Xus Clock

For a little more money, this 21-track CD compilation is a better deal than its American counterpart (One Way's Anthology), offering a slightly more extensive selection and extensive liner notes, and including almost all of the cuts contained on Anthology. Drawn from their four albums (with the accent, properly, on the first two), it also has a clutch of non-LP singles. "Incense and Peppermints" and the small follow-up hit, "Tomorrow," are by far the best things on here; much of the rest is trendy period pop/psychedelia, sounding at various times like a bush-league Doors, or a really spaced-out Association, with a bit of garage raunch tossed in on the B-side of "Incense" ("The Birdman of Alkatrash"). The two hits were included on Rhino's Nuggets compilations, which might be a better context in which to appreciate the group's fairly minimal contributions to psychedelia.

This is the debut long-player from the southern California-based Strawberry Alarm Clock – the title track of this album topped national singles charts in December of 1967. As the cover art might suggest, their image practically defined both the musical as well as peripheral aspects of the pseudo-psychedelic counterculture. However, below that mostly visual veneer, Strawberry Alarm Clock actually have more in common with other "Summer of Love" bands such as Love and Kak than the bubblegum acts they have long been associated with. Prior to Strawberry Alarm Clock, the band was initially named Thee Sixpence and issued a 45 – "In the Building" b/w "Hey Joe" – in the spring of 1966. As legend has it, none of the actual bandmembers sang lead on the hit single; the singer was in fact a vocalist named Greg Munford, who was attending the session as a visitor.

San Francisco area band Jack O' The Clock is fronted by Damon Waitkus who has been a progressive rock fan since the first wave, but also a fan of more melodic and poetic music of that time. Their sound is not your typical folk music, or typical music at all for that manner, being a surprisingly accessible blend of avant garde and Americana, and has been compared to Henry Cow, Gentle Giant, Sufjan Stevens, Frank Zappa and others. A band that is hard to characterize, they have found a home in prog folk because of their inherently folk instrumentation and timbre, their profound take on storytelling, and, well, the tendency for folkies to be an inclusive lot anyway.

Jack O’ The Clock’s Leaving California is a highly-detailed musical adventure that reveals new layers with repeated listens, from the opening strums of “Jubilation,” which introduces the record with whimsical folksy fanfare, to the angular harmonized violin lead on the closing track, “Narrow Gate.” Throughout, the songs of bandleader Damon Waitkus recall artists such as David Sylvian, Fairport Convention, and Elliott Smith, while creative musical arrangements showcase the band’s high-level compositional and instrumental chops. Upon first listen, Leaving California offers plenty of hooks, but this is music that truly reveals its depth upon the scrutiny of repeated spins.
The band have referred to themselves as 'majestic junk folk' and that's a pretty funny but not inaccurate description for a band who blend folk music and experimental music together in a unique way.

Melting Clock came to life in Genoa in 2001 to play progressive rock covers of bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis, PFM, Porcupine Tree, Riverside, Opeth or Ayreon just to name a few. After many years spent honing their skills and some line up changes, in 2019 the band released an excellent debut album, entitled "Destinazioni", on the Black Widow Records. According to the band, it's a concept album sui generis with pieces revolving about the theme of travel in all its meanings and the art cover by Matteo Anselmo gives a clue of its musical and lyrical content. The melodic style is a relatively accessible combination of vocal oriented, calm pop rock and 70's inspired symphonic rock. Even the least proggy songs are enjoyable, and none of them actually is following the verse/chorus structure. This is a band worth keeping an eye on!

A kaleidoscopic trip through the anxieties and possibilities of the present moment, the new album ranges through some of the weirdest, heaviest landscapes we’ve ever visited. Containing two epics that have been under construction as long as the band has been in existence alongside a handful of newer studio creations, it is the culmination of many years of experimentation and refinement lyrically and musically, a musical palimpsest.