Category: prog-rock


Yes – Tales from Topographic Oceans (Super Deluxe Edition) (2026)

Filed Under: deluxe edition, prog-rock by exy — 1 Comment
February 5, 2026

…features a newly remastered version of the original double album; rarities; previously unreleased studio and live recordings; and several new mixes by Steven Wilson.
Tales from Topographic Oceans‘ sprawling concept was dug into by frontman Jon Anderson, who was immersed in Paramahansa Yogananda’s bestselling Autobiography of a Yogi. Drawing from a lengthy footnote that described four shastras (Hindu texts outlining basic precepts of social and religious life), Anderson and guitarist Steve Howe primarily conceived four pieces of music that would each take up one side of a vinyl album. Bassist Chris Squire and new drummer Alan White (replacing Bill Bruford after his exit) went with the flow, agreeably retreating to Morgan Studios…

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The Protomen – Act III: This City Made Us (2026)

Filed Under: prog-rock by exy — 1 Comment
January 31, 2026

If a band has been around long enough, they inevitably release a concept album. Fewer, though, are like The Protomen, who for the past two decades have been creating a three-part rock opera saga. The band utilizes characters from the Megaman video game universe to craft an epic story with ’80s-inspired synthwave mixed with guitar rock. It’s been a long time since their last 2009 release, Act II: The Father of Death, so the hype is real. And let’s be clear — we mean tremendously real, so much so that Act III: This City Made Us became one of the highest pre-ordered albums on Bandcamp by the end of 2025. If a high-octane, thrilling ride set to ‘80s rock music with Capcom video game characters doesn’t excite you, it’s reasonable to feel ambivalent…

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Plantoid – FLARE (2026)

Filed Under: prog-rock by exy — 1 Comment
January 30, 2026

The follow-up to Terrapath, the band’s debut album, Flare finds prog-, math, and jazz-rock-injected indie rockers Plantoid pushing their shape-shifting sound in even more directions. It was again produced by sometimes live member Nathan Ridley, who helped them both stretch their stylistic palette and settle down their tendency toward abrupt changes, instead staying with moods for a little while longer.
This has resulted in some lengthier track times, with four of the nine songs here passing the six-minute mark. It has also contributed to spacey, atmospheric entries like the daydreamy “Slow Moving,” whose elongated, sustain-suffused design doesn’t feel the need to burst into a more uptempo jam. A song like “The Weaver” is…

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Children of the Mushroom – Lady (2025)

Filed Under: prog-rock, psychedelic rock, remastered by driX — 1 Comment
January 18, 2026

Formed in California in 1967, Children of the Mushroom were the quintessential garage-psych band. As the times evolved, the band hardened their sound, shortening their name to Mushroom. Jerry McMillen remembers the start: “The initial issue: every member was quite novice on their instrument.” He continues, “Al began playing bass, Dennis took up drumming, and Mark McKean and I both handled guitars. We were already developing original compositions beyond the cover songs we performed—that might have been the catalyst.”
By 1970, Mushroom became Lady, incorporating prog-rock influences and instruments like flute to their hard-pych organ/guitar dominated sound, drawing inspiration from bands like Jethro Tull, Steamhammer, Gypsy or Bloodrock.

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Caspar Brötzmann Massaker – It’s a Love Song (2025)

Filed Under: ***, experimental, prog-rock by exy — 2 Comments
January 13, 2026

Caspar Brötzmann, founder and leader of the avant-rock power trio Massaker, has been away from the spotlight for a while without being inactive. The band went on hiatus after releasing five glorious albums between 1986 and 1994, and touring the globe several times.
They continued to play live occasionally, but weren’t interested in recording. The guitarist recorded an album with his father Peter Brötzmann’s tentette (The März Combo Live in Wuppertal), issued three duo albums with F.M. Einheit, Page Hamilton, and Robin Guthrie, and did session work. In 2013, he formed the power trio Nohome and issued an eponymous album. In 2017, Brötzmann teamed with bassist Massimo Pupillo and drummer Alexandre Babel for…

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Three-Layer Cake – Sounds the Color of Grounds (2025)

Filed Under: jazz, prog-rock by exy — 1 Comment
January 11, 2026

Sounds the Color of Grounds, the sophomore album by the progressive trio Three-Layer Cake, is full of surprises, oozing a rebellious sense of freedom and energy that is unmistakably the group’s own. The trio consists of adventurous guitarist/banjoist Brandon Seabrook, bassist Mike Watt, and drummer Mike Pride.
The group made its debut in 2021 with Stove Top, recorded remotely as an incendiary response to the pandemic. This new album follows the same approach — with the curious detail that Watt, who lives in California, has never met Seabrook or Pride in person. They plan to get together soon at Pride’s studio in Chester, NY, to record their upcoming third album.
“Deliverdance” channels the punk rock spirit…

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ZU – Ferrum Sidereum (2026)

Filed Under: jazz, prog-rock by exy — 1 Comment
January 8, 2026

Although it’s hard to know whether Zu themselves will be happy to hear this image being invoked, there’s something slightly eerie about one of the first sounds on the opening track of their latest album sounding more than a little like the whirring of helicopter blades. Recalling a key image of the first major news story of the year feels like one of their strange but apt alchemical coincidences that great artists can sometimes conjure up. Italian trio Zu are true musical alchemists. Their singular jazz-punk/experimental rock sound takes base materials (saxophone, bass and drums) and turns them into something wondrously radiant; a heavy, meditative, groovy and spiritual fusion whose formula belongs to them alone.
While the band have plied their singular trade…

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Koenjihyakkei – Angherr Shisspa (Revisited) (2025)

Filed Under: prog-rock, reissue by exy — 1 Comment
December 29, 2025

Is Kōenjihyakkei’s Angherr Shisspa the greatest Zeuhl album ever made? It could be. …although it’s debatable how much that actually counts for. So, any noise created that helps celebrate this excellent 20th anniversary reissue is not just good for the stature of the album but also for Zeuhl in general, as it is itself a largely overlooked genre. ‘What is Zeuhl?’ you might feel justified in asking. Zeuhl is a moody and bass-driven hybrid of jazz fusion, prog rock and chamber music, typically featuring complex compositions which slough off conventional song structures and apply operatic vocals. This form requires a lot, even from virtuoso musicians. In reality though any definition of Zeuhl is a closed loop because this is music that sounds like Magma; and the term…

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Yes – Fly from Here-Return Trip (2025)

Filed Under: prog-rock by driX — 1 Comment
December 25, 2025

Yes recorded the original version of ‘Fly from Here’ during breaks in touring in 2010 and 2011, during which they enlisted former Yes frontman Trevor Horn as producer. The original received mixed reviews and peaked at No. 30 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 36 on the US Billboard 200.
The alternative version of the album titled Fly from Here – Return Trip features the classic ‘Drama’ era line- up who were reunited in 2018 to create a new version featuring all new vocals from Trevor Horn plus new instrumental parts, alongside a more organic mix highlighting Chris Squire’s unique voice and bass contributions as well as additional parts from Steve Howe and Geoff Downes.
The original album was released on 25 March 2018 during the band’s 50th anniversary tour…

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Shardik – Cruelty Bacchanal (2025)

Filed Under: jazz, prog-rock, world by exy — 1 Comment
December 25, 2025

Cruelty Bacchanal, the second release from guitarist Matt Hollenberg’s group Shardik, is a ferocious statement of intent. Years in the making and issued on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, the album presents a volatile and politically charged fusion of modern classical structure, metal intensity, and free jazz unpredictability.
Hollenberg’s compositions are marked by intricate rhythmic architecture and an uncompromising sonic vision, alternating between explosive virtuosity and dark, layered atmospheres.
Executed with surgical precision and blistering intensity, Hollenberg’s playing veers between soaring lyricism, dense harmonic structures and searing improvisation. The result is a tightly coiled set of compositions that challenge…

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Henry Now – Then Again (2025)

Filed Under: experimental, jazz, live, prog-rock by driX — 1 Comment
December 23, 2025

November 1978. Henry Cow disbands after a decade of music that redefined the boundaries of experimental rock. November 2022. Four founding members return to the stage. Not to look back – but to improvise the present. Fred Frith (guitar, violin, electronics), Tim Hodgkinson (keyboards, saxophone, lap steel, electronics), Chris Cutler (drums, percussion), John Greaves (bass, vocals): the original core reunited under the name Henry Now. The key is in the name – as Clive Bell noted in The Wire, this is not a nostalgia project.
No scores. No prepared material. Only the instinct honed over fifty years of sonic exploration. For many, the music of Henry Cow represented a transformative listening experience…

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Dream Theater – The Studio Albums 1992-2016 (2025)

Filed Under: box-set, hard rock/heavy metal, prog-rock by driX — 2 Comments
December 14, 2025

The Studio Albums 1992-2016 brings together nearly 25 years of groundbreaking music. It unites 12 of the band’s core studio works for the first time across 14CDs. The boxed set charts more than two decades of Dream Theater’s musical growth-a career that helped define the sound of modern progressive metal while selling more than 12 million albums worldwide.
It begins with the band’s gold-certified 1992 breakthrough, Images and Words, featuring the Top 10 hit “Pull Me Under,” then navigates a prolific decade as the band scaled new creative heights on albums like Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory, one of the greatest concept albums in progressive-rock history.
The band continued adding to its legacy…

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Jan Akkerman – My Focus: Live Under the Rainbow (2025)

Filed Under: live, prog-rock by driX — 1 Comment
December 12, 2025

Jan Akkerman in a live setting is a beautiful thing to behold, and on his new record, My Focus: Live Under the Rainbow, you can absorb his technical mastery and tone, where it was born to live – on stage.
Live music needs to offer you something that you cannot get on a studio recording. It’s the sense of freedom and intimacy, wondering how the songs will be played and what the reaction will be. Live concerts give you the tingle where the hair stands up on the back of your neck. “Live audiences give you the tension and responsibility to be creative, for me that’s the challenge I like,” says the iconic Dutch guitarist. After all of these years, you ponder what keeps Jan going out there, night after night. “It’s my love to play for people all around…

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Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here 50 (2025)

Filed Under: deluxe edition, prog-rock by exy — 8 Comments
December 12, 2025

…features 25 bonus tracks — nine studio rarities and 16 live recordings captured by bootlegger Mike Millard at Pink Floyd’s Los Angeles Sports Arena concert on April 26 1975, now receiving its first official release. The live audio has been restored and remastered by Steven Wilson.
…It’s a considerable trove of audiovisual material chronicling the British band’s Herculean task of following up the commercial success of 1973’s The Dark Side of the Moon, which was in the early stages of a staggering multi-year run on the Billboard charts. After mooting a conceptual piece involving “household objects” (heard on the bonus track “Wine Glasses”), Wish You Were Here largely deals with the numbness of absence. “Welcome to the Machine” and “Have a Cigar”…

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John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest – Relativity (2025)

Filed Under: prog-rock by exy — 1 Comment
December 10, 2025

It’s 55 years since Barclay James Harvest’s debut album, and 12 years since their last outing, North, which sailed under the flag of John Lees’ Barclay James Harvest, in use since a dispute between founding members in 1998.
Lees retired from touring two years ago – but now his quartet prove they’ve plenty left in the tank as Relativity goes big on concepts, scale and length. Its self-produced, sophisticated 78 minutes glide confidently through the gentle, unhurried brand of progressive rock which made the Barclay James Harvest name.
There’s zero attempt to update their sound: the priority is delivering carefully-crafted songs of piquant melody with soothing, sonorous guitar manoeuvres. While very much a band…

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Genesis – Abacab (Atlantic 75 Audiophile Series) (2025)

Filed Under: prog-rock, reissue by driX — 3 Comments
December 8, 2025

“An integral factor behind the production of Abacab was Hugh Padgham, an engineer responsible for the ‘gated reverb’ drum sound that defined the 1980s. As a result, Phil Collins’ drums have incredible definition across this entire pressing. Tony Banks’ keyboards often reside upfront in the mix, occasionally creeping in and out three-dimensionally during the title track or lush chords filling up the soundstage on ‘Keep It Dark.’ A massive highlight is ‘Dodo/Lurker,’ where Mike Rutherford’s bass is at its deepest, and the varying tonality of Collins’ vocals gives the different parts of the track a distinguishable characterization.”
Certified multi-platinum-selling in several countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, Genesis’ album Abacab…

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