While proggers on Cruise to the Edge were taking advantage of some shore leave in Puerto Plata, something was stirring a 12 hour flight away in one of London’s most perpetually hip and happening quarters.

Camden has long been famous for its eclectic, diverse music clubs and venues, as well as its ever-packed market by the Regents Canal. Its most famous venue is the legendary Roundhouse, a former railway engine shed, where, once upon a time, The Doors made of one of their only two British appearances.

Opposite this iconic edifice is the smaller, intimate Camden Club, which is gaining momentum as a regular haunt for capital-based Prog fans.

The gatherings are organised by London Prog Gigs, a hard-working, dedicated group of volunteers who put on regular concerts and festivals at a handful of venues in north London, as well as organising the annual Prog Walk. This is when a group of seasoned music fans enjoy a leisurely afternoon stroll along a section of the nine mile long Regents Canal, which winds through north London. Without this group, it would be hard to imagine Prog finding a regular presence in the Metropolis.

Speaking of afternoons, this particular gig at the Camden Club is a matinee, designed to attract prog fans not just from London but also further afield so they do not struggle home late evening having missed either the final song or the last train.

This matinee concept is also ideal for some of the regular bands on the British circuit to showcase their music, especially when there’s a new album to promote.

It was a double bill made in Prog heaven when Ghost of the Machine, an upcoming band based in Yorkshire teamed up with the remarkably named Hats Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate for a joint album launch.

Musically, the bands complement each other beautifully. GOTM occupy the dramatic, darker chambers as exemplified by their second album, the cinematic concept-driven Empires Must Fall.

It’s fair to say HOGIA are the Prog equivalent of The Big Bang Theory. Edgy, eloquent, articulate and often eccentric, the new album The Uncertainty Principle is named after German quantum physicist Werner Heisenberg’s existential theory that the position and the velocity of an object cannot both be measured exactly, at the same time. They apply this principle to interpersonal uncertainty in some of their songs.

Debut

Making their London debut, GOTM comprise five seasoned former members of This Winter Machine who are fronted by the very lively, personable cherubic faced vocalist/flautist Charlie Bramald. Charlie is a fast emerging new star who has already appeared on as many other people’s albums as he has with his own band.

With a background in drama as well as music, he is not adverse to donning a cape and throwing some shapes when the parts absolutely demand it.

Primer

Today, Bramald is more sombrely attired but in ebullient mood when he and HOGIA’s multi-instrumentalist/composer Malcolm Galloway start the matinee with a light-hearted Q&A session. The iconic venue across the street is mentioned in passing and questions touch on their respective songwriting processes. With around 120 Prog fans present, it’s a great primer for what’s to come.

GOTM take the stage first and literally gallop through the new album, the follow-up to their 2022 debut Scissorgames that carries on the main theme of tyranny and ultimately, redemption.

Beginning with the punchy, hard-hitting opener Keepers of the Light, GOTM are indeed a well-oiled machine, at the band’s heart, the muscular rhythm section comprising the metronomic drummer Andy Milner and the behatted bassist Stuart McAuley.

Over this, dual lead guitarists Scott Owens and Graham Garbett, together with keyboards player Mark Hagan weave the instrumental magic and intrigue, leaving Bramald to relay the compelling stories.

Most intriguing is the swirling Panopticon, (a circular prison) one of the central songs, its intro section Real Eyes seeing Hagan coming to the fore. Bramald’s thoughtful lyrics include the line: “It’s only in the dark where we truly see ourselves”.

There’s an air of uncertainty and reflection exuding throughout Falling Through Time, heightened by its choppy staccato beat.

Gem

The shortest song The One, the first single released not surprisingly on 1^st January 2025 is a little prog gem into which so much is packed into under five minutes, from the compulsive rhythm and Bramald’s stream of consciousness singing to the soaring synth solo and rapier-sharp riffs.

They end with the epic After The War, a magnum opus comprising six movements including the resonant guitars of the instrumental sections The Bells and later Sorrow In The Silence. Again, Bramald shows himself to be the consummate storyteller.

Accessible, enjoyable and entertaining, they really should be considered for a future Cruise to the Edge, Bramald’s engaging, expressive personality guaranteed to win over many new followers as he leads the line in one of the UK’s current “must see (and hear)” bands.

HOGIA occupy a unique space in the Prog universe, Galloway and Mark Gatland, his long time friend, musical collaborator and ever-animate, sometimes leaping bassist, conjuring up some compelling soundscapes that hint at Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Pink Floyd and King Crimson.

Majestic

However, from the outset with the album’s often bleak opener Certainty, they’re a band who happily defy comparisons, making their own majestic, multi-layered sound.

The convergence of history and outcomes is brilliantly expressed in One Word That Means The World, inspired by the refusal of Soviet naval officer Vasily Arkhipov to agree to an action during the Cuban missile crisis that could have led to nuclear war. Galloway’s plaintive questioning voice rings out especially during the lines: “I didn’t know what was inside, I found out when I said no.”

And you thought The Hunt For Red October was purely a work of fiction!

In complete contrast, the brief instrumental The Ultraviolet Catastrophe races along before Copenhagen hits the sweet spot of the album’s concept, inspired by a meeting between quantum physicist Niels Bohr and Heisenberg, his friend and former student in September 1941 in Copenhagen.

Galloway’s haunted vocals offers insights into the uncertain nature of this meeting and what outcome was reached during their discussions.

Meditation

Between Two Worlds is their most beautiful song this afternoon, Galloway’s emotional vocals and piano offer a meditation on those he knows and loves living with cancer and the MRI scans they have undergone to discover if the disease has spread. Galloway, a retired neuropathologist, has also been candid about his ongoing health issues and you feel some of his personal uncertainty is embedded in here.

The Light of Ancient Mistakes has them in ambient, languid Floydian mood, this the title track of their previous album, again with a very intricate theme about artificial intelligence and preventing atrocities from taking place before they actually happen.

Nuclear

Returning to the current album, The Think Tank recounts another true story relating to Daniel Ellsberg. He was key figure in US military strategy and this relates to The Doomsday Machine. In it, he talks about working for the eponymous think tank Rand Corporation in the 1950s, especially the setting of the nuclear codes to 00000 for the destruction of both Russia and China. This was just in case the codes got mislaid!

For the album’s title track, they are joined by Galloway’s wife Kathryn Thomas on flute. Again, there’s a massive story behind this song about professional baseball catcher Moe Berg, who became a World War 2 spy sent to Italy to find out about the German nuclear research programme. His orders included attending a public lecture by Heisenberg and shooting him if Berg thought he was close to developing a nuclear weapon.

It’s a dramatic explosive way to end an impactful set, all performed against a backdrop of images from the album’s cover art. The concepts and machinations of their sound are more than enough to absorb the enormity of their mind-blowing themes.

Their encore is the atmospheric Century Rain from their album Nostalgia For Infinity, dedicated to an audience member who had travelled from mainland Europe to attend this matinee.

As I write, there’s another Sunday matinee currently taking place in the same club, this time featuring IAmTheMorning

It looks as though these Sundays of Prog heaven are here to stay.

• Photographs by Simon Arnold