http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51596&PN=1" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=51596&PN=1

One of my favorite artists is Loreena McKennett, who, although is not prog, or from the middle east, has proggy elements through a lot of her work. I also like Orange Blossom, although again, small hints of prog but a lot of New Age influences. 

Some British bands like Brand X have had a bit of a Middle-Eastern influence, check out their LP "Masques."  Percy Jones' fretless bass gives the music a nice Eastern feel! 

I'm intrigued by Middle Eastern poly-tones and rhythms, but don't think much of it has come into Western music completely.  Check out this clip! 

Not prog per se, but there are plenty of JR/F artistes of middle-eastern roots who splash their music with "arabian" overtones:

Dhafer Youssef, Tigran Hamassyan, Ibrahim Maalouf, etc...

In prog the half-french/half-Turkish Asia Minor, the Armenian band Artsruni, and a few more.

Loreena was mostly celtic in her early albums but "The Mask and Mirror", "Book of Secrets" and "Ancient Muse" explore various middle and far eastern themes.

Osiris is from Bahrain.  While their early albums don't show that much local influence, "Visions from the Past" shows more.  

Although they are American, nobody has incorporated Middle Eastern sounds into prog better than the Secret Chiefs 3. They mixed surf rock, mariachi, prog, metal and other genres as well.

Second album

Third album

Here's a sample from this years release "LW"

Lastly off the top of my head, Turkish band: Altin Gun - Gece 

another good one, a little more psychedelic rock leaning than prog.

Various Area also has middle-eastern vibes.

Also, for those that like like progressive ethno folk with free jazz elements, Aktuala is good, I think.

Secret Chiefs 3, as mentioned, is a very good one, and is one of my favourite more modern bands.

Everything I'm finding (especially the newer stuff) might not be considered prog, or even good. Mdou Moctar is from Texas, and the song "Tarhatazed" is repetitious, but because it's 11:23, some think "Oh it's prog - it's long".

Here's someone Middle-Eastern, one of the greatest voices, and its a long song, more progressive (and better) than the earlier reference.

Great thread idea!

Fairuz - Al Bosta

Orphaned Land, Yossi Sassi, anything with lead singer Noa Gruman (Scardust, Soul Enema).

A little while ago I was specifically searching for prog from unexpected countries and among the things I found was this ethno-psychedelic track from 1970s Iraq:

The King Gizzard suggestion was very good, but Aktuala was the one I enjoyed the most.

Thanks to everyone for their suggestions! Keep 'em comin' 

You're welcome, but Tull has nothing on Peter Gabriel! "The Feeling Begins" from the Last Temptation soundtrack.

There's a Neo-Prog band from Bahrain called Osiris.  They only have a little Middle Easter feel on the first album (the only one I've heard) but maybe more on some of their others(?).  Anyway, cool to have a really good band from the heart of the Middle East!

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=277" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=277

Hey for all those who suggested AREA (one of my favorite bands of all time), most of their ethnic sounds came from Balkan gypsy flavors not Middle Eastern but i guess there is some crossover since the Balkans were a crossroads of sort.

The prog metal BAK who is on PA was basically mixed black album era Metallica with Middle Eastern flavors

Entire album SCULPTURE

Prog metal band AMASEFFER mixes Israeli folk music with metal. Here's the album Slaves For Life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcfGtbvMwKs&list=OLAK5uy_nmtGYHI37NA2ke2u7W8_BG8OE_xP_FrZo" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcfGtbvMwKs&list=OLAK5uy_nmtGYHI37NA2ke2u7W8_BG8OE_xP_FrZo

While not on PA, some consider the tech death metal band NILE progressive. They incorporate lots of ancient Egyptian musical scales and instruments into their brutal death metal.

Here's an old thread that brings up the same topic and has a few suggestions of artists i've never heard of.

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53968" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=53968

Also MELECHESH mixed black metal, folk metal and prog with Arabic folk music

and MR BUNGLE had a few tracks which inspired the Secret Chiefs 3 project

^ that's also primarily Balkan folk music but i just looked up what exactly the parameters of Middle Eastern music includes and it turns out Balkan folk is a branch! So too is Armenian (such as Zartang), Persian, Kurdish and all the other ethnic music styles that evolved from the same parent stock.

So if Balkan music (such as Area and Charming Hostess) are permissible then so is

BTW, this is an excellent idea for a thread! I have always loved Middle Eastern and Balkan flavors in music especially prog and metal so i decided to make a list on RYM about it!

Please keep any suggestions rolling!

ALso forgot about this one..

Just did some research and came up with this list. A lot more than i thought but still not a huge number.

http://rateyourmusic.com/list/siLLy_puPPy/middle-eastern-influenced-prog-folk_rock_metal/" rel="nofollow - https://rateyourmusic.com/list/siLLy_puPPy/middle-eastern-influenced-prog-folk_rock_metal/

Most of the stuff I've come across that are worth while were Psychedelic Rock or Jazz

Some Psych Rock:

Sunn Trio - Fayrus

Blaak Heat - The Arabian Fuzz EP & Shifting Mirrors

Al Doum & The Faryds - Positive Force

Some Jazzy stuff:

Embryo - Embryo's Reise & Ibn Battuta

Station One - Quartet Diminished

Yazz Ahmed - Polyhymnia

Naissam Jalal - Almot Wala Almazala

Elias Nardi - Orange Tree

Eyvind Kang - Alastor (Book of Angels, Volume 21)

Does Azerbaijan count? If so, Vagif Mustafa Zadeh - Themes Of Tofik Kuliev

Some weird/experimental stuff:

Johnny Kafta Anti-Vegetarian Orchestra - s/t

The Dwarfs Of East Agouza - Bes

SteveG wrote:

Great song! But dude that's Indian (as in raga influenced) rather than Middle Eastern

SteveG wrote: According to a Persian friend, the slower build up sections are Arabic with the billistic middle section being raga for Rajan Khan. For the first song I haven't a clue but I think the OP will like it. So just feel half embarrassed.

That may be so since the trend then was to borrow from anywhere possible but the sitar and overall thematic trend seem much more Indian to me than Middle Eastern. Of course Indian music is somewhat similar in many ways. One of my favorite Renaissance songs actually!

I'm still listening to some of the stuff listed here.

However, I have reservations. For a band, any band, to simply have an instrument do something that is usually associated with Middle Eastern music, does not, and never will, make it "progressive" and thus a lot of the stuff listed does not really fit.

I don't consider the early AF progressive at all, as it was a school "study" (paid for too!) that was designed to mix various other elements in music, and specifically Middle Eastern music ... to me that does not make it "progressive".

Guy Guden, in his show, plays a lot of Middle Eastern music, going back so far as MONSOON and then Sheila Chandra, and even going so far as Ofra Haza and many others over the last 40 years! Not all of it is "progressive" but all of them include some western themes and song concepts that their culture might not exactly work on, unless it is simple pop music (and they have a lot of it!!!!) ... however, some of the things he plays these days, would/could/should be considered "progressive" since it is not just a "mix" and a touch of the sound anymore, and the stuff is way better integrated than it was before.

I would venture to say that some things are not "Middle Eastern Prog" and one example is RENAISSANCE, simple because of one song and one sound! 

Not quite prog, but probably more like classical crossover - this has got a distinct hypnotic Middle Eastern feel to it.

As well as the excellent Renaissance track from SteveG, here are a couple of examples of songs with Middle Eastern influence from Annie Haslam's solo works (yes I know she's not in the database here - a moot point).

Not really. Lyrically and poetically for sure but not musically. From the composition standpoint this album is the true definition of symphonic prog more inspired by the classic Scheherazade by Rimsky-Karsakov based on the folk tales One Thousand and One Nights (aka The Arabian Nights).

I just went on a road trip and listened to this whole album like 5 times. There are no hints of Middle Eastern music scales or otherwise that i can detect. In the case of the tales of Scheherazade, they are compiled from Arabic folklore.

If you take the characteristics of Arabic music (and most Middle Eastern music for that matter) they are defined by a few common criteria:

Much of Arabic music is characterized by an emphasis on melody and rhythm as opposed to harmony and typically Arabic music is homophonic not polyphonic like most Western classical music which this album and track are based upon.

There are no musical scales based on the maqam system which features one tonic note. Also there are no traces of the polymorphic percussion styles nor the instrumentation that accents tones, textures and timbres.

So if you're referring to the lyrics and subject matter, you are correct but as far as the music is concerned, there's nothing Middle Eastern about this Renaissance track at all.

Now THOSE are definitely without any doubt based on Middle Eastern musical elements! Never really checked out Annie's solo output before. Sounds good. Reminds me of a more rockin' Loreena McKennitt!

this is more eastern European but other tracks by them have a lot of other tones going on...

Try 'Realm, Serpents Egg, Aion, Labyrinth',,,,

The author of the thread clearly stated an interest in Middle Eastern SOUNDS. Just clarifying for those interested. If that's not you then please disregard. In other words, if it don't apply then let it fly.

Dead Can Dance were brilliant in how they mixed different folk elements! It's been a while since i've delved into their music but i do believe the last album had some Middle Eastern sounds as well. Those early albums were pure magic!

 1974: Between - Dharana -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieoiO46LCtI" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ieoiO46LCtI

All the studio albums from 'Prologue' through to Azure d'Or' plus 'Live at Carnegie Hall'  are highly recommended.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=603" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=603

Hi,

Thank you ... I was about to write the same thing. Just because it IS about this and that, so what? It does not make it Middle Eastern Prog. I'm not sure that Steve G has a good idea of what "Middle Eastern Prog" is all about, since the majority of folks here do not even bother to listen to different things other than their top ten or so, with an occasional something or other in the middle.

There is a LOT of Middle Eastern music around, however I am not sure that much of it could/should/would be considered "prog" or "progressive", otherwise someone like DamoX (here on PA) would be creating a thread/blog about many of these bands, and there are a lot of them that are way far and beyond the touch of music that we are so familiar with. It's the same thing for DamoX's blog ... we don't touch or discuss much the many bands that he lists and his doing this over the years is totally insane, and far out! We do not have the equivalent of someone doing Middle Eastern music at all ... and I, for one, wish we had one.

I just heard some Middle Eastern sounds on Pendragon's Believe album. THat's such a beautiful album. Not sure why it is rated so low.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGT8on8HFNM&list=PLFXrsVDC8Iw-UT4A6b3mvtBkmqGSuc1vh" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGT8on8HFNM&list=PLFXrsVDC8Iw-UT4A6b3mvtBkmqGSuc1vh

Sorry if it sounds like i'm trying to be confrontation with SteveG. Not the case at all. Just trying to have a conversation since Middle Eastern music is one of my favorite ethnic styles. By all means check out Renaissance. Scheherazade is a true masterpiece from beginning to end but it is the perfect example of symphonic prog with a real orchestra. I listened to the album 5  times on a recent road trip! THAT's how good it is and the side long title song really DOES tell the beautiful tales of ancient Arab folklore so from a lyrical point of view, it really does an excellent job! Just don't expect any Middle Eastern instruments, musical scales or polyrhythmic percussion.

Hi,

Which by our standards, would make it "progressive" from their point of view specially. Sadly, we think a touch of a cardboard sound is good enough to make it, instead of realizing that it is just giving us the "idea" that it is this and that, and it isn't. It's just an idea!

my fave Pendragon album...and it's not even close