My Road to Prog Enlightenment

 

      My friends and I used to practice whisting Brain Salad Surgery back in the 70s so that must be pop!

 

I have spent most of the past week or two exploring more "obscure" prog bands within the genres that I am most comfortable with.  From eMusic, I downloaded Posthumous Silence from Sylvan, Grayceon from Grayceon, Lady of the Light and Sound of the Apocalypse from Black Bonzo, Dawn on Pyther from Project Creation, Mirror from Blind Ego and the first two albums from Beardfish.  I also broke out a pack of Camel(s) and listened to some of their compilations that I own. 

 

In regards to Sylvan, I had already downloaded their other 3 albums and I had really enjoyed them, but the word on the PA street is that Posthumous Silence is their best.  I really enjoyed it but I don't really see how it is that much better than the others.  Again, I guess I just don't have the ear for the nuances that so many of you seem to have.  Maybe it is because I heard Presets and Posthumous Silence out of order.  I really like Presets alot, but I suppose that it is not that much different from Posthumous Silence so it loses marks for "progressing". 

 

Grayceon is actually a very nice find as well.  I believe that I owe thanks to Prog-Jester for mentioning them multiple times in multiple threads.  Definitely one of the best new bands of 2007. 

 

Black Bonzo has also been quite a treat.  I think that their epic Sound of the Apocalypse may be one of the best unknown epic prog songs of 2007.  I was pleased with the sound of most of this album as well as their earlier album Lady of the Light.  If you want a more in depth discussion regarding them see Erik Neuteboom's lesser known prog band thread. 

 

Project Creation's Dawn on Pyther is an album in the traditional prog metal vein.  It is album two of a four album project. There is a nice intermixing of male and female prog vocals.  Their website says that they are a supergroup from Portugal.  I am not familiar with the source bands and have not heard the first album yet.  I haven't listened to this album that closely yet in order to get an understanding of the concept, but it sounds intriguing.

 

It seems that Neo-prog is one of the least popular sub-genres on PA, but it is one of my favorites.  I believe that the blurb said that Mirror from Blind Ego was a project including John Mitchell from Arena and Kino fame so that immediately piqued my interest. It is actually a side project of Kalle Wallner from RPWL and a bit of a prog supergroup including John Mitchell, John Jowitt from IQ, Paul Wrightson of Arena, and Tommy Eberhardt of Beatfreaks (I'm not familiar with them).  As is the case with much Neo-prog there is nothing outstandingly fresh or new on this album, but it provides me with exactly what I want from listening to Neo-prog music.  Inside-the-box prog-by-numbers with nice instrumental playing and nice easy listening vocals.

 

Beardfish's latest album was released on the InsideOut Music label and since I am a bit of a completionist with InsideOut Music this was a no-brainer for me.  This latest album had some really nice music but also some music that was harder for me to get into (which probably what makes it appealing to others).  I believe I read a post from Micky talking about their previous albums and having seen them at one of the prog festivals, so I was pretty excited when I saw the first two albums listed on eMusic.  The first album has been playing in my car's CD player nonstop for the last week and a half.  Grant it I only drive about a 1/2 hour per day so that means I have only listened to it 3 or 4 times, but it have been an enjoyable listen.  There are a couple of songs that are sung in Swedish, which sound really nice, but lose points with me since I have no idea what is being sung.  For most who don't care about lyrics anyways I know that this is not a problem, but for me it is still a hang-up.  I am working to get over it though slowly but surely.  I haven't actually listened to their second album yet, but that will probably make it into the car by the weekend as a replacement for the 1st album. 

 

My re-excursion into Camel didn't have any new revelations.  They are a good band with some nice music, but mostly too mellow for my tastes, which is sort of weird because I tend to like softer music than many on this site but somehow most of their music is too soft for me.  A couple of the instrumentals on The Snow Goose are excellent but otherwise it doesn't really connect with me.  I definitely need to pick up a couple of their earlier albums however because that seems to be where the best magic can be found.

 

As part of my road to prog enlightenment for those of you who might find this thread of interest I felt it might be interesting to share with you my thoughts on some of these bands that I have been recently listening to.  I am definitely not going to turn this into an obscure band thread as guys like Erik and Avestin already do a great job with that. 

 

I might eventually get around to actually posting reviews for some of these albums here on PA.  I am not very good at that yet though.  I can tell you that it is my opinion that an album is good or bad or that I like this song or that song, but I kind of like doing a song by song review and getting really comfortable with an album before I actually review it, and of course that takes lots of time.  Also not being a musician I can't write those informative reviews that tell you there is an awesome 13/2 rhythm with a pentatonic guitar riff and a sweet classical hammond solo; I am limited to saying I really like the drums and guitar work and the songs sounds really good. 

 

Yesterday, I paid a return visit to Rush's R30 Anniversary concert.  Of course Rush are always welcome in my CD player and sometimes it is nice to return to the comfort zone. 

 

Hopefully, those of you that made it this far found something interesting in this post.  Comments are always welcome as they help me to formulate new ideas as well as get me to listen to new or old things (such as Camel).  On the other hand, I know I should just go back to the Just for Fun area of the site since I am somewhat capable of posting there in a reasonable manner.  Keep on progging and thank you for riding along on my road to prog enlightenment. 

 

Thank you for the kind words sinkadotentree.  I find your comments to be quite interesting.  I really find that bands walk a double-edged sword when it comes to later albums.  Once you have created a

masterpiece it is darn near impossible to follow up with another one.  As you might recall there was a thread a couple of months ago that discussed how many bands seemed to have eras where they were living in the world of masterliness for 5 consecutive albums.  This seemed to apply to all of the major classic bands as well as some of the more recent bands.  But the albums before and after these 5 albums just did not live up to this masterliness, and in many instances are severely panned because of that, despite the fact in many instances (but not all) the material is still pretty fantastic. 

 

Back to the double edged sword.  A band can create a second album in the same vein as the first album and they might get away with it if it is really good, but there will be some critics who dislike it for the sameliness.  If they do a third album like this they are written off as being too formulaic.  On the other hand, if they create a second album that is entirely different than the first album, there will be some who are thrilled at how they retained their progressiveness and how creative they were with the second, but there will be many more who dislike them because they are no longer the band that they fell in love with with the first album. 

 

Back to my personal situation (the point of this blog) and to your comment (the point of this post), the music that I fell in love with from bands like Genesis, Rush, and Yes is the music from the 80's and 90's.  I like this music as much or more than their earlier music.  It is the reverse of those who first heard the 70's music and dislike the 80's music.  I think mostly because of (1) familiarity and (2) childhood associations to the music.  I am certainly not dissing the music from the 70's because it is very good.  Since I am not a musician, I do not see many of the differences in the complexity of the music that the musicians see.  Grant it, it doesn't take a genius to see that Firth of Fifth is far more complex than Invisible Touch.  I am still working on my appreciation of early Genesis.  I like a lot of the pre-Lamb music, but Peter Gabriel's voice hasn't grown on me yet.  I like his voice much better during his solo period.  I like parts of the Lamb, but not all of it.  What I find funny about my tastes is that I could not stand Phil Collins in the 80's when I was listening almost exclusively to heavy metal, but you couldn't help but hear Phil Collins' or 80's Genesis music on the radio or the TV because it was everywhere.  In my case, as I got older my tastes mellowed some and now I really like Phil Collins' solo and 80's Genesis.  I do agree to state the obvious however that the Phil Collins version is quite different than the Peter Gabriel version.  But there is nothing wrong with liking both versions. 

 

I tend to be a completionist both in collecting and listening.  Once I find a band whose sound I like I tend to collect it all, and like it all.  I find that for bands where I don't like their later material, I generally didn't really care for their earlier material all that much either.  I seriously can't think of any bands at the moment where I really liked their earlier material and can't stand their newer material.  I'll have to think on that more and come back and edit this post later when I think of somebody, because I am sure they have to be out there somewhere. 

 

My favorite music is the music from prog bands, but it is not necessarily their proggiest music.  Again probably the nonmusician in me.  I suppose that I tend to like well-crafted pop and rock songs.  I can't stand rap or hip-hop.  I can't stand bubblegum pop.  I can't stand country music, although the Devil Went Down to Georgia is a pretty awesome song.  I am not a big fan of the blues, for which I find too much sameiness, but that could be as an uninformed listener.  I love symphonic rock, prog and metal, but I am not that keen on classical music, which I find mostly boring, although I generally like the heavy metal classical songs (mostly those covered by prog and metal bands).  I am not that big of a fan of jazz music, but again I tend to like "acid" jazz.  Not sure exactly how that is defined, but basically that means heavy metal jazz bands. 

 

I listened to the samples on PA from Magma again.  Great musicianship, but the vocals are quite irritating.  I haven't quite learned yet how to treat vocals as another instrument.  Maybe some day.  On a plus side, I did sample some Guru Guru and Henry Cow and I was quite impressed with what little I heard.  eMusic has a whole bunch of their albums on there and I am seriously considering doing some further investigating.  The write-up on one of the Guru Guru albums mentions that the album sounds like they were going through a Rush phase, so I think that one will definitely be an upcoming download. 

 

Thanks for the inspiration.  Sorry for the delay in responding as I was waiting for my muse to return from sabbatical.  I should probably do another post soon to discuss all of the new bands that I have been listening to and really enjoying lately and I am suspecting that post will probably have more to say (hopefully good) about Guru Guru and Henry Cow. 

 

 

That is one of the things that makes this site so interesting.  Interacting with people who like progressive music like I do, and yet as narrow as the genre tag might be in the realm of pop music, the music and individual tastes are so diverse.  Having read many posts from yourself and BaldFriede I have no doubt that our tastes are on opposite sides of the progressive spectrum.  I knew that the first time one of you had a negative post regarding Neil Peart and/or Rush.  Unfortunately for me, many of the bands/artists that you mention are bands and artists that I have never even heard of, let alone been exposed to.  I am also quite sure that there is some wonderful music in the categories that are your favorites which I have yet to have been exposed to.  I think that you would at least be pleased to know that I have yet to create a "who is the best "bassist" "drummer", "keyboardist"" poll and exclude Mani Neumeier, Christian Vander, Jannick Top, etc...  I am not familiar with these artists, but I feel your pain for their exclusion from these type polls.  As I mentioned in my last post, I am interested in exploring Guru Guru after hearing the samples on PA.  I believe that I have you and BaldFriede to thank for creating an interest in them.  No guarantees that I am going to like them, but the samples were definitely quite promising.

 

 

Share Your Knowledge - Food Related Bands Pt 1 - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47235

Share Your Knowledge - Food Related Bands Pt 2 - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47236

Prog Gone Wild Life Part 1 - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47302

Prog Gone Wild Life Part Deux - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47340

Prog Gone Wild Life Part Three - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47669

Prog Gone Wild Life Part Four -  http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=48279

Prog Gone Wild Life-Have Yourself a Fifth - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=48709&PN=1

A Bruising Poll - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=47408

 

 

I also had purchased tickets to see Yes for next month, but unfortunately, as you all know, the tour had to be cancelled due to Jon Anderson's health issues.  Hopefully, Jon fully recovers, and someday they come around and tour again.  I recall once watching an interview in which they talked about passing on the family business to their children, so maybe one day Yes, Jr., will come around with all of the Anderson, Wakeman, and Howe, etc children playing the songs of their fivefathers, and maybe some new material of

comparable style and quality. 

 

None of the above listed polls managed to generate enough negative interest to get closed, so they are still open and available for further input from anyone who feels like exploring the threads and sharing some info on the various bands.  I haven't explored as many of the bands from those threads as I would like, but I do try to keep my eyes and ears open for these bands so that I can explore them further.  Bands from these lists that I have purchased CDs and explored further are Blue Shift, Fond of Tigers, Yak, Arachnoid, Tea for Two, The Strawbs (I previously knew some, but I have explored further), Nektar, and Pineapple Thief.  Check the poll threads for my thoughts on these various bands (at least most of them I have thrown a blurb or two in regarding my listening experiences.  Edit: I missed some other bands that I have checked out some songs from that were included in those threads: Brother Ape, Super Furry Animals, Art Bears, Skywhale, Unicorn, Nightingale, Zebra, and Zzebra.

 

I happened to be up at the local Target one day and saw Protest the Hero's Fortress album and having seen them discussed here I decided to purchase it on the spot.  After all, it is a rare occasion when one finds a prog band in a nonspecialty CD store.  I am generally a fan of prog metal, but less so of the experimental and technical metal side of things.  At times they sounded quite good, but mostly I was turned off by the vocal delivery.  I also didn't particularly care for the lyrics once I sat down to give them a listen.  Those that are familiar with my posts regarding Opeth know that I have this odd aversion to harsh vocals.  (At least it seems to be odd here on PA). 

 

I also finally got around to listening to the Satellite trilogy.  What a great band they are.  I truly enjoyed all 3 albums.  Must be that I am a fan of drummer lyricists.  This band definitely receives a very high recommendation from me. Warning:  Before rushing out to buy these albums read the rest of my blog to understand my tastes and where I am coming from.  As good as I find these albums, I suspect that they won't appeal to fans of RIO/Avant or highly experimental music.  After all, I believe that Satellite is categorized as Neo on PA or retro prog and from my readings on this forum this only seems to appeal to a minority of us. 

 

Oh well, I suppose that I have wasted enough internet space for one post.  As always, please feel free to provide me with comments or suggestions.