Prog Rock

Prettyblack

Anyone into Progressive Rock? King Crimson, Yes, Gentle Giant, Caravan, early Genesis etc?

I'm a massive King Crimson fan and I think any lover of rock / metal should be too! Their mid 70s and also modern era albums are really heavy and rifftastic. Also a big fan of Yes, at least up to their mid 70s period.

First got into prog when I was 17 in school, loved the whimsy of it and of course a lot of it had to do with drugs! Caravan were a very whimiscal, English band, I'd recommend their In The Land Of Grey And Pink album.

Was never into ELP. I always figured prog's "golden age" to be 1969 - 1974. Anything after that was just too bloated and pretentious.

Somnus

I like prog rock but I don't know that many bands funnily.
For me it stemmed from my interest in progressive metal bands like Opeth and Dream Theater, I started to get into other prog stuff then, all though I still have a lot to learn on the standard prog rock.

The main old school prog band I like is Camel. Who are fantastic, Lady Fantasy is a song way ahead of it's time in my mind.
I've listened to bits and pieces of King Crimson and the early Genesis stuff but never a full album.

My room mate now is a massive prog and old school rock fan though, so I expect to get an education :P

mike65

To a degree, but its very hit and miss and the bands that tend to fall into "prog" are also very hit and miss for the most part I find, Yes being a good example - early-mid stuff good, mid-later 1970s terrible (bloat ahoy), then better again.

King Crimson very good at their best, Floyd are the daddy though.

The other thing about prog is that the numbers of bands is just huge when you rope in acts that carved out a cult following but little else or worked on the Continent - all those acts like Grobschnitt, Amon Duul 11, etc.

http://www.progarchives.com/

Jemmaa

Prettyblack wrote: »

Anyone into Progressive Rock? King Crimson, Yes, Gentle Giant, Caravan, early Genesis etc?

I'm a massive King Crimson fan and I think any lover of rock / metal should be too! Their mid 70s and also modern era albums are really heavy and rifftastic. Also a big fan of Yes, at least up to their mid 70s period.

First got into prog when I was 17 in school, loved the whimsy of it and of course a lot of it had to do with drugs! Caravan were a very whimiscal, English band, I'd recommend their In The Land Of Grey And Pink album.

Was never into ELP. I always figured prog's "golden age" to be 1969 - 1974. Anything after that was just too bloated and pretentious.

There is a thread here
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=76329884

xerces

I only discovered progressive rock properly a few years ago and I've listened to my fair share ever since. It's great because I'm finding that it's a style I get a lot of satisfaction out of and I have a whole wealth of the genre's history to choose from when looking for new albums. I'm really diggin' Rush, King Crimson, Camel, Jethro Tull and Porcupine Tree (along with Steven Wilson's solo work) to name a few. Out of curiosity, which King Crimson and Yes album/s would be your favourite? I've listened to some, but it would be good to hear the choices of a long time fan.

A really enjoyable and interesting French progressive rock band I learned about are Magma, most of their lyrics are sung in an invented phonetic language named Kobaïan, with the music best described as adventurous and imaginative. I'd recommend their albums to anyone interested in a very experimental/jazzy variety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4vOHmeT-nM

LH Pathe

mike65 wrote: »

The other thing about prog is that the numbers of bands is just huge when you rope in acts that carved out a cult following but little else or worked on the Continent - all those acts like Grobschnitt, Amon Duul 11, etc.

http://www.progarchives.com/

it is indeed n that site covers all the bases, best one stop shop i ever stumbled upon.

agreeable reviews too, even for some of my favourite progressive-thrash metal if thats not an oxymoron. great reference site

LH Pathe

xerces wrote: »

I'd recommend their albums to anyone interested in a very experimental/jazzy variety.

thats good, havent checked out much french prog i'd usually go to there for coldwave. Got bogged down somewhere in germany!

heres one of the many zappa influenced but with a kraut sensibility

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd1MpaWNgNs

eviltimeban

Big Crimson fan too, my favourite would probably be... of the earlier stuff, Red; I like the 80s stuff like Discipline and their 2003 album the Power To Believe is just amazing.

Yes would be another, The Yes Album would be my favourite. Its the most concise one they did and the easiest to listen to. For me parts of Close To Edge are just not great, and Tales from Topographic Oceans is pretty unlistenable.

Third by Soft Machine is another mad album, double album with 4 songs (!) more jazzy than proggy but still really great. Sometimes I dig out my old prog albums and have a bit of a listen.

Caravan, Greenslade, Gentle Giant, Floyd, Gong, early Genesis too, to name but a few.

RayCon

New bands with a classic prog sounds :

Diagonal :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgQpQHdvI48

Astra:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWiBTnGoGM8

xerces

LH Pathe wrote: »

heres one of the many zappa influenced but with a kraut sensibility

I really like that!

TheStickyBandit

Out of all the bands mentioned I've only ever listened to Yes (huuuge fan) and I know of genesis' stuff but I'm not sure which is which!

Riddle101

Not huge fans of the genre, but I do listen to a bit of Pink Floyd.

Songs I like

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bpzxf_flm8M

flickarius

Love Rush,Yes, Genesis It Bites & King Crimson, also newer bands like The Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Transatlantic, & Agents Of Mercy.

gaelicred

Love king crimson

mike65

Time for some Crimson then!

From my favourite album - The ConstruKction of Light. Stunning performance though its "lighter" than the album which is almost wilfully crunchy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtLFwP9ppls

bnt

Before Robert Fripp reformed King Crimson in 1994, he worked with former Japan singer David Sylvian. Firstly on Sylvian's solo album Gone To Earth, then on the Sylvian/Fripp project, which produced an album (The First Day) and a major tour. I got to see them live at the Royal Albert Hall in December 1993 (I think it was) - I remember I made it there despite suffering from a badly-sprained ankle.

This was almost a "pre-Crimson" band: Trey Gunn, a former student of Fripp's, appeared on the album, while drummer Pat Mastelotto (ex Mr. Mister, XTC) was recruited for the tour. Both would remain with Fripp and then King Crimson for the next decade, and are on the previous video.

Here's one of my favourite Sylvian/Fripp songs: Firepower. It's got a whiff of the ol' brimstone about it, if you ask me. :cool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmybBX-Go2s

(The other guitarist in the band, the guy wearing headphones, is Michael Brook - who is a bit of a legend in his own right as a World Music producer and inventor of the Infinite Guitar.)

PMac1969

If you are into Prog, I would suggest listening to IQ, Marillion ( new album Sounds that Can't Be Made is just out), Pendragon, Pallas. Some It Bites stuff is also worth a listen.

PickledLime

I first got into prog via Opeth and Tool - i was hooked on metal, loved what these bands were doing within the genre but was hungry to find out where these crazy long and winding song structures originated from...

My greatest love will always be Rush, 'A Farewell To Kings' being one of my all time favourite albums. I'm also utterly in love with the first 4 Camel albums. I'm into most of the standards already mentioned, no point in relisting, but i will admit that i'm only starting to explore Van der Graaf Generator :embarrassment:

I think the most underrated album to emerge from under the prog banner is UK's self titled debut. I've also found them to be relatively unknown to most of my prog loving mates (us all being in the mid 20s to early 30s!), even so far as i had one mate who was a big fan of Roxy Music, anything Holdsworth touches and King Crimson (specifically the 'Red' lineup), when i explained that UK were basically 'Red''s rhythm section with Allan Holdsworth and Eddie Jobson doing thier thing he nearly fell over! :eek:

My fave track from the album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QW0P9TqZyI

I think the only real dud prog album i've ever purchased is Ramases 'Space Hymns' (although what would become 10cc's playing on it is good). The lyrics, argh! A 10 year old could write better. Still, it does feature another of Roger Dean's masterful paintings on its cover: