Issue 2025-025
Shiva Bakta — Ghost
On his Bandcamp page, Shiva Bakta introduces himself in a very typical way. He describes himself as a guy who writes songs about love, loneliness, sadness, pizza, good weather, death, Sundays and parents. Shiva Bakta, real name Lidio Chericoni, plays guitar, bass, piano, programming, percussion, vocals and all sorts, a true multi instrumentalist. We reviewed his previous album 6/4 Of Love. That album was written completely in a 6/4 time signature, and continuing that tradition, Ghost is also written completely in a 6/4 time signature.
On a black moon night, the ghost of a woman, portraited by Denise Galdo, shows up at Shiva Bakta's house. Opener Ghost immediately shows what kind of music to expect on this album. Relaxed song but maybe a bit too easy listening for progressive rock fans that do like the rock in their music. I Don't Know Why is more up-tempo and energetic, same as Black Moon, which reminds me a bit of R.E.M.. That reference pops up in Coat as well. There is some nice violin in this song. Still no rock music, but a very nice, short little song. Then it is back to the easy listening with (I Can't) Give Up.
With the use of the 6/4 time signature the music on Ghost it is not standard easy listening. The rock in progressive rock might be missing on this album, but the songwriting and the use of a not standard time signature makes it very interesting.
The music becomes really lounge-y on A Long Time, this time the music turns more towards complex jazzy pop music, while Red Zone brings jazzy lounge music. Then on If Love Finds Us to turns to electronic music.
We have to wait till the end for something a little more energetic. Pieces Of Infinity is still a slow song, but it has at the end some bombastic parts, which continues in Romance (A Telepathic Dream). It makes an intense closing of this album.
Ghost is a good album, when you're in the mood for it. Good songwriting, the use of the 6/4 time signature makes this a lot more interesting than standard pop music. It is debatable whether or not this album is of interest for prog rock fans, though, which we think make up the largest part of DPRP readers. There is no rock to be found on this album. But there are a lot of people who like ambient pop music and slow jazz. For those, this is a very nice album to check out.
Belling The Tiger — Listen
In the run-up to their long-awaited second album (we reviewed their debut in 2022), Belling The Tiger return to the scene with their second EP Listen. On it one finds the two tracks featured on the Awareness single which they released one month earlier, as well as two brand-new tracks, and a video version of A Noon Day Frenzy, which dates back to their Creeds Are Dust When Your Mother Dies days from 2023.
In imitation of that excellent first EP, there are again some personnel issues to report. Next to a more prominent role for Ani Balalau (vocals, vocal, synths), this involves the welcoming of Nick Geiersbach (keyboard, trumpet, flugelhorn) in their line-up. As well as a changeover in lead vocals which sees guitarist Michael Allan Moore now step up to the microphone in replacement for the recently departed Danny Grimm. Completed in formation by Andrew Harvey (bass) and Duane Harvey (drums), I'm thrilled to say that these changes haven't majorly affected the band's sound. Although admittedly, I do no longer fully pick up on the Enchant, Rush, and Marillion resemblances that I encountered on their previous EP.
As before eclectically guitar-driven and uniquely compelling with heavier styled neo-progressive influences that always manage to envision early Galahad thanks to Moore's distinct voice I now hear a variety of hints towards Genesis, Aragon and Pavlov's Dog in the opening song Listen. Captured in a transparent sound that houses a delectable vintage 70s vibe, this rousing composition furthermore showcases crafty intricate designs and busy complex arrangements. It soars with masterful melodic interplay past alternating movements of intensity that are highlighted by spectacular raw guitar work.
The dreamy atmospheric No Wings For Myself follows this with peacefully tranquil and quietly rippling melodies that to some degree awaken memories of early Eloy. And, again, Genesis, although based on the song's divine 70s-inspired appeal I personally feel much more inclined to prioritise Nightwinds into the equation. Acoustically driven with an inkling of folk, Awareness Of What's Missing at first follows a similar captivating trajectory, but then makes way for a grand intensifying build-up.
Which brings me to Doina Din Maramures that rounds of the set of new songs. Musically, I find this reworked Romanian folk song to be every bit as promising and captivating as the songs that precede it. Especially in light of its vigorously construed musical developments and Moore's phenomenal soaring guitar work. However, Balalau's otherworldly interpretations and alienating lamentable vocalisations do require some getting into. And as a result, this song is my least favourite of the EP, while still enjoyable. The complete opposite is A Noon Day Frenzy, which is now upgraded in suspense and power, and finalises proceedings on a mountainous potent high.
Belling The Tiger have again created an impressive EP which consistently high in terms of quality bodes well for a bright future. Generously rewarding upon repeated listens, this second EP is as good a place to start as any for those not yet acquainted with their original world of prog. So without further ado have a listen yourself. It's fully worth checking them out!
The Black Noodle Project — And Life Goes On...
Ah The Black Noodle Project, we meet again. Having enjoyed their albums Code 2.0 and Divided We Fall (back in 2020 and 2017 (with them being semi-regular on rotation in my collection), now it is time for a journey to the past, but in the future (but still the past) with last year's (2024) remaster of their debut album And Life Goes On, originally released back in 2004.
Time has Passed introduces us to the album, with a melancholic dose of prog rock. From emotive leads to intricate drum patterns, we are shown the foundations of what the group would become. More of this follows in Do it Alone, but with the addition of a wonderful sax solo. Where Everything is Dark comes next, and comes in a bit harder – showcasing the sharper edges that would become more prominent on later releases, particularly along the almost industrial metal rhythm backing up the solo. Comparisons made between the group and Pink Floyd are very apparent on this album, with a lot of the vocal delivery being very similar to Roger Waters. Face The Truth even sounds like it could have come from The Wall recording sessions. Another slow, emotive intro leads us to Drops In The Ocean before some progressions that harken back to the Echoes days of Floyd, but mixed with a modern take and harder solos. A wonderful Interlude marks our halfway point, with some soulful piano and guitar work.
Where are U? brings side 2 into us. A peaceful and rather basic number – mainly just acoustic guitar, violins and lyrics lamenting being lonely, but it isn't bad. Just a bit “paint by numbers”. Somewhere Between Here and There is one that echoes the harder sounds from earlier. It features a sound similar to the darker post-rock of later releases: building on tension and an underlying current of Introspection with the music building on this. This style continues on as they further align themselves with their own style in Lost (I Miss You).
More atmospheric post-rock is found here that gives another glimpse into where they will go in the future. The fine line between prog rock and harder music is again walked on Disappeared, but sadly the heavier bits only tend to come around for a few bars, before you realise they too have “disappeared”. They build well with interesting riffs but then fade back for the gentler verses. Finally, She Prefers Her Dreams closes off the main tracks on the album. This to me sounds like a group trying to carve their own path, but still not ready to throw off their influences. Flirting with the post-rock and more foreboding tones, but afraid to let go of the love for the golden days of old prog. Altogether, though, an amalgamation of all we've heard so far and a promising end to the start of The Black Noodle Project's career.
The Words I Have (Demo 2004) is a B-side from the sessions and sticks with the overall Floyd feel. For me, it is a nice addition, but adds little overall. However, neither does it take away. Face the Truth (Demo 2003) is quite different from the final version, being more focused on minimalism and some guitarwork, compared to the more piano-driven version on the album.
With a lot of similarities to Floyd, it doesn't break much new ground, so some of the tracks do feel almost a bit dated already, unfortunately. Tracks such as Where Everything Is Dark and Somewhere Between Here And There however are where they really shine though. While I'm not sure I'll come back to this one as often as the other albums, it is still a good listen and an important part of the group's history. And besides, it is always fun to see the early groundwork for a band's future sound.
Recommended for fans of the prog styling of the likes of Pink Floyd, Pineapple Thief and Anathema.
Derev — Troubled Mind
This is a band that arrived on the scene in 2021 when I enthusiastically wrote about their debut EP Leap Of Faith.
Although sitting under a Canadian flag, Derev (an Armenian word for leaf) is a truly international affair. Almost every member originates from a different country. We have guitarist Armando Bablanian (Armenia), drummer Michel Karakach (Syria), bassist Stan Komarovsky (Russia), keyboardist Ran Zehavi (Israel) and vocalist Mike Symons (Canada). Adel Saflou is the singer on both this album and the debut EP. He is based in The Netherlands.
Troubled Mind is their debut full album. Thematically it takes a deep dive into the intricacies of the human psyche, addressing a spectrum of mental health issues on each track, ranging from temporary mental instability to more severe conditions.
The band elaborates: "While our debut tackled broad themes like war, technology and injustice in the world, Troubled Mind shifts focus to the personal realm. We wanted to explore and articulate various mental states, the subtle thoughts, and inner dialogues, that when nurtured and fed over time, makes us who we are. The purpose of the album is to explore and highlight these different states of mind, rather than try to resolve them."
Musically, the album retains the foundation laid down on their previous record, offering a diverse range of sounds from mellow compositions to adrenaline-pumping workouts. They manage to maintain their distinctive progressive-rock sound, enriched with Middle Eastern influences.
Last time around, I offered comparisons with Lion Shepherd, Riverside, Fen (Canada) and Sully Erna's debut solo album. Elements of these artists are retained on Troubled Mind, but in several songs Derev move towards the more alt-rock/metal styles of Tool, and to a much greater extent, Soen.
The opening track is very similar to Soen, right down to the vocal timbre, the slow, bluesy guitar breaks and the tribal drum rhythms. If the song is good, then I don't usually have a problem with one band mimicking another; but this may be too close to a photocopy for some of you.
Room 9 takes a similar up-tempo approach, but here Derev lays down a lot more of its own identity. It's a great song and the added aggression to the central guitar riff works well.
On the mellow side, Cyclone reflects the more balladic style of Soen. Along with the closing-track, Trace Within, it also reminds me of Addiction Dream's wonderful Essence album from 2012.
The instrumental, Paracusia introduces a different groove and some interesting keyboard layers. Tides of Time is even sparser, utilising some delicate guitar notes and a plaintive vocal. I can't think of much to write about Darker Self, other than the fact that it doesn't really stick in my memory.
Which leaves us to close the album with another of its highlights. Trace Within makes wonderful use of a great female vocal (uncredited) in a beguiling, shared vocal with Saflou. It is very similar to the style used by Sully Erna on his Avalon album.
A final word for the lovely cover artwork offering a complex maze that seeks to symbolise our endless stream of thoughts. Again, I'll let the band explain: "The maze is mirrored from top to bottom, and there are two characters standing, representing the duality of the mind; the conscious and subconscious. The blank eye in the middle hints that this maze is within the mind and plays a role in grabbing the attention. The beauty of the artwork for us is that despite the chaotic details, if you take a step back and look at the outline as a whole, it looks like a tree, which is connected to the name of the band."
So overall this is a great package. I especially like the vocals and the varied songwriting and the way it is encompassed in a thought-provoking lyrical theme.
Pearl Handled Revolver — Tales You Lose
I first encountered Pearl Handled Revolver in a holiday camp in Wales (my other abiding memory of which was being woken by an insistent tapping sound at the door to the flat, which turned out to be a rather sweet pair of Mallard ducks on the scrounge). They transported the audience back to the 1960s with their signature melding of blues, prog, jazz and psychedelic rock possessing all the pleasurable depth and smoky intensity of a peat-dense single malt. Vocalist Lee Vernon proved himself a master of stagecraft, weaving and swaying lithely and hypnotically as he played harmonica, accompanied by Simon Rinaldo's Hammond organ. Utterly mesmerising. However, it was the acoustic set (reserved for a smaller group of ticket holders) which is forever etched in my memory. A smaller, more intimate setting, confining Lee to a bar stool. This did nothing to diminish his charisma, on the contrary, it radiated from him as brightly as the beam of the spotlight in which he was immersed. It was one of the most striking performances I have witnessed, a singer completely in command of his vocal range, slightly husky and weather-beaten by the storms of experience, perfectly suited to the music, with a palpable erotic charge (not that I ever imagined I would use that adjective in a prog review!)
Tales You Lose is Pearl Handled Revolver's sixth studio album, and let us immediately dispense with the sterile debate as to whether they can be subsumed under prog. They have been enthusiastically adopted by the prog community, as evidenced by the fact that they have appeared at HRH Prog more frequently than at HRH Blues. I will unashamedly adopt Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann's "social construction of reality" approach: prog is whatever the prog community deems it to be. They have already proven their prog credentials with the glorious epic Belly Of The Whale from Fantasy Reigns. The particular genius of their music is that it so seductively and effortlessly blends genres without ever jarring or lapsing into hollow and perfunctory repetition of overly familiar tropes. Instead, it envelops the listener in a soothing haze like smoke coiling from Marlene Dietrich's lipstick-kissed cigarette.
Black Rock, the longest track, offers a magnificently lush and intoxicating opening, a virtuoso display of all the delights to follow. Darkly atmospheric, broodingly pensive and pervaded with a shiver of world-weary regret, it dwells in the half-shadows with its careful layering of subtle details. Chris Thatcher's delicately precise drums intertwine with Simon Rinaldo's keys and Lee's voice, restrained at first yet powerfully compelling, Andy Paris' guitars and Lucas Rinaldo's bass adding depth and emotional resonance before surging like a breaker in a winter gale battering the protective harbour wall, spray engulfing all beneath its imperious arc. At around the five-minute mark, a more introspective passage follows, as if sinking inexorably downwards into the ocean depths, shafts of light barely penetrating the surface, beautifully conveyed by Simon's rippling keys contrasting with the murky undercurrent of Lucas' bass, until the Hammond organ asserts itself more forcefully, with the deliberately muffled harmonica like an echo borne on an unrelenting wind, every instrument combining in a hypnotic swirl before subsiding into a gentle caress of acoustic guitars. Heady, slightly decadent and richly satisfying like a ripe strawberry dipped in finest dark chocolate to enhance its sweetness, it coalesces and coheres almost magically, the product of an intuitive mutual understanding between superlative musicians, which can only emerge from years of honing their skills together and who are at ease with each other, steeped in an authenticity and honesty which cannot be simulated.
Lightning, my favourite track, billows like a curtain in the summer breeze, bringing relief from the sluggishness of the humidity before the storm breaks, the crackle of electricity in the heavy air, the earthy fragrance of petrichor. Smooth, understated, Lucas' bass sublime throughout. Lee's vocals subdued, yet warm, suffused with melancholy and consoling empathy:
My friend, you're hurting,
And I want more than you can know
To warm your waters.
With all that heartache
And those dogs behind your doors, I know it ain't easy
If I were pressed to draw a comparison, it would be with Isolde Lasoen, with her sparse, yet simultaneously opulent and pitch-perfect retro vibe.
The existential dread spawned by the threat to everything we have hitherto taken for granted has proven a source of inspiration for many songwriters of late, and Junkies picks up on the constant background noise of all-encompassing cultural anxiety with a finely tuned sense of irony, refusing to absolve us, for conniving at our own destruction. Glued to our screens, distracted by the incessant clamour of social media and doom-scrolling, we stride over the cliff edge oblivious.
With pounding drums and hard-edged guitar imparting the requisite urgency, Lee's voice resounds like an anguished prophet's, whose message is met with indifference by those who need to hear it most, Simon's keys assuming the stern gravity of a church organ. Guitar and bass hurtle along in flawless synchrony, maintaining the relentless momentum which mirrors back at us the hectic accumulation of the demands on our time and attention, Lee releasing a sigh tinged with rage. All the while, the music builds to a frenzy of trance-like total abandon, punctuated by a sound reminiscent of laser fire from the arcade games of yore. The dense soundscape abates slightly to permit Lee to deliver the evocative and arrestingly poetic lyrics in an almost whisper:
Out of the rock pools, past mescaline fables,
into the minds of professors around tables.
Twist into the ear like a corkscrew, tight.
Born of the moment creation took flight
The primordial, septic ink of the night
To spell out in neon...that we are more
As he finishes, the raw, frenetic power of the combined instruments resumes, before suddenly dissolving into peals of thunder and rain with a rumble of distant artillery or a heartbeat, leaving the listener slightly breathless, but exhilarated.
Tales You Lose is Pearl Handled Revolver's most mature, complex and alluring work to date, full of contrasts and juxtapositions, while retaining a polished and self-assured cohesiveness. Darkly beguiling and lyrically bold, it captured my heart at first listen. "But is it prog?", the nagging chorus of purists persists. To paraphrase that most famous and definitive of brush-offs, with music this good, "frankly, my dear, I don't give a f**k!"
Guy M Tkach and Peter M Sieker — Steven Wilson Footprints III - Band Projects
The third and final volume of the meticulously researched compendium of the recorded works of Steven Wilson covers the various band projects that the prolific writer and singer has been involved with over the years. As with the first two installments, Volume I covering the early years and Porcupine Tree, and Volume II delving into solo, production and contributions, each chapter begins with the history of each band replete with contemporary quotes from Wilson and his various accomplices followed by a timeline of activities and ending with an extensive database of articles, press-releases and associated material that has appeared in print or on-line.
Each chapter is full of photos of the bands in question, many unique to this publication, as well as images of artifacts and oddities that are associated with each band. For collectors, the second part of the publications includes a near as complete catalogue of the output of each band as can be imagined. We are talking of every official release from every territory imaginable complete with pictures of labels and sleeves, although there are some understandable gaps in this photo archive, and it is hoped that readers will be able to help the authors fill in any gaps and inform them of any releases that they are not aware of!
So what are the band projects included? Obviously Porcupine Tree were the subject of their own volume, so the bands included are no-man, Blackfield and Storm Corrosion. Essentially each of these groups are in fact collaborations with other artists (Tim Bowness, Aviv Geffen and Mikael Åkerfeldt, respectively) although no-man in it's earlier incarnation as No Man Is An Island (Except The Isle Of Man) started off more as an actual band for the majority of its existence it has mainly been a vehicle of Wilson and Bowness. With no-man having the longest history, this section is by far the longest. It is an invaluable source of information on the various releases and line-ups involved with each stage of the band's lifetime, shedding light on the oft confusing chronology of releases. The contemporary quotes are enlightening, although as Bowness points out in his introduction to the publication, "As recounted here, the initial part of the no-man story seems a little sad in some ways. It's a tale of big dreams and big disappointments, miraculous breakthroughs and thwarted promises. Things were often frustrating, but I don't think the reality ever felt as bleak as it sometimes comes across in print."
Although initially a truly collaborative effort, Wilson's contributions to several of Blackfield's later albums have been rather limited with Geffen taking control of at least a couple of the albums, particularly Blackfield IV (2013) and For The Music (2020), with his musical collaborator hardly present. The publication does a good job of explaining the reasons behind Wilson's lack of complete involvement on these albums (largely due to his solo success and ensuing commitments) but also demonstrates the affection and respects that exists between the two musicians. And I, for one, was totally unaware that a Blackfield box set had been released with some exclusive content!
Although Wilson has a long association with Opeth (see Footprints II) he has only collaborated with Opeth main-man Mikael Åkerfeldt on a single album, 2012's Storm Corrosion. Despite this limited output, the chapter on the band and its timeline still manages to fill 26 pages, with the discography (one album, remember!) filling an additional four pages. This aptly demonstrates the thoroughness with which the authors have approached this work.
Once again, the scope and magnitude of this work is astounding. What is more, the authors are not making anything for their considerable efforts, as to purchase a copy all one has to do is donate at least £10, €12 or $14 for each volume you want to order (or an equivalent sum in your native currency) to any charity or non-profit organisation of your choice with the proviso that the charity or non-profit organisation does not pursue political goals.
Alternatively, support those who create the music by supporting organisations like Help Musicians or the Music Venue Trust. Once a donation has been made, confirmation of the donation (which should not be older than seven days) should be sent to footprintsswarchive@gmail.com with details of which volume(s) you would like, and the authors will send you the PDFs along with a unique password. As with the other volumes that were sent free of charge to DPRP for review, a donation has been made to a charity I personally support as I am keeping all three volumes for my own use. It would be churlish to not support the generous efforts of the writers.