New to Prog music!

If you have any of these, just ignore them.  These are what I would consider some of the essencial prog albums.  They aren't nessecarily my favoruties, but you have to hear them.  These are in no particular order.

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here, Animals, Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall

Jethro Tull - Aqualung, Thick as a Brick

Rush - Hemispheres, 2112

Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery, Trilogy

Soft Machine - Volume 2, Third

King Crimson - Red, Thrak

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats, We're Only In It For the Money, One Size Fits All

Can - Tago Mago, Future Days

Gentle Giant - Octopus

Genesis - Foxtrot

Marillion - Script For a Jester's Tear, Brave

The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Commatorium

Opeth - Blackwater Park, Damnation

Porcupine Tree - Lightbulb Sun, Stupid Dream

Yes - Relayer, Fragile, The Yes Album

Moonchild74:

First, welcome to the craziest, but most wonderful, prog site on the Net.  You'll get to know our "regulars" (or is that "irregulars?"...) pretty quickly.  Most of them are harmless (their barque is worse than their byte...), and, as the saying goes, "opinions are like noses - everybody has one."

That said, you seem to be in the right direction as a "newbie."  Historically, the eight "seminal" prog bands - those who are generally accepted as the true forerunners of the genre - are the following, along with what are generally accepted as their best albums (some of which you've heard), so this becomes a really good starting point:

King Crimson: Court, Larks Tongues, Starless, Red

Pink Floyd: Piper, Meddle, Atom Heart Mother, DSOTM, WYWH, The Wall

Moody Blues: A Question of Balance, Threshold of a Dream

Genesis: Foxtrot, Selling England, The Lamb, Trick of the Tail, Wind & Wuthering

Gentle Giant: Three Friends, In A Glass House, Octopus, Power & The Glory

Yes: Time and a Word, The Yes Album, Fragile, Close to the Edge, Tales

Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick, Minstrel in the Gallery

ELP: ELP, Trilogy, Brain Salad Surgery

Another early group was Van Der Graaf Generator.  Their albums "H to He" and "Pawn Hearts" are usually considered their best.

And, of course, Frank Zappa is an early progenitor of prog, and almost anything he did (and he did about 648,000 albums...) is worth getting.

Among the "neo-prog" bands, I like Marillion best (particularly Misplaced Childhood, Clutching at Straws, Brave), along with Anglagard, IQ, Dream Theater (try Metropolis) Spock's Beard (try The Light; you may have simply picked a bad album), and a few others.

One album you must pick up is the first album by U.K. called simply "U.K."  It features Bill Bruford (Crimson, Yes) on drums, John Wetton (Crimson) on bass, Eddie Jobson on keyboards, and the amazing Allan Holdsworth on guitar.

I agree with Fitzcarraldo that you should also consider the Italian prog scene, as it is arguably the most active (and influential) after England.  My faves include Deus ex Machina (any album), PFM, Il Balletto di Bronzo, Alusa Fallax, and Museo Rosenbach.

Ultimately, as Danbo the Manbo suggests, this site may be hazardous to your financial health: all of us, I'm sure, have spent hundreds of dollars on CDs since joining - with no end in sight!!   Maybe you should put your money "in trust" and have your wife (or whomever) co-sign when you want to buy CDs!!

Anyway, enjoy the site, and take full advantage of it: we expect to see some reviews from you soon!

Peace.

Edited by maani

Everyone, Great sugestions,

 Here Are mine,

Omega, 200 Years After The Last War

King Crimson, Larques Tongues In Aspic

Guru Guru, Dance Of The Flames

Grobschnitt. Solar Music Live

ANY GENTLE GIANT AND I MEAN ANY.Read my wife`s review in the archives for Octopus.

Focus, Hamburger Concerto.

Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Inner Mounting Flame.

I invite you also to go to my callabborator section in the archives to read some of my reviews.

Some cool progressive metal bands:

Star One

Ayreon

Dream Theater

Shadow Gallery

Symphony X

But really dude, judging from what you said you bought you have some brilliant music! Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, KC, Yes oh yes my friend some fine music there!

 

I hope you have LOTS of MONEY, Moonchild74, cause this site will engage your bank account to the nth degree, not to mention your sanity.

I'm surely into the 50's on purchases this past year. Actually 3 every two weeks multiplied by 26 weeks, puts me at about 78 cd's since I joined this group, the largest group I've heard, of Progressive Nerds on the planet. 

Every suggestion above is excellent, but don't forget to pick up U.K.'s first, aptly named, U.K. Even a dancing Brit could agree with me on that point, wot?

Beware of your fellow Aussie; Dudezan the kangaroo master. Word is, he's planning to overthrow the Austrailian Government and imprison all the sheep for his own pleasure.

 

Welcome to the forum!!!!

My recommendations - all at the less technical but more lyrical end of prog;

Camel - Mirage, Moonmadness and Snow Goose.

Marillion - Script, Fugazi and Misplaced Childhood.

Twelfth Night - Fact And Fiction, Live and let Live.

For something a bit more esoteric, try Gong's "Angel's Egg" or "You", Amon Duul II's "Wolf City" or Can's "Ege Bamyasi".

Moonchild74, based on what you have listed as liking, I suggest that you also listen to some Italian Progressive bands. The most famous is PFM (Premiata Forneria Marconi) who made some sublime music. Their first two albums: Storia Di Un Minuto and Per Un Amico are 5-star albums and I unreservedly recommend either. Italian Prog bands were a very important part of the overall Prog genre. I'll restrain myself from listing more Italian Prog bands here, although it's hard!

If you like music with plenty of organ and synthesizer, I personally would listen first to Emerson, Lake & Palmer's album Trilogy before Brain Salad Surgery (although the latter is a great album too, I think Trilogy is more subtle, shall we say, and a better introduction), and also to Triumvirat's Illusions On A Double Dimple, both of which are superb albums.

One thing about the Progressive Rock genre: you'll never be short of choice. And this Web site is a great source of information.

Hi MC. You must check out:

Moonmadness & Mirage - Camel

Moving Pictures & Hemispheres - Rush

Godbluff - Van Der Graff Generator

The Lamb lies down on Broadway & Trick of the Tail - Genesis

Once Around the world - It Bites

Fugazi - Marillion

Hot Ratz - Frank Zappa

Avoiding the obvious how about these:

Kayak - Royal Bed Bouncer (great early to mid seventies prog rock,one of my favourites!)

Pink Floyd -Animals (better than Dark Side... or Wish You Were Here IMO)

Lone Star- LS/Firing on All Six (Both of their seventies albums are available on one CD.Prog Metal cum Led Zep stuff.Extemely underrated band)

Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure (best 'synth prog' album ever!!)

Aphrodite's Child - 666 (double concept album from Vangelis driven Greek combo that blows all the other doubles out of the water IMO)

IQ - Tales From The Lush Attic (great eightes symphonic prog album,influenced by Genesis)

Par Lindh Project - Gothic Impressions  AND/OR  Anglagard - Hybris (both great examples of the important early nineties Scandanavian prog rock scene) 

Magenta - Revolutions/Seven (Yes/Genesis influenced symphonic prog.Few better bands around at the moment.Excellent female vocals!) 

Edited by richardh

Welcome to the forum MC, nice to know that there are still some newcomers to the wonderful world of prog-rock (hmmm, a new mind to control - the power, the power!!).

Your current favorites remain favorites of many of us 'old guard', 30 odd years after they were released, but as for recommendations, I'd go for the following:

Caravan - Land of the grey & pink

ELP - Brain salad surgery

Gentle Giant - Aquiring the taste

Focus - Focus III

There's a couple to be going on with - enjoy the forum.