Recommend a few good prog bands or records

[GillesUnchained]

I would like to get into more prog rock. I really like the first UK album (I'm a bit of a Holdsworth fan) and I own the Yes three-disc best of. I listen to Classic Rock radio, so I've heard a good amount of Rush.

Can you recommend some stuff the casual listener may not be familiar with? Hidden gems? Any essential prog listening?

I like the stuff from the 70's, but I'd be willing to try some more contemporary bands. I especially enjoy bands with prominent bass, but don't we all?

[Oopsdabassist]

Wow someone else has the 1st UK album???? I saw em at my local hall in about '78, and bought the album on me way out..very impressed!

Early yes is just classic prog goodness, check out Fragile and Close to the Edge

Early Marillion was also pretty good, their 1st, Script for a Jesters Tear, is still high on my Ipod playlist!

Early 70's could give you Curved Air, they were pretty out there at the time!

70's is pretty much my era, so maybe others can help with later stuff?

[pigsonthewing]

Pink Floyd IMO

[cmewhinney]

Jethro Tull!

[Bassman316]

Originally Posted by pigsonthewing

Pink Floyd IMO

+1 to the Floyd. Pink Floyd was one of the bands I listened to way back when as I was first getting into rock music. Lots of prog goodness to be had with the Floyd.

[rob4001va]

Genesis
King Crimson
Gentle Giant
Camel

to name a few...

[rob4001va]

...and the Moody Blues...

[pigsonthewing]

Originally Posted by Bassman316

+1 to the Floyd. Pink Floyd was one of the bands I listened to way back when as I was first getting into rock music. Lots of prog goodness to be had with the Floyd.

They're the only prog I need

[Noak2]

Off the top of my head:
Magma-Üdü Wüdü
Änglagård-Hybris
Samla Mammas Manna-Måltid
Amon Düül II-Phallus Dei
Beardfish-Sleeping in Traffic Part 2
Phideaux-Doomsday Afternoon
Emerson, Lake and Palmer-Brain Salad Surgery
Frost*-Experiments in Mass Appeal
Le Orme-Felona E Sorona
Premiata Forneria Marconi-Per un Amico
Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso-Io Sono Nato Libero
Soft Machine-Fourth
Caravan-In the Land of Grey and Pink
Harmonium-Si On Avait Besoin Dun Cinquieme Saison
Yezda Urfa-Boris
Koenjihyakkei-Angherr Shisspa

[megadan]

Oh man, where to start.

I'm going to lay down some quotes from a buddy of mine who LOVES good prog

Originally Posted by Dubious

lets talk prog... and by prog im willing to include everything from the 60's cantebury pre prog scene .. through to the kraut rock experimental scene and even the weirdo brittsh art rock scene

some faves:

Soft Machine - Peel Sessions
soft machine with elton dean and a horn section is good to go... wyatts solo accapella reading of "dedicated to you but you werent listening" sends shivers down the spine.

Caravan - If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You
one of the greatest album titles of all time .. Caravan deliver in spades what most progt lacks..namely a good sense of humopur and a tongue lodged firmly in cheek... this sounds alot like soft machine.. so much so that it once took me an entire side of a record to realise it wasnt soft machine

King Crimson - tie between larks tongue in aspic and red
what can i say about robert fripp? the man has nice specatcles and rocks a mean mellotron

Groundhogs - Split
only really qualifies as prog due to the fact that one side is one song in multple movements and loads of mellotron. blues power trio prog i supposse...Tony Macphee is the missing link between tony iommi and johnny marr

Faust - IV
faust werent really too prog but this qualifies due to its having been recorded at the Virgin country manor in full on hippy free sex regalia.. plus it has songs that sound like frank zappa playing reggae.. which is VERY prog

Amon Duul II - Yeti
again kraut and prog overlap pretty heavily.. kraut is usually more gutteral and primordal... and this one definatly qualifies as guttral.. .one whole side is just this weirdo hippy jam with the greatest title ever "yeti talks to yogi"... "Eye shaking king" is probably the heaviest song of all time.. and the vocalist sings even higher than geddy lee (thankfully she's a chick though).

Originally Posted by chris deon

yes - relayer, fragile
genesis - the lamb lies down on broadway, self-titled
jethro tull - thick as a brick, a passion play, minstrel in the gallery
king crimson - court of the crimson king, discipline
henry cow - leg end, western culture
soft machine - third
faust - IV, so far
can - tago mago duh, ege bamyasi, soon over babaluma
hawkwind - hall of the mountain grill
international harvester - sov gott rose marie
magma - mekanik destruktiw kommandoh
neu
red krayola - parable of arable land, god bless the red crayola
silver apples
white noise - an electric storm
camel - moonmadness
peter gabriel - III, IV (security)
gong - shamal, camembert electrique
amon duul ii - phallus dei

i'm probably missing like a million but whatever

prog rules

Originally Posted by Dubious

adding on

Can - Future Days - one of the few records i could listen to on repeat on a desert iselnd for the rest of my days

Egg - sounds like Soft Machine playing baroque english folk music with crum horns and such.. dope!

Achim Reichel - echoes - super trippy cosmic mantra rock

Matching Mole - wyatt's post soft machine band.. produced by Fripp

Originally Posted by Dubious

some more good stuff:



this was produced by Greg Lake from ELP and was released on their manticore label. Album starts with like a chruch organ / hyme type vibe for a minute or so...then that SLAMS to a hault some crazy dood yells out "FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS" and they proceed to BLAST into riffage that will peel the paint right off your walls. Has a very weird mix of prog and SLEAZE rock.



Arguably the most COSMICHE record of all time and its not even German. Though this Japanese psych / folk / prog masters did need to hook up with Klaus Schultz and record this at Richard Branson's Mansion to take this to the NEXT LEVEL.


Sort of a yugoslavian version of the headhunters with prog leanings.


speakign of yugoslavia..these Hungarians know how to THROW down the heavy drum / bass onslaught. I think these cats were the band on the legendary Sralota Zlatnay album (as well as a number of bangin hungarian rock records)


Last but NOT least. This is the record that i think could actually give Megadan permanent brain damage. SO POWERFUL is its magical combination of massed operatic vocals (sung in their own language) masterful bass wizardry (Jannick Topp...dood was actually a wizard too!) and UBER drummer / mastermind (and sorceror) Christian Vander. A relentless assualt of truely alien HEAVY prog opera.

The very NATURE of prog means that you should ABSOLUTELY be looking past the obvious - Floyd, Crimson, Yes, etc. I mean, I like those bands, but if you really want to hear some Crraaaazzzzy prog, you gotta go digging around in some old European record (VINYL record) shops, you gotta go WAY out there. That's the best part of prog!

[GillesUnchained]

Thanks for all the suggestions! This will keep me busy for quite a while. I should also mention that I'm really more into the odd meter and synthesizer run aspect of prog rather than the whimsical, medieval aspects, if that makes any sense. For example, I don't really enjoy Gabriel-era Genesis. But I really like Duke/Abacab, even though I wouldn't consider those albums prog, but they're synth heavy, as well as include some excellent bass, in my opinion. I hope that helps direct the suggestions.

[Oopsdabassist]

Ah Camel...Moonmadness, one of the best

and any amount of Tull that wasn't Blues counts as prog I think, some damn nice bass riffs in the John Glascock era, Songs from the Wood etc in the mid 70's

[groooooove]

im really not hip to much prog, but i saw U-melt about a week ago and loved it... might want to check them out.

[John Wentzien]

Crack-the-Sky

[dmusic148]

My fave current band would be Porcupine Tree. Maybe not prog in the pure sense, but very psychedelic and interesting. Creepy, dark. Lots and lots of Mellotron.

[High Elbows]

+1 on the Porcupine Tree... try "in Absentia", fantastic album!

Also, Spock's Beard. Great basslines there!

[RONQUITO]

Nektar-Remember the Future

[MonkeyBass]

Originally Posted by High Elbows

+1 on the Porcupine Tree... try "in Absentia", fantastic album!

Yes Porcupine Tree. Great stuff!

[RONQUITO]

Originally Posted by Oopsdabassist

Ah Camel...Moonmadness, one of the best

and any amount of Tull that wasn't Blues counts as prog I think, some damn nice bass riffs in the John Glascock era, Songs from the Wood etc in the mid 70's

Tull in the early days WAS blues, ALL that followed was Prog, and IMHO Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond bass lines killed too (Thick as a Brick anyone?)

[jojobean39]

Originally Posted by GillesUnchained

I like the stuff from the 70's, but I'd be willing to try some more contemporary bands. I especially enjoy bands with prominent bass, but don't we all?

Dream Theater's Awake and Change of Seasons. Both are great albums. A little heavier than what you seem to be used to though.