Tag: los angeles

Album Review: Corima – Hunab Ku

Band: Corima | Album: Hunab Ku | Genre: Zeuhl | Year: 2026

From: Los Angeles, USA | Label: Soleil Zeuhl

For fans of: Magma, Koenjihyakkei, King Crimson’s early stuff

Bandcamp

Has it really been ten years since the last time Corima released a record? Not quite, actually, but close enough; nine years and three months is a massive gap for any band that isn’t Tool. Their fourth release overall and their third on Soleil Zeuhl, Hunab Ku, continues with the naming conventions of their previous two releases. 

Hunab Ku is a Yucatec Maya term meaning “The One God.” Corima’s previous album, 2016’s Amaterasu, was named after the chief deity in the Shinto pantheon, and their 2012 album, Quetzalcoatl, took its name from a prominent Aztec deity. It should be noted that “Hunab Ku” is a colonial-era term used primarily to refer to the Christian God, and it later found use in New Age beliefs. Some have tried to use this term to assert the existence of a precolonial Maya monotheism, but as far as I can tell, this is not a well-supported historical position. I recommend reading the Wikipedia article I linked. (I’m hardly an expert on the Maya, but I’d love to learn more. Should there be any Mayanists in my audience, drop your book recommendations in the comments!)

Thank you for indulging me in the anthropological aside; I did study to be an archaeologist, so I love stuff like this. 

The music on Hunab Ku is an exhilarating brand of zeuhl. The band’s Magmatic influences are plainly worn on their sleeves, but they infuse a lot more crunch and grit into their music. Violins and saxophones bring some tonal distinctiveness, and everything here flows together smoothly as one continuous composition.

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Album Review: Saint Vayu – Eternal Returns

Band: Saint Vayu | Album: Eternal Returns | Genre: Progressive rock, Neo-prog | Year: 2025

From: Los Angeles, USA | Label: Wave Racers Collective

For fans of: Spock’s Beard, Wobbler, Marillion

Bandcamp

I’ve dipped my toes into electronica a handful of times on this site. I often feel somewhat out of my depth, but there is the occasional act which crosses into my wheelhouse. One of the first electronic acts I covered was Vayu and their 2021 album, Wrath. That was solidly an electronic album with prog-rock influences, and the vocals were performed with a Vocaloid synthesizer. I liked it overall, and obviously, so did Pope Francis, hence the canonization and name change.

(Note: I started writing this review before Pope Francis died.)

(Second note: Francis contributed to a progressive rock album in 2015, which is fucking wild. Wake Up! is actually an alright record. Not amazing, but alright.)

In the four years since Wrath, more has changed in the band than just the name. Where Wrath was primarily electronic, Eternal Returns is unquestionably a rock album. Vocaloid has been eschewed, as well, with the sole member of this band contributing his own vocals.

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Odds & Ends: December 9, 2024

Band: Celeste | Album: Echi di un Futuro Passato | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Celeste is an Italian band that put out one album in 1976, disbanded, and then reunited in the late 2010s. Despite hailing from Italy, their style of prog has never felt particularly Italian. The music here (and throughout their discography) is light, breezy, and laid-back. Jazz flourishes are ample, and I really like the keyboard tones. This is a nice, relaxing bit of music to have on in the background, but it doesn’t really have enough to grab onto for active listening. 

Score: 64/100

Band: Five the Hierophant | Album: Apeiron | Genre: Post-metal, Progressive metal | Bandcamp

Instrumental post-metal band Five the Hierophant blends biting, buzzy saxophone with sludgy guitars and plodding rhythms. In many ways, this band reminds me of a metallic, instrumental version of Van der Graaf Generator. They draw heavily from dark, jazz-influenced classic prog, like King Crimson and the aforementioned VdGG. Little bits of Middle Eastern music crop up on “Moon Over Ziggurat”, and the two-part “Tower of Silence” features unsettling drone and electronic elements. Though the songs are long, their length feels appropriate. The music is clearly carefully constructed, and no notes are wasted.

Score: 85/100

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Odds & Ends: July 1, 2024

Band: April 1830 | Album: The Adventures of Space Pig | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

This Philadelphian band claims to write songs about “pig failure,” and that alone grabbed my attention enough to give this record a spin. (For what it’s worth, the vocals are relatively low in the mix and somewhat willowy, so actual themes of pig failure can be hard to discern.) The music is energetic, often drawing from pop and punk. Certain passages remind me of Cardiacs, if Cardiacs were a very synth-forward, female-fronted band. It’s fun and inventive, and I had a good time listening to this.

Score: 78/100

Band: Custard Flux | Album: Einsteinium Delirium | Genre: Psychedelic rock | Bandcamp

Custard Flux’s fifth full length album is their first fully-electric endeavor. They’ve ditched their (mostly) acoustic schtick, and it has resulted in a pretty good release. The band tightened up their songwriting after 2022’s bloated-as-hell Phosphorus, and that renewed focus is appreciated. The music here is catchy and punchy, and the swirling, psychedelic textures are enjoyable. Hints of alternative rock crop up on occasion, too. 

Score: 76/100

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Odds & Ends: May 6, 2024

Band: Caverns Measureless | Album: Caverns Measureless | Genre: Progressive folk | Bandcamp

Scottish one-man experimental act Caverns Measureless plays a creepy, unsettling, and adventurous variety of folk-rock on their self-titled sophomore album. Acoustic guitar and mandolin plink alongside violin and flutes, while the occasional brash stab of electric guitar sends the atmosphere careening in another direction. The compositions are wiry and fluid, often changing path suddenly. All the songs here are complex, creative, and moody.

Score: 76/100

Band: Hizbut Jámm | Album: Hizbut Jámm | Genre: Psychedelic folk | Bandcamp

Hizbut Jámm is an interesting quartet. It consists of two Poles on guitar and drums, a Senegalese musician on guitar and vocals, and a Burkinabe musician playing the kora–a type of lute from West Africa. The lyrics are sung in Wolof and French, and West African melodies and scales are woven into the music. But this fusion also draws heavily from the tradition of Euro-American psychedelia. Textures are lush and dreamy, and the overall mood is hypnotic. Hizbut Jámm is an entrancing listen, and it’s a rewarding experience both as passive background music and as the subject of more active listening.

Score: 83/100

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Odds & Ends: December 25, 2023

Band: Frankie and the Witch Fingers | Album: Data Doom | Genre: Progressive rock, Krautrock | Bandcamp

Frankie and the Witch Fingers remind me a lot of Osees. The music is fierce, energetic, and shot-through with punk influences. But the riffs are usually weird and angular, with uncommon meters. Despite a lot of the overt, aggressive tendencies of this band, the music remains relatively accessible. There are plenty of melodic hooks and catchy riffs and themes. “Syster System” is one hell of an earworm, and “Doom Boom” has a groovy, King Gizzard-esque feel to it.

Score: 80/100

Band: Gong | Album: Unending Ascending | Genre: Progressive rock | Bandcamp

Once you get outside the very big names of progressive rock (Yes, Pink Floyd, Genesis, etc), Gong is one of the better-known second-echelon prog acts. I’m honestly not that familiar with their output beyond their Pot Head Pixie trilogy of the early 1970s. Looking over their Wikipedia article however, they have been incredibly prolific, with numerous projects labeled “So-and-so’s Gong” also being considered part of their oeuvre. Maybe I’ll eventually do a Gong Deep Dive, but seeing all the various Gong-adjacent projects makes that a daunting prospect. I’ve also discussed Yes being a ship of Theseus, but they ain’t got nothin’ on Gong. There’s a whole damn Wikipedia article on the topic. Just look at this graphic!

Moving onto the music of Unending Ascending, it’s pretty decent. It’s psychedelic in feel, with a lot of space rock elements. The playing and compositions are complex and thoughtful. There are some weaker moments, like the sleepy and overlong “Ship of Ishtar”, but most of the record manages to be engaging and entertaining. Despite none of the current members of Gong having been in the band prior to 2007, they do a great job of maintaining the spirit of the classic Gong sound.

Score: 77/100

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Top Prog EPs of 2022

Welcome to the fourth installment of The Elite Extremophile’s Top Prog Releases of 2022. We’re starting off with the Top Prog EPs of 2022. The two-part Top 50 Albums list will be posted in the coming days.

I’ve never settled on a firm number for this list, but the last three years have all been Top Fives. This year, though, I listened to many more short releases than usual, and there are nine in particular that I want to highlight.

The difference between an EP and a short LP can often be murky. A number of these releases could have feasibly been included in the Top Albums list (and at least two initially were). However, upon thinking it through, I’m comfortable with this list. Aside from being fairly short, I don’t have firm criteria for differentiating LPs and EPs. It’s very much an “I’ll-know-it-when-I-see-it” situation.

So, without further ado, let’s jump into the list!

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Album Review: Cynic – Ascension Codes

Band: Cynic | Album: Ascension Codes | Genre: Progressive metal, Progressive rock, Jazz-fusion | Year: 2021

From: Miami, USA | Label: Season of Mist

Bandcamp

Cynic is one of my absolute favorite progressive metal bands. They’ve got a singular sound that weaves together death metal, jazz, and astral progressive rock. Though they have drifted away from explicit death metal after their 1993 debut, their evolution has been natural, and they’re still recognizably the same band.

Ascension Codes is the band’s fourth full-length album and the first since the untimely deaths of founding drummer Sean Reinert and longtime bassist Sean Malone. These two are sorely missed, but the musicians assembled by guitarist/vocalist Paul Masvidal pay fitting tribute to the unique styles and incredible skills of their predecessors. Notably, instead of utilizing a bass guitarist, the bass parts here are all played on a synthesizer, which lends a unique character to this album in the context of Cynic’s discography.

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