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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Gideon King & City Blog City Blog Review by Gary Hill So, maybe this isn’t progressive rock. It’s very much jazz influenced, though. It lands in the neighborhood of Steely Dan a lot of the time. There is even space music here, and some modern prog. When you figure that overall it’s probably closest to fusion, it seems an obvious fit in the MSJ prog section. Whatever you call it, though, this is a consistent and effective album. I like it a lot. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2016 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

City Blog Jazz and bits of modern progressive rock are combined here. This is a lot like Steely Dan in some ways. It’s a great tune with effective melodies and some great hooks. I love the energized bass work, but every instrument shines.

See In Double Mellower and slower, this is much more of a pure jazz treatment. It has some exceptional soloing for sure. It’s another strong tune on a disc that’s full of them.

Down The opening section here seems to combine space music and jazz. It works out from there into a full jazz arrangement. This has a killer groove to it. I love the piano solo on this. The guitar solo section brings it more into fusion territory and really soars.

New York Is There is a great jazz duet built into this tune. It has a cool musical arrangement, but the vocal performances and layers really sell it. That said, I dig the guitar solo and sax playing. That guitar brings this more into fusion territory.

Friendship Cliché Jazz and prog rock seem to merge on this cut. I can make out some hints of space music and more here.

What Say You I love the female vocals on this cut. This piece feels very much like some folk prog with jazz overtones to me.

Glide The guitar on this definitely brings the rock elements, yet in an acoustic way. As this piece grows it really does become a mellow prog rock number. I love the soaring instrumentals. The vocal performance is solid, too, but the guitar really steals the show a lot of the time.

Dirty B*****d This is a cool mellow jazz groove. Perhaps it’s not proggy, but it’s definitely along the lines of fusion. In some ways it even reminds me a little of something Prince might create.

Just Play Built very much on a fusion skeletal structure, this is a killer cut with a lot of modern progressive rock also in the mix. I particularly dig the instrumental segment later in the piece.

Broken Noise There is an extended acapella section at the start of this. The cut works out from there to a cool jazz meets rock kind of jam. Then it drops back to a mellower motif for the next vocal section. The arrangement builds back out before they close the set.

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