Fred Deakin

When you present the world with a “science fiction space opera” set in a future where humans are emigrating to Mars to escape ecological disaster, it’s no major surprise to find the prog universe embracing you as a fellow traveller. And naturally, we responded warmly to Fred Deakin’s new album The Lasters, which he’s currently bringing to the stage as a costumed-up, visually enhanced musical drama.

But on closer inspection it turns out this is somehow the same Fred Deakin who was one half of Lemon Jelly, the loungy dance duo that gave us The Staunton Lick and Nice Weather For Ducks, fond of sampling twee TV dialogue and languid folk and jazz licks. A man with a background at the more mischievous end of the club scene who once actively attempted to induce mass weeping on dancefloors. That provoked us to ask the question: Just how prog are Fred Deakin and Lemon Jelly?

“I’d like to think I’ve always made a kind of progressive art pop – you can still hear that now, I think.”

In terms of