A new editorial week opens at Progressive Rock Journal with a selection that stretches from the rainforests of southern Brazil to the underground basements of 1970s Sweden, from the heavy festival stages of Berlin to a forgotten cassette pressed in Tahiti nearly half a century ago. This week brought two exclusives born directly in the PRJ studio, a tenth album that solidifies a Space/Prog institution, the long-overdue digital consecration of a Krautrock masterpiece, a photo-book that doubles as emotional cartography for one of British Prog’s most devoted communities, and the first full interview with one of Scandinavia’s best-kept Psychedelic secrets. Two festivals on the calendar, a new Stoner/Doom playlist, and two rare archival uploads on the PRJ YouTube channel round out a week that had something to stop for at every turn.
— EXCLUSIVES / PREMIERES —
Ka’aru – Daring Spirit — Exclusive Q&A & Full Album Visualizer (PRJ World Premiere)
From Tôrres, in the southernmost tip of Brazil, Ka’aru — guitarist/bassist/vocalist Lucas HR and drummer Miguel Faria — arrive with their debut album “Daring Spirit,” released April 24th, 2026, and streaming in full exclusively via the PRJ YouTube channel through a visualizer created entirely by Jacopo Vigezzi. Symphonic grandeur and raw Heavy Metal in constant dialogue, Brazilian Folk rhythmic DNA embedded in double-kick patterns and distorted bass, lyrics built around the perspective of those who live through war — soldiers, children who grew up in conflict zones, voices rarely given this kind of sonic frame. The result is a debut that refuses to play it safe from the first note, and whose next chapter, according to the band, will be heavier and more emotionally charged than what came before. A stream worth your full attention. [Read & Stream here]
Godzilla In The Kitchen — “Nothing For None” Official Video Premiere & Exclusive PRJ Q&A
The German trio return with their first new material since “Exodus” (2022), and the shift is total: what began as an instrumental rock band has evolved into a full-throated Alternative Metal formation driven by socially critical lyrics and a new compositional voice — bassist Simon Ulm, now handling lead vocals. The theme: mass seduction, algorithmic manipulation, the mechanics of how attention is controlled and public perception shaped. The music follows suit — physically raw, deliberately analog, 400 kg of equipment hauled to every show because the amps need to breathe behind you. The video was in production since their Wacken 2025 performance, and it lands here as a PRJ exclusive premiere. Monster riffs, pounding drums, a climax that builds with surgical precision. This one hits hard. [Read & Watch here]
— REVIEWS —
Quantum Fantay – The Butterfly EffeX (Progressive Promotion Records, 2026)
The tenth album from the Belgian instrumental Progressive/Space Rock ensemble marks a genuine creative consolidation. Entirely without vocals, “The Butterfly EffeX” unfolds across eight tracks as a panoramic, carefully disciplined sonic journey — from the eleven-minute opener “Return To Xaia” with its Kosmische expanses and subtle oriental melodic inflections, through the Symphonic warmth of “Phoenix” (guitar and cello in elegant interplay), the birdsong-and-synthesiser atmosphere of “Vernal Equinox“, and the Middle Eastern tonalities woven into “Xemuta.” Cello, flute, duduk, brass — the guest instrumentation adds depth without overcrowding. “Xcelleration” delivers six minutes of pure Heavy Space Rock propulsion; “Quantum X” closes the circle with a finale that feels both resolved and forward-looking. A mature, coherent work from a band that has built one of the most consistent discographies in the genre over more than two decades. [Read here]
Orange Peel – Orange Peel (Bacillus Records, 2026 Digital)
Hanau, 1970. Recorded at the legendary Dierks Studios in Stommeln under Dieter Dierks, this is the sole self-titled LP by one of the most ferocious and visionary formations in early German underground Rock — now officially available digitally via Bacillus Records‘ Bandcamp for the first time. The eighteen-minute suite that occupies the entire first side, “You Can’t Change Them All,” is the beating heart of the record: a manic duel between Ralph Wiltheiß‘s Hammond Schweineorgel and Leslie Link‘s Hendrix-influenced guitar, sustained by a then seventeen-year-old Curt Cress on drums — who would go on to become one of Europe’s most influential rhythm players. The remaining three tracks shift between lyrical compression, Heavy-Psych brutality on the cover “Tobacco Road,” and total instrumental abstraction on the closing “We Still Try to Change.” Members would go on to projects including Epsilon, Emergency, Atlantis, and Passport — but what is preserved on this record remains unrepeatable. An absolute essential for anyone tracing the heaviest, most visceral roots of the German sound. [Read here]
— INTERVIEWS —
[Exclusive Interview] A New Day — Andy Glass & Howard Rankin on Music, Memory and the Sia Trilogy (Solstice)
“A New Day – The Sia Trilogy in Photographs” is a live photo book documenting Solstice‘s recent renaissance across three albums and several years of touring — a period that guitarist and founder Andy Glass describes as the most significant in the band’s history since the early 1980s. The book is built on Howard Rankin‘s photography, and this interview speaks with both men at length: Glass on the creative alignment between himself and vocalist Jess, on playing to 20,000 at Cropredy Festival, on the multi-generational family spirit the Clann audience has created around the band; Rankin on the parallels between wildlife and live music photography, on curating an archive without losing its spontaneity, and on the moments — particularly from a small show at The Dome in London — where the interaction onstage became, in his own words, almost transcendentally joyous. A rare window into how music, image and community can move together in the same direction. [Read here]
[Exclusive Interview] Kontinuerlig Drift — One of Sweden’s Best-Kept Psychedelic Secrets
Tierp, a quiet village between Gävle and Uppsala, early 1970s. A loose circle of musicians absorbing British Blues, Psychedelia, Swedish folk traditions and Jazz-Rock improvisation over the course of a decade, eventually documenting it all in two raw days at a Gävle studio in 1977. The resulting self-titled LP — now receiving its first ever proper reissue via PQR-Disques plusqueréel — is one of the most sought-after albums in the Swedish underground, known to most collectors only by name. This interview, conducted with the surviving members, is the first time the story has been told in full: the evolution from Hallsbandet to Hela Havet Stormar to Kontinuerlig Drift, the basement studio in Uppsala that gave the collective a creative home, the folk-Blues synthesis that set them apart from every contemporary formation, the two-day recording that captured the music with deliberate rawness, and the coincidental rhythmic resemblance between “Se Men Inte Röra” and Iggy Pop‘s “The Passenger” — written years before the latter existed. Essential reading for anyone drawn to the edges of Scandinavian underground music. [Read here]
— NEWS —
Desertfest Berlin 2026 — Final Timetables & Lineup Additions (May 14–16, Columbiahalle & Columbia Theater)
With only days to go before the festival opens its doors, Desertfest Berlin has dropped the final timetables and added a new wave of confirmations: Temple Fang, Zig Zags, Earthbong and Karla Kvlt join the main bill, while the outdoor stage adds BLKE, Abanamat, Dirty Mops, Electric Jugs and Menk. The already formidable lineup — YOB, Red Fang, Russian Circles, Hermano feat. John Garcia, The Sword, King Buffalo, Acid King, Truckfighters, Crippled Black Phoenix, Nebula, Earthless, Greenleaf, Rotor, Blackwater Holylight, Pelican, High Desert Queen and many more — now ranks among the heaviest and most expansive the festival has assembled in recent memory. The warm-up show at Neue Zukunft on May 13th features Desertheads, Solace, Red Mess and Krake. Both events close to sold out. Move fast. [Read here]
Argonauta Fest London 2026 — June 21st, Helgi’s London
The first-ever Argonauta Fest London lands on June 21st for a single night of Doom, Sludge, Stoner and Psych-heavy live music curated directly by Argonauta Records. Three bands, one stage: Borehead (South London instrumental trio — massive Psych-Doom, slow hypnotic waves, total sensory immersion), Godzilla Was Too Drunk To Destroy Tokyo (Italy — Sludge-soaked heaviness colliding with fuzzy Psychedelia, loud and unpredictable), and Master Charger (UK — fuzz-drenched riffs, Blues-Heavy Doom, a Punk-infused underground spirit rooted in the Classic Heavy tradition). A night built for people who live Heavy Music beyond genre boundaries, and one worth putting in the calendar well in advance. [Read here]
— HIDDEN RARITIES —
[Hidden Rarities #51] Tokiri — French Polynesia
Tahiti, late 1970s. A cassette pressed by Océane Production, declared on its own cover to be “Le premier groupe thaitien de musique Progressive,” and reportedly owned today by a single collector on Discogs. Tokiri, led by guitarist Michel Poroi, fused Jazz-Rock sophistication with Funk grooves, ARP synthesizer textures and subtle Psychedelic flourishes in a region where these sounds were entirely unfamiliar to local audiences. The band debuted at the Maison de la Culture in Papeete in 1979 and dissolved shortly after. Poroi went on to become one of Tahiti’s most influential guitarists; the cassette vanished. This is the story of that recording — and of the musicians who made it. [Read here]
— SPOTIFY PLAYLIST —
PRJ Spotify Playlist: Stoner/Doom — May 2026
A new PRJ playlist dedicated to the heavier, slower, and more riff-saturated end of the spectrum. Stoner and Doom in full volume — curated for the season. Stream it directly via the link below and follow the channel for monthly updates. [Read here]
Stream on Spotify:
— PRJ YOUTUBE CHANNEL —
Brazen Faced – Brazen Faced [1997, Full Demo]
Stream via the YouTube player below:
Mental Notes – Demo [1979, Full Demo]
Stream via the YouTube player below:
As always, Editor’s Pick is a curatorial compass — not a list, but a guided entry point into PRJ‘s week. Read what catches you, follow the links, and come back next Monday. — Jacopo // PRJ Webzine