“Weird electronic music”: that’s how Tony Banks described, in an interview which will soon be published on this site, Rupert Hine‘s score to “The Shout” – the Jerzy Skolimowski-directed 1978 film based on a short story by Robert Graves. Tony and his colleague Mike Rutherford contributed to the soundtrack too, and it was their pieces most of the listeners concentrated on, while Rupert’s sonic experimentalism remained overlooked for decades – but not anymore.
Often busy in the company of Manfred Mann but regularly finding time to play concerts of his own, Mick Rogers has never been in a hurry, however, to offer up solo material. The veteran’s individual discography numbers a mere two longplays, 2002’s “Back To Earth” and “Sharabang” from 2013 – both potent brews of Rogers’ originals laced with choice covers – so to see Mick issue a third one, molded in similar way, will be one of this year’s greatest pleasures. His new album is titled “The Guitarist” and scheduled to hit the shelves on January 30th.
Kip Winger is no stranger to classical music – he studied composition before shooting to fame as a writer, performer and leader of WINGER and continued to do so after attaining a star status. This artist’s symphonic debut was 2008’s “Ghost” – a suite, which would become a ballet – that “Conversations With Nijinsky” followed up on in 2016. Ten years forward, and there’s another orchestral work is ready for release on April 10th.
It’s been a little more than three years since Kim Simmonds left this mortal coil, leaving a stunning number of recordings, with and without SAVOY BROWN, and a lot of untold stories – the tales he was planning to share with the world in a book yet didn’t have time to finish the tome, which will finally be published on January 21st.
A few years ago an interesting project emerged from Germany – masterminded by sound engineer Tom Morgenstern and dedicated to honoring the music of the great Anthony Phillips, it was, and is named, THE ANT BAND. There were fan favorites and rarities on the collective’s debut, “A Light On The Hill” from 2021 – which even saw Steve Hackett chime in – and 2022’s “Bonus Bits & Blunders” provided a companion piece to that album. Given those were done in pandemic conditions, not a lot of people would bet the Deutsch band would continue – yet they did.
