During my time at ProgPower Europe 2019, I heard a lot of chat about a band called Thoughts Factory. I’d never heard of them before but when there’s a buzz about a band at this great festival, I tend to sit up and take notice because the punters know their music. Regrettably my inability to get to bed at a reasonable hour on any night in Baarlo meant that I missed the impromptu listening session that was set up to hear this record. Nevertheless, I made it my mission to ensure that I checked out Thoughts Factory when time allowed.

Leeds 6-piece frog-rock groovers Shaku have self released their debut album Maku, as the album is a divine representation of their creativity and musicianship which shines through even more so in their stellar live performances.
The group have a fantastic genre-fluid identity that sees them slip down the cracks between Canterbury scene prog, classic blues, funk-rock, UK jazz and epic old school rock. Having interviewed them back in May 2019, the band were ready back then to record after two years of relentless gigging, warfare, bloodshed and liquid consumption, and they did so live at The Nave Studios, Pudsey, and also in a living room in Burley. The theme of the album is a timeline of Shaku, covering a lot of musical and lyrical ground that each represent a different period in the band which has evolved over time, both together as a group and as individuals.

Italy has always been a prime center for music, from the days of classical all the up to the modern day. SECRET ALLIANCE confirms my opinion with their outer cosmic Progressive Hard Rock album “Solar Warden”. SECRET ALLIANCE was founded by guitarist Gianluca Galli (SILVER HORSES & MANTRA) initially as his solo project, but found he was wanting to create music with some extra complexity involved. He recruited the incredible Ricardo Confessori (ex-ANGRA) and fantastic hard rock bassist Tony Franklin to round out the constant members in every song. There are many guest musicians on this futuristic/sci-fi inspired album including Frank Gambale (CHICK COREA BAND) and Alex Masi. These great musicians create a futuristic world in sound.

Gregg Olson and Scarlet Hollow have returned with what may well be the band’s best work to date.
Nick Katona, Melodic Revolution Records:
“I can still remember vividly receiving the phone about Gregg having a stroke, I was devastated, we had just made plans for Scarlet Hollow’s debut release and the band was rehearsing for their first tour. The prognosis that night was not very positive, it was grim in fact, but we kept close tabs on Gregg’s health, it wasn’t so much that we were worried about album sales. We were worried about a person that had become a friend, I first met Gregg on MySpace in 2006 and Melodic Revolution picked up the self-titled Echoes Landing for release. It’s because of this band that we formed the record label.
The good news is that over the next couple of years Gregg’s was getting better and his recovery seemed like a miracle. Fast track to today Scarlet Hollow has returned stronger, more focused and sounding better than ever. Get ready to take a musical journey with one of the most important bands today.”

Plus 33 are an instrumental band forged by some musical talents from Strasbourg (France) and Newcastle upon Tyne (UK). The band, led by Didier Grillot (Outside), combines 70s prog rock, jazz and classical influences.

"Hey, Hey, Rise Up!" (also written "Hey Hey Rise Up") is a song by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released on streaming and downloading platforms on 8 April 2022. It is based on a 1914 Ukrainian anthem, "Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow", and features vocals in Ukrainian by Andriy Khlyvnyuk of the Ukrainian band BoomBox. The track is the first entirely new piece of music recorded by Pink Floyd since "Louder than Words" was released with The Endless River in 2014. Guitarist David Gilmour was inspired to record it in support of Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion. The band both released the track as a single commercially and also put out a music video, directed by Mat Whitecross, centered around images of life struggling amidst warfare. A physical edition of the single on CD and vinyl was released on 15 July 2022, which also included a new version of "A Great Day for Freedom".

Script for a Jester's Tear is the debut studio album by British neo-progressive rock band Marillion, released in the United Kingdom on 13 March 1983 by EMI Records. The album reached number seven and spent 31 weeks in the UK Albums Chart, eventually achieving a platinum certificate, and produced the Top 40 single "He Knows You Know" and the Top 20 single "Garden Party".
Script for a Jester's Tear is the only studio album by Marillion to feature the band's original drummer and founding member Mick Pointer, who was dismissed following the album's UK tour. In Martin Popoff's 2016 biography of Yes, the album is credited with being part of a "new wave" of British progressive rock which also helped to give a second life to earlier bands.

It’s amazing how a scene from the 70s like that in Canterbury with bands like Soft Machine, Caravan and Egg still influences new bands today, both stylistically and aesthetically. One of the most typical examples is the British band Magic Bus, which debuted in 2010 and managed to evolve from each album to the next...

The album’s theme is based around the lives of six famous horror actors of the 1950s and 1960s.
Lyricist Steve Reed: 'My brother and I are both huge fans of the classic Hammer and Universal horror films. I remember as a kid watching the horror double bills on Saturday nights on BBC2 with great fondness. We were looking for a concept for the new album and came up with the idea of basing the songs on some of our favourite actors. The twist is that the stories are about their private lives rather than the characters they portrayed in their films.'
Robert Reed: 'After making the 'We Are Legend' album, which was more contemporary, I really wanted to make a classic PROG album. I was desperate to get back to the original musical template of what Magenta was all about. So there are lots of Moog and guitar solos, 12 string guitar, Mellotrons and bass pedals, but always with melodies. The song is always king!'

This is a very limited bonus CD to Magenta's 2020 release 'Masters Of Illusion' called 'The Lost Reel', featuring 74 minutes of alternative mixes from the new album plus remixes from the band's back catalogue.

There's some distinct quality in many Dutch art rock / prog releases since the early 70's, which made bands like "Focus" and "Kayak" so popular. Like those legends, "Lunar Clock" creates melodic, symphonic rock with layered keyboards and exquisite guitars, carrying on the great tradition. As an example, listen to the guitar solo in the 2nd half of the last track. Yeah, that's genuinely Dutch! Favorite track: Metabolism III: Spring.

”Wayfarer” is the second solo album of Kimmo Pörsti (The Samurai of Prog, Paidarion, Mist Season). Music ranges from Camel-style songs to groovy fusion instrumentals. Although the album could be described as symphonic-prog in general, you can find celtic and bluesy elements etc as well.