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Rory Ridley-Duff - 2025 - "Come Dance with Me" (41:53; Rory Ridley-Duff) Here we have the third solo album from Protos co-founder Rory Ridley-Duff which contains six new songs and a re-recording of a Protos number to honour Stevie Anscombe who had passed away. If one goes to Rory’s Bandcamp page, he provides details of what each song represents which is good to see as when one is faced with an instrumental keyboard album it may not always be possible to understand the artist’s intentions. For the most part this is quite a reflective album, with multi-layers of keyboards and there are times when there is a clear Wakeman influence on the melody and keyboard sound choices, and he can also shift tempo such as on “The Fugitive” which is bright and dynamic with good use of drums. This is definitely the standout track for me and is also the longest at more than 9 minutes, but it never drags and continues to morph throughout. I confess I do have an issue with “Ghost Rap”, which is pretty much as one might expect from the title, and is the only song with vocals. I understand why some feel they need to inject humour into an album (Wakeman’s sublime “The Nursery Rhyme Concerto” being a case in point), but this particular outing grated with me the first time I heard it, and it didn’t get any better on repeated plays. But, as with all music, everyone hears things differently; it just didn’t work for me. That is a shame as the rest of the album is bright and interesting with a lot going for it. Fans of Wakeman in particular, and probably Soniq Theater, will find much on here to enjoy. Progtector: August 2026 Related Links: Rory Ridley-Duff