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Of course this discussion brings out all the "that one guy"s. And I am that one guy, twice over. As regards Genesis, I find their period of evolution from prog to pop fascinating, and Abacab a great record for this. Then again, one of my favorite long-form tracks from the Collins era is Fading Lights, so I'm probably the sort of person most people in this thread would set on fire before seriously considering my opinion. On the ELP side of things, one of my favorite records of theirs is Works v. 1, and I feel it's incredibly underrated, especially as the solo sides are dismissed as being subordinate to the one group side. Unless my ears totally deceive me, Keith and Carl show up on Greg's side and Keith and Greg are on Carl's side, so, whatever. (Emo's concerto is an actual solo effort.) Emerson's concerto is catchy as anything, which probably shows that I'm some sort of cretin about classical music. Lake's collection of bizarre orchestral pop is fantastic (though some of the lyrics try to out-goofy "someone get me a ladder".) The stomping "Hallowed Be Thy Name" is just plain fun, and probably the highlight. Palmer's side has possibly some of his most energetic drumming (Food For Your Soul) and a guest appearance by Joe Walsh. Walsh was probably so high he started scat singing over breakfast and just happened to wander into the studio where the group was cutting LA Nights and wound up behind a microphone. The group side is pretty solid, though Pirates could have used a stronger editorial hand. I mean, obviously, it's no Trilogy or Brain Salad Surgery, but it's miles away from Love Beach.
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Nov 8, 2012 19:54
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JAMOOOL posted:Also, add "Selling England by the Pound" to the Genesis list. If I hadn't started with that album, I'd probably never have gotten into them. Maybe take off "Abacab" (as mentioned) - I think it's a fine album and one of the best of the post-Gabriel era, but it's only as "prog" as 90125. I LOVE 90125 No just kidding, it's a pretty bland record  Anyways, I forgot to mention that I also intend to get King Crimson's "Lark's Tongue In Aspic" and "Starless and Bible Black." Are any of their DVDs worth getting?I'm also a big fan of 70s fusion (Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Headhunters, Allan Holdsworth, 11th House, etc.) and I notice that the two genres can sound pretty similar at times. I think if you played someone Return To Forever's "Romantic Warrior" and Yes' "Fragile" next to each other, they'd probably assume that it's the same genre of music. I suppose the main differences is that fusion tends to emphasize improvisation and prog is more likely to have vocals. Fusion in the 70s tended to be more willing to add elements of funk, as well.
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Nov 8, 2012 23:27
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Seventh Arrow posted:I LOVE 90125 Neal and Jack and Me, definitely. The Japan concert on there is from the same tour as the phenomenal Absent Lovers live album, and the performance is of comparable quality. The Frejus concert isn't quite as good, but it features a stunning performance of The Sheltering Sky, and, uh, they actually play Neal and Jack and Me. Edit: Be aware that this is '80s King Crimson, though, so it'll be a bit jarring if you're expecting Schizoid Man or something. It's far, far better than what just about any other old guard prog band was doing at the time, but their sound has got just as much in common with Talking Heads as with their old material. Edit 2: Also I'll probably never understand why Selling England is regarded by so many as Genesis' masterpiece. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight and Firth of Fifth are brilliant, but I think they're the only truly classic tracks on there. The Battle of Epping Forest in particular I've always thought is poo poo. I'd recommend Nursery Cryme or Trick of the Tail over it as a starting point. Abacab is one of my favorite Genesis albums until I remember that it doesn't end after Dodo/Lurker. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Nov 9, 2012 |
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Nov 9, 2012 00:52
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Smekerman posted:For Gentle Giant, you could probably just err on the side of caution and just go with Free Hand, which is fairly accessible (for Gentle Giant) and also happens to be one of their better albums. I recently picked up the album that Tony Levin did with David Torn and Alan White, so I'm not a person who worries about accessibility  I even have both Bozzio-Levin-Stevens albums. That said, Free Hand isn't on iTunes so I'll check CD Universe for it.Rollersnake posted:Edit: Be aware that this is '80s King Crimson, though, so it'll be a bit jarring if you're expecting Schizoid Man or something. It's far, far better than what just about any other old guard prog band was doing at the time, but their sound has got just as much in common with Talking Heads as with their old material. I really liked Discipline, so I don't think 80's King Crimson is such a bad thing. Adrian Belew is the man who made King Crimson funky.
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Nov 9, 2012 01:18
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Seventh Arrow posted:I really liked Discipline, so I don't think 80's King Crimson is such a bad thing. Adrian Belew is the man who made King Crimson funky. Oh good. The '80s band is one of my favorite eras of King Crimson, but it hasn't always been that way. I picked up Three of a Perfect Pair in the midst of my high school "everything pop is crap" phase, and I remember "Man with an Open Heart" making me feel physically ill. I'd also recommend Free Hand as an intro to Gentle Giant—it's one of those uncommon cases where "more accessible" isn't synonymous with "less adventurous." Having heard pretty much everything they've ever released, it's still my second or third-favorite Gentle Giant album. If you're not too concerned with accessibility, though, feel free to pick up Interview right away. That is on iTunes, and that one really enthusiastic 5 star review is mine.
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Nov 9, 2012 01:45
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Rollersnake posted:Edit 2: Also I'll probably never understand why Selling England is regarded by so many as Genesis' masterpiece. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight and Firth of Fifth are brilliant, but I think they're the only truly classic tracks on there. The Battle of Epping Forest in particular I've always thought is poo poo. I'd recommend Nursery Cryme or Trick of the Tail over it as a starting point. I'm actually mostly on board with this, there's a severe drop-off in quality after Knight, Wardrobe and Fifth, but I think The Cinema Show, though lyrically slight, is one of the flat-out best tunes the group ever wrote. I'd say Tail or Foxtrot, rather than Cryme, though. Literally nothing off that LP grabs me beyond Musical Box.
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Nov 9, 2012 03:17
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Allen Wren posted:I'm actually mostly on board with this, there's a severe drop-off in quality after Knight, Wardrobe and Fifth, but I think The Cinema Show, though lyrically slight, is one of the flat-out best tunes the group ever wrote. I'd say Tail or Foxtrot, rather than Cryme, though. Literally nothing off that LP grabs me beyond Musical Box. Really? Man, I love Seven Stones, it has one of the best mellotron "drops" in history, it never ceases to give me goosebumps. Harold the Barrel is a pretty awesome song, too, I prefer it over I Know What I Like as far as poppy Genesis songs go. The rest of the songs are great, too, though I guess they're growers. I wasn't really into Return of the Giant Hogweed until I listened to the remake on Hackett's Genesis Revisited II and I realized that the original song was actually pretty drat good. Also, Harlequin is really pretty. As for King Crimson DVDs, Neal and Jack and Me is a great concert, but it's almost unwatchable for me due to the lovely effects they have on the video. I greatly prefer the Frejus concert just because I can see what the gently caress's going on. I also remember DejaVroom being pretty drat good but I haven't seen it in years and I'm a few thousand miles away from my DVDs at the moment. Really, you can't really go wrong with King Crimson live, it just depends what musical periods of theirs you prefer, I guess. I actually really like the Eyes Wide Open DVD, too, but then again I really like Power to Believe. Speaking of DVDs, you should see if you can find Gentle Giant's live DVDs. They were pretty amazing live. If you must choose one, Giant on the Box is probably the one to own. It mainly features material from Power and the Glory and In a Glass House, with a medley from Octopus. The performance of So Sincere blew my mind when I first saw it. GG at the GG unfortunately features a lot of material from The Missing Piece which is slightly underwhelming (with the exception of Memories of Old Days, which is an absolutely gorgeous song and the live rendition is probably better than the album version). The older material still sounds great, though.
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Nov 9, 2012 04:44
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I'm one of the few who like "The Battle of Epping Forest", particularly the odd part in the middle! But uhh..I realize it's kind of out there. You're right about 70's jazz-fusion - it seems to appeal way more to prog guys than jazz guys. Anyway if that's up your alley you may want to check out some Magma if you haven't already. That dips into a genre called "Zuehl" which is kind of tangentally related to prog but has the same epic feeling and dazzling musicianship as anything prog rock has to offer. Plus, I don't think a second listen to an album like MDK is necessary since you pretty much will know if they appeal to you right away.
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Nov 9, 2012 16:36
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Wow, there's quite a bit more Magma on youtube than there was the last time I checked. If you only ever listen to one Magma track, it should be Hhai—one of the most profoundly uplifting pieces of music I've ever heard. But really you should listen to more, like the apocalyptic De Futura, and oh hey, here's Attahk in its entirety. Really you can't go wrong with Magma—I even dig their goofy '80s disco stuff. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 20:08 on Nov 9, 2012 |
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Nov 9, 2012 20:01
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Mellomeh posted:Thank you so much for posting this, I've not been able to stop listening, she's incredible. The whole album is on Spotify by the way, as are her two previous albums under the moniker Rockettothesky. Nice! Yes man, absolutely. I listen to Viscera on a weekly basis.
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Nov 11, 2012 22:06
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Another nice dvd is the "21st Century Schizoid Band" live in Japan, 2002. It has people from the Peter Sinfield years reunited: Ian McDonald, Mel Collins, Peter Giles, Michael Giles. The lead singer and guitarist of the band is Jakko Jakszyk, who was part of last year's King Crimson Projekct with Robert Fripp, Mel Collins, Tony Levin, and Porcupine Tree's Gavin Harrison. They perform songs from In The Court of the Crimson King, In the Wake of Poseidon, and Islands; alongside the McDonald and Giles album plus a couple of new tunes. Instead of opening with soundscapes or frippertronics, the show opens with nice ambient washes of mellotron sounds. Later live albums by the band have Ian Wallace on drums, and they perform more tracks from Lizard.
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Nov 11, 2012 22:58
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So I'm not sure this has been covered over the course of the 21 pages, but I'd like to ask a question regarding a band. So, the only real prog stuff I've been exposed to, and absolutely love, is Fragile, Close to the Edge, and Court of the Crimson King. My friend showed me ELP's self-titled album and I liked some of it, and I've listened to him playing For the Power and Glory by Gentle Giant and hated nearly all of it. Now, on the second page, someone suggested Free Hand by GG because it was rather close to Fragile. Do you guys think it'd be worth it to check out if I hated Power and Glory or will my love of Fragile likely connect me closer to it? I'm guessing it's hard to tell because it's all based on musical preference, but I'd like some opinions before I try listening. Also, I'm thinking of trying out Tales from Topographic Oceans. I loved the song Close to the Edge, so are four 18 minute plus songs good? I've heard it's an extremely divided album, criticism-wise, so I'm a little skeptical on it all.
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Nov 13, 2012 21:49
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Sir Potato posted:So I'm not sure this has been covered over the course of the 21 pages, but I'd like to ask a question regarding a band. TFTO is a lot less structured than CTTE was. So if you liked the organ meanderings go for it. It's very different than Fragile and Close to the Edge though. You'd probably like Relayer a bit more. iamathousandapples fucked around with this message at 22:45 on Nov 13, 2012 |
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Nov 13, 2012 22:36
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You might as well listen to the other GG record because if you don't like it, you can always turn it off. Tales From Topographic Oceans has about twenty minutes of good ideas in its eighty minutes of music. Apples is correct, Relayer is better.
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Nov 13, 2012 23:08
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Sir Potato posted:Now, on the second page, someone suggested Free Hand by GG because it was rather close to Fragile. Do you guys think it'd be worth it to check out if I hated Power and Glory or will my love of Fragile likely connect me closer to it? Free Hand isn't too far stylistically from where they were on Power and the Glory, so I'd think if you don't like one you probably wouldn't care for the other. I wouldn't say it's much like Fragile either—I'd liken Acquiring the Taste or Octopus more to Fragile in their diversity and inconsistency. I'd definitely give it a chance though, or check out the Out of the Woods/Totally Out of the Woods compilation for a great live-in-the-studio overview of Gentle Giant's career. Also, for whatever this is worth, "Isn't It Quiet and Cold?" is the one Gentle Giant song I've found even people who don't like Gentle Giant always enjoy, and to a lesser extent "A Reunion" from In a Glass House. iamathousandapples posted:TFTO is a lot less structured than CTTE was. So if you liked the organ meanderings go for it. It's very different than Fragile and Close to the Edge though. You'd probably like Relayer a bit more. Tales from Topographic Oceans gets a bad rap for being bloated, sprawling, or whatever, but I think it's just one that takes a lot of time to appreciate. The Ancient is pretty much the weirdest thing they ever did, The Remembering feels tremendously inspirational, Ritual clearly shows they weren't any worse off without Bruford, and The Revealing Science of God... well, it's the one part of Tales I don't consider truly great, but it's still quite good and doesn't lower my opinion of the album as a whole. But yeah, Relayer is amazing too, and The Gates of Delirium is probably the most epic song they ever did. Tales and Relayer are my two favorite Yes albums, and you can't go wrong with either. Rollersnake fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 13, 2012 |
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Nov 13, 2012 23:37
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Sir Potato posted:So I'm not sure this has been covered over the course of the 21 pages, but I'd like to ask a question regarding a band. They sound nothing alike. Gentle Giant's music in general doesn't sound like anything else out there. I mean, I guess you could make the argument that Bruford's song on Fragile (Five Percent something or other) sounds like GG, but that's because of the weird time signature and somewhat atonal sound. Other than that, I'm drawing a blank as to how they'd sound similar. I can definitely see you hating Power and the Glory, though, as it has a lot of weird, atonal tracks (So Sincere is probably the epitome of that style - I've heard someone describe it as the band playing three different songs at once). For what it's worth, Free Hand is a lot more straightforward and has no atonal parts that I can remember. His Last Voyage also happens to be one of their prettiest songs (after Memories of Old Days). edit: See if you like these tracks, I guess. Youtubes. His Last Voyage On Reflection Just the Same Smekerman fucked around with this message at 20:10 on Nov 14, 2012 |
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Nov 14, 2012 20:07
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I think even the people who defend TFTO would agree that you should probably get the other good 70's albums by Yes before Tales. I thought the same thing but these tracks are nothing like "Close to the Edge".
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Nov 16, 2012 16:14
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Allen Wren posted:Tales From Topographic Oceans has about twenty minutes of good ideas in its eighty minutes of music. Apples is correct, Relayer is better. This is exactly right. My theory is that 95% of double albums would be better as single albums.
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Nov 17, 2012 03:10
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I think it says a lot about TFTO that even Rick Wakeman thought it was pretentious. I'm kind of surprised to see all the love for Relayer. I like parts of "Gates of Delirium" but the album is way too dense for my liking. I don't mind dense when it's King Crimson doing it but it just seems off to me when Yes is doing it.
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Nov 17, 2012 08:04
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Well, I did say I thought that Relayer is better---not really great. The "Soon" coda to Gates of Delirium and To Be Over are about all I'm really into on that LP. Also, the guy that started this particular conversational thread said he was already into Fragile and Close to the Edge, so those were taken as given. Hell, in retrospect, I'd suggest Going For The One over TFTO or Relayer, but I'm secretly a dirty pop music fan at heart.
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Nov 17, 2012 15:06
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Relayer, probably due to its denseness, takes a surprising amount of time to get into. Maybe I just listened far too much to Yes' other pre-1978 albums way too much, and finally started to give this guy a chance, but on long rides home, there was a period of time where I just blasted this bad boy for 40 minutes in my car. Sometimes you do kind of fade out of listening to a small section or two in Gates of Delirium, but I've come around to most of the album. To Sir Potato, if you loved Close to the Edge (song, not album), and want something similar, I'd try Rush's 2112 (song, not album -- not that the rest of the album is bad, far from it, it's just an entirely different change of pace from the song 2112). Both songs are about the same length, have their ups and downs of fast-paces, energetic sections, and their wonderful, slower, more melodic sections. I have a large boner for 2112, and don't really pay attention to lyrics in prog songs, so keep that in mind.
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Nov 17, 2012 16:21
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Speaking of 2112, it's finally getting reissued in 5.1 in mid December. It's coming out in CD/DVD and CD/bluray formats and there's a deluxe CD/bluray set which comes in a hardback book with the story in comic form. Not a fan of the revamped artwork though, the star makes it.
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Nov 18, 2012 02:02
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A comic book? Ah yes, because what I really need was to pay more attention to the story in that song. oh who am I kidding I'll probably buy it anyways
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Nov 18, 2012 02:15
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TFTO seems almost like a Jon Anderson solo album performed by Yes than a true Yes album. Olias of Sunhillow sounds pretty reminiscent of Tales in a lot of places. Olias is a pretty solid album, by the way.
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Nov 18, 2012 23:29
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Olias of Sunhillow is as good as the best Yes albums, I think. I just recently listened to it for the first time in years and couldn't believe I'd forgotten how great it is. I haven't delved further into Jon Anderson's solo career but I've heard the good/crap ratio is as bad as Wakeman's.
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Nov 19, 2012 07:52
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Smekerman posted:They sound nothing alike. Gentle Giant's music in general doesn't sound like anything else out there. I mean, I guess you could make the argument that Bruford's song on Fragile (Five Percent something or other) sounds like GG, but that's because of the weird time signature and somewhat atonal sound. Other than that, I'm drawing a blank as to how they'd sound similar. Yezda Urfa is fairly similar to Gentle Giant.
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Nov 19, 2012 08:16
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So Facebook's telling me that Van der Graaf has a new album out called Alt. Anyone partake?
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Nov 19, 2012 16:33
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It seems that it's not really an album, "Instrumental Improvs and Experiments": http://sofasound.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/alternate-stuff/
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Nov 20, 2012 20:09
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Beardfish has absolutely blown me away - thanks to everyone that recommended them. 'Turn to Gravel' reminds me of old Soundgarden 
luchadornado fucked around with this message at 20:55 on Nov 20, 2012 |
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Nov 20, 2012 20:39
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There are a ton of good prog albums on sale here: http://www.therecordlabel.net/albums/ For these prices, I would definitely recommend snagging The Third Ending, Puppet Show, Jolly, Akin, Simon Says, Dial, Under The Sun, both Jupiter Society discs, and the first Frameshift album.
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Nov 20, 2012 21:35
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The Flaming Lips and some guests recently did a track by track cover of "In the Court of the Crimson King". I don't think they're selling it. All I know is that it was provided through their internet radio station. I was only able to find it through  If you like their version of "Dark Side of the Moon", it's a very similar style. I like it.
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Nov 21, 2012 18:42
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Surfingelectrode posted:Alright, for anyone that wants a copy of the King Crimson cover album, Guestroom Records in OKC has them and is doing mailorder. The cost is $30 shipped. Quoting from the Flaming Lips thread for public service information.
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Nov 21, 2012 22:32
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Ah thanks. I looked at the Lips' site and couldn't find anything.
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Nov 22, 2012 17:27
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Hey guys, You may remember me posting some rough tracks from my prog rock project a few months back. I got some excellent constructive criticism, and we kept that in mind while finishing them up. The tracks were definitely improved as a result. I have some exciting news! We were featured in this month's issue of Prog Magazine! Here's our page:  Thanks again for all the help and suggestions. The entire EP can be streamed here: http://metamusique.bandcamp.com/
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Nov 25, 2012 03:18
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Rollersnake posted:Tales from Topographic Oceans gets a bad rap for being bloated, sprawling, or whatever, but I think it's just one that takes a lot of time to appreciate. The Ancient is pretty much the weirdest thing they ever did, The Remembering feels tremendously inspirational, Ritual clearly shows they weren't any worse off without Bruford, and The Revealing Science of God... well, it's the one part of Tales I don't consider truly great, but it's still quite good and doesn't lower my opinion of the album as a whole. Heh, this is the opposite of my opinion. I find Topographic Oceans to be meandering and pointless, except for The Revealing Science of God, which at least engages me in the first 1/3 of the song. Despite that, I still listen to all three regularly when I'm working or studying particularly intensely.
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Nov 26, 2012 10:46
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Iucounu posted:Thanks again for all the help and suggestions. The entire EP can be streamed here: I remember liking this. I'm glad to see you're getting some attention. Don't give up!
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Nov 26, 2012 19:24
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My copy of Octane Twisted arrived a couple days ago. I got the 2 cd/dvd set. It sounds great (though some parts did suffer from reduced layers of guitar). My favorite track, though, wasn't even one from The Incident. My favorite track from the set is Dislocated Day off of The Sky Moves Sideways. So I was very excited to pop in the dvd...only to discover it only includes the first set! I'm feeling a bit ripped off! Anyone else as disappointed as I am?
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Nov 27, 2012 03:30
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Prog Doctor posted:My copy of Octane Twisted arrived a couple days ago. I got the 2 cd/dvd set. It sounds great (though some parts did suffer from reduced layers of guitar). My favorite track, though, wasn't even one from The Incident. My favorite track from the set is Dislocated Day off of The Sky Moves Sideways. So I was very excited to pop in the dvd...only to discover it only includes the first set! I'm feeling a bit ripped off! Anyone else as disappointed as I am? Nope. They made it pretty clear the DVD just has The Incident on it. Stars Die is the highlight for me, I've been waiting so long to hear a live version of that  The only thing I'm disappointed about is how low John Wesley's vocals are in the mix, he's always a highlight in their live performances.
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Nov 27, 2012 05:27
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david puddy posted:Nope. They made it pretty clear the DVD just has The Incident on it. Stars Die is the highlight for me, I've been waiting so long to hear a live version of that Ah. I guess I missed that in the description.  And yeah, John's vocals are terribly low - I think the only reason I can hear them on Your Unpleasant Family is because I know they're there. Prog Doctor fucked around with this message at 05:47 on Nov 27, 2012 |
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Nov 27, 2012 05:35
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Speaking of Steven Wilson...quote:The new album by Steven Wilson and band “The Raven that Refused to Sing (and other stories)” will be released on Kscope on 25th February. The album was written between January-July and recorded in Los Angeles in September with Steven’s current band line up of Guthrie Govan – lead guitar, Nick Beggs – bass guitar, Marco Minnemann – drums, Adam Holzman – keyboards, Theo Travis – saxophone / flute and engineered by legendary producer/engineer Alan Parsons. So excited for this, his band lineup is wicked here.
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Nov 29, 2012 01:42
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