Here's a little something from Spanish folk/rock Música Dispersa. A very odd band that needs to be heard to understand just how peculiar they were.
Fluido - YouTube
Fluido - YouTube
Progressive Rock that isn't dreadful
- Thread starter killer b
- Start date
Burning Red Ivanhoe backing (Danish) singer Povl Dissing and elevating his song with some freaky folky honks and squawks.
Ta' Fri Ta' Fri - YouTube
Ta' Fri Ta' Fri - YouTube
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Native Greenlanders Sume's anti-colonial masterpiece Sumut. Apparently of great cultural significance in Greenland. Also dead good and check out the hardcore album cover.
Sume - Sumut (1973) Prog/Folk (Greenland) FULL ALBUM - YouTube
Sume - Sumut (1973) Prog/Folk (Greenland) FULL ALBUM - YouTube
savoloysam
Pigman's pigman's ha ha charade you are..
Not afraid to admit my love of most things Yes, along with Hawkwind they were my go to bands back in my acid daze.
Probably the most surreal interview I have seen. Two of my favourite legends right here.
I saw Porcupine Tree supporting Hawkwind years ago. Really good band but output is mixed.
Probably the most surreal interview I have seen. Two of my favourite legends right here.
I saw Porcupine Tree supporting Hawkwind years ago. Really good band but output is mixed.
I'm going to sample some of Gentle Giant. I think they're a band who were a bit more difficult than most of the other British prog rock acts, combining lilting jazz melodies, madrigal vocal harmonies and tight prog rock complexity. I reminded myself how much I like them a few years ago and had an obsessional few months going over their work. Although they were extremely skilled musicians it's not extravagant or grandiose, more oddball music for oddball people. So fittingly I'll start with their anthem to oddballness from their first album.
Gentle giant: funny ways - YouTube
The second album Acquiring the Taste is their most experimental. It's a very odd hypnotic stew. I think the most ambitious song on it is the Moon is Down. A bit of a deep cut here but at same time I think it might be the best thing ever did.
The Moon Is Down - YouTube
The band included three Shulman brothers, the eldest being born before the war in the Gorbals Glasgow, the younger two in Portsmouth after the war. They were an aspirational working class family but older brother Phillip is a self declared socialist and had experienced a tough early childhood. The third album Three Friends is a concept album straight up tackling themes of class and alienation. The song Peel the Paint is about an artist who has escaped the rat race but finds his art empty precisely because of his splendid isolation. It features contrasting peaceful and angry themes which are shadowed in each other. Somebody did a rather good animation for this song. Anyway here it is:
Gentle Giant - Peel The Paint (Official Video) - YouTube
The fourth album Octopus is sometimes considered their best although everybody has their own favourite. Knots is going to be my pick from this album. It's an insanely complex vocal canon about the work of psychologist RD Lang. It's something completely unlike anything anybody else was doing.
Gentle Giant - Knots - YouTube
The fifth album In a Glass House is after Phillip Shulman had left and takes on a more straight but very complex prog rock character. My pick from this album is the more dreamy song An Inmate's Lullaby.
An Inmate's Lullaby - Gentle Giant (1973) - YouTube
The sixth album The Power and the Glory is a political satire concept album and has this tremendous opening song Proclamation. Complex and jazzy and delightful. Maximum prog rock.
Proclamation - YouTube
The seventh album Free Hand is a touch more populist while not compromising the complexity. The fan favourite is probably the title track but I'm going to pick the opener Just the Same. It's just so damn bouncy!
Just the Same (2012 Remaster) - YouTube
The remaining four studio albums aren't all that unfortunately. But who does seven classics in a row?
Anyway, there's a beginner's guide to Gentle Giant that nobody asked for.
Gentle giant: funny ways - YouTube
The second album Acquiring the Taste is their most experimental. It's a very odd hypnotic stew. I think the most ambitious song on it is the Moon is Down. A bit of a deep cut here but at same time I think it might be the best thing ever did.
The Moon Is Down - YouTube
The band included three Shulman brothers, the eldest being born before the war in the Gorbals Glasgow, the younger two in Portsmouth after the war. They were an aspirational working class family but older brother Phillip is a self declared socialist and had experienced a tough early childhood. The third album Three Friends is a concept album straight up tackling themes of class and alienation. The song Peel the Paint is about an artist who has escaped the rat race but finds his art empty precisely because of his splendid isolation. It features contrasting peaceful and angry themes which are shadowed in each other. Somebody did a rather good animation for this song. Anyway here it is:
Gentle Giant - Peel The Paint (Official Video) - YouTube
The fourth album Octopus is sometimes considered their best although everybody has their own favourite. Knots is going to be my pick from this album. It's an insanely complex vocal canon about the work of psychologist RD Lang. It's something completely unlike anything anybody else was doing.
Gentle Giant - Knots - YouTube
The fifth album In a Glass House is after Phillip Shulman had left and takes on a more straight but very complex prog rock character. My pick from this album is the more dreamy song An Inmate's Lullaby.
An Inmate's Lullaby - Gentle Giant (1973) - YouTube
The sixth album The Power and the Glory is a political satire concept album and has this tremendous opening song Proclamation. Complex and jazzy and delightful. Maximum prog rock.
Proclamation - YouTube
The seventh album Free Hand is a touch more populist while not compromising the complexity. The fan favourite is probably the title track but I'm going to pick the opener Just the Same. It's just so damn bouncy!
Just the Same (2012 Remaster) - YouTube
The remaining four studio albums aren't all that unfortunately. But who does seven classics in a row?
Anyway, there's a beginner's guide to Gentle Giant that nobody asked for.
savoloysam
Pigman's pigman's ha ha charade you are..
I've been enjoying some of Band of Geeks videos. They're a covers band who have reproduced some Yes songs perfectly (among other things). They've really nailed the sound. It's great watching them, it's like having a fly's eye view on Yes in the studio or something. And let's be fair nailing that sound is really difficult a part from the technicality of the music. Yes were a really strange sounding band, bit of a weird thing that they were ever popular. Anyway this is a lot of fun:
Close To The Edge - A Band Geek Yes Cover with Chris Clark - YouTube
Close To The Edge - A Band Geek Yes Cover with Chris Clark - YouTube
Short lived band Mad Curry were a recent discovery for me. Lilting, jazzy, swinging organ driven Flemish rock. Singer Viona Westra makes it the thing it is.
Mad Curry - Jack Is Away (1970) HQ - YouTube
Mad Curry - Jack Is Away (1970) HQ - YouTube
An introduction to Henry Cow that nobody asked for.
Henry Cow's core were three Cambridge University students Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson and John Greeves who had formed a blues/folk rock band but had developed an interest in complex, free jazz and modern classical music. Drummer and working class autodidact Chris Cutler joined later and became the band's ideological spokesman. And yes this band is full of ideology, both political and artistic.
Whereas most prog rock starts with references to Sergeant Pepper and Days of Future Past, this is absolutely not the case with Henry Cow who were more inspired by The Soft Machine and the improvised noise of AMM. Their music was both very improvisational and over considered as they would thrash out their ideas in intense band meetings. On first listening it would be difficult to describe their music as rock of any form, rather a distinctly European form of jazz.
The track Amygdala is one of their most through composed pieces and is a sequence of stitched together spidery passages. It's not heavily rhythmic music, it's not interested in grooves and what little grooves there are are broken up as the tune jumps to new rhythmic patterns which are more likely to be held by the reeds than the bass and/or drums. So the drums and bass are more about providing harmonic and textural substance than a rhythmic lead. Jazz guitar/sax/flute and a very buzzy (Farfisa?) organ map out the tune which despite its highly fragmented nature is actually highly melodic and, I think, full of a very distinctive character. The odd blasts of fuzz bass sound very Soft Machine inspired, but otherwise it's very difficult to place it in any particular musical tradition. Progressive rock bands such as Yes and King Crimson were still very much pop/rock outfits with various baroque elaboration and extension. This is something else where pop/rock traditions are only one relatively minor component. To further discombobulate your average prog rock fan, the emphasis on tight precision has been dropped for a more jazzy looseness and noise is now a central component. It sits parallel to the Canterbury scene, the free jazz scene and freak folk outfits such as Comus and Jan Dukes de Grey.
HENRY COW...02 - Amygdala - YouTube
They weren't confident composers and struggled to come up with enough material for their second album, they took a cue from German avant gardists Faust and used the studio to shape their improvisations. The second half of this album is a wonderland of strange disturbing noise and half sung vocals taking them even further from rock normality.
Henry Cow - Linguaphonie - YouTube
A little later they merged with eccentric pop band Slapp Happy and produced an album of avant pop/rock and another of fiery Marxist epics (plus some obligatory improvised noise).
Bad Alchemy - YouTube
For a period they lived on the continent and toured. At this time they composed of Frith, Hodgkinson and Cutler, plus bassoonist Lindsay Cooper, bassist Georgie Born and singer Dagmar Krause. Sadly unusual for the time to have half the band as female members. Here they are playing a Phil Oches cover - one of the more accessible things they ever did.
Henry Cow - No More Songs - YouTube
Their last album is instrumental, less improvisational and closer to modern classical than ever before.
Henry Cow - Day by Day: ½ the Sky - YouTube
I think they created a melodic and harmonic language to carve out a certain European identity, like they were building something new that nevertheless failed to catch on in any serious way. It's perhaps an odd thing to say given how chaotic and difficult their music was, but I think it's highly melodic and expressive. It feels rooted in folk and classical traditions rather than rhythm and blues. I hear it as melancholic but hopeful. It's a musical language that will leave you hungry for more once you have absorbed it.
Henry Cow's core were three Cambridge University students Fred Frith, Tim Hodgkinson and John Greeves who had formed a blues/folk rock band but had developed an interest in complex, free jazz and modern classical music. Drummer and working class autodidact Chris Cutler joined later and became the band's ideological spokesman. And yes this band is full of ideology, both political and artistic.
Whereas most prog rock starts with references to Sergeant Pepper and Days of Future Past, this is absolutely not the case with Henry Cow who were more inspired by The Soft Machine and the improvised noise of AMM. Their music was both very improvisational and over considered as they would thrash out their ideas in intense band meetings. On first listening it would be difficult to describe their music as rock of any form, rather a distinctly European form of jazz.
The track Amygdala is one of their most through composed pieces and is a sequence of stitched together spidery passages. It's not heavily rhythmic music, it's not interested in grooves and what little grooves there are are broken up as the tune jumps to new rhythmic patterns which are more likely to be held by the reeds than the bass and/or drums. So the drums and bass are more about providing harmonic and textural substance than a rhythmic lead. Jazz guitar/sax/flute and a very buzzy (Farfisa?) organ map out the tune which despite its highly fragmented nature is actually highly melodic and, I think, full of a very distinctive character. The odd blasts of fuzz bass sound very Soft Machine inspired, but otherwise it's very difficult to place it in any particular musical tradition. Progressive rock bands such as Yes and King Crimson were still very much pop/rock outfits with various baroque elaboration and extension. This is something else where pop/rock traditions are only one relatively minor component. To further discombobulate your average prog rock fan, the emphasis on tight precision has been dropped for a more jazzy looseness and noise is now a central component. It sits parallel to the Canterbury scene, the free jazz scene and freak folk outfits such as Comus and Jan Dukes de Grey.
HENRY COW...02 - Amygdala - YouTube
They weren't confident composers and struggled to come up with enough material for their second album, they took a cue from German avant gardists Faust and used the studio to shape their improvisations. The second half of this album is a wonderland of strange disturbing noise and half sung vocals taking them even further from rock normality.
Henry Cow - Linguaphonie - YouTube
A little later they merged with eccentric pop band Slapp Happy and produced an album of avant pop/rock and another of fiery Marxist epics (plus some obligatory improvised noise).
Bad Alchemy - YouTube
For a period they lived on the continent and toured. At this time they composed of Frith, Hodgkinson and Cutler, plus bassoonist Lindsay Cooper, bassist Georgie Born and singer Dagmar Krause. Sadly unusual for the time to have half the band as female members. Here they are playing a Phil Oches cover - one of the more accessible things they ever did.
Henry Cow - No More Songs - YouTube
Their last album is instrumental, less improvisational and closer to modern classical than ever before.
Henry Cow - Day by Day: ½ the Sky - YouTube
I think they created a melodic and harmonic language to carve out a certain European identity, like they were building something new that nevertheless failed to catch on in any serious way. It's perhaps an odd thing to say given how chaotic and difficult their music was, but I think it's highly melodic and expressive. It feels rooted in folk and classical traditions rather than rhythm and blues. I hear it as melancholic but hopeful. It's a musical language that will leave you hungry for more once you have absorbed it.
belboid
Exasperated, not angry.
With gatefold sleeve by Roger Dean, I hope
Here's a little introduction to the Third Ear Band. Not only did nobody ask for this, but it's not very good - I really don't know much about the band's history. What I do know is that it was percussionist Glen Sweeney's baby and that Sweeney was a lot older than the other members of the band and was very much the leader. It's easy to find words to describe the sound of the band but really difficult to put them together in a way that makes any sense. Fundamentally it's a drone music over a raga rhythm. There's elements of folk, rock, free jazz and even classical in there, but it's more what the musicians are bringing to it than some sort of fusion. It's not progressive rock but then again it belongs to no other genre under sun and I could argue that it was part of an broadening and enriching of popular music in the late 60's/early 70's that 'progressive rock' encompasses if you stretch the definition to breaking point.
I tend to think of the core of the band as being the line up on the second album. That's Sweeney plus cellist Ursula Smith, violinist Richard Coff and Paul Minns leading on oboe. That looks like a classical chamber ensemble, but if it is it's an experimental minimalist one.
There's some interesting footage of the band on youtube.
Here is a classic set up. Percussion loop and string drones and Minns' fantastic soloing.
Live on French TV 28 05 1970
Here they are with an electric guitarist (Denny Bridges?) and a second percussionist, giving the sound a more psych rock tinge.
Druid Grocking
If you want to go to the albums it's the first two - Alchemy and the self titled second album - that catches the band at their most unique and creative. Improvisation and interplay in a non-jazz setting. I can't get enough of Paul Minns woodwinds.
The third album is a soundtrack to the Roman Polanski's Macbeth film, which emphasises the horror elements of Shakespeare's play. Some dark and gritty noises on this and now with added bass and guitar. Simon House later of Hawkwind joins on violin and Paul Buckmaster rejoins on bass and cello. It's a good atmospheric album but with non of the extended jams. Here's a little medievalist song with non other than a young Keith Chegwin singing Chaucer.
Fleance
So now you know how to set a quiz question linking Hawkwind, Chaucer and Keith Chegwin.
Here's a bit of latter day TEB. It's nice enough but they lost their edge through the years.
Third Ear Raga
Air is my favourite thing by them. Acid driven flighty improvisation that evokes the wind buffeting and howling perfectly. The sounds all four of them get out of their instruments... It's terrifying how good it is.
I tend to think of the core of the band as being the line up on the second album. That's Sweeney plus cellist Ursula Smith, violinist Richard Coff and Paul Minns leading on oboe. That looks like a classical chamber ensemble, but if it is it's an experimental minimalist one.
There's some interesting footage of the band on youtube.
Here is a classic set up. Percussion loop and string drones and Minns' fantastic soloing.
Live on French TV 28 05 1970
Here they are with an electric guitarist (Denny Bridges?) and a second percussionist, giving the sound a more psych rock tinge.
Druid Grocking
If you want to go to the albums it's the first two - Alchemy and the self titled second album - that catches the band at their most unique and creative. Improvisation and interplay in a non-jazz setting. I can't get enough of Paul Minns woodwinds.
The third album is a soundtrack to the Roman Polanski's Macbeth film, which emphasises the horror elements of Shakespeare's play. Some dark and gritty noises on this and now with added bass and guitar. Simon House later of Hawkwind joins on violin and Paul Buckmaster rejoins on bass and cello. It's a good atmospheric album but with non of the extended jams. Here's a little medievalist song with non other than a young Keith Chegwin singing Chaucer.
Fleance
So now you know how to set a quiz question linking Hawkwind, Chaucer and Keith Chegwin.
Here's a bit of latter day TEB. It's nice enough but they lost their edge through the years.
Third Ear Raga
Air is my favourite thing by them. Acid driven flighty improvisation that evokes the wind buffeting and howling perfectly. The sounds all four of them get out of their instruments... It's terrifying how good it is.
Sticking to a strict definition ie. not including eg. Can, there were still a few 70's German bands that qualify as prog rock. Eloy, Triumverate, Tetragon, Wallenstein, Epsilon, Epidermis. My favourite, though is Wind (previously known as Corporal Gander's Fire Dog Brigade, and before that Bentox). The origins of Bentox go right back to the mid 60's, but I don't know anything about them at that time. I guess they were some sort of beat group originally. But anyway have a listen to this heavy/prog rock from Wind. Kinda stormin' innit.
petee
no gods, no malarkey
petee
no gods, no malarkey
not my cup of tea!
blossie33
trailer trash
I really can't remember now.
I'm sure they were great musicians, just not the sort of thing I liked so I couldn't really appreciate them properly
TBF Opeth got pretty good once they dropped the silly growling. Of course it's very fashionable to like Opeth.I guess the idea of what progressive rock is has changed over time. Now it basically means Tool and Opeth and Dream Theater and the like. Of the old bands it's Rush who are held as the main originators of the scene.
Dream Theater are so bad they are good. Completely over the top, tasteless, silly lyrics. Wonderful. But the Astonishing was awful.
Symphony X are much better.
I enjoy Symphony X's preposterous aesthetic, but it's not music of any great value IMO
Have you heard The Tangent?
I think with a lot of prog rock you have to develop a taste for the tasteless and over the top. It's like with folk, you have to get a taste for the twee sometimes. I struggle with these prog metal bands though. Just not my thing I guess. I like my metal vague and black.
petee
no gods, no malarkey
no, i haven't. will look them up.
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