My personal flavour of music listening is quite narrow, and I am pretty sure, has been influenced by my father’s love of what he called ‘heavy’ classical – Bach, Khachaturian, Copeland, Stravinsky and their ilk. (He also liked brass band oompah music but thankfully that hasn’t rubbed off).

In my universe, these translate to Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, The Moody Blues, Asia and some areas of Led Zep. The common denominator is the individual players themselves in these groups are all master musicians and virtuosos of their chosen instrument(s). And no I am not saying other musos are three chord hackers by comparison; Glenn Campbell is one of the very best exponents of jazz guitar, Sting is exceptional as is Toto and Paul McCartney probably the world’s best bass player for example. (Bet you didn’t know that about Glenn Campbell!)

I have music going just about all the time; it can define my moods and vice versa. The particular piece playing can be a soothe, get the creative juices going - we all know these things. But after more years than I care to remember of music from these geniuses, I was starting to get a bit stale on them. Yes has had no new material for over a decade in reality, Pink Floyd is effectively dead if you discount Roger Waters, ditto the rest, or at best, their glory years have passed them by.

It was with surprise then, in this era of compartmentalised, computerised and sterile ‘pop’ music, mundane ‘hip-hop’ or seriously overrated and mindless ‘rap’ that a band such as Spock’s Beard has emerged.

This is epic music from the 70s, played by masters of their craft, with lyrics that provoke thought. It’s also engineered and produced brilliantly and creatively, not just multi-layered rubbish. How do I know that? Can they also play it live as evidenced by their DVD.

If the 70’s ‘big’ music was your thing, you enjoy listening to more than 3 minute pop songs where lip syncing or air guitar is not allowed or simply like hearing craftsmen at their job, have a listen to Spock’s Beard. You’ll have to find it online though as to date, not even the big record stores (eg Mall Music in Warringah) has heard of them.