Here we have a stunning 9/10 review for Kev Rowland's latest collection of his progressive rock reviews which cover the years 2008-2013 from the essential and long-running progressive rock site DPRP.Net. This Dutch site has been at the forefront of the scene for more than 20 years, and still going strong.
https://www.dprp.net/reviews/2022/070#rowland-progressive-underground-vol-4
Author Kev Rowland is a passionate prog-aficionado who during 1991-2006 led a very active life as secretary and progressive rock reviewer for the English magazine Feedback. This was a magazine written for devoted prog fans by even more devoted prog fans. Having written over a thousand album reviews and conducted a large amount of interviews, all handsomely collected in the first three volumes of The Progressive Underground, he decided to step down completely in 2006 and emigrate to New Zealand where he managed to stay away from any reviewing duties for 18 whole months!
Meeting his inevitable fate, he slowly started writing his much-loved and appreciated writings once again. And not just about progressive music, for Rowland likes pop, folk, metal, avant-garde and jazz. Nowadays, his complete turnover adds up to a staggering 1000+ reviews a year. Or better said, that's what it amounted to in 2018, so this could even be higher at the moment. Many of these reviews are featured on websites like Progarchives, Progressor.net and Muzic.Net.NZ. Considering familiar circumstances like work, eat, sleep, maintaining a healthy relationship with loved ones, pets and listening to the stuff, I think the days and nights down-under must be longer. Much, much longer...
This fourth instalment captures all of Rowland's (400+) progressive rock reviews written and published during 2008-2013, as well as three (very) short interviews. And like the previous three volumes, volume 4 is another delightful collection of passionately-told, enthusiastic and to-the-point reviews that generally opt towards a warranted positive view. Laced with insightful knowledge and essential information, they portray an easy-to-read style which makes for engaging reading.
Brilliantly entertaining for anyone with an interest and love for progressive rock (we all know who we are), this new volume follows the same principles as before. This time it is laid out in full alphabetic order whereby artists featured with several entries (Jeremy, Karda Estra, Millenium) are then subsequently categorised by ascending month/year of publishing.
Within this clear procedure, a prog-martyr-to-detail will find an exception like Soniq Theater's Life Seeker, but this is just a minor timeline glitch that proves to be completely negligible. If one notices it at all that is, for Rowland's delightful reviews paint a perfectly clear picture every time, regardless of whether he addresses a more recent album, before he pays a visit to an older one. Even when he jumps through a series of releases at random (Soniq Theater and various Robin Taylor efforts, for instance), the overall flow of his story is never broken.
With the previous books, which I also highly recommend, I got into the habit of first reading the reviews of albums that I already have/knew, after which I picked out reviews in a random manner. This way I got a great insight into Rowland's taste, sense of humour, and musical preferences. For this fourth part, I have deviated from this and fully explored and devoured the paper gold mine from front cover (which sports another fine illustration from Martin Springett), via the introduction by Olav M. Björnsen, to back. The latter featuring comments by DPRP colleague Jerry van Kooten, and Thierry Sportouche of Acid Dragon Magazine.
A hefty 300 pages of reviews might be a bit daunting for first-time readers. So another possibility, which I tried myself on holiday for a few days, is exploring a page a day. This successfully kept information-overdose away. Any which way, the satisfying end results are exactly the same and its contents have again re-acquainted me with many magnificent albums of the era, while my memory-banks spent many after hours reminiscing on those good old days. Reading upon Ark for example instantly made my ears subconsciously beg for sound-annihilating-earplugs (one of the loudest concerts I've ever witnessed), while reading reviews on Comedy Of Errors, Final Conflict, Galahad, Red Jasper and Quasar transported me back to highly memorable concerts at the Paradiso temple in Amsterdam.
To make matters worse (maybe I should move to New Zealand as well?) I found another pile of albums worthy of personal attention to which Endeavour, SYZYGY and Vangough are only a few. And at the same time, I was reminded that many safely secured albums within my collection fully deserve to be revisited again. One of those now blasting from the speaker as I type this is Threshold's Wounded Land, a brilliant album which isn't even in this part of the series (it is in volume 3 though). I'll never forget the moment I first heard Intervention, a track from the 1992 SI Compilation Disc II, which pre-dates their debut album by months, played over the intermission-stereo at Noorderligt, Tilburg, thinking: "Ooh, nice, Landmarq are going metal!" Which off course they weren't, but how was I to know in those pre-internet days?
Next to reviews of the first two Landmarq albums (1992/1993), showing my easily made mistake: many other re-issues by bands like Galahad, Pendragon, IQ, Haze and Twelfth Night are included. It is especially in this UK-based neo-progressive rock arena that Rowland's love for the genre radiates from the pages. He gets to share his vast knowledge of the scene with enthusiastic wordplay, sprinkling readers with many other interest-worthy British progressive rock acts in the process. One name I cannot remember reading about, however, is Trilogy, a band I feel should have become a big name in the prog world all those years ago. (They have recently met up after 35 years so who knows?)
With reviews on (nowadays) household names like Spock's Beard, Mystery, Haken, Flower Kings and Riverside, alongside so many lesser-to-unknown bands (some of which I reviewed myself later on in their careers), and it's clear that Rowland covers a lot of progressive (under)ground. All in all, it's virtually impossible not to find something to your liking in this highly recommendable book. Or in any of the previous volumes for that matter.
I have to admit that due to other obligations and commitments, a lot of progressive bands and albums from 2004 until approximately 2018 passed me by. Therefore, I have a slight preference towards volume 4, as it fills many a gap. Regardless of this, all four volumes are essentially icings on a huge, delicious prog cake and should be an integral part in every prog-lovers' cabinet. I frankly can't wait for the next slice, which considering Rowland's current catch-up streak, might be in the oven as we speak. Tasty stuff!
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