Back in stock: Progressive Rock

Review: After Dinner is like one of those molecular gastronomy adventures, where dishes are both playful and highly complex, not necessarily revealing themselves until the very end. Done with talk of food? Let's just say this is a loose art collective led by a composer called Haco, who were concerned with taking musical plurality and splicing disparate elements together to create a kind of friendly Frankenstein's monster of sound.

And friendly it definitely is. Considered a true one-off of Japanese pop-art rock-avant garde, Paradise of Replica is jaunty, it's amusing, it's beguiling and, ultimately, incredibly immersive. There are moments where the clash of pianos plucked straight from a comedy of manners opera and rough electric guitars (to give one example of the juxtapositions) feel rather strange, but it doesn't take too long for you to get sucked right into the centre of this insane sonic universe.

Review: Some tempos are pivotal to certain genres and 140 is one of those when it comes to dubstep. For that reason it is the title of this fine on going All Stars series from DUPLOC. Volume four is another masterful one with all niches explored starting with the low-end wobble of Mob Killa's 'Hattori' which is a brilliantly moody and late night saunter through a desolate urban landscape. Oudjat's 'Losing Control' is just as menacing and dark, and Ego Death pairs to back further to lush echoing hits and warped synths that hang in the air on 'Run It.' The flip side offers three more sparse but impactful cuts of hefty 140 bass brilliance.

Review: Syd Barrett recorded a special set just for the legendary John Peel Sessions for the cult Top Gear show which was presented by Peel himself on February 24, 1970. This is a record that captures exactly what he played and the selection also includes three extra unreleased songs recorded for a Bob Harris Sounds of the Seventies show almost exactly one year later. The tunes are paired with an equally historic Pink Floyd performance and the whole lot comes on a nice coloured slab of vinyl. It's a great way to relive a great time in prog.

Review: Serving as follow up to 2023's acclaimed breakout third full-length Take Me Back To Eden, London's elusive, masked progressive metal mystics Sleep Token return with Even In Arcadia. Renowned for their genre-fluid melding of djent, metalcore, post-rock with further leftfield elements of post-classical, hip-hop, trap and indie-pop, the project led by the enigmatic Vessel has seen a massive expansion in popularity since the release of their last album. Set to headline Download 2025 before embarking on their first US Arena Tour, their newest endeavour promises to maximise all of their sonic abandon and outdo their own blueprint in the process, with lead single 'Emergence' starting life as a piano ballad before morphing into an ambi-trap groove metal anthem until fading with a lush, jazzy saxophone and piano finish. No doubt, this will be one of the highest selling/streaming/controversial/debated/talked about metal-centric titles to be released this year.