left field prog (roughly)

just trying to work out the best way of structuring this,and it posibly isn't all going to fall under the rubric of prog.

In the wake of my having spent the last week listening to Matching Mole's Little Red Record I'm looking for other music somewhat similar in its uniqueness.
I was thinking last week that
"Think this might be the kind of weird prog that I was hoping I'd discover after reading in fanzines years ago about left field punk/post-punk artists being into the stuff, rather than the more popular Yes/Genesis."

& what I'm really looking for is music probably mainly from this time period, early 70s that is as immediate while remaining alien sounding.
So whereas prog is negatively viewed as stereotypically about chops and pomp i'm looking for music that is exploratory and more focused on that than trying to show off how many chords the player knows. Could be that a number of relatively unused chords might crop up in the player's playing but not as primary focus.

I'm thinking that this period in the early 70s, and late 60s was a time when people had been triggered to investigate new directions to take primarily electric rock instrument based music in and also getting the chance to be recorded and released or at least have the recordings preserved for archive release.

So can you suggest recordings of this type. I'm really not looking for well known groups like Yes or Genesis & they probably fall outside of this remit anyway, even if i do have a soft spot for Nursery Crime. I don't want to exclude well known names though since I think both VDGG and King Crimson have recorded material that would fit.

Probably Gong, but also Van der Graaf Generator (and some solo Peter Hammill)and check out this compilation:
http://cdn2.pitchfork.com/albums/2097/homepage_large.24684635.jpg

Cosign on VdGG and solo PH, especially the run of albums Chameleon, Silent Corner and In Camera. Personally I've always preferred these solo PH albums to the VdGG albums from the same period.

Also Henry Cow of course.

Magma, Sensations Fix, SBB maybe (some of their old stuff), unless you're maybe looking more for a distinctly British art-prog kind of sound?

and I'm assuming we're leaving krautrock out of this...

Whatever you think fits i'm just looking for some new bands I'm not familiar with so left it pretty open. Was thinking SBB's early stuff myself . The early 70s material is pretty great. Not that familiar with later stuff.

Don't know Sensations fix so will look into.

Also been meaning to pick up the rest of the solo PH lps, think I picked up pretty much all of the remastered 70s VDGG (&VDG)

Egg - The Polite Force
Gentle Giant - Octopus
Univers Zero - Heresie

could be what you're looking for if you don't know them already, plus a vast number of Italian bands from this period, there's a couple of threads on that very subject on ilx somewhere.

Here

Etron Fou Leloublan
Art Zoyd

Henry Cow - most prob LegEnd would suit
Hatfield and the North - any

let's talk about the best recent songs that could be defined, loosely, as prog

neo-prog revival genesis-fellating bullshit and indie songs with extended outros can gtfo tho

I'm talking more like this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE2ulYKK56U

^^^several leagues beyond prog-as-fuck. more examples please. if you don't get on it, I will, and that's not a threat, it's a promise

the band that plays "prog" that I like the most is called Knower, from LA. It's like prog for people who grew up with Max Tundra -- all over the place production-wise, very fast, quick changes, but firmly rooted in the sonic pallete of techno, dubstep, electro, etc. They also have similarities to a Danish group called Oh No Ono, but they are more straight out prog rock, perhaps with Cardiacs edges

the link above actually reminds me a bit of sleepytime gorilla museum

your own 'the return' is also the sorta thing I'm after fwiw. OK, will check Knower out...

Sleepytime Gorilla museum is now Free Salamander Exhibit fyi

I love SGM and would be keen to trace their members' subsequent paths (although Book of Knots' last album was imo slightly inconsistent and the best song was a freaking Mike Patton cameo)

Knower are great btw :D

have you given birds and buildings a chance? very magmatic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UICq6qserG8

▸ 1
Birds Flying Into Buildings 9:13
▸ 2
Terra Fire 3:36
▸ 3
Tunguska 6:33
▸ 4
Caution Congregates and Forms a Storm 10:53
▸ 5
Chronicle of the Invisible River of Stone 9:19
▸ 6
Yucatan 65: The Agitation of the Mass 10:35
▸ 7
Chakra Khan 5:59
▸ 8
Battalion 9:55
▸ 9
Sunken City, Sunny Day 3:19

those are some magnificently palindromic track-times

and yeah, that was much better than I'd expect from a prog revivalist band

in fact, that was kickass

That Birds And Buildings track was really wonderful. I'll be on the lookout for that album sometime.

yeah that was really something, I'm definitely interested

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTZpQCiOB28&feature=kp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=366d6G-NkVA

I love SGM and would be keen to trace their members' subsequent paths (although Book of Knots' last album was imo slightly inconsistent and the best song was a freaking Mike Patton cameo)

― imago, Monday, March 24, 2014

search: Carla Kilstedht's solo CD, Idiot Flesh (pre-SGM), and maybe some early Faun Fables if you want to see Nils' take on dark folk.

Os Mutantes seriously cool. Stump come off as half Julian Cope, half Wire - both good things - but without the intensity of either

Really looking for new prog or 'prog' songs with this bump - very very happy with Birds And Buildings

(maybe I'll give Stump another go - on inspection their album seems quite promising)

First track on Quirk Out, 'Tupperware Stripper' is something special and has the most unexplainable bass playing I've ever heard, especially in the splattery middle section.

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

:D ok I can get on board with this

This is what Kev Hopper (bass player) does now, his band Prescott have just put out a new record.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EY3GZdRtbY

Think I liked track 2 of Stump EP more than opener

OK, this EP is awesome :)

kev hopper's rubbery basslines rule obv but chris salmon could be the most extreme guitar bender this side of kevin shields. i love the guy, pretty underrated player imo.

not sure what to recommend, have you heard gutbucket?

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

over the moon to find out about PRESCOTT.
hopper's bass playing tickles my brain like nowt else.
shame they can't get bill orcutt to join the band.
my prog Empfehlungen today sind (and you'll excuse me if i'm teaching you how to suck eggs):
upsilon acrux / aksak maboul / hermeto pascoal (try "zurich", or "Música Das Nuvens E Do Cháo" for starters) / circus devils / ahleuchatistas / rope cosmetology / tomas fujiwara's "the air is different" / 13th assembly's "station direct"(although i guess these last two are "jazz" in a way) / mats & morgan "trends..." & "thank you..." particularly

picked up the Birds and Building disc (the 2008) one and followed that to one of Britton's other bands, Deluge Grander. August in the Urials is about 70 minutes of pure (mostly instrumental) prog rock. I love it!

I've become somewhat enamoured of these guys recently. Just mad that I only found out about them after they'd stopped being a live band.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cG3-NogVv1Q

Not exactly recent, but I never miss an opportunity to mention Thinking Plague:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBR61aXrBXc

And TP's Bob Drake mixed the new album from this lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ChOeF5gn6c

Moving dangerously into Cardiacsy thread territory there, Pheeel ;)

New Knifeworld is pretty cool & needs another listen. Lapsus Linguae are, at some point, due to release their 'lost' second album, This Is Puberty, and it's clearly going to be one of the greatest things ever. Calum Davidson (aka Penelope Collegefriend) had promised his Faithful And Adoring Public to get it sorted, but not a peep of late. Hey Calum, google your own name, find this and get on with it!

If you've not heard their first album (You Got Me Fraiche) then take it from me that it's staggering

Indeed! I discovered them via the Ghosts EP and subsequently I bought their entire back catalogue from Bandcamp - a small but very impressive body of work. Hope they eventually manage to get the second album finished.

I love Thinking Plague. Those Digestify and Knifeworld things are pretty cool.

I sorta want to add Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic to this list, also the Thinking Plague offshoot band The Science Group are worth checking out, oh and Bob Drake's solo stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jk3OEp2Z1x0&list=PL_pFH21MBYNgtbZbLGkJZJUnw_WgTYGYk

One of my favourite releases from last year (and probably my pick from the questionably-defined "progressive rock" genre) is the self-titled album from The Knells.

Bandcamp link: http://theknells.bandcamp.com/album/the-knells

got the new Knifeworld off iTunes - the material itself is very good, but the production isn't good - the drums sound very compressed. is the CD better?

I have the CD and I reckon it sounds great, I think Bob Drake certainly knows what he's doing behind a mixing desk

http://www.progressiveears.org/forum/showthread.php/9292-Bob-Drake-Lawn-Ornaments

And I'm listening The Knells right now for the first time and it's really striking, excellent stuff

Bob Drake fucking rules, for some reason The Skull Mailbox is my go-to album when I'm half cut

I love The Shunned Country, especially the way he uses phrases like 'freakishly localised storm' and 'dismal swamp'.

I've always refused to listen to him on account of his name being too similar to Bill Drake. I know this is stupid and petty & I shall correct it at some point (when not on holiday)

Looking for mentions of bands whose releases I've dug this year I find this thread. Maybe this is where I should have been bigging up the Bubblemath.

The recent Prescott record is very enjoyable.

https://prescott.bandcamp.com/album/thing-or-two

Even better IMO is The Bob Lazar Story - Baritonia. Instrumental (guitar, drums & keys) leftfield prog-miniatures. Densly structured but playful and accessible.

https://theboblazarstory.bandcamp.com/album/baritonia

Cosmically inspired prog-fusion with baroque tendencies in the style of a Super Nintendo soundtrack must surely be a leftfield notion. If that doesn't sound completely unbearable to you I recommend this. It's NYP.

https://shnabubula.bandcamp.com/album/cosmic-diaspora

Also surely within the thread's remit is Nick Prol & The Proletarians' Loon Attic. Eclectic prog-pop (in opposition), not unlike Bob Drake (who is one of many guest performers).

https://proletarians.bandcamp.com/album/loon-attic

These look interesting, especially the last two, thanks.

Regarding that last one, not just Bob Drake, but Thymme Jones, Dave Willey, Rob Crow oh fuck this better rule

Can't remember which thread it was but thanks for the Five Storey Ensemble link.

robert have you head the first TROJAN HORSE album? "mr. engels says" is a hell of an opening strut and "disciplining the reserve army" is next level imho

Thanks that sounds good too.

Shnabubula samples really impressed me, like a jrpg fever dream.

It was me that brought up Five Storey Ensemble, you're welcome :D It was probably the prog v. 3.0 thread or whatever it's called.

And I did end up enjoying the latter two of the albums Noel Emits posted up there, especially Shnabubula because I got the similar impression of it being like the soundtrack to an insane psychedelic jrpg. The Nick Prol thing is also good, like a lot of that sort of stuff it threatens to collapse under the weight of it's own wackiness and a couple of tracks are a bit annoying, but it's got enough of a Bob Drake/Cheer-Accident etc thing going on to be enjoyable.

Bass player recently posted a video from Knower's New Year's Eve gig at Irving Plaza and it brought me to this thread. Need to investigate more.

https://music.usc.edu/louis-cole-and-knower/

https://www.facebook.com/marcopanascia/videos/10209934071308381/

knower are goddamn classic, louis cole put out a solo record this year that i would've nommed if there weren't also so many other great records to nom!

lol i never would have expected this to be the thread to hide knower discussion, they're really pretty cool but i've never really thought of them as prog, just synth funk that's very heavy on their jazz chops

I'm still interested in good stuff from late 60s/early 70s as mentioned in original post at least as much as the more recent stuff.

Maybe we should start a KNOWER thread.

Started:
KNOWER: funky, quirky electro duo with jazz chops Louis Cole and Genevieve Artadi