New/Improved PROG/KRAUT/SPACE/PSYCH ROCK Listening Club - New albums every Friday!

no relation to steven?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8E9kQg9gCU

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

Are we out of people? I can't remember. If anybody wants a go or to go again let me know!

I will :)

I'll do one, if required

ok great!

so then how about:
11/01 - frogbs
11/08 - Tom D

Figured I'd get mine up a little early. I debated between two albums and figured, why not do both?

The first one is from a band called Setna. They are a modern Zeuhl fusion group out of France, led by their drummer (sound familiar?). Their first album, released in 2008, seemed to be widely acclaimed, but they didn't release their follow-up until this year. For my money I like this one better, it's a little more upbeat than Cycle I (which struck me as being quite similar to Third-era Soft Machine). This one is still rather laid back but the melodies strike me as being better and a little goofier. It is rather close to say, "Kohntarkosz". The music definitely seems ripped straight from the 70's, but there's some really great production here. This is the kind of music that simply isn't made that often anymore, sad to say. If you like it, definitely check out Cycle I, along with the side project Xing Sa which is very similar.

Setna - Guerison

Second one is an album called Switched-on Lotus by Susumu Hirasawa, a dude I post about an awful lot. Considering his main style is closer to techno-pop I wondered if it really belonged in a thread like this, but I feel it fits the description well. This really is not an electronic album - it's Hirasawa at his most theatrical, with lots of strings and a big, larger-than-life sound. It's really one of those albums that explodes over and over again - kind of a mindfuck at times. The compositions themselves are mostly beefed-up versions of songs from his Thailand-inspired albums, Sim City and Siren, but there are also some earlier ones. This is something I've been listening to a lot lately. Enjoy!!

Susumu Hirasawa - Switched-on Lotus

never heard of em but setna sounds right up my alley. thanks!

don't think I've heard that hirasawa either.

"archetype engine" is kind of unbelievable

OK you can probably get both of these on Spotify, because they're not that obscure (you might even get the extended version of the Residents' album with longer versions of the songs (cripes)).

Lard Free - s/t (1973)
Debut album for the French band led by drummer, Gilbert Artmann. Prior to this Lard Free seem to have been a sort of Henry Cow-like avant skronk amplified bassoon in 7/4 type band, but they'd dropped all that by the time of this album. Instead this album is admirably minimalistic - in fact, in the era of "Tales of Topographic Oceans" (or whateva) it was pretty ballsy to put out an album as sparse as this (frinstance, the last track is just some low grumbly synth lurking around menacingly before being joined at the end by a piano tinkling off distractedly in the distance). Later albums are good but different again. Great gatefold sleeve too (inner and outer)!

The Residents - Not Available (1978)
This is their "prog album", meaning there's some sort of vague concept about something or other and there's multi-part 'suites' as opposed to songs and there's pseudo classical pianos and blaring string synths and mincing mediaeval woodwinds etc. Supposedly recorded in 1974 (if you believe the Residents - which I don't) but instead probably old recordings tarted up to fill in the gap while they finished the "Eskimo" album. Oh yeah, prog, did I mention a mock portentousness - though not ironic or sarcastic like (their erstwhile hero) Frank Zappa but more cock-eyed knock-kneed bandy-legged - with words that hint at profundity before collapsing into dadaist rhymes. Like a lot of the best of the Residents, the aggressive absurdity is undercut by a strong sense of melancholy. (The usual sticking point for the Residents is the vocals, but if you can live with the track, "Ship's A-Goin' Down" then you can deal with anything the Residents can throw at you).

nice to hear "Not Available" again. I've kind of soured on the Residents even though I remain oddly curious about them. "Aggressive absurdity" is damn right! For me this is linked with Wyatt's Rock Bottom as the yin and yang of 70's nightmarish oddness.

listening to Lard Free now - really hard to classify thus far

I love Not Available. I'll always remember the first time I heard "Making Of A Soul" and I wouldnt be surprised if nothing else of theirs ever topped that for me. That was years ago and I still only have that album.

Loving that Lard Free album which led me to their other albums which are all pretty great. It's some weird stuff that can fall into some pretty fantastic grooves.

This one is from a different album but totally sucked me in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z_c3JcbVhY

that song is awesome, like a krautier GONG, or a GONGier HELDON

end of the year approaching, i'm curious about people's current favorites. motorpsycho/supersilent's death defying unicorn was my 2012 favorite (best symphonic prog album since the '70s?) and steven wilson's way up on the list this year

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4ZqgOnhFT0

Yeah that Steven Wilson album is so terrific.

remastering all those king crimson albums seems to have rubbed off nicely on SW

I haven't kept up with much modern music as exploring the treasure trove of the past keeps your hands full; but Field Music's Plumb is great. Previous albums had tiny bits of prog sprinkled around but this one seems like a conscious attempt at a prog album.

I suspect the upcoming Frost album might be a favourite. The first time I heard them, the pop plasticity of it totally put me off (the lead member has a day job as a producer of singles chart pop) but they seriously grew on me and "Milliontown" became one of my all time favourite prog "epics".

Mew also might have an album out soon. They need a b-sides/rarities compilation urgently.

whoa, I am SUPER into that lard free track! big heldon fan, so I suppose I would. have to investigate further!

steve wilson one seems cool too and I rarely go for modern prog

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/11/19/special_prog_rock_programming_note.html

Not sure about those articles, he says "This is what fascinates me about prog. The music is relentlessly futurist, with no nostalgia for anything in rock", which doesnt sound accurate in the slightest and his comments on Lisztomania dont sound entirely positive (it's one of my favorite films).

Dave Weigel wtf? What a bizarre convergence of two spheres of my daily reading material

just happy's someone's got something to say about the good stuff

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHML3RX7O0g

so museo rosenbach's back

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tBqmYt-k_Q

Love for Supersister?

I've been checking around the forum and there are a few mentions but mostly for a hit song (did they really have a hit?) included in a Joy Division film.
I've been meaning to listen to them for years. I heard some fabulously complex samples of them years ago. I heard they were very young too, like Semiramis were young.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JxN5yP9SwA

awesome. love supersister. greg weeks of espers turned me onto them in this interview

http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2009/01/all-the-news-that-s-fit-to-sing/greg-weeks-of-espers-and-language-of-stone-records-chats.html

Thanks for the link, Saint Just sounds very interesting.

Supersister has loads of offshoots and it looks like some members did lots of new wave and pop. I'm curious about how proggy these other efforts are, but as usual I'm reading extensively into side projects of bands I've barely even listened to yet.

Some of The Enid's new stuff sounds incredible and I listened to samples of Robert John Godfrey's new piano music which sounds really lovely.

Been listening to Moody Blues - Days Of Future Passed. Just wonderful. I really think Moody Blues and Procol Harum deserve to take away the standard story of King Crimson having the first prog album. Sgt Pepper is important but I just don't feel comfortable calling it the first somehow.

Just saw a clip of Robert Fripp and Toyah on a husband and wife gameshow quiz on youtube! They just refer to him as "Robert", talk about the bands he has played with but don't mention King Crimson.

I dunno if I'd even call the Moodies "prog" - hard to explain why exactly but IMO they're a different kind of band than the Crimsons and Genesises of the world.

The "first prog album" as far as I can tell is the Nice's Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack. Which, of course featured Keith Emerson himself.

Personally, Days Of Future Passed fits my idea of the genre very well. It does the symphonic orchestral stuff beautifully mixing with the rock elements, a concept album too. I havent heard them yet but dont the later albums sound more like the genre?
I remember the first time a heard them was actually in one of the prototype Prog magazine issues and they were featured at the start and I think the writer was trying to establish they at the beginning of the canon. At the time I was put off by their Austin Powers costumes, but then heard some of their tunes and watched a long documentary on Sky Arts about them which was very good.

Although I listed being a concept album as a qualifier, I dont think there are really that many prog concept albums; more albums like ELP's Tarkus and Rush's Hemispheres and 2112 are mistaken for concept albums beause of the vinyl sidelong track represented by the cover art.

Real prog concept albums? Is Yes's Close To The Edge a concept album? I dont think a bunch of ideas running through or unified mood or all tracks being inspired by a particular thing makes a concept album, otherwise most ambient albums would be concept albums. I'm not sure Tales Of The Topographic Oceans really has much more than a few ideas holding it together. Rick Wakeman's Six Wives Of Henry VIII and The Enid's In The Region Of The Summer Stars are both (great) instrumental albums linked by a story but you wouldnt know it by just listening to the music without the song titles or art or sleeve notes.

I'll see how many I can remember that are blatant concept albums that you can easily tell by listening with no song titles or art or notes to help you.

Moody Blues - Days Of Future Passed
Genesis - Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Voivod - Dimension Hatross
Camel - Snowgoose
Porcupine Tree - The Incident
Vangelis - Heaven and Hell (maybe)
Jon Anderson - Olias Of Sunhillow
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon (havent heard The Wall)

I've read that Guided By Voices - Mag Earwig was a concept album but it sounds nothing like it. I'm tempted to put in Aphrodites Child - 666 because it has a lot of stuff you'd expect from a concept album but I'm still not sure I would have guessed by just listening to it.

If anyone wants to join in, please only list stuff you have heard and think fits the bill from sounds alone (including lyrics you can descipher).

When I said "including lyrics you can decipher" I dont mean it has to include them; Snowgoose certainly doesnt.

robert, have you heard the crane wife, by the decemberists? there's a concept there

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuEQxhP-Zmo

I really think Moody Blues and Procol Harum deserve to take away the standard story of King Crimson having the first prog album

Can I mention "Music in a Doll's House" by Family now? Family were a great band but I don't really know what they were tbh, I wouldn't know how to describe them.

I havent heard that Decemberists stuff but I like Family's Music In A Doll's House. Peter Gabriel mentions that album as a formative influence but I never felt it was quite as prog as Moody Blues, Procol Harum or The Nice. "Mellowing Grey" is a stunner. I've heard they become proggier later when John Wetton was in them.

666 definitely plays out like a concept album to me. As does "Nursery Cryme" by Genesis, even though it maybe isn't intended as one.

I'm up for doing one of these whenever the next date is open.

I think that would be...this Friday :)

Ha. OK time to get thinking / make sure I don't pick an album someone else has already done.

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/1813/cover_44512217102008.jpg

Quiet Sun - Mainstream
I'm unsure of whether this record is universally loved & known or if I've just played it so damn often that it amazes me when others haven't heard it. If it's the former then allow me to prattle on a little...
Ostensibly an early Canterbury scene band that split up in 72 (tho these recordings were made 3 years later). The line up is Phil Manzanera (pre-Roxy), Charles Hayward (pre-This Heat), Bill McCormick (pre-Matching Mole) & Dave Jarrett (who I don't think had a career in music). Interestingly Bill's brother Ian sings on a couple of tracks and is also partly responsible for the column in the NME that popularized the term Krautrock. Oh and Eno unsurprisingly drops in.
Musically it sounds pretty much exactly what you'd expect it to sound like. I get the feeling that Hayward kept everyone in check a little so while it stretches out and touches on jazz fusion in places it never feels too bloated or indulgent. Although I feel like retrospectively it's been marketed more as a Manzanera vehicle it's remarkably democratic. Everyone gets a chance to shine especially when Hayward gets on the mic in Rongwrong. Nicely pre-figuring a melodic and lyrical approach he'd frame VERY differently in later bands.

Spotify links...
http://open.spotify.com/album/6WUzJONHD1qkuMhbqJfgsD
spotify:album:6WUzJONHD1qkuMhbqJfgsD

youtube link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKiOZKX7GKg

yeah love this album

80/100

http://www.listchallenges.com/top-100-prog-bands-of-all-time

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

I only scored 32 in that list; but in my defense, I only included bands I've heard a whole album by and there is quite a lot of bands I don't think are worthwhile when bands that didn't get listed like PFM, Goblin, Devil Doll, Supersister, Art Zoyd, Univers Zero, Ruins, Renaissance and many others would have constituted more of an achievement as a high scoring listener.

yeah that list is pretty seriously flawed. only reason i've heard so much on it is my (quixotic) search for someone finally living up to the bigshots of the '70s. so though much of the recent-ish stuff is pretty much unlistenable (over-emotive singing of unintentionally-silly lyrics; hyper-virtuosic noodling recorded with abrasive sheen; softer interludy moments that could double for soft core porn soundtrack music) i keep giving the newbies a hearing because you never know, and occasionally the less awful albums have enough of a hint of what makes prime crimson/yes/floyd/tull/rush etc rule i catch a contact high

I do like Cairo quite a bit, glad to see them there. Need more of their albums. Some people think they suck but I think they are like ELP (but better) with post-rock style build ups.

cairo's one of the dozen or so i haven't heard. i'll keep an eye out. haken is the latest of the recent bands on that list that i'm trying to appreciate. they're a weird hybrid of prog metal and gentle giant, which doesn't work for me well enough to fall in love, but i still haven't given up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m73sUhuOPmg

..here's a track from Conflict And Dreams (their only album I have; they only have 3 albums). I remember one track having a really amazing buildup into this gorgeous serene soundscape.
I can imagine the vocals reminding people of yuppies and gillette adverts somehow but I really do love this album.
Weirdly one of the most prolific prog reviewers on rateyourmusic gave it a low rating because the lyrics scared him!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EMkZe1AIEw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivqKPi9I6YY

I listened to these videos a couple of years ago and they prompted me to get into Renaissance, Vangelis, Procol Harum, Devil Doll and Cairo, so I'm grateful to the guy who made them.
The first two videos have all the albums listed in the description box if you cant see them on the artwork.
There was actually a video before these two but youtube wouldn't allow it because of infringements. It was on another video site but now that is gone too sadly, but it covered the basics and some more obscure bands too.

Eloy - Ocean was the one album I didn't like from those selections that I actually bought.
Saga get a lot of flack (or do they?) but I really love that song "On The Loose", fantastic fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cygIk3acYk
This third video has far less but more lengthy and clearly labelled albums samples.
I love that Ayreon song, so over the top.

I listened to Cairo's Conflict And Dreams again. Quite a few songs are too long but they still do that dense multi-layered buildup stuff better than most and that does require lengthy tracks. All tracks have great moments (first two tracks in particular), there are several really good vocal harmonies.

just checked out that cairo song. thanks. good call on the vocals, but the swirling keybs and the "dense multi-layered buildup" do start working for me around the sixth minute. i'd be interested in hearing more. they're a lot more listenable imo than like dream theater. my problem with a lot of neo-prog and prog-metal (besides the hyper-precise production values) is they seem to be compensating too much for their belatedness, substituting complexity for originality. all too often that wrecks the mood for me. i think these guys get it right -- the build is a slowburn, but the payoff is majestic. there's also a preference for vibe over technique during the middle section i am way into

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Uj4Q4zbtfM

http://cdn.tradebit.org/usr/mp3-album/pub/9002/514/514867/51486703.jpg

maybe this is an album that everyone who reads this thread will already be familiar with, but I just found this via fogotify and I'd never heard it before (I was vaguely aware of the name from bands you should check out type lists, but didn't know anything about them really) and I wanted to talk about how amazing this is, and this looked like it might be the best place?