Wooooo!
Progtoberfest 2 is the brainchild of Mike Morton, frontman of symphonic prog trio The Gift, one of BEM's first ever signings. The man himself describes it as showcasing "the best of contemporary UK progressive rock", and it will feature five bands across ten hours for the frankly excellent price of £10 (if you book in advance). Performing alongside fiery young heavy prog trio Habu and hard-to-Google neo-prog outfit IT, three of these bands - The Gift themselves, The Far Meadow, and The Rube Goldberg Machine - are BEM acts. But, if you've only joined us recently, you may not be familiar with their work.
Let's fix that.
The Rube Goldberg Machine
The Rube Goldberg Machine joined BEM to release their debut album Fragile Times, which arrived in April 2016. They describe themselves as a "forward-thinking prog rock band", and that sounds about right to us! Distinguished by soft yet sharply defined instrumentation and surprisingly incisive lyrics, this is deep, reflective music that manages to be very, very catchy too - a difficult combination to pull off if ever there was one.
For what it's worth, TRGM is one of my favourite BEM acts. I was lucky enough to catch their first ever live performance as a band at the second Evening of Bad Elephant Music earlier this year, and I was very impressed by the tightness and energy of their performance. We're looking forward to seeing them in action again!
The Far Meadow
Hailing from BEM's native London, The Far Meadow are a five-piece symphonic prog group with an impressive mutilayered style that draws equally on metal and jazz for inspiration. Perhaps most strongly identified with the striking vocal performance of Marguerite Alexandrou, they offer a rich vein of distinctive sounds. They joined BEM for their sophomore album Given The Impossible, featured here, which released towards the tail end of last year.
As well as their appearance at this year's Evening of BEM, The Far Meadow were at the first Progtoberfest back in 2015, and David Elephant assures us that their live excellence is undiminished!
The Gift
The Gift, under the leadership of Mike Morton, are the hosts and headliners of Progtoberfest 2. They were one of BEM's earliest acts, releasing their second album Land of Shadows with us in April 2014 and their third, Why the Sea is Salt, last October - exactly a year and a day before the gig, in fact, though Mike has yet to confirm whether or not this is significant. Or deliberate. True to their prog roots, The Gift are all about long songs and esoteric arrangements, assembled in some truly enchanting ways.
If you follow prog in the UK even a little bit, you may well have caught The Gift at least once - they're frequent, enthusiastic live performers and have been sighted all over the country, and even further afield in Norway and the Netherlands. They'll have the home ground advantage for this one, though, so prepare yourselves for The Gift at their very best.
I want in!
If any of these bands catch your eye and you can make it to London on Sunday 29th, advance tickets for Progtoberfest 2 are available HERE! Tickets will also be available on the door for the slightly higher price of £12.
Status Update
It's a quiet week for us here at Elephant Towers. We're counting down the days until Fukushima Surfer Boys is unleashed on the world - less than two weeks to go! Other than that, it's been our usual mix of plotting, scheming, conspiring, and other nefarious-sounding things. We're not at liberty to disclose any more than that.
Review Roundup
Hot off the presses, Whitewater's Universal Medium got an impressive writeup from Emma Roebuck at Progradar, who praises a "measured and careful" approach to composition and an ambient album with a bit more to it than most. And, though you won't get to hear Fukushima Surfer Boys for a while yet, Gary Morley already has, and he thinks it's well worth your time!
Meanwhile, Record Collector Magazine dives a little further back with Alex Neilson's four-star review of Big Hogg's Gargoyles. "Not remotely hammy" indeed, Alex!
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