35: Genesis – A Trick Of The Tail (1976)

Introduced by Theo Verstrael

For some reason The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway didn’t do it for me at first. I borrowed the album from a friend who was very enthusiastic about it, played it over and over again and concluded then that I didn’t like it: exit interest in Genesis. The fuss about Peter Gabriel leaving the band left me completely cold. I simply couldn’t care less for I lost my interest in the band altogether, just cherished Foxtrot and Selling England by the Pound.  Then one day, when visiting my local music store, I was attracted to a beautiful yellow album cover hanging on the wall. I asked the shop owner what it was and instead of answering me, he grabbed the record, put it on and grinned. He knew what was coming….

Seldom has an album opener sounded so seductive, so appealing, so enormously present as Mr. Banks’ tingling keys and Mr. Hackett’s chords in Dance on a Volcano. The sheer energy in that song emerging from those big speakers in that small shop took me totally in and has never left me ever since. Shivers all over the place and the song can still have that effect on me!

In that way I got to learn A Trick of the Tail, which is, to me, simply one of the best albums ever made. The variation in moods and pace, the originality of the musical ideas, the beauty of the ballads Entangled and Mad Man Moon, the odd time signatures in Robbery, Assault and Battery and the sublime ending Los Endos in which several song themes reappear, are to me no less then awesome. The absolute highlight for me is Ripples, eight minutes of genial guitar work, subtle keys and bass accompanying the melodious vocals by new man on the microphone, Phil Collins. To me he immediately was a fantastic vocalist.

Needless to say I bought the album immediately, to great satisfaction of the shop owner who was a big fan also. A Trick of the Tail made me listen again to Genesis, serving as the gate through which I had to go to fully appreciate their music. It also led me to the best concert I ever witnessed, Genesis in Rotterdam in 1977 during the tour that would be recorded for eternity on Seconds Out; although, it was also the company of a sweet girlfriend that surely contributed to my vivid memory. A Trick of the Tail even managed to let me listen again to The Lamb…, an album I now like very much. But although that double album is for many the best work by Genesis to date, for me it cant stand in the shadow of A Trick of the Tail.

Find links to other Genesis reviews from the DPRP archive by following the links below:

Read Hester Stasse's review of Foxtrot (here)

Read Bart Jan van der Vorst's review of Selling England by the Pound (here)

Read Derk van Mourik's review of The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway (here)

Listen to Theo's favourite track Ripples (here)

34: IAN ANDERSON - The Secret Language Of Birds (2000)

Introduced by Owen Davies

One of Ian Anderson’s main talents was to use the flute to embellish his gifted ability as a writer of complex, yet intrinsically melodic tunes.

Anderson's most recent compositions in Homo Erraticus, pale in comparison to his skill as a song writer displayed in The Secret Language of Birds released in 2000.

The Secret Language of Birds arguably marks the last occasion that Anderson showed the full extent of his song writing abilities and artistic genius.

The Secret Language of Birds has integrity. It displays no artistic pretensions and is an album that has no apparent desire to please a Tull audience, or indeed any particular audience. It is simply an album full of superb tunes from a guy writing songs from the heart, rather than by numbers, or to a set formula, or with a view to nostalgia and commercial success.

The Secret Language of Birds is quite wonderful and works magnificently on so many different levels.

Read Henri Bos' review here

Listen to "The Little Flower Girl" from the album on You Tube here

Find more information at the Jethro Tull website

33: MOTH VELLUM - Moth Vellum (2008)

Hello Dear Readers, now that the long winter is over, the sleeping bear that is the Archive of Prog has slowly awakened, and so here is edition 33.

Introduced by Martin Burns

So now the clocks have changed to summer time, at least here in the northern hemisphere (apologies to our antipodean readership). The extra daylight always makes me look for this album on my CD shelves. I play it as part of the soundtrack to my summer. 

Moth Vellum were a four piece band based in California. They were Johannes Luley’s band before he formed the well regarded Perfect Beings. Moth Vellum's music is brimming over with sunny, summery melodies and pin-sharp vocal harmonies. There is nothing dark or heavy here, just a lot of joyfulness. They are not innovators, but they use the classic 70s prog models so well that it really doesn’t matter. Superb guitar and synth sounds make playing the spot the reference game a pleasure. If you are missing a happy Genesis and Yes influenced album to play on long summer days, then have a listen to Moth Vellum's over looked retro-gem.

From the archives read Geoff Feakes’ 2008 review 

Read Geoff's review here

Listen to the album on You Tube

Listen to the album here

32: VANDEN PLAS - Far Off Grace (1999)

Introduced by Andy Read

Here is a little story: Once upon a time, 15 years ago, DPRP was just a five-year-old web-sapling and I had just skidded through my third decade. Then one day a kindly doctor hovered over my hospital bed and uttered the dreaded C-word. A tumour, the size of fist, had staked its claim to the middle of my chest. The doctor kindly gave me a 50:50 chance of ever skidding through a fourth decade.

After a year's worth of chemotherapy and a weekly exposure of my chest to a kindly radio-therapy nurse, I was bald but bold. I made a list of 10 bands I wanted to see before I died - be that sooner or later. Within a year I was in remission and had travelled to Progpower USA, the south of Spain, Netherlands, Sweden Rock Festival, Paris and London and struck nine off that list (including the legendary ARK which I'd thought was being overly optimistic). One band however was proving problematic.

Vanden Plas had been on the bill for my trip to ProgPower USA, but pulled out due to safety concerns following 9/11. I had also travelled to see them in Paris, only to arrive to find a note saying they had had to cancel due to the sudden death of singer Andy Kuntz's father.

Undeterred, a year later I was back in Paris, to emotionally cross the final band name off my list. I cried a lot at the end of my mini-odyssey, especially during the already emotional Healing Tree, where Andy Kuntz dedicated the song to his father and apologised for not turning up the previous year, and the whole hall burst into a warm and lengthy round of applause in solidarity.

Thankfully I am now skidding through my fifth decade. With my wife I am working through a new list: 50 Great Walks To Do Before You Die. And when I do reach my Far Off Grace, this is one album I hope someone has put into the jukebox!




From the DPRP archives read the original review by Mark Sanders from 2000 and then Andy's review of the reissued version from 2004

Read Mark's review here
Read Andy's review here

Watch the band play a great version of Iodic Rain live
Watch it here

31: HANDS – Strangelet (2008)

Introduced by Raffaella Berry

I had never heard of Hands until a couple of years ago, when my good friend Dave (who is also an excellent musician in his own right) sent me a copy of their 2008 album, Strangelet. Incidentally, they had performed at the 2006 edition of ProgDay just a few weeks before my first trip to the US, when I finally met my husband-to-be in person.

Based in Texas, where they were formed back in 1977, Hands have never enjoyed as high a profile as other veteran US prog outfits. In the light of the excellence revealed by Strangelet and its follow-up, the recently-released Caviar Bobsled, that is a real shame.

This album comes with four bonus tracks (in addition to the original seven), which include the stunning instrumental Zenith of Mars, a showcase for Mark Cook (also known for his tenure in Herd of Instinct and Spoke of Shadows), whose Warr guitar creates utterly entrancing atmospheres.  All in all, Hands’ uniquely eclectic take on progressive rock is likely to appeal to most prog fans, regardless of their affiliation.


Read Gerard Wandio's original review from the DPRP archives in 2008
Read it here

Listen to the track Tambourin
Listen now

30: MAGELLAN - Impending Ascension (1993)

Introduced by Jerry van Kooten

When I first heard Magellan's debut album at a friend's place, I was impressed. Soon after I bought this second album and the melodic bombast blew me away. My then fellow team member Dirk van den Hout didn't like it much though. Hearing back this album for this article, I recognise what I liked back then, but this part of my taste has gone. (I do like my music very heavy though!) I now hear the patchwork of pieces that do not necessarily fit iton a longer piece, something I recognised right away in the music by Shadow Gallery. I tend to call this too "American" - too much head, not enough heart (a common problem in prog, I have to add). It just feels cold to me.


Read why Dirk van den Hout thought this album was only worth a score of 5.5 in his review from the DPRP archives in 1998
Read it here

Listen to the track Waterfront Weirdos
Listen now

29: MAN - Back Into The Future (1973)

Introduced by Martin Burns

Way back in the mists of time when I was but a callow youth, I went with my younger brother (he was 12 at the time) the many miles from Smethwick, in the UK's then industrial heartland, all the way to Cardiff for an open-air gig at the city's castle.

On an overcast and increasingly rainy 12th of July 1975 we saw headliners 10CC, ably supported by Steeleye Span and Thin Lizzy. I had seen all of these bands before in Birmingham, but also on the bill were a surprise to me in the shape of Welsh band Man. I was not at all familiar with their music, but they were a revelation, proceeding to blow me away with their twin guitar line-up and loose, loping grooves.

On returning home I purchased Maximum Darkness, Man's then current live album. Not their best album as it turned out, but a good intro to their recordings. It led me on retrospectively to the wonderful mix of studio and live tracks that is Back Into The Future. Capturing the band at its peak, it is a wonderful album. I was alerted to the Esoteric re-release by Mark Hughes' cracking review on DPRP.  The re-release confirmed to me that my 17-year-old self actually had quite good taste. Come on and take a trip back in time with this great band that deserves now, as well as back then, to be much better known.


Read Mark Hughes' review from the DPRP archives in 2008
Read it here
(Also, you will find Mark's reviews of Man's albums Slow Motion and Maximum Darkness on the same page).

Watch this video of Man live on German TV back in 1975
Watch now

28: GROBSCHNITT - Solar Music - Live (1979)

Introduced by Jerry van Kooten

Grobschnitt are among a few bands (Mountain, Counting Crows, Nektar, Pink Floyd, DeWolff, Deep Purple Mk 1, Birth of Joy) who have appealed to me throughout the years because of a mix of different musical styles my shifting taste has visited: blues, rock, prog, and psych.

In 1998, I reviewed what I still think is one of this band's best albums: Solar Music - Live. To me, it's the perfect mix of all those ingredients. It rocks with great riffing and drumming, and it is psychedelic in all its keyboard work and Grobschnitt weirdness. It's progressive in combining these elements in a melodic and progressing way and in its epic-ness. Also the bluesy heart (instead of mind) that goes into the solos, simply makes this an awesome piece of music. I still love this album. I listen to it regularly and if you like any of the bands I just mentioned you should at least hear it once.

Read Jerry's original review on this album from the DPRP archives in 1998
Read it here

Listen to the track Solar Music (Part1)
Listen now

27: SMASHING PUMPKINS - Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness (1995)

Introduced by Ignacio Bernaola

Well, I guess this one may be strange for progressive rock fans but so it was to me when I found DPRP writing about the mighty Smashing Pumpkins.

Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness was the first album I bought (I'm "only" 35) and it was different to everything else I was listening at that time. Without knowing it, that album opened my ears, and made me open my mind to different styles. A few years later and I was listening to many prog bands and reading DPRP almost every day. Then I discovered this great review article by Joakim Jahlmar, who put into words everything I have always thought about Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness.

I won't start a discussion about what is the progressive rock genre but I really think that this album would have received more attention from the progressive community if it had not coincided in time with the rise of alternative rock. As well as their 1998 album, Adore, these two albums are great pieces of modern progressive rock made by a fantastic alternative rock band.

Read our special feature on this album written by Joakim Jahlmar in September 2002
Read it here

Listen to the whole album on Spotify
Listen now

26: BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST - Live (1974)

Introduction by Theo Verstrael

Back in 1974, the legendary Radio Caroline could hardly be listened to in Holland, yet I kept trying. They regularly played an album by a difficultly-named band that I had never heard of. When I finally found out who it was, I rushed to the record shop and bought Everyone is Everybody Else, a gem that was my first experience with progressive rock.

The guy from the record shop subsequently recommended Live and that album completely blew me away. The arrangements, the vocals, the overwhelming opening suite of two 10-minute songs glued together, the lyrics that hit me hard, the stunning acoustics on Galadriel, and the recorder solo on She Said; everything was superb (although the sound quality never was).

For me Barclay James Harvest Live is still one of the very best live albums ever made, and certainly one of the best examples of how to use a Mellotron properly (even when it doesn't work well during a gig!).

From the DPRP review archives, read Geoff Feakes' original review of Live in 2009.
Read it here

Watch a video of the track Mockingbird played live in London in 1992
Watch it here

25: PALLAS - Beat the Drum (1998)

Introduction by Jerry van Kooten

It's been a while since I revisited my Pallas collection. Pallas' music and my musical taste have shifted in different ways, but I still love the albums I loved back then. Beat the Drum, was their first album after a long hiatus, one I had been very much looking forward to, and one that I loved from the very first listen.

Call to Arms, All or Nothing, and Hide and Seek are OK, for some reason Fragments of the Sun didn't do it for me. But I still love the haunting title track and the way it progresses and the weirdness of Insomniac. I still absolutely love the 1998 version of Ghosts, which had the amazing new keyboard solo compared to the 1988 version.

Thanks to writing this article, I realise that I like the same songs the same way I did back then. It's interesting to see, that although my taste has shifted, an album that is almost 20 years old still appeals to me the same way it did when it was released.


From  the DPRP review archives, read Ed Sander's original review of Beat The Drum from in 1998.
Read it here

Watch a video of the title track being played live in 2002
Listen here

24: TRANSATLANTIC - The Whirlwind (2009)

Introduction by Alison Henderson

This album represents a significant chapter in my life which comes to fruition very soon. Having met Martin Reijman on Facebook through our mutual love of music, especially progressive rock, he suggested we went to see Transatlantic at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on The Whirlwind tour in 2010.

He played me the album, and to coin a well-used phrase, I was completely blown away. It evoked so many emotions with the changing pace and tone of the individual passages of play.

The gig itself was one of the greatest it has ever been my pleasure to attend. An opening track lasting more than 70 minutes? How prog is that!! We were even fleetingly seen queuing in the subsequent DVD.

Well, the rest is history: Martin and I are getting married on 30 October, so this is very much a six-year-long Whirlwind romance! 

From  the DPRP review archives, read the original Round Table Review of The Whirlwind in 2009.
Read it here

Watch a video of this very live show.
Watch it here

23: TIMOTHY PURE - Island of the Misfit Toys (2000)

Introduction by Jerry van Kooten

When I reviewed this album in 2000 I called it a masterpiece and rated it 10/10, expecting it to stay in the top-something-of-all-time for many years to come.

While my musical taste has shifted (drifted, some would say) and seen different musical styles, my current main prog interest is in the post rock field. I still find that label useless and didn't know the term at all when I first listened to this album, it now appears that I was already into post rock at the time: intense music, carefully building the atmosphere with melodic soundscapes and awesome melodies.

Island of the Misfit Toys is still on my playlist and I enjoy it as much as I did back then. I guess I was right with my rating, this was one to stay.




From  the DPRP review archives, read Jerry's original review of Island of the Misfit Toys in 2000.
Read it here 

Watch a video of the track Playground Politics.
Listen here

22: THE MARS VOLTA - De-Loused In The Comatorium (2003)

Introduction by Roger Trenwith

I remember this album coming out of nowhere in 2003. I was not a hardcore fan so knew nothing of At The Drive In, the band that vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala and guitarist Omar Rodriguez Lopez bravely dissolved on the cusp of success, feeling hemmed in by fans' expectations.

The intrepid sonic explorers' new project was The Mars Volta (great name!), who sounded like a frightening collision of Van der Graaf Generator, Santana and Led Zeppelin on very, very bad drugs. In 2003 when this album came out, the prog scene was largely an irrelevance to me. On the one hand the "neo" bands all strived to be Genesis or Yes but failed, obviously, and on the other hand there were dozens of dull carbon copy prog metal Dream Theater wannabes that held no interest for me whatsoever. Even my favourite band of the time, Porcupine Tree, could never be accused of pushing any envelopes off the desk.

None of this was progressive, at all. The Mars Volta's Latino-American explosion of noise rock and super-technical playing on a dark concept album about a man in a coma, and the stark choice he faces when he eventually emerges into the conscious world was however, something else entirely.

The first time I played this album with the volume control set to stun, it left me reeling like George Foreman after the Rumble In The Jungle, but hungry for more. Thoroughly modernistic, with samples and odd industrial soundscapes in addition to the usual rock instrumentation, this music charges around with an immense energy, the likes of which had not been seen since the early knife-edge tight-but-loose extrapolations of early live Zep. Listen to the mad but glorious cacophany that is Drunkship Of Lanterns and I dare you not to impressed by its sheer power.

As was inevitable, blasting out such highly intense music was going to take its toll, and after their second, almost-but-not-quite-as-good album Frances The Mute in 2005, the band's output saw a marked suffering by the law of diminishing returns. The one time I saw the band live was a thoroughly dispiriting affair of monstrous self-indulgence and non-communication. For all that, with De-Loused In The Comatorium, The Mars Volta left us with one of the best debut albums ever, and certainly the best debut of the noughties.



From  the DPRP review archives, read Tom de Val's original review of Deloused in the Comatorium in 2003.
Read it here 

Watch The Mars Volta performing Cicatriz ESP off Deloused in the Comatorium for Japan's Summer Sonic Festival in 2003.
Listen here

21: FROST* - Milliontown (2006)

Introduction by Eric Perry

In the first decade of the 21st century, as the newest wave of prog was slowly but surely gathering momentum, one album appeared from the most unlikely of sources, capable of carrying the moniker, 'Game Changer'.

Coming from a creative genius (and that feels like the correct use of the word) and former pop hits writer, Jem Godfrey, Milliontown was the outstanding debut from Frost*, Godfrey's progressive creative outlet. Aggressive and intense, this is one of the most exciting progressive albums of modern times and one that has not yet been matched in its brilliance by its creator.

At the centre of this vibrant work is the epic, 25-minute title track, the peak of which is the jaw dropping last eight minutes, which assaults the senses like a steroid-pumped version of Dukes Travels from Genesis's Duke. Revisiting this album is something of a common experience, and in almost ten years, it sounds as fresh as the day it was released.

From the 2006 archives, read Mark Hughes' original review of Milliontown for DPRP
Read it here  

Listen to the title track in its full glory.
Listen here

Watch the band perform the second part of the title track at the Manchester Academy in 2019.
Watch the YouTube video here

20: PENDRAGON - Fallen Dreams and Angels (1994)

Introduction by Andrew Halley

I often strip my phone of music, and start loading it up for the next month or so, hoping to try and listen to something new. However, I always put this mini four-track album back, I just can't live without it!

I first heard Fallen Dreams ... whilst walking my then dog on a Welsh beach with a raging hangover. The line from The Third World in the UK;  "I've had too much to drink, I've had too much to smoke" spoke volumes, and by then I'd heard power chords, a great Moog solo, great drumming, and my head had totally cleared. There was also Dune, the fantastic Sister Bluebird with that great key-change coda towards the end, and then the title track. I listened to it all again.

R.I.P. Polo, my Bedlington Terrier. You had some very long walks thanks to prog!


From the 1999 archives, read Dirk van de Hout's original review as part of a Pendragon Review Special.

Read it here  

Listen to a version of the title track from Pendragon's Acoustically Challenged album.
Listen to it here

19: MARTIN ORFORD - The Old Road (2008)

Introduction by Martin Burns

I recently went to see IQ in concert and witnessed a fine set. On the journey home, my thoughts turned to this album by ex-IQ founder Martin Orford. Playing The Old Road for the first time in a while, I was struck by how fabulous it is.

You can point to this album and say: “Listen to this…this is why I love prog rock!” Music so abundantly melodic that it easily pulls off the balancing act of feeling up-to-date, whilst taking inspiration from the classics of prog. It is full of playful instrumentation and lyrical detail. You wish it had just one more track every time the album comes to a close. It is an album that for once lives up to its super-group line up (see the review), because of the focus that Martin Orford gives to every detail. I can only add to Mark Hughes’ closing comment: Martin, you are still missed.

From  the DPRP review archives, read Mark Hughes' original review of The Old Road in 2008.
Read it here 

Listen to the the title track on Youtube
Watch the video here

Read the DPRP's interview with Martin from 1999 plus the review of his first solo album,
Classical Moments and Popular Songs
Read the feature here

18: LALU - Oniric Metal (2005)

Introduction by Raimond Fischbach

Despite just enjoying its 10th anniversary, somehow Oniric Metal isn't ageing and still sounds fresh. Although it hasn't been a commercial success, I loved this album when it came out and I still do. It has become a sort of companion and I still listen to it on a regular basis. There are so many unusual keyboard sounds on this melodic metal effort, that I never get tired exploring them all anew. The album provides a great variety, so one never feels bored at any second.

Vivien Lalu has done magic in writing this gem and playing the keyboards, and the line-up on the album is quite impressive. Martin LeMar on vocals, Joop Wolters on guitar, Russell Bergquist on bass and Ryan Van Poederooyen on drums, provided outstanding performances. The 16-minute track, Potboy (The Final Fantasy), is a bit cheesy though, as it's about a pot smoker riding his space ship. But it's quite fun and a perfect album closer.


From  the DPRP review archives, read Andy Read's original review of Oniric Metal in 2005.
Read it here 

Enjoy all 16-plus minutes of Potboy from this Youtube page
Watch the video here

Artist page where you can listen to and buy the album: 
Lalu Bandcamp Page

17: TWELFTH NIGHT - Live at the Target (1981)

Introduction by Jerry van Kooten

With time's passing, one's taste tends to shift, so sometimes it's nice to see how well one's opinion of some albums has held up. Looking through the list of reviews on DPRP I ran into Live at the Target. The first official CD re-issue was reviewed by our former team member Nigel Camilleri and rated 9/10.

Anyone who knows me because of my musical taste, knows that Twelfth Night have been one of my favourite bands for a few decades now. My taste has made a journey that has crossed the blues and now has reached mostly instrumental post-rock and post-metal. Interesting then to see that this album, an old favourite of mine, has never ceased to impress me or make me feel good, feel warm, feel lost, just feel. At the end of the day, isn't that the most important thing music can do?

I loved and still love the slow build-up of tense atmospheres, the sudden blasts of power, and the creation of well-crafted pieces without becoming overly complex. Music played from the heart, and everything very melodic, just the way I like it. It still touches me and moves me, as it did when I first heard it. I guess that's the definition of an all-time favourite. Whichever direction my musical taste has headed, this album has always been travelling along.



From  the DPRP review archives, read Nigel's original review of Live At The Target in 2005.
Read it here 

A very rare recording of vocalist Electra McLeod, singing Sequences with Twelfth Night at The Target on 21 November 1980.
Listen here

16: GENESIS - Calling All Stations (1997)

Introduction by Rich Kamerman
(A DPRP reader and music blogger from New York City)

Some albums have trouble surviving the weight of expectations, and Genesis’ Calling All Stations is a perfect example. Following-up several multi-platinum smashes was never going to be easy, and when they returned after a six-year absence with a new, mostly unknown lead singer, they were fighting an uphill battle. Open-minded fans were rewarded with a fantastic record that is dark, dense, melodic and full of memorable songs. They range from minor hit single Congo, to ballads like Shipwrecked and Not About Us, and on to extended progressive pieces like Alien Afternoon and (my favorite) The Dividing Line. 

It wasn’t successful enough for Banks & Rutherford to carry on (or even tour the US), but it’s an under-valued gem in their catalog and it introduced the prog world to the raw, powerful vocals of Ray Wilson. Had this album been released by Arena, Pendragon, IQ, Pallas or another well-respected modern prog band, the reception might have been significantly different.

From the 1998 archives, read Ed Sander's original review and see what score he gave the album:
Read it here  

Watch Genesis play The Dividing Line live in Poland in 1998.
Watch the video here