Hi! I'm Lapis!

Ahoy Lapis.   You can't go wrong with 70s Tull. 

I prophesy disaster wrote: yes-no-and-why wrote: I prophesy disaster wrote: A big name in prog circles that you haven't mentioned is Van der Graaf Generator. My recommendation is "Pawn Hearts", although some regard it as a difficult album. Oh, you're right, I haven't mentioned them! I've listened to their first album, which I would describe as psychedelic rock, not prog. I've read about Pawn Hearts and mean to listen to it sometime soon. It sounds very cool.   Van der Graaf Generator evolved considerably from their debut album to "Pawn Hearts". It was their second album ("The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other") that they truly found their sound, albeit in somewhat crude form, their third album ("H To He, Who Am The Only One") where they perfected their sound, and their fourth album ("Pawn Hearts") where they created their unified masterpiece. After that, they changed their sound somewhat to something more economical.

BaldJean wrote: hi Lapis (Latin for "stone", by the way); welcome to the archives. I absolutely agree about Van der Graaf Generator. "Pawn Hearts" may however be a little difficult as introduction to them; it is quite experimental. "Godbluff" is perhaps a better introduction to them. my recommendation would be the French band Magma (in my honest opinion the best live band in the world), but they are definitely not easy to get into either, and a lot of prog fans hate them. they claim to be from the future and from the planet Kobaïa (a planet mankind will exile to in the future after having ecologically destroyed the planet Earth. Magma invented a completely new style of music called "Zeuhl"; the "Z" is pronounced like "Ts", the "eu" like the "eu" in French words like "jeu" ("game"), "feu" ("fire") or "fleur" ("flower"). they sing in their own invented language Kobaïa. according to the TV-channel ARTE, who aired a feature film about the band 2 years ago, Zeuhl is a mixture of jazz, rock, classical, modern avant-garde, rhythm and blues, metal and world music; I would throw soul, funk and even disco into that mix to describe their music. as a start into Magma I recommend the album "Köhntarkösz" from 1974. but best to watch them live; for this their is no better track than the almost 35-minutes track "Theusz Hamtaahk", (meaning "Time of Hatred" in Kobaïan; there is no studio version of this track). you can skip the first 90 seconds of the video that only show the band backstage and the audience entering. it is very well possible that you will not like the music at all on first listening; it is some weird stuff for sure. but give them a chance; should you finally get into them you will love them more than any other band

I prophesy disaster wrote: A big name in prog circles that you haven't mentioned is Van der Graaf Generator. My recommendation is "Pawn Hearts", although some regard it as a difficult album.

Welcome! And remember: Drama can be very good!

A big name in prog circles that you haven't mentioned is Van der Graaf Generator. My recommendation is "Pawn Hearts", although some regard it as a difficult album.

Welcome Lapis

yes-no-and-why wrote: ...I cannot stand drama...

Sorry for snipping, but Drama (like a fair amount of Yes) leaves me thinking much the same as your username: Yes, no, and why?



But seriously, I say that a lot. I'm totally there with you on KC's Lizard. While a lot of people say "No" and "Why?" to Yes' Tales from Topographic Oceans, I found myself loving it about a year or two back. I love Kate Bush but don't consider her to be Prog really. She made some music that I could call Prog and I think she is quite progressive, but I think of her as more art pop and progressive pop than Progressive Rock genre (aka Prog). And And I first got to know Adrian Below for Lone Rhino (as a teen), and his "solo" career is the first thing I think of with him, and especially I think of, "I know the zoos protect my species. They give me food, collect my feces."

Welcome to our Prog zoo, this can be a dangerous place, perhaps, but I like to think that this zoo mostly protects our largely progotten species when it isn't collecting feces (after they hit the fan, or fandom even).