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Prog rock recommendations, please :)
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I've recently started getting into the prog rock genre. I've been listening to a lot of early Pink Floyd, Focus, Unicorn, and Syrius but I'm not sure who to check out next and was hoping some more seasoned prog rock fans could point me in a good direction. Music that is easy to find either for free or not too much money is a must.
Thanks!
Thanks!
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Genesis - Seconds Out
Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Pink Floyd - Meddle
Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Yes - The Yes Album
Yes - Fragile
Yes - Close To The Edge
King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King
The Nice - Live At Fillmore East, December 1969.
Not a great fan of Yes, but they are loved by many proggers and those 3 are albums are considered as Yes at their peak.
King Crimson: Lark's Tongue in Aspic.
One has already been mentioned - King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King
The other one was - Caravan - In The Land of Grey and Pink
this is the title track..............
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hmFzGTxod4
Two Phil Collins era, Trick of the Tail & Wind and Wuthering . These were best prog eras. Later albums have the odd track but more pop tunes crept in.
Rush, Fly By Night, Caress of Steel, 2112, A Farewell To Kings, Hemispheres. All of these are good. The later albums are less prog but still very good. Permanent Waves and Moving Pictures especially
Yes, Yes and TIme and a Word are ok. The Yes Album (different to the debut), Fragile and Close To The Edge are excellent. Relayed and Going For The One also very good. Tales From Topographic Oceans, is too long and overblown but some people love it. Ritual (nous somes du solies) is the best track.
Pink Floyd, Meddle, Dark Side, Wish You Were Here, Animals, The Wall are the best. Piper is ok. Other albums are good but can be an acquired taste.
Although I disowned Yes in the punk/new wave era, I think the three Yes albums mentioned could well be the best three consecutive albums ever released and have actually stood the test of time remarkably well. I'd include Relayer as a "must listen to" album as well, as the sheer audacity of it is mind-boggling.
I'm afraid I thought ELP were carp at the time and doubly so now. Totally pretentious, embarrassing and unlistenable. I do thank them for causing punk to happen, almost by themselves.
Does Steve Hillage count as prog rock? I'd say Motivation Radio is a good place to start.
Same. I think Thrak is their best album... if only because this is their best song:
King Crimson - One Time
This is my favourite due to its bonkers tempo and total weirdness. I had to choose a live version because all the album clips are preceded by Vroom, which is okay in a way, but not a patch on what follows.
Coda: Marine 475 The album version's probably the best and I have heard a better live version, but it doesn't seem to be on YouTube.
There are some good modern prog bands around these days. Big Big Train are really good. If you like Floyd, try Mostly Autumn. Also worth a listen are Magenta, Porcupine Tree, Pineapple Thief, Karnataka, Pendragon, IQ and Glass Hammer. There's a very little known band called Lyrian, who have released two tremendous albums called 'Nightingale Hall' and 'The tongues of men and angels' which I would highly recommend.
You can probably find most of the above cheaply, or indeed free if you look in the right places!
I find it remarkable that in 2015 people still perpetuate this myth.
Punk was a reaction to the chart music of the time, Glam Rock, Middle Of The Road, etc. Punk cetainly never "killed" Prog, despite what magazines such as NME liked to claim at the time.
As well as....
The Reasoning, Touchstone, TesseracT, Flying Colours, Dream Theater, 25 Yard Screamer, Aerogramme, Amplifier, Anathema, Anna Phoebe, Antimatter, Panic Room, Bigelf, Blackfield, No-Man ,Steven Wilson, Breathing Space, Diagonal, Enochian Theory, Sanguine Hum, Frost*, Jurojin, Karakanic, Leafblade, Luna Rossa, Mermaid Kiss, Moon Safari, Lazuli, MultiFuse, Phideaux, Quidam, Riverside, Russian Circles, Sound Of Contact, Sylvan, Von Hertzen Brothers, etc.
I could go on but it's fair to say Progressive Music is in a pretty healthy state at the moment!
I've never considered them so.
I think to dismiss the idea as a myth is not entirely true. Yes, punk was a reaction to pop music of the time probably more than prog rock. However, you had prog or post psychedelic rockers like Wakeman and Waters saying how bad punk was. So they were clearly on the other side. Punk was born of a DIY mentality and would clearly be at odds with the behemoths that prog rock threw up. Some of the prog experiments with classical form bordered on the pretentious. Yet prog rock was commercially more successful than punk throughout the 70s and into the 80s.
I only know a few of these bands (Dream Theater, who are 80s and not modern really, you might say that about No-Man and Steven Wilson as well (Porcupine Tree)) but I may check out some more in time. I'm open to new forms and I'm interested in how alive this music is. It is symptomatic of modern music with its fragmented audience that a form/genre can be healthy yet not really visible in the way prog was in the 70s.
I was a Yes fan then (Joy Division and Siouxsie changed all that) but I find it hard to really recommend any of that music now. I listened to my original copy of Anderson's 'Olias of Sunhillow" recently and I thought it had its moments but that's all.
I like Radiohead and Sigur Ros these days, both of whom have clear prog influences.
I don't see how you can have progressive rock at all these days as it finished progressing years ago. In truth, it mainly came about due to trained musicians getting fed up with being unfavourably to those playing classical music, so they deliberately tried to make it complicated.
I think Rick Wakeman helped punk along nicely by staging that ridiculous King Arthur On Ice show. Johnny Rotten wore a "I hate Pink Floyd" T-shirt, yet he was a fan of Van de Graaf Generator. Glen Matlock must have been too, because both Anarchy In The UK and God Save The Queen borrow heavily from Peter Hammill's Nadir's Big Chance.
I consider the stuff they did between 1968-1971 as quite prog. Dark Side and after was more Rock but with a Social type edge that Waters put into the Lyrics.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDKJcKRP71E
http://progrock.com/review-the-gentle-storm-the-diary/
Great shout! Just got that CD through, a bit weird and wonderful but also extremely good!
For me....recent releases that I have managed to get have been.... The Neal Morse Band, Flying Colors, Fish On Friday, Steve Hackett, Steven Wilson, all blooming marvelous!
Up next, I have some Big Big Train on the way as well as the brilliant new Sanguine Hum double CD.....
One absolute top tip though, is Dave Kerzner with New World - you can get a single disc or double disc version and it is one of the best Prog albums for many a year....features a cast of top names too....you really need to investigate this one!
https://sonicelements.bandcamp.com/album/new-world
Go and look up a few of the many Prog radio shows as well, I have found so much great new stuff via these....for example, The Prog Mill on Stafford Radio and Prog Rock Files on Wolverhampton FM ....
I should be more appreciative of the band getting a mention as I was a fan in the 1970s. Supertramp started doing Prog rock but from Crime of the Century on wards the vast majority of their music was more mainstream pop and rock music. That's not to say they aren't worth a listen. For me Supertramp have their modern day equivalent in Coldplay and they are occasionally worth a listen too.
Ahh yes the Prog Yodellers.