The most musically complex prog band(s)?

+Or Octopus, Free Hand, or In a Glass House!!!!

We can end this debate by all listening to Birds of Fire or Inner Mounting Flame by Mahavishnu Orchestra!

Atavachron wrote: fuxi wrote: I'm beginning to feel a little despondent. Whenever I mention Discus or Kenso in one of these threads, I get no response at all. People just carry on chatting about some of the more familiar (usually Anglo-Saxon) prog acts, such as VDGG, Gentle Giant or Zappa. Of course there's nothing wrong with any of their music, which I myself enjoy a great deal. It's pretty complex as well. I just find it terribly frustrating that no one's interested in two of the most exciting prog bands active today, just because they're from eastern Asia! I wish some act of God would catapult either Discus or (especially) Kenso into Prog Archives' Top 50. If you look at quality alone, they fully deserve to be there. I didn't  "chat on about some of the more familiar prog acts" Atavachron wrote: Unexpect's In a Flesh Aquarium is pretty intricate, also Dave Kermann's stuff and a little known Japanese band called Flat 122 ..and one of the bands I mentioned is Japanese  ...so HAH !!

HAH!!!!  hahhahaha..  you go David.

fuxi wrote: I'm beginning to feel a little despondent. Whenever I mention Discus or Kenso in one of these threads, I get no response at all. People just carry on chatting about some of the more familiar (usually Anglo-Saxon) prog acts, such as VDGG, Gentle Giant or Zappa. Of course there's nothing wrong with any of their music, which I myself enjoy a great deal. It's pretty complex as well. I just find it terribly frustrating that no one's interested in two of the most exciting prog bands active today, just because they're from eastern Asia! I wish some act of God would catapult either Discus or (especially) Kenso into Prog Archives' Top 50. If you look at quality alone, they fully deserve to be there.

Well, just saw this thread now, and I agree that Discus is fantastic and quite complex.  I saw Kenso at Nearfest 2005, and while I thought their performance was fantastic, I didn't think they were anymore complex or challenging than more well known fusion outfits (though the less challenging.....for me, anyway....aspect probably helped me enjoy the show more).

Still, considering Frank Zappa wrote compositions on the Synclavier that were unplayable by human musicians (many of them, anyway) I think he gets the prize :-)  But were they music?  Hmm, opinions will certainly vary on that.  They were scored using musical notation, so I'm betting they were music even if a relatively few people will be able to hear it as such.  For the record, I'm not really one of those people.  But some of the pieces on Civilization Phase III are incredibly complex and intricate musical compositions.  Whether they are enjoyable or not depends more on your analytical music listening skills than on "gut feelings" or traditional concepts of melody and tempo.

I always felt Gentle Giant could win the most complex prog sweepstakes, but the more I've listened to them over the years, the more I've realized that the individual parts of each player are quite often not complex at all..........but the intertwining of each part (which are all either different, or off set rhythmically from the other parts) is what gives that impressive of extreme complexity.  But then, I suppose that makes the overall composition pretty complex.

In any case, complexity in music really depends on the listening skills of the listener, as well as the skills of the band members.  I'm sure Camel did some things in the 70's that they thought were quite complex at the time, but which Return To Forever would probably consider quite simple.

omri wrote: Fuxi,   Speaking only for my self I never heared Discus or Kenso so I can not add them. Actually I read some about Kenso and thoght of trying to get them (it's not easy in my place to get asian music). The only album I have from that area is Happy family's Tosco and it's a good one IMO. Unfortunately the more familiar is more discused. This is natural. I use this threads partially to get some ideas about bands I never heared of and your comment about Kenso sure strengthen my intention to hear them.

Thanks, Omri. If you like Canterbury bands (especially National Health), Bruford (with Dave Stewart, Jeff Berlin and Allan Holdsworth), Brand X and Steve Hackett's better solo albums, you're bound to enjoy Kenso as well. By the way, doesn't Amazon do deliveries to Israel?

Gentle Giant, VdGG & KC comes to mind, thos bands are named eclectic for a reason.

Edited by Zargus - March 05 2008 at 10:31

Japa-zeuhl is über complex. 

Visitor13 ,

fuxi wrote: I'm beginning to feel a little despondent. Whenever I mention Discus or Kenso in one of these threads, I get no response at all. People just carry on chatting about some of the more familiar (usually Anglo-Saxon) prog acts, such as VDGG, Gentle Giant or Zappa. Of course there's nothing wrong with any of their music, which I myself enjoy a great deal. It's pretty complex as well. I just find it terribly frustrating that no one's interested in two of the most exciting prog bands active today, just because they're from eastern Asia! I wish some act of God would catapult either Discus or (especially) Kenso into Prog Archives' Top 50. If you look at quality alone, they fully deserve to be there.

I didn't  "chat on about some of the more familiar prog acts"

Atavachron wrote: Unexpect's In a Flesh Aquarium is pretty intricate, also Dave Kermann's stuff and a little known Japanese band called Flat 122

..and one of the bands I mentioned is Japanese  ...so HAH !!

I'm beginning to feel a little despondent. Whenever I mention Discus or Kenso in one of these threads, I get no response at all. People just carry on chatting about some of the more familiar (usually Anglo-Saxon) prog acts, such as VDGG, Gentle Giant or Zappa. Of course there's nothing wrong with any of their music, which I myself enjoy a great deal. It's pretty complex as well. I just find it terribly frustrating that no one's interested in two of the most exciting prog bands active today, just because they're from eastern Asia! I wish some act of God would catapult either Discus or (especially) Kenso into Prog Archives' Top 50. If you look at quality alone, they fully deserve to be there.