Forum Home Forum Home > Progressive Music Lounges > Prog Music Lounge
  New Posts New Posts RSS Feed - The most musically complex prog band(s)?
  FAQ FAQ  Forum Search   Events   Register Register  Login Login

Topic ClosedThe most musically complex prog band(s)?

 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1 678910 13>
Author
Message
Cthulu View Drop Down
Forum Newbie
Forum Newbie
Avatar

Joined: February 29 2008
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 37
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2008 at 08:29
Originally posted by prog4evr prog4evr wrote:


Originally posted by Chris Stacey Chris Stacey wrote:

Mike Oldfield's Amarok is pretty complex and Yes's TFTO very definitely!
Did you mean Yes, GFTO ("Going For the One")?  Because, I would agree.  Even the balladic "Wondrous Stories" is an amazingly complex prog classic ("Awaken" is the all-time great, however...)


TFTO = Tales From Topographic Oceans
"The Box. You opened it. We came."
Back to Top
Petrovsk Mizinski View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: December 24 2007
Location: Ukraine
Status: Offline
Points: 25210
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 22 2008 at 08:49
STC

/Endthread.
Back to Top
AlexUC View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 06 2007
Location: Noveria
Status: Offline
Points: 392
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 24 2008 at 17:56
Originally posted by verslibre verslibre wrote:

Originally posted by Tapfret Tapfret wrote:

For Zeuhl I would have to go with (I know some Magma zealot is going to shoot me) KoenjiHyakkei.


From what I've heard, I think you're right!



Insane complexity? Sure, KoenjiHyakkei. More complex than Magma or any other Zeuhl band I've heard.

RIO is plenty of really complex bands, for me, the most complex prog sub genre. Let's say Present, Henry Cow, Universe Zero, i.e.

Mr. Bungle has some of the most complex music I've heard on Disco Volante. Sleepytime Gorilla Museum has their extremely complex moments. Frank Zappa and Samla Mammas Manna has some really complex sogns too.

Regular bands like Gentle Giant and King Crimson always had their own.

In metal we have Spastik Ink, Spiral Architect and Messugah, among others, but I don't think any metal band can reach the complexity of any prog rock band...
This is not my beautiful house...
Back to Top
Petrovsk Mizinski View Drop Down
Prog Reviewer
Prog Reviewer
Avatar

Joined: December 24 2007
Location: Ukraine
Status: Offline
Points: 25210
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 25 2008 at 23:16
Lol, thread still going and yet no one has decided on the definition of complex.

Here's to another 200 pages of this threadConfused
Back to Top
AlexUC View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 06 2007
Location: Noveria
Status: Offline
Points: 392
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2008 at 11:39
Originally posted by HughesJB4 HughesJB4 wrote:

Lol, thread still going and yet no one has decided on the definition of complex.

Here's to another 200 pages of this threadConfused


Do you have any doubt about what complex music is?Then go and listen Mr. Bungle and Pink Floyd... note the difference?? That's it!! Tongue


Edited by AlexUC - September 26 2008 at 11:40
This is not my beautiful house...
Back to Top
jimidom View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: August 02 2007
Location: Houston, TX USA
Status: Offline
Points: 570
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2008 at 12:12
To my ears, complex music means music which is not only challenging for the artist to perform but also challenging for the listener to listen to. Among the challenges are shifting time signatures, crazy atonality, and occasionally speed and technical prowess. In other words, music which sounds like anything but to the average listener.
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - HST

Back to Top
AlexUC View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 06 2007
Location: Noveria
Status: Offline
Points: 392
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 26 2008 at 12:34
Agreed. Difficult to listen, difficult to play, difficult to understand, but, it has to sound and be nice, it must entertain. That's what Art is all about.
This is not my beautiful house...
Back to Top
zachfive View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: November 13 2005
Location: Kitsap WA
Status: Offline
Points: 770
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2008 at 13:31

A few posts back Camel was getting some flack for not being "complex". While I agree with the comments that were said(musics not hard to play...) I think its necessary to exclude Andy Ward. I always thought his percussions were "technical" enough to called "complex"(If that makes any sense) Not only that, but he has worked with other bands that were thrown in the "complex" catigory, i.e Marillon and Caravan. So lets at least here for Mr.Ward.

Back to Top
Logan View Drop Down
Forum & Site Admin Group
Forum & Site Admin Group
Avatar
Site Admin

Joined: April 05 2006
Location: Vancouver, BC
Status: Offline
Points: 35750
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2008 at 13:38
Originally posted by zachfive zachfive wrote:

A few posts back Camel was getting some flack for not being "complex". While I agree with the comments that were said(musics not hard to play...) I think its necessary to exclude Andy Ward. I always thought his percussions were "technical" enough to called "complex"(If that makes any sense) Not only that, but he has worked with other bands that were thrown in the "complex" catigory, i.e Marillon and Caravan. So lets at least here for Mr.Ward.



He is very good, but I haven't though of Marillion, or Caravan for that matter as complex.  I think Caravan is one of the less complex Canterbury Scene bands, and I've never thought of Marillion as complex (Neo-Prog, generally, is considered one of the least complex progressive rock forms).

EDIT: Just my ignorance, and without researching, what has he done with Caravan and Marillion?  I know he has worked on Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams (and notably with the great Canterbury Scene personality Hugh Hopper).


Edited by Logan - September 27 2008 at 13:58
Back to Top
Guitar Noir View Drop Down
Forum Groupie
Forum Groupie
Avatar

Joined: September 24 2008
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 88
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 27 2008 at 17:19
Originally posted by jimidom jimidom wrote:

To my ears, complex music means music which is not only challenging for the artist to perform but also challenging for the listener to listen to. Among the challenges are shifting time signatures, crazy atonality, and occasionally speed and technical prowess. In other words, music which sounds like anything but to the average listener.
 
 
Zero Hour
Twisted Into Form
 
 
 
"Sometimes the afterglow isn't enough and we have to move on." Steve Hackett
Back to Top
TRIFIVE5000 View Drop Down
Forum Newbie
Forum Newbie
Avatar

Joined: September 27 2008
Location: Italy - Rome
Status: Offline
Points: 32
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 28 2008 at 21:08
Yeah jimidom, i'm going with you. ur the truth!Clap
Living on a lighted stage
Approaches the unreal
For those who think and feel
In touch with some reality
Beyond the gilded cage!
Back to Top
cobb2 View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: November 25 2007
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 415
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 28 2008 at 22:41

This is all a bit of a t**ser. The only way you can judge complexity is at a playing level, not a listening level. That is- which grade would they be placed in at a music examination level: Grade 1 (easiest)  to Licentiate (most difficult, with a very small percentage of players being able to attain the skill needed to play them). Of course band music has the added problem of being group music, so there are other considerations of how to rate them such as contrapuntal problems (is it easy or extremely difficult for the group to play this together and keep the timing true). A good example of this may be certain Yes songs, which have 4 instruments playing completely different parts that come together as a whole in some strange magical meld, that are not that difficult to play as solos, but putting the four parts together and in time adds to the difficulty of the piece, astronomically.

So how do you judge music complexity?



Edited by cobb2 - September 28 2008 at 22:47
Back to Top
topofsm View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: August 17 2008
Location: Arizona, USA
Status: Offline
Points: 1698
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 28 2008 at 23:11
I beleive that there's a certain level of compositional complexity too. There's a ton of classical music that doesn't sound terribly complex but there's so much going on and variations based on the instrument that I would call it complex. Like people above have said, having multiple instruments playing at the same time would add to complexity.

Back to Top
apps79 View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: March 15 2007
Location: .
Status: Offline
Points: 1551
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 30 2008 at 13:10

Except GENTLE GIANT and YES of the TFTO album,try YEZDA URFA...you'll be blown,that's really complex but creative music!

Back to Top
The Doctor View Drop Down
Special Collaborator
Special Collaborator
Avatar
Honorary Collaborator

Joined: June 23 2005
Location: The Tardis
Status: Offline
Points: 8543
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 30 2008 at 13:28
Originally posted by Logan Logan wrote:

Originally posted by zachfive zachfive wrote:

A few posts back Camel was getting some flack for not being "complex". While I agree with the comments that were said(musics not hard to play...) I think its necessary to exclude Andy Ward. I always thought his percussions were "technical" enough to called "complex"(If that makes any sense) Not only that, but he has worked with other bands that were thrown in the "complex" catigory, i.e Marillon and Caravan. So lets at least here for Mr.Ward.



He is very good, but I haven't though of Marillion, or Caravan for that matter as complex.  I think Caravan is one of the less complex Canterbury Scene bands, and I've never thought of Marillion as complex (Neo-Prog, generally, is considered one of the least complex progressive rock forms).

EDIT: Just my ignorance, and without researching, what has he done with Caravan and Marillion?  I know he has worked on Sinclair's Caravan of Dreams (and notably with the great Canterbury Scene personality Hugh Hopper).
 
I didn't know of any connection with Caravan, but Ward did play with Marillion, albeit very briefly and I don't believe anything he did actually was recorded.  He showed up for a short time between Pointer and Moseley.  In fact, if you watch the video for Garden Party (I think that's the one), Andy Ward appears in the video.
I can understand your anger at me, but what did the horse I rode in on ever do to you?
Back to Top
alanerc View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: December 20 2007
Location: Mexico
Status: Offline
Points: 278
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 30 2008 at 18:36
For the only few bands I know, I have to say, King Crimson and Frank Zappa
Back to Top
faceofdoomness View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member


Joined: August 23 2008
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 153
Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 30 2008 at 22:46
I'd say the most musically complex band is Dun a Zeuhl Prog band from France.. their music is so dense, discordant and complex that it even makes Gentle Giant seem simple. There's so any time signature changes and so many over lapping instruments and lots of complex rhythms that they somehow pull off.

Just listen to the entirety of their only mp3 on this site: Arrakis

"To fully appreciate Music, one must have an open mind." -Someone...
Back to Top
progvortex View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member


Joined: September 21 2008
Status: Offline
Points: 242
Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2008 at 00:42
I would say the most "out there" musically is Zappa. There's also some mathcore bands like Protest the Hero that are basically made to be complex and uninteresting. Okay maybe that's a little too biased, It's not really my bag, but they have the strangest mix of time signatures.
Life is like a beanstalk... isn't it?
Back to Top
AlexUC View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: June 06 2007
Location: Noveria
Status: Offline
Points: 392
Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2008 at 11:00
You're all dreaming. Britney Spears and UB40 (mmm but I'm afraid they're not too progressive... Clown)
This is not my beautiful house...
Back to Top
jimidom View Drop Down
Forum Senior Member
Forum Senior Member
Avatar

Joined: August 02 2007
Location: Houston, TX USA
Status: Offline
Points: 570
Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2008 at 11:20
Originally posted by faceofdoomness faceofdoomness wrote:

I'd say the most musically complex band is Dun a Zeuhl Prog band from France.. their music is so dense, discordant and complex that it even makes Gentle Giant seem simple. There's so any time signature changes and so many over lapping instruments and lots of complex rhythms that they somehow pull off.

Just listen to the entirety of their only mp3 on this site: Arrakis

My interest is piqued. I'll have to check that out. Sounds like a challenging listen! Cool
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - HST

Back to Top
 Post Reply Post Reply Page  <1 678910 13>

Forum Jump Forum Permissions View Drop Down



This page was generated in 0.199 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.