Mantric Muse, Denmark

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Mantric Muse - s/t. 2012 Transubstans (Sweden)

Mantric Muse are a band from Denmark that have been around for nearly 20 years, and have received many great write-ups for their fiery club concerts in Scandinavia. But the band never officially released anything (beyond some archival live stuff on CD-R), and it seemed this tree would produce no fruit. Mantric Muse proceeded to become the root system for Oresund Space Collective, which dimmed hopes further for a studio outing. OSC, ironically, have been incredibly productive since 2005. While OSC tend to be more sprawling, improvisational, and more in line with traditional space rock - Mantric Muse are a much tighter outfit. This is bread and butter Hillage influenced Gong progressive rock. For fans of early Ozric Tentacles and Quantum Fantay, this a no-brainer pick up. Always great to hear new inspiration applied to an already excellent formula. 7 minute 'Azur' has to be heard to be believed. A breathless track with many twists, turns, spins, swoons, and just an overall dizzying track of immense proportion. Don't miss this gem.

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Egonon, Italy

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Egonon - Risveglio. 2011 private

Here's one courtesy of our Gnosis friend Eddie - the same gentleman that brought us all those wonderful Romanian albums earlier in the year.

The 1970's Italian progressive rock greats are regarded as such because of their innate ability to compile and distill the influences of their day. Namely classical, jazz, rock, indigenous folk, avant-garde, and canto. And a big old scoop of youthful exuberance. Considering this, Egonon are true to the philosophy of their ancestors. Rather than recreate the sounds of the 70s, as many Italian bands are doing today (and wonderfully so I might add), Egonon are assimilating their own influences. In their case, the list might look like: Heavy Metal, Alt-Rock, World Music, funk, and... everything that was also included in the 1970s Italian progressive rock scene, including the end result of said scene, which they clearly respect and pay homage to. It may be a restaurant with too many ite…

Unreal City, Italy

News: As mentioned some time ago on this site, Unreal City's 3rd album is slated for release on September 10 this year!

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Location: Parma, Emilia-Romagna

Overview: Unreal City are yet another band from Italy who are recreating the classic style of the early 1970s. And honestly, there cannot be too many bands in this style as far as I'm concerned.

Reviews (click on album covers)

Elephant9, Norway

News: Not a lot of recent activity from the band, though they're still around!

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Location: Oslo

Overview: If you like overdriven Hammond organ and Rhodes piano - completely fuzzed out to the maximum - all immersed within interesting instrumental compositions, then Elephant9 are for you. Their last 2 albums feature former Landberk / current Dungen's guitarist Reine Fiske, and have started to move into a 1970 era jazz rock meets Krautrock hybrid that is entirely fascinating.

Reviews (click on album covers)

Il Tempio delle Clessidre, Italy

News: According to a post from the group in January, mixing is done for their new 3rd album! No date has been given for release yet, though late April has been reported. Il Ludere is the working title.

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Location: Genoa

Overview: Il Tempio delle Clessidre's debut is one of the finer new retro Italian progressive rock in the landscape today. Lead by the beautiful keyboardist Elisa Montaldo, Il Tempio delle Clessidre is the classic five piece Italian band working their way through increasingly complex compositions, but with melody and passion.

Reviews (click on album covers)

Side Steps, Japan

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Like Gerard, Side Steps are a long running Japanese band, though this time coming from the jazz fusion genre. They received some attention in the Western world, mainly due to their association with Musea Records. As you will see in my notes below, not all is great. I even debated adding them here to UTR, but there's just enough good at the end of their career to at least consider. From a technical perspective, these guys are fantastic. But I tend to like a bit more grit and grime in my music. In giving full disclosure, I only kept the last two albums I featured here. The last activity on their website goes back to 2012, and their final release was 2007, so it does appear the band may be kaput.

Side Steps - Out and Out. 1997 Musea (France CD)
Side Steps - Alive. 1999 Musea (France CD)
Side Steps - Points of View. 2001 Musea (France CD)
Side Steps - Steps on Edge. 2003 Musea (France CD) 1993 recording. see write-up for more info regarding this release
Side Steps - Ve…

Kenso, Japan

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No new updates from Kenso since 2015.

Kenso - s/t. 1980 Pam (LP); 1995 Arcangelo (CD)
Kenso - II. 1982 Pam (LP); 1993 King (CD); 2002 Pathograph (CD papersleeve)
Kenso - s/t (aka III). 1985 Nexus (LP; CD); 2011 King (CD papersleeve)
Kenso - Sparta. 1989 Crime (CD); 2009 Pathograph as Sparta Naked (CD)
Kenso - Yume No Oka. 1991 King; 2011 Pathograph (CD papersleeve)
Kenso - Esoptron. 1999 King (CD); 1999 Musea (France CD)
Kenso - Ken-Son-Gu-Su. 2000 Pathograph (CD)
Kenso - Fabulis Mirabilibus De Bombycosi Scriptis. 2002 Nexus (CD); 2002 Vinyl Magic (Italy CD)
Kenso - Utsuroi Yuku Mono. 2006 King (CD)
Kenso - Uchi Naru Koe Ni Kaikiseyo. 2014 King (CD)

There are many other live and archival releases from the band, though I only own Ken-Son-Gu-Su. All the other entries above represent their studio albums. There's also a 14 CD box set on King that contains all their studio albums through 2012, as well as a handful of live recordings.

For a band with so many recordings, an…

Minimum Vital, France

News: Not a whole lot to report since their latest release in 2015 (Pavanes). Minimum Vital continue to be musically active, and have also remixed their debut album. I own all their albums going back to the beginning (1985!), and will hopefully be updating this page in the near future.

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Location: Bordeaux, Aquitaine

Overview: Minimum Vital were, and still are, a highly original progressive rock group coming out of France. The basic formula is take a medieval or traditional French folk melody and add jazz plus rock influences over the top. Digital keys, programmed primarily to the brass sounds, along with ferocious guitar soloing, are the trademarks of Minimum Vital's sound.

Reviews (click on album cover)

Hokr, Czech Republic

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First published on April 29, 2011 and moved forward to highlight the new album Zahřáté Brzdy Optimismu. There hasn't been any activity from the band since 2013.

Hokr - Skvrny. 1991 private (LP)
Hokr - Hokrova Vila. 2004 private (CD-R); 2011 private (CD). Top photo is the reissue.
Hokr - Zahřáté Brzdy Optimismu. 2012 Ears & Wind (CD)

I have not heard the 1991 album to date.

----Hokrova Vila

At its core, Hokr are an organ based trio (whose history goes back as far as 1981) that seems to be the spiritual successor to Collegium Musicum, but put through the Elephant9 hyper amplified grinder. Additional guests on cello, tenor sax and guitar augment their sound greatly. Though primarily an instrumental album, the Czech vocals are delivered in an impassioned narrative like a cross between Pholas Dactylus, Devil Doll and Deus Ex Machina (at the higher registers). The cello gives them a slight Anekdoten feel. This is the best album from the Czech Republic since the h…

August 2016 roundup

For those of you who are exceptionally perceptive, you may have noticed I rewrote the "What is It?" introduction to your right. In there I mention something about "monthly roundups". And here is our first one. I don't intend on writing lengthy dissertations here, though this first one will have much more explanation. In addition, as you see at the very end of this first roundup (personal update section), I'm not sure how active I will be going forward (all will be explained, nothing to be concerned about). BTW, if you have no interest in why I'm doing a roundup and what's in here, just skip down to the first "orange" line for updates.

But back to the monthly roundup concept. When I started this blog, it had been my intention to feature bands I like, with one post per band, somewhat to how the CDRWL evolved. As I began though, I ran into some dilemmas. For 1), I like to hear albums in my collection randomly (literally, using a random number…

The Cosmic Dead, Scotland

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The Cosmic Dead - s/t. 2011 cassette; 2012 Paradigms (USA); 2013 Cardinal Fuzz (LP)
The Cosmic Dead - The Exalted King. 2012 cassette; 2013 Cosmic Eye (Greece) (LP)

The Cosmic Dead are a Scottish quartet who've been around a couple of years, and whose raison d'etre is improvised space rock. The Cosmic Dead are yet another one of these new bands who seem to be content to issue their albums via download, along with the archaic cassette format (which, to be fair, does allow for 90 and 120 minute albums). They have 6 albums to date but only two are on the more durable and desirable formats like the LP and CD. So those are the only two I have listed. I have heard the first album prior, but it didn't leave a mark.

"The Exalted King" is a sprawling 2 LP set of droning keys, echoed guitars, and pounding rhythms. Hawkwind and the more cosmic moments of Amon Duul II are the obvious comparisons. This is music to turn the lights off, sit back / lay down, a…

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