This is where you find a list of the current best selling titles in this category at CD Services – Nothing like your standard mainstream chart material, you’ll agree! For technical reasons we are not displaying these lists in descending numeric order, as a normal music chart would look, but then it’s not really meant to be a chart as such – Just an alphabetical listing that offers customers a working guide as to what the top selling titles in this genre currently are. The list size varies from department to department, starting at a ‘Top 20’ to cover the smaller categories and spanning up to a ‘Top 50’ (or more) for the bigger department in the shop

MAJOR PROG INSTRUMENTAL ALERT... Blimey, the spirits of Keith Emerson & Rick Wakeman positively leap out of this CD - A totally keyboards/synths-led slice of instrumental prog rock that is just fantastic! It’s a 70’s prog-rock fan’s dream, with Moogs, organ, keyboards and string synths all on site – the works basically! The drumming, bass & rhythm work is tight and lively, with guitars also used sparingly and for the maximum effect. The feel is rich and symphonic – a bit PFM at times, but there’s no pretentiousness goings on, as elements of a stack of the finest 70’s Manticorian prog bands fly by. There isn’t a wasted second on the entire 6 track album, but oh, that last half-hour epic  – it’s just immense and then some! That track also features the only vocal on the entire, near hour long CD, and this too is excellent – It’s not English, but to be honest the music is so strong, and the guy’s voice is so good that you hardly notice the language thing at all – HONEST! In actual fact, the harmony vocals are so good, that you actually wonder why they didn’t use them more on the album – yeh, THAT good! So overall, most of this album mirrors what Emerson and Wakeman were doing so brilliantly in the 70’s, and while they don’t make them like that any more – here’s one who does! Anyway, if you’re a fan of either, or you’re just into pure synths-led prog, you’ll positively flip over this suberb album.

518173
Weight: 150.00 g

Following the split of BJH some time ago, two new incarnations of the band have emerged, both featuring two members of the original line-up. We’re not sure whether this Holroyd/Pritchard pairing or the Lees/Wolstenholme camp own the BJH name, but all that matters for us is the music, and that is excellent! For us, this album is the best of the three released since the split. The songs sound more like Polydor period BJH, but where Les Holroyd’s contributions to these older albums might have been seen by some as music fixed firmly in the symphonic/romantic rock line, there is a definite feel of aggression present on some tracks from this set. The album still has its share of ballads and the hooks are still present in abundance, plus there’s plenty of the richly layered keyboards (check-out the fantastic mellotrons on ‘Sleepy Sunday’) and melodic soaring guitars that BJH were famous for. The quality of the song writing and playing is, as always, pretty much rock solid through the entire 63 minute set. With a line-up of other musicians providing instrumental back-up (including John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick on keyboards for ‘Totally Cool’), this pairing have produced an excellent album that really suits the mood of the times. Click on extra info link for the track details.

755344
Weight: 150.00 g

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This Austrian musician is one of CD Services biggest selling artists of all-time. His brand of instrumental symphonic prog is the ultimate in musical escapism, and clearly influenced by late 60’s/early 70’s progressive bands like Genesis and the Moody Blues. His 80’s album ‘From Source To Sea’ continues to sell by the box-load, and you only to experience the opening ten minutes on that album to realise why! Now this 2001 double CD set is rapidly following in its footsteps. For those new to the man; If you can just imagine a cross between Mike Oldfield, Enya (without most of the vocals) and classic Hackett era Genesis (or just Steve Hackett) that might give you some idea of what this, and most other Gandalf albums are about. Disc 1 alone is a continuously flowing, seventy-six minute symphonic prog composition themed around Tolkien’s legendary ‘Lord Of The Rings’ story. This is a landmark recording, and one that has a huge crossover potential, with all the symphonic touches that expose his musical roots. Disc 2 is a bonus limited edition, full-length album of ‘Rare & Precious Pieces’, containing some new arrangements and rare mixes selected from the last 20 years of his celebrated recording career, so it’s a kind of ‘Best Of’ with a difference, and a nice intro for the Gandalf novice. One track features Steve Hackett on guitar, and there’s also a previously unreleased piece, but most of the selected tracks are entirely different versions of tracks from the original albums. To complement the music on this album, the label have produced beautifully lavish, triple fold-out digi-pak packaging, with a matching full-colour booklet housed in the centre portion between the two disc holders – a classy piece of packaging to match the sheer musical class of Gandalf.

441812
Weight: 250.00 g

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This album has been a top seller since it first arrived here in 2000. It is a phenomenal, mostly instrumental prog epic that is really all one long track entitled ‘All In Good Time’. Each instrumental passage is split into individual sections, with two songs embedded in the middle. Heavily influenced by ELP, a bit of Pink Floyd and a fair bit of Yes too, the album was written, produced and recorded by Fred Schendel (Hammond organ, Mellotron, Mini-Moog, keyboards, acoustic, electric and slide guitar {lead and rhythm}, auto-harp, drums and backing vocals) and Steve Babb (bass guitar, keyboards, Mellotron, assorted analogue synths, and backing vocals). The duo call in Brad Marler (lead/backing vocals & acoustic guitar), Walter Moore (drums, electric & acoustic guitar), plus Arjen Lucassen (of Ayreon) & Terry Clouse (for additional lead guitars). This is a fantastic keyboard based prog album with fine guitar work, good vocal arrangements and top-notch production. Their sound quite blatantly incorporates influences of the best elements of ELP and Yes, blending them into their own wonderful brand of stylish symphonic rock, and believe me, seldom will you hear it done better than Glass Hammer do it!!

398224
Weight: 150.00 g

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This followed their superb ‘Close To The Fire’ comeback album in 2001. You get 14 hook laden tracks from the pens of Ton Scherpenzeel & Irene Linders, with keyboard, guitar, bass & drums arrangements to die for, although this one tends to rock a bit more in places. Kayak have existed as a band for almost three decades, so that tells you something about how popular they are in their native Holland!  This album, like all their others, provides a good balance between the pop and progressive music fields of play – It’s a quality melodic rock album that straddles the outer edges of the prog genre on the longer pieces, reverting to pure pop on others, and these are the songs tend to be instant qualifiers, where as the longer, ‘progier’ pieces need a play or two to get to grips with, which is as it should be. They are a professional unit that really can ‘play’ - Scherpenzeel’s keyboard talents are endless, creating themes and lead lines that can send shivers down the spine at the turn of a chord. The emphasis is always on melody and solid structure, whether it be a ballad or a rock song, there is always a hook, always a memorable melody line and lyrics that seem to fit perfectly within the feel of the instrumental backings created around them.

694592
Weight: 150.00 g

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The 6^th studio album from America’s symphonic-rock diva, and talk about monumental – this has to be the best yet! It’s powerful, as you’d expect, but the seriously heavy rocking, so evident on the ‘Secrets Of Astrology’ album, has been enhanced, altered – but not by anything physical. The keyboard work too is a total sensation, showcasing some incredible moments from the Mellotron, Hammond organ and Moog Modular synthesizer. There’s an assured confidence to these performances, one that seems to have at the back of it some kind of determination to make the solid and intricately structured songs work like never before. It’s only when you read the sleeve-notes, to find that this album was actually being recorded during the events of September 11^th 2001 that you suddenly see it all!

717460
Weight: 150.00 g

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I mean… Hell fire – THIS BAND ARE PINK FLOYD!  Well they’re not actually, but when you hear it, you’ll know exactly what we mean. You only have to listen to a snippet of the opening eight-minute gem: ‘Hole In The Sky’ to hear the Floyd influences in abundance, and from ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond’ in particular. Yet this is no mere clone or copyist act – it is a quality band with something fresh to offer, but they have a familiar way of saying it. Listen to the gorgeous soaring guitars, the full range of flowing keyboards, rhythms that sound just sensational and dreamy vocals and your are off into music heaven. The harmonies will make you go weak at the knees and the hairs will stand up on the back of your neck as you listen in wrapt attention to every second, every note, every lush facet of a the truly breathtaking instrumental arrangements. Straight from track 1 you’re hooked - your heart will beat that extra bit faster as the group evoke Floyd comparisons that range from the ‘Wish You Were Here’ era to the ‘Momentary Lapse Of Reason’ period. This hour long CD has huge crossover appeal and the pace and content are exactly what you’d expect – 13 tracks of sensational, exceptionally melodic progressive/space-symphonic rock - clean, crisp, dynamic, vibrant and immaculately produced/arranged. A faultless debut album, and it’s a cast iron cert that you won’t grudge a single penny of the asking price after you make this purchase.

401285
Weight: 150.00 g

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785053
Weight: 150.00 g

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This is an ESSENTIAL release, not just because it is a superb space-rock album - This special edition limited double Digi-Book version includes a bonus CD that will attract Hawkwind followers as well as Ayreon fans! For the first time outside of Hawkwind in ages, their main man Dave Brock is featured, leading the group in a nine-minute medley of Hawkwind tracks! ‘Space Metal’ features a large guest list and it’s a concept work featuring 10 tracks that are based on science fiction space movies. Together with it’s bonus CD, this album is essentially space-rock (in its most literal sense) -meets-progressive-meets-metal, from Arjen Lucassen, the guy behind the progressive metal band Ayreon, and it’s a quite superior example the genre. There is a distinct touch of 80’s Deep Purple allied to some tremendous axe-work and a hint of classic space-rock in these songs and instrumentals. The music conveys a sense of some vast galactic attack, as guitars race and rhythms rage, while synths and keyboards fill the sound with thick symphonic layers as the vocalists really go for it. Overall, this is a huge-sounding, multi-riffing monster of an album with quality, class, dynamics and power all in there in equal measures. The bonus disc 2 opens with the nine-minute medley of Hawkwind classics – A track delivered to perfection and covering ‘Master Of The Universe’, ‘Silver Machine’, ‘Psychedelic Warlords’, ‘Brainstorm’, ‘Assault And Battery’, ‘The War I Survived’ & ‘Spirit Of The Age’, a fantastic track that’s worth the price of the double disc on its own. 5 more tracks follow that, including a cover of David Bowie’s ‘Space Oddity’ and a Dolby Pro-Logic mix of the nine-minute ‘Starchild’ from the main album.

776260
Weight: 250.00 g

From the same label that gave you the remarkable Pink Floyd tribute album ‘Signs Of Life’ comes this second album, and it is just sensational! If you’re going to ask “do I really need another tribute album”? - The answer on the evidence of every single track on this CD is a resounding “YES”. The musicians involved are: synth music maestro Rudiger Gleisberg, UK psych-rock group Mr Quimby’s Beard, Floyd-influenced super-band RPWL, Solar Project (do a stunning take on ‘Echoes’, all of it!), Fantasyy Factoryy, Liquid Visions, Sula Bassana and Masterkey ends the set with the anthemic ‘Eclipse’ from ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ album. All but one of the tracks stays largely true to the instrumentation and arrangements of the Floyd originals. All the tracks are absolutely superb, and yet again, the sort that you really would want to put on as well, or even instead of, a Floyd album, when the mood strikes you, which, in this case, will be often. This CD is a total triumph – Treat yourself to it and derive hours and hours of endless pleasure and enjoyment from the music it holds. Click the extra info link for a track-by-track review.

774754
Weight: 150.00 g

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Wow, this album is so similar to 1972-75-era Genesis it’s totally unnerving! If you thought RPWL were close to Pink Floyd, then Watch are the same for Genesis – BIG TIME! Even the best of the Genesis tribute bands would kill to sound THIS close to their heroes. The vocalist is superb and sounds more like Peter Gabriel than he does, and the band play their instruments like classic Genesis on speed. While these guys certainly sound like Genesis, their music still has a strong air of originality. The whole forty-seven minutes are made even more entertaining by virtue of the fact that they play 6 all-original songs that average eight to ten minutes in length (with one just under four) and they deliver all of these excellently composed compositions with a feel that belies their roots. The production too, is superb, preventing them from sounding stale or dated, and the Mellotron / organ work… well, it’s just unbelievable! If you are a fan of classic Genesis, you should be in absolutely no doubt as to whether to take a chance on this band – DON’T EVEN HESITATE… JUST DO IT…YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT! Be assured, it really is as simple and as easy as that.

593158
Weight: 150.00 g