best canterbury band

a lot of Canterbury IS fusion; Canterbury refers more to a group of musicians that formed various bands, swapping members all the time, than to a specific style of music, in my opinion

Dave Stewart played keyboards Hatfield & The North, National Health and Bruford, so the resemblance isn't that surprising - members of all the key Canterbury bands cropped up on each other's albums all the time. It may be that at some point we'll be able to have some bands in multiple categories, so Bruford could be Jazz Fusion (ehich they definitely are) and Canterbury (which they also fit into). Similarly, Art Zoyd and Univers Zero could be listed as RIO/Zeuhl.

Syzygy wrote: Similarly, Art Zoyd and Univers Zero could be listed as RIO/Zeuhl.

Then... is Henry Cow exactly Canterbury or RIO?? I not included them in the list for this reason...

krauthead wrote: BaldJean wrote: there were times when National Health and Gilgamesh did concerts as an 8-piece band (2 drummers, 2 bass players, 2 keyboarders and 2 guitar players). I would have liked to see one of them. this is of course also an argument against Gilgamesh not being essential . sadly the keyboarder of Gilgamesh, Alan Gowen, died of leucemia (which is why Hatfield and the North recorded "D. S. Al Coda", an album consisting only of Alan Gowen compostions (the front cover of that album is a photo of Alan Gowen). he (Alan Gowen) also played in the bands Soft Head and Soft Heap   Thx BaldJean for that great information, always learning something interresting from you

Seconded!

Incidentally, I am trying to get hold of an album with Alan Gowen called Before a Word is Said, which also has Richard Sinclair playing on it, as well as a couple of other Canterbury musicians if I'm not mistaken. It was  released in 1981 and really tough to find anywhere... I was not aware that Mr. Gowen had succumbed to leucemia, how sad...

And as for this poll, sadly I can't yet take part in it, no matter how much I would like to. I am just getting seriously into all this Canterbury stuff and so far my collection amounts to three CD's by Caravan, two CD's by Hatfield... and a CD each for Gong, Bruford and Robert Wyatt. (I do have Mirage as well, if that counts.)

I really, really like all those CD's I have aqcuired so far, though (with Rock Bottom and In The Land of Grey and Pink battling it out at the top) so hopefully I will be able to cast a vote in a poll like this in the not too distant future!

BaldJean wrote: Fritha wrote: krauthead wrote: BaldJean wrote: there were times when National Health and Gilgamesh did concerts as an 8-piece band (2 drummers, 2 bass players, 2 keyboarders and 2 guitar players). I would have liked to see one of them. this is of course also an argument against Gilgamesh not being essential . sadly the keyboarder of Gilgamesh, Alan Gowen, died of leucemia (which is why Hatfield and the North recorded "D. S. Al Coda", an album consisting only of Alan Gowen compostions (the front cover of that album is a photo of Alan Gowen). he (Alan Gowen) also played in the bands Soft Head and Soft Heap   Thx BaldJean for that great information, always learning something interresting from you  Seconded! Incidentally, I am trying to get hold of an album with Alan Gowen called Before a Word is Said, which also has Richard Sinclair playing on it, as well as a couple of other Canterbury musicians if I'm not mistaken. It was  released in 1981 and really tough to find anywhere... I was not aware that Mr. Gowen had succumbed to leucemia, how sad... And as for this poll, sadly I can't yet take part in it, no matter how much I would like to. I am just getting seriously into all this Canterbury stuff and so far my collection amounts to three CD's by Caravan, two CD's by Hatfield... and a CD each for Gong, Bruford and Robert Wyatt. (I do have Mirage as well, if that counts.) I really, really like all those CD's I have aqcuired so far, though (with Rock Bottom and In The Land of Grey and Pink battling it out at the top) so hopefully I will be able to cast a vote in a poll like this in the not too distant future! Incidentially, I confused National Health and Hatfield and the North in that post  (which is an easy thing to do with both bands consisting of almost the same musicians; only the bass player is different). So it was Hatfield and the North who played with Gilgamesh as an 8-piece band, and it was National Health who recorded "D.S. Al Coda". Sorry for causing that confusion.

 

Aha, so you tried to trick us huh??? 

 

Only kidding with you there BaldJean 

 

Nice story anyhow, though it was very nice of you to tell the right one 

Moogtron III wrote: Syzygy wrote: Dave Stewart played keyboards Hatfield & The North, National Health and Bruford, so the resemblance isn't that surprising - members of all the key Canterbury bands cropped up on each other's albums all the time. It may be that at some point we'll be able to have some bands in multiple categories, so Bruford could be Jazz Fusion (ehich they definitely are) and Canterbury (which they also fit into). Similarly, Art Zoyd and Univers Zero could be listed as RIO/Zeuhl. Spoken like a real prog genre specialist

Yes, but aren't Art Zoyd and Univers Zero the most perfect examples of avant-prog rather than RIO??

That's at least how I see their music. Please educate me.

avant prog / RIO form one category, and I am pretty sure that's what Syzygy meant: put them into that category

Edited by BaldFriede

OK, to clarify matters:

Art Zoyd and Univers Zero were both part of the original RIO festival in 1978, so for that reason they're both (quite rightly) classified as RIO bands.

On the other hand, Univers Zero had a strong Magma connection - Daniel Denis played onstage with Magma as second drummer for a few weeks, and keyboard player Patrick Gauthier left Univers Zero to join Magma and played on Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh. Although they had their own sound, Univers Zero were heavily influenced by Zeuhl, and are considered a Zeuhl band by most fans. When I interviewed Guapo they asked me why UZ weren't categorised as Zeuhl.

Art Zoyd also had a strong Zeuhl influence, at least for their first 5 albums, and are also generally accepted as a Zeuhl band. If you check out the online version of Ork Alarm you'll find articles and reviews about both Art Zoyd and Univers Zero.

For that reason, I'd classify both bands as RIO/Zeuhl.

Henry Cow and Zammla Mammas Manna I would consider to be RIO/Avant Prog, the difference being that they both make extensive use of free improvisation, where Zeuhl is tightly structured.

We could (and probably will) carry on debating this for a long time to come, which is why I enjoy visiting this site so much.

A good selection of bands/artists to choose from but at the moment I'll go for Hatfield & the North.