Band: Cheer-Accident | Album: Admission | Genre: Avant-prog, Progressive pop | Bandcamp
Super-prolific Chicagoans Cheer-Accident are back with their 26th full-length release. This album has a more electronic feel than most of their releases. It’s still rooted in oddball, angular progressive rock, but the synths help smooth out some edges. Coupled with some smart and infectious melodies, I would rank this as among the band’s best. (At least of the half-dozen or so of their albums I’ve heard.)
Score: 81/100
Band: Eden Lantsêm | Album: My Guts Rest upon Your Lips Like the Breath of Forgotten Lovers | Genre: Zeuhl, Progressive metal | Bandcamp
The latest solo project from Swiss multi-instrumentalist Tim Nyss sees him exploring the world of zeuhl with an especially heavy twist. The four long instrumental cuts on this release lurch and thunder with the power of sludge metal, but it’s all in service of Magmatic oddness. Rhythms vary between martial and irregular-but-urgent, and avant-garde chords slash and slam across this record. This is a harsh, heavy release and is one of the few successful meldings of zeuhl with metal that I’ve run across.
Score: 79/100
Band: Lights of Vimana | Album: Neopolis | Genre: Post-metal | Bandcamp
Lights of Vimana plays a slow, deliberate brand of proggy post-metal. There’s a heavy focus on texture, and the influence of film scores is obvious. There’s a grand, cinematic feel to much of this work. However, that does somewhat lessen my ability to enjoy the material here. This is something I need to be in the mood for. Occasionally, I crave something slow and grand with majestic vistas. But if I’m not in the mood for that, a record like this could easily come off as overblown and tedious.
Score: 73/100
Band: Marcel Gidote’s Holy Crab | Album: Sorcerers Laughing out in the Heat | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
Based out of Pilsen (or Plzeň if you’re Czech and/or hate vowels), MGHC plays an exciting, upbeat variety of progressive rock. Jazzy flourishes are woven in often, and the band incorporates elements of garage rock and krautrock seamlessly, as well. It’s a really fun listening experience that demonstrates a lot of inventiveness. The main issue is that it’s longer than it needs to be. This is one of those records where none of the music is even unnecessary or bad; there’s just more than there really needs to be. I’m not sure what I would have trimmed, myself.
Score: 76/100
Artist: Jamie Parker | Album: Do You Dream of Luminous Things? | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
UK-based musician Jamie Parker’s latest release is a cinematic and immersive experience. The rich sounds of ‘90s prog–like Gilmour-led Pink Floyd and Spock’s Beard–provide a solid backing for Parker to tell the story here. There are moments of grand bombast, gentle and almost-sultry passages, lighthearted funk-inflected parts, and more. Some songs do occasionally veer into the excessive sentimentality and overwrought emotionality that also plagued those big ‘90s acts, but it’s not too common. Despite the overall strength of the music, this album does feel a bit long.
Score: 74/100
Artist: Kevin Wulf | Album: Wheat Straight from the Preacher | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp
Wheat Straight from the Preacher is Kevin Wulf’s strongest album since Dorilton. It showcases a lot of his strengths as a songwriter, weaving together folk rock, alt rock, and classic prog. This record shines, thanks to its diverse sound palette, complex and inventive instrumental passages, and varied mood. However, it does suffer from a bit of the underbaking I’ve criticized on other recent releases from him. Some songs will start really strong, exhibiting great ideas, only to very suddenly end. For those, I do wish he would have let them gestate a bit more. Overall, though, this is a really solid record.
Score: 80/100
The Elite Extremophile 