Intellectually stimulating/progressive music.

Baggio

Karl, good stuff,
...well no surprises here RUSH are the most shall we say consistant of those mentioned..high standarsds of music, musicianship and lyrical writing by Peart,,,their whole persona is one of skill and deeper thinking in every way...if thats what yer after,,their the band to start and end up with,..countless examples and albums,,from 2112 to Vapour Trails and everything in between. Hemispheres and A Farewell To Kings , Permanant Waves and Moving Pictures,,, Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows etc etc...you'll see what I mean
Dont forget another legendary band who for some reason that I cant figure out rarely get a mention here - Jethro Tull..marvellous musicianship and Ian Anderson's often chaotic lyrical and and comecil sens of toubnge in cheek descriptions great stuff...again loads of Albums there..including the Grammy Metal/Hard rock winning album "Crest Of A Knave"
*apparantly Metalica and their auntarage were meant to scoop it but the ol' boys from Tull got it and quite right too * anyway there's loads of veryy interesting stuff there..its all about being open to diverse styles, interesting thoughts/ideas and great musicianship...if thats you...well these 2 bands are right up your street.

ciao' amigo...Baggio.....

It wasn't me!

John2 wrote:

There's an excellent book called "Conversing with Cage" that I heartily recommend.

Is there any writing in it?

fortuneg

Some of my favourite prog bands would have to be Camel & Yes.
Camel's album "Mirage" & Yes' album "Close to the edge" are nearly impossible to fault!
Then if you're into a more Jazzy, fusion mood Herbie Hancock's albums "Headhunters" & "Thrust" are brilliant too. A brilliant mix of jazz & funk me thinks.
Meshuggah are also very challenging, just try working out their time signatures:)

Karl Hungus

fortuneg wrote:

Meshuggah are also very challenging, just try working out their time signatures:)

In fairness though, Meshuggah aren't the most intelligent band around... The constant chugging gets extremely tiresome. Sure, they've got some interesting time signiatures, but they're just chugging the same note a lot of the time.

smackbunnybaby

Karl Hungus wrote:

but they're just chugging the same note a lot of the time.

yeah but its in a different time signature

PiE

Karl Hungus wrote:

Silence, eh? Yeah, I see what you mean about pretentiousness so. I'd prefer to listen to something with a little more substance.

Only about 1/10th as pretentious as this thread mind you ;x

Karl Hungus

PiE wrote:

Only about 1/10th as pretentious as this thread mind you ;x

And what exactly is this thread pretaining to?

Ravelleman

My mentions go to (among others):

Yes - Closer to the Edge
Rush - Hemishperes
Jethro Tull - various
Kansas - various
Simon and Garfunkle - various (Seriously, you really have to listen to them to appreciate the music. The vocal harmonies, the melodies, the orchestration. All perfect)

Guess who likes prog rock...

ShreddedHumans

I don't understand what people mean by "intelligent music". The people playing it are intelligent, or the people listening to it are intelligent, or what? If it is the merging of styles then I would go with Al Di Meola, he is a jazz fusion guitarist.

Doctor J

I think it's more "music that isn't always in 4/4 and goes intro-verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-guitarsolo-verse-chorus-chorus"

Stuff that required a bit of imagination to write

John

Mystic Fibrosis wrote:

John, has Jochen Arbeit got any solo stuff out? I've never heard of any and I've always wondered how he got drafted into the band.

He doesn't have any solo albums but he's been part of the Berlin scene since Neubauten were but a new band. He was in Die Haut (who Blixa and Alex also played with, along with Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch, Kim Gordan, Debbie Harry(!) and loads of others that I forget now). He plays guitar at the moment for a guy called Martin Dean who's kind of lounge music, good stuff but very different from what I was expecting.

Karl Hungus

Doctor J wrote:

Stuff that required a bit of imagination to write

Indeed.

Speaking of intelligent music, have you ever heard Madder Mortem, Doc?

JC 2K3

Rush 2112, Roxy Music - Roxy Music and Jethro Tull - Aqualung are 3 of my faves.

Also, Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation is great if you are looking for something different - Cross the Breeze is a great progressive track.

Scratch Acid

JC 2K3 wrote:

Sonic Youth - Daydream Nation

Meant to put this on my list. Probably my favourite album of all time.

Mystic Fibrosis

Madder Mortem for the win tbh.

I'm annoyed I didn't see them with Opeth

Karl Hungus

Mystic Fibrosis wrote:

Madder Mortem for the win tbh.

I'm annoyed I didn't see them with Opeth

I did.
And I saw Opeth back when they played with Katatonia and Novembre in the Shelter. Christ, that was probably one of the greatest gigs of my life.

PiE

Fine so, Menomena.

So strange they needed to write a computer program (called 'Deeler') to fit the compositions together.

O WOE IS ME I FEEL SO PRETENTIOUS

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

ooh yeah, menomena good stuff


dEUS would be another one..

Doctor J

Karl Hungus wrote:

Speaking of intelligent music, have you ever heard Madder Mortem, Doc?

Can't say I have. Who they?

Karl Hungus

Doctor J wrote:

Can't say I have. Who they?

Norwegian Band with a female vocalist, use a lot of interesting time sigiatures, strange discordand riffs and have some amazing songwriting skills. I'd say give a listen to this, but keep in mind, it's quite easily the poorest song of the album. Give a listen to this and this aswell. Should give you a decent overall idea, but definetly not their best stuff.

Giblet

Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, The Mars Volta, King Crimson and Rush.

John

Karl Hungus wrote:

And I saw Opeth back when they played with Katatonia and Novembre in the Shelter. Christ, that was probably one of the greatest gigs of my life.

That was a great night. It's not everyday Opeth play your 18th birthday.

Padraig Mor

Karl Hungus wrote:

I'm sitting here listening to Atheist, a phenominal band that a certain DoctorJ introduced me to, and for those of you unfamiliar with the band, they emerged in the latter days of the Florida Death Metal scene merging their amazing technical Metal prowess with Jazz, before splitting up. They created something intelligent, challenging and altogether unique.

In the spirit of that, I thought I might start a thread about intelligent music. What do you find makes you think? What shakes up your noggin? Post about intelligent music, anything that's stimulating, challenging, barrier-breaking, or just outright unique. And don't restrict this to Rock/Metal either, personally, I'm quite the fan of The Mahavishnu Orchestra, a quite phenominal Jazz Fusion band.

Anyway, here's what Karl recommends everyone should own:

Cynic - Focus
Arcturus - La Masquerade Infernale

Click Here for my thread on Arcturus. I'm sure the good Doctor will be along any moment to tell everyone how amazing Cynic are aswell, and he's damn right! Focus is probably one of the most intellligent albums ever recorded.

Other bands of interest that I particularly love would be Opeth, Spiral Architect, Aghora, Enslaved, Porcupine Tree, Emperor, Sigh, Isis, Novembre, Pestilence, Cephalic Carnage, Coprofago, to name but a few!

Looking at your likes I definitely reckon that Solefald will be your thing. Very unusual black-ish band from Norway. Their debut 'The Linear Scaffold' is excellent! PM me if you want to check them out.

Johnny Storm

mike65 wrote:

Who are all these bands? God I know I'm old when Rush and King Crimson are the most familair names!

I nominate Blue Oyster Cult and The Who both driving rock bands with lyrics which hardly ever mention love except in an "s&m" way for the BOC! Whatever became of Kings X? Anyone remember them?

Mike.

I agree, BOC have real musical depth, a superb guitarist, eh ... interesting lyrics, and the best song titles of any band ever, bar none. Plus, unlike almost all other bands of their era, they are still on tour, still making great records and they rock.
Their last two studio albums Heaven Forbid and Curse of the Hidden Mirrors are as good as anything they have ever done.

Has anyone mentioned Steely Dan yet?

Johnny Storm

....and speaking of "intelligent" music - how 'bout them Doors?

John

The Doors: A Velvet Underground for people who don't read good.

Ravelleman

+1 for the Doors
+1 for BOC

fortuneg

Karl Hungus wrote:

In fairness though, Meshuggah aren't the most intelligent band around... The constant chugging gets extremely tiresome. Sure, they've got some interesting time signiatures, but they're just chugging the same note a lot of the time.

I can see your point with respect to the older albums, but not the new ones...
And Meshuggah are all about experimenting with rhythm not notes, but then again would you not consider the solos "intelligent"(Artsy fartsy)
Ok, sure Thorndendahl's solo's are straight up Allan Holdsworth rip-offs.... But "intelligent" none the less!

pbsuxok1znja4r

If you guys like inventive time signitures, I definitely recommend Thrice. The rhythm parts to their songs are pretty interesting, hell, the drummer needs pen and paper with him when jamming just to add up the beats in all the different time signitures they use! Great band.

Heh, so do Queen qualify as "intelligent" music, what with the band-members' degrees in astrophysics and whatnot?

Executive Steve

nice idea for a thread! SCRATCH ACID has the best sig quote of all time EVER

back on topic,

Photek's "modus operandi" album, and his "hidden camera" ep as well as his earlier stuff on metalheadz ["the rain"!!!!] has always kept me coming back to it... perfect "thinking" music...

amon tobin's ninja tunes output.

boards of canada "music has the right to children" lp

the sabres of paradise "haunted dancehall" album

recently i've been rediscovering people like jan garbarek, keith jarret and eberhard weber... in fact, the entire output of germa avant garde jazz label ECM [until Garbarek's pretty mawkish "visible world" album imo] is WELL worth a listen.

dEUS, Cpt. Beefheart, tom waits, Leonard Cohen - all great stuff, don't really make me think to be honest, i appreciate that there's a large amount of thought and craft involved [used to be a huge dEUS fan] in their stuff, but i still think that the best ever "thinking" music cd [for me, and it's ridiculously subjective] has to be richie hawtin's "decks fx and 909" mix cd. noone has ever created a consistency of mood and atmosphere and sheer funk over the course of a techno mix cd, the mixing is absolutely flawless, three turntables, a guitar effects unit, and a drum machine, multiple copy mashups of the same tune, ultra quick mixes and sheer consistency of vibe..... it blows my mind every time i hear it and i've had it years. [*edit* and i'm not even really into techno...]

goldie "timeless" if drum and bass is 21st century soul, then this was it's equivalent of a marvin gaye or stevie wonder lp... huge cinematic widescreen breakbeat soundscapes, the musical equivalent of a 40 foot wall of graffitti, "inner city life" and "angel" and "sea of tears" are up there with the best music of the last 50 odd years imo. ten years later, and still noone has made a drum and bass full length lp that comes close.