"Tightest" prog band ever in your opinion

 

They're in the Roxy & Elsewhere live album, one of the greatest live albums and probably one of Zappa's finest releases ever.

"Polyrhythms" are when you play two rhythms against each other that don't go together normally. Such as playing five in a beat and 4 in a beat at the same time. I don't count 3 over 2 as this is a very simple rhythms. Or even 4 over 3, but anything more complex than that is - such as 3 over 5, 7 over 6 etcetera. 

Anyway, yeah, Magma are very tight. So are other Zeuhl bands - Ruins especially. Zappa is probably the tightest though... "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" and "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?" are two displays of astounding tightness! 

 

 

 

Not according to Stella.

 

They are tight, because they rehearse a lot. But they do have moments in the choral score that allows some freedom, and they tend to work with each other, because at times Christian is gone, and you have to stay with him, or Stella is gone off the high voice, and he goes with her. But other than those small parts, in general, most of Magma is very tight and well rehearsed.

 

The music would not have lasted, or survived, if it wasn't so. And I think that this was the one thing that Christian understood very well about what he created -- although I don't think that he could have done all this by himself ... and that the time and place and people helped provide him with a template ... that is still going strong 40 years later.

Not as prog (though still progressive)  but Phish is absurdly tight.  They take improv's about as far as physically possible and go through some crazy stuff whilst staying amazingly tight.

And did somebody say improvised music isn't tight?  I don't see how it being improvised is relevant, if anything it's more impressive that it's tight when improvised.  Tightness is how well everybody clicks and reacts to each other, not how many of the same notes they hit at the same time.

And to me having feel is required of all music, so I don't really care for a lot of the absurdly heavy bands that stay consistently heavy at all times.

 

Amon Duul 2

 

So hard and so much and so full ... that anything past their early day concerts sound like the worst crap you ever heard.

 

Some music, you can not let go down the tubes, and is not meant to be done as a folks song or accapela by Renate and a guitarist ... that simple!

 

The only live stuff of theirs that sounds good is in the "Live in London" album.

 

Sometimes I think they take their "freedom" of expression thing and recklessness for creativity a little too seriously and think that anything they do now is more important than what was done then, or before ... and while there is a point to be made there, there is also a lack of respect for the good work that was done before ... and that has nothing to do with one's opinion of it later in life.

 

To my ears, AD2 is a very sad thing today ... I will listen to one more album though!