We haven’t been down this particular rabbit hole for a bit, Twelfth Night’s more than welcome yellow ladders have taken us down there this time

Twelfth Night – Art And Illusion (40th Anniversary Edition) – Trace that feeling back to source (did we use that line before? Can’t resist it, I would say sorry but I really am not and every time I hear that line sung it really does get me). This is more that worth revisiting just for that demo version Take a Look. The much missed, much loved Geoff Mann was wonderful but the Andy Sears version of Twelfth Night were and probably still are some 40 years on from Art And illusion, rather underrated. That’s right,  Art And illusion is 40 years old this week and some of us played that five track mini album (with that excellent artwork) almost to death when it first came out. The album has just being reissued (again), this time on the band’s own label and with a whole load of brilliant live tracks from that tour, a tour that dragged me around the country (part of the time in support band Shy’s van, what nice people they were), a tour that ended up with a load of confused nuns expecting a bit of Shakespeare at the Dominion. The live tracks on this re-issue are from various nights on that Art And Illusion tour, some of the recordings are rather raw, bootleg quality tape recordings or dry mixing desk takes but they are, if you were there (or maybe if you weren’t?) vital recordings, vital triggers that fly you right back to it all. And those green triangles are suddenly back in my head, Andy Sears, in his bowler hat, was rather good at the almost impossible task of performing those Geoff Mann period classics, and they are classics, things like We Are Sane or Creepshow, and Andy could more that pull it off, especially on the bigger stages like that rather triumphant London show at the aforementioned Dominion.     

Art And illusion was almost (very nearly) a bookend to a very special period, it was towards the end of the so called prog rock revival and a golden period for bands like Pallas, Marillion, IQ and Pendragon (the other four of the big five of the scene). It was a very DIY scene, gloriously so, the last great musical taboo, prog rock in the early 80s post punk days was not a very fashionable notion, pretty much shunned or at least mocked, by the mainstream music media, was a gloriously underground word of mouth thing, something powered by tape trading, self-released cassette albums, fanzines, flyers and a massive network of people sharing information – “Tamarisk are playing next week”, “have you heard Lahost’s new tape?”, “Seen the latest copy of Afterglow or Court Jester?” It was partly where Organ originally came from (Twelfth Night were interviewed for the first issue that came out a couple of years later). Art and Illusion was almost at the end of it all as the scene came to some kind of natural end as bands shed their original frontmen and took on notions of slick pop rock and hints of Duran Duran or Simple Minds, flavours of something more mainstream. New bands like Jadis, Ark, Freefall carried the torch for a while before things became awfully watered down and eventually neo prog polluted. For a while back there bands like Twelfth Night, the lean mean skinny Fish-fronted Marillion and especially IQ were at the cutting edge, they were dangerously good, it was exciting, it was defiant, it was almost beautiful, it was hated. Some of us really loved it and Art And Illusion was almost the last of it all. By 1986 Twelfth Night has signed to a major label, put out a self titled album and kind of lost direction, Andy Sears left the band not long after that, Pete Nichols had already left IQ, Fish had left Marillion most of the zines has folded, it became a different thing. For a while, up to and including Art And illusion it was a rather special scene, a defiant thing, prog rock, the last musical taboo.  

And here we are 40 years on, Art And Illusion still sounds good from over here, maybe it is just nostalgia? Maybe you had to be there? I was so I can’t really tell but those Geoff Mann songs were and still are special and on these live versions on this re-issue Andy Sears more than picked it up and ran with it. Art And Illusion and that tour was Andy’s moment, it is all there on this album and those added live tracks, the counterpoints, the kings and queens, the power and illusion (as the song originally was) and yes, that feeling traced back to source once more. The original tracks, that start to Counterpoint itself, it still sounds good to these ears, the spits and scratches, that distinctive guitar, those lines that were almost pop rock sawing you in half before they turn to leave. I suspect you had to be there? It all felt right at the time, that scene set, Twelfth Night were a damn fine band back there, still sounds good to these ears. Never was sure about the Blue Powder Monkey direction, Take A Look was always a highlight though and those original Art and Illusion tracks still have it though…                

This release is a vastly expanded from the original five track album. A twenty four track compilation of the original five-track mini-album released on Music For Nations in Oct 1984, the three demos recorded for MCA Records earlier that year, the four demos recorded in Reading just before the band travelled to Amazon Studios in Liverpool to record with noted producer Gil Norton, and the twelve-track live set performed on the Art & Illusion tour recorded in various venues. The tour started in the band’s home town of Reading and ended with their first-ever gig abroad in Marburg, West Germany (as it was then). Art and Illusion was the band’s first album with Andy Sears, originally released in October 1984. This expanded version has been released before, but not on the band’s own label.    

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Jordsjø – Salighet – An album so good you’d be forgiven for thinking it was a lost treasure from 1973. Epic, pastoral, beautifully warm, thankfully never symphonic, far too considered to take the bombastic route, this album actually came out late last year and we’ve been meaning to write something for ages(we have been playing in on the radio of course). Jordsjø are a duo from Oslo, Norway, they say they are “inspired by Scandinavian folklore via jazz to early British prog”. Following in the tradition of some of the best Nordic rock from the last century, Jordsjø manage to meld progressive rock with fantastic melodies and a folkish twist. They’ve been around since the Autumn of 2014 and this album is just lovely  

Salighet is the band’s fourth proper studio album. Seven substantial tracks and one of the finest prog albums of recent times (of any times). “Here, Jordsjø continue their musical journey in the heights and abysses as they explore different forms of ecstasy through compositions and lyrics. Be it in the shape of dance, a mountain hike, a fairytale, religious pondering or other kinds of inner travels”. They rightly say the music is a counterpoint to the mundane everyday life it is actually delightful, a folk flavoured proper cool as flip prog rock delight, that bit there sounds like early Mike Oldfield, some of it (lots of it) sounds like proper Genesis, all of it flavoured with Norwegian folk and the all best things things that came with proper 70s prog…

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I Am The Manic Whale – Bumper Book of Mystery Stories – Did we mention this album already? It just passed our path again, it came out last year, it is unashamedly prog rock, well that thing some call prog rock these days as opposed to something truly progressively groundbreaking – that is necessarily that bad a thing although it is dangerously neo prog and we’re no fans of neo prog around here, these are epic tales though. Melodic, polite, nice, I guess, without wanting to insulting it too much, it does kind of taste of things like Big Big Train or Spock’s Beard, right now it is dangerously Tear For Fears, none of those bands do much for us, but there is something about this album, maybe it is the hints of Genesis and the occasional lapse into a not-quite-as-good-as-Phil-does-it mockney voice and some robbery assault and battery now and again, some trickery of the tail. Hey look, Bumper Book of Mystery Stories does keep coming our way, it does keep demand attention, it is a very boys own adventures take on prog, the tunes are epic, politely so, it a very English thing, they do it very well, it is harmless, inoffensive and there goes another ‘nice’ bit, actually the whole thing is very very ‘nice’, very clean cut, very melodic and now and again whimsical, nothing really surprises, well he did just ask if it was. Melodic boys own takes on the idea of prog rock that really has very little to do with the actual progressive cutting edge challenging envelope pushing thing that proper prog rock is and well, they do their chosen thing very very well, it is apparently their third album, people who like the bands we’ve already mentioned probably know about it already, if not then you might want explore I Am The Manic Whale’s bumper book, they do their their chosen very nice thing rather well, good luck to ’em… actually that bit almost eight minutes into Nautilus did take a slightly jagged bite, all gone a bit Andrew Lloyd Webber musical now, we’re out of here…          

Pure Reason Revolution – Coming Up To Consciousness (Inside Out) – Always has a soft spot for Pure Reason Revolution that goes right back to their early Indie pop days, we did put a single out on ORG way way back there, they did play on an Organ bill or two. if the truth be told they’re probably are way too polished and ‘perfect’ for these filthy unwashed ears these days, they make Fleetwood Mac sound like the Stooges in a food blender by comparison but they do still have that fingerprint, that epic ambition and that identity all over their own, they are instantly recognisable, that is always a good thing. They’re not pop rock enough to really be the later times of Fleetwood Mac, they do have a lot of that flavouring in there with Talk Talk and later Pink Floyd tastes (can’t hear or feel too much by way of Elliot Smith) and mostly it does sound like a rather decent Pure Reason Revolution album, if it is prog rock then it is a very very slick very modern take on it, a little too much creativity in the detail to dismiss as a Neo crime, a little too slick and clean cut for me these days though. I’m going to need to go listen to some Shellac or some Urge Overkill once a full stop is put on this short review…       

“Coming Up To Consciousness is Pure Reason Revolution’s sixth studio album, and the third since the post-hiatus renaissance that began with 2020’s Eupnea and continued in 2022’s Above Cirrus. Like those two predecessors, the new record is intensely personal. While the band’s distinctive style remains, melding prog and pop through dreamy moods, epic riffs and angelic harmonies, Courtney and Greg Jong also tried to go somewhere a bit different, drawing on influences like Talk Talk, Elliot Smith, The Smile and even Arctic Monkeys in addition to perennial favourites – especially Pink Floyd” 

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and…And we could go on…

All Traps on Earth – A Drop of Light – and yes, okay, this isn’t exactly new either but who cares? All Traps on Earth are from Sweden, this is an Änglagård side project or side step or something like that and hey, let’s just park it here just in case you need it…

And here a box set featuring the first three Wobbler albums that;s abeen about for some time…

These days our rabbit hole tastes more like this…

ORGAN THING: Listen back to the third Other Rock Show of the new Autumn season at Resonance FM – Egg, Lunar Mistake, King Gizzard, Mr. Bungle, Thumpermonkey and more…

ORGAN THING: Listen back to the second Other Rock Show of the new Autumn season at Resonance FM – Yowie, English Teacher, Peter Hammill, PAK, Jordsjø, Wendy Eisenberg and more…

ORGAN THING: Listen back to the first Other Rock Show of the new Autumn season at Resonance FM – Yang, English Teacher, Toby Driver, The Flying Luttenbachers, Vak, Needlepoint and more…

Previous rabbit holes….

ORGAN THING: Down that prog rock rabbit hole again with Legs on Wheels, Unstoppable Sweeties Show, Emmett Elvin, some Blade Aid, the Other Rock Show and that time in…

ORGAN THING: Moon Letters send us down that prog rock rabbit hole again to find Sel Balamir, Craft, Retreat From Moscow, National Diet, Pencarrow and…

ORGAN THING: Zachary Detrick’s impressive Scorpion Ballet takes us down a rabbit hole that has Cardiacs at the bottom of it…

ORGAN THING: A prog rock rabbit hole, The Osiris Club, Cheer Accident, Birth, The Mercury Tree, PoiL and….