'taking the whole 70's e-prog stuff and jamming it format of a pop song'

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what else is like this?!

― ethan, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

is paranoid android too long to count? i think it might just be prog.

― ethan, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

for some reason that phrase makes me think of coldcut actually.

― ethan, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

um, paul oakenfold?

― jess, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

When you say "e-prog" do you mean electronic prog? And where is this quote from?

This makes me think of Bobby Conn. Partly because he said in an interview once that this is what he wanted to do. But also because some of those songs on Rise Up! have suites, instrumental sections, etc., but without going on very long. It's closer to a condensed version of "Paradise by the Dashboard Light," actually, but I always considered Meatloaf kind of prog (though in a very goofy, pop way).

― Mark, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

If "e" is electronic, then isn't that Stereolab now? Also, some of MoM most recent stuff is like that ("Presence", "Doit"). But unfortunately, those answers are to hide the fact that this has already been played out in the form of Alan Parsons Project, Buggles, Falco, early Human League, later Suicide, Soft Cell, etc. Hell, Brian Eno!

― dleone, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i don't know what e-prog means, somebody said it on my buggles thread.

― ethan, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Trans Am. and LU, another DC band.

unless you genuinely mean 'pop' as in singer-fronted, verse-chorus- verse music. in which case Paranoid Android wouldn't count.

― Dare, Monday, 7 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Do you mean stuff like 'Aerodynamic' and thee Daft Punk thing? A modern case of taking something that in a different context could easily be on the fab CLOSE TO THE EDGE by YES on ice skates? And capes?

― Sarah, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

And how many pop songs did Yes have in the first place? "Long Distance Runaround," "Roundabout," "I've Seen All Good People," "Wondrous Stories," . . . Even a lot of their longer stuff was more like pop songs that were expanded with different sections and stuff like "Starship Trooper."

― sundar subramanian, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sundar, i love starship trooper so much. what i'm really asking with this question is what sounds like that but is three minutes long?

― ethan, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"I was about to say the same thing. But I think what it really boiled to was Trevor Horn taking the whole 70's e-prog stuff, and jamming it into the format of a pop song. The most obvious precursor to me would be Brian Eno/Bowie/Roxy Music axis."

A sentence from one of my posts has been used as an ILM subject header. I feel like I have arrived. Where to I get my ILM prize ribbon at?

― mike taylor, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no ribbon till you explain "e-prog"

― mark s, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ethan, why don't you look at the actual output of prog bands in the late 70s and 80s? Geoff Downes and Trevor Horn of Buggles actually joined Yes for the 1980 LP Drama, and Yes' next LP 90125 was straight pop, but with plenty of proggy embellishments, if not structures, themes, etc. John Wetton (King Crimson), Steve Howe (Yes) and Carl Palmer (ELP) formed the ultra AOR pop band Asia. Gabriel's Genesis became Collins' Genesis. King Crimson hired an ex-Bowie sideman/Talking Heads fanatic to be frontman, and all of sudden were selling to the new wave crowd. All the big names basically streamlined their sound, and it often meant that the songs became shorter and structures more compact, though none of them ever really managed to shake the proggy residue (and why would they want to?).

Also, there were bands that were never anything but prog-informed pop units, like Supertramp, Alan Parsons Project, ELO, solo Peter Gabriel, Marillion, Utopia...the list is almost endless - and trust me, there is a very large subculture of folks who would be glad to expound on this music for hours on end. You could even make the argument that David Bowie is the grand-Wizard of the style you appear to be describing.

― dleone, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh Lord. Gabriel did some ace stuff but I fear the rest of that lot might put Ethan off prog altogether.

― sundar subramanian, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hate most of it, personally. But I always try to fill ethan's holes.

― dleone, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

*insert comment here?*

― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 8 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"E-prog" is the name of a yahoo group. You might find a definition there.

― Norman Phay, Wednesday, 9 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think we need to start over with a definition of prog (or e-prog, if that's different) and then go from there.

― Mark, Wednesday, 9 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ethan, it sounds like you are looking at the 'art rock' end of things? Some kind of medium between prog rock and the pop song? If you haven't heard them already, maybe try these:

70s albums: David Bowie (Low, Heroes, Lodger), Brian Eno (Here Come the Warm Jets, Taking Tiger Mountain, Another Green World, Before and After Science), Roxy Music (Roxy Music, For Your Pleasure, Stranded) 80 albums: Talking Heads (Remain in Light), King Crimson (Discipline, Beat, Three of a Perfect Pair), Yes (Drama, 90125), Genesis (And Then There Were Three, Duke), Rush (Moving Pictures, Signals, Grace Under Pressure), maybe the Police (Ghost in the Machine, Synchronicity) Another good one was FM's "Black Noise"...very much in the vein of Yes during their late 70s-early 80s era...

― Joe, Wednesday, 9 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i already have before and after science.

― ethan, Wednesday, 9 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

the band called "eggs" or "the eggs" - pretty awful super fey US indie popsters on teenbeat records about (guess) 10 yrs ago. one FANTASTIC song in the format of the question "saturday's cool" my god that was good.

― bob snoom, Monday, 14 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

should i get who's afraid of the art of noise?

― ethan, Sunday, 20 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yup. Get the _Daft_ CD if you can, that has that album plus a slew of EP tracks.

― Ned Raggett, Sunday, 20 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

can you show me this on amazon or something? i have just the album on my wishlist, and i'd like that instead unless it's an expensive import or some pressed-for- ned-only record.

― ethan, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

No, it's real, but it was import. Also don't know if it's still in print.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 21 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

five years pass...

well, time has catched up. Alan parsons is hot. Contemporary disco, cosmic, typhoon revival etc. 2007 will be prog bonanza.

― jon person (jon person), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 07:18 (nineteen years ago)

speaking of which. Dazzle Ships is on for wed night:

http://tropicalcomputersystem.com/

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 07:40 (nineteen years ago)

ha, ethan's prog and sunshine pop enthusiasms of 5 years ago = mind blown

― timmy tannin (pompous), Wednesday, 7 February 2007 07:47 (nineteen years ago)

six years pass...

'Takin the whole 70's e-prog stuff to another level

― Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ (brimstead), Monday, 6 January 2014 03:08 (twelve years ago)

No thread on Yorkshire prog, aka eeh-prog?

― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Monday, 6 January 2014 13:39 (twelve years ago)

Field Music is fussy in a way that might appeal to proggers.

― intimately bellowing (staggerlee), Tuesday, 7 January 2014 01:58 (twelve years ago)

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