The collection opens with “A Man Of Thin Air” from the 2001 album More Exotic Ways To Die, quite possibly Po90’s finest hour. Renting a cottage in the ‘middle of nowhere’ they produced something quite exceptional. Unfortunately subsequent sales didn’t reflect this.
The main writing force behind Po90 is Andy Tillson who has done an excellent job compiling, and re-mastering this set. “The Single” from The Time Capsule (1998) eases in and leads to the powerful opening to “Unbranded” the title track from their album released the following year. This was the one that really saw Po90 push the boundaries and touching on thrash punk, speed drum, and bass, and ambient trance, all cunningly blended in with prog.
No More Travelling Chess (1999) gives us the excellent Peter Hammill track “Modern” whilst The Time Capsule (1998) re-appears courtesy of the stand out “Promises Of Life”.
The second disk opens with the “Afterlifecycle Sequence” including “Dead On A Car Park Floor” and “Lifecycle”. It also includes three tracks from the lost Po90 album A Kick In The Teeth For Civic Pride which remains, I believe, unreleased. The set closes with “Unforgiving Skies” from The Time Capsule.
In the words of those annoying television adverts, this set is exactly what it says on the cover. This is a 'best of' with enough added goodies and excellently entertaining notes to satisfy all fans of Po90. It would be wrong to stop there of course and it has to be emphasized that this should also extend to fans of progressive music who missed out first time around.
The fact that this has been chosen, and re-mastered by Andy Tillson himself adds even more weight. Look out too for a wonderful previously unreleased version of "Blues For Lear". Truly exceptional stuff.
As a result of this set landing on my doormat, I looked up the band's website and found some great news. Firstly, the reunion rumours are true and the band is making some appearances during this summer. Secondly, you can listen to this underrated band without crashing your modem. Now that's progress!
You can find Parallel Or Ninety Degrees on their official website.
Article comments