We said this last time we went down the rabbit hole, the prog scene was a big part of where Organ started, down the Marquee with the cutting edge of IQ, the majesty of Pallas, the bite of Twelfth Night and the rest of them back there and while the prog scene is maybe a little too polite and maybe not that progressive these days it is still worth checking out what the now rather insular scene offers now and again. Yes I am repeating myself here, I did say all this last time, time and tide and all that, who needs an introduction? We are constantly shouting about the really properly progressive things of course, the things the prog scene and their glossy magazines seem to mostly be oblivious to, the bands on the real progressive cutting edge, bands like Cheer Accident, Yowie or Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Extra Life or Kayo Dot or Slift or anything truly progressively exciting and the brutal prog of those Flying Luttenbackers would probably send your average porcupine bothering big big pineapple tree follower running to those hills.
Yes, there are still some more conventional “prog” things worth your time, let’s go down that rabbit hole we like to go down now and again, here’s a thing or two that’s come to our attention in recent times, some old, some new, nothing borrow, not too blue. This time we start with Oslo’s Sykofant…
Sykofant – Red Sun EP (Sycophantastic Records) – Three tracks, twenty two minutes and a bit of loose change, prog rock from Oslo, Norway that comes with a healthy old school (at times Pink Floyd flavoured hard rock edge). We’ve covered them before on these pages, we almost let their new EP (released back in March) pass us by. The band say of their new release; “Prepare for an experience where raw emotion meets bold musical experimentation, blending unconventional time signatures, innovative instrument layering, and genre-defying transitions. Spanning 23 minutes across three new tracks, Red Sun highlights Sykofant’s ability to fuse progressive rock with diverse influences, crafting an atmospheric soundscape that feels both familiar and fresh. The EP is marked by adventurous storytelling, intricate arrangements, and a fluid exploration of genres, rooted in progressive rock but reaching into cinematic, jazz-inspired, and even metal territories”. They have it about right in terms of describing what they do, they’ve built well on the foundations of their last album (reviewed here), right now they’ve got a groove going that is kind of early 70s Pink Floyd meets something that could have been off one of the first Rainbow albums and all with served with a bit of jazz that has good go at tripping itself up and comes out all the better for attempting to.
Sykofant are a band to like, an old school prog rock band who aren’t just rehashing it (and thankfully stay well away from anything that could be construed as ‘neo’). At times they’re very mellow, at times they bite, sometimes there are tales that travel like rips in a tapastry, oh yes, this is prog.
Oh yes, this is proper Prog, plenty of drama, the right amount of light and shade, more is more when needed, might temples rising from red ashes, you know the score… Find it on Bandcamp
Sergeant Thunderhoof – The Ghost of Badon Hill – A rather dramatic full-bodied heavy rock album that came out late in 2024 and only passed this way this week. Big bold melodic heavy rock with a progressive edge and plenty of light and shade. They’re from Bath, their sound is big, their ambition even bigger. “Psychedelic tinged heavy and progressive grooves from the mystical realms of Somerset in England” is how they have it. They do their very big thing impressively well, they get a little doomy around the edges, always in a melodic way though, always in a very big way, never in an obvious way and if sounds like your thing then it comes very highly recommended. Here comes the Bandcamp where you’ll find more details..
Here’s a four year old video from Kyla Tilley that came this way via Bluesky recently. Here’s her YouTube channel…
And we did just notice Prog Day is back in late August over there in the US, here’s the Facebook page. Question is, who’s playing it? Well Nyack New York’s Mono Means One are, here’s their most recent album from May 2024 via the magic of Bandcamp, and a rather fluid slightly muscular clean cut instrumental thing it is. probably a little technical and maybe lacking just a touch of soul for us, they can certainly play if technical play, “The music is a ferocious blend of technical math-rock, post-metal intensity, and jazz-informed improvisation” so Prog Day tell us, it is a rather enjoyable album, they’re an “explosive instrumental psychedelic prog trio was founded by bassist and composer John Ferrara, who is also known as the bass player and co-founder of the world fusion band “Consider the Source.” The band includes John Ferrara on bass, Isaac Young on keyboards, and Rob Madore (also of PX3) on drums”, and well, here you go… Actually I take it back, there is a touch of heart and soul in there, Law Of Vacant Spaces is flowing past again right now in a rather warm way and that’s a very nice keyboard run that’s interchanging with some tasty rhythm section action, actually, this is really rather good…
Let’s see what else Prog Day has to offer, The Twenty Committee (from New Jersey) are sounding rather wet-lettuce neo prog for us, they cite Neil Morse and Steven Wilson as influences which says a lot, these are two names that set of neo prog alarms, way too unadventurously conservative but hey, if you like to be bored by what Porcupine Tree have tried to pass off as prog in recent years when you could be listening to the gloriously progressive adventure of Cheer Accident or the self-declared ‘Brutal Prog’ of those dangerous Flying Luttenbackers – ORGAN THING: Unpacking the thrilling new album from The Flying Luttenbachers – the charge, the bolt, the buzz, that Messiaen piece, the defiant hints of Cardiacs, the extremes of it all, the high art… or the beauty of Extra Life then here’s The Twenty Commitee’s Bandcamp. Or you could go explore all this and get to know Sleepytime Gorilla Museum itstead. gawd, Neo Prog is s otedously polite – ORGAN: Our best 43 albums of another very musically busy 2024. Who did we rate? The Flying Luttenbachers, Extra life, Earth Ball, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Gazelle Twin, English Teacher, Slift, Uniform… althoughm the bits of this Twenty Commitee that are closer to the Canterbury source suggest that a few more risks and we’d have something to get a little bit more excited about, The Cycle Undone stands out as something that more in the direction of say Hatfield And The North or with the vocal adventure on that particular track (with the help of Annie Haslam?) takes them almost towards to Henry Cow territory, but then they checken out again and opt for more of that wet-lettuce neo prog with the next track Robot Death and well, what a cop out when they could be so much more… frustraiting.
Third up for Prog Day, a festival that looks far more exciting than most of the embarrasing things that pass as prog festivals in this country are Inner Ear Brigade, now this sounds far to good to marooned down this rabbit hole! They’re from Oakland, California. Over to Prog Day for their words on the Brigade –
“This avant-garde collective creates some of the most joyously bizarre music in modern progressive circles. Their 2005 EP, “Belly Brain,” cites influences such as Magma, Sun Ra, and Frank Zappa. Their 2023 album “Dromology” was called “a carnival of the absurd meets conservatory-level virtuosity” (Avant Music News), featuring everything from complex odd-meter horn lines to theremin solos over math-rock grooves. Imagine if Frank Zappa, Henry Cow, and Sleepytime Gorilla Museum formed a supergroup with a New Orleans brass section. Led by composer/multi-instrumentalist Bill Wolter, their live shows are equal parts progressive metal intensity, jazz-club sophistication, and circus-like theatricality. Their most recent recording, “Perkunas,” continues their boundary-expanding explorations. Fans of Canterbury and jazz-rock won’t want to miss this one”.
Here’s their latest album released in November 2024, and yes we should have covered it and played it on the the radio at the time but hey, we can’t be in al places at all times and well, if these things don’t get sent our way. Perkunas glides beautifully, here it is via Bandcamp…
“ProgDay is a two day outdoor festival of progressive rock. ProgDay 2025 with take place on Saturday and Sunday, August 30-31, at Storybook Farm in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. For more information, please visit us at www.progday.net. Five more bands to be announced”
Right, we’re way down the rabbit hole now, how good is this next one?!
Sagrado Coração Da Terra – Farol Da Liberdade (Geração De Som) – Seems this Brazilian piece of treasure originally came out in 1991 and is just being re-issued, says here “Sagrado Coração da Terra é uma banda brasileira de rock progressivo que explora temática espiritualista”. A Brazilian symphonic progressive rock band, formed in 1979 in Minas Gerais, Brazil, seems they released half a dozen or so albums back in the 80s and 90s, this one we’re listening to right now is impressively all over the place in an approprately over the top kind of way. Go have a listen, a band with an eleven minute piece of music called The Central Sun Of The Universe have got to be worth checking out haven’t they? Bandcamp
And then there’s this on the same obviously worth exploring Brazilian label..
Chronos Mundi – Luz & Trevas (Geração De Som) Now who’s this? Once the singer arrives for the third track they sound rather like Aphrodite’s child jousting with early melodic Marillion and in our book that makes them as cool as flip. Apparently a little-known Brazilian trio that released just this one album, Luz e Trevas, in 1999. Now if only we’d got our filthy mits on it and been able to shout about back then… Bandcamp
And here’s those rather heroic Canadians Brass Camel performing Zealot to open their sold out performance at Vancouver’s Wise Hall on April 19th, 2025. Zealot is the first track from Brass Camel’s rather fantastic second album, Camel. Find our album review via the link just coming up – ORGAN: Down that prog rock rabbit hole, this time new albums from Edensong, Brass Camel, The Book of Moons, Soft Hearted Scientists and more…
And some High Spy, featuring members of Final Conflict and Grace, two bands who featured on Organ pages and indeed in the case of Grace, our stages, probably not in this century though…
Previously on these pages, further reading for you prog heads…
ORGAN THING: A new IQ album? Do they still have it? IQ’s new album Dominion explored in full…
ORGAN: Listen back to the most recent Other Rock Show radio broadcasts here, last Sunday featured Lewis Taylor, Thinking Plague, Cheer Accident, Tredici Bacci and more… actually that’s a link to an older show, there are weekly shows, there is loads of prog featured on the radio on a weekly basis, none of your watered down neo prog though, here’s a link to a page that will tell you about current Radio activities…
THE ORGAN 
One response to “ORGAN: Down that prog rock rabbit hole again, this time albums and things from Norway’s Sykofant, Bath’s Sergeant Thunderhoof, Prog Day with Mono Means One, The Twenty Committee and Inner Ear Brigade, reissues from Brazil’s Sagrado Coração Da Terra and Chronos Mundi, a Kyla Tilley song, High Spy, some more Brass Camel and…”
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