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I must admit that part of me was hoping this was a new album by Mythologic, the quartet which was the Rodler brothers (i.e. Drama) plus singer Melissa Rodler (i.e. the trio which was Leger De Main) and Andeavour’s guitarist Steve Matusik, but instead this is the fourth release by multi-instrumentalist Scott David (keyboards, bass, electric & acoustic guitars, vocals). He  is joined by a few guests, including drummer Louis Alexi, but it is basically a solo release (apart from the excellent decision to bring in a human to hit the skins instead of programming).

Violinist Chris Barbosa is only on a couple of tracks, but whenever he comes in the songs immediately veer much closer to Kansas than anything else, whereas for most of the time Scott is taking a multitude of Seventies classics bands as influences. I like his voice, and he is a fine musician, but there is something about this release which leaves me somewhat cold and finding it difficult to get inside. It has a big production, quite bombastic at times, with plenty of layers, but even the gentle keyboard introduction which opens the album doesn’t grab me as it should and when it went into a Chris Squire bass lead I wondered what was going on, and soon I found myself playing “spot the influence” which is never a good thing (Utopia, Styx, Yes, Kansas, ELP are just a few which come immediately to mind) and there are some passages which are incredibly reminiscent of songs we all know and love.

This means I found my attention was concentrating on the wrong aspect of the album, and instead of enjoying it for what it was, kept looking for musical references, so I only skated across the surface. There will be plenty who find this enthralling and totally enjoyable and I get that, but I am not one of them. 6/10

By Kev Rowland

Mike Johnson will always be associated with the band he co-founded more than 40 years ago, the hugely influential Thinking Plague, so why pick 2026 to release his first ever solo album? The reason was that he wanted to do something which was deliberately more orchestral, using real musicians as opposed to sampling, and felt the name Thinking Plague may be too restrictive (which is quite a statement given just how groundbreaking they have been over the years). The result is a hugely expansive release which features performances by 19 musicians, some based in the States (Johnson, several Thinking Plague alumni, and more) while other are in Canada (Kimara Sajn), Portugal (Nuno Mourão), Spain (Pau Sola Masafrets), Sweden (Simon Steensland, Morgan Ågren) and The Netherlands (Oene van Geel, Pablo Rodriguez, César Puente Sandoval, George Dumitriu).

The result is something which will of course be closely linked to Thinking Plague given it is such a core part of Johnson’s identity, but here it has been combined with modern classical avant garde to create something which is truly an amalgam of both. This takes guitars, lap steels, fiddle, fretless banjo, sampler-synthesizer programming and “pencil guitars”, bass, drums and percussion, piano, vocals, flute, oboe, English horn, bassoon, clarinets, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello and double bass and somehow brings them all together in a such a manner that they all make sense and one cannot imagine the album without all of them working together. The scoring and orchestration must have been a huge piece of work for Johnson, but the result is certainly worth it as here we have an album which is true to RIO, eclectic and modern, yet somehow it all makes sense and when one has played it a few times it is remarkable at just how melodic and beautiful this is. This is not an album which is immediately easy listening, but gradually one realises this is a significant release which builds on what Johnson has undertaken previously but he is now moving in a slightly different direction. Does this mean that Thinking Plague is over and we will get more albums like this one? I don’t have the answer to that but am sure Johnson’s adventures still have a long way to go and based on this whatever is next will be hugely exciting. For fans of the unusual, where the word “progressive” truly does mean just that. 9/10

By Kev Rowland

Seattle-based psychedelic progressive quintet Moon Letters are back with their third album and have maintained the same line-up of John Allday (keyboards, vocals, trumpet), Mike Murphy (bass, vocals), Kelly Mynes (drums, percussion), Michael Trew (lead vocals, flute, congas) and Dave Webb (guitars, percussion). I thoroughly enjoyed their second album, ‘Thanks You From The Future’, but must admit this one does not hit me as strongly and I am not really sure why. They are very much a regressive band as opposed to progressive in that they are firmly rooted in the late Sixties/early Seventies period with some deliciously dated wonderful old school keyboard sounds, and there are not many keyboard players who can switch to a trumpet midway through a run, for which Allday should be applauded. I mentioned Gentle Giant in my review of their last album, but that influence is far more subdued this time around, apart from the harmony vocals, and there are times when this feels like a traditional symphonic prog band who has been paying very close attention indeed to late period Beatles with some early Zappa thrown in for good measure. It is when they are at their most chaotic, such as on “Island of Magic Mirrors” that they are at their best, as it is when they push the envelope that their true characters shine through. I am a fan of the album length though, as yet again they have ensured this would fit easily onto one vinyl album, or one side of a TDK D90, and that in itself needs to be commended as there is just no need to release lengthy albums if they contain filler. There is no filler here, but this is not nearly as immediate as their last one, although I am sure if I could spend more time getting to know this then I would appreciate it more. As it stands, this is an interesting release as opposed to essential, although they are definitely worth exploring. 7/10

By Kev Rowland

What we have here is an extended reissue of 2018’s ‘The Sessions IV’ which is now more than 80 minutes in length and has just been released on double green vinyl. Captured at three different festivals on their 2018 tour, these four numbers are all “live composition” as Ulrich Schnauss (synth, sequencer), Hoshiko Yamane (electric violin, viola) and Thorsten Quaeschning (synth, piano, sequencer) bounce ideas off each other in the traditional Tangerine Dream manner. I must be honest, I wasn’t sure how this would work given that Edgar Froese died suddenly in 2015, but both Thorsten Quaeschning (who joined in 2005 and was named by Froese as his successor) and Hoshiko Yamane (2011) had played extensively with Froese and are now working with his widow to continue his legacy, and to my ears this is very fine indeed.

The only way to truly listen to this is on headphones when one will not be disturbed and it is quite a shock to return to the real world when it ends as this is electronic progressive rock delivered in the way which this band has been doing better than anyone else for nearly sixty years. I certainly hope I will hear more in the series as this extended version is a delight. The band is still going, although Schnauss left a few years ago and these days the trio is completed by Paul Frick, and if you have ever enjoyed their classic material then I urge you to see what is happening with them now, as this is great. 8/10

By Kev Rowland

A limited edition creation.

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