The Mike Glendinning Band The Mike Glendinning Band Review by Gary Hill
Perhaps this isn’t actually progressive rock, but I think the argument to put it in that category is stronger than the argument not to put it there. The music here moves between ambient and jazz and psychedelic and hard rocking. Nearly every song has some aspect that makes it seem progressive rock like.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2010 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Ghost A A 43 second long instrumental, this is trippy and quite psychedelic in nature.
Ghost B Although a bit longer than the previous cut (this one is a little over a minute), this is still quite short. It’s more “musical” and has a jazz meets psychedelia texture.
Yellow Flowers Of January Sedate and quite jazz-like, the female vocals that sing this feel like they belong in the 1960’s. There’s a definite old school psychedelic element to this track. The cut takes on a more hard rocking approach as it continues. There’s a noisy psychedelic styled guitar solo here.
Mama Don't Cry Here we have a stripped down folk cut. This isn’t proggy at all and is almost country in a lot of ways.
Let You Go Part A At just under a minute in length, this little instrumental is quite jazzy.
Let You Go Part B A jazzy sort of mellow progressive rock styled number leads this off. It’s quite stripped down and oddly pretty. As they continue this moves out into noisy space. It’s quite cool and the soft vocals over the top add an intriguing contrast to the number. I like this a lot.
My Under This has a lot of that quirky, jazzy guitar based ballad motif to it. It’s pretty and one of the more consistent pieces on the track.
Test Noisy sounds make up this fusion like number. It’s got a bit of a King Crimson element to it in some ways. It’s a cool instrumental.
Makeshift Philly This is just a bluesy, jazz-oriented acoustic guitar solo. It’s quite tasty.
Home Less proggy than some of the other stuff, this is a hard rocker that’s pretty straightforward.
