What an explosive start to February 2023: 50 new Prog releases!

Do not let the cover artwork (or the album title) fool you. “MEMEmusic”, the second album by Unquiet Music Ltd. is anything but silly. Led by french composer JP Rossi and produced by Touch Guitar master Markus Reuter (Stick Men, Devin Townsend), Unquiet Music Ltd. merges the electronic with the organic, the jazz and prog bits with dark ambient, contemporary classical and all around avantgarde music. Guest musicians like King Crimson legends Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto also hint towards some more heady and complex stuff, but that reference doesn’t even begin to cover how much ‘out there’ “MEMEmusic” is. Interestingly enough, mastermind JP Rossi said about it: “This is Unquiet Music Ltd’s mainstream album.” Make of that what you want. I for one think it’s one of the most unique, unorthodox and daring pieces of music to grace (and challenge) my ears in a long time. Some of the dark ambient noise collage parts are hard to get through, but if you make the effort, you are rewarded a thousandfold with some of the most beautiful, otherworldly parts. A class of its own. Unquiet Music indeed. Is this a new genre? Find out for yourself! Dario

A welcome surprise from Thessaloniki, Greece: Conspiracy of Zero present their second album “Athos Arouris”. Inspired very much by original Progressive Death Metal luminaries like Death, Cynic or (earlier) Opeth, the heavier parts on the album have a certain oldschool 90s feel, while the more melodic parts in both vocals and guitars just shine sublime and timeless above all. A very special and unique highlight being the eastern/folk tinged instrumental track ‘Athos Arouris I’, certainly being more than just an extended intro to the title track with its 4 minutes runtime, due to the musical weight of the content (mind you, it’s not crushingly heavy sound wise, on the contrary to be honest). That shouldn’t distract you from the rest of the album though that features all of the above in spades. Dario

Some sorrowful gothic/black metal sounds from the tail-end of January to ease you into February? Prolific Belgian solo artist Déhà released the final part of his “A Fleur de Peau” five part series, “At The Poles of Everything”. While I can’t say I’m familiar with the previous installments, as the guy seems to put out almost as much music as King Gizzard these days and I’m not able to keep track/check out everything (especially since I’m not always in the mood for this particular darkness), this sounds like a wonderful mix covering lots of melancholic sonic ground from the serene beauty of dream pop and post rock via doomy gothic sounds all the way to anguished black metal and more. A whole host of guest singers capture the emotions accordingly. The reason why there’s classical, easy listening, hip-hop and rap as genre tags on the bandcamp page is still eluding me though… Dario

Slowing down the tempo considerably here after the black metal speed in parts of the Déhà album, and taking out the vocals completely from the equation completely, Parisian experi- and instrumental post doomers WuW managed to conceive a 40 minute monster (divided into 5 movements) with their third album “L’Orchaostre” that truly knows how to suck you into its dark, bleak void. They could have added a bit more chaos to the orchestra, but the simplistic approach and attention to detail, textures and layers (the synths!) is certainly something that suits them very well. And it is also something they really know how to pull off well. More than well in fact, this is awesome! Dario

Slowing down the tempo even further. And then some. Re-introducing vocals to the mix, albeit more in a textural fashion, Leipzig based slowcore outfit that goes by the colorfvl name Fvnerals seems to be conducting some experiments on how slow you can go without losing the coherence in the music. With their third album “Le The Earth Be Silent”, they are truly taking the cake this week as to how pitch plack the musical void you are producing can be. A very beautiful shade of pitch black of course. Oh and did I mention that their music is very slow? No? Slow. Slower. Fvnerals. And I wouldn’t have it any other (or faster) way. Dario

The perfect antidote against all that pitch black doom core stuff this week (see above: Déhà, WuW & Fvnerals): “Overlords”, the new album by We Came from Space, who are not really from space, but rather from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is their third album in 10 years and with multi-instrumentalist Bill Hubauer (The Neal Morse Band) they’ve got a familiar name in the Progressive Rock scene within their ranks. “I’ll play some happy chords, for the robot overlords”: what a thrilling change of scene, pace and mood from all the previous albums highlighted so far today. I still got some more mini reviews to write before Sunday is over so we can release this edition of the Releases of the Week for your reading and listening pleasures, so I’ll make it brief this time: “Overlords” is a must hear for fans of Spock’s Beard, The Neal Morse Band, Transatlantic and the likes (oh and there’s a nice Yes hommage in the opening title track as well). This is just so much fun, beware, it could make you grin for ear to ear. Dario

Another sophomore effort this week (just like Unquiet Music Ltd. and Conspiracy of Zero’s albums) and the third French album for today’s Highlights (after Unquiet Music Ltd. and WuW), Hemeroplan from Tours sits more in the heavy Alternative Prog Rock/Metal fields, a bit like their quite successful countrymen of Klone for example (new album “ Meanwhile” out next week btw!), with whom they not only share their love for heavy grungy grooves, but also the occasional saxophone solo to sprinkle things up (‘Amplitude’). It is always fun to see a band spearheading a new movement, especially if it’s one that you’ve followed since their beginnings. Riverside and Soen come to mind for example (the latter being accused of ripping off Tool at the beginning but now there’s a lot of new bands who sound like them), could Klone have sparked a new wave of French Alternative Prog Bands? I wouldn’t mind that at all if they possessed the quality and skills of Hemeroplan. Dario

Also inspired by some Grungy things according to themselves are Heleven from Spain. The overall instrumental sound on their third album “New Horizons, Pt. 1” is decidedly much more heavy than Hemeroplan’s, with the Grunge influences shining through mostly in the vocal arrangements and delivery. In addition to that, they are grooving and riffing along as if there’s no tomorrow, towards new horizons I guess? The last of the 10 releases to join the ranks of the Highlights today, but definitely not to be missed. (Oh and somehow I always thought they were from Finland… Why that is somehow relevant or funny, read on in the next highlight below!) Dario

It’s always good to double check as I was sure somehow that Post Sludge band An Evening With Knives was hailing from Switzerland. A quick look at their Bandcamp page revealed their Dutch origins and prevented me from embarrassing myself with a false claim here. Anyways, the trio from Eindhoven just released the “FNR Sessions” as a live album that comes together with video files (that look fantastic) when you purchase it. The raw live sound suits their songs perfectly and I’m not even sure if I want to go back and check the studio versions (I’m unfamiliar with to be honest) as it sounds to me like they were intended to sound like that from the very beginning, with no need for further polishing or streamlining. I’m not really sure why there seem to be so few bands to take advantage of the digital possibilities of video on demand or downloads when it comes to video/live content, but I think it’s a cool and clever move from An Evening With Knives to do so. Especially if the quality of the content that comes along with it is equally cool. Dario

I think I’ve said everything I have to say about “Aphelion”, Leprous’ latest masterpiece in my initial review when it first dropped one and a half years ago, so I won’t go into any further detail here other than listing the hard facts: the Tour Edition makes the original two (CD and Vinyl) bonus tracks, the demo ‘A Prophecy to Trust’ and a 2021 live version of ‘Acquired Taste’ available on streaming platforms. It also features a second disc, “Live 2022”, capturing 6 recent mainstays in their live set-list to make your mouth water and crave that next Leprous live fix. Go get it on one of the European dates – and the “Aphelion” Tour Edition at the merch table! Dario