February's Music

Although it's the shortest month, I've just totted up that I've managed to listen to 18 new albums in February, which is actually 2 more than in January! Some of you may be thinking: 'How does he find the time!'; others may say: '18? What a slacker!' As usual, it's a bit of a mixed bag, but here goes...

Although my genre of preference is Progressive rock, I do have a penchant for jazz as well, and courtesy of Graham Harfleet on Progzilla Radio I discovered Joe Henderson, and picked up a 3-album compilation released last year of his work from the 1990s: Lush Life - The music of Billy Strayhorn; So Near, So Far, most of which is re-workings of Miles Davis; and Big Band, which does what it says! This is great jazz, and includes contributions from Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride and Chick Corea among others. Alongside this I've recently taken delivery of Chris Potter's new album Circuits, released on my go-to jazz label, Edition, and this has some delightful tunes, at times reminiscent for me of Wayne Shorter. Highly recommended, if this music is your 'bag'!

Elsewhere on CD, these albums have dropped through the letter-box during the past month: The Windmill - Tribus: the Norwegian band's 3rd album, and another excellent piece of Scandinavian Prog; The Emerald Dawn - Nocturne: another 3rd album, a darker collection produced to the band's usual high standard; Duke 72 - Mid Shires Herald: the latest from the wonderfully eclectic Bad Elephant Music stable, where you never really know what you're going to get musically, but so far I've never been disappointed - stretched, yes, but not disappointed; I Am The Manic Whale - New Forms of Life: a live compilation of material from their first two albums, capturing their sound wonderfully and reminding me of a great live set last year at DanFest; Red Bazar - Things As They Appear: the band's second album with Peter Jones on vocals & keyboards, and just as good, if not slightly edging their Songs From The Bookcase, and another live gig caught at The Musician in Leicester; and Grand Tour - Clocks That Tick (But Never Talk): the follow-up to 2015's Heavy On The Beach.

I've been asked to do a couple of longer reviews of albums this month, which you can find elsewhere on this blog, if you wish, for Residuos Mentales - Introspection and for O.A.K. - Giordano Bruno.

Other stuff purchased in the last month was: Parallel or 90 Degrees - Unbranded: one of the band's back catalogue recently made available by Andy Tillison on Bandcamp and a wonderful collection of songs; Telegraph - Mir: an album from last year but so reminiscent of Camel in their heyday and early 70s Floyd; 3RDegree - Ones & Zeroes volume 0: the excellent follow-up to Ones & Zeroes volume 1 - I'd never got round to listening to this and now wonder why, as it's brilliant!; and the wonderfully bonkers Cheeto's Magazine - Amazingous: some crazy music but some very well-crafted music too. All of these are available on Bandcamp if you want to explore further.

And then there were a couple of albums I got early copies of: Tim Bowness - Flowers At The Scene: some thoughtful songs sung as only Tim can, and supported by a cast of Prog luminaries such as Peter Hammill & David Longdon among others; and The Mute Gods - Atheists & Believers: the band's 3rd album and one where Nick Beggs' voice, both lyrically & vocally, is becoming stronger and more distinct. These two will probably have to live with me for a bit longer just to sink in, but they are worth it.

So, just a summary really of last month, but I hope it's been informative...