Prog Rock

not really prog, more jazz-fusion

He certainly plays a lot of beats on those albums, ha ha.

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I've always wished someone would sample Bill Bruford's china-boy extravaganza on "One More Red Nightmare".

and the devi influenced tracks by brian auger's oblivian express.

http://www.suckadelic.com/main.html

I have the lotr one, which is only a little bit funny, unfortunately...

South Side Of the Sky
Going For The One
Ritual (!!)
OOALH
Long Distance Runaround
Soon

Vitalski: It's an obvious answer but do you have Yes' Fragile? The second side is a goldmine. Side 2 opens with the first drum and bass track evah! Also check out the intro to "Heart of the Sunrise" and "The Fish" and the basslines to "Long Distance Runaround" and "Roundabout". Neil Peart is another obvious choice.

I find Inner Mounting Flame more or less unlistenable once I got past how virtuosic it is.

Return to Forever (w/diMeola), for ex., sounds more like emotionless showmanship to me. Fun in some ways, in no way deep like Mahavishnu.

I saw them in Lowell at the Paul Tsongas Arena last weekend (the last gig of this leg of their tour; I think the one right after MSG), which they were videotaping I believe for a PBS special and later a DVD release. They played The Beatles' "Every Little Thing" (an early cover of theirs, but very much revamped) as an encore instead of "Soon", plus "Starship Trooper" as the final closer. Great versions of "And You and I", "Ritual", "Turn of the Century"...

Minuses: They did a shuffle-blues acoustic version of "Roundabout" (like Clapton did for "Layla" on his Unplugged)--sounds too cheezy to me. Dean's inflatable set looked very (ahem) Stonehenge like.

That aside, I continue to be amazed at what a great show these guys still put on, since they're all like 55-60 years old. Plus, the a/c that night was non-existent, so it was like 85-90 degrees on stage the entire time for them.

it actually exists. it's actually pretty good.

Area/Demetrio Stratos: C or D

Rustic Hinge's [recorded 1970, not released until '88, former Arthur Brown sidemen, almost certainly the first Trout Mask Replica-disciples] is excellent but you'll probably never find it.

Prog that rocks...

Alan Parsons Project "Stereotomy" (leans towards pop)
Alan Parsons "Try Anything Once" (absolute rock masterpiece)

Sounds better than you'd have thought it might!

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

there's a homeless (possibly) guy on my street who hangs out smoking cigarettes and listening to awesome prog rock records on a transistor radio

today it was "halfway there" by slapp happy

it's the little things about portland that i love

my latest "it's a real dilemma that listening to prog rock is supposed to make me feel bad about myself and my life choices" jam is "lightning's hand" by kansas (point of know return)

I just got into Kansas recently! had been avoiding them since I found Carry On My Wayward Son to be obnoxious but I just picked up Song for America and holy hell, what an album, especially the title track. to me this is the missing link between early Crimson/ELP and Rush.

Portland sounds wild, rush...can't imagine I know a single person who even knows who Slapp Happy is. and I know some real dorks.

Man I still have not crossed the Rubicon of exploring Kansas, pretty much because I couldn't stand "Carry On" or "Dust in the Wind" and because a roommate that had that greatest hits thing that was pretty much just those two songs and a bunch of '80s stuff.

First 3 Kansas albums are a weird mix of multi-part prog epics and barroom rock numbers. Leftoverture and Point of Know Return are in a more consistent pomp rock style, the aforementioned obnoxious hits are on these records. Still plenty of prog though! After that they headed off towards 80s soft rock. Later records are more prog I think but copying themselves more than anything, like all older bands do.

their cover of JJ Cale's "Bringing it Back" is really great, one of those covers that's so energetic and fun it kinda ruins the original

Kansas is one of the most interesting bands of their time and it's a blessing that they were so weird and still got big.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZs8mwGyjaY

oh wow, that's incredible. love the way Haslam is dancing for the first 3 minutes, I've only seen people dance like that in goth clubs. she's practically raving up there. I've noticed on that record particularly they play some pretty dancey rhythms. lotta drums you could sample.

I was thrown off, because I could have sworn Richie Blackmore was in Renaissance, but I must have been thinking of his own renn faire project Blackmore's Night.

There's a Renaissance thread. I've been enjoying her debut solo album recently.

I totally understand where prog's nods to classical music come from, but maybe you nerds can pinpoint the origins of prog's dramatic/weird time signatures and shifts. Where did *that* trait come from?

Isn't that also a thing in (modern) classical music?

I dunno! I imagine throughout classical music there are surely some weird time signature shifts, but maybe they're not as apparent without a (rock) drummer? Brubeck's "Time Out" was released at the end of 1959, right? As I understand it that was a big moment in time signatures. This bit in the wiki entry was interesting:

The album was intended as an experiment using musical styles Brubeck discovered abroad while on a United States Department of State sponsored tour of Eurasia, such as when he observed in Turkey a group of street musicians performing a traditional Turkish folk song that was played in 9/8 time with subdivisions of 2+2+2+3, a rare meter for Western music.

On the condition that Brubeck's group first record a conventional album of traditional songs of the American South, Gone with the Wind, Columbia president Goddard Lieberson took a chance to underwrite and release Time Out. It received negative reviews by critics upon its release. It produced a Top 40 hit single in "Take Five", composed by Paul Desmond (the only album track not written by Dave Brubeck). Although the theme of Time Out is non-common-time signatures, things are not quite so simple. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" starts in 9/8, with a typically Balkan 2+2+2+3 subdivision into short and long beats (the rhythm of the Turkish zeybek, equivalent of the Greek zeibekiko) as opposed to the more typical way of subdividing 9/8 as 3+3+3, but the saxophone and piano solos are in 4/4. The title is a play on Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca" from his Piano Sonata No. 11, and reflects the fact that the band heard the rhythm while traveling in Turkey.

So maybe it was just the natural progression (heh) as western musicians discovered music from other cultures? For sure stuff like Genesis seems relatively rooted in the English pastoral, but for sure Yes and Crimson and others were drawing from non-western sources. Likely groups like Fairport Convention, too, I imagine, if only (as with many others) by way of the Beatles.

"The Devil's Triangle" off of In the Wake of Poseidon is based on Holst's "Mars, the Bringer of War" which is in 5/4 time

For sure. I assume there are a lot of other prog inspirations that hinge of unusual time signatures, like "Carmina Burana." Fripp of course was really into Bartok, he's got some weird stuff for sure. And Stravinsky and Messiaen and ... yeah, lots of "modern"/20th century classical. Maybe it is as simple (so to speak) as no snare/bass drum interplay to emphasize the signatures?

I guess the beginning of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" is in 11/4? That one (and other Mussorgsky, like "Night on Bald Mountain") seems like a clear inspiration for a lot of prog. He's second half of the 19th century, right?

I feel that 'The Rite of Spring' contains most of the DNA that fed Crimson/ELP and others, it's still a well that math rock bands were drawing from decades later.

Perhaps there are well-known film soundtracks too that employed odd time signatures? Some classic, tin pan alley songwriting employed cut bars to get from one section to another, but those tend to pass by without you noticing.

In contrast, a lot of prog has a way of emphasising unusual meters as a form of spiralling/disorientating at the same time as a way of saying 'hey! isn't this groovy!'

apparently there are 444(!) changes in time signature during 'rite of spring'. add in all the dynamic changes, the driving intensity and the general volume and yeah it's basically prog rock before the fact

I guess it all depends on how you count it, right?

xpost Or, more perversely, "I dare you to dance to this."

This is probably completely inappropriate because I don't know much about the scenes this music comes from but my nearest reference point is Art Zoyd and Zvuki Mu. Would love to hear more stuff like this. If I just did a general dive into avant garde music I doubt I'd find much as fun as these. Some of the New Art Ensemble covers aren't so great though.

Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz - Ishtar (from Desert Equations)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SpNwk2dGzM

New Art Ensemble (also known as HXA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TievFIjlzmc

These don't seem to be remastered but I strongly recommend if you haven't heard them
https://www.cherryred.co.uk/carmen-the-albums-1973-1975-3cd-box-set

My hot take is that Fucked Up's Year of the Horse is one of the best prog albums of the last five years.

got to see Nektar last night. kind of an odd experience, they've got only one original member and a number of them seemed to be having off nights. drummer kept missing cues I think on account of the singer, the keyboard player really flubbed his big solo, there were a lot of sound issues early on and the guitar wasn't audible at all until halfway through the second song. they also had a backdrop of 95% AI generated visuals which I absolutely hated. its like they just fed all their song titles and lyrics into the algorithm and put "make it psychedelic" into the prompt. that said when they dipped into their classic 70s stuff they absolutely ruled. so I'm glad I went. also, the opener was the Paul Bielatowitz Band and they were AMAZING. very ELP like but with guitar instead of keyboards. half the set was classical interpretations and they were incredible. maybe the first show I've seen where the opener was better than the main act.

Yeah that was basically my experience when I saw Nektar a few years ago. While great to hear “Remember the Future” live, an experience I never thought I’d have, both sound and visuals could have been better. Glad I saw them, would actually do so again given the opportunity, but so wish I could have seen them in their prime.

speaking of ELP, i heard "From the Beginning" on the radio the other day. it was ... amazing? checking Spotify, it's not even a deep cut, it's one of their most popular songs. it definitely has a weird kind of deep cut vibe. reminds me of the dino valente solo record a bit. and it's basically just two chords, and no drums just bongos -- not very prog. idk, had me thinking i should explore ELP but i don't know if they have any other tracks like this

in particular the synth solo is just pure magic. people shout out the Lucky Man solo a lot but imo this one is way better. I love how the guitar chords slow down as it approaches the end. Lake's voice is incredible on that one too. but no, they don't have many tracks like that, in fact the idea of someone buying Trilogy on the strength of that track and immediately getting hit with a 10 minute hymn that blows up into Christmas music is pretty funny

one cool thing about the Nektar show was we were able to get right up in front. at one point the lead singer was looking right at me and I cracked a huge grin which made him do the same thing. but the truth was it wasn't because of the music, it was because in that exact moment I realized he kinda resembled Neil Breen.

Funny the way the ages turn in over themselves. I gather that back in those heady ELP days, there were a lot of listeners who would think, "Hmph. Classical pretensions." Now here I am listening to The Rite of Spring for the first time and thinking, "Whoa, this is so prog."

i should explore ELP but i don't know if they have any other tracks like this

"Take a Pebble", "Still... You Turn Me On" and maybe "Step Aside" from the Emerson, Lake and Powell album. The Lake side of Works Vol. 1 sometimes goes for this kind of intimate ballad, but everything is covered in bombastic reverb that makes it sound like he's singing from a Swiss mountaintop.

Have been enjoying "Circle Of The Crayfish" from 1972 by nuts German organ/drums duo Sixty Nine, pretty much the exact meeting point between ELP and Brainticket.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUK2eG6XhuA

Nothing to do with this thread. But today I misheard "My building has great progressive broadband" as "My building has a great progressive rock band" and I asked "What's their name?"

Well, yeah. What you misheard would be a much more interesting conversation.

one a year or so I whip out Triumvirats Illusions on a Double Dimple and am blown away by how good it is. its not just the music but how incredible it sounds. even Eddy Offord couldn't get such a great low end. might even be one of the albums I'd use to get someone into prog rock had they not heard any of it before.

https://www.cherryred.co.uk/fruupp-wise-as-wisdom-the-dawn-albums-19731975-4cd-remastered-clamshell-box-set
One of those bands I see on really long lists, maybe I should check them out?

Kind of light noodly mostly instrumental stuff as I recall, upper mid-table second division prog

I've heard their first two albums and I'd call them a somewhat harder Genesis minus theatrics. Pretty mediocre and nothing another group didn't do better.

A bar in town does a monthly prog night, DJed by myself and another guy. Lately a lot of people have been coming in unaware of what prog is and I dunno if Van der Graaf Generator and Magma are scaring them away so I wanted to create a mix that was both pretty accessible for the newcomers and also fun and strange for those who know it all, and here's what I came up with. I'd upload it to YouTube but, y'know, there's King Crimson in it.

https://soundcloud.com/ratboy_slim/in-the-court-of-the-slim

Here are all the tracks used (some more than others)

ELP - Karn Evil 9
Yes - Yours is No Disgrace
PFM - E'Festa
Genesis - it.
Yes - Owner of a Lonely Heart
Rush - Spirit of the Radio
Kansas - Carry On My Wayward Son
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man
Rush - Working Man
Camel - Rhyader/Rhyader Goes to Town
Gentle Giant - On Reflection
Pink Floyd - One of These Days
Jon Anderson - What is a Computer?

i listened to a Fruup album but I don't remember anything about it.

First time I’ve ever seen prog in describing ZZ Top, but cool they made the list!

well, it's not in there for long, fast forward to about 17:30 :)

made it downloadable here
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1k5FWtJrGuWy7t_57tW9LN2oPFdz_bkij/view?usp=drive_link