Welcome to Part Two of TheEliteExtremophile’s Top 50 Prog Albums of 2020. In case you missed it, Part One is here.
Continue reading “Top 50 Prog Albums of 2020, Part 2: 25-1”Category: Uncategorized
End-of-Year Scheduling Note
It’s a Monday, but I don’t have a review for you. I was absolutely slammed at work last week, but I should have a bit more breathing room now.
Considering how close we are to the end of the year, and considering how many records there are I haven’t reviewed but would love to touch on, I will be increasing the frequency of Odds & Ends posts between now and mid-December. I’m not sure how many I’ll wind up posting, but I’d expect at least 4 between now and the end of the year, as opposed to the expected two.
I’ll also be taking off the weeks of Dec. 21 and 28, to allow myself adequate time to finish my year-end best-of lists and to allow Kelci and Dan adequate time to proofread them. Those can be expected in early-to-mid January.
End-of-the-Year Scheduling Note
I’ll be on vacation for the next few weeks, so this site will be going on a brief hiatus. Posts will resume Monday, January 13, 2020 with my Top EPs of 2019 list. My Top 50 Albums of 2020 will be posted in two parts the following week, on January 20 and 23.
Stay tuned, and enjoy the holiday(s) of your choice!
Scheduling Note
I’m out of the country for work. Posts will resume next Monday, November 11.
Scheduling Note
I’m taking a long weekend to go camping, so there will be no post today. Regular posting will resume Monday July 22.
Album Review: PoiL – Sus
Band: PoiL | Album: Sus | Genre: Progressive rock, Zeuhl, RIO | Year: 2019
From: Lyon, France | Label: Dur et Doux
For fans of: Magma, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Ni, Frank Zappa
Buy: Bandcamp | Amazon | Apple Music
I’ve written before of France’s unique place in the world of progressive rock. Of the countries with distinct national sounds, theirs has always been the most unashamedly weird, fusing progressive rock with jazz and avant-garde music. Zeuhl was an almost-exclusively-French genre for the first twenty or so years of its existence, and two of the five founders of the Rock in Opposition (RIO) scene were Francophone. (Univers Zero were from the French-speaking Wallonia region of Belgium.) PoiL, the experimental Lyonnais trio, are one of the most prominent contemporary bands carrying on this tradition.
Last year, PoiL fused with the band Ni to become three-sevenths of the supergroup PinioL. Ni’s particular brand of experimental rock music has frequently bordered on metal, and on Sus, it sounds as if some of that may have rubbed off on the guys in PoiL. PoiL lacks a guitar player, but that doesn’t stop the band from laying down their heaviest music to date. The bass on this album crunches and snarls; the electric piano pounds out weird, dissonant chords; and the drumming is downright virtuosic. Continue reading “Album Review: PoiL – Sus”
Scheduling Note
I’ll be on vacation for the next few weeks. I’ll resume my usual posting Monday April 15.
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