Matt Stevens - Relic available on Bandcamp

A Rock Relic

Band in the Spotlight: Syd Arthur (England)

By the way, which one's Syd?

Recommendation: Colin Masson

Colin Mason was the leader of the English progressive folk band, The Morrigan. He has also started releasing his own material under his own name, still retaining the folk elements, unto which he adds various lush sounding layers of keyboards, achieving at places a "symphonic prog" sound, particularly in his second album, The Mad Monk And The Mountain.

Van Der Graaf Generator - A Grounding In Numbers streaming on Youtube

Van Der Graaf Generator's new album, A Grounding In Numbers has just been released. You can stream in on the following Youtube clips. I received my cd last week. I much prefer it to Trisector (and also more than Present), but I'm not as enthusiastic as others, whose opinions I've read. Still, it's great to have a new album from this fine group. 

Reminiscing...: Pink Floyd - Meddle (1971), Wish You Were Here (1975), Animals (1977)

I can't say my musical likes and dislikes have been influenced by my parents. Perhaps by by brother at most, when I was a young boy. But my parents, while loving classical music, classic rock, French chanson and other oldies, weren't too much into music, discovering music or trying to influence my musical passion.

Recommendation: Dead Sea Apes - Soy Dios (2010)

Dead Sea Apes is the trio of Brett Savage (guitar), Nick Harris (bass), Chris Hardman (drums) from Manchester England.

Recommendation: Amplifier - The Octopus (2010)

The trio of Amplifier from Manchester has been making some noise since their s/t debut released in 2004 and the sophomore album, Insider from 2006.



I've only had the pleasure of hearing their first album and was quite taken by their space-rock brand, but I was not prepared for the surprise held within the opus that is the double album, The Octopus, released in 2010. This album sees them being quite experimental and daring while still providing their sharp and catchy space-rock tunes. I'm still absorbing this album but it gets better with each listen. A real treat!

You can stream it on their Bandcamp:

A song to protest with...: Skyclad - The Parliament Of Fools

A great song by folk-metal band Skyclad from their excellent 2004 album, A Semblance Of Normality.

Recommendation: Anta (England, psych/stoner/heavy rock)

I like to wander around in Bandcamp looking for new bands, new sounds.
One interesting band I found today is Anta from Bristol who play an interesting mix of instrumental heavy psych/space/post/stoner rock. There is a high use of organ in the music which makes me happy.

Here's the band's bio from their website:

"Formed in the south west of England over many shifting, sporadic and frequently dormant line-ups, over several years, ANTA finally established themselves as a cohesive and active band in early 2010. With two sound engineers and two illustrators completing the line-up of drums, bass, synths and guitar, and featuring members of Rose Kemp and Geisha, ANTA began work on their debut self-produced instrumental monster-prog-rock album “The Tree That Bears The Equine Fruit” after a string of successful live shows."

Lineup:
Ganiel Seruu - guitar
Alex Bertram-Powell - organ, synth
Joe Garcia - bass
James King - drums

Listen to their EP, The Tree That Bears The Equine Fruit, released in September this year in their Bandcamp:

An album to start the day with...: Gryphon - Red Queen To Gryphon Three

Start the day with the 1974 album, Red Queen To Gryphon Three, by Gryphon, the English folk outfit.



Videos after the jump

A song to end the day with...: Future Kings Of England - Mustard Men

The Future Kings of England is the trio of Ian Fitch (guitar, keyboards, effects), Karl Mallett (bass, keyboards, effects) and Simon Green (drums, keyboards, effects) from the UK.
They play old-style/sounding psychedelic rock and have released 3 albums, all highly recommended.


The Future Kings Of England
2005


The Fate Of Old Mother Orvis
2007


The Viewing Point
2009

Here's a song called Mustard Men from their second album.