About your native progressive rock bands

We Have Los Jaivas and Congreso

I'm from Quebec, Canada. A few bands have already been mentionned, and I will add a lot more.

Well there's the obvious, Harmonium and Maneige, both well known in PA.
Then there's:
Harmonium-related:
Fiori-Seguin (Deux cents nuits a l'heure) : Collaboration between Serge Fiori and well known folk singer Richard Seguin. It's a bit too pop a times but there are some gems on this record.
Neil Chotem (Live au El Casino) : Neil was a major collaborator on Harmonium's L'heptade (and also played on the Fiori-Seguin album). The songs are mostly instrumental and mixes classical and soft jazz with some prog touches. Neil is accompanied by most of the Harmonium lineup from l'Heptade along with Marie-Claire Seguin, Richard's sister. Vers l'infini is an amazing song and absolute standout. Rather hard to find but really good stuff.

There's also Ville-Emard Blues Band, a huge jazz/fusion collective of over 20 musicians, including the whole lineup of Contraction, some future/ex-members of Harmonium, Vos Voisins,Toubadou and many more.
VEBB related:
Contraction (s/t, La bourse ou la vie) : their second LP is amazing, their style is mostly into softer jazz with some rock and folk thrown in.
Yves Laferrière (s/t) : Contraction's mainman released a solo LP in '78, and it sounds pretty much like what Contraction's 3rd LP could have been. Excellent stuff, especially the song Mouvements.
Jacques Blais (Themes) : This is a solo LP from Blais meaning that the music is from Blais but since it was produced by Laferriere and performed with Contraction members it has a bit of Contraction style to it. Most of the album is great but there are few duds aiming toward the pop crowd.
Vos Voisins (s/t) : Pretty solid heavy prog with lots of Hammond. Sung in joual (quebec slang). Their guitar player was later part of VEBB.

And there are many more:
Aquarelle (Sous un Arbre, Live a Montreux) : Solid jazz/fusion/prog, a bit like Maneige's '76-'79 period.
Et Cetera (s/t) : They take the syncopated style of Gentle Giant and add their own twist. Male/female vocals and dual keyboards. A bit derivative of other English bands but great stuff.
Incubus (Memoires incubussiennes) : Now called ExCubus to avoid confusion with other similar-named bands. They recorded some stuff in the 70's but never managed to make a record. They reunited in 2008 and recorded some more tracks. The whole thing was released by ProgQuebec recently. Their sound is like a cross between ELP and Le Orme, add to that some electric guitar and a heavier, more menacing tone and you can guess what they sound like. Excellent stuff.
Morse Code (Marche des Hommes, Procreation, Je suis le temps) : Not really my cup of tea, but they made some really great symphonic stuff like the title tracks of La Marche des Hommes and Procreation.
Octobre (s/t, Les Nouvelles Terres, Survivance, L'autoroute des reves, Live-Chants dans la nuit) : I'm surprised they aren't more well known. This is one of the best bands of Quebec, prog rock with a slight jazz touch. Top notch musicians, especially the drums and bass guitar. Survivance, les Nouvelles terres and the live album are all mandatory.
Opus5 (Contre-courant) : Excellent symphonic stuff with jazz influence. I had a bit of problems with the vocals at first.
Pollen (s/t) : One of the best symphonic prog album ever made in Quebec. Need I say more?
Sloche (J'un oeil, Stadacone) : Absolutely amazing band, mostly intrumental, alternating between jazz/fusion and Gentle Giant weirdness. Both albums are mandatory.
Solstice (Mirage, Espresso) : Mostly a jazz-rock band with some prog touches. Espresso is the best of the two. The bass player is amazing.

I'm not very familiar with modern bands but there are a few that I care about:
Karcius (Sphere, Kaleidoscope, Episode) : Excellent all instrumental band with King Crimson and metal influence. Their best is Kaleidoscope.
Spaced Out (s/t, Eponymous 2, Slow Gin, Unstable Matter, Evolution) : Heavy Jazz-Metal-Prog, a bit like Planet X. Their bassist is absolutely stunning. All their albums are good but a I have a soft spot for Slow Gin.
Talisma (Corpius, Chromium, Quelque Part) : Amazing instrumental band, influenced by Crimson and a lot of other things including world music. Considering they live about 30 km from my house, it's hard to get more "local" than this.

And let's not forget prog metal:
Augury (Conceiled) : Mixes brutal death metal, melodic and eclectic stuff altogether. Can't wait for their new album due out this year.
Martyr (Hopeless Hopes, Warp Zone, Feeding the Abcess) : Picture post-1991 Death, Atheist, Cynic and Voivod all rolled into one. Amazing band.
Moonlyght (Progressive Darkness, Shining): Mixed black metal, power metal, folk and prog elements. Great melodic band.
Sons of Nihil (Sons of Nihil, Unfolding Destiny) : Highly complex black metal with good production. Hard to get into at first but very rewarding.
Unexpect (Utopia, we_Invaders, In a flesh aquarium) : One of the most extreme and eclectic bands I know. Mixes every style of metal imaginable along with circus music, movie soundtracks, video game soundtracks and classical music.
Voivod (Killing Technology, Dimension Hatross, Nothingface, The Outer Limits) : The godfathers of Quebec metal. Most of their albums have thrash metal influences. The outer limits and Angel Rat are less thrash, more melodic and the most progressive. Nothingface and Dimension Hatross are prog metal classics.

If you are looking for good examples of RPI with English lyrics, don't bother, and save your money for something else. None of the albums in English by Italian bands even remotely approach the brilliance of those recorded in Italian. I am a native speaker of Italian, and can't stand people singing in bad English, with very heavy accents. If lyrics are so important for you, stick to prog coming from English-speaking countries. You would not get a good idea of the subgenre anyway, and those RPI CDs do not come cheap.

I know it's weird...but even when the lyrics are complete nonsense (Like Jon Anderson's for example) or even when they're not native english speakers (like Eloy and Amon Duul II) I still like to know what they're saying.

And I have this nasty habit of singing along to my favourite songs all the time. I can't do that for foreign languages. I can't really explain.

For me its just a personal thing. It has to be in english or it has to be instrumental.  

Edited by Eapo_q42 - March 17 2009 at 18:48

Oh, and just one other thing.

Although it's true that most prog bands are not known for their lyrics, that doesn't mean they can't be appreciated.

I think that the Wetton era KIng Crimson had some very poignant and eloquent lyrics, whether written by Palmer-James or by Wetton himself.

I think that also Peter Hammill of VDGG has a very nice way with words.

And, of course, the immortal Mr. Roger Waters is one of the finest lyricists of all time, in my opinion.


Edited by Eapo_q42 - March 17 2009 at 18:56

From the SF Bay Area:

Magellan
Michael Manring
Maximum Indifference
Metallica
Metaphor
Mind Furniture
Lloyd Minthorne
Mirthkon
MohoDisco
Monks of Doom
Tim Morse
Moth Vellum
Mushroom
Netherworld
Amy X Neuburg & Men
The Neurohumors
New Sun
Erik Norlander
Roger Powell
Product
Puppet Show
Quasar
Relic
Rocket Scientists
Santana
Savant Guard
Scribe
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum
Tempest
Tesseract
thin pillow
Don Tillman
Timeline
Trap
Tungsten
Daevid Allen's University of Errors
Carl Weingarten

And probably a few more that I can't remember.

hahah..not difficult at all...  that is my job here .... give me little bit though I'm about out for the evening.  I'll PM some stuff and thoughts for you... give me a day or two on that. 

Raff wrote: If you are looking for good examples of RPI with English lyrics, don't bother, and save your money for something else. None of the albums in English by Italian bands even remotely approach the brilliance of those recorded in Italian. I am a native speaker of Italian, and can't stand people singing in bad English, with very heavy accents. If lyrics are so important for you, stick to prog coming from English-speaking countries. You would not get a good idea of the subgenre anyway, and those RPI CDs do not come cheap.

Trust her on this

I thought this would be the best place to post this.

Rapataz wrote: Noetics maybe (from the region I grew up), Panzerballet .... It is so sad that I can't think of anymore. There are about 80 million people living in germany and no one seems to have a interest in good music. When I was in school (90's), I was kind of "infamous" for my unconfortable music. ("what HE's at the stereo? get him out here....). The music most people listen to mostly is tinned fast food trash pop from the USA or

PANZERBALLET rocks!!! What an amazing band! First time I heard through Dick Heath's radio show and I was amazed!!