South African Instrumental progressive rock band Kings of Improg have been gaining lots of fans over the last couple years with their amazing live show.
In case you did not know, Byron Muller (on bass / guitar), Lloyd Mckeen (on guitar / bass), Chad Snell (on guitar) and Slade du Randt (on drums) and the members of Kings of Improg. The band was formed in 2012 when Byron invited a whole bunch of people around for a jam session at his place in Brakpan, South Africa.
Initially they would just get together every 6 weeks or so at his place and set up in the living room and just jam all day and have a braai, there was no structure to what they were doing, everyone would just go and pick an instrument when they saw fit and create some improvisational tunes. The inspiration was purely just the want to play some music together, no specific goal or sound, just whatever transpired organically.
Initially the session became known as the KOI sessions, an acronym for the Kings of Improv, more of a jam session than a specific band. After about a year there was eventually only the same four guys rocking up to the sessions, Byron, Chad, Lloyd and founding drummer Stefan Roodt. Before they knew it songs were forming. During 2013 they started getting together more frequently to start getting their set together for the gigging circuit.
They played their first gig in 2014 at a friend’s farm in Pomona, and after that it was just a case of getting out there and playing as many shows as possible. Stefan left the band in late 2014 to pursue other endeavours and so that left a spot for someone new to join. About 6 months later new drummer Slade joined the band.
They decided to change the “improv” to “improg”, just because it rolled off the tongue so nicely, and is an amalgamation of improv and prog. Anthe rest is as they say is history.
Having recently released their debut album Henosis, Plug Music Agency heard the rumours, listened to the album, were blown away and immediately signed them up to give the band and album the promotion they both deserve. The album is available now on all digital platforms. You can stream the album on Bandcamp, Soundcloud or YouTube or you can purchase the album on iTunes, Deezer or Spotify.
Crank up their song, Levitation below to get an idea of their sound:
I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of instrumental music, but I really like the way that Kings of Improg do it. I would not mind seeing them live because I think that it would rock. Let’s hope that we see them on some festival line-ups in the near future.
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