Most avant-garde prog band?

Guys....you have about 15 definitions of Avant Garde...I'll break it down into simpler terms for you:

Music ahead of your time!!

Heck it doesn't even necessarily have to break down into music. It could be writings or even architecture

Pink Floyd,the Beatles and many others(including those outside of prog) all fall into this catagory.

To define someone who listens to Henry Cow or Zappa as snobbish or a Proghole is silly. Progressive Rock as a whole is an elitist movement made by elitist(or pretentious) musicians for elitist fans such as myself. Of course it is pretentious. People often call my tastes as pretentious and I just answer "yup...and I also happen to know it is better than the simple minded Lemmee pop sludge that you you listen to. Lets face it.....We're all snobs!!!

Robert Graettinger- the avant-garde jazz master

"City of Glass" has just been re-released as part of a Stan Kenton CD series

No-one has yet mentioned the original avant-garde-iste himself, John Cage?

Inventor of the prepared piano (using clothes pegs and rubber bands, among other objects), the "goldfish" compositional method and the creator of the world's first piece of music that contains no notes. Makes "modern" artists who create works of art by not creating works of art look pretty stupid, since he did that waaay back in 1933 TRACY EMIN!

Onto bands, I reckon Amon Duul and the Incredible String Band are pretty avant-garde, and you only have to listen to some of the live albums to realise that Gong were even more creative on the road than they were in the studio.

Sides 3 and 4 of Ummagumma definitely fit this category, in support of those crying "Floyd", and while Zappa could be right at the bleeding edge, he was sooo talented that he didn't stop there. I agree with the sentiment that Zappa should have his very own category - there's simply no-one to compare!

Tauhd - why not Bjork indeed! She's very experimental, I'll give her that!

I mainly got into progressive rock because I like weird sounds  but I soon discovered that there was much stranger music out there- prog has always been a nice compromise between the classic rock that is comfortable to my ears and the more challenging (and only sometimes rewarding!) musical experiments. I deny completely that avant-garde music is devoid of emotional content (there's often quite a bit of humor) - but like the abstract movements in all the arts, there tends to be more of an emphasis on the audience's perception than the composer's intent.

In classical and jazz, avant-garde generally refers to a deliberate attempt to make music without conventional instrumentation, and/or with dissonant, discordant, arrythmic compositions. "Several Species" (and much of Ummagumma) qualifies, as does a good chunk of Crimson's more improvisational tracks, plenty of psychedelia, and Zappa's more Varese-influenced moods. In fact, Zappa once said something like "the best thing about rock music is that you can get people to listen to sounds they wouldn't be exposed to anywhere else."

That urge seems to have left progressive rock gradually as time swept it farther away from its psychedelic origins, handing the gauntlet over to the punk-influenced groups (Sonic Youth, Einsterzende Neubauten, and some much more off-the-wall) and the electronic experimentors (the Warp Records artists, FSOL, etc). My personal modern avant-garde favorite is Negativland, which is more sound collage than music.

IMAO, once progressive rock gets too avant-garde it ceases to be progressive rock...not necessarily a bad thing, just beyond our focus genre here.

Fitzcarraldo wrote: According to the site http://www.pinkfloyd-co.com/disco/umma/umma_trivia.html a hidden message can be heard in Ummagumma's "Several Species..." at 4:32-4:33. To hear it, play the LP at half speed and in the right speaker you will hear "This is pretty avant garde, isn't it?". The Web site give a sound sample of this. I don't have the LP anymore, so can anyone with the LP confirm this?

I read about this in many sites, and yesterday i asked a friend that has the LP, and he confirmed it

Just checking out Terry Riley's catalogue (3 albums!!!) at Amazon.Uk (sorry Frankie) and found this reviewer's list - looks interesting as one covering a certain aspect of avant garde recordings:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/listmania/list-browse /-/2KU3ZTU41WS4R/qid=1086708113/sr=5-2/ref=sr_5_10_2/026-107 7964-5649255

progchain wrote: philippe wrote: Hey DICK! about Riley check his 'Organ of Cortis' serie dated from the beginning of the 60s...and you will see what I mean...real visionary music! And what about Silver Apples, Morton Subotnick or Fifty Foot Hose?

Interesting list progchain!!...For proto-electronic rock (but in an instrumental way contrary to Silver Apples) check also Conrad Schnitzler, Moebius... For exprimentation in the use of vocals I advise you Meredith Monk...