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Best Prog Rock?

Best Prog Band?

  • Rush

  • Pink Floyd

  • Genesis

  • King Crimson

  • Tool

  • Dream Theatre

  • ELP

  • ELO

  • Yes

Results are only viewable after voting.
#366
lordradish said:
Since this has morphed into a prog thread... anyone here think that a lot of neo-prog still sounds tainted by the 80's? I know they're not big anymore, but I remember thinking that about Spock's Beard, and it's why I can't stomach Dream Theater. There's something about the vocals and some of the guitar and production in neo-prog that sounds straight outa 90125 or some hair band. Anything that Billy Sherwood seems to be involved in has that sheen, too. I've always been of the classic prog mindset. The genre just stopped appealing to me when the big 80's sell-out happened.

Of course, I fully expect a tirade of arrows coming my way after this one. I've just seen the 80's as the decade where music got crappy and it really tainted the prog genre in ways I don't like.

All just taste and opinions, though, your mileage may vary.
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So I thought about this and it reminded me that, I’ve always been grateful for NeoProg filling the void that The Death Of Prog left in the 80s left.

That's why I referred to Jobson's Zinc project as an anomaly (as was Discipline) coming out in '83, which is when 90125 came out and I struggled to accept that from one of my favorite bands (still do) and pretty much anything the non-original members did (except Moraz). Any why I mentioned Reniassance's and Rush's bad hairdos at that time.

While I (totally) disagree about that take on Spock's Beard, I get what you mean for some but not them, and, a lot of the NeoProg bands have really picked up from where it died a slow and reluctant death somewhere at the end of the 70s.

Having said that, I think the majority of what I like in and consider NeoProg is maybe more 2000s and not from the 80s. So maybe we are talking the same things....

And to your point, there's a lot that miss the mark, like a Glass Hammer album I got based on reviews and descriptions of the band, but it just didn't gel with me.

Of everything I posted in this thread, the 4 here in #240 Best Prog Rock? I consider to be seminal to either Prog or NeoProg and on par with anything in the 70s, and that includes CTTE, DSOTM, The Gates Of Delirium, Trilogy, BSS, Larks' Tongues In Aspic II, Supper's Ready, etc.

I would hope I have established at least some credibility in this thread about the genre to be taken seriously about this one claim.
 
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#372
Richland123 said:
Early Mahogany Rush dabbled in some prog.
[/MEDIA]
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I like this - a non-Prog band that does some Prog, like what I said about Ambrosia.

As a huge MH/Frank Mario fan since the mid-70s, agree with the Strange Universe but Spanish Warrior, while one of my very top MH songs is more a guitar song, I would have put one of these in its place for Prog-like:

The synths work so well. It is one of his more lyrical guitar solos, the end one I felt was too good to be off the cuff, it is put together so well, must have been charted out. Even the harmony guitars are synth-like. One of my favorite guitarists. Thick with uni-Vibe. Prefer this side of him over his more Blues stuff.


There is a disturbing dark and sinister place this takes one to. They way the guitars get more and more doubled and phased towards the end. And those Mellotrons...



Great call on Chains of (S)pace. Spent many a night in an altered state with headphones listening to that and these three.
 
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#373
Btbp said:
Funny how a lot of people didn't like that album. I am / was a Tull fan since Aqualung came out, and while I prefer Glenn Cornick way more than the rest, when this album came out I was knocked out by it, still am. It felt strange to hear such cool synths in JT, but it just works so well.
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I also really liked Passion Play when it first came out. While it's not as consistent as Thick as a Brick, the high points were great, and artistically it was something of a logical progression from TAAB. The synths and soprano sax worked really well - it's a shame Anderson didn't develop the sax more. I felt really let down when Anderson listened to fans and critics and went back to writing simpler songs, but he was a pro and he saw himself working for his audience, not for himself. His recent solo work, in TAAB Too and Homo Erraticus,. is actually remarkably good (and proggy).
 
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#375
bassmike2010 said:
Some parts. He has a history of creating soundscapes.
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Right, but A) his "history of creating soundscapes" (to use Fripp's own nomenclature) postdates the release of Exposure by over a decade, and B) the parts of Exposure that would qualify as "ambient" constitute maybe 5% of the entire album. The rest is mostly pretty aggressive, in-your-face post-punk progressive rock, plus three pop ballads.

I don't disagree that Fripp's been involved in some very ambient musics, both before and after Exposure; just noting that Exposure -- which certainly belongs in a thread about prog-rock -- seemed an odd selection to cite when the discussion detoured towards ambient music.
 
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#376
Bob_Ross said:
Right, but A) his "history of creating soundscapes" (to use Fripp's own nomenclature) postdates the release of Exposure by over a decade, and B) the parts of Exposure that would qualify as "ambient" constitute maybe 5% of the entire album. The rest is mostly pretty aggressive, in-your-face post-punk progressive rock, plus three pop ballads.

I don't disagree that Fripp's been involved in some very ambient musics, both before and after Exposure; just noting that Exposure -- which certainly belongs in a thread about prog-rock -- seemed an odd selection to cite when the discussion detoured towards ambient music.
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Odd or not it's there and represented a side of his work. Didn't claim it was the epitome
of Ambient. His work with Eno developed later. Under Heavy Manners - God Save The Queen. Ambient.
 
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