Review book Bradley Smith

BRADLEY SMITH-THE BILLBOARD GUIDE TO PROGRESSIVE MUSIC

(Billboard Books, 1997, ISBN 0-8230-7665-2)

WARNING: This is a book about ‘progressive music’, not only about ‘progressive rock’!

Part 1 (after an honest and clear introduction) contains an overview of progressive music, divided into the chapters “A concise history of progressive music”, “Progressive music as active listening music”, “The social, polictical and cultural context” and “Parallels between progressive music and the world of speculative fition”.

 

The Chapter “Key recordings in progressive music” contains the usual reviews about albums/video’s/laser discs from all the known British progrock bands, the Skandinavian wave (from Anglagard and Anekdoten until Ragnarok and Atlas) and bands/artists like Finch, Ozric Tentacles, Shylock, Luciano Basso, Collegium Musicum, Gotic (not from Portugal but Spain!) and Solstice. But also bands/artists like Algarnas Tradgard (“one of the wildest, most experimental and deliberately psychedelic albums of its era”),  Glenn Branca (“a combination of punk rock orchestration with strict classical structures and forms”), Dark (“a world music-influenced guitarless fusion), Fifty Foo Hose (“authentic psychedelia”), Ron Geesin (modern avant-garde music”), Golem (“strange instrumental psychedelic rock”), Michael Harrison (“a decent collection of eight solo piano pieces”), Michael Hoenig (“beloved icon of electronic space music”), Let’s Be Generous (“one of the most significant progressive jazzrock fusion”), Lightwave (“current leaders of electronic music and space music”), Bill Nelson (“one of the leading persons in ambient music”), Guru Guru’s Mani Neumeier (“one of the best progressive drum albums of all time”), David Parsons (“he combines synthesizers with Indian music”), Michael Prime (“the album Aquifers is an excellent example of collage music”), Terje Rydal (“early jazz/rock/chamber music fusions classic”), Peter Schaefer (abstract ambient space msuic”), Teenage Jesus And The Jerks (“a primitive and radical power trio noise rock”), Throbbing Gristle (“an aesthetic realm of pure improvisation”) and Voice Of Eye (“instrumental electro-acoustic music”). If you are up to a challenging and adventurous book and you don’t feel yourself limited to the boundaries of the mainstream progrock, this one is yours!

 

Erik Neuteboom

 

Info:

Billboard Books

1515 Broadway

New York, NY 10036

USA

Great book! I discovered White Willow, Sally Oldfield and Renaissance because of that book. I can recommend it too: to all prog fans who have an ear for innovative music.

The guy is a purist. No Genesis after Wind And Wuthering (except for some live albums), no Pink Floyd after Animals, and no Yes albums after Relayer (though Going For The One and Relayer are mentioned in an appendix). Only the first four Oldfield studio albums, plus Boxed, Exposed, Tubular Bells 2 (albums + video) and Amarok. A purist, I'll tell you that!

The biggest criticism on the book has been, if I'm not mistaken, that he ignored two of the most important contributors of prog: Gentle Giant and Van der Graaf Generator.

Apart from that: the best review book I ever laid hands on!

Is there any link with Jerry Lucky's book: Progressive Files.

I mean are they complementary are doubling the infos.

Which one of those two is better?

I came across this book while browsing in one of those clearance bookstores yesterday - had never heard of it before, and hadn't seen this thread either.  Looked interesting enough so decided to pick it up for $6.99Cdn.

Thought it was interesting that the first album mentioned in the book (I'm pretty sure) was Tales from Topographic Oceans, which as you all know is one of the most controversial in prog.

The intro was well written.  As mentioned, he did leave out some important bands, but he also did say that it wasn't meant to be a complete reference.  However, he gave about 5 pages to several of Kate Bush's albums (and this isn't a slight against Kate, I enjoy her music very much) while giving about a half-page to Camel and only reviewing The Snow Goose and omitting Mirage and Moonmadness and passing those off as more accessible and mainstream.

Still a good book, and maybe I'll be lucky enough to find some different music to listen to.  Can't go wrong for the price either.

Caravan does get a mention in the book, if you look under Camel.  He classifies Caravan as a rock/pop group, along with Supertramp and Alan Parsons, and that's also his overall impression of Camel except for Snow Goose.

I suppose he considers Gentle Giant to be just another pop/rock group?

I think it's a very good book, and yes, he's an enormous purist, Progressive with a capital P, but it's a riddle for me why he left out Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant. He left out lots of other bands because in his eyes they're not progressive enough. 

I felt that rather than being a balanced discussion of progressive music, he rather promoted the bands that he liked.  I see no other reason to include the five pages (or whatever, I don't have the book in front of me), and one entry to Tull, Camel, etc. 

I bought the book while in London five years ago. Back then I was new to progressive music so it's basically my introduction to the genre.

Edited by Frasse - December 09 2006 at 16:14