Nektar

This band has developed a following in the DC area, and this is their first CD release. This is pretty much in the neo-prog vein, with fairly strong similarities to IQ, musically, with vocals in a more "American" style. The little I heard of Kingdom of Ends came across as straight forward radio rock. Very weak in terms of progressiveness, almost laughable in fact. This is one of those bands that gives neo-prog a bad name. – Mike Borella The 55 minute Kingdom of Ends consists of two previously released cassette EPs: Cathedral (1991) and Kingdom of Ends (1992). There are four songs in the five minute range and four in the 7-10 minute range. The players on this album are: Gary Sisto, guitar; Ted Thompson, lead and backing vocals; Todd Braverman, keyboards; Mike Hounshell; bass and backing vocals; and Mark Copney, drums and backing vocals. For the most part, Cathedral fall into the Genesis/ IQ/Marillion neo-prog camp but they do it very well. There are also evident Pink Floyd influences, mainly in the guitar. This is an album I would listen to as often as IQ's The Wake or Twelfth Night's Fact and Fiction.

Billy Sherwood is a busy man. The one-time Yes guitarist/keyboard player has carved out a niche coordinating a myriad of projects in recent years – some with a prog angle, others with a ‘tribute’ theme. For the second offering from the aptly-titled Prog Collective he has brought together another A-Z of prog artists and another highly agreeable listen…

Fantasy writer/art rock visionary Michael Moorcock teams up with Don Falcone’s space rock collective Spirits Burning for an epic new album!
Moorcock has been named one of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945 and his unique talents have been applied to not just literary works but to the rock world contributing to bands such as Hawkwind, Blue Öyster Cult and his own projects as well. This album includes performances by BÖC members Albert Bouchard, Donald ‘Buck Dharma’ Roeser, Eric Bloom, and Joe Bouchard, Hawkwind associates Harvey Bainbridge, Steve Bemand, and Bridget Wishart plus Nektar’s Ron Howden, The Strawb’s Chas Cronk, and lots more.

West German rock band Grobschnitt will see a very limited 17CD super deluxe box set of all 14 of their albums released later this month that comes with almost seven hours of bonus material. The box set is titled 79:10 and covers the entire output of the band from 1972 to 1989. Everything has been newly remastered and in total there is over 22 hours of material for fans to enjoy. The reason for ’79:10′ is that each of the 17 CDs has 79 minutes and 10 secs of audio, so they are packed with content!…

One of the progenitors of heavy metal and British prog rock, Deep Purple had several different distinct lineups during the band's run, and there was always a shuffling of personnel, it seems, which makes the overall consistency of Deep Purple's recorded legacy pretty impressive, especially in retrospect. This three-disc set takes a particularly unique approach to the band's history, presenting instead a parallel one, with tracks from various bandmembers' projects in other guises and bands. Serious fans of this iconic band will find these discs fascinating.

Diabolus were a British band who, like Nektar, were established/based in Germany and signed up by Bellaphon. They played an inventive mixture of hard-rock and folk, with a slight jazzy edge, in the realms of early Message and Nine Day's Wonder. Diabolus were not only obscure by their name but also managed to craft a unique blend of music with elements of folk, hard-rock, proto-prog and jazz. Very much instrumentally and jam oriented, there is plenty of great interplay without going over the edge. There is great balance between mellow flute-driven parts and dynamic typical proto- prog rock with hard rock elements. Of special note is great drumming still rooted in the 60's British psychedelia.