Progressive Rock Book

The Book of Knots' self-titled metal opus is a concept album about the sea. But don't expect any prog rock opera cheese. Book of Knots is a noisy, bludgeoning rock record, full of feedback, improvisation and bitter currents – like Mike Watt's Contemplating the Engine Room played by Queens of the Stone Age. The tumultuous record ranges from the oddly Björk-ish "Tugboat" to the psych, hesher rock of "Crumble" and Jon Langford's downright catchy piece of slithering melancholia "Back on Dry Land"." It's a demented and expansive narrative that takes at least multiple listens to make sense of, but the cinematic scope is apparent from the beginning. While Book of Knots is a bit too difficult for everyone, those who enjoy digging deeper into the layers of an epic rock album will be more than satisfied.

This NY-based studio collective consists of Matthias Bossi (Skeleton Key, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), Joel Hamilton (Sparklehorse, Elvis Costello), Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, Frank Black, They Might Be Giants), and Carla Kihlstedt (Tom Waits, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum). With guests Carla Bozulich, Megan Reilly, Jon Langford, David Thomas, Mike Watt, and Tom Waits, their debut bills itself as "a tribute to the American Rust Belt". They paint a haunting modern-day portrait of cities like Cleveland, Youngstown, Toledo, and Detroit; places that once were the definition of American motivation, progress, and industry, but now are home to ruined monuments of a bygone era. The sonic landscape is painted with scraping, swirling guitars, soaring string arrangements, rupturing bass, and plate-shattering drums.

The Book Of Knots has had the pleasure of collaborating with some of the worlds most talented musicians, including Tom Waits, Mike Patton, David Thomas, Blixa Bargeld, Jon Langford, and Carla Bozulich. Founding members Matthias Bossi (Skeleton Key, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum), Joel Hamilton (producer/engineer for BlakRoc, Pretty Lights), Carla Kihlstedt (Tin Hat Trio, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum) and Tony Maimone (Pere Ubu, Frank Black, Bob Mould) forge a sound both epic and intimate, empowering and devastating. Cinematic, symphonic landscapes give way to crumbling acoustic chamber ballads. Broken guitars and beautifully warped orchestras describe the ungraceful demise of boats, blast furnaces and bloated industries. Accounts of the failed adventures of tragic would-be heroes are given voice in the band's two previous critically-acclaimed releases. Their newest album serves as the final chapter in the bands "By Sea, By Land, By Air" trilogy.

Multinational, Switzerland based outfit RAK is the creative vehicle of Marc Grassi (music) and Dave Thwaites, and was formed back in 2004. The band released their debut album "Lepidoptera" later the same year to critical acclaim, and their live support of it has been described as a successful one. "The Book of Flight" is the band's second full length production, and was released in February 2012.
Wandering piano motifs and an organ backdrop or more or less mainstay elements throughout, and soaring keyboard solos can be found aplenty. The guitar has more of a supporting role when not soloing, usually delivering harder edged, dark toned and dampened riff constructions that contrast the tangents quite nicely…

The Chronicles of Father Robin is a Norwegian prog-rock supergroup, with members hailing from Norway’s symphonic prog kings Wobbler, the ever non-definable Tusmørke, seasoned post-rockers The Samuel Jackson Five and the elusive prog gem that is Jordsjø. “The Songs & Tales of Airoea”, 30 years in the making, is a cohesive triple concept album with 18 songs set in an alternate archaic world for over a period of three decades. The first album, “Book I”, will be released on September 15th, with the single Eleision Fields preceding it.

Rock Bottom, recorded with a star-studded cast of Canterbury musicians, has been deservedly acclaimed as one of the finest art rock albums. Several forces surrounding Wyatt's life helped shape its outcome. First, it was recorded after the former Soft Machine drummer and singer fell out of a five-story window and broke his spine. Legend had it that the album was a chronicle of his stay in the hospital. Wyatt dispels this notion in the liner notes of the 1997 Thirsty Ear reissue of the album, as well as the book Wrong Movements: A Robert Wyatt History. Much of the material was composed prior to his accident in anticipation of rehearsals of a new lineup of Matching Mole. The writing was completed in the hospital, where Wyatt realized that he would now need to sing more, since he could no longer be solely the drummer…

Several months after the innovative remake of "You Keep Me Hanging On," England's answer to Vanilla Fudge was this early version of Deep Purple, which featured vocalist Rod Evans, and bassist Nick Simper, along with mainstays Ritchie Blackmore, Jon Lord, and Ian Paice. This, their second album, followed on the heels of "Hush," a dynamic arrangement of a Joe South tune, far removed from the flavor of one of his own hits, "Walk a Mile in My Shoes." Four months later, this album's cover of Neil Diamond's Top 25, 1967 gem "Kentucky Woman," went Top 40 for Deep Purple. Also like Vanilla Fudge, the group's own originals were creative, thought-provoking, but not nearly as interesting as their take on cover tunes…