, an atmospheric interlude including some electronic devices, a slightly distorted accelerating bass line, sci-fi effects again on an incredibly complex rythm, finally a rather heavy rock riff and the closing cymbal-driven section. Strange to say, such a musical mess flows like a river through a variated landscape, and you reach the end of the song in no time, following the rythm section and seeing alien worlds and races with your mind's eye. And this one's played just by the hardcore trio of the band... Weird, but also very, very good. Bravo!