Sondersongs Whale Fall

I Am The Manic Whale are unashamedly a progressive rock band. The band is inspired by many of the great progressive artists, particularly Genesis, Big Big Train, Spock’s Beard and Neal Morse but hopefully is also able to bring something new to the table. Their songs are written about a range of unusual and interesting subjects, from the decay of a derelict swimming pool to the mobile artistic and engineering creations of Dutch artist Theo Jansen, which he calls Strandbeests.

When SATIN WHALE recorded their second output they have found more to an own discrete style on the one hand but unfortunately they've lost some the power from their debut as well. Thus with good reasons after that one and their Live record "Whalecome" they vanished in the haze more or less. The album starts a bit tame with the first three tracks but with the 11 minute + long "Go Ahead" comes certainly the best and most versatile track on here with great sax and flute play. "Trace Of Sadness" is a powerful organ driven rocker, "Song for Thesy" is very much dominated by flute, reminding a bit to FOCUS and has some nice drum and marimba sections between the vocal parts.

This re-issue of the 2007 album Reformation Post TLC comes with two bonus discs of demos, early rough mixes and alternate versions, as well as a fourth disc; the Live at Hammersmith Palais album – as with the other Fall reissues these have notes by Fall guru Daryl Easlea and have been mastered by long time engineer Andy Pearce.

Beggars Arkive announce the upcoming reissue of The Fall’s 10th studio album, 1988’s ‘The Frenz Experiment’. Available as an expanded edition on double CD and double LP, the releases both contain the original album, plus singles and B-Sides.