-
Review – Colosseum: Elegy – The Recordings 1968-1971, 6CD Box Set – by John Wenlock-Smith
I received this splendid box set from Esoteric recently, containing the five albums released by the original version of Colosseum released in the early 1970’s. They were albums of great significance in the then emerging and developing area of progressive music, mixing, jazz, fusion, blues and rock in a distinctive amalgam of styles but never…
-
Review – Spirit – Son Of America Reissue – by John Wenlock-Smith
Last year I spent a lot of the time rediscovering and collecting music by the legendary Californian Band Spirit who had been very successful in their early days notching up a string of classic albums such as ‘Spirit’, ‘The Family That Plays Together’, ‘Clear’ and ‘Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus’. Their initial run of success…
-
Reviews – Esoteric Reissues Round-Up Part 5 – Stray – by James R. Turner
Across these 6 discs and two sets, one a four disc box and one a double disc set, Esoteric Recordings meticulously collects together the 8 albums (‘Stray’, 1970, ‘Suicide’, 1971,‘Saturday Morning Pictures’, 1971, ‘Mudanzas’, 1973 and ‘Move It’, 1974 recorded for Transatlantic & ‘Stand up and Be Counted’, 1975, ‘Houdini’, 1976 and ‘Hearts of Fire’,…
-
Reviews – Esoteric Reissues Round-Up Part 4 – by James R. Turner
Gandalf – Journey To An Imaginary Land: Remastered Edition This week over in my special little corner of Progradar I continue to catch up (and round up) a whole sphere of different releases from the Esoteric label, which is as wide and varied as the name implies, and so we’ll start with their reissues of…
-
Reviews – Esoteric Reissues Round Up Part 3 – Blonde on Blonde, Anthony Phillips and Tim Blake
This time round, those busy people at Esoteric have been rooting out some of the best albums you’ve never heard to continue building an amazing archive of lost acts, those who were fantastic and never quite made it. For every Yes, there’s about half a dozen no’s littering the path, who, for whatever reason (bad…
-
Reviews – Esoteric Reissues Round Up Part 2 – Atlantic Bridge, Little Free Rock and Sky – by James R. Turner
Those great people over at Esoteric Recordings have a great job, they are the equivalent of musical historians, rooting around in the record company archives like audio archaeologists and finding some neglected, hidden and indeed well-known treasures that they tease and bring back to life. Here’s a round-up of some of their more alternative and…
-
Review – Fish on Friday – Quiet Life – by James R Turner
This is the fourth release from Belgian born prog band Fish on Friday, and see’s them stretching their musical wings even further, having coalesced around the founding members William Beckers & Frank Van Boagaert, the line up now includes one of prog’s hardest working bassists Nick Beggs, Californian guitarist Marty Townsend and Marcus Weymaere. Following…