Prog V3.0 Discussion Thread

Listening to the Steven Wilson album. It does not contain 'all the best bits of Crimson, VdGG and Yes'. That is a lie.

It does not contain 'all the best bits of Crimson, VdGG and Genesis' either. (Whoops!) Although it comes a little closer to Genesis than the other two, sure. Still a lie.

imago, are nu-hard-prog bands the same as progressive metal? I didn't care for that one Dream Theater album I bought and I don't like any metal

― The Once-ler, Wednesday, September 9, 2015 6:28 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is a massive shame because the best prog album I've heard this year is the new Dodheimsgard, which is basically an electrosymphonic neoclassical recording masquerading as a black metal album. it's extraordinary. here it is in case you renounce your ways:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCFEETZX3SY

As for nu-hard-prog, well, you MIGHT like Thumpermonkey! But are they metal? Who cares!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCT7kioyXSU

strawbs, yes, gentle giant, and crimson in 'the raven'?

djmartian how crucial that piano riff is to "forever" makes me think you might dig "empire of the clouds" on the new IRON MAIDEN album (which i feel like voluntary street team for at this point, it rules that much -- up the irons!!!). lady/dude duet reminds me a little of AINUR, one of the hardest of hardcore current italian prog rock bands. all of their songs are based on 'the silmarillion'! not even zeppelin went there

that song 'forever' is approximately as boring as this steven wilson album

everyone listen to the things i posted

regarding Iron Maiden - it's not something i would normally check but i have added that track to my private to listen list on spotify.

Ainur - i looked them on rateyourmusic.com - not previously listened to them

the closest in spirit to Lethe that i have come across in 2015, is this album: (that i recommended on the rolling metal 2015 thread earlier this year)

Amiensus - Ascension
http://amiensus.bandcamp.com/album/ascension

re: steven wilson,

his best stuff is always, always the poppier material, the stuff that embraces its own softness as a primary component

― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Monday, October 6, 2014 2:22 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a whole album of ambient pop a la Glass Arm Shattering wd be good

― Ƹ༑Ʒ (imago), Monday, October 6, 2014 2:23 PM (11 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Agreed - his longform stuff is sometimes alright but his real "spaced out" compositions sound like a dude who listened to a lot of Floyd at The Orb and just wanted to connect the dots. When I first heard "Lightbulb Sun" (the song, not the album) I was floored by it because I didn't know he could write songs like that so well.

Thus far not much mention of two of my favorite working prog groups, Echolyn and Motorpsycho, both of which have been around for over two decades at this point but still are producing some real top-quality work. Echolyn may be one of my favorite prog groups of any era, just astounding how well these guys write and play together. Nothing particularly wild or innovative about 'em but they make really great albums that hold up over many many listens. Definitely influenced by classic prog but they sound modern; some songs even have a bit of twang or some funk to 'em that you don't associate with prog rock. Some songs I've particularly been into:

The End is Beautiful
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gnnFfpLh8E

Human Lottery
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgUsnR9_1ro

MOTORPSYCHO albums poll

Recently saw one of the new Battles music videos. Really loved it.

valuable classic discussion

Prog-Core Is Sweeping The Nation!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?t=4&v=bMgFI84X5PA

^^^yes

came up in the time travel thread to hearty acclaim

extremely great

that's perhaps an exaggeration

i'm listening to the full album now and it's a little bit dull in spots, but the highs (opening track + that one, chiefly) are very high

hells yeah

the opening track is my favourite i think ('babel') - check it out ppl

http://thequietus.com/articles/18778-john-stanier-battles-favourite-albums-interview?page=12

weather report and rush. maybe that's why i don't like battles!

I took you for a Rush fan because of your name.

nah, my username is a joke that ceased to be funny probably a decade ago, if it was ever funny at all. i don't hate rush anymore, but i also don't really ever listen to them.

The most 'prog' new bands I'm into right now are Mammatus and Perhaps. Mammatus is more spacerock than anything but the music is intricate enough that I think it passes muster. After the discussion, I'm a bit worried they might be too cheesy for this thread but imo they are a total blast:

https://youtu.be/M4ksZet5P0k

(Dont know why the Youtube volume level is so low though)

MAMMATUS kills it. EARTHLESS and ASTRA are up their space alley if you haven't checked them out

V2.65?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp2mem73WKY

suck it, non-believers

http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/music/news/a38266/pope-prog-rock-album/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LiW6OKHLaU

prog v2.82?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEdLMkyeoJ4

anyone into those Deluge Grander tracks above, check out "Aggrendizement" from Form of the Good - absolutely bonkers (the whole album is great, but this is the centerpiece)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsi8Iy7Zah8

Interesting Quietus piece on 80s UK prog. Kinda makes me want to hear Twelfth Night. The rest, I'll skip.

never really got into most of that stuff, though IQ can be pretty decent . . . except for the dude's singing sometimes, when he sounds like the british sea power guy's hectoring knowitall older brother, deserving mention here

Problematic vocal styles

Good article, made me interested in Twelfth Night/Geoff Mann and Pallas.

I really like IQ. Had no idea about that film based on their album or that the keyboard player retired (from music altogether). Wonder what their new album sounds like without him.

That whole ripper act Pallas done onstage sounds nuts too, the song is genuinely unsettling.

Well Progarchives has the new IQ in their top 50 of all time, and I've read a lot of overwhelmingly positive reviews - I ought to get a copy myself.

"ten out of ten for clearly not giving a shit what anybody thought"

Also didn't know about Niadem’s Ghost having Peter Nicholls. He actually left IQ because of a really bizarre misunderstanding. Wishbone Ash's manager (possibly Miles Copeland) told the other members that Peter wanted to leave when he'd never said such a thing. I don't know why it taken them years to straighten that out.

hah, never heard that. those two interim IQ discs get slammed but Nomzamo is pretty good even if it's not really prog. Menel really was the Collins to Nicholls' Gabriel.

curious why joe didn't include discussion of CAMBERWELL NOW, even if discovered later on

Camberwell Now were really from more of an experimental / improv background (This Heat connections etc). I can't imagine anyone in Marillion would have even heard of This Heat - most of these bands were pretty mainstream in their influences (IQ and Twelfth Night excepted maybe). It was mostly cup-of-tea prog rather than absinthe-psychosis prog a la VDGG, Magma etc.

CAMBERWELL NOW were an amazing british neo-prog band active from the early to late 1980s. whether or not MARILLION listened to them is neither here nor there; inclusiveness is a goal in the canon formation of other musical nooks and crannies, no?

meanwhile keith levene -- steve howe's erstwhile roadie -- played "poptones"

if camberwell now are neo-prog then the cowsills are space rock.

well then set the controls for the heart of the sun, captain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xTpYB3FgiY

that is not neo-prog

Lovely track, thanks.

would you feel better if it were called "avant-prog"? let's pretend charles heyward wasn't in QUIET SUN or GONG either

charles hayward was in gong for approximately 3/5 of a second, and by that standard genesis is jazz fusion. yes, i would prefer it if it was called "avant-prog". genre labels are generally stupid and meaningless and i don't have much use for them, but when they do have use it's for describing bands that sound similar. since camberwell now's records sound roughly as similar to pallas as, say, scott walker's "climate of hunter" does, it is actively misleading to imply that they exist as part of the same genre.

he was the drummer of QUIET SUN for all of QUIET SUN's existence, and so by that standard yes, genesis is jazz fusion. it is actively misleading to suggest that 'climate of hunter' sounds more like PALLAS than CAMBERWELL NOW does. in the mid to late 60s, all sorts of bands sprang up all over america, playing in their garages, few of whom knew each other. we call it "garage rock". there are similarities and differences among all of these bands. in the mid to late 70s, all sorts of bands sprang up all over america and england, with torn shirts and short spiky haircuts. we call it "punk rock". there are similarities and differences among all of these bands. in the early 80s, all sorts of bands sprang up after punk rock that were less frightened of "prog" / unashamed of their instrumental virtuosity. PALLAS and CAMBERWELL NOW were two of them. there are differences and similarities between them. this pedantic rant of mine stems from a desire for more knowledge about these bands and prog in general, since they have been effectively written out of official rockist/popist history of the culture of the last four or so decades, or when mentioned, reflexively dismissed, which is a phenomenon interesting in and of itself

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvXH6ycOtzE

i listened to that camberwell now track and it was amazing

iq sound like porcupine tree, this sound just makes me queasy now

the Quietus article was very specifically about the growth of a subculture/community, not just a list of bands. at the risk of sounding presumptous, given I was a toddler when this stuff was kicking off, I'm confident that the Venn diagram of ppl who liked Pallas (etc) and ppl who liked Camberwell Now is basically an eight

there's a lot of value in eking out the secret prog (or whatever) influences in music that sprang up in other scenes, I think ILM does or can do that v well. not really a failing of the piece that it doesn't get into that too much, though

not saying it's a failing. the piece was great. i wish there were more like it. i was genuinely curious why CAMBERWELL NOW wasn't included, because of the chronology, not that they ape IQ or whoever. ILM has a very active 'balearic revival' thread where hey, if it sounds vaguely balearic, then great. meanwhile the resistance to all things prog in 2015, to the point where saying anything at all about it is liable to provoke discipline of some sort or outright dismissiveness, is a confounding phenomenon. 1977 was a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time ago

I don't really see the IQ -> Porkie resemblance