A new batch of prog is on the way.

[DPM]

I placed an order with Greg Walker @ Synphonic last night. Sometime next week five brand new Cds will be showing up im my mail. I ordered the following:

1) Alamaailman Vasarat/(their debut recording)--Think of the kind of music you would hear at a circus run by lunatics.
2) O.S.I./Office of Strategic Influence--Mike Portnoy's new powertrio. The tune I heard on the new Inside Out sampler is killer.
3) Jelly Jam/Jelly Jam--A new band featuring Ty Tabor of King's X fame on guitar. Here too a tune on the aforementioned sampler caught my attention.
4) Isildurs Bane/Mind Volume 4--This band is incredible. Mind Volumes 1 and 2 are two of the best prog recordings I own.
5) Frogg Cafe/Creatures--I'm buying this one blind. A reviewer at Progressiveworld.net really liked this, so I guess I'm biting.

I also was interested in getting Dreadnaught/American Standard and Paatos/Timeloss, but Greg didn't have them. Oh well, maybe next time.

Hey Demetrio, are you out there? Have you heard any of the above titles?

Dave M

[Demetrio]

Hey, Dave, you've ordered some awesome stuff there indeed!! That <b>ISILDURS BANE - Mind Vol. 4</b> is one of the best releases I have heard in a while, just brilliant. It's pretty different from their previous releases, since it features vocals on almost all the tracks, but this is just what makes this group a true PROGRESSIVE band, they are not repetitive from album to album!!

That O.S.I. is pretty good too, you might enjoy it too. It's a pitty you couldn't find the PAATOS/Timeloss, this is a great album too.

Let us know your impressions about that Alammailman Vasarat cd, if it is as good as the other two it will be automatically on my want list.

As for the others, I don't know any of them yet, so I am curious to know your impressions about them.

Happy listening,

Demetrio.

[Troy]

I have the Vasaraat on order myself. Should be here any day now.

The clips I heard had me roaring with laughter.

It's kinda like punk-klezmer. Jewish Wedding music performed by skin-heads. Lots of interesting instruments and high energy.

That OSI is pretty good too.

Isildurs Bane is so spotty. Some of their music is the closest thing to big band fusion Frank Zappa I've ever heard. Some of it is beyond precious and fussy.

[trauski]

any body checked out neil morse's solo 2 cd set "testimony" i just ordered it , will report back.

[BarryL]

I really liked the O.S.I. CD. What's not to like. Nothing overly strange here. I don't know the other CDs you mentioned, although I have bits and pieces from many of these bands on samplers etc.

If you like strange circus-like prog, then check out the solo CD by the Flower King's drummer, Hausse Bruniussion. It's a fusion instrumental album, but it is rather strange. Given it was released independently, it's likely that Inside Out even rejected it, but I'm speculating.

[BarryL]

any body checked out neil morse's solo 2 cd set "testimony" i just ordered it , will report back.

I think that this is a strong Morse CD. It's at least a dozen times better and more interesting musically than Snow. Even being preached to by Morse about Jesus the Savior, as moronic as it is, is superior to the nonsense he tried to pass of as a concept for Snow. The one drawback on the Morse album is the forthright preaching. The one thing that allows me to overlook this is that he claims it to be an autobiographical work. It's his personal story as he wants to tell it using music and lyrics as the medium. That's fine. But if he does it again because he's possessed by god to destroy any human integrity he may have left, I will unfortunately have to relegate him to the scrap heap of musical history until he recants public displays of his lack of sanity.

[Dusty Chalk]

I really liked that O.S.I. disk. I may have to revisit it as making my best of 2003.