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

Sund4r- Headphones are great for this album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjw6jEPgSHg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT3E2iWjVyw

Since Drugs A. Money hasn't turned up how about asking Drugs B. Money to take his shot?

Good idea! Drugs? You around?

Sorry about forgetting! I cant do this until tomorrow morning

But I have an album picked out and can get to it then...

Cool!

OK, Brainticket is sounding a WHOLE lot better on headphones.

Mine is gonna veer more drone/freak rather than prog/kraut, but it still fits I think....

And wow, that was great, actually. And that was just on mediocre headphones. Now I'm eager to listen to this with my good headphones after I set up my audio interface. I like the theatrical 'scripted' nature of the vocals: it's a great performance imo. In a weird way, it actually made me think a little bit of some of Crass's stuff that came later. But, more obviously, the influence of 60s sound collage stuff is handled well, I think.

Glad this thing is a thing again (the new listening club).

Where are the download links??

How do you listen to spotify without signing up? I am not a facebook user.

well, the album I wanted to pick out--Angus MacLise's The Invasion of Thunderblt Pagoda--is not available on Spotify, or on Grooveshark, and apparently Grooveshark has fallen victim to both the social networking format and current insane copyright issues, and it's v risky business to just upload shit to it now, or at least so it seems...album is way cool tho and worth checking out; lots of acid trip flutes and bongos

so here is an album on Spotify that is really cool too that a few people on here may not know, even though I discovered it from the whole John Peel's record collection exhibit or w/e

C.A. Qunitet - Trip Thru Hell

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S5Fy7tmHhso/UbTGJ5cw5fI/AAAAAAAAAC0/ehEjR8wL1ac/s320/C.A+Quintet.jpg

can somebody help me out with the Spotify links?

not a spotifier but the whole album's available on youtube ~

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfJ-P-GP7XA

http://open.spotify.com/album/13S4y1iJkLrDnhJu5VWv35

spotify:album:13S4y1iJkLrDnhJu5VWv35

Starts off sounding like something from The Secret of Monkey Island or something -- wandering the graveyards to rockin' fartybass keyboardgothicisms. Yeah, this sounds good. Never heard of it during my brief period of exploring "protoprog" or whatever (most of which basically was hardrock albums of the late 60s early 70s)
extended drum section kinda lost me -- guessing that zooming in'n'out effect is the sorta thing that might work when you're stoned.
Oh, but the screeching guitar bit was badass. (god, I'm a liveblogger.) Bummed that "Colorado Mourning" is more like the theme song to a bad ghost cowboy western TV show -- curious but lame. Gotta go, but will try posting later when I've actually listened to the album a couple of times. Can't wait to find out what a song called COLD SPIDER sounds like!

(hooray for this thread btw! Perhaps a Spotify playlist compiling all the featured albums would be a good idea?)

who is doing todays album?

Froggie?

He's in space afaik

I was gonna up this somewhere but my car went kaputt and well, Spotify will have to do

Anyway, my selection is Echolyn - As the World. If you don't know who Echolyn are I'm not surprised, they are a sort of neo-prog group (formed around 1990) from PA that never quite made it. They're still doing awesome stuff today, in fact they're now maybe better than ever, but ATW is really a great album and the one I'm really into now. Basically the band's first album tanked, but their second (Suffocating the Bloom) sold alright and caught the attention of Sony records, and they were offered a major label deal. Now the thing about Echolyn is that they're very passionate about the music, and ATW is really an attempt for the 5-piece to give everything they've got on the platform they're given. It's over 70 minutes, full of all sorts of hidden connections and the kind of songs that take many many listens to really unravel. This isn't like a long Yes or Crimson album though, it's pretty much all ensemble playing and awesome 3-part harmonies. I mean they've got the talent to be a band like that and they've definitely got the compositional skill but they're more akin to Gentle Giant, they're not afraid to bring in outside players when it suits the song, and they're more interested in compositions that reveal themselves over time rather than doing tricky things for the sake of it (there is some flashiness on this album but it's the kind of thing they really tried to reduce over time)

As legend has it the album sold well for its genre but they were dropped anyway, which split them up for a good while. You can probably hear why on this album - in my opinion it's really great because it's as good as a lot of the classic prog albums but it maintains that quality for much longer (Suffocating the Bloom was like this too, including a 30-minute suite that is quite similar to "Supper's Ready"). So they gave it their best and ultimately failed, got real jobs, reformed the band in 2000 and are still great, though they work at a slower pace. But ATW is their attempt at taking the world by storm and it's one of those albums that I listen to a ton now. Enjoy!

open.spotify.com/track/6j3YSd6ZJhpNnGMLskbGgN‎

Has anyone heard of Alexander Gradsky? I first heard him on a Russian science fiction animation called the Passage and was fascinated by the proggy sounds and his tense passionate voice ((lots of European and soviet animation from 70s to early 90s has weird avant-garde music)).
It turns out Gradsky is a superstar in Russia. A singer-songwriter, rocker, soundtrack guy for films and ballet, and does lots of full blown classical and opera. Huge discography.
I've had difficulty finding his proggier stuff on youtube but lots of it is said to exist ((but I did find duets with John Denver and his proposed new Russian national anthem)).

I couldn't find The Passage soundtrack by itself but I did find this amazing thing...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DOFeLuYKc8

I've been looking at these insanely comprehensive lists...

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/honganji/
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/groonrikk/progressive_music_artists_worldwide___indexed_by_region/

...and a little worried about how far I should research.
In most genres I feel I know the tell-tale signs of what to look into and what to ignore, but hundreds of generic prog bands have fascinating and unusual cover art.
Cover art for books and films is totally unreliable but I feel bad bands generally have bad cover art. I've heard it said that album cover art often reflects the tastes and efforts of the bands.
I think it's difficult finding a reliable critic for the outer reaches of the genre.

anyone heard the most recent carrie underwood?

http://www.theonion.com/articles/carrie-underwood-releases-complex-multipart-prog-r,33847/

BALLS

wow I think my suggestion killed this thread

that is an awesome description of echolyn whom i've never warmed up enough to listen to compulsively but i hear enough there (their hour long "song" mei is ridic) that i make a point of checking them out on occasion. so if no one wants to offer a little friday something something, maybe we can go with the viola crayola?

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=7346

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7DTAJTM2PM

they are a weird weird band way ahead of their time

derp!

i can't pretend this is my fave soft machine but it's somehow close to my most played, scratches a weird number of itches for me:
http://www.moderndrummer.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Seven.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZ1WbFIwzdY

https://play.spotify.com/album/0VJhbStEOCLWNBMQNuetwI

Very into this week's albums. I'm not sure why I didn't explore the Soft Machine catalogue beyond Third. This is the sort of thing I could myself listening to a lot.

oh man, where's this thread been my whole life. this soft machine album is super interesting.

Oh man I almost picked this for my week... this album is great!

The studio stuff on "Six" is my favourite post-"Third" Soft Machine

Here's some other Soft Machine related material I just discovered that I think people should know about
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyPNZiFJyS0&feature=share

think its a track each from their first 2 lps.

Catching up with Echolyn: on one listen, it hits my Yes/Genesis buttons enough that I enjoy it but so far, it hasn't jumped out that much beyond that. I could see it being something I'll replay and get into, though. "Never the Same" is nice.

Never would've checked out this Soft Machine, but I am digging on it a little.

Echolyn is....not my bag. Well, I guess "Prog" is the first descriptor in the thread title, so I should've expected something like that. Can't take those vocals or the sound of the recording. :)

I will say the album's a grower, it took me several listens to really get into, it really reveals itself piece by piece. If you dislike prog altogether this definitely isn't up your alley ;)

oh boy, I got a good one for next time

balls, that soft machine album is sick. much prefer it to the more static (and way more celebrated) third

Love that Soft Machine album. Did not expect it to be that solid the whole way through.

yeah, this one's a winner. and I've also never listened past third before, so I guess I have some catching up to do.

I just watched the Romantic Warriors II: About Rock In Opposition dvd. Profiles of loads of bands, but the film is 98mins so they don't get to go over albums or anything like that. Lots of concert footage, mostly from recent times but also some 70s stuff. Chistian Vander(Magma) and Chris Cutler(Henry Cow) probably talk more than anyone, aside from one guy who I think was a record label guy, maybe a critic too because he seems like a historian for the genre. Talks a lot about the diy element of concerts and record labels; bands sharing members across very long distances. Quite a number of women in a lot of these bands. A crazy drum solo from Yoshida Tatsuya (Ruins)but no real profile of him aside from some peoples comments and a very quick word from him. Something I noticed is the only the French and Belgian groups in the 70s-80s seemed concerned with having an image, a lot of those guys dressed in black but pretty much everyone else dresses how they would on the street. A few of the bands were totally new to me.

Pretty good but sometimes I thought some of them didn't sound all that distinct but I will surely try and investigate as many as I can, I really don't have much of this music yet.

concerned with having an image

my impression of bros like robert fripp and steve hillage (and a lot of the prognoscenti) is they cared a lot more about how technically skilled they were at their instruments than how they appeared, their hair, their clothes, etc. that turns off shallow insecure people, more concerned with image than listening pleasure, who say prog's too 'serious' and stupid shit like that

I think an image can be worthwhile but not necessary at all. I think Univers Zero and Art Zoyd looked pretty cool in all that black with their "THIS IS SERIOUS DARK ART!" image but even without it they would be great.

The photos of bands like Bongwater and Katie Jane Garside's bands really drew me in and I think their music satisfied what I thought I was going to get. But I suppose Bongwater never really dressed up though, they just looked like my type of people. I should mention that neither of these bands are prog to anyone not familiar with them, tho I think Bongwater sampled Yes.

Fripp used to have crazy hair, he might have cared about what people thought, I don't know. I think the cover of Red may have had some image conscious element to it.

and yes maintains an image aligned with roger dean's weedy spacescapes. image and spectacle trumping musicianship is the great rock & roll swindle, though

hope it's ok if i go ahead and post mine, because i'm not sure i'll have much time to do it tomorrow.

i'm a little nervous. i had something in mind a few weeks ago but now i feel like everyone's just going to be bored by it, or already familiar with it. (for the record, it was Edgar Froese’s Aqua, from 1974, and i especially wanted to highlight the middle section of NGC 891, which is one of my favorite new-to-me pieces of music of the year.

so i decided to go with something else, and i’m still a little nervous because i think it’s something a lot of people might already be familiar with (although i checked the older listening club thread as well as threads for the band to make sure that it wasn’t filled with posts from people who frequent this thread, and there didn’t seem to be any cross-germination):

Les Rallizes Dénudés - Heavier than a Death in the Family (mostly 1977, a little 1973)
http://open.spotify.com/album/79KhezvyjiFwFKC3AmsQ9L

http://i.imgur.com/cW6RWaT.jpg

warning: i’m no sort of expert on this band, so what follows is a really amateurish overview, from memory, with little factchecking, based mostly off of ILX threads (see bottom of this post) and semi-random internet excursioning, that will still hopefully pique your curiosity. some of this may be totally false.

but adding more sorta true sorta false information to the internet re: Les Rallizes Dénudés would be completely appropriate for this band. they are THE legendary underground avant experimental psychedelic Japanese band. they’ve been around since 1962 in some form or another, and have never formally released a studio album.

http://i.imgur.com/v9KJxou.jpg

their recorded output is almost exclusively in the form of bootlegs of live recordings. this, combined with the nature of their music (incredibly feedback heavy at times - the kind that is so overwhelming that you can identify island states of feedback within the greater sea of feedback) means that their recordings will not likely supplant Dark Side of the Moon as a hi-fi sonic testing standard anytime soon.

they have a ton of bootlegs, and they seem to drift in and out of availability and have different covers and tracklistings (sometimes in japanese characters, sometimes in poorly translated english) - no one knows what the fuck is going on. here’s one version: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Les+Rallizes+Denudes

http://i.imgur.com/JJFVNLF.jpg

still, the single release that seems to be the most widely referenced and praised to death is Live ‘77. the audio quality is better than most of their other bootlegs, and it also captures an incredible appearance. the aforementioned feedback is in full swing. i hate to bring the obvious references in, but think the darker parts of White Light/White Heat, only extended much longer, and much darker. the bass lines are rigidly (look how i didn’t say angular!) bluesy and repetitive, the vocals emerge every once in a while (like neil young in down by the river) to remind you that human beings are behind this thing, always distorted and occasionally overwhelmed with echoey fuzz, the drummer sounds like s/he is tripping hard, and the guitar player…i’m not sure how to do it justice. it’s difficult to directly compare them to anyone, because they go so much FARTHER than anything you can reference. if they would have played in Max’s Kansas City in 1968, they would have overshadowed the Velvets, and freaked them out too. there aren’t too many bands you can say that about.

Heavier than a Death in the Family is basically most of Live ‘77, in a different sequence, and with the addition of a song from 1973 (“People Can Choose”). Live ‘77 has been available for a while, but this one just came out in 2010. i enjoy the opener “Strung Out Deeper Than Night”, but if you’re just starting out, try “Night of the Assassins” (track 3) for a slightly more accessible entry point. do yourself a favor don’t listen to this at work or the like. here’s no point. you’ll need to turn it up really loud and anger your neighbors.

Also see:

les rallizes denudes rfi
Today My Life Changed (RFI: Rallizes Denudes)
Can we have an inept, trainspotter discussion of Lez Rallizes Denudes?

I had a hard time with the track(s?) that came up in the 70s rock poll tbh but I'll give this a try this week.

Ooh, I didn't know they were even mentioned in the 70s poll so it's possible they've already been discussed to death, whoops.

don't buy the phoenix records LRD reissues, cos the LRD guys don't get a penny from them and the phoenix guy is largely renowned for such swindling taking a risk on the fact that old guys in Japan probably can't afford to launch an international lawsuit in a different language.

welp

Stil a fuckin killer album, Z S. Brainticket got discussed some in the 70s poll as well.

P sure lots of this is on youtube...?

yeah, definitely! i'll find some links.

A Strung Out Deeper Than The Night
B1 The Night Collectors
B2 Night Of The Assassins
C1 Enter The Mirror
C2 People Can Choose
D Ice Fire