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Topic ClosedThe most musically complex prog band(s)?
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zachfive View Drop Down
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Points: 770 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2008 at 13:31

A few posts back Camel was getting some flack for not being "complex". While I agree with the comments that were said(musics not hard to play...) I think its necessary to exclude Andy Ward. I always thought his percussions were "technical" enough to called "complex"(If that makes any sense) Not only that, but he has worked with other bands that were thrown in the "complex" catigory, i.e Marillon and Caravan. So lets at least here for Mr.Ward.
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Points: 392 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2008 at 12:34
Agreed. Difficult to listen, difficult to play, difficult to understand, but, it has to sound and be nice, it must entertain. That's what Art is all about.
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Points: 570 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2008 at 12:12
To my ears, complex music means music which is not only challenging for the artist to perform but also challenging for the listener to listen to. Among the challenges are shifting time signatures, crazy atonality, and occasionally speed and technical prowess. In other words, music which sounds like anything but to the average listener.
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Points: 392 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2008 at 11:39
Originally posted by HughesJB4 HughesJB4 wrote:

Lol, thread still going and yet no one has decided on the definition of complex.

Here's to another 200 pages of this threadConfused


Do you have any doubt about what complex music is?Then go and listen Mr. Bungle and Pink Floyd... note the difference?? That's it!! Tongue


Edited by AlexUC - September 26 2008 at 11:40
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Points: 25210 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 25 2008 at 23:16
Lol, thread still going and yet no one has decided on the definition of complex.

Here's to another 200 pages of this threadConfused
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Points: 392 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2008 at 17:56
Originally posted by verslibre verslibre wrote:

Originally posted by Tapfret Tapfret wrote:

For Zeuhl I would have to go with (I know some Magma zealot is going to shoot me) KoenjiHyakkei.


From what I've heard, I think you're right!



Insane complexity? Sure, KoenjiHyakkei. More complex than Magma or any other Zeuhl band I've heard.

RIO is plenty of really complex bands, for me, the most complex prog sub genre. Let's say Present, Henry Cow, Universe Zero, i.e.

Mr. Bungle has some of the most complex music I've heard on Disco Volante. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum has their extremely complex moments. Frank Zappa and Samla Mammas Manna has some really complex sogns too.

Regular bands like Gentle Giant and King Crimson always had their own.

In metal we have Spastik Ink, Spiral Architect and Messugah, among others, but I don't think any metal band can reach the complexity of any prog rock band...
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Points: 25210 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2008 at 08:49
STC

/Endthread.
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Points: 37 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2008 at 08:29
Originally posted by prog4evr prog4evr wrote:


Originally posted by Chris Stacey Chris Stacey wrote:

Mike Oldfield's Amarok is pretty complex and Yes's TFTO very definitely!
Did you mean Yes, GFTO ("Going For the One")?  Because, I would agree.  Even the balladic "Wondrous Stories" is an amazingly complex prog classic ("Awaken" is the all-time great, however...)


TFTO = Tales From Topographic Oceans
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Points: 37 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2008 at 08:28
TFTO = Tales From Topographic Oceans
"The Box. You opened it. We came."
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Points: 1455 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2008 at 08:04
Originally posted by Chris Stacey Chris Stacey wrote:

Mike Oldfield's Amarok is pretty complex and Yes's TFTO very definitely!


Did you mean Yes, GFTO ("Going For the One")?  Because, I would agree.  Even the balladic "Wondrous Stories" is an amazingly complex prog classic ("Awaken" is the all-time great, however...)
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Points: 1303 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2008 at 02:39
Originally posted by Paulieg Paulieg wrote:

Classic Prog:  Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, ELP, etc... tons of good old stuff.
Modern Prog:  Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Spiral Architect, Zero Hour, Planet X, Rush, Symphony X, pretty much all prog metal bands.


Rush is NOT metal!!! Anyone who says that should die.
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Points: 54 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 21 2008 at 05:14
Roine Stolt (TFK) recently stated that One More Time was "tricky" to play live.
 
 


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Points: 17068 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 19 2008 at 04:06
Originally posted by Tapfret Tapfret wrote:

For Zeuhl I would have to go with (I know some Magma zealot is going to shoot me) KoenjiHyakkei.


From what I've heard, I think you're right!
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Points: 652 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 18 2008 at 05:17
If I understand the question well, I'd say Spastic Ink, Atheist, Meshuggah...

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Points: 3737 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2008 at 10:24

Coming back to this topic, I think I forgot Protest the Hero...hella hard, I try.
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Points: 4160 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2008 at 07:22
Originally posted by fuxi fuxi wrote:

Hey folks! You like complex? Try Discus' brilliant TOT LICHT! It's like RELAYER, ONE SIZE FITS ALL and OF QUEUES AND CURES rolled into one. Thank you!


Owch, owch!

Anything compared with Of Queues and Cures along the lines of complexity must be mind-blowing.

I love "system Manipulation"!Thumbs%20Up
But I can't get the album...
Percussion, sir!
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Points: 5532 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2008 at 07:04
Depends, for me complex is Flairck and in the same time Gentle Giant and Symphony X. Each one in his own way. How can you describe complex??? Progressive music in general is complex, at least must be this way.
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Chris S View Drop Down
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Points: 7028 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 10 2008 at 06:19
Mike Oldfield's Amarok is pretty complex and Yes's TFTO very definitely!
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Points: 31313 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2008 at 17:15
Univers Zero and Henry Cow.
 
Just listen to songs like UZ's 'Dense' or HC's 'Living in the Heart of the Beast'. Now that's complex to me!
 
However, bands like Meshuggah, Planet X, Spastic Ink, Zappa, GG etc must be noted as well (especially Spastic Ink!!)
 
Chamber/RIO band Art Zoyd are also another contender for the "most complex" title,
 
excerpt from review of their Le Mariage du Ciel et de L'Enfer album (taken from Ground and Sky) :
 
If you think the polyrhythmic activity of King Crimson's "Thrak" was challenging, then sink your flimsy teeth into "Cryogenèse - Rêve Artificiel." Two particular sections come to mind. One is right at the beginning, with accented notes against a (required...believe me) metronome ticking away. Seventeen beats in, the first accented note occurs. This is followed 10 beats later by a double-accent, then a single accent 9 beats after that, and a double accent in-between the 9th and 10th beat after that, before the cycle repeats. Then there's the section that begins at 4:56. Here the metronome clicks off a 31-beat cycle, with accents on the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 12th, 16th, 21st, and 24th beats. After one of their trademark lengthy, dynamic buildups with triplicate polyrhythms and sinister organ chordal washes, the music suddenly gets flushed and the 31-beat pattern played over with a five-beat lag, before everything is eventually overtaken by various animal sounds, lawnmower-like drones, and asthmatic breathing.
 
Complex enough?LOL
 
 
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Points: 9 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 08 2008 at 15:25

Wow, Korn complex? I've heard everything now...

I always thought liquid tension experiment was amazing and complex, along with bands like meshuggah and Rush.

Maybe the new SMV album Thunder? That is a great album i would consider complex.
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