Tom Slatter "Fit the Fourth"

Country: UK
Genre(s): Progressive Rock
Label: Bad Elephant Music
Format: CD, digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 
1. Some Of The Creatures Have Broken The Locks On The Door To Lab 558 (7:29)
2. The Steam Engine Murders And The Trial Of Seven Bells John (10:22)
3. Men Of The World (7:14)
4. So Far From The Shore (8:57)
5. Seven Bells Redeemed (20:22)
    I. Flight from Black Water
   II. Gods in alleyways
  III. Hope for the Damned
  IV. Murderer
   V. Breath slow
  VI. Clamouring Crowds
 VII. The Papers Say
VIII. Seven Bells John Confesses
   IX. Gods in Alleyways

Line-up: 
Tom Slatter - all vocals and instruments except
Jordan Brown - bass on 1 & 4

Description/Reviews: 

Fit The Fourth, possibly taking its title from the fourth episode of the first Hitchhiker's Guide radio series, is unsurprisingly Tom's fourth full-length album since his debut in 2009 with Spinning The Compass. It is also the first thing I've heard by this quintessentially English eccentric-in-the-making. Describing his music as "...Nick Cave...writing songs with Genesis after watching too many episodes of Dr Who", the resultant aural stew is a heady affair, with touches of prog, acid rock, folk troubadour, and indie all put through a retro-futuristic turbo-charged blender.
The album opens with the aforementioned tale of creatures escaping from laboratories, infecting the world with their spores. It is followed with a musically grandiose and Gothic-themed tale of the trial of "Seven Bells John", a steampunk character whose story is told through earlier albums, leading up to the denouement on the 20-minute epic that ends this album. Tom's imagination is a rampant beast of a thing that heads off into dark corners only to come back with gory tales of post-apocalyptic dystopia, souls in torment, alien insect creatures and fish-men, and his music is not exactly straightforward, as you might expect.

Read the full review by Roger Trenwith at astoundedbysound.blogspot.com

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

Links:
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Of Sound Mind "Talk Bird from Tree"

Country: Canada
Genre(s): Instrumental Progressive Rock
Format: digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. Dusk till Dawn - 06:01
2. Pandora's Box - 05:21
3. Marauder - 04:49
4. Means to Ends - 05:23
5. Eye of the Hurricane - 04:31
6. Adrenaline & Diesel - 05:16
7. Tear It Down - 04:48
8. Under the Gun - 05:32
9. Exit Stage Left - 04:10
10. Things You See - 04:32

Line-up: 
Chuck Ho and Doug Baldwin

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp  (name your price)

Links:
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Endogenesis "Disappearance"

Country: Belarus
Genre(s): Progressive Metal/Rock
Format: CD, digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. Ghost - 07:36
2. Under The Moon - 04:35
3. Disappearance - 15:38
4. Left Alone - 06:37

Line-up: 
Dmitrij Dolgodillin -vocals
Pavel Krylatov - bass
Arkadij Solovejko - drums
Darja Nikolajenko - keyboards
Dmitrij Skobelev - rhythm guitar
Arsenij Pogorelov - lead guitar

Description/Reviews: 

Album is half-conceptual and develops theme of disappearance, dissolving, vanishing of men. It is not about suicide or even death - it is about escaping 'normal' society, about fading to somebody faceless, about changing the kind of existence to some other form.

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp (name your price)

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Incolors "The Unchained"

Country: Germany
Genre(s): Progressive Metal
Format: digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. Echoes - 4:07
2. Roses - 3:14
3. Last Dance - 4:38
4. Discolored - 4:38
5. Memento - 5:05
6. Diamonds - 3:36
7. The Unchained - 4:41
8. Oblivion - 5:42
9. Everything It Takes - 4:10
10. In the East - 4:37

Line-up: 
Gerrit Quade - vocals
Markus Vermeulen - guitar
Pascal Brüll - guitar
Ja-Min Oh - bass
Dario Huppertz - drums
   With
Bastian Hoffmann (9)

Media/Samples 
full album streaming at artist's web page

Links:
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Kinetic Element "Travelog"

Country: USA
Genre(s): Symphonic
Label: Melodic Revolution Records
Format: CD, digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. War Song - 20:29 
2. Travelog - 09:48 
3. Into The Lair - 10:05 
4. Her - 11:16 
5. Vision - 18:26 

Line-up: 
Mike Visaggio: keyboards, vocals
Todd Russell: guitars
Mark Tupko: bass
Michael Murray: drums, vocals
   With
Dimetrius LaFavors (Odin's Court): vocals (1-3)
Michelle Loose Schrotz (Brave): vocals (5)
Mike Florio: vocals (4)

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

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Pulp Free OJ "Pulp Free OJ"

Country: USA
Genre(s): Progressive Rock, Jazz, Fusion
Format: digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 
01. Welcome 02:29
02. Pleasure Island 02:33
03. Iridescent Peace Of Mind 05:19
04. Reprise 01:22
05. Foximoron 04:25
06. The Rug 04:47
07. Rest Easy M8 01:41
08. Should She Be Nameless 03:17
09. Seven Splendid Suns 03:11
10. Untitled 01:12
11. Fast Funque 05:23
12. Lampost (Pt. 1) 03:31

Line-up: 
Alec Nelson - Guitar
Jack Jennings - Bass
Nick Arcari - Drums
William Petrillo - Keys
Michael Walsh - Trumpet

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp (name your price)

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Jaga Jazzist "Starfire"

Country: Norway
Genre(s): Electronica
Label: Ninja Tune
Format: CD, vinyl, digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. Starfire - 8:47
2. Big City Music - 14:07
3. Shinkansen - 7:42
4. Oban - 12:41
5. Prungen - 6:35

Line-up: 
Marcus Forsgren: Electric guitar and fx
Andreas Mjøs: Vibraphone, guitar, Korg MS10 and percussion
Martin Horntveth: Drums
Lars Horntveth : Guitars, clarinets, saxophones, keys and lap steel guitar
Line Horntveth : Tuba, flute, percussion, glockenspiel and vocals
Even Ormestad: Bass and keyboards
Erik Johannessen: Trombone, percussion and vocals
Øystein Moen: Synthesizers and piano
  With
Leon Dewan - Swarmatron on "Shinkansen"

Description/Reviews: 

After the more heavily scored work of One Armed Bandit and Live with the Britten Sinfonia, Starfire moves to a more experimental studio-led approach - "The idea was that we thought about the songs as both the original song and a remix in one" - morphing each song into a variety of sonic directions. With an increase in the use of electronics and the guitar work of Marcus Forsgren given new prominence, it’s probably the least straightforwardly “jazz” of their records. Instead, all the elements which have made them such an important band—the way their technical chops combine with the kind of mutual sympathy which comes from growing up together—are here melded into an utterly unique sound on what could turn out to be the group’s crowning achievement.
Add in a guest like Leon Dewan, who plays his own Swarmatron on "Shinkansen" and Lars’ increasing use of a Pocket Piano synth as a tool for composition and you get the basis of a more hard-edged, electronic sound, perfectly melded with live musicianship.
Starfire is a beautiful, visceral, utterly exhilarating piece of work that keeps spiralling up and away, structurally complex, musically rigorous, but without ever losing touch with a certain earthy sensuality and human sympathy. 

Media/Samples 
Starfire/Oban

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Controlled Bleeding & Sparkle In Grey "Perversions of the Aging Savant"

Country: Italy/USA
Genre(s): Experimental, Fusion, Progressive Rock, Ambient, Post Rock
Label: Off Records, Old Bicycle Records
Format: CD, digital
Release date: June 1, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. Intro (Controlled Bleeding) 01:24
2. Garage Dub (Controlled Bleeding) 06:08
3. Springtime in Brooklyn (Controlled Bleeding) 03:29
4. Perks pt.1 (Controlled Bleeding) 10:39
5. Birdcanned pt.1 (Controlled Bleeding) 07:21
6. Birdcanned pt.2 (Controlled Bleeding) 01:23
7. Idiot savant pt.1 (Sparkle in Grey) 04:14
8. Idiot Savant pt.2 (Sparkle in Grey) 05:53
9. Idiot Savant pt.3 (Sparkle in Grey) 06:12
10. Idiot Savant pt.4 (Sparkle in Grey) 06:37

Extra Perversions (CD)
11. Mevlano Pt. 1  (Sparkle in Grey)
12. Live in Brooklyn, 2012 (Controlled Bleeding)

Extra Perversions (Download)
11. Iurop Pt. 2  (Sparkle in Grey)

12. Untitled (Controlled Bleeding)

Line-up: 
Paul Lemos, Mike Bazini, Tony Meola, Chad SB (Controlled Bleeding)
Alberto Carozzi, Cristiano Lupo, Franz Krostopovic, Matteo Uggeri (Sparkle in Grey)

Description/Reviews: 

Split albums are often forced and incoherent, with the musicians and songs having little true connection to each other. “Perversions of the Aging Savant,” is exactly the opposite; the work is the culmination of the long-time, long-distance friendship between Matteo Uggeri of Italy’s Sparkle In Grey and Paul Lemos, founder of US noise pioneers Controlled Bleeding.
“Perversions of the Aging Savant” not only shuffles the cards with the additional "extra perversions" of the two groups placed symmetrically at the end of the album, but is also the result of mutual suggestions and course adjustments, throughout the preparation of the tracks. The laborious process of bilateral "influence" has allowed the development of a tangible affinity in the sonic climate and of a considerable stylistic consistency among the different sections of the album, without affecting the individual characteristics of the two projects.
On the one hand, we have the well-known eclecticism of Bleeding, ranging from pages of confident guitar based prog rock (the aerial and enchanted notes of “Brooklyn In Springtime” recall the delicate touch of Tony Duhig of Jade Warrior) to rough industrial-noise excursions (the coarse-grained groove and the whirling distorted solos of “Perks Pt. 1”) or to jazzy improvisations jumping from soberly melodic to tangled and dissonant (the two parts of “Birdcanned”).
On the other hand, there is the compact suite “Idiot Savant” by Sparkle In Grey, a poignant chamber piece with neo-classical aplomb, gradually built from sparse notes of piano and a mournful violin around an emotional recurring theme, among mysterious choral breaths and subterranean cacophonies. In some moments of the album we even witness a sort of mimesis, therefore the “Intro” by Controlled Bleeding, with its weird accelerated voices on a strident rhythmic mechanism, could very well be a creation of Sparkle In Grey, while the Italians’ “Mevlano Pt. 1” could pass for an episode by Lemos, Joe Papa and associates linking free jazz to ambient drone. The two projects also reveal a common inclination towards dub, besides the propensity to explore different routes, aerial and solar but also misty and labyrinthine, often in an improvisational mode.
On “Perversions of the Aging Savant,” two champions of the international underground scene join forces to concoct an exquisitely perverse juxtaposition of free-prog-jazz-noise-ambient courses and post-rock-electro-neo-classical tidbits.

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp

Links:
Web page  (Controlled Bleeding)
Facebook (Controlled Bleeding)
Web page  (Sparkle in Grey)
Facebook  (Sparkle in Grey)
Progarchives  (Sparkle in Grey)
Proggnosis  (Sparkle in Grey)

Atris "Dawn"

Country: USA
Genre(s): Progressive Rock
Format: digital
Release date: May 31, 2015
Tracklist: 

1. Part 1: Hunger 01:50
2. Part 2: Flight/Journey (Instrumental) 15:47
3. Part 3: Tachyglossus Aculeatus 06:57
4. Part 4 (section 1): The Ancient Zaglossus 06:45
5. Part 4 (section 2): The Ancient Zaglossus 24:33
6. Part 4 (section 3): The Ancient Zaglossus 08:15
7. Part 5: Transformation (Instrumental) 08:56
8. Part 6: Aphorism/The Dawn 10:58

Line-up: 
Alex Anglesey: Drums, Percussion, Synthesizer, Vocals
Stephen Beck: Bass Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Lead Vocals
Corey Collatz: Guitar, Keys (Part 3)
   With
Wyatt Matson: Keys
Connor McEvoy: Goblin Vocals
Jacob Tonks: Cello

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp (name your price)

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Purple "Mimetophonic Windows"

Country: UK
Genre(s): Progressive Rock
Format: digital
Release date: May 31, 2015
Tracklist: 
1. Munaar (16:00)
2. Ketchup (16:00)
3. JPC (16:00)
4. Pandon (16:00)

Line-up: 
Dan Hodgson - all instruments

Description/Reviews: 

With soaring melodies, luscious soundscapes and intricate rhythms, Purple explores the boundaries between the mainstream and the progressive. The outpouring of multi-instrumentalist Dan Hodgson, lyrical without lyrics, grand visions with long, evolving tracks in concept albums, deliberately echoing Camel, Yes, Pink Floyd and Mike Oldfield. 

Media/Samples 
Bandcamp (name your price)

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