Discovering more obscure prog rock

While still on the theme of Polish prog-rock groups and Satellite/Collage, the former lead singer from Collage started a new neo-prog group called Believe.

I only just discovered them over the weekend, so wanted to share a couple of songs.

Live - This bread is mine. Beautiful!


From their latest album, I find this song quite catchy


Let me know what you think and if you have similar recommendations.


Edited by deandob - December 16 2013 at 03:42

Mahavishnu Orchestra - "Birds of Fire" album Link PA album page

deandob wrote: HolyMoly, The Tangent do sound interesting, have marked a couple of their tracks for repeat listening. Rainbow Danger Club I'm not so sure yet. Terima kasih Jelly Sucker. Birth Control is a little too 70's classic prog for my liking (I much prefer modern prog). I'm going to add posts to this thread of some of my thoughts about bands I like that might be of interest to others. 1st up is Votum. They are a Polish progressive metal group who have been around for about 10 years. Their music is similar to Riverside (who are also Polish) and will definitely be of interest to Riverside and Opeth fans. They also remind me of a couple of Australian bands, in particular The Butterfly Effect (from my home town of Brisbane but now disbanded). Like Riverside I prefer their softer tracks, and have been pretty much on the top of my playlist for the last few weeks. They have a polished sound, produced well, smooth guitar work, good lyrics and strong vocals (English with no accent). They have released 3 albums, all good, but the last two are more polished. The current album Harvest Moon would be in my top 3 albums released this year. They don't seem to get a lot of coverage though, which is a little surprising. Here are a couple of tracks to give you a taste. Great stuff! This is the type of band I'd like to find more like.

Sama - sama :3

Birds and Buildings - "Bantam to Behemoth"  http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=18151

A very obscure album that has been noted as Progressive Rock is Neptune by Celluloid. It can be questionable if the album is Prog at all? The entire recording consists of mellotron pieces with the addition of old tapes which were pre-settings within the mellotron that date back as far as The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour , but more evident on "Revolution #9". Chuck Minuto recorded this album in 1983. The tape recordings of Hitler's voice, hand claps, sirens, laughter, and bizzare nightmarish sound effects leap out at you and give the listener the impression that they are watching a film...unlike some Electronic music that flows endlessly and sometimes traveling nowhere while putting you to sleep. The mellotron sections are sometimes harsh and so the catagorization of Prog comes to mind. The mellotron he once owned (although I do not know the model number), is the same mellotron model which was used by The Beatles...as he has informed me of this several times. Neptune is very original and totally unique remaining in a world of it's own. It carries you through several sequences of mellotron styles which are evident on early King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator, and Genesis (Tony Banks)..post early dark music nevertheless. There are actual tapes of the original Warner Brothers cartoon characters voices fading in and out over a hellish whirlpool of impressionable soundscapes and Progressive Rock hooks and signature lines. The record is very sought out by fans of not only the mellotron, but fans of Progressive Rock in general. I have attempted to lure him back into recording again ...over the years...and it seems like a mission of great time and energy with no results on his behalf. He recorded this 1 album that I transfered to disc (and with his permission) and have his unreleased demos. He was a true genius and it's a shame that I can't interest a progressive label to release his works. It is possible to obtain a copy of Neptune. You will never regret it if you are a Prog fan. Do a search.

This is how I see it. You can basically do this three different ways. You can buy mostly newer stuff(from the past few years to the present). These are the most talked about(other than the most obvious seventies bands)and are the easiest to find online. Another approach is to look for the hidden gems from prog's golden era. These would be bands like Shylock, Balleto di Bronzo, Semiramis(and all the other one shot Italian bands), Fruupp, England, Gotic, Hoelderlin and on and on. Also, these days this could include bands from the 80's and 90's. These are not as easy to find online and you need to look. The best places would be Synphonic, Doug Larson and Laser's Edge (imo).  Finally, if you are like most, you will want the best of both worlds and consciously seek out albums from every decade of prog from the late sixties to the present. Have fun!!!


Edited by Prog_Traveller - December 18 2013 at 10:32

To quote a post from my blog following are links to some threads I started a couple of years ago recommending some obscurer modern prog bands.  Some of which have already been mentioned but for ease I have quoted myself for the links.
In an attempt to further enlighten myself as well as to bring additional discussions about new albums that haven't really been discussed I am creating a series of album discussion threads in hopes of bringing these albums additional attention, as well as to try and give both long and short-term PA forum members something different to talk about other than the same 6 or 7 bands that dominate the forums.  Anyhow, as a central place for the various discussions I will post the links here.

deandob wrote: VOTUM  ... Great stuff! This is the type of band I'd like to find more like.

moshkito wrote: yam yam wrote: You can hear the two parts of the 'Neptune' album on YouTube:   ... I would not consider this "progressive", as it is mostly experimental and off the cuff electronics and playing, but it is very listenable and it kinda makes you want to create a "story" with the visuals and images that it creates, but it dismantles them as soon as you have an image, which very much like a lot of the experimental electronics, that were coming around at the time.  There were a huge number of them through out the 70's in Europe, specially France and Germany ... got electronics, do an album, and some are good, some are weird, some are strange ... and some ... just are! But they are always nice to listen to and you can background them ... except that they "don't leave you alone" as a sound or part of it, will get your attention. These are always a lot of fun to have around and listen to. Specially in the dope'y days, when you would put this on to show off to your friend that you found something better than their own album!  Fun days! But the music and work was great!

Edited by TODDLER - December 19 2013 at 10:41

deandob wrote: infocat wrote: While not really in the Riverside/Votum sound, Tune is another band from Poland that I really like.  The theme of their (one) album is similar to that of the Reality Dream trilogy. Thank you infocat for recommending Tune from Poland. I have been listening to their album Lucid Moments and really enjoying it! The use of the accordion is unique and works well.

Indeed!  And you are very welcome.