CHRIS S

Chris S

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SPECIAL COLLABORATOR: Honorary Collaborator

Member since: 6/9/2004 • Forum posts: 7001 • Last visit: 9/4/2015 6:19:34 PM EST
Location: Front Range

Progressive Biography

(TO BE COMPLETED)

I was first introduced to progressive rock around 1972. My brother introduced me to the progressive music of Dark Side Of The Moon, Selling England By The Pound, Yessongs , In The Land Of Grey And Pink and Mirage. Not a bad introduction of bands's albums hey? Of course Led Zeppelin was alive and well as was early Deep Purple. Living in South Africa at the time made the music becoming accessible about 3-6 months after European and USA releases so you can imagine the anticipation of new releases in the 70's without direct press releases, no web browsers etc. In a way the purity of progressive sound was influenced by the very nature of experimentalism being a novelty. Hence in my opinion the unfair 'naive labels' dished out nowadays to this very important genre of sound.The pioneers and true masters of this genre in my humble opinion definitely have a deserved place with the elite classical composers of Bach, Mozart etc beacuse they had licence to be creative.

After these early influences my musical tastes quickley began to include anything Genesis related, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream, Gravy Train, Jethro Tull, Traffic, The Strawbs and Mike Oldfield.I also enjoyed other avenues of music especially the incredible reggae of Bob Marley and Peter Tosh. Van Morrison , Joan Armatrading and Manfred Mann's Earth Band to name but a few.The 80's continued to bring on some fine sounds.I am quite passionate about the fact that most of the progressive bands evolved naturally with the times and had to adapt or die.During this evolution some of the band' s output especially Camel and Caravan was of high quality. Bands that emerged for me in the 80's are U2, Simple Minds, Talk Talk ( included on this site), World Party, Ultravox and The Waterboys. And how could one ignore the incredible sound of Talking Heads? The 90's for me proved to provide more of the same from the old dinoasurs and fewer new great artists arrived on the scene. Seal being one of them. New Order continued to deliver and without doubt Supertramp's last two releases brought out my love of the jazzier side. Times are indeed sparse for good new groups these days and I have to say I have looked far and wide. It is for this reason that I am now digging deep into the rich reserves that progressive sound has to offer and am enjoying listening to groups that I did not know even existed until I found this great website. I do not have much of a liking though for the prog metal sound of Dream Theatre and Tool and whilst I respect peoples tastes and the bands work ethic I do not think it is of the same quality of the groups from the late 60's and 70's.

Number of CD in my collection of original progressive albums ... About 350 progressive CD's all told and 350 well preserved Vinyls with 600 CD's in total covering the last four decades

My favourite progressive bands/artists (in alphabetical order)
Camel
Caravan
Genesis
Manred Mann's Earth Band
Mike Oldfield
Pink Floyd
Strawbs
Supertramp
Tangerine Dream
Yes

My favourite progressive albums include (in alphabetical order)
Attic Thoughts - Bo Hansson
Even In The Quietest Moments - Supertramp
Foxtrot - Genesis
Ghosts - Strawbs
Going For The One - Yes
Moonmadness - Camel
Nightingales and Bombers - Manfred Mann's Earth Band
Ommadawn - Mike Oldfield
Tangram - Tangerine Dream
The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway- Genesis
Waterloo Lily - Caravan
Wish You were Here - Pink Floyd

In conclusion what is so important about this site is the diversity of reviews, the respect of opinions and the fact that the site is in essence a ' Working document' that is willing to gain from the knowledge, experiences and love from people and their enjoyment of progressive music and it's derivatives.I am now living in New Zealand and it is great to see that this genre of sound still holds a special place among some followers.Long live Progressive Music!

Reviews distribution by sub-genre

	Sub-genre	Nb of reviews	Avg rating
1	Crossover Prog	175	3.35
2	Prog Related	161	3.17
3	Symphonic Prog	104	3.42
4	Prog Folk	69	3.19
5	Jazz Rock/Fusion	57	3.47
6	Progressive Electronic	41	3.34
7	Eclectic Prog	35	3.51
8	Heavy Prog	33	3.67
9	Psychedelic/Space Rock	32	3.50
10	Proto-Prog	27	3.52
11	Canterbury Scene	22	3.59
12	Post Rock/Math rock	10	3.50
13	Neo-Prog	4	3.25
14	Krautrock	3	3.67
15	Various Genres	3	3.67
16	Indo-Prog/Raga Rock	3	3.00
17	RIO/Avant-Prog	1	4.00
18	Progressive Metal	1	2.00
19	Zeuhl	1	4.00

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