Any good Pink Floyd -like bands?

Robert Beriau might be up your alley.  Try "Selfishness"

Alan Parsons Project's I ROBOT is a kind of Floyd-light album, with some excellent tracks, including the opening instrumental, the hit "I Wouldn't Want to Be Like You" (the guitar solo sounds like pure Gilmour circa '75-77 to me), and "Day After Day" (you'll swear that's Gilmour on vocals and guitar). However, the best pure Floydian moment by the band is the song "Time," which always sounded like it could have been on THE WALL to me (although others talk about its similiary to "Us and Them").

Other truly great songs that are so Floydian it's hard to imagine they are by someone else: "Lunatic Fringe" by Red Rider (a big hit in its day, sounds like it's from THE WALL), "Silent Lucidity" by Queensryche (ditto), the Flaming Lips' "Pompeii Am Gotterdammerung" (sounds like it should have been on MEDDLE), Archive's "Again," Anathema's "Emotional Winter" (sounds like a DIVISON BELL tune), Tangerine Dreams' "Cloudburst Flight" (another MEDDLE-like tune), "Starless" by King Crimson, and the funk tracks "Cebu" (by the Commodores) and "Summer Madness" (Kool and the Gang) sound like they should be on WISH YOU WERE HERE. Some songs that definitely remind one of Floyd, even if they slightly predate them: Fleetwood Mac's "Albatross." And is it just me, or does "School/Bloody Well Right" by Supertramp sound totally like Floyd?

Tangerine Dream's albums seemed particularly influenced by Floyd, including PHAEDRA, RUBYCON, CYCLONE, and FORCE MAJEURE.

Brian Eno's 70s work often reminded me of Floyd. Check out his tune "The Belldog," or the instrumentals on ANOTHER GREEN WORLD.

Oh, and Maudlin of the Well's PART THE SECOND CD has a couple of very Floydian moments in "An Excerpt" and "Rose Quartz Turning to Glass."

Someone else mentioned Camel. For my money, the most Floyd-like moment is their brilliant album MOONMADNESS, with its Gilmour-like vocals.

The German band Novalis has many pure Floyd-like moments in 1970s if you can take the vocals, including the tunes Sommerabend, Aufbruch, and Im Netz. Neu's 1972 tune "WeiBensee" has often been compared to Floyd.

Concerning Pulsar, mentioned by someone else, I'd recommend their album HALLOWEEN over STRANDS OF TIME.

Someone else also mentioned Djam Karet. Their song "Room 40" sounds like a Floyd rehearsal for THE WALL, albeit in embryonic form.

Someone else also mentioned Eloy's SILENT CRIES AND MIGHTY ECHOES. I second that, but would like to add that their best and most Floydian album in my opinion is OCEAN, which preceded SILENT CRIES.

Others have also mentioned Gong. I would add to that Steve Hillage's GREEN.

Roy Harper, the guy who sang "Have a Cigar," often sounded very Floydian on his 70s albums. Perhaps the most Floydian is the song "When an Old Cricketer Leaves the Crease," which sounds like it belongs on THE WALL.

As bar as contemporary bands go, Negative Zone's self-titled album sounds like DARK SIDE OF THE MOON-era Floyd, once you get past the first couple of songs. Another band, the Future Kings of England, have several great Floyd-like instrumentals (Bartholomew's Merman, Dunwich).

Mostly Autumn is often compared to the post-Waters Floyd. My favorite tunes by them are "Half the Mountain" and "Heroes Never Die."  RPWL is another one; check out their very Floyd take on Dylan's "Masters of War," which sounds like it belongs on A MOMENTARY LAPSE, as does "Hole in the Sky."

Then there is the tribute band Think Floyd, which have also released two albums of their own material. Their tune "Hope" is reason enough to seek it out. You'll swear it's Roger Waters on vocals; and not only that, but it's better than anything he's done since leaving Floyd, in my opinion.

Porcupine Tree's early stuff is pure Floydian, incuding the albums THE SKY MOVES SIDEWAYS (the intro to the title track and the short version of "Moonloop" are awesome and very Floyd-like), ON THE SUNDAY OF LIFE, UP THE DOWNSTAIR, and SIGNIFY.

Marillion can be very Floydian; particuarly on the tracks "Ocean Cloud," "Neverland" and "Invisible Man" from their album MARBLES, and their album BRAVE, which seems influenced by THE FINAL CUT, but is even better, IMO. "Asylum Satellite One" from their most recent album is decidedly Floydian.

What else... Vangelis' soundtrack BLADE RUNNER reminds me of Floyd; "Clouds Up" and "Playground Love" by Air are pure Floydian; Flying Saucer Attack's "In the Light of Time"; Sigur Ros' album AGAETIS BYRJUN; Spiritualized's LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, WE ARE FLOATING IN SPACE; Radiohead's OK COMPUTER; etc etc.


Edited by jude111 - December 01 2011 at 03:54

AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: Porcupine Tree, Riverside and Anathema are the big 3 I think for Pink Floyd like music.

Solar Project (Germany):

Early Porcupine Tree ('96 and earlier) is great and noticeably Floyd-inspired. Since you also mention DT, you'll probably like In Absentia and Deadwing as well.

Eloy

Think Floyd

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: I'm sorry but I just don't hear the Floyd reference in most of these bands.

Just relistened to Eloy - Silent Cries and I take back my judgement, very Floydian.

If you like One of These Days and Echoes (two of my faves) from Meddle, Tangerine Dream's Rubycon album sounds a little like a dreamier combination of those two:

Semi-Early Porcupine Tree(Sky Moves Sideways, Signify) And even some of Steven Wilson's solo stuff reminds me of Floyd. You can tell he is deeply influenced by them. I agree with an above poster about Camel. Terrific band with Floyd influence. :D