Back catalogue: Progressive Rock

Review: Porcupine Tree's Fear Of A Blank Planet gets an expansive reissue via Transmission, offering the most comprehensive edition of the iconic 2007 album to date. This deluxe edition is packaged in a 112-page hardback book featuring rare photographs by Lasse Hoile & Carl Glover, and an in-depth exploration of the album's creation by Stephen Humphries. The five-CD set includes newly remastered versions of Fear Of A Blank Planet and the Nil Recurring EP, alongside over 55 minutes of previously unreleased demos. Fans will also find live performances from The Garage in Saarbrucken in 2006, a BBC session, and an unplugged instore performance from 2007. The inclusion of these early live recordings offers fascinating insights into the evolution of the album's material. The Blu-ray disc includes remastered stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes, a 2024 documentary, and live footage from The Palladium in Koln. With contributions from prog legends Robert Fripp and Alex Lifeson, Fear Of A Blank Planet stands as one of the band's most celebrated works. This reissue provides a deep dive into the creation of an album that remains a cornerstone of progressive rock.

Review: This new quadruple CD release captures the legendary 'classic quartet' of The Soft Machine band during their final European tour on February 27th and 28th, 1971. While previously released sets from the latter date exist, this marks the first complete release of both nights, with half of it being entirely unreleased material. The performances, held in a relatively intimate venue, offer a captivating stereo experience. Soft Machine's concerts at the Henie-Onstad Art Center in Norway were unique and set against an art exhibition backdrop as well as being accompanied by Mark Boyle's films. Listening back now and it's easy to hear the band's dynamic evolution across consecutive nights in the unique museum setting.

Review: Phaedra is the fifth studio album by German electronic group Tangerine Dream, recorded in November 1973 at The Manor in Shipton-on-Cherwell, England, and released in 1974 through Virgin. An icier, tempoless departure for a band otherwise better recognised for their sequencer-led, soundtrack-bred sound, this was a hidden moulin for frost-drone fanatics, and a deviant pupil of the otherwise strict Berlin School. Despite receiving little to no airplay, Phaedra gained significant traction through word of mouth when it was released by a rather more hippified Richard Branson's fledgling Virgin label, eventually reaching number 15 on the UK Albums Chart and remaining on the charts for 15 weeks. Its long-form pieces, such as 'Sequent C' and 'Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares', represent an indifference to constraints of timing, instead washing over the ears as diachronic, swirling, crisp ice ambient smirrs.