Ora Cogan "Formless" ALBUM REVIEW [ambi-pop, singer/songwriter, americana]

by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media  [album released August 22, 2023]

The very unique Ora Cogan's new album feels like it was recorded in secret and hidden places off the beaten and over-trodden paths of so much modern music- perhaps in an old cabin nestled in the British Columbian wilds. She thrives in her unhurried atmospheres of dreamy, gauzy melodies, occasionally urgent and summoning the listener into active engagement. At other times sweetly crooning you into a meditative state of relaxation. 

There's many moments to be treasured on "Formless". It arrives steeped with both decipherable and indecipherable influences: some smokey country rock/Americana (almost Neil Young-ish), and some 80s pop rock (reminiscent of Andy Summers and The Police in some of the electric guitar work).

The soulful and rich 'Ways of Learning' is a heart-warming duet featuring Luz Elena Mendoza of Y La Bamba. The song at times lavishes you with gentle vocal harmonizations. JP Carter expands the palette with textured trumpet imprinted with echo, delay and distortion.

'Dyed' is a revisit with the same stand-out song released on her EP late in 2022. At first I wondered why redo it? But now I feel blessed to have both versions. It has been produced to be less ethereal and more rhythmically pronounced for the toe-tappers. 

Prog dog score: "Formless" gets a tasty 4 1/2 out of 5 bones. It's varied but cohesive, adorned with Ora's trademark dreamy sweet vocals, a plethora of humble and interesting instrumentations and guest performances. It pulls back the curtain on Cogan's intimate and exotic (but grounded) world. 

https://oracogan.bandcamp.com/album/formless   

http://www.oracogan.com/

See my video version of this review on prog dog channel: (link T.B.A.) 

The Mommyheads "Coney Island Kid" ALBUM REVIEW [indie-prog-pop]

by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media    [album released July 31, 2023]

This solid new album from The Mommyheads is so full of fresh creative twists and turns I can only surmise every single member of the band is a full fledged record producer. And because of this it's hard to imagine that there wouldn't be a little something for everyone here on this 15th release from a band I'm embarrassed to admit I've not come across until now.

Coming out of NYC they do have a sort of overall big city kinda grit, but also earthy vibes. The prog influences are indie-pop flavoured. There are even touches on jazz, like on the track Onset MA which has - like all the songs on this album- brilliant and powerful moments that defy the most cynical of music critics. 

Let me sum up my assessment process of this album as I re-listen to it: It's like being on the hook-end of a fishing rod that undeniably and ever-so slowly reels you in. The real question is 'Will I get scooped up out of the water in a net and get tossed into The Mommyhead's fridge for dinner?' 

Only time will tell I guess but it is encouraging to me that a band with a long history like The Mommyheads can still knock 'em right out of the park. 

"Coney Island Kid" is a concept album, and so all of its intriguing compositions are somehow bound together with this theme. There are interesting little snapshots of recordings from the famous amusement park binding the tracks all together as well. I've always found old amusement parks strangely creepy at times, so the album cover was initially creepy to me as well. After some spins of the disc it's just totally cute to me now. That little child has a sweet, expectant and innocent expression oblivious to the scary old gargoyles and ghoulish faces surround her. This is a powerful image. 

I'm making an educated guess but surely XTC fans would readily embrace this music, and Neal Morse Band fans. Same goes for fans of later Beatles and even Genesis a la 1974 thanks to some bass work reminiscent of Michael Rutherford's crunchy Rickenbacker bass. 

As far as the pallette of colours employed here, synthesizers and keys do play a serious role. Several tracks also feature steel string acoustic guitars, possibly dobro?, plus of course electric guitars, plenty of great vocal harmonies, and very in-the-pocket drums and electric bass. The lead vocals are very good- expressive, quite likeable. I find something about his voice familiar but frustratingly I can't pin it down. Is it a Don McLean "American Pie" kind of voice? Perhaps, but more mature and seasoned. 

The tagline on the band's Twitter (X) is "We’ve played thousands of shows to hundreds of people". Too many great bands suffer this fate! This would not be for lack of talent as musicians or songwriters. Nor for lack of effort- they were signed to Geffen records for an album, for heaven's sake!... which received plenty of glowing reviews from some high places. 

Prog dog Score: "Coney Island Kid" by the Mommyheads is a solid 4 out of 5 bones. It's inventively written, creatively produced and performed, full of pragmatic groove and mature verve. Anyone searching for intelligent, catchy music that grabs you on first listen- what are you waiting for? 

to see a video interview with the Mommyheads' Andy Elk: https://youtu.be/Npwz1LsmdrQ

to see a video version of this review: https://youtu.be/atO4N4O-gRQ

Space Kitchen - "Space Kitchen" ALBUM REVIEW [basement prog rock/ pop]

by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media   [album released April 14, 2023]

It's not often I trip across a new band of younglings that remind me of E.L.O. and Camel. Even more cool, the singer kind of sounds like Joey Ramone, so there's a tinge of a punk or new wave 80s attitude. Mix this all together and you get Space Kitchen, a band out of Ontario Canada that's genuinely fun to listen to.

Lots of newer prog bands are exploring the harder metal territories of the genre, but Space Kitchen proves there's still young visionaries who are inspired by the under-represented poppier and straight forward classic rock sounds of the 70s and 80s.

This band is not tied down by the popular ProTool grids of today- there are timing changes and fluctuations that allow the music to breathe as sections and movements evolve. There are plenty of rich vocal harmonies as well.

"So nice to be here, but I’m going home" reads a line of lyrics that perhaps captures the vision of the band- staying true to an inner vision that goes against the norms of popular music.

Tracks 1 and 2 are 'up' beat songs, 3 gets darker and tracks 4 through 7 unapologetically explore the prog domain.

Another treat to the ears about this band is the generous use of piano and keyboards like in I Love You Baby which also features a soulful guitar solo.

Songs like Zoo Keeper, short as it is, is large, broad, menacing in parts, with jangly guitars and dark synths and drums that rattle the cages.

With The Moving Picture I have to ask: Do we have a new inspired prog classic? Space Kitchen reveal they have a substantial vision featuring some intricate ELP-ish 70s prog vibes, epic bass riff lines... rousing stuff.

The Squig is a great little instrumental where Space Kitchen breaks out the rock organ, and Sun Tower...hold on tight to your horses folks. Some Genesis and Steve Hackett vibes- with some great bass lines.

The self-titled album, which is EP length, resolves perfectly with Pain Goblin and  some absolutely brilliant reversed bass. At that point you may feel impelled, like me, to restart the album- I find two listens in a row at least are needed.

I quite like the production - it’s a bit home-spun and garagey but it is a tad dry at times- needing some engineering tweaks to add more energy and space to the drum kit or keyboards for example. All that is quite forgivable however as Space Kitchen are full of promise if they are going to stay the course for the long run. It seems they are an indie band without any label at the moment, but for how long till they come knocking?

Prog dog Score: We give Space Kitchen's debut album a score of 3.5 out of 5 bones. It's fresh, fun and intelligent prog-influenced music for a new generation of music fans. 

Jeff Pearce "Skies and Stars" ALBUM REVIEW [Guitar Pedal Ambient, Electronic Guitarist]

by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media      [album released September 13, 2019]

I fall to sleep to this instrumental CD quite often. Normally that might not count as a vote of excellence, but seeing as I work lots of midnight shifts that's a very good thing. 

It has 3 tracks and the second is my favourite at 24 minutes. The first track at 28 minutes is more swirly ethereal while track 2 is more drone-ish with more textures in the lower registers. 

If you're new to ambient guitar music you might be surprised at how un-guitar-like it sounds. Often the artist is volume-sweeping and 'swelling' so that the actual 'attack' sounds of the pick on strings is not featured. Instead you get long stretched out loops of almost any variety of keyboard-like tones and swashes. 

Jeff is a long-time ambient guitarist based out of Indiana and has been releasing albums since 1993. Allmusic calls him "one of the top two electronic guitarists of all time". 

Prog dog Score: Rating ambient albums like this is difficult because they vary so much in approach and result and can be interpreted very differently from listener to listener. We settled on 3 1/2 out of 5 bones. As long as you're looking for an album that doesn't vary, divert or jolt you- and you seek a consistent sleep-accompanying (or work accompanying) musical and melodic ambience, you should enjoy this album by one of the greats. 

Lispector - "The Return of the Old Flame" ALBUM REVIEW [lofi synth pop livingroom rock]

by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media    [album released June 22, 2023]

Home recording is something worth championing. It's a logical first step for an artist to cut their teeth and learn the ropes on a micro scale of what might happen should you land a full blown major-label type music career. Albums like Lispector's 'The Return of the Old Flame' prove you can still master your trade on any scale and create near masterpieces- whether your music is heard by hundreds, millions or even billions. You don't need the most expensive available equipment to capture visionary talent. 

I've been captivated by Lispector's new home-produced synth-pop album for the past few weeks and it's safe to say it's gone deeper than a mere infatuation. 

Lispector is Julie Margat, a visionary one-person music-making indie rock machine. She's based in Bordeaux France but sings mainly in English. She's a prolific songwriter and self recordist with a large back catalog of material. 

Her new solo album is her 22nd (released June 2023) called The Return of the Old Flame. It's both downloadable and streamable, but better yet would be to enjoy it in its DIY glory on an analog cassette. Her first edition sold out immediately upon release and a second edition is shipping September. 

She likely recorded her album in her bedroom or living room, like most of her previous albums, dating back to her earliest work with rudimentary four-track tape machines. I don't know the production specifics of this album (I will ask when I get to interview her and find out) but I'm assuming she's working on a laptop and in the digital realm now, although the hand-crafted feel and charm persists.  

There's lots of Casio-sounding synths going on, (though she mentions the Yamaha brand) plus electric guitars and bass and at least a couple of different drum machines. There's something I find completely charming about her low-energy casual vocal style (*not implying low effort). It sounds like how you expect someone to sing when you're vocalizing in an apartment somewhere in France and trying not to disturb the neighbours during your hours of inspiration. 

Julie Margat's music buzzes with me on a deep and dreamy- happy level. Listening to her warm and economical songs, I feel as though I've spent an afternoon in her cozy French living room, resting my cold drink on a coaster atop her coffee table while she busily tracks tunes at her keyboard. The music creates an instant atmosphere that draws me in and makes me feel right at home.

She's gifted with a perpetually youthful sounding singing voice. Knowing how long she's been at it- since the late 90s, I know she can't still be 23 years old, but that's where you might peg it.  

Self Driving Car is a standout track off the album for me- I listened to it on a loop more than a few times.

Prog dog score: a solid 4 1/2 out of 5 bones. It's an astonishing but simple musical statement of a songwriter fully in her stride across the living room studio floor- a dextrously crafted home-spun near-masterpiece of synth pop.

https://lispector.org/

To see my interview video with Julie Margat: https://youtu.be/xF38KCZCgxc

Yes - "Open Your Eyes" ALBUM REVIEW (1997) [symphonic prog-rock/pop]

by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media   [album released November 1997]

Yes is one of the greatest bands of all time, but here we have an album that in some respects can be held up as an example of how NOT to produce this legendary band. It is overwhelmingly positive and uplifting with song titles like Love Shine, No Way we can Lose, Wonderlove, and New State of Mind...but does it open our eyes to who Yes really is? 

This album supports my thesis that Yes are at their best in an analog tape-based studio like back in the 70s, where options are limited, forcing the band to make key decisions that uphold only the fundamentals that make Yes 'Yes'. 

And what are those fundamentals? One essential would be Chris Squire's bass, which on this album gets softened and squashed back into the mix instead of being like a massive stone boulder integral to the Yes sound that it is. It needs to be a foundation- along with the drums, for the rest of the band to build up and out from. The drums are not too bad sounding but seem to lack oxygen and space at times. 

Another fundamental to the Yes sound is Jon Anderson's vocals which are largely great on this album and I can't find much to fault with them (as with almost anything he has done in his long career). There does seem a lack of leadership from the keyboard department though, and after some research this is self-explained. Several people are credited on keyboards including Igor Khoroshev, Jeff Porcaro of Toto, and mostly by Billy Sherwood (who was tasked with the heavy load of recording and mixing as well). Not that the keyboards weren't interesting and tasteful throughout the album but you can sense the effect this had on the album as a whole. By the conclusion of the album Sherwood was officially part of the Yes line up.

Another Yes hallmark are the multi-part complex harmonies and backing vocals. There are plenty here, maybe even much more than usual and done thicker than usual as well, like on the opener New State of Mind.

The Open Your Eyes album is undeniably ambitious and heart-warming. There are loads of great Yes moments. I enjoy Steve Howe's work on this album which is refreshingly varied and diverse as he happily pecks away at his guitar. In fact I'm surprised Steve made out as well as he did on this album. Really, Open Your Eyes is a Trevor Rabin- appropriate album. It could have benefited from his powerful Van Halen-like tones blasting from stacks of Marshall amps- a vibe Steve Howe has mostly avoided- except for the Yes Drama album of course (which ironically foreshadows and predates the Rabin-dominated 1980s Yes). The story is that Howe and Anderson came into the album late, as Squire and Sherwood had worked out much of it already according to Wikipedia). 

Open Your Eyes is a rather playful pop prog rock album. In many respects this album doesn't lack anything- much was brought to the table, but there are no side-long epics, or any longer songs in fact. It has an abundance of great melodies and Yes-y ideas but unfortunately they don't get to shine to their maximum potential.  

Love Shine is great example of a song with fantastic potential but again, the vision was not carried through. The back up 'shine' vocals sound like they're coming out of a closet, and the synth bass line is so squashed it's almost inaudible. The song sounds rather two-dimensional, yet compositionally-speaking there's some truly inspiring sections and Howe is shining. Overall it's a really great tune that suffered an unfair fate.

Man in the Moon is a total anomaly on this album, and a real skipper, or should I say run fast and far in the opposite direction when you hear it playing. It is the worst- the very worst song under the Yes moniker ever produced. 

Prog dog score: Barely 3 bones out of 5.  It's not a total face plant, but certainly when you ponder the potential that was there, it's a real hair puller. Don't hurry to hear this album if you haven't, but for Yes super fans/ complete-ists it's an essential part of their history and needs to be appreciated for what it is. Maybe someday the album will get a total remix and remaster as it so deserves. 

For the video version of this review go HERE! 

Buck's Moonlight Revival - self-titled - ALBUM REVIEW [concept album/ lo-fi alt-folk]

by Dean Wolfe, Prog dog Media     [album released June 27, 2021]

When I think about concept albums lo-fi folk isn't the first thing that springs to mind. Cue Buck's Moonlight Revival- a couple (Eric and Caitlin) shacked up in a house in Kingston Ontario with loads of 'vintage' gear including an 8 track Tascam 488 tape recorder as the centrepiece (thought there might be a cat there who would feel otherwise).

Add to that mix: a taste for atmospherics that hearkens stark and barren landscapes not unlike the icy north, sweet and wispily lilting female vocals, gently picked acoustic guitars, analog synths and layers of bowed instruments of any stringed variety, plus a touch of harmonica and saw (of the tree-cutting variety).

The lyrics are adapted from the poems of singer Caitlin's grandfather who yearned that one day they could be put to music. 

The album flows from track to track. It's meant to be enjoyed as a whole. The only break is in the very middle of the album when either the tape or vinyl record would need to be turned around- something that is novel to the recent generation who know only the world of streaming (but a resurgence of cassette decks and record players are bubbling underneath the surface and gaining popularity among younger folk).

There is a great relaxing simplicity to this record. There are no drum machines, no real percussion of any kind, except for the natural rhythms evoked by Eric's fingerstyle guitar and baritone ukulele pickings between long breaks of atmospherics utilizing found sounds and backward tape meanderings. This self-titled album evokes a feeling of soul-searching as if you are gently becoming aware of a long lost memory. It's full of buzzes and vibrations, breezes and birds, haunting echoes and soothing singing. 

Prog dog score: 4.5 / 5 bones.  Buck's Moonlight Revival is no less epic for its quietness. It marks an exciting (but calming) start to this couple's career. May it be long and prosper.

 

LINKS: Stay tuned for the interview with BMR on the Prog dog channel. 

https://www.bucksrevival.com/