| # | Artist | Song (click to play) | Album | Year | CD label |
| 1 | Ozric Tentacles | Coily | Waterfall Cities | 1999 | Phoenix Rising |
| A new one from OT with their unmistakable sound. Very digital, yet organic sounding. This is progressive music that could probably be played in a dance club. They were fantastic in concert last year. A must see. Although I was a bit disappointed in the keyboardist reliance on pre-programmed keyboard sequences. He barely touched the keys at all, spending most of his time just twiddling knobs. | |||||
| 2 | Samla Mammas Manna | Forsta Ikarien | Kaka | 1999 | Amigo |
| The first new Samla studio recording since the 1983 Von Zamla album _No Make Up!_. This CD features mostly new studio tracks mixed with some live recordings from 1993-98. SMM is one of the original Rock-In- Oppostion bands. They play a quirky, humorous, complex progressive. This re-union album is every bit as good as their classic material and a good place to start checking out the band. It may be interesting to note that Roine Stolt mixed the studio tracks of this album. | |||||
| 3 | Vertu | The Call | Vertu | 1999 | Sony |
| A new supergroup of Stanley Clarke - bass and Lenny White - drums (both ex-Return to Forever), Richie Kotzen - guitar(ex-Poison ?!?), Rachel Z - keyboards (DiMeola, Steps Ahead, Wayne Shorter), and Karen Briggs - violin (Yanni). This is some very good new fusion with some through backs to the sounds of RTF, Mahavishnu and Tribal Tech. | |||||
| 4 | Kopecky | The Rise and Fall of Stella Morbida | Kopecky | 1999 | Autumnswirl Music |
| Kopecky is a new instrumental trio from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The band consist of 3 brothers playing guitar, bass, keys, drums, sitar, and percussion. There is a healthy dose of heavy metal and ethnic sounds in the music. For me, the metal cliches detract from the music slightly, but, other than that, it is very good progressive with lots of interesting ideas. I heard something about Kopecky filling in with Par Lindh's band this year on tour, because 2 of his band members left. | |||||
| 5 | Bondage Fruit | Minus One | IV | 1999 | Musea |
| A five piece Japanese band with guitar, bass, drums, violin, organ, vibraphone. A modern take on the Zeuhl sound, though more on the avant garde side. Their first 2 albums sound very much like Zao because of the vocals. They are now mostly instrumental playing some excellent adventurous music. | |||||