The Underrated

For years the Eastern European prog and jazz-rock scene of 70’ had been ignored being unfairly seen as a weaker copy of the great Western bands. I have seen a few western documentary movies about prog-rock (or I have read the articles) and there was no word about things happening those times on the other side of the Iron Curtain.  The period of Communism was terrible but it didn’t prevent people from creating music, art etc. There are some great, original albums that stayed unknown just because of having being born in the wrong moment.

 

Some 'must hear' recordings of 70' :

 

Skaldowie ‘Krywan, Krywan’

SBB ‘Pamiec’, ‘Karlstadt Live’, ‘Ze slowem biegne do Ciebie’

Czesław Niemen ‘Ode to Venus’, ‘Aerolit’, ‘Marionetki’

Modry Efekt & Radim Hladik

Bijelo Dugme

Tomasz Stanko ‘Purple Sun’ (jazz-rock/fusion)

Michal Urbaniak (jazz-rock/fusion)

Jazz Q (jazz-rock)

Extra Ball ‘Birthday’ (jazz rock/fusion)

Edited by Marcin - November 10 2010 at 09:11

FAMILY - one of the most underrated bands from the 70's (some don't consider them prog)

I thought Camel were poular at leats within the prog rock audience. For me The Snow Goose is enough to out them  in the pantheon of great compositions. The altmosphere made by those melodies, the exquisite arrangements and that contolled power (aka musical strength) has so much subtelty. One of the greatest pieces out there.

As for popularity in mainstream 9if that is what is meant) things have to be hyped before mainstream audiences tune in. I think it depends on how much priority music takes in an individual's life. For some it's entertainemnt and audio wall paper, for others it's the very stuff of life.

It's 2010 and The Snow Goose is still in the shops. That's something anyway.

That In Spe thing (so to speak) has to be just an amazing - if unfotunate coincidence....

Panta Rhei sound interesting and maybe just my sort of thing. Thanks.

Just checking out some Panta Rhei now. The'unreleased' Bartok album. Would it be unfair to say that this picks up the ELP baton (1977) and rocks with  it? They even do The Barbarian as per ELP's arrangement. It's rather good and having some guitar on this album kind of gives an idea of what ELP would be like had they had a guitarist (as well as Lake who was bass vocals plus some guitars.) Can't hear any guitar on Allegrobarbaro though.

It seems they moved from one style to another so check out the prog archives reviews just tin case.

The http://www.sdss.jhu.edu/~szalay/music/pantarhei.html works. It does seem to have a mind of it's own though. But it worked long enough for some more mp3s...

One thing about Panta Rhei and unlike other ELP style bands is that they are predominantly instrumental. Only one vocal track so far. According to their site, their debut nearly didn't make it as their record co. were reluctant to release purely instrumental music.

Thankfully I like purely instrumental music.

Not sure I'd say Spck's Beard are that known outside prog rock circles either.

The thing is with Floyd, Tull, and Yes and Genesis is that they get and have had extensive radio play. From the 80s when music communication was dtermined by video / TV and radio these guys turn up contantly.

Crimson on the other hand falls into that hard core ctaegory - no songs deemed radio worthy (short, catchy, [relatively] inoffensive [Tull].)

I think Radio head got to be so popular is that they caught a fasion and to the un prog public in the 90s they were quite novel. Also whenever a tune fom OK PC / Mac threatened (sic) to develop instrumentally it was eschewed in favour of another number. ...Wonderful....

It's odd but in rock (even among many of the metal crowd) but if you have chops that can work against you but if you can vocalise and get it over quickly then you can be a hit pop star. I recall a discussion in a music store once where the manager described Fripp as a pop star. I eventually stopped laughing (the idea of Fripp on a teenager's bedroom wall is bizarre- to me at least.) The only time KC were reasonably public property was in 1969 for a few months.

Mind you I think Crim are very big in Europe. This is one of the things about that conglomerate of countries where acts singing in incomprensible English (- often even to English speakers - and the content is often not worth learning the language either) are preferred in favour of those who can play interesting rock music. No wonder many Anglo US acts find limited appeal on the Continent.

Radiohead raided the RIO avant garde and to an extent VDGG for inspiration and because Euro prog and much other prog is unheard out of the mainstream they got away with it. They made RIO radio worthy. (Not that I really regard Radiohead as a RIO band - I draw a line from late 70s punk and new wave to alt rock and fit Radiohead there. )

But the whole RIO scene is underrated as well.

Imagine (if you can) U Zero, A Zoyd etc as pop groups....

BrufordFreak wrote: Back to the original thread: BRAND X really has some amazing stuff on their first three or four records. Comparing them piece by piece, album by album, to RETURN TO FOREVER is not so far-fetched. Phil Collins was a GREAT drummer! And name another bass player as dynamic as Percy Jones. And Goodsall is an amazing guitarist. Lumley on keys. Morris Pert. Awesome.

                               quite agree ,i got the live album a few weeks ago ant it's so good!! i couln't believe my ears great band!!!

when i was younger, i used to listen a lot "Mirage" by Camel, i was thinking that camel was a phenomenal group! even today i think that

Camel is one of the most underrated group of all history!!