Pledge Campaign We are very pleased to announce the official launch of the pledge campaign for our new CD “Cardington”. This will be our second CD and the follow up to the critically acclaimed “Lifesigns” CD which was launched back in January 2013. Little did we know back in 2013 the epic journey we were embarking upon. We are privileged to have made so many new friends along the way and the support that you have shown us has been inspirational. We would like to thank every one of you for being with us on this journey, from humble beginnings in small pubs and clubs  to playing the Cropredy, Ramblin Man and Lorelei festivals this year. Sadly, Cropredy was the last gig with guitarist and good friend Niko Tsonev who has decided to move on to new challenges. In this and all things, we wish him well. So onwards to album number two – Cardington. Not a concept album, but a concept track about some sheds in Bedfordshire ! As with the first album we will be working with a wide range of very talented musicians, in addition to the core of Frosty Beedle, Jon Poole, John Young and Steve Rispin.  On guitars we will be joined by our good friends Dave Bainbridge (Celestial Fire, Strawbs, Iona), Menno Gootjes (Focus) and Robin Boult (Fish, Howard Jones, JYB). The artwork as always comes from the magical talents of Mr Brett Wilde. We hope that you will join us in making “Cardington” the next step in the world of Lifesigns. Please feel free to spread the word far and wide ! For those about to pledge….. we salute you. Thank You.   http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/lifesignsalbum

Progdreams VI We are very pleased to announce that we have been invited to play at Progdreams VI at the Cultuurpodium Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands next March. A wonderful festival with many great bands including some of our old friends Dave Stewart and Steve Vantsis in their new band TILT. Both Dave and Steve were members of the John Young Band so it will be great to meet with them once again. The festival will be held on March 4th and 5th with Lifesigns playing on the 5th. Please support this great festival if you can. The Boerderij is a great venue. Hope to see some of you there.   The Voice In My Head Tour – 2017 Straight after our appearance at Progdreams we will be touring Germany with dates in Hamburg, Berlin, Dortmund, Russelsheim (Frankfurt) and Riffelhoff (Ulm). After the success of this years shows supporting Marillion, it is a welcome opportunity to revisit our German friends and build on those previous shows. The German Tour will be promoted by MFP Concerts, Eventim and Eclipsed Magazine. We will have a special guest for these shows on guitar. Please spread the word and we look forward to seeing you soon !

The Gig Guide – 2017   • Sun, 5th March – Progdreams VI Festival – De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands • Tue, 7th March – Knust, Hamburg, Germany • Wed, 8th March – Privatclub, Berlin, Germany • Thu, 9th March –  Musiktheater Piano, Dortmund, Germany • Fri, 10th March –  Das Rind, Russelsheim, Germany • Sat, 11th March – Riffelhoff, Burgreiden, Germany Full details available on the website and facebook page. Merch Although we take a fair amount of CDs, vinyl, t-shirts, posters etc., out on the road with us, you can find a lot more items by browsing at the store on the website. We are also introducing solo back catalogue at present. There are a number of JY CDs, and two from Niko, and we hope to add Dowling Poole shortly. Back catalogue wise the pre-band to Lifesigns was the John Young Band, and the live CD is available, although Significance and Life Underground, the two singer songwriter CDs, are now out of stock.T-shirts are always popular and the Under the Bridge T-shirts are sold out in some sizes, so best to order now, while you can, as there will be no reprint on this design. The Lifesigns Live in London DVD is of course available to order Please be aware that because some gigs/festivals charge the band a percentage on merch we may not be selling at certain shows, as it is just uneconomical for us. Love and best to you all JY and the boys

As their name suggests Esoteric Recordings are masters of remastering and reissuing long lost classic albums that are ripe for reappraisal, as well as having their own imprint Esoteric Antenna that is home to some of the most exciting new prog bands around. Today I am focusing on some treasures from their latest reissues campaign, including one that many of you Marillion fans out there might want to check out.

 

David McWilliams Lord Offaly

Esoteric ECLEC2559

 

Irish singer/songwriter David McWilliams is a name that lingers at the back of the mind, famous for the 1967 single The Days of Pearly Spencer (later covered with much greater success by Marc Almond in 1992) there was always more to McWilliams work than posterity has accorded him.

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Given Free Rein is a trio hailing from Greece and delivering very dynamic sound. They have released their debut album “In-Ear Trip,” after years of working hard on it. This is a very vivacious album with many joyful elements in it. It is one of those “morning coffee” albums. It knows the ways of how to discharge you and bring you real joy with its energetic tunes.

“In-Ear Trip” includes ten songs. All the way from the opening “Magnetic Fields” down to the closing “Vein of Light,” “In-Ear Trip” never stops being heady. Every song on the album is constructed in the same way. Placing this record under a genre is a double-edged sword, but the music is most of time alternative / punk rock with progressive and classic rock influences. And since we are talking about influences, the music of Given Free Rein recalls likes such A Perfect Circle, Soundgarden, Tool. But there is more than that. The band transcends into the territory of the ‘70s vintage rock. So it can be said “In-Ear Trip” is a great harvest of modern and classic.

Overall, Given Free Rein’s “In-Ear Trip” is a very effective, powerful and tasty album comprised of great vocals arrangements, intricate guitar work and strong structure. It goes to the category of “must listen to” albums released in 2016.

Get a copy of the album on Bandcamp here.

E.V.O by Almah is a totally awesome album. I think it has a claim on being one of the best this year. So I am not going to hesitate to lay down that claim right here and now and give it a supremely stellar rating.

I am going to have to respectfully disagree with the assessment of this disc by Zephyrus in the very well-written review over at Angry Metal Guy. Zephyrus complains that the music is too poppy and happy for a metal album.

On the contrary, I think this album is an exhilarating exhibition of tremendously uplifting power metal. Almah, a highly-skilled metal outfit from Brazil, should be congratulated for their perfect blend here of musical virtuosity and accessibly melodic hooks that can appeal to the general populace.

Further, the band shreds and scorches in many satisfying ways throughout the entire disc, with enough hard rocking appeal for the most serious of metal-heads.

There are so many great songs here that they will make you nod your own head in head-banging synchronization. Excellent guitar solos, magnificent drum fills, richly harmonic vocals — it all adds up to extremely fine music. In my opinion only an ear dulled by really lousy death metal could object on the grounds that the music sounds too cheery (or Christian).

In fact, what I like most about this album are its frequent exuberant references to the youthfully naive feel of rock and metal from the 80s. Just like Haken did with Affinity, these Brazilian dudes take influences from the past and integrate them into their own satisfyingly contemporary creations.

It’s hard to pick a favorite here. Usually the best songs will happen by design at the beginning and end of albums (to help you forget the middling in-between), but even the inner cuts are scorchingly superb on this disc. Check out “Innocence,” “Higher,” “Infatuated,” “Pleased to Meet You,” or “Final Warning,” all of which are incredible examples of how this album never flags and always keeps you revising your estimate of just what your own favorite song on it might be.

But I’m not going to play favorites. It’s all good. Download this ridiculously good metal album today. After all, what’s wrong with being of good cheer? Almah knows how to cultivate the childlike joy of killer metal riffs and tasty guitar licks. Why not join the fun?

Pathfinder, the debut album credited to the name of Stockholm, Sweden-based composer Jonas Lindberg and his band The Other Side, has potential to be submitted for one of the best releases to come out in 2016. A labour of love, Pathfinder  (whose title can be interpreted in many different ways) is one of those rare musical efforts that manage to sound like very little else. With derivative acts a dime a dozen on the current music scene, listening to such an album can be an exhilarating experience. Although Lindberg’s name may be the most prominent on the cover, unlike your average ‘solo pilot’ release this is very much a collective effort, in which the input of each member of the band is recognizable, yet at the same time meshes with the others to form an organic whole.

Unabashedly eclectic, Pathfinder can be described as a ‘protest album’, and with very good reason. However, it is first and foremost a collection of inspired, thought-provoking compositions performed by a group of amazingly talented, experienced musicians who manage to come across as an extremely tight unit rather than a combination of over-inflated egos. When such collective talent is gathered together, the results may often be a tad underwhelming – especially when musicians forget that they are at the service of the music, and not the other way round.

Thankfully, this is not the case with Pathfinder. The impressive cohesion between all the artists involved, band members, results in eight tracks that display a remarkably original approach, even when external influences can be detected. While listening to the album for the first time, the closest comparison that came into my mind was with the late ‘70s– early 1990’s Pink Floyd, who are undoubtedly one of the band’s most noticeable sources of inspiration. In contrast with the majority of prog albums released in the past year or so, Pathfinder is based on relatively short compositions — and, indeed, half of the tracks are songs with a more or less ‘conventional’ verse-chorus-verse structure. The album might even be seen as a lesson on how to produce music that does not rely on 30-minute epics or convoluted concept stories in order to be progressive.

A masterful blend of mainstream sensibilities, socially-aware lyrics, intriguing atmospheres and stunning instrumental and vocal performances, this is a unique album that is warmly recommended to progressive music fans.

Get a copy of the album from Bandcamp. 

The concept of jazz mixed with metal is no longer a new one thanks to the explosion of the (in)famous sub-genre known as technical death metal. However, Glory of the Supervenient is one such album where the jazz/fusion influences are strong enough to almost overpower the metal segments completely at times. The calm soothing sounds that adorn almost all songs on the record should be enough of an indication of that fact. Furthermore, this is not a heavy album at all. Sure there are riffs, but the main point of the music here is a wondrous display of variety of different ideas, each of them perfectly flowing into one another in a gorgeous display of musical mastery of the band’s founder Andrea Bruzzone. All of you looking for wanky displays of instrumentation will be quite disappointed. Also one never feels the absence of vocals for even a second as the instruments clearly do all the talking here.

The music will hit a few high ended peaks finally settling on a valley of bass and guitar interplay only to fall into a river/waterfall of soothing and laid-back jazzy licks and grooves. The guitars are simply godlike and sublime in every sense of the word, with even the rhythm guitar in the background providing some amazing riffs and echoing chords further enhancing the trance-like vibe and overall atmosphere of the album in general. The lead guitar playing is brought to a minimum by creating an atmospheric vibe threaded through the tracks. Regardless of any particular song, there’s always something exciting and fresh constantly happening in this album, be it with the bass, guitars, keyboards/effects or drums, which is why it’s almost impossible for me to really pick standouts.

At the end of the day, this is hands down one of the best instrumental albums I have heard this year, metal or otherwise. My preference for most other instrumental albums mostly depends on my mood, but this is one album that I can put on at any given time and never be bored of it. Exciting, challenging and varied influences put to superb use making for a cascading wave of musical perfection all the way.