Back catalogue: Progressive Rock

Review: The hugely influential and way ahead of their time crew of spacerock freaks known as Hawkwind see an official release for this 1972 recording of the band in action at Camden's Roundhouse, previously circulating in bootleg form. The show was part of their 'Space Ritual' tour and captures them pretty much at the height of their powers, with Lemmy's bass tones driving on a powerful garage rock grind that did a lot to inspire both metal and punk. The double LP set also showcases their pioneering work with mind bending electronics, and at times, between the heavier rockouts they verge on ambient experimentation. Add some classic tunes like 'Master of the Universe' and 'Silver Machine' and this ends up being quite an all round winner.

Review: Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe might sound like the elaborate name of a facetious solo artist, but it's actually a later alias of progressive rock supergroup Yes, after they resolved to stop going by the name Yes. Yes, indeed, this is Yes in reunited form, having packed in the former name with a resounding No. Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Rick Wakeman and Steve Howe return for this later-career, nine-track smorgasbord, which shows off the group's collaborative-compositional complexity, virtuosic musicianship and belty vocals. Everything from heroic theme music to instrumental ecstatic dances feature here, with the opener potentially especially appealing to DJs.

Review: Commonly regarded as the first official release from avant-garde prog/space rock outfit Heldon; Electronique Guerilla (also known as Heldon 1), served as a pioneering piece of studio experimentation and manipulation, utilising a myriad of guitar effects, tape delay and electronics, collated together by the genius of Richard Pinhas. Building the pieces from a Schizo (the earlier incarnation of Heldon) track together with solo guitar loops and electronic works, while warping elements from another collaborative cut with guitarist Alain Renaud, the fruitful, cosmic, proto-wave machinations are often credited as some of the earliest influences from King Crimson's Robert Fripp (who Pinhas cited as a major influence and master of the guitar) and Brian Eno, yet while in no way shying away from their inspirations, Pinhas has since specified that "Heldon 1 was released in '74 at the same time Muff Winwood released the first Fripp & Eno", so while similarities and comparisons are welcome, more attentive ears should be able to extract the nuanced differences with which Heldon crafted their hallucinatory, boundary-pushing early opus. Originally released on Pinhas' own Disjuncta Records and limited to 1000 copies, this long overdue reissue won't stick around anywhere near as long as these swelling brain-pieces.

Review: Hedvig Mollestad has a considerable weight of recorded music under her belt from her pre-existing trio with Ellen Brekken and Ivar Loe Bjornstad, and now the Norwegian experimental guitarist is heralding a new outfit for further explorations on the outer edges of jazz fusion. Joining Mollestad on her journey this time around is Stale Storlokken on keys, fresh from Supersilent and Elephant9, and promising improv drummer Ole Mofjell. Weejuns is a freewheeling excursion somewhere around the orbit of bands like Henry Cow, Soft Machine and Mahavishnu Orchestra, captured live from various gigs in Oslo and Stavanger and spread across an expansive double album.