Recomend Me Some Prog!

[40footwolf]

Recommend me some prog, you dudes! Progressive metal is welcome, too.

Bands I like:

Genesis
King Crimson
Aphrodite's Child
Cynic
Mastodon
Pink Floyd
Hawkwind
Tool

Prog I don't like:

Dream Theater
Symphony-X
Rush
Glass Hammer
The Flower Kings
Renaissance
The Mars Volta
Muse

Prog I'm on the fence about:

Yes
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Curved Air
Van Der Graaf Generator

Help a brother out?

(NOTE: I am not actually a brother)

[Riddles_McMurphy]

It's okay to be a brother.

[40footwolf]

It's okay to be a brother.
Oh, I'm not disputing that at all, I'm just saying that it would be untruthful if I stated that I was a brother.

[howyadoin]

(NOTE: I am not actually a brother)Best disclaimer ever.

P.S. This might be blurring the boundaries a little, but how do you feel about Supertramp?

[FanboyStranger]

Not really prog at all, but Built to Spill Perfect From Now On.

[Ilash]

Um... Jethro Tull?

[berk]

...

Prog I'm on the fence about:

Yes
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Curved Air
Van Der Graaf Generator

...I like three of these four - haven't listened to Curved Air. Which albums have you tried by them?

[Jonathan Bogart]

Try:

Magma
Gong
Soft Machine
Comus
Haizea
Caravan
Popul Vuh
Faust
Premiata Forneria Marconi
Alpes & Catherine Ribeiro

A lot of these are in languages other than English, which might help if you're not crazy about prog's goofy sci-fi lyrics.

[40footwolf]

Try:

Magma
Gong
Soft Machine
Comus
Haizea
Caravan
Popul Vuh
Faust
Premiata Forneria Marconi
Alpes & Catherine Ribeiro

A lot of these are in languages other than English, which might help if you're not crazy about prog's goofy sci-fi lyrics.

I classify Soft Machine more as jazz than anything else, honestly. Progressive jazz? I dunno. I like what I've heard, though. Gong is a little...there's a time and a place for Gong, in my mind. And I heard Magma sings in their own language, which is just...unacceptably silly. Faust and Caravan seem interesting, though, I might check them out.

Berk: By Yes I have "Fragile", which I enjoy, and "The Yes Album", which I do not so much enjoy. ELP I've just heard bits and pieces of but I'm thinking of getting Brain Salad Surgery, and by VDGG I have "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other".

Ilash I am not at all a fan of Jethro Tull, which I should have added up there, but it slipped my mind at the time. Thank you, though.

[berk]

For Yes, I think their top two albums are Close to the Edge and Relayer. Not sure how you'll like them based on your reactions so far. If you want to try one album, go for Close to the Edge, it's really the pinnacle of their sound, the album where I think they came closest to nailing exactly what it was they were going for. If you like that one, try Relayer, then maybe Going for the One. Topographic Oceans I think would have been a great single album, but the double album contains some weak material IMO. Wakeman, Howe, and Anderson each did some fantastic solo records as well, with the standout probably Wakeman's Six Wives of Henry VIII. Yes's best music I think really takes some repeated listening and serious attention for its strengths to sink in, but it's worth the effort.


ELP's a bit tougher for me to recommend, because I find even the best of their albums are a mixture of some really top-rate material and some pretty awful self-indulgence. Their worst stuff, I think, really embodies the worst of the genre and what gave prog such a bad reputation after a while: full of pointless solo noodling and annoying bombast. Their best stuff can be nearly as good as it gets. The trouble is, the best and worst are usually jumbled together on the same album, sometimes even on the same track. Brain Salad Surgery's a good example, and probably as good a place to start as any. My other favourites would be Trilogy and the first album.

Van der Graaf Generator I don't know as well. I only listened to a couple of their vinyl albums back in the day, and don't have anything on cd. The one I remember liking best back then was Pawn Hearts, but I haven't heard it for decades, so can't really say much about it.

Jethro Tull I like better as a hard-rock (Aqualung) or as folk-rock (Tales from the Wood) than as prog. I think of Passion Play as their big prog album, and while it contains some good stuff, on the whole I don't think it was one
of their best pieces of work. Their best of album. "M.U." or whatever it was called, has some very nice, short edits of sections from both Passion Play and Thick as a Brick which make me wonder if both those albums might not have worked better if the material had been crafted into a more conventional, short, 3-6 minute rock-song format. OTOH, I haven't listened to either album in their entirety for years, so maybe I might react differently if I heard them now.

[Ilash]

Jethro Tull I like better as a hard-rock (Aqualung) or as folk-rock (Tales from the Wood) than as prog. I think of Passion Play as their big prog album, and while it contains some good stuff, on the whole I don't think it was one
of their best pieces of work. Their best of album. "M.U." or whatever it was called, has some very nice, short edits of sections from both Passion Play and Thick as a Brick which make me wonder if both those albums might not have worked better if the material had been crafted into a more conventional, short, 3-6 minute rock-song format. OTOH, I haven't listened to either album in their entirety for years, so maybe I might react differently if I heard them now.

I don't disagree with this at all. Thick as a Brick, especially, would have made a far better conventional album.

[Julusnc]

Jethro Tull
The Cure
Queen
The Talking Heads

[howyadoin]

The Cure
The Talking HeadsI suspect you might be working from a different definition of prog rock than most people.

[Jonathan Bogart]

And I heard Magma sings in their own language, which is just...unacceptably silly.
No sillier than Sigur Ros, surely. But there's some great music there.

[Expletive Deleted]

How about the Alan Parsons Project?

[Shellhead]

How about the Alan Parsons Project?

Oh yeah. One of my favorite prog rock albums has to be Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Just listened to that again yesterday.

[berk]

No sillier than Sigur Ros, surely. But there's some great music there.I don't know Magma, but yeah, the idea of a made-up language in which to sing is a very interesting one, IMO. In fact, you might look at it as the logical extension of some of what I think bands like T. Rex or Yes were trying to do with their English lyrics, where they were often concerned with the sounds of the words and how that interacted with the music more than with the meaning. Bolan and Anderson were also trying to create, if not narratives or conventional lyrics, at least evocative images or suggestive phrases, so they didn't take the idea as far as Sigur Ros, but still, I see something of the same motivation there.

[jdwrocks]

Prog I don't like:

Dream Theater
Symphony-X
Rush
Glass Hammer
The Flower Kings
Renaissance
The Mars Volta
Muse

Not sure How Muse is considered prog. But I may be wrong about what prog means.

[berk]

How about the Alan Parsons Project?I found them a bit light-weight. Some nice tunes, though. "Time" was a standout, I thought. Very pretty melody.

[howyadoin]

Not sure How Muse is considered prog. But I may be wrong about what prog means.C'mon, "Knights Of Cydonia" has prog written all over it.

[jdwrocks]

C'mon, "Knights Of Cydonia" has prog written all over it.
So is Coheed & Cambria considered prog? Hell, their songs are based on the singers graphic novel conception. I guess I'm still confused what "prog" is. Although I'm pretty confused by most labels attributed musical acts.

[Punchy]

My favorite prog bands are Rush and Jethro Tull. My recommendations would be meaningless/

Although I'm pretty confused by most labels attributed musical acts.
Here Here!!

[howyadoin]

So is Coheed & Cambria considered prog?No idea. Never listened to them.

I guess I'm still confused what "prog" is.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prog_rock

[40footwolf]

So is Coheed & Cambria considered prog? Hell, their songs are based on the singers graphic novel conception. I guess I'm still confused what "prog" is. Although I'm pretty confused by most labels attributed musical acts.
Yeah, they're prog as all hell.

[jdwrocks]

No idea. Never listened to them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prog_rock
Here's "Welcome Home"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycMNBgoWPZg

[berk]

I agree, like most pop music sub-genres, so-called "progressive rock" or just plain "prog" is pretty hard to define. All it means to me is an attempt to bring in musical ideas and influences to pop music apart from the usual blues/country/r&b. And I think that's why there's some confusion over what's prog, as opposed to jazz-fusion, electric-folk, or what have you.

OTOH, what I think the term's come to signify to most critics since the advent of punk is the very worst aspects of that broad spectrum of approaches to pop music; especially the pointless and self-indulgent soloing, directionless compositions, laughably pretentious lyrics, and empty bombast (musical and theatrical) that characterised too much of it. Everything that made punk such a breath of fresh air when it came on the scene in the late 70s.

Which is a shame, I think, because there was a lot of fantastic music that's been unfairly tarred with the prog brush in the most negative sense. Yes in particular really deserve a closer listen. I think Topographic Oceans is the only album where they really fell prey to self-indulgence, and even 2/3 or 3/4 of that double album manages to reach a very high level, to my ears. But then I am a fan.

I really think that if anyone makes the effort to listen to the best of this sub-sub-genre with new ears, doing their best to forget their preconceptions of what either "prog" and non-"prog" pop music is supposed to be about, they'll be rewarded with some amazing discoveries.

[howyadoin]

Here's "Welcome Home"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycMNBgoWPZg (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycMNBgoWPZg)Video not available in Canada due to copyright restrictions.

[Jonathan Bogart]

I'm actually a defender of Tales From Topographic Oceans; I think it's the only Yes album that actually achieves what Yes was trying to achieve all along, and if it's silly and absurd and overlong, well, those are genre markers and have nothing to do with whether it's good or not.

(Actually the older I get the more difficult I find saying that anything's bad due to any particular qualities, because nine times out of ten I can find something with those same qualities that I think is great -- usually because of those qualities!)

For a couple years now I've had on the back burner a project that will dive into all the progressive music of the sixties and seventies, prog rock and jazz and funk and folk and electronic and ethnic music from everywhere and serve it up on a bunch of playlists. I lost a bunch of the material for the project in a hard drive crash a while back, but I still think about it every week or so. One of those before-I-die things.

[jesse_custer]

You need both Fragile and Close to the Edge by Yes. The former is a collection of individual band member songs with the solid foundation of "Roundabout" and "Heart of the Sunrise." The latter is pretty much the epitome of progressive rock.

I would stay away from Topographic Oceans. It can be painful.

[DubipR]

Of bands not listed, heres some other Prog Rock I like:

Marillion
Steve Hillage
The Moody Blues
Tangerine Dream
Sylvan
Twelfth Night
Clive Nolan

[berk]

I'm actually a defender of Tales From Topographic Oceans; I think it's the only Yes album that actually achieves what Yes was trying to achieve all along, and if it's silly and absurd and overlong, well, those are genre markers and have nothing to do with whether it's good or not.Oh, I applaud their ambition, but I don't think they quite managed to come up with enough first rate material to fill a double album with. Close, though, and the best parts, e.g. side 1, are among the best things they ever did. But as I said before, I think Close to the Edge and Relayer, are the albums where everything came together for them, and for me those are the quintessential Yes albums. But for fans, I'd recommend pretty much everything they did up to and including Tormato or Drama.

(Actually the older I get the more difficult I find saying that anything's bad due to any particular qualities, because nine times out of ten I can find something with those same qualities that I think is great -- usually because of those qualities!)Yes, I'd agree with that. My description of bad prog rock could easily be re-worded in a less negative way to describe exactly what I love about the sub-genre at its best.

For a couple years now I've had on the back burner a project that will dive into all the progressive music of the sixties and seventies, prog rock and jazz and funk and folk and electronic and ethnic music from everywhere and serve it up on a bunch of playlists. I lost a bunch of the material for the project in a hard drive crash a while back, but I still think about it every week or so. One of those before-I-die things.Sounds like a cool idea.

[OedipussyRex]

I agree with the recommendations of Close to the Edge, but personally, I find post-Bruford Yes to be a bit of a chore.

I suggest Captain Beyond, especially their eponymous first album. It's more rock than prog but it's still good stuff.

[Cash Lone]

I dont recall seeing Genesis listed in this thread yet. Lamb Lies Down is classic.
Also, the band "U.K." that had Bruford, Wetton and Jobson.

[Cash Lone]

ah, i see Genesis is listed. okay, hows about the band Gentle Giant?

[berk]

I dont recall seeing Genesis listed in this thread yet. Lamb Lies Down is classic.
Also, the band "U.K." that had Bruford, Wetton and Jobson.I like all the Gabriel-era Genesis stuff. Lamb is certainly the most ambitious and maybe the best. Selling England by the Pound probably captures the essence of their sound more than anything else. Even the first couple post-Gabriels are pretty good pastiches of Selling England.

And wasn't Alan Holdsworth on that first UK album? I liked that one.

I'd like to hear more about Gentle Giant. One of those bands I always meant to get into but never really got around to listening to much.

[Punchy]

I was listening to Tool today. They are quite prog-ish.

[berk]

I was listening to Tool today. They are quite prog-ish.Another band I've heard only casually and haven't ever gotten round to listening to more closely. Best album to start with?

[40footwolf]

Another band I've heard only casually and haven't ever gotten round to listening to more closely. Best album to start with?

Lateralus is generally considered to be their masterpiece. Be warned, it's incredibly dense and it might take a couple listens to start appreciating it-I know it did for me. It's one of my all-time favorites ever now, though.

[Ullar]

The only prog I listen to is Coheed and Cambria and I love them.

this is Delirium Trigger

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S18nnIw_h-8

[Gettles]

You might want to check out Devin Townsend

Wild Colonial Boy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4QjUTDdKJ0)

Notes from Africa (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n4jU9uZn-E)

Earth Day (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gY49vPTQ33s)

[jesse_custer]

Another band I've heard only casually and haven't ever gotten round to listening to more closely. Best album to start with?

You should start with Aenima. It's about as accessible as Tool can get, and it's also their most humorous album.

Lateralus might be their masterwork, but it took me about a year to fully appreciate the album (that is, I always liked certain songs on the album, but others had to grow on me).

[Adam C]

I classify Soft Machine more as jazz than anything else, honestly. Progressive jazz? I dunno. I like what I've heard, though.

They're on the jazzier end of prog, though close enough to rock to classify as a jazz, at least the Robert Wyatt led incarnation is. The version of the band that existed after Robert Wyatt left leans more towards instrumental fusion territory (I think that Holdsworth played guitar for them once) though whether one considers it to be outside of rock may be a matter of opinion. Though it's been awhile since I've listened to that version of the band.

And as for Faust, while I'd recommend them myself, you're pretty much looking at one of the weirdest bands of the prog-spectrum, even by the standards of Kraut Rock/Komische Musik (or Germany's answer to prog). Their first album is almost entirely bizarre tape collages that place it well outside of most "rock" music of the time, even prog. Supposedly Faust IV is more accessible, though I haven't heard the album yet.

(Agh, now I'm tempted to post a laundry list of Kraut Rock acts, even though that subgenre mines significantly different territory than Anglo-American prog.)


A lot of these are in languages other than English, which might help if you're not crazy about prog's goofy sci-fi lyrics.

This is why I respect Damo Suzuki. His lyrics are completely nonsensical and his vocals sound like one more bit of well-placed sonic texturing in Can's music.

[Punchy]

You should start with Aenima. It's about as accessible as Tool can get, and it's also their most humorous album.
I agree. Aenima is great.

[The Mirrorball Man]

And I heard Magma sings in their own language, which is just...unacceptably silly.
I've seen Magma live two weeks ago and it was mind-blowing. At the end of the day, made-up language or not, it's just good music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShPIetLInoQ).

[Eric D.]

check out:
Can, Tago Mago (1971)
Can, Ege Bamyasi (1972)
Can, Future Days (1973)
McDonald & Giles, Self-Titled (1971)
King Crimson, In the Court of The Crimson King (1969)
Pink Floyd, Meddle (1971)
Amon Düül II, Yeti (1972)
Os Mutantes, m O A e o Z (1973)
Cluster - Zuckerzeit (1974)
Silver Apples, self-titled (*heavy influence on 70's prog) (1968)
The Mars Volta, France the Mute (2005)
Pilot Drift, Water Sphere (2005)
Grails, Doomsdayer's Holiday (2008)
Zombi, Spirit Animal (2009)

[ardshipman]

No mention of Queensryche anywhere. By far one of the most underrated bands ever.

[schwamp]

I was listening to Tool today. They are quite prog-ish.

I'd say the best of the bunch, these guys. and don't let's forget Saga. I'm not aware that they are even producing new stuff anymore, but I liked what I heard of them back in the 80's. (Sigh.............the 80's)

[Don't pee in the (Dead)pool]

Tangerine Dream
Ozric Tentacles

[Hiromi]

No mention of Queensryche anywhere. By far one of the most underrated bands ever.

They were many things, underated was not one of them, they enjoyed plenty of airplay and popularity in their heyday.

[billyzoom666]

I wouldn't call them "prog" although they get lumped into that category sometimes, but I've been on a big ELO kick lately. Maybe the first couple records were proggy, until Lynne perfected his ability to write lush pop hooks. Also, more psychy/avant garde then prog, but how about trying Mono, Acid Mother's Temple or Thee Silver Mt Zion.

[Eric D.]

I heard Magma sings in their own language, which is just...unacceptably silly.

sometimes the music is so good that the words are almost irrelevant.