I Recommend...

For fans of Mars Volta, check out a band called Green Milk From The Planet Orange...similar feels and executions, but with a bit less racket/noise/cacophony.   Perhaps a bit more 'post-rockish'.

Japanese band who hail themselves as, 'new wave of progressive rock'.

http://www.green-milk.com/

Triumvirat - Spartacus (1975)

I recommend a band called Machinae Supremacy for fans of prog metal. They're not really prog, but have some prog influences and are surprisingly good. A friend of mine introduced me to them. I was really amazed by them and they still are one of the only non-prog bands that get frequent spins in my CD-player. You can download full songs here: http://www.machinaesupremacy.com/discography.html

The albums Deus Ex Machinae and Redeemer are really good. I suggest downloading Soundtrack to the Rebellion, Through the Looking Glass and Player One for starters.

On another note, I would like to recommend Red Sparowes wich they have been included in PA not so long ago. For info of their album At the soundless dawn, chekc my review at the front page 

Thunderstone-- Tools of Destruction

^^^ I have Tutankhamon and Cosas Nostres - both albums are very good IMO, Tutankhamon is borderline between jazz/rock and symphonic, while Cosas Nostres is more straight forward jazz/rock - fusion. Recommended listening for fans of both subgenres! 

Lots of good (and some outright frightening) suggestions here!

Unfortunately I haven't managed to listen yet to French TV (but I am still trying to get hold of one of their albums).

Indeed a great album Abstrakt, and my favourite Black Sabbath album.


I'd like to recommend now a musician and artist and not a specific album.
The man who I refer to is JOHN ZORN.

This man has put out so many records in so many different styles of music and worked in so many projects, it becomes really hard to follow all of his carrer. An avant-garde artist, with jazz background, he has crossed borders to other musical styles in his releases and mingles all kinds of genres in them. You just do not get to rest when listening to his records. As MikeEnRegalia said in his thread he has now put out a new album with Mike Patton called Moonchild.
I do not have the necessary abilities to describe him and his bio correctly and in order to do this man justice I will give you Joren Van Ree's bio of Zorn he has written in his artist page here in PA:

JOHN ZORN biography

Although very few people would think of John Zorn as a progressive rock artist, his close relation to the genre can’t be denied. Not only has he repeatedly joined forces with Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Art Bears), he has also collaborated on several occasions with Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Fantפmas) and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle). Maybe just as important is the fact that Zorn’s side project Naked City is generally regarded as an important avant-progressive metal outfit, and his Painkiller project takes...Although very few people would think of John Zorn as a progressive rock artist, his close relation to the genre can’t be denied. Not only has he repeatedly joined forces with Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Art Bears), he has also collaborated on several occasions with Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle, Fantפmas) and Trevor Dunn (Mr. Bungle). Maybe just as important is the fact that Zorn’s side project Naked City is generally regarded as an important avant-progressive metal outfit, and his Painkiller project takes things to even greater extremes with a mix of grindcore and free jazz. On top of that, there are several prog bands that mention him as a source of inspiration, and his Tzadik label has helped keeping avant-garde music alive by releasing albums of such prolific artists as Mike Patton, Maudlin Of The Well-offshoot Kayo Dot, Toby Driver, Buckethead, Fred Frith, Ruins, and many others. So, although not a “progrock” artist per se, Zorn’s connection to the RIO/avant-prog scene is obvious and his discography is a valuable addition to the ever-increasing ProgArchives website.

Born in New York at September 2, 1953, John Zorn initially studied piano, flute, and guitar and learned contemporary art music through a program of self-study. He took up the alto saxophone (which was to become his major instrument) and began to study jazz at age twenty. Zorn has always been interested in many kinds of music, including such 20th-century composers as Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, Charles Ives, Edgard Varטse, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Harry Partch, John Cage, and Mauricio Kagel, but he is also very fond of free jazz musicians such as Ornette Coleman, film music composer Ennio Morricone, and Carl Stallings, who wrote music for cartoons. In addition, Zorn’s influences include doo-wop and other pop music, including thrash metal/grindcore band Napalm Death. As a teenager, Zorn was already writing contemporary art music in the vein of the composers mentioned above, and the influence of two of them figures strongly in Zorn’s later works (in which he experimented with aspects of chance, after Cage, and ‘game pieces’, after Kagel). His liking of extreme metal led to the founding (around 1990) of the groups Naked City and Painkiller. In addition to the aforementioned ‘game pieces’ (including “Lacrosse”, “Pool”, “Hockey” and “Archery”) and avant-metal (including “Naked City” and Painkiller’s “Guts Of A Virgin”), Zorn has released recordings of chamber music (including “Cartoon/S&M”), solo music for reed instruments and duck calls (“The Classic Guide To Strategy”), music for film (collected on the “Film Works” series), rather ‘normal’ jazz for Zorn standards, inspired by his Jewish roots (the “Masada” series), and even surf music (“The Gift”). He also recorded an Ennio Morricone tribute album (“The Big Gundown”) and an Ornette Coleman tribute album (“Spy Vs. Spy”). Still, this is only the top of the iceberg, for Zorn’s discography includes about 100 (!) releases. Considering Zorn’s attitute towards music, his varied taste in music, his eclecticism, his humour and his enormous productivity, the only artist that I could compare him with is Frank Zappa, but their music, nonetheless, is very different.*

An almost omnipresent element in Zorn’s music is jazz, and that (plus the fact that he plays the saxophone) is probably why a lot of people continue to pigeon-hole him as a jazz musician, even though over the years John Zorn has succesfully explored almost all possible musical territories, as saxophonist, composer, and band-leader. His work, ranging from free jazz to surf and from hardcore to chamber music, has blurred the boundaries between art music, popular music and jazz. It has always been experimental, uncompromising, and a real challenge to listen to. So what word could capture the spirit of this artist better than “progressive”?

(John Zorn is highly recommended to fans of RIO/avant-prog in particular and avant-garde music in general. “Naked City” is by far Zorn’s most well-known effort, and it serves as a nice introduction to his enormous discography. But be careful and make sure not to discard him too quickly, for his discography has many different sides, and one album could never represent all of them.)

: : : Joren van Ree, The Netherlands : : : [December 20, 2005]



For people looking for an adventurous music, not frightened of experimentalism and who are intrigued by music not ordinary, not like what you have ever heard.

Lonks to sites dedicated to John Zorn or related to him:

http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=2212 - PA page

http://members.tripod.com/~JFGraves/zorn-index.html - Unofficial Zorn page

http://www.omnology.com/zorn01.html - Bio and Discography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Zorn - Zorn Wikipedia entry

http://www.wnur.org/Jazz/artists/zorn.john/discog.html#zorn_discography - Discography

http://www.tzadik.com/ - Zorn's label Tzadik (Righteous).







Edited by avestin - May 26 2006 at 07:01