Dog Soldier were something of an offshoot of the Keef Hartley Band. Formed in 1975, they only ever made one, self-titled album for United Artists before folding for good. A pity, it was a pretty fine album.

Much of this album is blues-based, definitely providing a link to Hartley’s past successes, but there's a progressive edge here, too. Keysman Mel Simpson adds some proggy synth parts to a lot of the tunes here, plus some tasty Hammond work. Miller Anderson's dense guitarwork is probably of paramount interest here, but Dog Soldier were really a talented ensemble. Vocals by…

The final album by Cambridge, England’s The Movies was recorded in RCA Studios in New York. The band's sound by now was basically a power pop feel, akin to The Cars and such bands. Still, they retain a distinctive, bluesy influence on tracks like Slavery Time. The loss of keysman Mick Parker means their sound is more streamlined and guitar-based. There's still a bit of keyboards here (played by percussionist and harmonica player Julian Diggle), but they tend to be occasional and in the background. The jazzy, Santana-ish vibe that occasionally pervaded earlier albums is completely gone here.…

Perlenfischer

The mega-popular East German rock band Puhdys released this album in 1979. Fans consider it one of their best albums ever, and it's easy to hear why; it has an expansive feel akin to current albums by Pink Floyd with no "low budget" concessions to the fact that this is a band from behind the Iron Curtain (compare with Omega, and the gulf in sound/production quality between their albums recorded in West Germany and the ones recorded in Hungary). Puhdys are well-known as a high-energy, hard-rock band and this is no exception, though they do slow down for…

What a curious career the New England prog band Jasper Wrath has had. One of the first American bands to be making bona fide progressive music, they only officially released one album under their own name, their eponymous 1970 debut for the Sunflower label. (currently reissued, but only on vinyl!) They continued playing and recording up to 1976, but never released another album…themselves anyway. The Dellwood label (a tax-scam record label) released two LP’s worth of the band's recordings under the fake band names Arden House and Zoldar & Clark.

Disc One of this double CD anthology contains tracks…

Cado Belle

Cado Belle were a funk/soul/rock band from Scotland who recorded one album and one EP in the late 70’s before folding. Basically, imagine a slicker version of Average White Band with a sultry female vocalist, and you’re pretty close to Cado Belle’s sound.

What surprised me most about this group was that their singer is Maggie Reilly. I’ll admit, her work with Mike Oldfield (e.g.: Moonlight Shadow) rather left me cold, which is why this album came as such a revelation. Maggie’s got soul! Whoever it was that compared this band with Rose Royce was…

Go to the page of your number one artist, and follow the link of it's number one similar artist, then repeating that for this artist and so on, noting down each artist as you go. Do this until you've got to 50 artists (not including your number one). If you get any repeats, just go to the second similar artist or the nearest one that you haven't already had. Note next to them their position on your top 50 chart (if applicable.)

1. Yes
2. Genesis (2)
3. Gentle Giant (4)
4. Van Der Graaf Generator (398)
5. Peter Hammill…

Stuffy And His Frozen Parachute Band.

Well, this was disappointing. For all the wacky name, kooky song titles like “Giraffe Back Blue” and cool cover art (by Jansen Eding Clapper, the same organization that did Todd Rundgren’s great A Wizard, A True Star) complete with funny fake ad on the back cover, this was a letdown. It’s slightly quirky folk-rock with blues touches, emphasis on “slightly quirky.” It’s very much of its time, and not in a good way. Actually, it sounds significantly older than 1973, as though Stuffy had had these tunes kicking around since 1967,…

Zazu were an American prog band signed to the Wooden Nickel label (alongside Styx). The sound is quite American, with Crosby, Stills & Nash-style vocal harmonies and jangling folk-rock guitars a la The Byrds. The prog comes in via long, sonata-form song structures (one track is wittily entitled “Ittsnottasonatta (but it's close)”) feauting heavy lashings of proggy (Hammond organ and ARP synthesizer) keyboard work.

Not essential, but pleasant.

Ho-hum Ameri-prog, Surprise hailed from St. Louis, MO, producing this one album and nothing else ever again. It’s your basic Ameri-prog formula: a rather tired rehash of themes derived from Genesis and Yes that in the end sounds less like them than like early Styx. Yet not as good. Take that to mean what you will. It’s all wrapped up with a silly fairy-tale type of concept that will make you cringe. Definitely inessential.

“As seen on Broadway” says a quote on the back of the CD, and indeed, the bizarre prog rock-cum-performance art-cum-avant garde puppetry spectacle that was Bigsmörgåsbørdwünderwerk did indeed have the briefest of runs on the Great White Way. The few who saw the Pittsburgh, PA ensemble Squonk Opera during their Broadway run never forgot the experience.

I remember my surprise upon learning that the curious group that wowed ’em at Progday in Chapel Hill, NC with their oddly theatrical performance had released an album on a classical label (Angel), but I hadn’t learned the whole story yet. If you’ve heard…