Set the controls for the Red Planet, the latest full-scale progressive rock album from legendary keyboardist Rick Wakeman. This 2020 release includes eight new compositions from the former Yes keyboardist. Wakeman jokes about the idea of pushing the “prog fader” up to 11, saying “That could be a problem, as it’s already at 14!” Wakeman produced The Red Planet with Erik Jordan, featuring a blend of analog and modern keyboards. He has revived the backing band name “the English Rock Ensemble” which had been used on several of his earlier records. The band includes guitarist Dave Colquhoun, drummer Ash Soan and bassist Lee Pomeroy. The latter recently toured with Wakeman as part of his… Continue Reading

Since his preceding album “elements,” Franck Martin has wanted to explore the world of quadraphonic, which falls into the core focus here at Hi-Res Edition. When he was invited to perform at MusicLandria in Sacramento, he pulled out his recently purchased WMD mixer, mounting it on his modular Synthesizer connected to the ToppoBrillo mixer - and voila he had four channels! More toys were deployed, with the addition of a quadraphonic panning module, the Koma Elektronik Poltergeist module, he was able to modify the Intellijel 1U stereo out with a headphones out modules. This created four channels across two headphone outputs that were in turn connected to a digital field recorder. Now, with… Continue Reading

During the mid-70’s diverse pop era ranging in styles from progressive rock to folk, from R&B to disco, and even the power driven leading days of punk and trendy glam rock, Be-Bop Deluxe surfaced with their debut release “Axe Victim” in 1974. The original band comprised of Bill Nelson and Ian Parkin on guitars, Robert Bryan on bass, and Nicholas Chatterton-Dew on drums. Taking on a bit of a David Bowie look, the band turned up on the back cover in heavy makeup, adding stylistic flair to Nelson's confident tenor vocals and the group’s up tempo art rock songs. Additionally, Nelson’s unusual lyrical guitar playing are often emphasized by his jazzy and even sometimes metal-ish excursions, which… Continue Reading

The 70’s heyday of progressive rock continues its revival in the surround world with the first 5.1 mix from the band Renaissance. Cherry Red Records has released an expanded 3 CD + 1 DVD box set of their 1974 album “Turn of the Cards” featuring a new 5.1 surround sound mix of the entire album, 20 bonus tracks drawn from a newly mixed concert performance at the Academy of Music in New York from May 1974, along with previously unreleased material. While Turn of the Cards is the fifth album from the band, it is often marked as the third since it is the third from this incarnation of the group, following after “Ashes Are Burning” and “Prologue.” Each of these earlier two are considered equally… Continue Reading