Mystery

My Favorite Neo Prog Band

Québec band Mystery has produced a very consistently high grade of lush NeoProg since their founding in late1980s. Incorporating contributions from a consistently virtuosic number of contributors, including drummers Steve Gagné and, later, Nick D'Virgilio and Jean-Sébastien Goyette, vocalists Gary Savoie, Benoît David, and Jean Pageau, bassists Patrick Bourque, Antoine Fafard, and François Fournier, and, of course, founder/leader, mainstay and main composer Michel St-Père on guitars, keyboards, production, and just about everything else, the band has produced years of high quality performances as well as eight high quality studio albums--five of which have come in the last 14 years. Besides the high level of skillsmanship offered by each and every one of its contributors over the years, it's been the sound quality and compositional acumen that have been so impressive. Then there is the factor of Michel St-Père's extraordinary guitar playing: Like legendary guitarists Steve Hackett, Steve Howe, Allan Holdsworth, and Robert Fripp, he is a master of his instrument(s), a man whose solos are always the high point of every song, always the thing that I wait for as I listen to each song, rarely a phenomenon that disappoints. 

Ranking the Mystery Discography:

1. MYSTERY Delusion Rain (2015) - 91.46

2. MYSTERY The World Is a Game (2012) - 90.1818

3. MYSTERY Destiny? (1998) - 90.04

4. MYSTERY Redemption (2023) - 89.916667

5. MYSTERY One Among the Living (2010) - 89.42

6. MYSTERY Beneath the Veil of Winter's Face (2007) - 88.72

7. MYSTERY Theatre of the Mind (1996) - 87.30

8. MYSTERY Lies and Butterflies (2018) - 84.81

MYSTERY Theatre of the Mind (1996)

Despite having formed in 1986, this is the band's first studio release. (I don't know the band's story: why it took ten years to produce their first album; perhaps it's all about record companies, fresh material, and funds--and perhaps the band spent several years performing as a cover band while honing their skills and building up some experience and knowledge as to how to compose and perform their own material.)

Line-up / Musicians:
- Gary Savoie / lead & backing vocals
- Michel St-Père / electric, classical, 6- & 12-string acoustic guitars, synthesizers, producer
- Michel Painchaud / classical & acoustic guitars
- Benoît Dupuis / keyboards
- Richard Addison / fretted & fretless basses
- Stéphane Perreault / drums & percussion, drum programming, glockenspiel, synthesizers
With:
- Pierre Léger / string arrangements, flute
- Marie Lacasse / violin
- Marie-Claude Masse / violin
- Ahimsa Gilbert / cello
- Patrice Bédard / keyboards
- Gilles Peltier / synth Fx
- Serge Gangloff / synth Fx
- Sylvain Langlois / tenor & soprano saxophones
- Patrick Bourque / bass (7)
- Josée Larivière / backing vocals

- The Reality:
1. "Theatre of the Mind" (6:04) what sounds like pretty standard JOURNEY material with some skillful lead guitar work on display. (8.5/10)

 
2. "Lonely Heart" (4:30) the JOURNEY comparisons are even more appropriate for this saccharine classic rock ballad. Gary definitely has a great STEVE PERRY-like voice. (8.4/10)

3. "Peace of Mind" (4:49) acoustic guitar with flute gives this one a DAN FOGELBERG/DAVE MASON feel but as Gary's vocals move along the instrumental support grows in breadth and volume entering into more of the symphonic metal territory being explored by contemporary bands like QUEENSRŸCHE and IRON MAIDEN (though some of the Southern Rock sound from the opening is still being felt throughout the song). (8.666667/10)

- The Dream:
4. "Virtual Mentality" (1:18) nice, original intro/overture to this conceptual suite. (4.75/5)

5. "The Inner Journey" (Part I) (3:39) gently picked acoustic guitar with background synth washes and Gary Savoie's STEVE PERRY voice singing plaintively over the top. A nice composition that shows some nice maturity (patience) from the band. (8.75/10)

6. "Black Roses" (8:02) wind and wooden flute open this very cinematic tune. At times giving it an almost "Nights in White Satin" sound and feel. Gary joins in during the second minute and the whole feel changes--even moreso as the rock instruments enter and multiply. An interesting and entertaining song but a little too quirky and disjointed ("scattered"?) for my brain--especially with that wooden flute continuing to run its own race throughout the song, front and center--even garnering primary attention over the rock instruments and vocals! Plus, the lyrics leave a lot to be desired. (12.5/15)

7. "Rythmizomena" (1:51) percussives, tuned and untuned, form the gentle rhythmic foundation to this before electric bass and crazed disembodied spirit voices join in. The syncopated piece that develops feels like a rhythmic exercise (and perhaps should not have been included on the album). (4.2/5)

8. "In My Dreams" (5:08) more acoustic guitar picking with atmospheric synth & organ support for Gary Savoie's STEVE PERRY-like vocal. A nice venture into symphonic/orchestration land--and quite a divergence from NeoProg, prog, and metal music. (8.6666667/10)

9. "Believe in Your Dreams" (6:41) 80s/90s synth-backed three-chord hard rock. Nice but definitely sounds dated. More JOURNEY, TRIUMPH, or WHITESNAKE-like fare with some nice lead guitar and lead synth on display. (8.75/10)

10. "The Inner Journey (Part II)" (4:34) cinematic synth washes open this. Gary eventually joins in, singing a plaintive first verse before a bridge of reed instruments preps us for the second. Heavy rock instrumentation joins in during the second verse as both Gary and the full band's music takes on a Richard Addison's fretless bass play on this song is quite remarkable--a real highlight. (8.75/10)

Total Time 46:36

A bit too much of experimentalism here--as if this is a band that is still struggling to discover its own identity. 

87.30 on the Fishscales = B-/four stars; a nice addition of JOURNEY-like music that a lot of prog lover's will no doubt find attractive.   

MYSTERY Destiny? (1998)

Founded in 1986, the band had only released one studio album previous to this one. Obviously the band was still trying to solidify its identity much less a vision for itself.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Gary Savoie / lead & backing vocals
- Michel St-Père / electric, classical, 6- & 12-string acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, producer
- Patrick Bourque / fretted & fretless basses
- Steve Gagné / drums
With:
- Olivier Demers / violin
- Serge Gangloff / special Fx
- Dré / "strange personalities"
- Anne Gangloff / French narration
- Diane Hébert / backing vocals (5)

1. "Legend" (2:42) affected schlock. (4/5)

2. "Destiny?" (4:56) nice music to support Gary Savoie's Robert Plant/Steve Perry-like vocal styling. I really like the clarity given to all of the guitar parts: the soundscape is not nearly as lush and pervasive as the band's future sound becomes. Quite an excellent song! (9.5/10)

3. "Slave to Liberty" (5:35) more excellent guitar-based sonic landscape--almost like peak WHITESNAKE ("Is This Love?"). Great vocals over really nice song construction. Really portentous of some of the great songwriting/production of the future. (9.125/10)

4. "Before the Dawn" (6:29) Gary Savoie masterfully sings to help firm the establishment of the band's tradition of great ballad deliverers. Solid. (8.75/10)

5. "Queen of Vajra Space" (9:20) pure RUSH/JOURNEY imitation. Nice guitar performances but otherwise too imitative. (17/20)

6. "The Mourning Man" (4:47) starts delicately but then bursts out as a kind of Caribbean-infused heavy metal hair band song. Some very impressive guitar playing from Michel St-Père. (8.666667/10)

7. "Submerged" (7:53) a very solid and fresh 1980s metal-influenced song with great performances from all.  (13.25/15)

8. "Shadow of the Lake" (14:55) another song that sounds very much like future Mystery: expressing a musical form and vision that is what becomes their own. Great composition with perfect performances and production--the attention to nuances is really wonderful. And Gary Savoie's vocal performance is perfectly matched to the music, never over the top or below grade. The middle section drags on a bit (could have been shorter) but the buildup, peak, and dénouement are top notch. I love that final section--and especially Gary Savoie's performance and Michel's long, protracted guitar outro. So emotional! One of the great prog epics of the 1990s! (28.75/30)

Total Time 56:37

90.04 on the Fishscales = B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of classic rock-influenced heavy NeoProg.

MYSTERY Beneath the Veil of Winter's Face (2007)

Only the band's third studio album since their founding in 1986, we find the band's heavier NeoProg sound being firmly committed to. This is also the album that announces the arrival of extraordinary bass player Antoine Fafard.

 
Line-up / Musicians:
- Benoît David / vocals
- Michel St-Père / electric & acoustic guitars, bass, keyboards, producer
- Patrick Bourque / bass (5,8)
- Steve Gagné / drums
With:
- Antoine Fafard / bass (3,4,9)
- Benoît Pépin / bass (1,6,10)
- Serge Gangloff / Fx

1. "As I Am" (5:41) nice music that chugs along while Benoît David's voice is mixed a little further back than will become the band's norm. Flashy electric guitar leads flourishing in and around the music throughout the second half. (8.75/10)

2. "Beneath the Veil of Winter's Face" (5:58) cool opening with some chant vocals and changing spacious motifs that grow progressively more dense as the song develops. (8.875/10)

3. "Snowhite" (4:07) Antoine Fafard's debut song with the band--and he is immediately impressive. The heavy, ominous opening motif turns off at the end of the first minute as the band chooses a lighter,  more keyboard-based palette to support Benoît's opening vocals. A nice return to the guitar-led heavy stuff for the bridge between verses. Man! Antoine is a bassist of a different ilk: his melodic playing is powerful enough to almost garner lead billing. Without a chorus (worded) the songs feels a bit incomplete, otherwise it's powerful. (8.75/10)

4. "Travel to the Night" (8:38) keys and guitars open this with a quickly-paced upper register weave before organ and bass take the song into almost RUSH territory--which is especially confirmed by Benoît's Geddy Lee-like vocal performance. Antoine Fafard is definitely making an impact on this band's sound! Weak BÖC-like chorus leads into an almost jazzy instrumental passage with the full band performing some intricately arranged weaves. At the midway point Michel St-Père's flute-like lead guitar shows up impressively. Then we move into a GENESIS-like passage within which guitars and keys really show off while the rhythm section (and especially Antoine) stabilize the low end with some truly motivating lines. Wow! Listen to that bass! It's a bit of a let down when the music returns to the vocal sections. (17.75/20)

5. "The Scarlet Eye" (5:35) a little tame and by-the-numbers after the previous two songs. Nice bass play from Patrick Bourque--and nice vocal arrangements. Michel's bluesy guitar licks start to pepper the vocal sections in the third minute yet Benoît's vocals have yet to be infused by any passion or emotion. Nice second part to the instrumental passage with bass, drums, guitars, and especially keyboards really clicking. The final vocal passage finds Benoît giving a little more effort but a little too little a little too late. (8.75/10)

6. "The Third Dream" (6:11) more fairly standard classic-rock infused fare. The song never really develops or reaches any exciting heights. (8.666667/10)

7. "Voyage to the Other Side" (6:24) I love the "distant storm" intro--even with Benoît's "distant" vocals. Cool stuff from Michel's guitar + fx. Shifts into gear in the second minute with some cool tom-tom work and even more pronounced guitar manipulations. Then Michel starts to wail almost unaccompanied before Benoît sings the next verse. Full band finally kicks in in the fourth minute with power chords and great lush melodic walls of sound--over which Michel really sizzles. There are so many fascinating threads within this song's weave! Definitely a top three song. Michel's first breakthrough song of this album. Bravo! (9/10)

8. "The Sailor and the Mermaid" (5:23) a beautiful little ballad both from the musical/melody perspective as well as from the vocal/lyrics/storytelling perspective. (Nice work Benoît!) A glimpse of another of the band's perpetual strengths. Another top three song. It's just so pretty! (8.875/10)

9. "The Awakening" (11:12) opens with gently picked/strummed solo electric guitar (seeming to continue the mood and key of the previous song). Benoît enters to sing a plaintive vocal with no little emotional investment. Tender lead guitar in the space between vocal verses, then the band kicks into full spectrum with a slow, heavy bluesy pace for a minute or so before then turning down a side road to seemingly chase a rabbit. But then just as quickly and suddenly they turn back to the previous plodding motif for Benoît to raise his game (and voice) with an intense commitment to an impassioned delivery. The music, unfortunately, rather drags--is bolstered by Benoît's wonderful performance--even when the instrumental solos begin to show up in the seventh and eighth minutes, there's just something in the plodding heaviness of the main flow beneath that seems to drag the instrumentalist's performances down (despite some great play by Michel). And I never get to hear Antoine flourish as he's always holding down the insidiously slow bottom end with his power chords. (17.375/20)

10. "The Preacher's Fall" (3:30) bursts into gear with the insistence of a Thin Lizzy song. Guitars and keys announce a melody before stepping back to make space for Benoît to belt it out over the chugging Lizzy motif. This is so much more like the old classic rock hair bands than Prog or NeoProg. (8.66667/10)

Total Time 62:39

88.72 on the Fishscales = B/four stars; an excellent addition to any prog lover's music collection--especially if you're into the heavier side of the NeoProg scene.

MYSTERY One Among the Living (2010)

This is the album with which I first became aware of the Mystery sound--the rich, polished, emotional sound that, to these ears, epitomize all that is right with the Neo Prog movement. Replete with more-modern sounds that were pioneered by the Trick of the Tail and, especially, Wind and Wuthering albums and from which the Neo Prog movement was born, what makes Mystery such a delight to listen to is not just the wonderful standards set by their vocalists--here Benoît David--or the interesting and complex compositions of Michel St-Pére or even the great evenly-distributed performances by the instrumentalists or even the oft-soul-melting melodies, but, for me, the anticipation of waiting for each electric guitar solo offered by Michel. His guitar play is so amazing, so melodic though technically proficient, that I find myself perking up every time I see him guesting on other people's albums.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Benoît David / vocals
- Michel St-Père / electric & acoustic guitars, keyboards, producer
- Steve Gagné / drums
With:
- Dean Baldwin / guitar (13)
- Daryl Stuermer / guitar solo (14)
- Benoît Dupuis / keyboards (1,2,11,12,14)
- Oliver Wakeman / Moog solo (5)
- François Fournier / bass (12), Taurus pedals
- John Jowitt / bass (5)
- Antoine Fafard / bass (2-4,6-11,14)
- Richard Lanthier / bass (13)
- Claire Vezina / backing vocals (14)
- Dahlie-Yann St-Père / children laughter
- Damellia St-Père / children laughter

1. "Among the Living" (1:13)

2. "Wolf" (5:53) a solid, varied rocker with great vocal and great instrumental contributions spread among all contributors. Benoît David has such a gorgeous voice--in the league with the Journey and the greats of the 80s hair bands. (9/10)

3. "Between Love And Hate" (5:53) a pretty straightforward heavy rocker, power chords and all, highlighted by a powerful guitar solo in the fourth minute. (8.25/10)

4. "Till The Truth Comes Out" (9:25) a gentle, emotional Neo Prog song, complete with syrupy layers of imitation strings to build into the full band breakout in the third minute. Interesting time shift at 3:45 into a more dynamic, multi-instrumental instrumental section. Awesome! Wonderful performances by all. (17.75/20)

5. "Kameleon Man" (5:01) another heavy rocker, more in the vein of 1980s hair bands, spiced up a little by some awesome precision lead guitar work and Oliver Wakeman's CAMEL-esque Moog solo in the middle. (8.25/10)

- "Through Different Eyes" (suite) (22:34) (41.5/45): 6. "I. When Sorrow Turns To Pain" (3:56) standard fare, not Benoît's best vocal melody. (8.25/10) 7. "II. Apocalyptic Visions Of Paradise" (1:48) Hackett/Genesis-like instrumental interlude. (5/5) 8. "III. So Far Away" (5:51) tender, 12-string arpeggi-based. Pretty, nice vocal melodies. Builds to an awesome bass pedal crescendo. (8.75/10) 9. "IV. The Point Of No Return" (2:21) a spacey-industrial expression of war-like conflict. (4.5/5) 10. "V. The Silent Scream" (5:57) back to sensitive acoustic guitar-based, Benoît's vocal here is similar to modern RPI singers like Alessio Calandario--more straight-foward and raw, powerful yet vulnerable, emotional. Michel picks up the vocal melody with his electric guitar and does what we've really been waiting for: he soars. When Benoît returns, it is in a higher octave--soaring in a way to match Michel's guitar while those deep bass and bass pedal lows keep killing us. Michel really lights it up in the second half. Wow! Amazing! (10/10) 11. "VI. Dancing With Butterflies" (2:42) returning to the opening lyrics and themes, vocals expressing through multiple tracks, keys and guitars flying steady and free beneath, the song wends its way to a long, gorgeous dénouement and fade with seagull noises and children's laughter. (5/5)

12. "One Among The Living" (6:27) great sound from the start, very GENESIS-like, with Banksian keys and Hackett-esque guitar and Collins-like drum patterning. Even when it goes heavy at 2:30, the ensuing section is awesome and still very much in the Genesis-vein. Not my favorite vocal or lyric, definitely an amazing composition and sound. Best song on the album. (9.5/10)

13. "The Falling Man" (7:39) based on an ominous repeating 10-chord sequence of chunky bass and guitar power chords, Benoît sings in his best DEF LEPPARD voice while all instrumentalists do their best to promote and maintain that heavy substrate. A couple surprise twists are short-lived and only temporary tangents, the music always returning to that 10-chord base. Well done, great whole-band discipline. (13/15)

14. "Sailing On A Wing" (4:55) classic Neo Prog song, great vocal melody hook and awesome lead guitar work. (9/10)

Total Time 69:01

89.42 on the Fishscales = B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music and the album that skyrockets Mystery into the top echelon of Neo Prog.

MYSTERY The World Is a Game (2012)

This is a pleasant surprise--and my favorite Mystery album to this point. The musicians are all clicking on the same wavelengths, the songs are sufficiently constructed to raise this band from what I call "second tier" prog into the halls of the real thing. (Obviously, M. David has learned a lot from his experiences with other bands--most notably, YES. And Nick D'Virgilio continues to only get better with the years--his intuitive skill at meshing his drumming with the musicians and ideas with which he works is IMHO unsurpassed in present-day prog. Just look at what he did for BIG BIG TRAIN!) Aside from the two intro/interlude songs ("A Morning Rise" and "The Unwinding of Time"), we have here six meaty songs with mature compositional value and great sound production. This latter aspect is one reason I give this album the bump up to the five star level. 

Line-up / Musicians:
- Benoît David / lead vocals
- Michel St-Père / electric & acoustic guitars, keyboards, mixing & producing
- Antoine Fafard / fretted & fretless bass, acoustic guitars
- Nick D'Virgilio / drums
With:
- Marilène Provencher-Leduc / flute
- Damellia & Dahlie-Yann St-Père / children sounds

The second song, "Pride" (11:28) has a fairly simple construct and nothing terribly surprising--feeling like a cross between RUSH Signals-era and GENESIS And Then There Were Three:  lots of catchy melodic hooks and some awesome drumming--though the soft section at the eight minute mark  (beginning with the acoustic guitar arpeggio riff from "Midnight Cowboy theme) owes everything to maestro, JON ANDERSON (and a little of LOVERBOY). The individual performances are perfection and are especially noteworthy for the coheseive "team" feeling to it all. (19/20) 

The album's jewel, however, IMO, is the third song, "Superstar" (6:59) A laid back tune with heart-breaking melodies much in the same vein as MOTH VELLUM. The vocals, guitar soli, drumming, bass and keyboard work are all absolutely perfect! One of my Top 10 songs for Y2K12. (15/15)

The title song, (7:57) has its gorgeous parts--including the guitars and piano--but the vocal and melody lines feel a bit too syrupy---like the group AIR SUPPLY from the 70s and 80s. Even when it hits third gear at the four minute mark it feels too much like 707, STYX or JOURNEY (three of my "second tier" "prog-wannabees"). (12/75/15)

6. "Dear Someone" (6:21) has quite an awesome beginning (even if it reminds me of one of my favorite JOHN DENVER songs--or CHRISTOPHER CROSS' "Sailing"), which evolves into an equally gorgeous DEF LEPPARD-like section, thanks to an awesome electric guitar sound. Great melodies throughout this one--and some really hopeful, heart-warming lyrics. (I hear you, Benoit: I have children!) Incredible work sur le batterie, Sir Nick, from the fourth minute on! Love the electric guitar, flute, and drum interplay at the very end. (8.7/10) 

7. "Time Goes By" (6:04) has a bit more use of odd, thoughtful, melody lines woven together in an interesting and, I would guess, (for this band) risky way. The chorus melody reminds me tremendously of THE BUGGLES' "Rainbow Warrior". This one never really grabs me until the last minute in a half when the drums, bass, and guitar start playing off each other in an awesome display of instrumental "inter-PLAY." I appreciate this song's 'adventurousness'. (8.75/10) 

8. "Another Day" (19:02) is one of my favorite epics of the year--mostly because I feel so strongly as if I am back listening to the best stuff from COLLAGE's Moonshine or SATELLITE's A Street Between Sunrise and Sunset. I love the harpsichord feeling of the piano-12-string guitar pairing during the opening motif. The motif built in the sixth minute around the "Stranglehold" riffs borrowed from Ted Nugent are worthy of a few demerits, however. The seventh and eighth minutes are bridged by yet another borrowed classic rock riff but then devolve into a lovely dream-sequence before re-amping back up into that motif. Odd pairing of revolving motifs. The song's second half, however, is nearly flawless--with some excellent chords, bass playing, singing, and awesome work from Nick D'Virgilio! (35/40)

Total Time 59:58

The World Is a Game is not a masterpiece that propels the evolution of progressive rock forward, but it is a very solid, excellent sounding piece of prog ear candy--with some excellent group and individual performances. Definitely recommended for 'classic rock' and prog lovers.

90.1818 on the Fishscales = 4.5 stars; a minor masterpiece of NeoProg.

MYSTERY Delusion Rain (2015)

If Neo Prog has to be over-the-top bombastic, let it be like this band, Mystery, and this album, Delusion Rain, their best to date. Simply the best sound, best song construction, best lead vocalist, best tempos and best lyrical topics I can think of in the Neo Prog realm. So what if they sound like 80s hair bands WHITESNAKE, SKID ROW, QUEENSRYCHE, GREAT WHITE, DEF LEPPARD or BON JOVI. They have a clarity and consistency, a masterful command of melody and chord progressions and a solid confidence that puts them in your face but in an emotional, sympathetic way.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Jean Pageau / lead vocals, keyboards, flute
- Michel St-Père / electric & acoustic guitars, keyboards, producer
- Sylvain Moineau / electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar
- Benoît Dupuis / keyboards
- François Fournier / bass, Taurus pedals, keyboards
- Jean-Sébastien Goyette / drums
With:
- Antoine Michaud / guitars
- Sylvain Descôteaux / piano

1. "Delusion Rain" (10:04) A solid song that just never elevates itself into heavenly standards of memorability. (17.5/20)

2. "If You See Her" (6:11) A prog ballad by-the-numbers but done to perfection. The keyboard embellishments and restrained guitar soli (especially in the fifth minute) are wonderful. (9/10)

3. "The Last Glass of Wine" (6:47) Great pacing, great singing and lyrics, incredibly engaging chord progressions and melodic hooks, amazing sound and instrumental clarity, and hugely chunky bass, and yet nothing over-the-top or overdone. This is about as good as Neo Prog can get. (15/15)

4. "The Willow Tree" (19:30) A few choices misfire and a few opportunities were missed--and it may drag on a bit longer than it needs to, but, still, overall, another beautiful and wonderfully restrained presentation. "Have you seen your eyes" is definitely a brainworm. (37.5/40)

5. "Wall Street King" (6:39) Despite the cogent topic, pleasant opening and great fifth minute, this is one of the weaker songs on this otherwise stunning album. (8.75/10)

6. "A Song for You" (12:35) is a little on the cliché bombastic side, but I cannot argue with the gorgeous melodies, heart-wrenching chord progressions, tasteful guitar soli and amazing synth soli. Change the first 6:15 a bit and you have an outright masterpiece. (22/25)

Total Time 61:46

91.46 on the Fish scales = A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece and another wonderful contribution to the world of progressive rock music from these masters of Neo Prog.

Sorry, Thomas, but this, Delusion Rain, is the greatest Neo Prog album ever made. (Just kidding. That honor would have to go to either Moonshine or Seven.) If all Neo Prog were like this, I might like more of it.

MYSTERY Lies and Butterflies (2018)

I enter the first listen of any new MYSTERY album with no expectations. I am always surprised by the rich and consistent sound the band has used over the course of its career. This is the first time that that sound may be feeling a little old, a little tapped out.

Musicians / Line-up: 

Jean Pageau - lead vocals, flute, keyboards

Francois Fournier - bass, keyboards

Jean- Sebastien Goyette - drums

Sylvain Moineau - guitars, keyboards

Antoine Michaud - keyboards

Michel St-Pere - guitars, keyboards

1. "Looking For Something Else" (16:54) opens with crowd cheering and clapping before a "door-shutting" noise and acoustic guitar harmonics section and acoustic piano section ensue. It sounds like diddling around on stage while the concert fans empty from the stadium. After about 90 seconds the little impromptu rift is taken over by the full electronic band. Impressive cohesion, however, after another two minutes of this single arpeggio riff being repeated and bashed about, I find myself looking (hoping) for something new, a shift or variation. The music does empty down but flute and piano and acoustic guitar perpetuate the riff while Jean Pageau enters to sing. Piano and acoustic guitar continue to carry "the riff" while the instrumental lineup and dynamics go through some shifts. Chorus. Electric guitar solo. Return to full band and vocal push of "the riff." In the seventh minute things lay back again, though the bass remains thick and there is still an occasional power chord, so that Michel can really sink his teeth into a long guitar solo. It's okay; nothing very new or super-exciting. And yet it continues. For four minutes. Synths take a laid back turn in the lead. When things finally settle down in the eleventh minute, church organ leads us in, but then piano and acoustic guitars take back the lead in a soft, delicate "Confusion Will Be My Epitaph" section over which Jean sings. The King Crimson inspiration continues with flute and Mellotron (making it even more blatant) until things explode into full "orchestral" mode at 13:25. Nice vocal, nice lead guitar solo follow (still following the "Epitaph" melody lines). It's different enough that I can let go of the blatant "lift" of the music. Plus, the players feel so emotionally connected to this section. It's pretty damned good even if it is borrowed.  Great drum and bass play throughout. (31.5/35)

2. "Come To Me" (5:17) sounds too much like a WHITESNAKE song. Too filled with sonic and structural clichés; one or two catchy riffs or chord progressions do not make for a great song. (7/10)

3. "How Do You Feel?" (4:53) pretty chords gently played by multiple guitars and keys set up Jean Pageau for an emotional vocal--which he delivers in spades. Perfect power, perfect melodies, perfect lyrics. Great guitar work in the rhythm and solo departments throughout. A MYSTERY masterpiece. (9.5/10)

4. "Something To Believe In" (7:34) Oh, oh! A Colin Tench song! At least, that's what the opening suggested. The stripped down, country-rock verses bely something a little different but not far off my original impression. Man! Michel St-Pere can play guitar! Maybe even better than Colin could! Drums are a little too busy for my tastes, don't really work in this mix. Electric piano arpeggi segue into a new section with a bit of a classical feel--even guitars and flute maintain that feel. But then a power chord from the electric guitar serves notice of a return to rock 'n' roll. Joe Walsh-era EAGLES come to mind here. (11.25/15)

5. "Dare To Dream" (6:54) Synth-strings note and dated electric piano chords open this slow song before cymbol play and guitars join in to support the vocal. Again, the song stays in such conservative, formulaic territory that I find myself disappointed, even turned off. Great little guitar solo at the very end of the second minute. Both the verses and choruses are failing to bring me in. I'm so sad! Nice instrumental section in the fourth minute and usual great lead guitar solo in the fifth. Sensitive scaled back section in the sixth minute over which haunting synth solos. Vocals return in harmonized multiplicity but they aren't grabbing me! Such ambivalencies! (12.75/15)

6. "Where Dreams Come Alive" (7:26) electric guitar and electric piano arpeggi provide an opening background over which Michel's lead soars for a few seconds before we switch into second gear with chunky plucked bass line and syncopated drumming. The vocals enter over this. It's not working. Guitars and keys join in and still it's not quite clicking on all cylinders. Michel's occasional flourishes on lead guitar are magical but once again they cannot float or fly a poorly constructed ship. I would like to see more future compositions using more of Jean Pageau's flute. (12.75/15)

7. "Chrysalis" (15:08) opens softly before bursting into a long introduction of a theme that feels familiar from one of the previous songs. Things then quiet down in the second minute for some nice acoustic guitar work. A minute of this with support of synth washes and we're finally introduced to the vocal. There's a BLUE ÖYSTER CULT Spectres feel to this one (more specifically, "I Love the Night"). Song builds in the fifth minute and then breaks down for the delicate, heart-felt "Butterfly, spread your wings and fly" section. Then a sudden shift takes us into a heavier, metallic section of power chords, searing guitar, and almost growling vocal narration before Jean's more-projected vocal soars in the foreground. At 8:35 the dominant riff shifts to bridge us to another delicate, dreamy section (though a chunky bass continues at the bottom--as if to remind us that this is a scary story) with nice melodies from guitar and vocal. This is intermixed with alternating returns to the "Godzilla"-like guitar power chords. Even Michel's guitar solo over this heaviness has a Buck Dharma sound and feel to it! The twelfth and thirteen minutes maintain a nice albeit still heavy chord progression beneath which the drummer has some show-off time. Then we shift into a heavy yet full-orchestra feeling final section over which powerful Jean's vocal carries us to the delicate end. (25.5/30)

Total Time 64:06

84.81 on the Fishscales = B/four stars; a nice addition to any prog lover's collection (though not as good as some of Mystery's previous releases).

MYSTERY Redemption (2023)

Québec's NeoProg masters are back with their thirteenth album since 1992 and fourth studio album with the same lineup.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Jean Pageau / vocals
- Antoine Michaud / keyboards
- François Fournier / bass, keyboards
- Jean-Sébastien Goyette / drums
- Sylvain Moineau / guitars
- Michel St-Pere / guitars, keyboards

1. "Behind the Mirror" (6:46) it's been a while since I've heard Mystery's sound this thick, this heavy. It feels good. Solid. But not enough flash and dynamic change (except for from the drummer and bass player). Quite a solid song--one that reminds me of all that I love about NeoProg and Mystery in particular--but one that also reminds me of just how difficult it is to deliver perfect heart-melting melodies and/or chord progressions. (13.25/15)

2. "Redemption" (6:36) the incredibly full and deep bass is the key to the "new" sound. (8.875/10)

3. "The Beauty and the Least" (9:15) from the opening notes and chords one can sense that we're in for some of Mystery's very best song-crafting. The bass is, again, very full and heavy beneath Jean's melodies and the rest of the band's great chord progressions. The guitar solo at the end of the third minute, though brief, is among Michel St-Pere's best--and he is definitely one of the best--but this is quickly moved away from into a more pastoral weave of multiple guitar and keyboard arpeggi. Michel starts to wind up again within and over this two-chord passage, striking some truly epic bursts and moments. In the second half of the sixth minute, the band switches chord motifs--goes for a heavier sound--as drummer Jean-Sébastien Goyette gets to really shine within the walls of glorious sound. The eighth minute reveals a more 'tron-dominated Genesis-scape before emerging into what feels a classic Mystery "reveal" with Michel and Jean rising above the dense and beautiful heavy prog soundscape. Mystery doing what Mystery does best. (18.75/20)

4. "Every Note" (6:01) two chorus-treated electrified 12-string guitars provide the background support for Jean to sing a heart-wrenching vocal--whichis understqandable considering the wording of this powerful love song. But, despite continued amazing musical background throughout, I feel that Jean's investment in his message loses some of its depth and/or sincerity in the middle (but, thankfully, he regains a bit of it in the final climactic 75 seconds). Great music--especially the guitars--but the drumming feels a little over the top. (9/10)

5. "Pearls and Fire" (12:43) a "coming of age" story about a boy that is counseled by his parents to hold back his tears in order to "be a man" who then ends up joining the military to continue to prove his manhood. The ensuing description of Leo's war experience gets quite graphic as he is "caught in the crossfire" during a particular battle. The instrumental passage that follows this revelation is the best on the album so far. Prog at its best. In the sixth minute we come out of the mayhem of battle into a space of silence--used to sing about Leo's death. These are the kinds of passages in which both Jean Pageau and Mystery excel: encasing scenes of emotional weight in stunningly gorgeous music. The eighth minute, then, shows the band exploring some electronically-framed spurts of heaviness, coming out with a passage of keyboard-soloing over prime NeoProg. At the nine-minute mark we switch to a heavier version of a previous motif for some electric guitar soloing weaving in and around Jean's singing. (Man this guy can sing!) The sudden switch at 10:35 to a more 1980s sound palette and motif is short-lived, a bridge to another round of the current heavy motif, but it returns each time Jean takes a break from singing. The lesson of "Pearls and Fire" is that  no one can really control the outcomes/consequences of a young man's dreams. A very good though not really ground-breaking or earth-shattering epic of highly professional, proficient, masterful heavy NeoProg. (22.5/25)

6. "My Inspiration" (8:24) opens with arpeggio-picked multiple guitars like a setup for a heavy ballad. Jean joins in over the guitars and keyboard synth washes and tuned percussives while drums and bass hold back until the chorus. The drums and (awesome) bass remain for the rest of the song as Jean sings with no little emotion about his "inspiration." Several of the brief instrumental bridges in the mid-section feel quite Wind and Wuthering-era GENESIS-like (which is exactly one of the foundational definitions of NeoProg, isn't it?) Beautiful, dreamy, magnificent, pompous and bombastic. (18/20)

7. "Homecoming" (5:10) cool change-up with a multi-voice choral approach to the vocal deliveries over the opening 90 seconds. A long and heavy instrumental passage follows. The vocals rejoin (some solo Jena, some choral-crafted) with some excellent RICHARD WRIGHT-like keyboard work before Michel's guitar takes over. Very nicely (and differently) crafted song. (9.25/10)

8. "Is This How the Story Ends?" (19:11) opens with a couple of minutes of excellent msuic with the rhythm section feeling so tight, so polished, that I'm reminded of Phil Collins and Mike Rutherford at the absolute peak of their skills/powers. The instrumental passage beneath the dramatic narration in the eighth minute is among those sublime high points of Mystery's career. The final three minutes are about as classic 1976 GENESIS as one can get--so heavily dripping in Mellotron and bombast. (35.25/40)

Total Time 74:06

In my opinion drummer Jean-Sébastien Goyette and bassist François Fournier make up the best rhythm section Mystery have ever had and this, their seventh album and ninth year together, serves to capture their finest performance. I can listen to this music/album over and over in large part due to the amazing performances of these two. (Jean comes in a close second). Unfortunately, I think Michel extraordinary guitar skills never really hit the highs of previous albums--though they are always of the very highest caliber of skill and appropriateness. (It must be so hard to continually have to either reinvent your self/your style or try to top your shining moments from year to year, album to album--especially over a 30-year career and over 11 albums. The only other guitarists I've known to accomplish such a feat are Jeff Beck, Nick Barrett, and maybe Steve Hackett.) There are many pleasing, great moments of guitar play, but none so memorable of those I still get chills from during One Among the Living, World Is A Game, and Delusion Rain.

89.916667 on the Fishscales = B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of NeoProg--narrowly missing "masterpiece" status (though, who knows what further/future familiarity while reveal).

Prog Lists: My Favorite Albums of Each Year

     2023    

1. OIAPOK OisoLün

2. AISLES Beyond Drama

3. EARTHSIDE Let the Truth Speak

4. BILLIE BOTTLE'S TEMPLE OF SHIBBOLETH Billie Bottle's Temple of Shibboleth

5. HOMUNCULUS RES Ecco l'impero dei doppi sensi

6. MOTORPSYCHO Yay!
7. VESPERO De ludo globi
8. JACK O' THE CLOCK The Warm, Dark Circus
9. THE MERCURY TREE Self Similar

10. KARMAMOI Strings from the Edge of Sound

11. MICE ON STILTS I Am Proud of You.

12. OK GOODNIGHT The Fox and the Bird

13. BATTLESTATIONS Memoirs of Once

14. AMOEBA SPLIT Quiet Euphoria

15. LAZULI 11 

16. STEFANO PANUNZI Pages from the Sea

17. ZOPP Dominion

18. AGUSA Prima Material

19. CARAVELA EXCARLATE III

20. DOMINIC SANDERSON Impermanence

21. NE OBLIVISCARUS Exul

22. DEPOSED KING One Man's Grief

23. HANIA RANI Ghosts

24. KARNATAKA Requiem for a Dream

25. EYELESS OWL Murmurations

26. AVKRVST The Approbation

27. ATSUKO CHIBA Water, It Feels Like It's Growing

28. THE FILIBUSTER SALOON Going Off Topic

29. RASCAL REPORTERS The Strainge Case of Steve

30. ADVENT HORIZON A Cell to Call Home

31. FISH ON FRIDAY 8mm

32. SEVEN IMPALE Summit

33. AVIATIONS Luminaria

34. OZRIC TENTACLES Lotus Unfolding

35. ISOBAR III 

36. ACTIONFREDAG Turist i eget liv

37. AGLAIA Existentialism

38. CAIRO Nemesis

39. ULTRAPHAUNA No No No No 

40. SEQUENTIA LEGENDA Alcyone 

41. SONAR (with David Torn and J. Peter Schwalm) Three Movements

42. CROWN LANDS Fearless

43. MANNA/MIRAGE Autobiographie

44. SWANS The Beggar

45. AETHER Aether

46. SQUID O Monolith

47. SUNCHILD Exotic Creatures and a Stolen Dream

48. LARS FREDRIK FRØISLIE Fire Foretellinger 

49. SINGLE CELLED ORGANISM Event Horizon

50. MYSTERY Redemption

Honorable Mentions:

ISPROJECT The Archinauts

ENSLAVED Heimdal

UNITED PROGRESSIVE FRATERNITY Planetary Overload, Part 2 - Hope

THE GREAT WIDE NOTHING Hymns for Hungry Spirits, Vol. II

KATATONIA Sky Void of Stars

BARONESS Stone

ARNAUD BUKWALD La marmite cosmique 7 - Uncle Bizarre

THE CHRONICLES OF FATHER ROBIN The Songs & Tales of Airoea, Book I: The Tale of Father Robin (State of Nature)

NINE SKIES The Lightmaker

MONIKA ROSCHER BIGBAND Witchy Activities and the Maple Death

COSMIC GROUND Entropy

Special Mentions:

ÓLAFUR ARNALDS Live from Hafursey, A Cercle Production

PAT METHENY Dream Box

FRENCH TV A Ghastly State of Affairs

IO EARTH Sanctuary

     2022    

1. iNFiNiEN Beyond the Veil

2. WIPPY BONSTACK 22

3. RANESTRANE Apocalypse Now

4. FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE Presence

5. GADADU The Weatherman Is Wrong

6. GREEN ASPHALT Green Asphalt

7. BREIDABLIK Alduorka

8. IKARUS Plasma

9. MOTORPSYCHO Ancient Astronauts

10. KLAUS SCHULZE Deus Arrakis

11. OHMA Between All Things

12. DAVE BRONS Return to Arda 

13. WESERBERGLAND Sacrae Symphonae nr. 1

13. KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD Changes

15. TOEHIDER I Have Little to No Memories of These Memories

16. ELDER Innate Passage

17. RETURNED TO THE EARTH Fall of the Watcher

18. DREADNAUGHT The Endless

19. STRANGE POP Ten Years Gone

20. TANGERINE DREAM Raum

21. BLACK MIDI Hellfire

22. GRICE Polarchoral

23. JAMBINAI Apparition

24. ALIANTE Destinazione Oblique

25. STEVE VAI Inviolate 

26. MIDLAKE For the Sake of Bethel Woods

27. BIRTH Born

28. MARILLION An Hour Before It's Dark

29. KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, & Lava

30. SILENT TEMPLE Faery Revolution

31. HAVEN OF ECHOES The Indifferent Stars

32. JONAS LINDBERG & THE OTHER SIDE Miles from Nowhere

33. INNER PROSPEKT Grey Origin

34. VON HERTZEN BROTHERS Red Alert in the Blue Forest

35. BEN CRAVEN Monsters from the Id

36. BIG BIG TRAIN Welcome to the Planet

37. ALMS The Trial

38. ONSÉGAN ENSEMBLE Realms 

39. ROLAND BÜHLMANN Emnalóc

40. THE POWER OF THREE Time Horizon

Honorable Mentions:

THE LIGHT IN THE OCEAN Deep Reef Dream

PURE REASON REVOLUTION Above Cirrus

MOON X Zap!

KARFAGEN Land of Green and Gold

GHOST TOAST Shade Without Color

Special Mention:

JAMBINAI Apparition

KING GIZZARD & THE LIZARD WIZARD Laminated Denim

SON LUX Original Soundtrack Music for the film Everything, Everywhere, All the Time 

     2021    

1. NEEDLEPOINT Walking Up That Valley

2. GIANT SKY Giant Sky

3. ACCORDO DEI CONTRARI UR-

4. HANDS OF THE HERON 13 Moons

5. CALIGONAUT Magnified As Giants

6. SHAMBLEMATHS 2

7. RACHEL FLOWERS Bigger on the Inside

8. MONOBODY Comma

9. BATTLESTATIONS Splinters, Vol. 2 - Bruise

10. YOO DOO RIGHT Don't Think You Can Escape Your Purpose

11. MANNA / MIRAGE Man Out of Time

12. SKE Insolibilia

13. MONO Pilgrimage of the Soul

14. A FORMAL HORSE Meat Mallet

15. BLACK MIDI Cavalcade

16. KANT FREUD KAFKA Historias el acantilado

17. SMALLTAPE The Hungry Heart

18. CICCADA Harvest

19. KRISTOFFER GILDENLÖW Let Me Be a Ghost

20. ARGOS The Other Life

21. JORDSJØ Pastoralis

22. GLASS KITES II

23. AGUSA En annan värld

24. INNER PROSPEKT Canvas Two

25. BEAUTIFUL BEDLAM Beautiful Bedlam

26. PALE MANNEQUIN Colours of Continuity

27. DAVE BAINBRIDGE To the Far Away

28. KONOM Konom

29. BIG BIG TRAIN Common Ground

30. EMERALD DAWN To Touch the Sky

Honorable Mentions:

FROST* Day and Age

CAST Visegimus

SYLVAN One to Zero

MISTER ROBOT Robot Dreams

     2020    

1. MAGICK BROTHER & MYSTIC SISTER Magick Brother & Mystic Sister

2. PENDRAGON Love over Fear

3. THE RETICENT The Oubliette

4. THE LIGHT IN THE OCEAN The Pseudo-Scientific Study of Oceanic Neo-Cryptid Zoology

5. BATTLESTATIONS Inform

6. NEON HEART Neon Heart

7. ONCE AND FUTURE BAND Deleted Scenes

8. ARNAUD BUKWALD La marmite cosmique, no. 6

9. WESERBERGLAND Am Ende der Welt

10. ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF All Thoughts Fly

11. JOHN LUDI Mistakes Have Been Made

12. HOMUNCULUS RES Andiamo in giro di notte e ci consumiamo nel fuoco

13. ABEL GANZ The Life of the Honeybee and Other Moments of Clarity

14. VESPERO The Four Zoas

15. GALIA SOCIAL Rise

16. MARJANA SEMKINA Sleepwalking

17. DAI KAHT II

18. JARDON The Fading Thought

19. MOTORPSYCHO The All Is One

20. JOHN HOLDEN Rise and Fall

21. HIBISCUS BISCUIT Reflections of Mine

22. UBI MAIOR Bestie, Uomini e Dèi

23. THE OCEAN Phanerozoic II: Mesozoic | Cenozoic

24. PAT METHENY From This Place

25. KARFAGEN Principles and Theory of Spektra

26. CORDE OBLIQUE The Moon Is a Dry Bone

27. LOGOS Sadako e le mille gru di carta

28. MOURA Moura

29. THE BARDIC DEPTHS The Bardic Depths

30. ELLESMERE Wyrd

Honorable Mentions:

ANTONY KALUGIN Marshmallow Moondust

VICTOR GO The Leap
PURE REASON REVOLUTION Eupnea

FREN Where Do You Want Ghosts to Reside?

LA MASCHERA DI CERA S.E.I.

LUNATIC SOUL Through Shaded Woods

ZIO Flower Torenia

MOON MEN Tales of Space Pirates

     2019    

1. TIRILL Said the Sun to the Moon
2. JAMBINAI Onde
3. THIEVES' KITCHEN Genius Loci
4. FUZZ PUDDLE Speciecide
5. SEVEN STEPS TO THE GREEN DOOR The? Lie
6. FLY PAN AM C'est ça

7. HAMMOCK Silencia
8. THE LOOMINGS Hey, Weirdo!

9. MONKEY3 Spheres

10. STEVE HAUSCHILDT Nonlin

11. THE TEA CLUB If / When

12. ARNAUD BUKWALD La marmite cosmique V

13. BENT KNEE You Know What They Mean

14. IAMTHEMORNING The Bell
15. MONO Nowhere, Now Here

16. BLACK MIDI Schlagenheim

17. DIZZY MYSTICS Wanderlost

18. UNITED PROGRESSIVE FRATERNITY Planetary Overload, Part 1 - Loss

19. STEVE UNRUH Precipice
20. KARFAGEN Echoes from Within The Dragon's Island

21. MODERN-ROCK ENSEMBLE Night Dreams & Wishes

22. DIAGONAL Arc

23. IQ Resistance
24. CONSIDER THE SOURCE You Are Literally A Metaphor
25. CHARLIE CAWOOD Blurring Into Motion

26. THE PSYCHEDELIC ENSEMBLE Mother's Tales

27. EX CANIX Shaman

28. BIG BIG TRAIN Grand Tour
29. ALIO DIE & INDALASKA Tempus Fugit

30. RETROSPECTIVE Latent Advidity

Honorable Mentions:

FORMAL HORSE Here Comes a Man from the Council with a Flamethrower

OPETH In Cauda Venenum

JORDSJØ Nattfiolen

ELECTRIC ASTURIAS Trinity

Special Mention:

DE LORIANS De Lorians

     2018    

1. UNAKA PRONG Salinity Now!
2. MIDAS FALL Evaporate
3. KEOR Petrichor

4. TOBY DRIVER They Are the Shield
5. STARVING DAUGHTERS Strange Valleys
6. LOW Double Negative
7. MONOBODY Raytracing
8. IVAR BJØRNSON & EINAR SELVIK Hugsjá
9. JULIA HOLTER Aviary
10. HYPNO5E A Backward Glance on a Travel Road: Alba - Les Ombres Errantes

11. ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF Dead Magic
12. ALL TRAPS ON EARTH A Drop of Light
13. ALTO PALO Frozen There
14. NOSOUND Allow Yourself
15. SEQUENTIA LEGENDA Renaissance
16. LA DOTTRINA DEGLI OPPOSTI Arrivaderci sogni
17. SEVEN REIZH L'albatros
18. HOMUNCULUS RES Della stessa sostanza dei sogni
19. REGAL WORM Pig Views
20. METHEXIS Topos

21. DEAD CAN DANCE Dionysus
22. VAK Budo
23. GLEB KOLYADIN Gleb Kolyadin
24. BUBU El eco del sol

25. FEM Mutazione

26. ATMOSPHERES Reach
27. PiNioL Bran Coucou
28. RICHARD WILEMAN Veil
29. MIDLIFE Phase
30. JOSÉ MARIA BLANC La herencia de Pablo

31. SONAR (with David Torn) Vortex

32. CANTURBE Flotteur

33. GALASPHERE 347 Galasphere 347
34. DEWA BUDJANA Mahandini

35. DAAL Decalogue of Darkness

36. EMPEROR NORTON Emperor Norton
37. JOHN HOLDEN Capture Light
38. THE FLOOD Chamber Music
39. MONNAIE DE SINGE The Last Chance

40. STEVE ROACH Molecules of Motion

Honorable Mentions:
GALAHAD Seas of Change
CATU KUÁ Que Vengan los Párajos
ALIO DIE & AGLAIA Amitabha
MANNA/MIRAGE Rest of the World
NOT A GOOD SIGN Icebound
ÁNGEL ONTALVA & VESPERO Carta Marina

Special Mention:
STOP MOTION ORCHESTRA Lightworks
ARNAUD BUKWALD La marmite cosmique, menu no. 4

     2017    

1. DEMEN Nektyr
2. RYUICHI SAKAMOTO async

3. BATTLESTATIONS Vixit

4. CICADA White Forest

5. FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE Night en Face
6. TREE TOPS Ghosts Don't Dance with Shoes
7. ANATHEMA The Optimist

8. THE CONTORTIONIST Clairvoyant

9. SOUP Remedies

10. BELIEVE Seven Widows

11. YVES POTIN/JAZZCOMPUTER.ORG Forest Stairways

12. CHEER-ACCIDENT Putting Off Death

13. BRIAN ELLIS Suspension 

14. BIG BAD WOLF Pond Life
15. UNAKA PRONG Adult Contemporary
16. KANT FREUD KAFKA Onírico 
17. PSYCHIC EQUALIZER The Lonely Traveller
18. SIIILK Endless Mystery

19. AQUASERGE laisse ça être

20. SEQUENTIA LEGENDA Ethereal

21. DAM KAT ALAWN

22. EKOS Otra Dimensión

23. SOUL ENEMA Of Clans and Clones and Clowns
24. BUBBLEMATH Edit Peptide
25. EYOT Innate
26. AMAROK Hunt
27. CAST Power and Outcome
28. INNER EAR BRIGADE Dromology
29. CAMEMBERT Negative Toe
30. KOTEBEL Cosmology

31. WOBBLER From Silence to Somewhere

32. ALIO DIE & LINGUA FUNGI Lento

33. WESERBERGLAND Sehr Kosmish Ganz Progisch

34. SEAS OF MIRTH Hark! The Headland Approacheth
35. ACCORDO DEI CONTRARI Violato Intatto

36. BIG BIG TRAIN Grimspound
37. ALIO DIE They Grow Layers of Life Between
38. HIMMELLEGEME Myth of Earth
39. BENT KNEE Land Animal
40. DRAW THE SKY Humanity

Honorable Mentions:
KETTLESPIDER Kettlespider
ROBERT JÜRJENDAL Simple Past/Lihtminevik
SILHOUETTE  The World Is Flat and Other Alternative Facts 

ELECTRIC MOON Stardust Rituals

TANGERINE DREAM Quantum Gate8

Special Mention:
UTOPIANISTI Brutopianisti

      2016     

1. ALEXANDRE DESPLAT The Danish Girl (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
2. MICE ON STILTS Hope for a Mourning
3. TONY PATTERSON Equations of Meaning
4. GHOST MEDICINE Discontinuance

5. THE GHOSTS OF JUPITER The Great Bright Horses
6. AXON-NEURON Metamorphosis
7. VANETA Antimemory

8. UNAKA PRONG Margot

9. STARSABOUT Halflights
10. THE MERCURY TREE Permutations

11. MOTHER TURTLE II
12. IAMTHEMORNING Lighthouse
13. STARE AT THE CLOUDS This Clear Divide
14. UTOPIANISTI The Third Frontier

15. PROMENADE Noi al dir di di noi
16. THE ARBORIST Acrylic Road

17. LOST WORLD Of Things and Beings
18. GADI CAPLAN Morning Sun

19. iNFiNiEN Light at The Endless Tunnel

20. MANTRA VEGA The Illusion's Reckoning

21. DUNGEN Häxan
22. THE WINSTONS The Winstons

23. ILL WICKER  Untamed 
24. ANAKDOTA Overloading
25. KAYO DOT Plastic House on Base of Sky
26. ULVER ATGCLVLSSCAP
27. THENCE We Are Left With A Song
28. GRAVITY SAYS_I Quantum Unknown
29. WHALEPHANT KaMMA
30. JACK O' THE CLOCK Repetitions of The Old City - I

Honorable Mentions:
31. THE COLIN TENCH PROJECT Hair in a G-String (Unfinished but Sweet)
32. YVES POTIN Waters
33. ANTOINE FAFARD Sphère
34. PLINI Handmade Cities
35. SHAMBLEMATHS Shamblemaths
36. INGRANAGGI DELLA VALLE Warm Spaced Blue
37. SEVEN IMPALE Contrapasso
38. NOSOUND Scintilla
39. AMOEBA SPLIT Second Split
40. AKT II (Binario)

41. ARNAUD BUKWALD La marmite cosmique
42. AMPLEDEED BYOB
43. MYRATH Legacy
44. YUGEN Death by Water
45. VESPERO Lique Mekwas

46. RESINA Resina
47. ZHONGYU Zhongyu
48. MATTHEW PARMENTER All Our Yesterdays
49. LOST KITE Remains
50. SIGNAL TO NOISE RATIO Work in Progress

     2015     

1. CICADA Light Shining Through the Sea
2. ALIO DIE & LORENZO MONTANÀ Holographic Codex
3. BATTLESTATIONS The Extent of Damage
4. STEVEN WILSON Hand. Cannot. Erase.
5. MYSTERY Delusion Rain

6. ZA! Lolosimo

7. SYLVAN Home 

8. LA COSCIENZA DI ZENO La notte anche de giorno

9. ANEKDOTEN Until the Ghosts Have All Gone 

10. NEEDLEPOINT Aimless Mary

11. PROGRESSION BY FAILURE Sonic Travelogue

12. ABIGAIL'S GHOST Black Plastic Sun

13. THIEVES' KITCHEN The Clockwork Universe

14. OZRIC TENTACLES Technicians of the Sacred

15. CICCADA The Finest of Miracles 
16. THE PSYCHEDELIC ENSEMBLE The Sunstone

17. DUNGEN Allas Sak
18. JAGA JAZZIST Starfire 
19. VOLA Inmazes 
20. KLONE Here Comes the Sun

21. THE AMAZING Picture You
22. MANNA/MIRAGE Blue Dogs

23. MAGMA Slag Tanz

24. MONOBODY Monobody

25. JAM IT! Following the Unknown

26. 3RDEGREE Ones & Zeroes, Part 1
27. LEPROUS The Congregation
28. SVETAMUZIKA Present Simple
29. ANNA VON HAUSSWOLFF The Miraculous
30. HOMUNCULUS RES Come si diventa ciò che si era

Honorable Mentions:
31. CORVUS STONE Unscrewed 
32. METHEXIS Suiciety 

33. NEMO Coma

34. TOE Hear You 
35. ABSTRAKT Limbosis 
36. ADVENT The Silent Sentinel 
37. THE TEA CLUB Grappling
38. NATIVE CONSTRUCT Quiet World
39. COSMIC GROUND 2
40. KARDA ESTRA Strange Relations

    2014     

1. BENT KNEE Shiny Eyed Babies
2. ANTOINE FAFARD Ad Perpetuum
3. FAUN Luna

4. KANT FREUD KAFKA No tengas miedo

5. SEVEN IMPALE City of the Sun
6. AALTO Ikaro
7. THE MERCURY TREE Countenance
8. HUMANA PROG Flori, Frutti, Farfalle
9. HANS ZIMMER Interstellar (music from the Original Motion Picture soundtrack)
10. SYD ARTHUR Sound Mirror

11. PINGVINORKESTERN Push
12. JAKOB Sines
13. PRINCE Art Official Age
14. JERZY ANTCZAK Ego, Georgius
15. MOTORPSYCHO Behind the Sun
16. UT GRET Ancestor's Tale
17. ELECTRIC ORANGE Volume 10
18. HOMÍNIDO Estirpe Lítica
19. MONO The Last Dawn
20. MAGIC BUS Transmission from Sogmore's Garden

21. IAMTHEMORNING Belighted
22. FEM Sulla bolla di Sapone
23. TAYLOR WATSON (A)Synchronous
24. CIRRUS BAY In Search of Joy

25. DISTORTED HARMONY Chain Reaction
26. DREAM THE ELECTRIC SLEEP Heretics
27. Begin Again (music from and inspired by the original motion picture)
28. NOMADS OF HOPE Breaking the circles for a while
29. KAYO DOT Coffins on Io
30. DAVE BAINBRIDGE Celestial Fire

Honorable Mentions:
31. PHI Now the Waves of Sound Remain
32. AGORÀ Ichinen
33. FREDDEGREDDE Brighter Skies
34. ATOMIC APE Swarm 
35. CORVUS STONE II
36. SUNN O))) and ULVER Terrestrials
37. ALEX CARPANI 4 Destinies
38. MARGIN Teatime
39. HELIOPOLIS City of the Sun

    2013    

1. HOMUNCULUS RES Limiti all'eguaglianza della parte con il tutto
2. FIVE-STOREY ENSEMBLE Not This City

3. THE GABRIEL CONSTRUCT Interior City

4. VOTUM Harvest Moon

5. JAMES BLAKE Overgrown
6. SETNA Guérison
7. KARNIVOOL Asymmetry
8. EDISON'S CHILDREN The Final Breath Before November
9. AIRBAG The Greatest Show on Earth
10. MIDAS FALL Wilderness

11. MIDLAKE Antiphon 
12. NOT A GOOD SIGN Not A Good Sign
13. TIRILL Um Himinjǫður
14. FLICKER How Much Are You Willing to Forget?

15. LIFESIGNS Lifesigns

16. KOSMOS Salattu Maailma

17. STELLARDRONE Light Years

18. EMPTY DAYS Empty Days
19. ULVER Messe I.X-VI.X
20. LIZARD Master & M

21. BROTHER APE Force Majeure
22. MIDDAY VEIL The Current

23. INNER EAR BRIGADE Rainbro

24. MOTORPSYCHO Still Life with Eggplant

25. SCARLET STORIES Scarlet Stories
26. DAYS BETWEEN STATIONS In Extremis
27. THIEVES' KITCHEN One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

28. INGRANAGGI DELLA VALLE In hoc signo

29. THE PSYCHEDELIC ENSEMBLE The Tale of The Golden King

30. UNREAL CITY La crudelta di Aprile

Honorable Mentions:

31. THE GATHERING Afterwords

32. BEYOND-O-MATIC Relations in the Border Between
33. THE WORM OUROBOROS Of Things That Never Were

34. VIENNA CIRCLE Silhouette

35. STEVEN WILSON The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories)

36. HAKEN The Mountain

     2012     

1. VIOLETA DI OUTONO Espectro

2. IAMTHEMORNING ~
3. L'ESTATE DI SAN MARTINO Talsette di Marsantino
4. SWANS The Seer

5. KOTEBEL Concerto for Piano and Electric Ensemble

6. BIG BIG TRAIN English Electric, Part 1

7. SYLVAN Sceneries

8. BATTLESTATIONS In a Cold Embrace

9. MAGMA Félicité Thösz

10. THE TEA CLUB Quickly, Quickly, Quickly 

11. JENSEN CODE The True Colors of Mars 2

12. I AND THOU Speak 

13. NINE STONES CLOSE One Eye on the Sunrise

14. MYSTERY The World Is a Game
15. ÄNGLAGÅRD Viljans Ôga
16. DAAL Dodecahedron

17. MOTORPSYCHO The Death Defying Unicorn
18. VAURA Selenelion

19. METHEXIS The Fall of Bliss
20. ARANIS Made in Belgium

21. THE GATHERING Disclosure

22. DEAD CAN DANCE Anastasia

23. ANATHEMA Weather Systems
24. CICADA Let's Go
25. THINKING PLAGUE Decline and Fall

26. TO-MERA Exile
27. 3RDEGREE The Long Division

28. THE ENID Invicta

29. DISTORTED HARMONY Utopia

30. DEAN WATSON Imposing Elements

Honorable Mentions:

RIVERSEA Out of an Ancient Sea

RHYS MARSH & THE AUTUMN GHOST The Blue Hour

     2011     

1. THE AMAZING Gentle Stream

2. LAGARTIJA Particelle

3. FAUN Eden

4. CORDE OBLIQUE A Hail of Bitter Almonds
5. NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA I a Moon

6. SLEEPMAKESWAVES …and so we destroyed everything

7. ANATHEMA Falling Deeper

8. WOBBLER Rites at Dawn

9. THE PSYCHEDELIC ENSEMBLE The Dream of the Magic Jongleur
10. MY BROTHER THE WIND I Wash My Soul in the Stream of Infinity

11. PENDRAGON Passion

12. KATE BUSH 50 Words for Snow

13. AKT Blemmebeya

14. CAMEMBERT Schnörgl Attahk

15. CICADA Pieces

16. SANHEDRIN Ever After

17. SKE 1000 autunni

18. WHITE WILLOW Terminal Twilight

19. FREQUENCY DRIFT Ghosts…
20. AUTUMN CHORUS The Village to the Vale

21. FAUNS Awaiting the Sun

22. TUNE Lucid Moments

23. FEN Epoch

24. ABRETE GANDUL Enjambre Sismico
25. IONA Another Realm
26. DUNGEN Skit I Allt
27. HUMBLE GRUMBLE Flanders Fields
28. MOOGG Le ore, i giorni, gli anni
29. FACTOR BURZACO II
30. TENHI Saivo

Honorable Mentions:

31. THE FUTURE KINGS OF ENGLAND Who Is This Who Is Coming? 

32. KARDA ESTRA New Worlds

33. INTROITUS Elements

34. BON IVER Bon Iver
35. EDISON’S CHILDREN In the Last Waking Moments

36. SOLUS3 Corner of the World

37. UNEXPECT Fables of the Sleepless Empire
38. AMPLIFIER The Octopus
39. LEPROUS Bilateral

40. DISCIPLINE To Shatter All Accord
41. SEAN FILKINS War and Peace and Other Stories of Love and Hate

     2010     

1. CICADA Over the Sea/Under the Water
2. FUNIN Unsound
3. BROTHER APE  A Rare Moment of Insight

4. DOMINA CATRINA LEE Songs from the Breastbone Drum

5. GIFTS FROM ENOLA Gifts from Enola

6. ATARAXIA Llyr
7. VESPERO By the Waters of Tomorrow
8. COLLAPSE UNDER THE EMPIRE The Sirens Sound
9. FOURTEEN TWENTY-SIX Lighttown Closure

10. CICCADA A Child in the Mirror

11. MY EDUCATION Sunrise

12. MR. GIL Skellig

13. ANATHEMA We’re Here Because We’re Here
14. T Anti-Matter Poetry

15. YUGEN Iridule

16. LUNATIC SOUL II
17. UNIVERS ZERO Clivages

18. FROGG CAFÉ The Bateless Edge

19. ARANIS RoqueForte
20. JAGA JAZZIST One-armed Bandit

21. THE TEA CLUB Rabbit
22. ALCEST Écailles de lune

23. STICK MEN Soup
24. KHATSATURJAN Disconcerto Grosso
25. HYPNOS 69 Legacy
26. IL TEMPIO DELLE CLESSIDRE Il tempio delle Clessidre
27. QUANTUM FANTAY Bridges of Kukuru
28. AREKNAMÉS In Case of Loss
29. ARGOS Circles
30. ALGERNON Ghost Survelliance

Honorable Mentions:
SHAOLIN DEATH SQUAD Five Deadly Venoms
DUNGEN Skit I Altt
RED SPAROWES The Fear Is Excruciating, But Therein Lies the Answer
THE LENS Regeneration
THE PSYCHEDELIC ENSEMBLE The Myth of Dying

     2009     

1. PROGHMA-C Bar-do Travel 
2. MAUDLIN OF THE WELL Part the Second

3. THE BOX D’après le horla de Montpassant

4. AIRBAG Identity

5. MAGMA Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré

6. MAD CRAYON Preda

7. CORDE OBLIQUE The Stones of Naples

8. AISLES In Sudden Walks

9. GA'AN - Ga'an

10. BIG BIG TRAIN The Underfall Yard

11. THE APPLESEED CAST Sagarmatha

12. TOE For Long Tomorrow
13. THE CLIENTELE Bonfires on the Heath
14. BEARDFISH Destined Solitaire

15. ARCANE Chronicles of the Waking Dream 

16. THE NERVE INSTITUTE Fictions

17. YVES POTIN Out of The City
18. ANUBIS 230503
19. WOBBLER Afterglow
20. GÖSTA BERLINGS SAGA Detta Har Hänt

21. CIRRUS BAY A Step into Elsewhere

22. KOTEBEL Ouroboros
23. PINKROOM Psychosolstice

24. IZZ The Darkened Room

25. RISHLOO Feathergun

26. DELIRIUM Il nome de vento
27. iNFiNiEN iNFiNiEN
28. MASTODON Crack the Skye

29. CASPIAN Tertia 

30. KARNIVOOL Sound Awake

Honorable Mentions:

FEN The Malediction Fields

IOEARTH IOEarth

KARDA ESTRA Weird Tales

     2008     

1. NOSOUND LightDark

2. DUNGEN 4

3. JANNICK TOP Infernal Machina

4. BERSARIN QUARTETT Bersarin Quartett
5. DATURAH Reverie

6. JEAVESTONE Spices, Species and Poetry Patrol

7. PENDRAGON Pure

8. FROM.UZ The Overlook

9. UNIVERSAL TOTEM ORCHESTRA The Magus

10. WILLOWGLASS Book of Hours

11. THOM BRENNAN Stories from the Forest

12. DIAGONAL Diagonal

13. PINEAPPLE THIEF Tightly Unwound

14. VON HERTZEN BROTHERS Love Remains The Same

15. MAGENTA Metamorphosis
16. MILLENIUM Exist

17. RATIONAL DIET At Work

18. PANDORA Dramma di un Poeta Ubriaco 

19. MOON SAFARI Blomljud

20. THIEVES' KITCHEN The Water Road

 

21. FARMERS MARKET Surfin' USSR

22. VOTUM Time Must Have a Stop
23. SYRINX Qualia
24. JELLY FICHE Tout ce que j’ai rêvé 
25. FROST* Experiments in Mass Appeal

26. THE QUIET EARTH ORCHESTRA The Quiet Earth Orchestra

27. LUNATIC SOUL Lunatic Soul 

28. BELIEVE Yesterday Is a Friend

29. MOONGARDEN Songs from the Lighthouse

30. DARK SHOT One Shot

Honorable Mentions: 

SOMA PLANET Bholenath

PANZERBALLETT Starke Stücke

     2007     

1. ULVER Shadows of the Sun

2. BIG BIG TRAIN The Difference Machine

3. HIROMI’S SONICBLOOM (HIROMI UEHARA) Time Control

4. KLAUS SCHULZE Kontinuum

5. VIOLETA DE OUTONO Volume 7
6. MOTH VELLUM Moth Vellum

7. PORCUPINE TREE Fear of a Blank Planet

8. ELECTRIC ORANGE Morbus
9. YVES POTIN Elsewhere
10. GAZPACHO Night

11. OMAR RODRIQUEZ-LOPEZ The Apocalypse Inside of an Orange

12. ØRESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE The Black Tomato
13. THORK Nula Jedan
14. QUIDAM Alone Together

15. RADIOHEAD In Rainbows

16. SETNA Cycle I
17. RETROSPECTIVE Spectrum of the Green Morning

18. KNIGHT AREA Under a New Sign
19. RIVERSIDE Rapid Eye Movement
20. CORDE OBLIQUE Volontà d'arte

21. SATELLITE Into the Night
22. RITUAL The Hemulic Voluntary Band
23. DEVIN TOWNSEND Ziltoid the Omniscient

24. EPICA The Divine Conspiracy

25. KARDA ESTRA The Last of the Libertine
26. NIGHTWISH Dark Passion Play

27. SENOGUL Senogul

28. THE FLOWER KINGS The Sum of No Evil

29. OCEANSIZE Frames
30. THE REASONING Awakening

Honorable Mentions:

OUTERLIMITS Stromalite

NEW TROLLS Concerto Grosso, The Seven Seasons

MANNING Songs from the Bilston House
PHIDEAUX Doomsday Afternoon
THIS WILL DESTROY YOU This Will Destroy You
LAZULI En avant doute...
RATIONAL DIET Rational Diet

DUNGEN Tio Bittar

     2006     

1. KOTEBEL Omphalos

2. PURE REASON REVOLUTION The Dark Third

3. MAGYAR POSSE Random Avenger
4. SYLVAN Posthumous Silence

5. ROBIN GUTHRIE Continental and 2 EPS, Everlasting and Waiting For Dawn

6. KARDA ESTRA The Age of Science and Enlightenment
7. IONA The Circling Hour
8. PAATOS Silence of Another Kind
9. MAGISTER DIXIT Cellules de Crises

10. FROST* Milliontown

11. ANTIQUE SEEKING NUNS Double Eggs with Chips (and Beans)
12. iNFiNiEN How to Accept
13. ESPERS II
14. MONO You Are There 
15. VIIMA Ajatuksia Maailman Laidalta

16. UZVA Uomo

17. OOIOO TAIGA
18. MIDLAKE The Trials of Van Occupanther 

19. RED SPAROWES Every Red Heart Shines Towards the Red Sun

20. ØRESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE Øresund Space Collective

Honorable Mentions: 

21. NEXUS Perpetuum Karma

22. BELIEVE Hope to See Another Day
23. TO-MERA Transcendental

24. UNEXPECT In a Flesh Aquarium

25. RUSSIAN CIRCLES Enter

26. PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI Stati di immaggionazione
27. ESTRADASPHERE Palace of Mirrors
28. THE GATHERING Home
29. THE D PROJECT Shimmering Lights

30. NEGURA BUNGET Om

     2005     

1. ODYSSEY: "The Greatest Tale"

2. OCEANSIZE Everyone Into Position

3. MEDIAEVAL BAEBES Mirabilis

4. NIL Nil Novo Sol
5. FAUN Renaissance
6. RIVERSIDE Second Life Syndrome

7. SEIGES EVEN The Art of Navigating by the Stars 
8. PAT METHENY The Way Up

9. NOSOUND Sol29

10. KATE BUSH Aerial

11. FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM Mourning Sun

12. THE MARS VOLTA Frances The Mute

13. KVAZAR A Giant's Lullaby
14. KOENJI HYAKKEI Angherr Shisspa

15. WILLOWGLASS Willowglass

16. GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT All Is Violent, All Is Bright
17. ANTHONY PHILLIPS Field Day

18. SIGUR ROS Takk...

19. THE EVPATORIA REPORT Golevka
20. MY EDUCATION Italian

Honorable Mentions: 

INDUKTI S.U.S.A.R.

THE FUTURE KINGS OF ENGLAND The Future Kings of England

RED SPAROWES At the Soundless Dawn

PORCUPINE TREE Deadwing

     2004     

1. BARK PSYCHOSIS Code Name: DustSucker

2. MAGENTA Seven

3. AMAROK Quentadharken

4. MAGMA K.A.

5. KARDA ESTRA Voivode Dracula
6. PAATOS Killocain
7. STEREOLAB Margerine Eclipse
8. DUNGEN Ta Det Lugnt

9. DAVE BAINBRIDGE Veil of Gossamer
10. ANGRA Temple of Shadows

11. THORK Weila
12. MY EDUCATION 5 Popes
13. SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEM Of Natural History
14. INDUKTI S.U.S.A.R.

15. WHITE WILLOW Storm Season

16. ASTURIAS Acoustic Asturias: Bird Eyes View
17. ORPHANED LAND Mabool--The Story of the Three Sons of Seven7 

18. GUAPO Five Suns

19. KNIGHT AREA The Sun Also Rises

20. MATTHEW PARMENTER Astray

Honorable Mentions:
BIG BIG TRAIN Gathering Speed
IQ Dark Matter

MARILLION Marbles
AYREON The Human Equation

UNIVERS ZERO Implosion

     2003     
1. HANS ZIMMER The Last Samurai (Original Motion Picture Score)
2. MASSIVE ATTACK 100th Window

3. ANTIQUE SEEKING NUNS Mild Profundities

4. KARDA ESTRA Constellations

5. Colossus/Musea Records presents: Kalevala: A Finnish Progressive Rock Epic

6. FAUN Licht

7. KAYO DOT Choirs of the Eye
8. THE MARS VOLTA De-loused in the Comatorium
9. OCEANSIZE Efflouresce
10. MEW Frengers 

11. NIL Quarante jours sur le Sinaï 

12. SATELLITE A Street Between Sunrise and Sunset

13. RIVERSIDE Out of Myself

14. LA MASCHERA DI CERA Il Grande Labrinto

15. FROGG CAFÉ Creatures 

16. MOONGARDEN Round Midnight

17. TAAL Skymind

18. THE GATHERING Souvenirs

19. EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY The Earth Is Not a Cold Dead Place 

20. AFTER CRYING Show

Honorable Mentions:

ESPERS Espers

BLUR Think Tank 

ARCADE FIRE Arcade Fire

KBB Four Corner's Sky
DJAM KARET Night in Baku

OSI Officeof Strategic Influence

ANATHEMA A Natural Disaster

MAR DE ROBLES Mar de Robles

ROBERT WYATT Cuckooland

     2002     

1. PÄATOS Timeloss

2. THE FLAMING LIPS Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots

3. QUIDAM The Time Beneath the Sky

4. DOVES The Last Broadcast 

5. SIGUR RÓS ( )

6. FAUN Zaubersprüche

7. BONDAGE FRUIT V - Skin

8. AGALLOCH The Mantle

9. PAT METHENY Speaking of Now  

10. PAIN OF SALVATION Remedy Lane

11. 35007 Liquid

12. IZZ I Move

13. THE FLOWER KINGS Unfold the Future 

14. GRAND STAND Tricks of Time

15. KENSO Fabulis Mirabilibus De Bombycosi Scriptis

16. LA MASCHERA DI CERA La Maschera di Cera

17. TAAL Skymind

18. FROGG CAFÉ Frogg Café

19. PORCUPINE TREE In Absentia

20. GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR Yanqui U.X.O.

Honorable Mentions:

TÉMPANO The Agony and the Ecstacy

PETER GABRIEL Up

MOTORPSYCHO It's a Love Cult

PARALLEL OR 90 DEGREES More Exotic Ways To Die

ULVER Lyckantropen Themes

HIDRIA SPACEFOLK Symbiosis 

     2001     

1. BJORK Vespertine
2. 

MOTORPSYCHO Phanerothyme

3. MAUDLIN OF THE WELL Leaving Your Bodymap

4. KARDA ESTRA Eve

5. KOENJI HYAKKEI Nivraym

6. MAUDLIN OF THE WELL Bath

7. SEVEN REIZH Strinkadenn Ys

8. STEREOLAB Sound-Dust

9. TOOL Lateralus
10. BUBBLEMATH Such Fine Particles of the Universe

11. OPETH Blackwater Park

12. ANATHEMA A Fine Day to Exit

13. THE WATCH Ghost

14. NO-MAN Returning Jesus

15. HAMADRYAD Conservation of Mass

16. BILL BRUFORD'S EARTHWORKS The Sound of Surprise

17. NEXUS Metanoia

18. PÄR LINDH PROJECT Veni, Vidi, Vici

19. PEKKA POHJOLA Views

20. JAGA JAZZIST A Livingroom Hush

Honorable Mentions: 

PALLAS The Cross & The Crucible

     2000     
1. DOVES Lost Souls
2. IONA Open Sky 
3. THE GATHERING If_then_else 
4. KBB Lost and Found 
5. PORCUPINE TREE Lightbulb Sun 
6. COLDPLAY Parachutes 
7. RADIOHEAD Kid A 
8. THE FLOWER KINGS Space Revolver 
9. CABEZAS DE CERA Cabezas de Cera 
10. WHITE WILLOW Sacrament 

11. EVERON Fantasma

12. TAAL Mister Green 
13. CHROMA KEY You Go Now 
14. ULVER Peredition City 
15. DON CABALLERO American Don 
16. CAFEINE Nouveaux mondes 
17. GODSPEED YOU! BLACK EMPEROR Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven 
18. DEADWOOD FOREST Melodramatic 
19. TRISTEZA Dream Signals in Full Circles 
20. PAIN OF SALVATION The Perfect Element - Part 1

Honorable Mentions:

SYMPHONY X V - The New Mythology Suite 

ECHOLYN Cowboy Poems Free
STEVE & JOHN HACKETT Sketches of Satie

STEVE WALSH Glossolalia

FATES WARNING Disconnected

     1999     
1. SIGUR RÓS Ágætus Byrjun
2. OLGA KHARITIDI & JIM WILSON Entering the Circle

3. PERRY BLAKE Still Life

4. THE FLOWER KINGS Flower Power

5. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Temperamental

6. ON THE VIRG Serious Young Insects

7. CAMEL Rajaz

8. JOHN CORIGLIANO The Red Violin (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
9. DAVID SYLVIAN Dead Bees on a Cake

10. FINISTERRE In ogni luogo

11. THE FLAMING LIPS The Soft Bulletin

12. MR. BUNGLE California

13. ANEKDOTEN From Within

14. LINKIN PARK Hybrid Theory

15. DIDO No Angel

16. ANATHEMA Judgment

17. BILL BRUF/ORD'S EARTHWORKS A Part, and Yet Apart

18. BONDAGE FRUIT IV
19. LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT 2
20. SINKADUS Cirkus

Honorable Mentions:

OPETH Still Life

THE BETA BAND The Beta Band

FRENCH TV The Violence of Amateurs

DREAM THEATRE Scenes from a Memory

PORCUPINE TREE Stupid Dream

SOLARIS Nostrodamus: Book of Prophecies

UNIVERSAL TOTEM ORCHESTRA Rituel Alieno


     1998     
1. MASSIVE ATTACK Mezzanine
2. CARLOS NAKAI & NAWANG KHECHOG Winds of Devotion
3. BRUFORD LEVIN UPPER EXTREMITIES Bruford Levin Upper Extremities
4. THINKING PLAGUE In Extremis
5. CHROMA KEY Dead Air for Radios
6. THE GATHERING How to Measure a Planet?
7. ABRAXAS Centurie

8. ANATHEMA Alternative 4

9. AYREON Into The Electric Castle
10. TORTOISE TNT

Honorable Mentions:
NIGHTWISH Oceanborn
MORTE MACABRE Symphonic Holocaust
MESHUGGAH Chaosphere


     1997     
1. STEREOLAB Dots and Loops
2. ALAIN ESKANAZI/BRAINSCAPES Chakradancer
3. PAT METHENY Imaginary Day
4. PÄR LINDH PROJECT Mundus Incompertus

5. HÖYRY-KONE Huono Parturi

6. OLIVE Extra Virgin

7. MONO Formica Blues

8. BJÖRK Homogenic
9. VOLARÉ Uncertainty Principle
10. RADIOHEAD OK Computer

11. THE FLOWER KINGS Stardust We Are

12. THE GATHERING Nighttime Birds
13. ART ZOYD Häxan
14. IN THE WOODS Omnio

15. DISCIPLINE Unfolded Like Staircase

16. FATES WARNING A Pleasant Shade of Gray

17. AFTER CRYING 6

18. SINKADUS Aurum Nostrum
19. ROBERT WYATT Shleep
20. DJAM KARET The Devouring

Honorable Mentions:

DAVID CROSS Exiles

BONDAGE FRUIT III - Récit
SYMPHONY X The Divine Wings of Tragedy


     1996     
1. LANDBERK Indian Summer
2. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Walking Wounded
3. BONDAGE FRUIT II
4. RUYICHI SAKAMOTO 1996
5. DEAD CAN DANCE Spiritchaser
6. QUIDAM Quidam
7. ANGRA Holy Land

8. OLIVE Extra Virgin

9. ULVER Kveldssanger

10. AFTER CRYING De Profundis

11. STEREOLAB Emperor's Tomato Ketchup 

12. JAMIROQUAI Travelling Without Moving
13. SHIELA CHANDRA Bone Crone Drone

14. TOOL Ænima

15. FIONA APPLE Tidal
16. PAULA COLE This Fire

17. CARDIACS Sing to God

18. PORCUPINE TREE Signify
19. STEVE HACKETT Genesis Revisited
20. BECK Odelay

Honorable Mentions:

TORTOISE Millions Now Living Will Never Die

KULA SHAKER K

THE FLOWER KINGS Retropolis

PENDRAGON The Masquerade Overture


     1995     
1. PORCUPINE TREE Sky Moves Sideways
2. STANLEY CLARKE, AL DI MEOLA, & JEAN-LUC PONTY Rites of Strings
3. THE TEA PARTY The Edges of Twilight

4. THE FLOWER KINGS Back in the World of Adventures

5. SECRET GARDEN Songs from a Secret Garden 
6. VANGELIS Voices

7. ALANIS MORISSETTE Jagged Little Pill

8. CASSANDRA WILSON New Moon Daughter
9. NATALIE MERCHANT Tiger Lily

10. PAT METHENY GROUP We Live Here

11. DUNWICH Il chiarore sorge due volte

12. MR. BUNGLE Disco Volante

13. BJÖRK Post

14. DON CABALLERO 2
15. KLAUS SCHULZE In Blue
14. RADIOHEAD The Bends
15. ANNIE LENNOX Medusa
16. TO ROCOCO ROT To Rococo Rot
17. ALBION Albion

18. SCOTT WALKER Tilt

19. KING CRIMSON Thrak 

20. ANEKDOTEN Nucleus

Honorable Mentions:

GARBAGE Garbage

THE GATHERING Mandylion


     1994     
1. LANDBERK One Man Tells Another
2. BONDAGE FRUIT I

3. COLLAGE Moonshine

4. BARK PSYCHOSIS Hex

5. JON ANDERSON Change We Must
6. SEAL II
7. KINGSTON WALL III: Trilogy
8. ÄNGLAGÅRD Epilog
9. VANGELIS Blade Runner OST

10. PÁR LINDH PROJECT Gothic Impressions

11. JULIA FORDHAM Falling Forward

12. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Amplified Heart

13. AFTER CRYING Föld És Ég

14. OZRIC TENTACLES Arborescence

15. DREAM THEATER Awake

16. DES'REE I Ain't Movin' 

17. BEASTIE BOYS Ill Communication

18. ROINE STOLT The Flower King

19. MARILLION Brave

20. CITZEN CAIN Somewhere But Yesterday

Honorable Mentions:

CLEPSYDRA More Grains of Sand 

PORTISHEAD Dummy

SOUNDGARDEN Superunknown

THE CRANBERRIES No Need to Argue

     1993     
1. OZRIC TENTACLES Jurassic Shift
2. JANET JACKSON Janet.
3. COCTEAU TWINS Four-Calendar Café
4. NEW ORDER Republic
5. CONCRETE BLONDE Mexican Moon

6. ISRAEL KAMAKAWIWO'OLE Facing Future

7. DEAD CAN DANCE Into the Labyrinth
8. DEPECHE MODE Songs of Faith and Devotion
9. KINGSTON WALL II
10. DURAN DURAN Duran Duran (The Wedding Album)

Honorable Mentions:
CYNIC Focus

IONA Beyond These Shores

BJÖRK Debut

THE CRANBERRIES Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We?
LENNY KRAVITZ Are You Going to Go My Way?

PATRICK GAUTHIER Sur les flots verticaux 

VOIVOD The Outer Limits 



     1992     
1. SADE Love Deluxe
2. PAT METHENY Secret Story
3. AFTER CRYING Megalázottak é Megszomorítottak

4. SWING OUT SISTER Get In Touch With Yourself

5. LUKA BLOOM The Acoustic Motorbike

6. OPUS III Mind Fruit

7. ECHOLYN Suffocating the Bloom

8. K.D. LANG Ingénue
9. TORIO AMOS Little Earthquakes

10. PAUL WELLER Paul Weller

11. THE CHURCH Priest=Aura

12. IONA The Book of Kells

13. ALICE IN CHAINS Dirt
14. ÄNGLAGÅRD Hybris

15. PSYCHOTIC WALTZ Into The Everflow

16. DREAM THEATER Images and Words

17. KINGSTON WALL I 

18. LUSH Spooky

19. ANNIE LENNOX Diva

20. THE CURE Wish

Honorable Mentions:

PETER GABRIEL Us

SUZANNE VEGA 99.9ª F

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS Core

MONTEFELTRO Il Tempo di Far la Fantasia

     1991     
1. JULIA FORDHAM Swept
2. ANDY M. STEWART Songs of Robert Burns
3. LUTHER VANDROSS Power of Love
4. SOUL FAMILY SENSATION New Wave
5. MR. BUNGLE Mr. Bungle

6. SEAL Seal

7. PEARL JAM Ten
8. P.M. DAWN Of The Heart, Of The Soul And Of The Cross: The Utopian Experience
9. LLOYD COLE Don't Get Weird on Me, Babe

11. MICKEY HART Planet Drum
12. RAIN TREE CROW Rain Tree Crow

13. MY BLODDY VALENTINE Loveless

14. KITCHENS OF DISTINCTION Strange Free World

15. MASSIVE ATTACK Blue Lines
16. ROBERT WYATT Dondestan

17. TALK TALK Laughing Stock
18. KLF The White Room

19. CLEPSYDRA Hologram

20. DJAM KARET Burning the Hard City

Honorable Mentions:

PENDRAGON The World

ATHEIST Unquestionable Presence

THE COMMITMENTS The Commitments

THE DREAM ACADEMY A Different Kind of Weather 

     1990     
1. JONN SERRIE Tingri
2. OTTMAR LIEBERT Nouveau Flamenco

3. AFTER CRYING Overground Music

4. DEAD CAN DANCE Aion
5. COLLAGE Basnie
6. ENIGMA MCMXC a.D.

7. HAPPY MONDAYS Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches

8. ANTHONY PHILLIPS Slow Dance

9. MR. SIRIUS Dirge

10. OZRIC TENTACLES Erpland

11. THE SUNDAYS Reading, Writing and Arithmetic
12. LUSH Gala
13. GEORGE MICHAEL Listen Without Prejudice, Vol. 1
14. ASTURIAS Brilliant Streams
15. MY BLOODY VALENTINE Glider
16. PROPAGANDA 1234
17. TOAD THE WET SPROCKET Pale
18. TRASHCAN SINATRAS Cake

19. KALABAN Don't Panic

20. PETER MURPHY Deep

Honorable Mentions:

SOLARIS Solaris 1990

RIDE Nowhere


     1989     
1. THE CURE Disintegration
2. KATE BUSH The Sensual World
3. JULIA FORDHAM Porcelain
4. SWING OUT SISTER Kaleidoscope World
5. PAZZO FANFANO DI MUSICA Pazzo Fanfano di Musica

6. BLUE NILE Hats

7. MARY BLACK No Frontiers 
8. TEARS FOR FEARS The Seeds of Love
9. PAT METHENY GROUP Letter from Home
10. JANE SIBERRY Bound by the Beauty

11. PETER MURPHY Deep
12. THE NEVILLE BROTHERS Yellow Moon
13. ALLAN HOLDSWORTH Secrets

14. XTC Oranges and Lemons
15. PETER GABRIEL Passion
16. YOUNG MC Stone Cold Rhymin'
17. SIMPLY RED A New Flame 

18. INDIGO GIRLS Indigo Girls
19. NEIL YOUNG Freedom
20. STEVE REICH Different Trains

Honorable Mentions:
CARDIACS On Land and Sea
HECENIE Légendes

LISA STANSFIELD Affection
THE STONE ROSES The Stone Roses
PRIMUS Suck on This!


     1988     
1. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Idlewild
2. LOVE AND MONEY Strange Kind of Love
3. COCTEAU TWINS Blue Bell Knoll
4. SADE Stronger Than Pride
5. LES NEGRESSES VERTES Mlah!
6. THE STYLE COUNCIL Confessions of a Pop Group
7. WIM MERTENS Whisper Me
8. BRUCE COCKBURN Big Circumstance

9. MARK ISHAM Original Soundtrack Music for the film Les Modernes

10. JANE SIBERRY The Walking

11. PREFAB SPROUT From Langley Park to Memphis

12. GALADRIEL Muttered Promises from an Ageless Pond

13. BOBBY BROWN Don't Be Cruel
14. OFRA HAZA Shaday
15. TALK TALK Spirit of Eden
16. DEAD CAN DANCE The Serpent's Egg
17. GIPSY KINGS Gipsy Kings
18. FRANK ZAPPA You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2
19. JOHNNY HATES JAZZ Turn Back the Clock
20. SUGARCUBES Life's Too Good

Honorable Mentions:
THOMAS DOLBY Aliens Ate My Buick
MIDAS Beyond the Clear Air

TONI CHILDS Union
HOTHOUSE FLOWERS People
JULIA FORDHAM Julia Fordham

ASTURIAS Circle in the Forest


     1987     
1. SWING OUT SISTER It's Better to Travel
2. PAT METHENY GROUP Still Life (Talking)
3. MR. SIRIUS Barren Dream
4. THE CURE Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
5. DAVID SYLVIAN Secrets of the Beehive
6. LES MYSTÈRES DES VOIX BULGARES Les Mystères des Voix Bulgares
7. GEORGE MICHAEL Faith
8. PRINCE Sign 'O The Times
9. THE ART OF NOISE In No Sense? Nonsense!

10. DANNY WILSON Meet Danny Wilson

11. DEAD CAN DANCE Within the Realm of a Dying Sun

12. JANE SIBERRY The Walking

13. DEF LEPPARD Hysteria
14. JOHN SERRIE And The Stars Go With You

15. LOVE AND ROCKETS Earth, Sun, Moon
16. ROBBIE ROBERTSON Robbie Robertson
17. SUZANNE VEGA Solitude Standing

18. U2 The Joshua Tree
19. DEPECHE MODE Music for The Masses

20. WHITESNAKE Whitesnake

21. PET SHOP BOYS Actually
22. STING ...Nothing Like The Sun
23. ZAKIR HUSSEIN Making Music
24. BILL BRUFORD'S EARTHWORKS Earthworks
25. RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Neo Geo
26. SWANS Children of God

27. DAVID TORN Cloud About Mercury

28. JANE'S ADDICTION Jane's Addiction

29. VIOLETA DE OUTONO Violeta de Outono

30. ALLAN HOLDWORTH Sand

Honorable Mentions:

VOIVOD Killing Technology

     1986     
1. ANITA BAKER Rapture
2. RYUICHI SAKAMOTO Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia

3. DAVID SYLVIAN Gone to Earth

4. THE MOON AND THE MELODIES The Moon and the Melodies

5. COCTEAU TWINS Victorialand
6. ROSIE VELA Zazu
7. JULIAN BREAM, JOHN ELIOT GARDINER and THE MONTIVERDI ORCHESTRA Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez

8. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Baby, The Stars Shine Bright

9. ASTOR PIAZZOLLA Tango: Zero Hour
10. XTC Skylarking

11. PETER GABRIEL So

12. PET SHOP BOYS Please

13. THE BEASTIE BOYS Licensed to Ill
14. TALK TALK The Colour of Spring
15. CLAN OF XYMOX Medusa
16. CLAIRE HAMMILL Voices
17. IT'S IMMATERIAL Life's Hard and Then You Die
18. JANET JACKSON Control
19. WHAM! Music from the Edge of Heaven
20. CAMEO Word Up!

21. CROWDED HOUSE Crowded House

22. THE HOUSEMARTINS London 0 Hull 4 

23. THIS MORTAL COIL Filigree and Shadow
24. HERBERT VON KARAJAN / BERLIN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA Beethoven: Symphony NO. 9 "Choral"
25. CHRIS REA On The Beach
26. HERBIE HANCOCK & Others 'Round Midnight Movie Soundtrack
27. UNIVERS ZERO Heatwave
28. AIN SOPH Hat and Field

29. NEWS FROM BABEL  Letters from Home

30. THE LOVER SPEAKS The Lover Speaks

Honorable Mentions:

CAMBERWELL NOW The Ghost Trade

SHUB_NIGGURATH Les Morts Vont Vite

THE BLOW MONKEYS Animal Magic

ROBERT CRAY Strong Persuader

     1985     
1. COCTEAU TWINS Tiny Dynamine/Echoes on a Shallow Bay
2. THE DREAM ACADEMY The Dream Academy
3. TEARS FOR FEARS Songs from the Big Chair
4. PREFAB SPROUT Steve McQueen
5. COCTEAU TWINS Aikea-Guinea

6. DIF JUZ Extractions
7. KATE BUSH Hounds of Love
8. PROPAGANDA A Secret Wish
9. YELLO Stella
10. MINIMAL COMPACT Raging Souls

11. DEAD CAN DANCE Spleen and Ideal

12. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Love Not Money

13. KIP HANRAHAN Vertical's Currency
14. CLANNAD Macalla
15. THE STYLE COUNCIL Our Favourite Shop
16. SADE Promise
17. PHAROAH SANDERS Shukuru
18. LOREENA McKENNITT Elemental
19. JANE SIBERRY The Speckless Sky
20. THE SMITHS Meat Is Murder

21. SUZANNE VEGA Suzanne Vega

22. RY COODER Paris, Texas
23. ANNE PIGALLE Everything Could Be So Perfect
24. SIMPLY RED Picture Book
25. PENDRAGON The Jewel 

26. RUN-D.M.C. King of Rock
27. BIG AUDIO DYNAMITE This Is Big Audio Dynamite
28. GENE LOVES JEZEBEL Immigrant
29. PAUL HARDCASTLE Paul Hardcastle
30. BRIN FERRY Boys and Girls

Honorable Mentions:
CLAN OF XYMOX Clan of Xymox
PRESENT Le poison qui rend fou

     1984     
1. DAVID SYLVIAN Brilliant Trees
2. COCTEAU TWINS Treasure
3. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Everything But the Girl
4. EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL Eden

5. NEWCLEUS Jam on Revenge
6. FRANKIE GOES TO HOLLYWOOD Welcome to the Pleasuredome
7. BRUCE COCKBURN Stealing Fire
8. JANE SIBERRY No Borders Here
9. PAT METHENY GROUP First Circle

10. SOLSTICE Silent Dance

11. THE STYLE COUNCIL Café bleu

12. HOWARD JONES Human's Lib
13. CHANGE Change of Heart

14. PRINCE Purple Rain

15. MANUEL GÖTTSCHING E2-E4

16. LAURIE ANDERSON Mister Heartbreak
17. DAVID GILMOUR About Face
18. M + M Mystery Walk
19. XTC The Big Express

20. U2 Unforgettable Fire

21. SOLARIS Marsbéli Krónikák (Martian Chronicles)

22. NEVILLE MARRINER AND THE ACADEMY OF ST. MARTIN IN THE FIELDS Amadeus (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

23. LOS JAIVAS Obras de Violeta Parra

24. SADE Diamond Life

25. DAVID & STEVE GORDON Peaceful Evening
26. CAMEO She's Strange
27. WHODINI Escape
28. AMBITOUS LOVERS Envy
29. KING CRIMSON Three of a Perfect Pair
30. RUN-D.M.C. Run-D.M.C.

31. JOE JACKSON Body and Soul
32. UNIVERS ZERO Uzed

33. TALK TALK It's My Life

34. ART OF NOISE Who's Afraid of The Art of Noise?
35. THE SMITHS The Smiths
36. STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN AND DOUBLE TROUBLE Couldn't Stand the Weather
37. MICHAEL HEDGES Aerial Boundaries
38. AL JARREAU High Crime
39. DON HENLEY Building the Perfect Beast
40. NENA 99 Luftballons

Honorable Mentions:

THE CARS Heartbeat City
SIMPLE MINDS Sparkle in the Rain
CLANNAD Legend


     1983     
1. THE FIXX Reach the Beach

2. AZTEC CAMERA High Land, Hard Rain

3. TEARS FOR FEARS The Hurting

4. BARBRA STREISAND Yentl
5. BRUCE COCKBURN The Trouble with Normal
6. XTC Mummer
7. GENESIS Genesis
8. RE-FLEX The Politics of Dancing
9. AMENOPHIS Amenophis

10. JEAN-LUC PONTY Individual Choice

11. MARK ISHAM Vapor Drawings
12. U2 War
13. THE STYLE COUNCIL Introducing The Style Council
14. A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS Listen
15. ROBERT PALMER Pride
16. MARIANNE FAITHFULL A Child's Adventure
17. JAH WOBBLE, THE EDGE, HOLGER CZUKAY Snake Charmer
18. THE CHURCH Seance
19. KING SUNNY ADÉ Synchro System
20. WILLIAM ACKERMAN Past Light

21. MONSOON Third Eye

22. THE POLICE Synchronicity

23. MADONNA Madonna
24. JAPAN Oil on Canvas
25. GANG OF FOUR Hard
26. AL DI MEOLA Scenario
27. KAJAGOOGOO White Feathers

28. THOMAS DOLBY Blinded by Science

29. DIVINYLS Desperate

30. YES 90125

31. SHADOWFAX Shadowdance
32. THE MANHATTAN TRANSFER Bodies and Souls
33. CODONA 3
34. PINK FLOYD The Final Cut
35. ESKATON Fictions
36. JOHN CAFFERTY AND THE BEAVER BROWN BAND Eddie and the Cruisers OST
37. KLAUS SCHULZE - Trancefer

38. MORAZ - BRUFORD Music for Piano and Drums
39. TEENA MARIE Robbery
40. FLIM & THE BBs Tricycle

Honorable Mentions:

DEF LEPPARD Pyromania

STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN Texas Flood


     1982     
1. HAIRCUT ONE HUNDRED Pelican West
2. KATE BUSH The Dreaming
3. JOE JACKSON Night and Day

4. GEORGE WINSTON December
5. THE NEW AMERICAN ORCHESTRA Blade Runner Soundtrack Music 
6. TRACEY THORN A Distant Shore
7. ANTHONY PHILLIPS & ENRIQUE BERRO GARCIA Private Parts and Pieces III: Antiques

8. SIMPLE MINDS New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)

9. PETER GABRIEL Peter Gabriel ("Security")

10. MICHAEL JACKSON Thriller

11. A FLOCK OF SEAGULLS A Flock of Seagulls

12. THE ROCHES Keep On Doing

13. ROXY MUSIC Avalon
14. ANNETTE PEACOCK Sky-skating

15. BRIAN ENO Ambient 4: On Land

16. NINA HAGEN NunSexMonkRock

17. BERLIN Pleasure Victim
18. KING CRIMSON Beat
19. PHILIP GLASS Glassworks
20. ADRIAN BELEW Lone Rhino

21. ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER Caverna Magica
22. ICEHOUSE Primitive Man
23. KING SUNNY ADÉ Juju Music

24. PAT METHENY GROUP Offramp
25. XTC English Settlement
26. ANDY SUMMERS AND ROBERT FRIPP I Advance Masked
27. PRINCE 1999
28. THOMAS DOLBY The Golden Age of Wireless
29. KENSO II
30. TWELFTH NIGHT Fact and Fiction 

Honorable Mentions:
PHIL COLLINS Hello, I Must Be Going

JEFFREY OSBORNE Jeffery Osborne
EAST Hüség 

LAURIE ANDERSON Big Science
MICHAEL CRENSHAW Marshall Crenshaw
GENESIS Three Sides Live
FRIDA Something's Going On

     1981     
1. RICKIE LEE JONES Pirates
2. KING CRIMSON Discipline
3. JEAN-PIERRE RAMPAL, ALEXANDRE LAGOYA, and MICHEL LEGRAND Pastorales de Noël
4. ANTHONY PHILLIPS 1984
5. ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER Behind the Gardens - Behind the Wall - Under the Tree...
6. ESKATON 4 Visions
7. PAT METHENY & LYLE MAYS As Falls Witchita, So Falls Wichita Falls
8. BRIAN ENO & JON HASSELL Fourth World Possible Musics, Volume Two: Dream Theory in Malaya
9. U2 October
10. TOM TOM CLUB Tom Tom Club

11. THE POLICE Ghost in the Machine
12. JOHN MCLAUGHLIN Belo Horizonte
13. JOHN MARTYN Glorious Fool

14. TANGERINE DREAM Thief OST
15. BRUCE COCKBURN Inner City Front
16. LOS JAIVAS Alturas de Machu Picchu
17. SBB Memento z banalnym triptykiem
18. GENESIS ABACAB
19. CAMEL Nude
20. VAN HALEN Fair Warning

21. AL JARREAU Breakin' Away

22. UNIVERS ZERO Ceux du Dehors

23. PHIL COLLINS Face Value
24. STEVIE NICKS Bella Donna
25. BUDDY GUY Stone Crazy!
26. EIDER STELLAIRE I
27. SANTANA Zeebop!
28. OSIRIS Osiris

29. THE TUBES The Completion Backwards Principle

30. EAST Játékok

Honorable Mentions:
JOAN ARMATRADING Walk Under Ladders

MATERIAL Memory Serves

STEVE HACKETT Cured

     1980     
1. U2 Boy
2. BRIAN ENO with Harold Budd Ambient Two: Plateaux of Mirror
3. TALKING HEADS Remain in Light
4. LARAAJI Ambient 3: Day of Radiance
5. GEORGE WINSTON Autumn
6. FLAIRCK Gevecht met de Engel
7. STEELY DAN Gaucho

8. THE BUGGLES The Age of Plastic

9. AC/DC Back in Black

10. STEVE TIBBETTS Yr

11. KATE BUSH Never For Ever
12. BRIAN ENO & JON HASSELL Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics
13. SBB Memento Z Banalnym Tryptikiem

14. GENESIS Duke
15. ITOIZ Ezekiel

16. ANTHONY PHILLIPS Private Parts & Pieces II: Back to the Pavillion

17. PAT BENETAR Crimes of Passion

18. PERERIN Haul Ar Yr Eira

19. PETER GABRIEL Peter Gabriel ("Melt")

20. THE POLICE Zenyattà Mondatta

21. YES Drama

22. XTC Black Sea

23. HAROLD GROSSKOPF Synthesist
24. AL DI MEOLA Splendido Hotel
25. BARBRA STREISAND Guilty
26. IVORY Sad Cypress 

27. MIKE RUTHERFORD Smallcreep's Day
28. ZAMLA MAMAZ MANNA Familjesprickor

29. PRESENT Triskaidekaphobie

30. PETE TOWNSEND Empty Glass

31. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT Cultösaurus Erectus

32. LOVERBOY Loverboy

33. THE ROMANTICS The Romantics

34. JEAN-LUC PONTY Civilized Evil
35. BRAND X Do They Hurt?
36. ASIA MINOR Between Flesh and Divine

37. THE PSYCHEDELIC The Psychedelic Furs

38. DAVID BOWIE Scary Monsters

39. ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVERS IN THE DARK Orchestral Manoeuvers in the Dark

40. STEVE WINWOOD Arc of a Diver

Honorable Mentions:

QUEEN Flash Gordon OST

SKY Sky 2

ULTRAVOX Vienna

YELLO Solid Pleasure

     1979     
1. RICKIE LEE JONES Rickie Lee Jones
2. FREDDIE HUBBARD The Love Connection
3. LAURENT THIBAULT Mais on peut pas rêver tout le temps
4. MICHAEL JACKSON Off the Wall
5. NEIL YOUNG Live Rust

6. STEVE HACKETT Spectral Mornings
7. TOTO Hydra
8. BRUFORD One of A Kind

9. TANGERINE DREAM Force Majeure

10. ANYONE'S DAUGHTER Adonis

11. CRUSADERS Street Life

12. JOE SAMPLE Carmel

13. CONVENTUM Le bureau central des utopies

14. PAT METHENY New Chautauqua

15. PINK FLOYD The Wall
16. PAT BENATAR In the Heat of the Night
17. ANDRE FERTIER's CLIVAGE Mixtus Orbis
18. CHRISTOPHER CROSS Christopher Cross
19. HERB ALBERT Rise

20. MARIANNE FAITHFULL Broken English

21. HENRY COW Western Culture

22. IVORY Sad Cypress

23. JEAN-LUC PONTY A Taste for Passion

24. ANTHONY PHILLIPS Sides

25. NEUSCHWANSTEIN Battlement

26. TIDELINE The Crowded Room

27. ATLAS Blå Vardag

28. FRANK ZAPPA Joe's Garage, Parts 1, II & III

29. UNIVERS ZERO Hérésie

30. PASSPORT Garden of Eden

Honorable Mentions:

PEKKA POHJOLA Visitation

ROBERT FRIPP Exposure

TRILOGY Here It Is

     1978     
1. NINA HAGEN BAND Nina Hagen Band
2. UK UK
3. HAROLD BUDD Pavillion of Dreams
4. BABYLON Babylon

5. STEVE REICH Music for 18 Musicians
6. KLAUS SCHULZE X
7. MIKE OLDFIELD Incantations

8. CHICK COREA The Mad Hatter

9. FLAIRCK Variaties Op Een Dame

10. JEAN-LUC PONTY Cosmic Messenger

11. GROBSCHNITT Solar Musik Live

12. ANNETTE PEACOCK X-Dreams
13. NATIONAL HEALTH Of Queues and Cures
14. ANTHONY PHILLIPS Private Parts & Pieces
15. PAUL WINTER CONSORT Common Ground
16. BRUFORD Feels Good to Me
17. REO SPEEDWAGON You Can't Tune a Fish, But You Can Tune a Piano
18. STEVE HACKETT Please Don't Touch
19. THE CARS The Cars

20. GENESIS And Then There Were Three…

21. ANTHONY PHILLIPS Wise After the Event
22. ZYMA Thoughts
23. FERMÁTA Huascaran
24. RONNIE LAWS Flame

25. GÒTIC Escenes

26. TOTO Toto 
27. SBB Slovenian Girls
28. THE MUFFINS Manna/Mirage
29. CATHEDRAL Stained Glass Stories

30. ANGE Guet-Apens

Honorable Mentions:
HAPPY THE MAN Crafty Hands

PETER GABRIEL Peter Gabriel ("Scratches")
NATIONAL HEALTH National Health

JEAN-MICHEL JARRE Equinoxe

ALAN PARSONS PROJECT Pyramid

HEART Dog and The Butterfly

AL DI MEOLA Casino

DAVID GILMOUR David Gilmour

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT Some Enchanted Evening

     1977     
1. JONI MITCHELL Don Juan's Reckless Daughter
2. STEELY DAN Aja

3. JAN AKKERMAN Jan Akkerman
4. RENAISSANCE Novella
5. ANTHONY PHILLIPS The Geese and The Ghost
6. SHAKTI (with John McLaughlin) Natural Elements
7. BILLY JOEL The Stranger
8. PINK FLOYD Animals
9. EBERHARD WEBER The Following Morning
10. ALAN PARSONS PROJECT I, Robot

11. SUPERTRAMP Even in the Quietest Moments...
12. GENTLE GIANT Playing the Fool

13. JOHN MARTYN One World
14. GENESIS Seconds Out

15. PETER GABRIEL Peter Gabriel ("Car")
16. YES Going for the One
17. BRIAN ENO Before and After Science
18. LOCANDA DELLE FATE Forse le lucciole non si amano più
19. BOB JAMES BJ4
20. KENNY LOGGINS Celebrate Me Home

21. NARADA MICHAEL WALDEN I Cry, I Smile
22. ATOLL Tertio

23. PULSAR Halloween

24. ISLAND Pictures
25. FERMÁTA Huascaran

26. KLAUS SCHULZE Mirage

27. ATILA Reviure
28. BOB JAMES Heads

29. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT Spectres 

30. WEATHER REPORT Heavy Weather

31. TANGERINE DREAM Encore (Live 1977) 
32. RICK WAKEMAN Criminal Record

33. UNIVERS ZERO Univers Zero (1313)

34. SANTANA Moonflower 

35. AL DI MEOLA Elegant Gypsy
36. JEAN-LUC PONTY Enigmatic Ocean
37. ENGLAND Garden Shed

38. GROBSCHNITT Rockpommel's Land

39. BRAND X Moroccan Roll

40. HAPPY THE MAN Happy the Man

Honorable Mentions:

KLAUS SCHULZE Mirage

FORGAS Cocktail

HAWKWIND Quark, Strangeness and Charm

ELOY Ocean

     1976     
1. JAN AKKERMAN & KAZ LUX Eli
2. GENESIS A Trick of the Tale
3. PICCHIO DAL POZZO Picchio dal Pozzo
4. RETURN TO FOREVER Romantic Warrior
5. NOVA Vimana
6. COS Viva Boma
7. SBB Pamiec

8. POLLEN Pollen

9. CELESTE Principe di un giorno

10. PETER FRAMPTON Frampton Comes Alive!

11. GENESIS Wind and Wuthering

12. ALAN PARSONS PROJECT Tales of Mystery and Imagination

13. BOSTON Boston
14. BILL CONTI Rocky Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 
15. HEART Dreamboat Annie

16. STEVIE WONDER Songs in the Key of Life

17. STEPHEN BISHOP Careless
18. JEAN-LUC PONTY Imaginary Voyage 

19. BOZ SCAGGS Silk Degrees

20. AL STEWART The Year of the Cat

21. CAMEL Moonmadness 
22. RAGNARÖK Ragnarök

23. THE OZARK MOUNTAIN DAREDEVILS Men from Earth

24. HARMONIUM L'heptade
25. SLOCHE Stadacone
26. GOBLIN Roller
27. WEATHER REPORT Black Market
28. JEAN MICHEL JARRE Oxygène

29. AREA Maledetti
30. MAGMA Üdü Wüdü

31. OPUS-5 Contre Courant

32. ZAO Kawana

33. FAR EAST FAMILY BAND Parallel World
34. KLAUS SCHULZE Moondawn
35. BRAND X Unorthodox Behaviour
36. EAGLES Hotel California

37. FINCH Beyond Expression
38. SCHICKE & FÜHRS & FRÖHLING Symphonic Pictures

39. BOB JAMES Three

40. STEELY DAN The Royal Scam

Honorable Mentions:

JEAN-LUC PONTY Aurora

MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA Inner Worlds

AL DI MEOLA Land of the Midnight Sun

MAHOGANY RUSH IV

STOMU YAMASH'TA, et al. Go

     1975     
1. HARMONIUM Si on avait besoin d’une cinqième saison
2. RENAISSANCE Scheherazade and Other Stories
3. LENNY WHITE Venusian Summer
4. TODD RUNDGREN Initiation
5. FOCUS Mother Focus
6. GENTLE GIANT Free Hand
7. AREA Crac!
8. CHRIS SQUIRE Fish Out of Water

9. THE EAGLES One of These Nights

10. STRAWBS Ghosts 

11. THE SOFT MACHINE Bundles

12. GINO VANNELLI Storm at Sunup

13. STEVE HACKETT Voyage of the Acolyte
14. SUPERTRAMP Crisis? What Crisis?
15. NEKTAR Recycled
16. JEFF BECK Blow by Blow
17. FRIPP & ENO Evening Star
18. MAXOPHONE Maxophone
19. ATOLL L'Araignée-Mal

20. 10CC The Original Soundtrack

21. GRAND FUNK RAILROAD Caught in the Act

22. HATFIELD AND THE NORTH The Rotters' Club

23. MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA Visions of the Emerald Beyond

24. MANEIGE Maneige

25. ZAO Shekina

26. CHERRY FIVE Cherry Five

27. TANGERINE DREAM Rubycon

28. MANEIGE Les Porches

29. KLAUS SCHULZE Timewind
30. GILGAMESH Gilgamesh

31. GOBLIN Profundo Rosso

32. AMBROSIA Ambrosia

33. RETURN TO FOREVER No Mystery

34. TRACE Birds

35. SLOCHE J'un oeil

36. APOTEOSI Apoteosi

37. SEBASTIAN HARDIE Four Moments

38. STEELY DAN Katy Lied

39. STYX Equinox

40. RICK WAKEMAN The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and The Knights of The Round Table

Honorable Mentions:

VANGELIS Heaven and Hell

AEROSMITH Toys in the Attic

THE BEE GEES Main Course

     1974     
1. GENESIS The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
2. UTOPIA Todd Rundgren's Utopia
3. MIKE OLDFIELD Hergest Ridge
4. SUPERTRAMP Crime of the Century

5. YES Relayer
6. PTARMIGAN Ptarmigan

7. TODD RUNDGREN Todd

8. FOCUS Hamburger Concerto

9. COS Postaeolian Train Robbery
10. HATFIELD AND THE NORTH Hatfield and the North

11. ARTI & MESTIERI Tilt

12. DARYL HALL & JOHN OATES War Babies

13. RENAISSANCE Turn of the Cards

14. GINO VANELLI Powerful People

15. BRIAN AUGER'S OBLIVION EXPRESS Straight Ahead

16. JULIAN PRIESTER Love, Love

17. GENTLE GIANT The Power and The Glory

18. STEELY DAN Pretzel Logic

19. PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI L'isola di niente
20. QUELLA VECCHIA LOCANDA Il tempo della Gioia

21. JONI MITCHELL Court and Spark

20. BLUE ÖYSTER CULT Secret Treaties

22. HERBIE HANCOCK Thrust 

23. IDRIS MUHAMMAD Power of Soul 

24. FRUUPP Seven Secrets 

25. NEKTAR Down to Earth

26. DOOBIE BROTHERS What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits
27. ROBIN TROWER Bridge of Sighs
28. STRAWBS Hero and Heroine

29. GRYPHON Midnight Mushrumps

30. AREA Caution Radiation Area

31. MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA Apocalypse

32. EDDIE HENDERSON Inside Out
33. GONG You

34. CAMEL Mirage

35. ANGE Au-dela du délire

36. TRIUMVIRAT Illusions on a Double Dimple

37. EGG The Civil Surface

38. GRYPHON Red Queen to Gryphon Three

39. KING CRIMSON Red

40. RETURN TO FOREVER Where Have I Known You Before?

Honorable Mentions:

CHRISTIAN VANDER Tristan et Isolde (Wurdah Itah)

BILLY JOEL Streetlife Serenade

     1973     
1. MAGMA Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh
2. DEVADIP CARLOS SANTANA & MAHAVISHNU JOHN McLAUGHLIN Love,  Devotion & Surrender

3. GENESIS Selling England by the Pound

4. PINK FLOYD Dark Side of the Moon
5. STEVIE WONDER Innervisions
6. AREA Arbeit Macht Frei
7. LED ZEPPELIN Houses of the Holy
8. GENTLE GIANT In a Glass House
9. DEODATO Prelude

10. CARAVAN For Girls Who Go Plump in the Night

11. NEKTAR Remember the Future

12. THE WHO Quadrophenia

13. 

CERVELLO Melos

14. IL ROVESCIO DELLA MEDAGLIA Contaminazione

15. ELTON JOHN Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

16. PINK FAIRIES Kings of Oblivion
17. THE ISLEY BROTHERS 3 + 3
18. STEELY DAN Can't Buy a Thrill

19. RENAISSANCE Ashes Are Burning
20. HENRY COW LegEnd

21. GENTLE GIANT Octopus

22. FRUUPP Future Legends

23. FRANCO BATTIATO Sulle corde di Aries

24. ALPHATAURUS Alphataurus
25. BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO Io sono nato libero 
26. TODD RUNDGREN A Wizard, A True Star

27. ELTON JOHN Don't Shoot Me, I'm Only the Piano Player

28. THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND Brothers & Sisters

29. JOHN MARTYN Solid Air 

30. RICK WAKEMAN The Six Wives of Henry VIII

31. MIKE OLDFIELD Tubular Bells

32. SPIROGYRA Bells, Boots & Shambles

33. STYX II

34. JOE WALSH The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get

35. GRYPHON Gryphon

36. GONG Radio Gnome Invisible Part 2: Angel's Egg
37. MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA Birds of Fire

38. SAMLA MAMMAS MANNA Måltid 

39. EDDIE HENDERSON Realization

40. PAUL McCARTNEY & WINGS Band on the Run

Honorable Mentions:

BRAINTICKET Celestial Ocean

JUMBO Vietato ai minori di 18 anni?

       1972     
1. ALAN STIVELL Renaissance of the Celtic Harp
2. SANTANA Caravanserai
3. KHAN Space Shanty

4. PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI Per un amico

5. GENESIS Foxtrot

6. YES Close to the Edge
7. URIAH HEEP Demons and Wizards

8. NEKTAR A Tab in the Ocean

9. FOCUS 3

10. IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO Ys

11. POPUL VUH Hosianna Mantra
12. AGITATION FREE Malesch
13. JEFF BECK GROUP "Orange"
14. TODD RUNDGREN Something / Anything
15. STEELY DAN Can't Buy a Thrill
16. HÖLDERLIN Hölderlin's Traum

17. PENTANGLE Solomon's Seal

18. REALE ACCADEMIA DI MUSICA Reale Accademia di Musica

19. SOFT MACHINE Fifth

20. RENAISSANCE Prologue

21. GENTLE GIANT Three Friends

22. CYMANDE Cymande
23. SUPERSISTER Pudding en Gisteren
24. APHRODITE'S CHILD 666
25. HERBIE HANCOCK Crossings
26. JETHRO TULL Thick as a Brick
27. QUELLA VECCHIA LOCANDA Quella Vecchia Locanda

28. STEVIE WONDER Talking Book

29. STRAWBS Grave New World

30. MOVING GELATINE PLATES The World of Genius Hans

Honorable Mentions:

URIAH HEEP Magician's Birthday

WEATHER REPORT I Sing The Body Electric

LE ORME Uomo di Pezza

BANCO DEL MUTUO SOCCORSO Banco del Mutuo Soccorso
GNIDROLOG Lady Lake


     1971     
1. GIL SCOTT-HERON Pieces of a Man
2. AMERICA America
3. PAUL & LINDA McCARTNEY Ram

4. MARVIN GAYE What's Going On?

5. EGG The Polite Force 

6. YES Fragile

7. FOCUS Moving Waves
8. GENESIS Nursery Cryme
9. CARAVAN In the Land of Pink and Grey

10. SUPERSISTER To the Highest Bidder

11. THE ORIGINAL CAST Godspell
12. CAROLE KING Tapestry
13. THE ORIGINAL CAST Jesus Christ Superstar
14. NEKTAR Journey to the Centre of the Eye
15. SPIROGYRA St. Radigunds

16. THE CARPENTERS Carpenters 

17. LED ZEPPELIN "IV" or "Runes"
18. GENTLE GIANT Acquiring the Taste

19. FOTHERINGAY Fotheringay

20. HERBIE HANCOCK Mwandishi

21. COMUS First Utterance

22. ASH RA TEMPEL Ash Ra Tempel
23. THE WOODS BAND The Woods Band

24. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR Pawn Hearts

25. BRÖSELMASCHINE Bröselmaschine

26. ROY HARPER Stormcock

27. MELLOW CANDLE Swaddling Songs

28. OSIBISA Osibisa

29. THE WHO Who's Next

30. NUCLEUS We'll Talk About It Later

31. ALICE COLTRANE Universal Consciousness

32. SANTANA III

33. BRAINTICKET Cottonwoodhill

34. MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA The Inner Mounting Flame

35. EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER Tarkus

36. TRAFFIC The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys 

37. JAN DUKES DE GREY Mice and Rats in the Loft

38. YES The Yes Album

39. TUDOR LODGE Tudor Lodge

40. FUCHSIA Fuchsia

Honorable Mentions:

41. TERJE RYPDAL Terje Rypdal

42. URIAH HEEP Look At Yourself

43. JETHRO TULL Aqualung

44. WIGWAM Fairyport

45. GONG Camembert Electrique
46. McDONALD AND GILES McDonald and Giles

47. ALICE COLTRANE Journey in Satchidinanda

     1970     
1. CROSBY,  STILLS, NASH & YOUNG Déjà Vu

2. GENTLE GIANT Gentle Giant

3. GENESIS Trespass

4. EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER Emerson, Lake & Palmer 

5. SOFT MACHINE Third
6. THE CARPENTERS Close to You
7. ELTON JOHN Elton John

8. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR H to He, Who Am the Only One
9. SUPERSISTER Present from Nancy

10. CARAVAN If I Could Do It All Over Again, I'd Do It All Over You

11. SANTANA Abraxas

12. EGG Egg

13. LARRY CORYELL Spaces

14. AHORA MAZDA Ahora Mazda 

15. STEELEYE SPAN Hark! The Village Wait
16. DREAMS Dreams
17. JOHN McLAUGHLIN Devotion

18. ALICE COLTRANE Ptah, The El Daoud

19. CHICAGO II

20. FOTHERINGAY Fotheringay

21. HERBIE HANCOCK Mwandishi

22. TREES The Garden of Jane Delawney

23. YES Time and a Word

24. BLACK SABBATH Paranoid

25. SPIRIT The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus

26. NUCLEUS Elastic Rock

26. MILES DAVIS Bitches Brew

27. AMON DÜÜL Yeti

28. TRAFFIC John Barleycorn Must Die
29. SUPERTRAMP Supertramp

30. JAN GARBAREK Afric Pepperbird

Honorable Mentions:

TUDOR LODGE Tudor Lodge

KING CRIMSON Lizard

THE MANDRAKE MEMORIAL Puzzle

GRAND FUNK RAILROAD Closer to Home

     1969     
1. KING CRIMSON In the Court of the Crimson King
2. 'IGGINBOTTOM 'Igginbottom's Wrench

3. CHICAGO Chicago Transit Authority
4. SOFT MACHINE Volume Two
5. SANTANA Santana

6. IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY It's a Beautiful Day

7. PENTANGLE Basket of Light

8. RENAISSANCE Renaissance

9. THE BEATLES Abbey Road

10. LED ZEPPELIN II

11. TERRY C. RILEY A Rainbow in Curved Air

12. AMON DÜÜL II Phallus Dei

13. FRANK ZAPPA Hot Rats

14. COLOSSEUM Valentyne Suite

15. TONY WILLIAMS LIFETIME Emergency!

16. GENESIS From Genesis to Revelation

17. LARRY CORYELL Lady Coryell

18. FAIRPORT CONVENTION Liege & Lief

19. BLIND FAITH Blind Faith

20. THE WHO Tommy

Honorable Mentions:

RARE BIRD Rare Bird

JETHRO TULL Stand Up

THE MANDRAKE MEMORIAL Medium

SPIRIT Spirit

     1968     
1. THE COLLECTORS The Collectors

2. ULTIMATE SPINACH Behold and See

3. FRANK ZAPPA and the Abnuceals Emuukha Electric Symphony Orchestra Lumpy Gravy

4. CARAVAN Caravan

5. IRON BUTTERFLY In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

6. THE PENTANGLE The Pentangle

7. STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK Wake Up … It's Tomorrow

8. H.P. LOVECRAFT II

9. TERJE RYPDAL Bleak House

10. ULTIMATE SPINACH Ultimate Spinach

11. DON ELLIS Autumn

12. FAMILY Music in a Doll's House

13. PROCOL HARUM Shine On Brightly

14. DON ELLIS Shock Treatment

15. TERRY RILEY In C

16. THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION We're Only in It for the Money

17. THE PRETTY THINGS SF Sorrow

18. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The United States of America

19. MILES DAVIS Nefertiti

20. THE SOFT MACHINE The Soft Machine

Honorable Mentions:

THE BEATLES The Beatles (The White Album)

APHRODITE'S CHILD End of the World

DAVID AXELROD Song of Innocence

SPANKY & OUR GANG Like to Get to Know You

BLUE CHEER Vincebus Eruptum

BLUE CHEER Outsideinside 

THE MANDRAKE MEMORIAL The Mandrake Memorial

     1967     
1. STRAWBERRY ALARM CLOCK Incense & Peppermints

2. THE MOODY BLUES Days of Future Passed

3. DON ELLIS ORCHESTRA 'Live' at Monterey!

4. THE ASSOCIATION And Then… Along Comes The Association

5. LOVE Forever Changes

6. THE DOORS The Doors

7. JEFFERSON AIRPLANE Surrealistic Pillow

8. THE BEATLES Magical Mystery Tour

9. GARY BURTON Duster

10. THE WEST COAST POP EXPERIMENTAL BAND Part One

11. THE CHOCOLATE WATCH BAND No Way Out

12. THE BEATLES Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

13. THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE Are You Experienced?

14. THE BEAU BRUMMELS Triangle

15. JOHN COLTRANE Expression

16. FIFTY FOOT HOSE Cauldron

17. THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION Absolutely Free

18. THE ZODIAC Cosmic Sounds

19. THE FREE SPIRITS Out of Sight and Sound

20. DON ELLIS Electric Bath

Honorable Mentions:

THE YARDBIRDS The Yardbirds Greatest Hits

PROCOL HARUM Procol Harum

KALEIDOSCOPE Tangerine Dream

THE DOORS Strange Days

     1966     
1. SIMON & GARFUNKLE Parsely, Sage, Rosemary & Thyme
2. JOHN COLTRANE Ascension

3. SIMON & GARFUNKLE Sounds of Silence

4. JOHN COLTRANE Meditations

5. THE MOTHERS OF INVENTION Freak Out!

6. THE BYRDS The Fifth Dimension

7. THE BEATLES Revolver

8. THE YARDBIRDS Over Under Sideways Down

__1965__
1. JOHN COLTRANE A Love Supreme

2. BOB DYLAN Highway 61 Revisited
3. THE YARDBIRDS For Your Love

4. THE YARDBIRDS Having a Rave Up