The lengthy, atmospheric and sinister-sounding opener “Drag Ropes” sets the tone. With dominant sounds of acoustic guitar and mellotron plus piano, strings and woodwind it comes over as a soundtrack of a particularly spooky film, probably shot in grainy black-and-white. The film probably has subtitles, and everyone dies at the end.

It’s a record that owes as much to classical and folk music as it does to rock, and manages to combine a stripped-down minimalism with an ambitious cinematic scope. Save for one clattering outburst on “Hag”, accompanied by the only powerchords on the entire album, there is very little in the way of conventional rock drumming. But despite those dissonant strings and even the odd outbreak of pure white noise, it’s by no means an impenetrable record. It does need a few listens to fully appreciate it’s subtleties, which means it’s something you can listen to many times and keep discovering something new. It’s a work filled with moments of delicate beauty, whether it’s vocal harmonies or the sparse acoustic and electric guitar work.

There are elements of both musician’s other work, from Steve Wilson’s solo work to Opeth’s “Heritage” and “Damnation”. Parts of the instrumental “Lock Howl”, built around a rhythm loop and swirling keyboards recalls mid-period Tangerine Dream before giving way to percussion loops and disturbing discordant strings. There is also something of Talk Talk’s classic “Spirit of Eden” in it’s eschewing of conventional song structures in favour of soundscapes and textures, and that comparison is especially apparent on the dreamy closing track “Ljudet Innen”. There is also a bit of the spirit of Radiohead’s “Kid A” in it’s refusal to make any compromise towards commerciality or pander to audience expectations. In the unlikely event that you were still expecting Blackwater Park meets In Absentia, this is not the record you were looking for.

What we have is the sound of two of the progressive rock world’s most talented individuals following their combined muses wherever it takes them. It takes them and their listeners through some strange and exotic sonic landscapes, and it’s a more than worthwhile journey for anyone who chooses to follow. Bold and experimental, but still remaining accessible, it’s a genuinely progressive record in the true sense of the word.

Things started with a short live set from the band. Well, most of the band, since they played as a semi-acoustic five-piece minus Andy Smith and Gavin Griffiths. Bryan Josh played acoustic guitar throughout, but Iain Jennings play more than just piano parts on keys, and Liam Davison did some electric lead parts. Anne-Marie Helder doubled up on flute and percussion (is there no instrument she cannot play?). The set consisted entirely of stripped-down reworkings of existing material with no completely new numbers, drawing very heavily from “Passengers” including a great flute-heavy “Pass the Clock”. Other highlights were “Second Hand” from “Glass Shadows” with some very atmospheric lead guitar from Liam, and Livvy’s oldie “Rain Song”, played as a trio with piano and flute. It had been the band’s original intention to play the bonus disk “A Weather For Poets” in their entirety, including some new songs. Unfortunately several of the band were ill in the days immediately before the gig, and there wasn’t enough time to rehearse them. Still, it was interesting to hear fresh takes of those older numbers.

The second part of the evening was a playback of the album through the PA, at something approaching concert volumes, with various members of the band scattered among the audience. It’s difficult to judge an album properly on just two listens, especially for a band of Mostly Autumn’s musical scope. So this shouldn’t be taken as a proper review, which will have to wait until I’ve got hold of the CD when it ships in a few weeks time. Rather it’s my immediate first impressions.

The album starts with a very dynamic and very immediate opening number that reminds me of European symphonic metal bands like Sonata Arctica or Nightwish, and things continue in that vein. There are a couple of Deep Purple sounding songs awash with Hammond organ. There are one or two quieter moments, with a bit of Anne-Marie’s flute, and yet again there’s some Uilleann pipes, presumably from Troy Donockley.

But the overall feel is something heavier and more contemporary-sounding than anything they’ve done before. I wouldn’t have used the word “metal” to describe anything Mostly Autumn have done in the past. This is an album which, if properly marketed, could win over a significant crossover fanbase from the metal community.

Livvy’s vocals are amazing; there is a lot of material that makes full use of her power and range, and sounds utterly unlike anything Heather would have sung. If Go Well Diamond Heart emphasised Bryan’s guitar, this one’s far more about Livvy’s vocals. There are performances here in the same league as the likes of Within Temptation’s Sharon Den Adel.

This is the sound of a very different and re-invented Mostly Autumn. While I liked a lot of “Go Well Diamond Heart” and reviewed it favourably at the time, hearing the new one makes you realise how much the band had been playing it safe for their first album with a new lead singer. Now they’re showing what they can really do. Not only can I not wait until I get the CD so I can hear it again, but I can’t wait to see it all performed live when the band tour in September.

If you’re aggrieved about something, the last thing you should do is start washing dirty linen in public on social networks or on blogs. That does nothing but reflect badly on you, and risks dragging your fans into a dispute they didn’t ask to be part of. If you really can’t stay silent, do what every other musician I know has done. Go and and write a song about it.

I find that a very chilling line.

What these same lobbyists won’t say is just how much of the internet they are willing to destroy in order just in order to protect a specific business model so it can be as highly profitable as it was in 1995. Somehow I think even those of us who would never indulge in wholesale copyright violation are not going to like the answer.

We are taking pre-orders through our official website SHOP, and in the coming weeks the album will also be available directly from Esoteric Antenna at the Cherry Red Records website.

The first 2000 orders placed will receive the stunning ‘digipak’ version of ‘S K I N’ – an exclusive special edition with extended artwork and a beautiful fold-out design. A true collectors’ item.

After these first 2000 copies, the album will be available in standard jewel-case format. All pre-orders will be despatched first in line, when the albums are ready to send.

If you like great music with a real singer and real musicians, go and order this now. You won’t regret it.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Tinyfish live. Last time was the now-infamous CRS Octoberfest way back in 2009. They proceeded to play an enthusiastic set of highly melodic song-orientated progressive rock interspersed with their distinctive spoken-word interludes from poet and “audience-frightener” Rob Ramsay. The latter reminded me a lot of “Fact and Fiction” era Twelfth Night. It’s not to everyone’s taste, but it is something that makes them distinctive, and Rob Ramsey has the dramatic presence to make it work. They drew heavily from their most recent album “The Big Red Spark”, from which the title track was a particular highlight.

I loved the band’s laid-back unpretentious style, exemplified by Leon Camfield’s line about his drumming being “like a clown ambling through a minefield”. Unusually for a prog band Tinyfish don’t have a keyboard player, relying on a mixture of programming and strange guitar effects whenever unguitarlike sounds are required. The folk-style fiddle sound coming from Jim Sanders’ guitar at the end was particularly effective. A nice set, and I’d have liked to have heard them play for longer.

DeeExpus are another band I haven’t encountered for some time; the last time I saw them live was again in 2009, supporting Touchstone at The Wesley Centre in Maltby. The band started out as a studio-based project from multi-instrumentalist Andy Ditchfield and singer Tony Wright. Now they’re a six-piece, who in the manner typical of the prog scene at this level includes people who are also members of numerous other bands.

They played heavy neo-prog that reminded me a lot of Grey Lady Down a few weeks before. Unfortunately they suffered from a rather muddy sound, with the vocals in particular not coming through clearly. I was told afterwards that the sound was actually better in the bar. There was much shredding from new guitarist Michael McCrystal, who sported an impressive 1980s-style perm and gave the impression he’d escaped from Mike Varney’s Shrapnel Records. Credo/Landmarq keyboard player Mike Varty, standing in on a temporary basis for Marillion’s Mark Kelly, indulged in some very 80s-Marillion style solos. Henry Rogers, now also in Touchstone contributed some very powerful drumming. The downside was that all the undoubted instrumental prowess didn’t quite compensate for material that was a bit ordinary in places, and I found my attention wandering at times. To be fair the poor sound didn’t help them in that regard. Still, the set picked up towards the end, and did come to a strong finish with the last couple of numbers.

The whole evening felt close to a double headliner rather than traditional band-with-support. The number of Tinyfish t-shirts in evidence and way the crowd had thinned out noticeably by the time DeeExpus came on stage suggested that a lot of the audience had really come to see to see the support. While the headliners had their moments, for my money Tinyfish were the band of the night.

This for me sums up everything that’s wrong with the music business. It’s why the majors must die.

The cloth-eared bean-counters at WMG will of course blame “piracy”. Never their own short-sightedness, stupidity and greed.

If you want to know why this matters, look at the artists on Roadrunner’s roster: Opeth, Porcupine Tree, Within Temptation, Dream Theater and Mastodon, and that’s just the start. It’s like a who’s who of the bigger prog and metal bands who are producing original and challenging music. And WMG have just fired everyone who knew and understood that music. The cloth-eared bean-counters of course all keep their jobs, and if you’re a fan of any of the above bands, you have every reason to fear the worst.

The great thing about Roadrunner is it allowed artists space to develop, and saw bands like Opeth and Porcupine Tree achieve significant success on their own terms, in complete contrast to the cookie-cutter approach that has typified the major labels in recent years. Almost all the music I’ve bought in the past 2-3 years that hasn’t been on small indies has been on Roadrunner. And most of that has been by European artists who all now face an uncertain future. As Earache owner Digsby said on Twitter

Some corporate twonk at Warners thinks promoting Machine Head & Opeth can be done just like Linkin Park & Green Day?

I hope as many bands as possible manage to extricate themselves from this – Most of them would be better off now with smaller independent labels who understand their music rather than have their career in the hands of some idiot in a suit on another continent who wants them to sound like Nickelback.

Time for Storm Corrosion to redo the shadow puppet video for “Drag Ropes” with a WMG executive replacing the priest.

First taste of Mikael Åkerfeldt and Steve Wilson’s new project Storm Corrosion, accompanied by a dark and tragic puppet show which fundamentalists are probably not going to like.

As for the brooding, sinister and cinematic music, for which the imagery is a perfect match, there are the occasional echoes of both Porcupine Tree and Opeth, but it’s got a sound all of it’s own.

OUT OF AN ANCIENT WORLD is the debut album from Riversea, the band is the nucleus of Marc Atkinson (vocals/acoustic guitar) and Brendan Eyre (piano/synths), however Marc & Brendan are joined on the album by Alex Cromarty (The Heather Findlay Band) on drums,with guitar duties spread between Bryan Josh, Liam Davison (Mostly Autumn), Paul Cusick, Adrian Jones (Nine Stones Close), Mark Rowen (ex Breathing Space), Adam Dawson (Stolen Earth), and Ashley Mulford (Sad Cafe,Mandalaband). Bass duties are performed by Dave Clements, and backing vocals provided by Olivia Sparnenn (Mostly Autumn), Janine Benn and Louise Dawson, last but not least,Tony Patterson (Regenesis/So Gabriel) adds flute.

The album had been so long in the making I almost wonder if the title is an allusion to how long ago Marc and Brendan started out! The list of guest musicians reads like a who’s who of the rather incestuous York prog scene, including no less than four different people who had played lead guitar for Breathing Space.

Anyway, here’s a taster from the album, the song “Eden”:

There haven’t been as many reviews on this site lately, because I’ve been writing instead for Trebuchet Magazine, which has a much higher profile that this blog.

My most recent live reviews over there have been The Esoteric Antenna showcase at The Borderline featuring The Reasoning, Sanguine Hum, Panic Room and headliners Tin Spirits, and before that, Touchstone supported by Heather Findlay & Chris Johnson at The Duchess in York.

I’m also reviewing albums that Trebuchet have received for review from record labels; the last of mine is of “Oro: Opus Primum” by doom-sludge merchants Ufomammut.