Prog Rock

Enjoying the debut so much I just went ahead and bought the third and fourth albums.

those supersister albums are a treat. one of millions of bands almost lost to history because lester bangs and robert christgau didn't feel cool listening to them, the poor slobs

these new GOBLIN remasters are amazing, by the way. suspiria sounds brand new

Not so sure about that. I've been hearing very mixed things about their fame or lack of it. "She Was Naked" seems to be a genuine hit, apparently they did extremely well in Netherlands and Robert Jan Stips has been in several successful bands including Golden Earring. Yes, that isn't proper FAME but I think they have a more secure place than a lot of obscure prog bands.
Apparently Ian Curtis liking them has secured them to a degree. Most other mentions of Supersister on this forum are related to that.

But whatever the case I think they're way better than most B and C list prog bands. And even some of the A listers.

For some reason the final album Spiral Staircase is way more scarce and expensive than the rest.

Robert Jan Stips is possibly best known for playing keyboard for The Nits for most of their existence, who are well worth checking out if you like bands similar to XTC.

I think Stips was also some sort of prodigy and there was already a buzz around him before he joined any band.

Picked up Present From Nancy on this rec - this is damn tasty

very much like the first two Soft Machine records

Great.
I think it's quite funny how in one track they have someone shouting out a request for "She Was Naked".
Odd that there's no songwriting credit to Byrds for "Eight Miles High". Since they only sing a few words of it, does that make it legal?

I need to check out the other Soft Machine stuff. I've got Third and I was a bit mixed on it. I really liked parts of it though.

Track I like best on Present From Nancy is "Mexico", really great.

Weird: even before their first releases they owned a club that they played at every Sunday night. It was used for music, poetry, dancing, theatre and film screenings.

This new Beardfish record has some great moments... and some wtf moments. Anxious to dig into the new Steven Wilson.

Another Glass Hammer on the horizon, and shocker, it's supposedly their best one yet

is jon davison involved?

new steven wilson rules, though way less crimsonisms than that the last one

Been listening to Carol Of Harvest. Quite disappointing overall. "Try A Little Bit" is really drawn out with some rote singing and most of the 8 tracks aren't that memorable (the last 3 are bonus live tracks that have no studio versions).
What saves it are "Somewhere At The End Of The Rainbow" (nothing to do with the Wizard Of Oz version), a really beautiful song with a warmth and power unlike anything else on the album. Live bonus track "Sweet Heron" is pretty dynamic, with interesting effects.
The former track is really worth hearing.

Seems they have a reunion album from 2009 but it might be a different band.

"Another Glass Hammer on the horizon, and shocker, it's supposedly their best one yet"

they're still happening, even with Davidson in Yes?

GH have gone through a ton of vocalists through the years so I think they'll survive - Davison is only on three of the band's 15 (?) albums.

Schooling myself now on Anthony Pirog and Joel Harrison who are into prog, jazz, and old DC roadhouse & more guitarists Danny Gatton and Roy Buchanan

i have bought a lot of ELP remasters recently.
still not sure if i like them.
its a lot more sonically raw than i expected.
how on earth did they become so massive !!?

It is weird that they were so big, apparently they got a lot of people into classical music. I've got the debut, Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery so far; in general I don't like the albums much but I'd still say I'm kind of an ELP fan on the strength of four or five really great tracks.

The Barbarian came up on shuffle and aside from the detour into Charlie Brown Christmas territory it's heavy has hell.

Listening to the second Supersister album. Very good.
Just as there was a Byrds quote on the previous album, the bonus track on this called "The Groupies Of The Band" has a part of Beach Boys "In My Room" in it.

Really been loving Mahavishnu Orchestra too. Re: the discussion above, I think they should be an essential for prog fans, they do all the right things. I think they were a big influence on Yes and some of the members ended up doing appearances in prog bands and "Hope" sounds so much like King Crimson.

Yeah, they're more rocky and tricky than most prog. Heavy as early Crim.

I think the Supersisters were 2fered on cd at one point. Not sure if that's still the extant ones.
There's some great stuff from Italy and Spain too. Il Baletto di Bronze's Ys is classic and Fusioon are interesting to name just 2.

Yeah all the albums were in double packs but the latest ones are single albums remastered+expanded. I don't know why but the newest version of Spiral Staircase is very scarce but you can still get the double pack version easily.
Some of the double packs may be the remastered+expanded ones but I doubt it. The double packs have weirdly different pairings for the Polydor and Universal versions.

Il Baletto di Bronze - Ys is one of the glaring absences in my prog collection. Don't know much about Fusioon.

Just put Il Baletto di Bronze - Ys on my Amazon wishlist then Le Orme, PFM - Per Un Amico (I have their second album) and Banco's Darwin.

have fun! each of those is fantastically rococo. this is one of my favorite baroque 'rock progessivo italiano' albums

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKlt-zvJLzU

I think I would have bought this stuff faster if the names were easier to remember. I think the full extent of what I've got is a bunch of Goblin (a few), Libra (one), Jacula/Antonius Rex (all but one), Devil Doll (all), Semiramis (one/all) and Premiata Forneria Marconi (one).

Haven't bought from here in a number of years but when i did it was pretty good and had nice p+p rates
http://www.btf.it/

Supersister's "A Girl Named You" is so good, love this part, it's so pretty..

You know your name and i know mine
You play your games and i play mine
Knowing everybody likes it
But not like we do
And we do
When we do

I know your name and you know mine
I play your games and you'll play mine
Knowing everybody likes you
But not like I you
And I do
And I do

You know my name and i know yours
You play my games and i play yours, of course
But if everybody cancels the things that we own
We're alone
We're alone

Think these are slightly wrong though. I'm sure he says "but not like I do" instead of "But not like I you".

Thought there'd be a new Frost album by now but it's coming out next year.

old to semi-old celebrities you would travel back in time to have lots of sex with.

My pictures of Supersister

that is not a thread I would expect to be linked here

Any consensus on the best Premiata Forneria Marconi album? I've only got Storia Di Un Minuto and I like it a lot.

It's not often I feel an album needs it but I think that album could have benefitted from a remaster.

This album is actually way better than I remembered. I was mostly into it for the first two tracks but there's so much good stuff in there.

per un amico is the consensus fave. songwriting is all over the place but some super great melodies. after per un amico they changed their bass player- some people like their third italian album just as much, but it's a little too fusion-y for my tastes.

It seems there are only English lyric versions of Per Un Amico (Photos Of Ghosts) and L'Isola Di Niente (The World Became The World)?

To clarify to anyone who doesn't know, they recorded English language versions of these albums after the original Italian versions.

I thought the gold versions of the first 2 PFM lps that I bought from BTF 12 years ago were remasters. May have been limited editions too though.

robert: yes, but "photos of ghosts" has an english version of "e'festa" and "the world became the world" has an english version of "impressioni di settembre". also, "photos of ghosts" has an otherwise unreleased instrumental called "old rain".

here's a classic '72 pfm performance from italian tv:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbmEHrKK41I

yes, but "photos of ghosts" has an english version of "e'festa" and "the world became the world" has an english version of "impressioni di settembre". also, "photos of ghosts" has an otherwise unreleased instrumental called "old rain".

Thanks.
I've heard that Photos Of Ghosts is not very good but The World Became The World is as good as the Italian version.

Is Ars Nova the only all female prog band? I don't know if Feminist Improvising Group count as rock. But Ars Nova often does have male members but if I remember correctly they attempt to be all female when they can to complete the goddess theme.

Ex-Girl?

Listened to a few tracks, quite good.

Listening to the UK debut. Didn't realise this was the result of an attempted King Crimson reunion. Doesn't seem that special as some fans say but I love the opening suite, awesome chorus "Iiiiiin the dead of night, in the dead of niiiiiiiight!" then the payoff of "byyyyyyy the light of daaaayy, in the dead of niiiiiiiight!"

Jobson really shows his Zappa background in places.

i really don't like holdsworth's guitar tone. myself i have a greater love for their follow-up, where they pull out some serious soft rock moves, which, of course, makes the True Progheads hate the record, but for god's sake Wetton was born to be a lounge lizard!