{"id":29780,"date":"2025-09-30T05:30:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T09:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29780"},"modified":"2025-07-10T16:29:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T20:29:36","slug":"hundred-word-reviews-september-2025-prog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/30\/hundred-word-reviews-september-2025-prog\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundred Word Reviews, September 2025: Prog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Hundred-worder time again here at Musoscribe World HQ. What\u2019s on? Prog! Lotsa, lotsa prog. Mostly new, but one very noteworthy reissue.<\/p>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29783\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/markus_reuter_truce3.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/markus_reuter_truce3.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/markus_reuter_truce3-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/markus_reuter_truce3-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Markus Reuter \u2013 <i>Truce &lt;3<\/i><\/b><br \/>\nMarkus Reuter is an acclaimed touch guitarist with deep connections to the King Crimson community. His work under his own name is every bit as compelling as his forays with other artists. Here he collaborates with Fabio Trentini and Asaf Sirkis (the latter of Soft Machine and of other collabs with Reuter). The instrumental music here has touches of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, though Reuter\u2019s approach to his instrument is more integrated into the arrangement as opposed to spread atop it. Melody is held in high regard here; listeners will likely nod their heads and hum along in places.<\/p>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29781\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3below_live.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"345\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3below_live.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/3below_live-300x296.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>3 Below \u2013 <i>Live in M\u00e9rida<\/i><\/b><br \/>\nFormer stick man in King Crimson, Trey Gunn remains an innovative musician who also happens to run his own record label. 7D consistently releasses fascinating, outside-0the-box music by artists of note (or deserving of note). 3Below is an acoustic project, captured her onstage in Mexico in late 2023. The sounds may occasionally remind some listeners of the League of Crafty Guitaristas, albeit with bass, shaker percussion and oud woven into the mix. The music is intense and hypnotic, with a subtle feel of worldbeat. Even while on musical explorations, they remain grounded enough to hold firm the audience&#8217;s rapt attention.<\/p>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29782\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/komara_ii.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/komara_ii.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/komara_ii-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/komara_ii-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Komara \u2013 <i>Komara II<\/i><\/b><br \/>\nKomara is an imposing progressive-meets-avant garde trio featuring Pat Mastelotto (King Crimson), Trey Gunn (Crimson again) and guitarist David Kollar. The three are joinedo n slect traks by vocalists and a trumpet player. On this, their second outing, Komara explores gentle acoustic textures that open up to reveal lush and massive-sounding sonic landscapes. There\u2019s awesome beauty in the tunes, intentionally lumbering as thet sometimes do. Hints of electronica and trip hop figure into some of the material as well, and the melodies (so to speak) are catchy and memorable. The trio\u2019s virtuosity never overpowers its mastery of songcraft. Most recommended.<\/p>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29784\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/exo-x-xeno.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/exo-x-xeno.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/exo-x-xeno-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/exo-x-xeno-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Exo-X-Xeno \u2013 <i>Luminous Voyage<\/i><\/b><br \/>\nA strange one. It took me longer than perhaps it should have to sort out that the business card-looking thing opened up to reveal the innards of a USB plug. When attached to my PC, it gave access to the music. Turns out that behind that unwieldy and ill-advised name, Exo-X-Xeno is in fact Yes\u2019 current rhythm section of Billy Sherwood and Jay Schellen, plus former Yes virtuoso keyboardist Patrick Moraz, and guitarist-vocalist Craig Maher. The music is tuneful prog of the most accessible variety. Maher\u2019s vocals are decidedly earnest AOR, but the music is the star of this show.<\/p>\n<p><b><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-29785\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/tim_morse20.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/tim_morse20.jpg 350w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/tim_morse20-300x300.jpg 300w, http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/tim_morse20-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>Tim Morse \u2013 <i>Transformation 20th Anniversary Edition<\/i><\/b><br \/>\nApparently Tim Morse is no relation to Steve or Neal Morse, but he traffics in similarly progressive waters. His recorded solo debut, <i>Transformation<\/i> was released in 2005. Now it\u2019s back with bonus tracks and a remaster job. It was pretty fine to start with. The music has hints of Yes (no surprise there: Morse wrote a book about the band) but it has its own character. Tricky time signatures and a forward-looking aesthetic call to mind the more exciting moments of Yes\u2019 <i>Drama<\/i>. Vocalist Richie Zeller does a good job of emoting over the instruments in a way that fits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Hundred-worder time again here at Musoscribe World HQ. What\u2019s on? Prog! Lotsa, lotsa prog. Mostly new, but one very noteworthy reissue. Markus Reuter \u2013 Truce &lt;3 Markus Reuter is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29784,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,54,56,62,65],"tags":[5741,323,5739,5740,1410,1654,5738,2266],"class_list":["post-29780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-new-release","category-post-rock","category-prog","category-rawk","category-review","tag-3below","tag-billy-sherwood","tag-exo-x-xeno","tag-komara","tag-markus-reuter","tag-patrick-moraz","tag-tim-mores","tag-trey-gunn","cat-49-id","cat-54-id","cat-56-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29786,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29780\/revisions\/29786"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}