Friday: islnds - Momnts

     My segue into your belated Friday post isn't quite as direct as Wednesday-to-Thursday was, but bear with me and we'll get there alright. To start: you know instrumental prog act Scale the Summit, right? Well guitarist Chris Lecthford has some more solo work just over the horizon that you might be interested in.

     This time around it's in the form of new project islnds (rather than simply Chris Letchford solo stuff) and accompanying new album History of Robots, which features some guest vocal work from a few familiar faces. First single "Momnts", for example, features Joey from The Reign of Kindo, and promo material indicates Tesseract alumnus Ashe O'Hara is involved as well.

     Musically speaking, things are a bit more mellow than Scale the Summit (not that StS is the heaviest thing in the instrumental prog world) but Chris' musicianship and melodic sensibility is still plainly evident. Spin this if you need a laid back jam tonight.

Dzyen (feat. Ashe O'Hara) - As One

     With all the excitement among Tesseract fans at having Dan back in the band (and, more recently, the hints and rumours of an upcoming Tesseract live album...) it might be easy enough to forget that previous singer Ashe O'Hara is also a ridiculously talented vocalist in his own right. Want to know what Ashe has been up to lately?

     Doing a guest spot on the upcoming LP It's Pronounced 'Zen' from British progressive metal band Dzyen, for a start. Dzyen have recently released the first video from It's Pronounced 'Zen' (a record that'll feature a whole mess of skilled singers, including another familiar face mentioned above) and wouldn't you know it, Ashes kills it.

     "As One" may not blow you away with how incomprehensibly prog or tech it is, but it's got some good groove, a catchy melody or two (and not catchy in that way that makes you want to remove that earworm from your brain with an icepick), and there's even a tastefully shreddy guitar solo tucked in there just for good measure. Oh, and there's some guy named Ashe, too. Check it out.

Friday: Tesseract - Lament

     As I seem to say all the time, regular readers will know that I'm a big fan of the work of Dan Tompkins, original Tesseract vocalist and current Skyharbor pipesman. I am, however, also a fan of the vocalist on Tesseract's second LP Altered State, Ashe O'Hara, so yesterday's news that Ashe is leaving the band and Dan's back in is somewhat bittersweet.

     Who knows what this might mean for the band's longterm future, or for the future of Dan's other big project Skyharbor, who just finished a successful crowdfunding campaign for their second LP? The only thing that looks certain at this point is that album number three, and its subsequent touring cycle, will see Dan with the band once more.

     As I said, I really dug Ashe's work on Altered State, but being such a fan of Dan's I'm excited to see where he'll take things for Tesseract 3.0. For the time being, let's have something from One so the latecomers to the Tesseract party will know what I'm on about with this Dan Tompkins guy. Here's One album opener "Lament".

Song of the Day: Tesseract - Resist

     It hasn't been that long since I've done a Tesseract song (less than a month) but somebody's gone and done a lyric video for one of the songs from the new record Altered State, so it seems I've little choice but to put it in front of you this evening. And I'm completely cool with that.

Song of the Day: These Precious Days - Drop the Rosary

     Two things the regular reader will have learned about me by now if they've been paying attention: I likes me some Tesseract, and I likes me some Skyharbor. As such, the twin prospect of new Skyharbor material being under construction and a new Tesseract album dropping in mere days has me pleased as punch. And now I've got the perfect crossing of the streams song to hold me over.

Song of the Day: Tesseract - Acceptance (Concealing Fate Part 1)

     Over the weekend the British prog djentlemen in Tesseract released a new teaser of material from their upcoming disc Altered States, out in May. It's another taste of Tesseract with their latest singer Ashe O'Hara and even though it's not a full song I'm still digging what they're putting down so far. But since it isn't a full song, nor do we even know which song on the album it's from, I can't very well make it a Song of the Day yet, can I?

Song of the Day: Tesseract - Nocturne

     I've written about today's band before (they are, after all, What You Should Be Listening To), and they've even had a song of the day before, but after a summer of relative quiet from them, things are once again happening and so they deserve another look in case you don't know them yet. Based on that description, I could be talking about Sylosis, but today's song actually happens to be the new tune from another of my absolute favourites, Tesseract.