Album review: ASH WING – s/t

White Knight Records [Release date 07.11.25]

This album is one of several that arrived at GRTR! Towers without an accompanying press release. Perhaps this is a new trend: get the journos to do the work. Again, from the Rob Reed (Magenta) stable and Rob contributes keyboards throughout with Kevin Dawson.

Research tells us this is the sixth album from a Welsh band formed two decades ago that used to be called C-Sides (who knew?). The previous album was released in early 2024 ‘Foxes On The Road’.

The bouncy ‘From My Window’ features vocalist Sian Elson doing her best Kate Bush impression whilst ‘It’s All Change’ opens with a tortured sax solo from erstwhile Camel keyboardist and erudite progger Peter Jones.

The long track ‘In Our Darkness’ introduces jazzier elements courtesy of Jones’ less frenetic sax but doesn’t really go anywhere and could be construed as a bit indulgent. The guitar solo when it comes is pedestrian too. In fact a real sense of urgency is lacking throughout this album.

The sequencing where one track flows into another suggests some sort of concept. Overall, listenable and not too demanding, and the band will no doubt go down well at prog specific events. However a lack of “killer track” and that derivative vocal is a little worrying. A lyric sheet would have been useful (along with that missing press release!).

In 2017 our prog editor Alan Jones called the C-Sides album “We Are Now” “a bit prog by numbers”. Nothing much seems to have changed. Pete Whalley reviewing in 2018 was a bit more charitable. I wonder why we haven’t reviewed the band more extensively. Seemingly a lack of PR which is a great shame as without a bigger push this will remain slightly hobbyist. ***1/2

Review by David Randall

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