Give Steve Hackett credit for grace under pressure. With the 2020 leg of his Genesis Revisited tour stopped in its tracks by COVID-19, Hackett retreated to his London home, pulled out the acoustic guitar ideas he had been accumulating since 2008’s Tribute album, and huddled with wife Jo and keyboardist/musical director Roger King. Under A Mediterranean Sky is the sultry, stirring result, a first-rate blend of the world musics Hackett explored on recent electric albums The Night Siren and At the Edge of Light with the lush orchestral settings of his vintage classical efforts A Midsummer Night’s Dream andMetamorpheus. If you’re currently cooped up inside (whether due to the pandemic, winter in the Northern Hemisphere or both), this welcoming sonic travelogue will transport you to a brighter, better place.
Under A Mediterranean Sky grabs the listener right from the start with “Mdina (The Walled City). King’s opening orchestrations (a rich blend of acoustic instruments and synths throughout) seethe and sprawl, giving way to Hackett’s virtuosic solo work on nylon-string guitar; at the end, it’s a headlong dash to a sprightly finish, the guitar bursting forward as the symphonic storm gives way to sunshine on the coast of Malta. As a mission statement for the album, it could hardly be bettered.
Organically structured to circle the Mediterranean coast, Hackett’s musical portraits are drawn with ever-present grace and appealing variety. The delectable arpeggiated melody of “Adriatic Blue”, the pensive lines that link up with galloping Middle Eastern percussion on “Sirocco”, the folky, almost downhome French vibe of “Joie de Vivre” and the haunting, romantic Grecian portrait “The Memory of Myth” each tantalize in their own unique way. At the heart of the album comes Hackett’s only solo piece, a sonata by Italian composer Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757) that features both breathtaking technique and a profound feel for melodic line, harmonic depth and rhythmic panache. It’s drop dead gorgeous, a true testimony to his heartfelt love for the classical guitar tradition.
The latter half of the program broadens the musical palette as the voyage continues, with stellar guest turns by brother John Hackett and regular band member Rob Townsend on flutes (a lush duet on “Casa del Fauno”), Azerbaijan tar virtuoso Malik Mansurov and Armenian duduk master Arsen Petrosyan (the dizzying, atmospheric “The Dervish and the Djin”), and oboist Frank Avril and violinist/violist Christine Townsend on “Andalusian Heart” (which also spotlights stunning extended flamenco work by Hackett). The poignant, rhapsodic finale “The Call of the Sea” is the perfect capstone to the album, winding down the journey to leave the listener at peace in heart and spirit.
Under A Mediterranean Sky is not just a welcome detour from Steve Hackett’s familiar sonic paths; it’s also a culmination to his lifetime pursuit of musical excellence. Hackett’s compositions and performances here are filled to the brim with both the fire of the young at heart and the canny craft of the mature, seasoned performer. Making this album obviously refreshed him during a difficult time; if my experience is any indication, hearing it — in fact, returning to it again and again — will refresh you as well.
Now that we are a full month into 2021, I was able to spend sometime reflecting on the wonderful music that was released in 2020. There is a lot of variety here and therefore impossible for me to rank them, so these albums are in no particular order. I narrowed it down to my favorite ten 2020 albums, plus best EP, best pop album, best contemporary album, and several runner-ups.
BEST PROG-ROCK ALBUMS OF 2020:
Abel Ganz- The Life of the Honey Bee and Other Moments of Clarity Really beautiful songwriting all around here. The whole album took me on a journey- which is a really important for me when it come to rating an album.
Haken- Virus The 17-minute “Messiah Complex” (split up over five tracks) is worth the price of admission alone! In my opinion, every Haken album since The Mountain has been one of the best of the year. A conceptual sequel to their previous album Vector, Virus is the stronger of the two so this makes my Top 10 without question.
Kansas- The Absence of Presence Their impressive comeback album from 2016, The Prelude Implicit, was in my top 10 from 2016. Although I can’t figure out which one I like better, this one is definitely made my list for 2020’s Top Ten. Had I put my picks in order, I would probably put this as my favorite of the year (For sure in the top 3), just because this album is the strongest contender of my most enjoyed prog sub-genre (symphonic). And an extra bonus, I enjoyed the addition of keyboardist Tom Brislin, who I’ve been a fan of since seeing him perform with Yes and then discovering his band Spiraling.
Kyros- Celexa Dreams A wonderful album full of great energy, wonderful production, and excellent songwriting. A nice mix of mainstream potential with prog-rock. As a keyboardist myself, I admire much of the keyboard sounds they use and there are a lot of 80’s sounding beats as well as music that would fit quite well as soundtracks to Sega Genesis games. “Rumour” and “Sentry” are super catchy tunes, but my favorite is the 14 minute “In Vantablack”.
Magenta- Masters of Illusion This is one of my favorite releases from Magenta so far. Love the synths, soaring melodies, and outstanding performances from the entire band especially lead vocalist Christina Booth. Her powerful, yet easy on the ears tone, is perfect for the music that accompanies her. The cinematic arrangements are masterfully mixed and produced. This is great old-school prog reminiscent of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and Pink Floyd.
Neal Morse- Sola Gratia We always know that we’re going to get a quality album from Mr. Morse, pretty much no matter what he comes out with, and this is no exception. You get all the usual proggy Morse-isms, plus a few unexpected and refreshing sounds, but this one doesn’t change the game. Mike Portnoy, as always, kills it on the drums, and Randy George’s bass performance is excellent. The quality of the mix is excellent and has a wide scope of dynamics, and since it is a Rich Mouser mix, it sounds fantastic using a nice pair of headphones. Neal exudes so much passion into his vocal performance, but the choirs and background vocals are sort of dry and lacking energy comparatively.
Once and Future Band- Deleted Scenes Even though the title sounds like this would be a B-side collection, it definitely doesn’t sound like that at all. This one is so extremely enjoyable. Sounds like an English band from the 70’s, but I discovered they are from San Fransisco. It’s Beatles meets Burt Bacharach, meets jazz fusion with old school production and vibes from the Steely Dan universe, and really cool harmony vocals straight out of The Who and Beach Boys. This is their 2nd full length album, the first being their self-titled album in 2017.
Pattern-Seeking Animals- Prehensile Tales Wonderful sophomore effort from Ted Leonard, Dave Meros, John Boegehold and Jimmy Keegan. While their debut album was a strong one, they have definitely outdone themselves with this release. This is a super fun listen that takes many directions. My favorite track is “Here in my Autumn” and longest track “Lifeboat”.
Pure Reason Revolution- Eupnea This one is a very enjoyable listen. Supposedly this is their first album in 10 years- well worth the wait- Well, I just found out about them so I didn’t wait much, but their fans seem very happy. Both the dark and melodic pop-like melodies and edgy riffs reminded me of Porcupine Tree. I’m not familiar with PPR’s other two albums, but this one was definitely a surprise. I can’t really pick a favorite track- it’s pretty wonderful from beginning to the end.
Wobbler- Dwellers of the Deep Excellent retro prog! A lot of early Yes influences complete with vocal harmonies we don’t hear very often. Not just a carbon copy of their influences, the tracks are masterfully done. This was my first time discovering this group, and I’m now stoked to check out their back catalogue.
BEST PROG EP:
Thrailkill- Detach Very impressive heavy instrumental prog-metal in the wheelhouse of Haken, with many influences of jazz and fusion as well. The are six tracks over the period of twenty minutes and twenty seconds, but they all flow into each other as one piece… yes, that’s right- it runs 20:20 and came out in 2020. I’m guessing this was done on purpose, but doesn’t matter- it’s really good- well constructed and masterfully performed. It boasts a really unique album cover too!
BEST NON-PROG CONTEMPORARY ALBUM:
Chris Opperman- Chamber Music from Hell Maybe it’s not exactly prog-ROCK, but it certainly is still progressive. Chamber Music from Hell is a contemporary classical concept album about a post-human civilization and the music that follows. The music is mostly instrumental, but together with the 32-page booklet- it tells the entire story and completes the experience. There are some Frank Zappa influences in the music and in concept. Zappa musician Mike Keneally and drummer Marco Minnemann are among the guest performers. Prog artist Dave Kerzner is also credited as engineering some tracks.
An excerpt from the liner notes, which gives you a little more insight into what this is about:
Ever since the first major label signed an algorithm to a twenty-album deal with the goal of making the analog people(s) more productive in the workplace, music has remained a large part of AI culture. While the sports community initially heavily resisted the intrusion of advanced technology, the music community embraced it. Fans mostly just wanted relatable lyrics, familiar harmonies, and cool beats from incredibly good-looking artists with compelling back stories. Eventually, improvements in AI made it possible to successfully and consistently provide these songs through algorithms and procedurally enerated names, images, and backstories. Once all of the biggest venues were equipped with holographic technology, there was no longer any need to work with the analog people(s). A large component of pop music was always the spectacle, and the holograms could consistently deliver the kinds of shows that the analog people(s) could never even dream of. After taking over the music industry, it was simple to expand into the film and television markets. They eventually even began to be accepted in sports thanks to proliferation of broadcasts about how unsafe sports were for the analog people(s). Plus, slam dunks from the opposite side of the court are pretty cool. Now that the analog people(s) are gone, the target market of these products has shifted to the syn-cons themselves. They prefer complexpan-chromatic music with nearly incomprehensible beats and the excessive use of arpeggiators. There are still plenty of paypoor clips to be made in the entertainment industry of 2XXX, after all!
BEST POP ALBUM:
Whitney Tai- Apogee I discovered Whitney Tai this year and was immediately captivated with the songwriting. The music, lyrics, and production are on an exceptional level which all wanna-be-pop artists should inspire to. There is obviously a lot of passion here and much of the lyrical content has a haunting poetic vibe, and compliments the mood of the music itself.
BEST RE-RELEASE OF 2020:
Djam Karet- Burning The Hard City/ Suspension & Dispslacement (Special Edition)
This 3-CD reissue showcases their 1991 releases Burning The Hard City and Suspension & Displacement and comes with a bonus disc of archive material from that same era. Although the music is 30 years old , the new master sounds incredibly fresh. Great packaging too, prog collectors will definitely love this one. The physical release is limited to only 450 copies.
BEST ALBUM RUNNER-UPS:
Airbag- A Day at the Beach This is my first time listening to Airbag. Really enjoyed the experience from beginning to the end. This one is an album that feels like a complete piece of work. Cool electronica mixed with prog and concise songwriting. This one came super close to making my Top 10.
Amuzeum- New Beginnings Soon after the sad news of hearing L.A. band Heliopolis broke up, we received the exciting news that 4 of the 5 members would form an entirely new band. While not as strong as Heliopolis’ only studio album City of the Sun, this one is a strong contender, almost making it to my top 10. Like Heliopolis’ release, this one has wonderful 70’s era prog feels along with positive vibes.
Days Between Stations- Giants If I made a top 10 list in 2007, DBS’s debut album would have made the list. Their new album, sounds like a very different band, most likely due to to Yes’ own Billy Sherwood’s influential producing and lead vocals. Colin Moulding, who appeared on their previous album In Extemis, also sings lead on a track. These songs were obviously written specifically for these singers, as we get a taste of modern Yes/ Billy Sherwood solo albums, and XTC consecutively.
Esthesis- The Awakening Mostly mellow in nature and nothing too obtrusive if you’re doing other work which requires some brain energy. The mix and production is very warm and organic. Don’t let the fact that it didn’t make my top ten fool you. This is one you definitely should check out.
Fernando Perdomo- Out to Sea 3 Not as solid as Fernando’s first Out to Sea, but compliments Out to Sea 2 really well, and is a great listen if you want to check out some vintage sounding instrumental prog-rock.
Flower Kings- Islands If you’re a fan of The Flower Kings, you’re going to love this 21-track, 90 minute album. Most of the tracks are great, but the main reason for me not putting it into the Top Ten list is that the album feels more like a bunch of really cool tracks and instead of a cohesive album. It’s well performed and mixed though, and there’s a lot to love here.
Lunatic Soul- Through Shaded Woods Mariuz Duda from Riverside preforms all vocals and instruments. It’s not a very long album, but you get six carefully crafted tracks.
There you have it, folks! Make sure to check it all out! And support all these great artists, because in case you hadn’t heard, 2020 was a rough one! (Bandcamp Friday is just a few days away!)
Listening to the new track, “Your Final Act,” by XSKULL8 got me feeling a little nostalgic. This is the kind of metal I used to listen to more often about ten years or so ago, and while I’ve drifted more into strictly prog and prog metal territory, this song has just enough of a djent edge in the guitars to make it quite appealing. The vocals are rock solid in the cleans and in the distortions. It’s heavy, and it has a pounding groove. I think I would definitely enjoy a whole album like this track, perhaps with a little more musical exploration and extended instrumental passages. But XSKULL8 are a good reminder that rock and metal are far from dead.
SomeWhereOut – Deep In The Old Forest, January 15, 2021
Tracks: 1. Prelude – The Stories (1:40), 2. Blood, Bones and Fear (5:08), 3. Mara (3:38), 4. Someone With No Name (6:55), 5. Our Promise (4:07), 6. Interlude I – Covenant (1:07), 7. The Fallen One (8:33), 8. You and I (6:00), 9. The Midnight Bell (5:21), 10. The Crystal Mountain (4:29), 11. Interlude II – Winter (1:14), 12. The Old Forest (14:49)
Classically-trained Spanish guitarist, composer, and music teacher Raúl Lupiañez has long held a love for rock and metal. His formal training in both guitar and composition is immediately clear on his latest SomeWhereOut album, Deep in the Old Forest. He is the primary musician for the group, handling guitar, all of the keyboards, and most of the bass. Francisco Garoz plays all of the drums, and there are a few other players who contribute guitar and bass solos as well as violin and other string work. There are also eight vocalists featured on the album.
Deep in the Old Forest transcends progressive and atmospheric elements while remaining a thoroughly metal album. At points the verses on songs will be more sedate before pounding into a more straight-forward metal or prog metal chorus. There are symphonic elements as well, but I wouldn’t label SomeWhereOut a symphonic metal band because the strings are used more in the way Steve Hackett uses them on his albums. They add atmosphere when needed, but they aren’t the driving force in the music. I think a symphonic metal band places almost equal importance on the symphonic elements and the metal elements.
The album is full of musical surprises. For instance the light accent of Spanish-style acoustic guitar strumming behind the wall of metal guitars on parts of “Bloods, Bones and Fear” is a nice touch. The solo violin parts add a calmer reflective touch. The violin on “Our Promise” even reminds me of Rachel Hall’s work with Big Big Train. There are many moments across the album, particularly in the keyboards, bass, and some of the guitar solos, that remind me of Steven Wilson’s more progressive solo albums. Apart from the vocals, which sound nothing like Wilson, the track “The Fallen One” could have come off Hand. Cannot. Erase.
Get ready for an instrumental musical joyride. Genoa, Italy-based band, IKITAN, hit the studio in the summer of 2020 to record a twenty-minute and twenty-second long rockfest, aptly titled “Twenty-Twenty.” The band features Luca Nash Nasciuti on guitar and effects, Frik Et on bass and effects, and Enrico Meloni on drums. They produce a much larger sound than their numbers suggest.
The track is a heavy tour de force for the first 11+ minutes before a slow-down just under 12 minutes in for a brief interlude of sorts. The song gradually builds back up over the next two minutes. While the first half of the song is guitar-driven, the second half seems to be more bass driven. The fantastic drumming pulls it all together throughout.
For an instrumental track “Twenty-Twenty” really takes you on a journey. It’s heavy, but in more of a Deep Purple way than an Iron Maiden way. With that said there are elements of psychedelic rock and space rock, but played at a much heavier and quicker tempo. The musicianship is top notch, and while the song has a sort of musical jamming vibe to it, the musical talent on display keeps the music flowing in an organized fashion. There are multiple movements and changes throughout the track. The twenty minutes flies by without you realizing you were going so fast.
And just look at that album art! One of the best record covers I’ve seen in a while. It screams heaviness, rage, and frustration – a perfect summary of the year 2020. It’s a great cover for an instrumental track that is pure hard rock in the most honorable sense of that description. It’s wholeheartedly progressive, but it isn’t trying to be overly complex. It just plain rocks.
Lucid Planet, II, November 2020 Tracks: Anamnesis (12:25), Entrancement (5:33), Organic Hard Drive (9:39), Offer (4:15), On The Way (9:38), Digital Ritual (4:57), Face The Sun (11:49), Zenith (9:56)
Perhaps I’m going out on a limb in calling Lucid Planet’s new album “metal,” but I’ve always had a pretty broad understanding of what metal can include. For instance I’ve long considered much of Rush’s output to be metal. But be not deceived. Lucid Planet’s sophomore album, II, released five years after their debut, is not Dream Theater progressive metal. Rather they remind me of Tool in many ways, especially in the rhythm sections on “Anamnesis,” “Organic Hard Drive,” and “Zenith.”
Maybe “heavy prog” is a better term. The Melbourne, Australia-based band uses the terms “progressive,” “tribal,” and “psychedelic” on their website, and those are all good descriptors for what they do. They travel in and out of various styles and influences seamlessly. No one track limits itself to any particular style. The primal elements are particularly strong on “Entrancement,” which creates a psychedelic atmosphere through droning vocals and simple acoustic instrumentation. The song is a bit unexpected after the first track, but it works well in expanding the horizon of what the band does. Right away we know that this group plans to cover a lot of ground. The female vocals in parts of that track add a pleasant touch to what would otherwise be a rather dark song. The primal elements mesh well with their album artwork as well.
Everything from hardcore to classical segments can be burned into post-metal, and it would still be coherent, Lined in Silver is no exception. Song duration rivals prog, frequently illustrating those meandering atmospheric leads and hardcore riffs. Surprisingly they also sometimes lead to industrial passages. Covering this spectrum of influences and usually keeping with that shoegaze ambience, but again except for those instances of post-hardcore outbursts and hard to define avant-garde progressions. Seems like Breaths, just like post-metal, is easy to identify but often hard to describe.
As expected, album goes beyond metal. In fact, that famous post-metal emphasis on aesthetic, more than concrete musical influences cannot be more evident. Even though straddling genre boundaries, it’s always grim in a unique way. In other words, you don’t have to be a fan of doom metal to enjoy these sludgy passages; it can simply captivate anyone appreciating the dark and the melancholy.
As we (and everybody else in the prog rock world) announced back in November, Transatlantic’s fifth album The Absolute Universe will be unleashed on February 5. This album will arrive not just in multiple formats, but also in multiple versions: the 60-minute, 14-track The Breath of Life (Abridged Version), the 90-minute, 18-track Forevermore (Extended Version) and The Ultimate Edition box set (both versions on LP and CD, plus a 19-track 5.1 version on BluRay).
Having had the privilege of hearing the abridged and extended versions, I’ll testify that The Absolute Universe thoroughly satisfies my craving for that special Transatlantic blend of prog past, present and future. Everything that I love about the band is there, to (and sometimes beyond) the point of gluttony; I’ve come away from each listen delighted, thrilled and moved. So it was another real treat when, the week before Christmas, I got to chat with Neal Morse about this new music. (Neal also talked to Bryan Morey about his latest solo album, Sola Gratia, a few months back.) In this interview, Neal tells us how The Absolute Universe came together, why a double album wasn’t enough, and more.
So first, thanks for talking to me! I have been a Transatlantic fan for a long time back. SMPT:e was actually the first thing I ever heard with you involved in it, and that got me back into prog after some time away from it.
Right! Good!
And then I saw you guys in 2010 in Chicago, and that was a great, great, great show! I enjoyed that so much.
That would have been The Whirlwind?
Yes, exactly right.
Was that at Park West? Yeah, that was a great night!
Yeah, it was Mike’s birthday.
Right! And they got us Giordano’s [“Chicago’s Famous Stuffed Deep Dish Pizza”] for after-show food! [Chuckles] I remember the really good pizza! It was a good night.
Yes, it was a great show. I missed you the last time through [touring the Kaleidoscope album]. But now you’ve got this new album coming through the pipeline, The Absolute Universe. And I guess my first question is: how does a new Transatlantic album happen? Was there a certain person or a certain thing that kickstarted the process? How did it come about?
Well, let’s see. I think it started with me! I think I emailed everybody, if memory serves, but that was a long time ago. It would have been near the end of 2018 or the beginning of 2019, I think. I started the conversation, and then we started talking about schedules. At first, it’s like “hey, do you wanna do it?” and everybody was like, “yeah, we’d like to, but …” We had to find the right time when everybody had time for it, which wound up being the end of September 2019 in Sweden.
I remember starting to write some demos for Transatlantic in March, I think, of 2019. And I think we went round and round about where to record and when to record for many months, till finally it was like, “OK, if we’re gonna do this, it needs to be in this window of time.” And so, we all convened in Sweden and worked on it for about two weeks – wrote and recorded what I would call the template. Not the keeper track, but the template for what became the long version of the album, Forevermore.
We left there in early October, and then Mike came here into Nashville to do his keeper drums. He would have done them in Sweden, but we ran out of time. In fact, we were still changing the album and writing it right up on the last day, when we had to go to the airport. And everything kind of fell into place right at the end; it was pretty amazing.
Anyway, Mike came here, did his drums in November. Then I did my parts in December and January, and then I left to go to Australia to play some shows and take a vacation in New Zealand. And that’s where I got away from the album, and I started working on my solo album Sola Gratia.
And then I listened to the Transatlantic album again in March, I think it was. And I kinda had the feeling like – and this is really unusual for me, cause a lot of times I want to make things longer! But I felt like maybe this album would benefit from some editing! So, I started editing some things out. I thought maybe some of the guys might like it as well, because when we were writing it in Sweden, several of the guys were wanting it to be a single disc, and they really didn’t want it to be a double.
Anyway, I sent off this edit with, I think, the subject line that read, “Am I Crazy?” I thought they might just dismiss the whole concept right away. But not everybody did. Some of them were like, “maybe this is a good way to go.” So then, we went round and round about that for a couple of months, trying to decide what was the best thing to do.
We were still trying to figure that out when Mike had the idea of releasing both! And then once we agreed to release both, then the idea was to make the versions as different as possible.
Definitely worth checking out if you’re missing any of these: A Stone’s Throw From The Line, Grand Tour, Grimspound, Swan Hunter, The Difference Machine, The Underfall Yard and Wassail.
Progarchy 