MAURICE FRANK – MAD ROMANCE AND LOVE – JUMO MUSIC
I must confess that I was more than a little surprised to discover that this is the debut album from Maurice Frank, as not only not the youngest talent on the block, but he sounds as if he has been recording and performing for many years. He has a fine voice, and...
MARCO RAGNI – THE WANDERING CARAVAN – MELODIC REVOLUTION RECORDS
Multi-instrumentalist and singer Marco Ragni is back with his latest album, and what an album it is. While he provides vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, mellotron, piano and mandolin he has also been joined by Dave Newhouse (sax, clarinet, flute,...
MAJOR PARKINSON – TWILIGHT CINEMA – DEGATON RECORDS
This is the third of four studio albums released by this Norwegian band and was released in 2014. I have only just come across this group, so this was all totally new to me, and having played it and then started working out what on earth I could try and say about it!...
MILLENIUM – IN THE WORLD OF FANTASY… – LYNX MUSIC
The complete title of this album is ‘In The World of Fantasy? … And Other rarities’. It was actually released prior to ‘In Search Of The Perfect Chord’, so the final epic song on that album features as the opening song on this collection, a taster for what was to...
MILLENIUM – IN SEARCH OF THE PERFECT MELODY – LYNX MUSIC
Some fifteen years on from their debut, and the 2014 version of Millenium still featured four of the five musicians who had played on ‘Vocanda’. Of all the wonderful progressive bands I have heard from Poland, it is with this one I feel the most affinity, as they have...
LISA LARUE – ORIGINS – MELODIC REVOLUTION RECORDS
‘Origins’ is a collection consisting of compositions and recordings from keyboard player Lisa LaRue from as long ago as 1992, up to 2016. stemming from 1992 through 2016. It is incredibly varied, as it includes pieces such as a spoken word/keyboard collaboration...
KORMAK – FAERENUS – ROCKSHOTS RECORDS
Well, the artwork is interesting, but after that, it all goes a little awry. Italian band Kormak is a new folk metal act, led by singer Zaira de Candia, and one has to wonder who was in charge of quality control. Zaira has obviously been professionally trained, but...
HEARTWIND – HIGHER AND HIGHER – AOR HEAVEN
Although in many ways Heartwind is a project, it is also the story of two old friends, with a common love for classical melodic hard rock and AOR, that after fifteen years of friendship started to write the album they always had wanted to listen to themselves. Over a...
L.A. GUNS – MADE IN MILAN – FRONTIERS MUSIC
L.A. Guns were originally formed by guitarist Tracii Guns in 1983, and soon after he had a singer in the band called Axl who went on to form Hollywood Rose. Eventually, a new band was formed from both, and given a name combining words from both, and the rest, as they...
LEILA ABDUL-RAUF – DIMINUTION – CLOISTER RECORDINGS
While playing this I kept thinking back to the recent release on Cadbra Records, Thomas Ligotti’s ‘The Bungalow House’. Not so much the music on the audiobook itself, but more the descriptions of the sounds within the story. There is a delicacy, a hidden emotion, an...
