Best Of Year ~ So Far!

Half way through the year. So here are my pick of the best of the new and re-releases/compilations of the year so far.

New Albums
The Tangent ~ A Place In The Queue
Pure Reason Revolution ~ The Dark Third
Magenta ~ Home
Secret Machines ~ Ten Silver Drops
Tool ~ 10,000 Days
Proto-Kaw ~ The Wait Of Glory
Jadis ~ Photoplay
Paatos ~ Silence Of Another Kind
The Flower Kings ~ Paradox Hotel
OSI ~ Free

Re-releases/Compilations/Live
Brian Eno and David Byrne ~ My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
No-Man ~ All The Blue Changes
Refugee ~ Refugee
Gentle Giant ~ Acquiring The Taste
Robert Fripp ~ Exposure
21st Century Schizoid Band ~ Pictures Of A City

On reflection, it has been a very quiet year so far on the prog front with not that many outstanding new releases. The best from the established artists are by The Tangent and Magenta which are major achievements. But it is good to see young bands like Pure Reason Revolution and Secret Machines producing adventurous and fresh sounding albums.

On the re-release front, labels are still heavily into remastering and re-packaging their back catalogues. The best as been the just released “Exposure” by Robert Fripp. This is an outstanding re-release. Not only an excellent musical statement in its own right, but a pertinent document of the place and times in which it was recorded. Superbly remastered by Simon Heyworth and 2 CD’s chock full of material form the era. The booklet is as usual from Fripp, stuffed full of detailed notes and photos. Thoroughly recommended indeed. Lets hope he does the same for the other albums from that period before he reactivated Crimson in the 80’s.