Emulating Classic Prog Is Not Prog

Good point!  However, pioneers show how it's done, i.e. Fripp & Belew blazed a huge trail with the Roland guitar synth during the "Discipline" KC era! 

Artists need to push out of the comfort zone - Jaco and Percy really blew open the door with the fretless electric bass guitar, which is now commonplace.  That single innovation greatly expanded the vocabulary of the prog idiom. 

I really don't see today's innovators, do you?  Nobody with that kind of impact (Fripp etc.).  Fareed Haque does some, with the fretless Glissentar guitar, Moog guitar etc.  He's the only one I can think of.

 

Discovery, right? Garaj Mahal is a great band because they have chops to spare but don't let the tracks suffer for gratuitous technical display. That CD is a bunch of great compositions. All fantastic players.

Old keyboard sound are cool and haven't lost their charm among many bands and listeners. Nothing better than a good Mellotron and a Moog or ARP synth. I think they could both be used more uniquely in modern times but to me there is nothing wrong with them. Some bands start by emulating a more known act from the past up until they find their own sound. A perfect example of this would be Marillion. They started sounding like a Genesis knock-off but continued untl they found their own sound. The differences between albums like "Fugazzi" and "Brave" are huge but, both albums are great albums in their own way. I don't mind if a band stars by emulating another great band so as long as at one point, they evolve into their own sound. In a way, it is like going to Prog school before graduating. 

Familiarity and personal "comfort zones" are the biggest commonalities among many fans. One could say that Prog-metal is the newest form of innovating Prog with the exception that it is composed almost of an even mix of two sub-genres. Looking at it from that point of view, it is not Prog neither.

A lot relies on the eyes and ears of the beholder. Music is a very subjective thing. What's good for some is not as good for others and so on. Progressive rock is not limited to verbal definitions although the name does imply some forward thinking form the part of the music. If it is original, great. If it is an emulation, it depends on how good the final result sounds like. If it sounds good, then it is good. If it sounds like a cheap copy of someone else, then it's no good and so forth.

I'm not saying that it is a bad thing to be influenced by the great ones at all. That also happens in all genres of music. Without commonalities, there wouldn't be a classification at all. My CD from a couple of years ago is composed of Genesis covers and original songs done more or less in the style of Genesis. I found out a lot about the fans in doing the album. I found out that you will never please everyone, that there are definitely two camps of fans: those who like the idea of reinterpretations and those who hate the idea of reinterpretations altogether.

There are no doubts in my mind that early Marillion borrowed heavily from Genesis. Their song "Grendel" has many riffs lifted straight out of "Supper's Ready" as well as the overall song structure. But that's okay, I very much like Marillion. By the time they recorded "Misplaced Childhood" they had found their most cohesive and original sound with Fish on vocals. To me, their best effort with Hogarth was "Brave". That record has many musical subtleties that makes it a brilliant piece of music.

You can check some samples of my records and make up your mind here:  http://www.leonplaysmusic.com/Site/file_2.html

Damn!!  

Now, go get that copy of "Close To The Edge"!