Prog Rock

Well, hopefully somewhat similar.

Nektar - A Tab In The Ocean

This seems to be the fan favorite but also one of the least available somehow. Really liked it but not quite as big a deal as I hoped. But this part gives me lovely shivers: "turn the key, open your door, don't make believe you've seen this before".

I always see Remember The Future as the one to have if you only get one.

Recycled was always my favourite, side 1 anyway.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/when-the-sweet-went-prog

Le Orme - Felona E Sorona

I like this quite a bit but it wasn't the slammer I had hoped but it does have some of the character I expected. Some nice crescendos in there.

I have the Italian version, I would have tried to get the one with both Italian and English if I knew it existed.

https://www.discogs.com/Le-Orme-Felona-E-Sorona/master/15370
I've always loved the cover art, turn out it's by Lanfranco Frigeri, who died only weeks ago! Frigeri's only other album art is for the band La Maschera Di Cera's ‎sequel to the Le Orme album. I've never heard of another band doing a direct sequel to someone else's album.

https://www.discogs.com/La-Maschera-Di-Cera-Le-Porte-Del-Domani/release/4435534

That’s a cool one. I’ve always linked it with the Semiramis album with kinda similar but creepier cover art: https://www.discogs.com/Semiramis-Dedicato-A-Frazz/release/6629001

Yeah, I love that too. Very good album but I think the art is so fascinating that the music doesn't quite live up to the weirdness.

Yezda Urfa's Sacred Baboon is nowhere near as good as Boris. Only 3 newer tracks and the new versions of the older songs just aren't up to the same standard.

American Behavioral Scientist: "Retrospective Consecration Beyond the Mainstream: The Creation of a Progressive Rock Canon" -- https://t.co/2o53Bexk7N. pic.twitter.com/fsU6JQKZ6P

— Dan Vergano (@dvergano) July 30, 2019

Three Agents of Consecration

I just bought a ticket to see Nektar! I honestly listen to zero prog rock these days, but the Remember the Future album meant a lot to me as a youth, and the only time they ever toured here 40-some years ago I missed it. Main singer is dead and one other guy retired, so it's kind of a tribute act these days, but it's in a cool old theater and they still have their old lighting guy running a (hopefully) trippy light show, so what the hell, I'm in.

Tell us how it goes.

today i am strongly feeling that gryphon are the worst band in human history, prove me wrong

Worse than Sky? Gryphon are kind of prissy and not very psychedelic, but their combination of 70s prog with Renaissance music doesn't sound anything like anyone else from the era. Also, Tim Smith from the Cardiacs is a big fan and totally ripped off the intro to 'Midnight Mushrumps'. Plus Gryphon's main guy wrote the theme song for Gerry Anderson's post-Thunderbirds series Terrahawks. And the bassoon/crumhorn guy has an amazing beard nowadays.

Also, Tim Smith from the Cardiacs is a big fan and totally ripped off the intro to 'Midnight Mushrumps'

I am now listening to this (I think tt has mentioned Gryphon to me before but not this album)

combination of 70s prog with Renaissance music doesn't sound anything like anyone else from the era

I mean...I can think of one band ;) although tbf this is sounding even more Renaissance than Renaissance, iykwim

Also, Tim Smith from the Cardiacs is a big fan and totally ripped off the intro to 'Midnight Mushrumps'

Say no more.

Two things about Gryphon: their guitarist ended up in the Albion Band - he played on "Rise Up Like the Sun", which would look good on anyone's CV, and their drummer sang backing vocals on Wire's "Mannequin".

And he was the graphic designer for Kerrang! back in the 80s. Basically we're living in a Gryphon world and we don't even know it.

Clips of Mushrumps sound amazing. Too bad the recent compilation left out some album tracks to fit on a small number of discs, forfucksake, need to buy Mushrumps soon.

Well, I haven't heard Sky (should I?) so I can't comment on that. It's certainly possible that, say, Epidermis are a worse band - "Genius of Original Force" is, like the ICD-10 diagnosis codes for gender incongruence (at this point I'm just baiting the "posts very much in character" thread, aren't I?), one of those statements where every single word is wrong.

I'm curious as to what Tim Smith tune rips off the "Midnight Mushrumps" intro, as that might be interesting divorced from the Gryphon context. Certainly that intro is the best argument for Gryphon I've heard.

The fact that they're "unique" doesn't carry much weight with me - who in their right mind would _want_ to sound like this? As far as I'm concerned Gryphon were a band who, after failing to cut it as David Munrow knockoffs, decided to combine their crumhorn and bassoon playing with terrible prog, and unfortunately for the world this impressed Steve Howe and so we still have to hear about this crap long past the point where it's sensible. Their big hit "Ethelion" is literally the basis of Neil's "Hurdy Gurdy Mushroom Man", except I suspect that "Hurdy Gurdy Mushroom Man" is actually _better_. The side-long title track of _Midnight Mushrumps_ is, first off, actually entitled "Midnight Mushrumps", and secondly is one of the most appallingly badly edited "epics" I have ever heard. Most prog "epics" are cut and paste jobs, but that is seldom more apparent than it is with "Midnight Mushrumps".

I'm sure their bassoonist/crumhorn player has a fine beard and is a gentleman of class and quality but I don't much like their music.

Well, I haven't heard Sky (should I?)

No.

Sky: C/D

The beginning of 'Ethelion' sounds like a cheap knock-off of this famous French tourdion:

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

As an aside, 'let's wage war on this bottle' is one of the best pre-modern drinking song lyrics.

Scratch that, the lyrics were reportedly added in 1949. Too bad.

Their big hit "Ethelion"

Excuse me?

You could definitely argue that Gryphon are the worst concept for a band ever but they’re pretty fuckin good at what they do

Need to hear David Munrow as well. I love this kind of stuff but know nothing about it. Jethro Tull were often at their best when they go all Blackadder.

You could definitely argue that Gryphon are the worst concept for a band ever but they’re pretty fuckin good at what they do

― frogbs

...bub.

david munrow was fucking amazing, as far as i can tell he's the actually talented guy all of these cack medievalists keep knocking off, to the point where the entire early music movement, as far as i can tell, just completely died when he did. just a shattering loss to music.

If you want to listen a bunch of out of tune instruments that sound like a bee trapped in a jam jar who am I to criticize.

If you want to listen a bunch of out of tune instruments that sound like a bee trapped in a jam jar who am I to criticize.

― Load up your rubber wallets (Tom D.)

this is pretty much exactly what i want out of music as it turns out

I know it's still Tim Smith, but I heard more Sea Nymphs than Cardiacs in that tune, although I think Bill Drake brought a hefty dose of the early music influence too.

Meanwhile, the 'A New Day Yesterday' book plopped onto my mat today, nearly 600 pages, yikes, looks good tho'

Vermilion Sands - Water Blue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCOLo3qiFvY

Another japanese thing I should get on amazon mp3

is there a chance the new phish album is any good?

https://www.stereogum.com/2078838/phish-sigma-oasis-listening-party/music/album-stream/

listening to the Vermilion Sands album now, very nice stuff, it's like a blend of prog Renaissance and uh...pop Renaissance

Discogs says that the much later second album was a tribute to the deceased singer. She was in a Renaissance/Illusion tribute band. Wish I could find a decent picture of her solo album because all of them are either small or pixelated.

How great is this?

https://youtu.be/PNwDhp3d7Bc?t=8m18s

nice!! I didn't know there were Japanese prog acts active as early as '73 (when their debut came out according to RYM). I guess Mandrake was formed in '74 but they never actually released anything. This is really good

Kinda schizophrenic, I've seen them written up as Japan's answer to Pink Floyd and yeah there's a definite Meddle era thing going on with the cover of Flying and elsewhere, but the track I linked to is like idk, Yes, Gentle Giant? With that lovely ECM style piano coda.

It is good. The previous album with the Sloth smoking a pipe on the cover is supposed to be their best?

Just in case the link dies, it's Yonin Bayashi - Golden Picnic we're talking about.

From Adrenalinepr:
Avant garde progressive rock band DOCTOR NERVE has released its heaviest and most hard-hitting release to date in the form of a new four-song EP entitled LOUD.

Mixed by Nik Chinboukas (Testament, Metal Allegiance) and mastered for maximum impact by Thomas Dimuzio, LOUD is as aggressive as it is intricate. LOUD features a whopping 11 bonus tracks made up of alternate versions of the EP’s four original tunes, featuring guest appearances by Mike Keneally, Henry Kaiser, Robert Musso, Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia), René Lussier, Andrew Hawkins (Baring Teeth), Matt Hollenberg (Cleric, John Zorn) and Shawn Persinger is Prester John.

A freaky video for the song “If You Were Me Right Now I'd Be Dead,” which debuted last month via Metal Injection, was filmed half speed backwards and flipped to sync with the track. Watch the video at https://youtu.be/TfAvIW9MLGw. The site also gave listeners a taste of LOUD through the song “Painting with Bullets,” featuring a guitar solo by Mike Keneally. Check out “Painting with Bullets” here: https://metalinjection.net/av/new-music/doctor-nerve-release-wild-new-track-painting-with-bullets-feat-mike-keneally.

LOUD track listing:
1. If You Were Me Right Now I'd Be Dead
2. Painting With Bullets
3. Meta 04
4. Uses Probe Form

Adorned with explosive cover art by “violent artist” Masato Okano, LOUD is available in a variety of editions, including CD, streaming, 12” limited edition vinyl, spinning at a mind-numbing 45 rpm, and a Deluxe Package featuring hand-numbered, autographed, heavyweight colored vinyl + CD + download, with poster by Masato Okano and insert art autographed by Tom Marsan. LOUD is available at www.punosmusic.com/doctornerve/loud.

DOCTOR NERVE has been annihilating the boundaries between rock, metal, improvisation, jazz and experimental music since 1983. Emerging out of the downtown NYC/Knitting Factory scene, the band evolved quickly from a punky electric jazz hybrid into a completely original, quirky, progressive ensemble. Led by guitarist Nick Didkovsky (Vomit Fist, Fred Frith, Alice Cooper), DOCTOR NERVE features some of the hottest musicians on the NYC scene.

DOCTOR NERVE is:
Leo Ciesa – drums
Nick Didkovsky - electric guitar, composition
Yves Duboin - soprano sax
Rob Henke - trumpet
Benjamin Herrington – trombone
Jesse Krakow - electric bass
Michael Lytle - bass clarinet
Kathleen Supové – piano

DOCTOR NERVE online:
www.facebook.com/DoctorNerve
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www.twitter.com/DoctorNerve

nice!! I didn't know there were Japanese prog acts active as early as '73 (when their debut came out according to RYM). I guess Mandrake was formed in '74 but they never actually released anything. This is really good

― frogbs

i think mops went a little prog in their later career... there's also a live album by the Peanuts where they do a pretty straight cover of "Epitaph"...

I've broken plenty of prog rock records.

― Sasha (sgh), Tuesday, 18 May 2004 13:50 (fifteen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Longest ARP Odyssey solo of all time?

Most conceptual concept album

I need assistance, been listening to Stormwatch a bit recently and it's really bugging me what (and who) the song 'Home' sounds like, my wife reckons it's Wings but I'm not sure, any suggestions?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8ZaIYzZlNo

procul harum

*procol

Sounds a bit like Elton John tbh.

... but, yes, Procol Harum.

... or Roy Wood.

anyone picked this up yet?

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51dLSpjZvZL._SX332_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg