Graham Young – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Graham Young’s latest album is a treat for prog fusion lovers. The album takes a lot from the sound of Planet X and the likes, and crafts some mind-bending songs with complex rhythms, modulating harmonies, and a good deal of high level musicianship. Even though this is not unheard of, this attempt is really successful at nourishing that very precise craving, and so I believe it’s worth your time!

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Reflection Nebula – Loudcloud

If this were to be a physical release, it would have to be on at least three discs! Reflection Nebula are known, at least by me, for their deep ambient music. It’s tough to call them post-rock as there is so little beside the atmosphere crafted by a single guitar and multiple effect pedals (and two more people (what do they do?)). This is vast and expansive, slow and never really apexing, but it is beautiful nonetheless.

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Lac – Vostok

Lac’s Vostok is a pretty cool post-rock EP borrowing some sounds from the realm of math and prog rock, although never fully committing to these genres. Their brand is quite minimalistic, slightly synthy, and has the added value of presenting us an interesting and fresh drummer, whose beats are one of the highlights of this release!

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Bruant Zizi – Survol

Ah, yes! A noisy and eccentric math rock guitar and drums duo! France’s Bruant Zizi is highly energetic and they probably listened to a lot of Hella before recording this, although this is far from being the only influence in there. This EP is pretty wild and certainly is something! Watch out for the rare vocal spots!

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Krosis – Solem vatem

A blend of Meshuggah and Born of Osiris might sound like an awful idea, but North Carolina’s Krosis pulls it off impressively well. Solem vatem shows us their kind of technical deathcore that succeeds in not being boring by including frequent tempo changes, many layers of synths and guitars, and odd subdivisions of four- and even eight-bar hypermeasures (there’s the ‘Shug’s influence). Some of the nastiest breakdowns, too!

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Gura – Caligura

Gura is an odd avant-garde doom metal band from Belgium, and is made of sludgey bass, aethereal vocals, an unnerving saxophone, and drum beats interesting enough to fit perfectly with that weird band. Caligura‘s forty-four minutes will take you many places!

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Ian Ethan Case – Earth Suite

The Earth Suite project is the finality of Ian’s musical vision: an ambitious world fusion album featuring his own double neck acoustic guitar and advanced playing techniques. The album is big and varied and really well orchestrated. Be sure to give it a listen!

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A Formal Horse – Made in Chelsea

The Southampton quartet deals some very fine avant-prog tunes! Made in Chelsea was released last year, but a new single of theirs appeared earlier this year, hopefully more material follows. Still, this album is an absolute must to get! You’ll have all the odd time signatures, the operatic vocals, and quite a lot of fun! Check this out and count on me to keep you in tune about this band!

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Lady Bazaar – Brave

Funk, jazz, RnB, brass, and light swing. These are some of the attributes I can give about Lady Bazaar’s debut. More subjectively speaking, it’s tremendous and I love it! I shouldn’t spoil it more that this, just go ahead and listen to it, trust me!