Sounds Like Christmas Review by Gary Hill To get you in the spirit of the holiday, The December People have released a fresh collection of progressive rock takes on Christmas music. Feeling out of sorts for not knowing who the December People are? More...
Robert Berry - A Soundtrack To The Wheel of Time Review by Gary Hill A Soundtrack To The Wheel of Time is an album created not as a soundtrack to a film, but rather to a series of books. The fantasy books are written by Robert Jordan who has officially endorsed this album.
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3 was essentially a variant on Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but it was its own band, too. The group played ELP music, but also their own stuff that leaned a little more on the mainstream rock sound.
Various Artists - Leonardo The Absolute Man Review by Gary Hill This is a rock opera based on the life of Leonardo da Vinci. Although this album says "original cast recording" and I have (as does Magna Carta on their website) listed it here as by "Various Artists", it is probably closer to the truth to say that it is by Trent Gardner and friends.
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Various Artists - Magna Carta Guitar Greats – Volume I Review by Grant Hill These Magna Carta sampler discs serve as a great way for people to sample a number of their releases without having to shell out the cash for each and every one of them. I'd have to say that as these things go, this is one of the better ones – and they are all quite good.
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Robert Berry - Prime Cuts Review by Gary Hill The latest release in the Magna Carta series Prime Cuts, this time the attention is turned on Robert Berry's considerable work on the label. The first point I need to bring up is somewhat of a mixed one here.
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Jack Foster III - Raptorgnosis Review by Gary Hill While I don't think this entire album truly qualifies as progressive rock, much of it does. Add to that fact the presence of prog rockers Trent Gardner and Robert Berry and it should be obvious why I put the disc into that category.
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Various Artists - Supper`s Ready Review by Gary Hill A tribute album devoted to the music of Genesis, Supper`s Ready is a strong work. The renditions here stay more true to the original performances than on some similar albums, but this does not take away from the relevance of the CD.
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Various Artists - Tales From Yesterday Review by Gary Hill A tribute to the music of Yes, Tales From Yesterday, features some very fine renditions of Yessongs performed by a variety of artists (including several past and present members of Yes). This is a mixed bag. Some of the tracks are quite faithful to the original, while others represent major reworkings.
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Jack Foster III - Tame Until Hungry Review by Gary Hill Jack Foster III is building up quite a catalog of killer hard-edged modern progressive rock. Tame Until Hungry is his latest, and as in the past he’s joined by (among others) Trent Gardner and Robert Berry on this.
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Various Artists - The Moon Revisited Review by Gary Hill Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon was more than likely not only the best selling prog album of all time, but definitely the album, of all albums (not just prog) to stay on the charts the longest. From that point of view this tribute disc makes sense.
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Various Artists - To Cry You A Song: A Collection of Tull Tales Review by Gary Hill One of the first tribute albums ever done by Magna Carta, this one includes some intriguing arrangements of Jethro Tull songs. There are some definite winners here (witness Aqualung, To Cry You a Song, and Locomotive Breath) and no real losers.
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Various Artists - Working Man Review by Gary Hill One of the early Magna Carta tribute CD's, this one is definitely not one of their finest. It does have some strong points, though, and the main area in which it is lacking is vocals.
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