Tag Archives: experimental prog

Piniol – Bran coucou

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

Rarely have I been so eager to listen to a new album as this. That’s hardly surprising, however, as Piniol is the heavenly merger of French avant-prog bands Ni and Poil, both of which I’ve been very fond of for years! How this symbiosis came to be is unknown to me, but that doesn’t matter. What matters is the result of this otherworldly union.

Bran coucou is the full-length endeavour made by this trio-plus-quartet, and it slaps like nothing else. As it is basically a double band playing as one, a sort of musical conjoined … Read more

Protoplasma – –

by Dæv Tremblay

The Music

The Words

What a surprise I had, when sifting through the zeuhl tag on bandcamp, when I stumbled upon this Magyar brutal prog gem. Protoplasma keeps it mysterious: we don’t know who is in the band or how many they are, only that they’re from Budapest! Maybe I should organize a field trip, someday, to make some detective work… They hardly play zeuhl music, their sound is closer to experimental, noise rock, and avant-prog, but I certainly won’t mind the indirect reference.

– (Kötőjel, I guess?) is just over thirty minutes, but it’s filled to the … Read more

Travis Orbin – Silly String Ⅱ

by Dæv Tremblay

More than two years after the release of the original Silly String, drummer and composer Travis Orbin comes back with its sequel to close off 2017. On Ⅱ, Travis inflates the concept of the twenty-minute predecessor threefold to a staggering sixty minutes. This expansion has it benefits – for one, there is more material to listen and enjoy –, but it also has its shortcomings. While the first of its name was concise and to the point, keeping only the absolute most mind-boggling tracks on record, the second one seems more spread out, less focused, and filled with … Read more

Monotrope – Unifying Receiver

by Dæv Tremblay

Monotrope is an experimental progressive rock quartet from multiple American states, and they’ll be releasing their debut album, Unifying Receiver, on 10 November. The avant-rock release is entirely instrumental, and they take all the room they have available to make an interesting album. It’s full of diverse influences that coalesce into something that’s somewhere between post-metal and experimental math rock. Unifying Receiver is more contemplative than demonstrative – although there’s a soft balance between both aspects of the genre –, so it’s not something that will put you in awe at every turn, but the songs are cunningly crafted … Read more