Issue 2026-025

Alan Parsons Project — The Turn Of A Friendly Card

Andy Read

The Alan Parsons Project was a somewhat out-of-the-norm progressive rock entity. It was a band of sorts, but its two key members were not musicians in the usual sense. Between 1976 and 1987 the pairing of engineer/producer Alan Parsons and songwriter, musician and manager Eric Woolfson, released 10 (chiefly) concept albums that shifted in excess of 55 million copies world-wide.

Their focus was on high-quality studio sound production, recording most of their work at Abbey Road Studios in London. They used a variety of different lead vocalists and musicians on every album. The aim was to select who they felt was the best for each song. Many of the singers appeared on numerous albums.

The Alan Parsons Project (APP) was a name I came across in my teens when I was busy defining my musical taste by gobbling up music from all sorts of genres. I bought a copy of Ammonia Avenue and borrowed a few others. The music was easy to listen to and the singers were always an excellent fit. I liked APP in the way that I liked Barclay James Harvest and Asia. Liked but not loved. My tastes were more into the heavier music back then. Alan Parsons is progressive melodic rock that doesn't rock very much.

As my tastes have mellowed a little over the years, I have dipped back into the discographies of all three bands. Now, having three of APP's most popular albums reissued to celebrate 50 years of the 'band', it's a good time to see if the years have been kind to their music.

As the band's career had ended ten years before DPRP existed, this is also the first time we have reviewed these 'classic' albums here.

(promo photo)

I'll begin with a general comment on the matter of APP reissues. Over the years no-one has shied away from maximising outlets for APP's music. Progarchives lists no less than 25 APP compilations. All three of the albums covered here have previously been remastered and reissued with bonus tracks. This album was first repackaged in 2008 and again as a 2-CD anniversary package in 2015. There have been two complete box sets of all 10 albums released in the past decade or so. As far as I can make out, most of the bonus tracks added to this trio of re-releases have emerged somewhere before.

There is nothing new here. If you are either a APP completist or are just wanting to fill in a few gaps in your collection, then there is no shortage of options this time. You can have all three of these albums in a choice of coloured vinyl, half-speed vinyl, double albums, single albums or CDs, and maybe opt for some limited edition art prints. All albums and formats have been remastered by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios.

Three other albums (Tales of Mystery and Imagination, I Robot and Pyramid) received a similar treatment last year.

Now onto the music.

The Turn Of A Friendly Card was the Project's fifth studio album, released in 1980 by Arista Records. The album was recorded in a record short time of six weeks in Paris. Usually Parsons and Woolfson would take many months to record an album.

It is a concept album focused on the gambling industry and the fate of gamblers. According to Woolfson, the band made an effort to create an album that would be commercially accessible "in all the world markets." It duly spawned the hits Games People Play and Time and reached number 2 in both Germany and Austria, 17 in The Netherlands, 38 in the UK and 13 in the USA.

First two songs are great examples of the duo's style of soft-prog or progressive-pop or whatever you wanna call it. Time was Eric Woolfson's first lead vocal appearance. It is a smooth balladic piece, with a catchy melodic thread.

But overall, for me, this album is a difficult listen as it has a heavy emphasis on bringing some funky, soul, disco vibes to the majority of tracks. Fair enough, it came out in the early 80s when that was the popular music of the period. It's just not what I want to listen to.

I Don't Wanna Go Home is the most obvious culprit, but throughout the album the drum patterns keep to a very disco sorta rhythm and beat.

The Gold Bug is an instrumental that begins as an out-take from the Good The Bad and the Ugly before ticking the prog boxes with a digestible blend of keys and saxophones in a Jean Michelle Jarre meets Jerry Rafferty (Baker Street) fashion. It sits over another annoying disco beat and some REALLY annoying vocalisations towards the end.

The title track is often promoted as a 16-minute epic song and occupies side B. But it isn't really an epic. Neither is it particularly progressive. There is a storyline that ties it all together but musically it consist of three independent songs bookended by the actual title track, which is split into two rather similar parts.

I do really like the Journey-esque title track where Chris Rainbow's vocal is the perfect fit. Snake Eyes is actually a really good song too; that's if you can accept the disco-prog tropes that would make it a perfect fit for the Night Fever soundtrack. Some great guitar work lifts the middle section.

The Ace of Swords begins as a very retro' instrumental before evolving into a Rocky soundtrack sorta thing. It really should have been expanded past the three minute mark. Nothing Left to Lose is an acoustic ballad that would fit on any Barclay James Harvest album from this era. Not sure about the accordion solo or the sudden Dreadlock Holiday guitar burst! It does at least rock a bit towards the end.

So as a whole, this album is not the best by the Alan Parson's Project. Most of the songs are pretty good. The opening pair and the title track are my favourites. There are some orchestral arrangements, but it's not very progressive. The songs are simple and rather accessible. There is a disco/soul/funk vibe running throughout the album that I am not keen on. The lead vocals are very good, as always.

Alan Parsons Project — Eye In The Sky

Andy Read

Roll forward two years and Eye in the Sky became APP's sixth studio album, released in May 1982 by Arista Records. It is often cited as the favourite album among fans, and it did reach the top 10 in numerous countries, including No 1 in Austria and Germany. It made No 4 in the Netherlands and 27 in the UK and seven in the USA, where the title track became the Alan Parsons Project's biggest hit single when it reached No 3.

It is an incredibly consistent listen, where the emphasis is all about melodies and textures.

We open with the short instrumental piece Sirius. This has become one of APP's best known compositions and a staple of many sporting events throughout North America. It drifts minisculely from its sole melodic line and is too short to be called a proper song. Much more of an intro. Far from the best of APP's instrumental tracks.

As with its predecessor, the album opens properly with two perfect slices of soft rock. Both Eye in the Sky and Children of the Moon would feature in most fan's Best Of APP collections.

Gemini is another brief atmospheric piece acting as a pause before the mini-epic Silence and I. This begins softly in a Barclay James Harvest style before going up-tempo with some very proggy orchestrations and swathes of keys. We have a playful movie-soundtrack section, before a guitar brings us back into rock territory, until returning to the opening vocal theme.

You're Gonna Get Your Fingers Burned is a slice of up-tempo AOR with a Dave Lee Roth groove and a gospel-inspired chorus. Psychobabble retains the high tempo. It is a nicely-crafted but very poppy number.

Mammagamma isn't the best instrumental in the APP discography but it offers another pause before we close, as we opened, with a pair of excellent soft-rock numbers. Old And Wise is one of my favourite Alan Parsons Project songs with Colin Blunstone providing the perfect fit on vocals.

At the 25th Annual Grammy Awards in 1983, Eye in the Sky was nominated for the Best Engineered Album. It finally won a Grammy 36 years later as the Best Immersive Audio Album at the 61st Annual Grammy Awards.

Alan Parsons Project — Ammonia Avenue

Andy Read

The APP production-line took another two-year pause before Ammonia Avenue became their seventh studio album, released in February 1984, again by Arista Records.

The title of the album was inspired by Eric Woolfson's visit to Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in Billingham, England, where the first thing he saw was a street with miles of pipes, no people, no trees and a sign that read 'Ammonia Avenue', whose portrait was used for the front cover.

The Phil Spector-influenced Don't Answer Me was the album's lead single, and it reached the Top 15 in the US. The album became one of the duo's biggest sellers, reaching No 1 in The Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland. In the UK it missed out by one position on being the band's first Top 20 album. It reached no 15 in the USA.

Having revisited this album for the first time in a long while, it remains my personal favourite, chiefly because of it's greater-than-usual variety, and an occasional harder edge to the songs.

(promo photo)

The Don Henley-esque Prime Time is a solid opener where the guitar takes it just the right side of the rock/pop divide; although the Bee Gees harmonies and the ooo-ooo backing vocals reduce it's impact.

There's a Lynyrd Skynard boogie to Let Me Go Home; one of the rockiest songs in the APP discography. The electro synth-pop beat of One Good Reason, with its Beach Boys chorus from the 60s, is one of my least-favourite APP songs.

We have the by-now-familiar and rather formulaic album structure. The ballad goes by the name of Since The Last Goodbye. Dont Answer Me is the obvious single, while Pipeline is the instrumental. Here Mel Collins has a big impact with a great saxophone solo.

The end of this album is again where the 'epic' is placed. This time the title-track does bring everything to an impressive conclusion. Ammonia Avenue starts off as another soft song, before some sublime orchestrations, a hearty helping of proggy phases, a good chunk of lovely guitar work and the extended playing-time, make it one of APP's most progressive compositions.

From here the duo's sales and profile began to decline. Three more albums were released. Vulture Culture and Stereotomy both came out in 1985 and Gaudi followed in 1987. Although it holds the name, I don't consider The Sicilian Defence from 2014 as a proper APP album; it's all-instrumental and was never intended for release when first recorded in 1979.

From 1993 Alan Parsons went on to record as a solo artist. Released in 2022, From The New World was the most recent of six solo albums so far released under his own name. He also issues albums and continues to perform under the Alan Parsons Live Project banner. A handful of appearances as producer and sound engineer in recent decades have included a credit on Steven Wilson's The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories).

Meanwhile, Woolfson made concept albums titled Freudiana (1990), about Sigmund Freud's work on psychology, and Poe: More Tales of Mystery and Imagination (2003), continuing from the Alan Parsons Project's first album about Poe literature. Eric Woolfson died from kidney cancer in the early hours of 2nd December 2009.

Elder — Through Zero

Andy Read

Spoiler alert. Don't scroll past this review thinking Elder are a stoner/doom/psyche outfit. This is a progressive rock album. A very good one. You'd be a fool not to give it a listen.

Myself? Well, I have my late colleague Martin Burns to thank for overcoming my preconceptions and giving this band another try. Over seven studio alums and two live releases the quintet has very much evolved from their initial stoner and doom sounds. That was where I first encountered them. I wasn't particularly impressed. Martin persuaded me to give them another try.

And in a similar way to Opeth, I found that Elder have evolved. Working my way through their past two albums (Innate Passage (2022) and 2020's Omens I could hear how the band had turned into a progressive rock band that has embraced heavy-prog with psychedelic rock elements.

I enjoy both records. Album number eight further continues that evolutionary path. I am enjoying this even more.

Elder formed in a small coastal town in Massachusetts around 2006 by three long-time friends with a passion for down-tuned, heavy music. Over the years, the band has gained a guitarist, lost a drummer, relocated (mostly) from the United States to Germany and played hundreds of shows from small clubs to arenas across the world.

The line-up for this record features Nicholas DiSalvo on guitar, vocals and synthesizer, bassist Jack Donovan, Michael Risberg (guitar, Rhodes piano) and drummer Georg Edert.

Promo photo by Leon de Backer

The band says that Through Zero is their most immediate and engaging record to date. I would agree with that statement. However, that is not to say that this is a dumbed-down version of Elder. Look at the track lengths. All but one song, clocks in around the ten-minute mark. There is plenty going on here, and you will need quite a few spins for it all to sink in.

The sound quality is sublime. My first few listens were on my PC, I burned it to a CD and put it on the full system. It brought the whole thing to life. The album was released on May 29 and is available on double vinyl, cassette and CD. I would strongly recommend that you go for auditory quality with this album. The usual digital platforms won't do it justice if you play it back via regular computer sound cards.

It is also the album where Elder freely display their progressive-rock influences. Maybe influenced by their time in Berlin, there is also quite a lot of electronica used across this album. It sounds very 80s. Definitely not 70s.

Not wishing to mislead, I must make it clear that there are still plenty of pounding psyche rhythms and pulsatingly-heavy riffs to please long-standing admirers.

Nowhere more so than on the title track. We drift through a world-music tinged intro, fly over some Floyd-ian clouds before hitting a heavy-prog landmass that mixes 90125-era Yes with Time Stands Still-period Rush, before being brought down to earth by some insistent, staccato doom riffage. The track ebbs and flows around these themes, playing with varying textures and dynamics. If I had to pick a favourite song, then this would be it.

Through Zero is a bombastic take on heavy rock, and a reaffirmation of this band's status as world leaders in heavy psychedelic, progressive rock.

Visit the band's website to peruse their long list of live dates across Europe this summer, including many festivals. The tour kicks-off at the Download Festival in Derby on June 13th.

Tyler Kamen — Echoe's End

Jerry van Kooten

In 5 years we've reviewed 8 albums by multi-instrumentalist Tyler Kamen. Take a look at any of them to get an idea of what to expect.

If you read those reviews in chronological order, you'll notice something in Kamen's style. The psychedelic rock has shifted towards a more dreamier as well as progressive approach.

That line is continued on his latest album, Echoe's End. Overall softer than his first albums, but still strong songwriting and lovely melodic playing. Kamen's voice fits this type of dreamy psychedelic very well. Lots of air in his singing, bringing out his warm timbre.

The spelling of "Echoe" is not a typo. Echoe's End is a place. But with this type of music one should not try and analyse and explain the lyrics. Sit back, fly away, and let it all sink in.

I'll repeat what has said several times before about the performance, recording, and production: top-notch in all respects. No surprise there. With the music following the same lines, I have to admit that there is no surprise there, either. Kamen is not repeating himself and is still producing lovely new melodies and tunes.

Several parts ooze a Pink Floyd atmosphere. Kamen's style is different from Gilmour's of course, but I do like how they both let their playing serve the song. Most of the times it is dreamy, slightly progressive rock, and sometimes it is dream-pop really.

On the whole, much of it was to be expected, and if you love his latest string of releases there is no doubt you are going to love this equally. My personal taste is heavier, though, and going for the fire of the first albums. And some surprises, perhaps?

Spirits Burning — Fragments

Jerry Kranitz

Don Falcone has been releasing albums under the Spirits Burning banner since 1999. Always collective projects, Don assembles musicians from the space rock, psychedelic and progressive rock worlds to create a stunning variety of results. In some cases, Don singles out individual artists for collaborative efforts. Fragments is the fourth to be credited to Spirits Burning and Bridget Wishart. Bridget's achievements are many, though the most visible part of her resume would be the 1989 to 1991 period she spent as vocalist with Hawkwind on the Space Bandits studio album and Palace Springs live album (though knowing Hawkwind there were probably other live releases with her in the lineup).

Fragments consists of twelve tracks that link four groups of "suites, tales, fragments and readings". The album opens with the three-song Nature Suite. Bridget sings of ecological and other concerns about control by those in power on Natural Order. The music and mood are eerie, with pleasant melodies from the piano and Bridget's EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument), all propelled by a stilted yet rocking rhythmic pulse. The Door alternates between bouncy rocking beat and soulful, lightly jazzy and even bluesy music. I like how the piano, organ and guitar leads contrast with one another yet blend seamlessly. Bridget's vocals, which are like singing whispers, add yet another distinctive element. And Sombre is a short piece with haunting keys and Bridget's storyteller narrative played to a militant march.

The five tracks that comprise the Caoimhe Tales are based on Bridget's novel of the same name. (She clarified that the novel is unfinished, though an extract was published in what she believes was an Anthony Servante Horror anthology.) Three songs are sandwiched between short flute and mandolin instrumentals with a Renaissance festival vibe. Tides is a highlight. It begins with space whispery vocals and an ominous atmosphere before launching into a high octane groove rocker with searing acidic drone waves. This is pure celebratory psychedelic festival music. Dark Eyes is a slow and steady yet potent rocker with an anthemic feel. On the one hand it's the most straightforward rocker of the set, but it's also one of the most intricately composed. Spin is like a dreamy space-prog chamber ensemble, peppered with surreal instrumental fills.

The title track is beautifully delicate, with vocals by both Bridget and Jerry Jeter. But my favorites are the last three tracks that comprise the Caoimhe Readings. It's a tale of deceit, revenge, and is overflowing with human complication. Spacey soundscapes back Bridget's darkly dramatic spoken word. (I commented to her that she would be in demand voicing audio books.) The credits note that these were unfinished songs that Bridget started with Lee Potts and John Pierpoint. This trio had released albums under the band name Omenopus and Bridget confirmed that this music started life as what would have been the final Omenopus project.

In summary, I love the quirky, playfully melodic, avant-prog(-ish), sometimes jazzy, sometimes orchestral feel of the music and Bridget's blend of spoken word and singing. Another winner from Don Falcone's 25+ year and still counting Spirits Burning.