Most inaccessible Prog?

rogerthat wrote: uduwudu wrote: TDSOTM for the 90s? Hardly, imagine a PF album sounding like that!  Yeah, PF melodies don't get as beautiful as Airbag or Tourist.    On the other hand, there is a bassline in Exit Music which is a lot like that on the Money interlude (where Gilmour picks up his solo just after the saxophone) and also a guitar riff in Lucky that evokes Dogs.  It's a very layered album with a wide array of influences...if you can get past how 90s it sounds superficially.

Harumph, more like Tourist class and vomit bag. It's not the '90s sound - whatever that is. It's the badly arranged clutter, the unique vocals which are more or less in tune - from time to time anyway, yet manage to be indistinct and still clearly painfully over emote. The rhythm section hold things together which is more than can be said for the guitars. Fripp and Belew showed how to interlock... this is like a freeway jam of cob webs. How I missed hearing this a lot then I don't know. Luck more than judgment I suppose. Either that or I was distracted by Floyd, Sabbath, Rush, KC, Yes Page and Plant all releasing material more worthy of attention. A clear case of pop generations desperately wanting a pop cultural icon and ... settling for this.

I had heard this before- and The Bends but finally made time to sit down and see what it is really made of. Contemporaries Nirvana sounded ok (I gave Nevermind a 3 stars rating to myself- i.e. a good rock album - probably has pop cultural significance that would elevate it above the norm rating wise. Roughly the same as Never Mind The Bollocks! which I can both not stand yet enjoy a "tune" or two now and then, if sufficiently stimulated...

OK Mac PC promised a lot but public opinion and mine differed yet again.I suppose it is consistent. Plus it depends what one expects or decides is "good".

Heh, ok indie rock varies yes, it has done for many years.  There's the great (Stone Roses e.g Made Of Stone, a number I think is stupendous - nice original augmented harmonies used as well) and the interesting spacey stuff (GYBE) but imagine any prog rock band worth their triple neck guitars turning out this! 1 star for the titles and reasonable art work, album title and the occasional semblance of melody. Clearly popularity by group think rather than a thinking group.

By the way, what particularly worthy stuff were Pink Floyd making in 1997? 1994 was their last studio album with the previous one being released in the mid 80s.

Edited by rogerthat - March 22 2014 at 00:57

For me it's King Crimson's most abrasive atonal output (the mid-1970s LPs with Bruford/Wetton as well as their 1990s records) and Voivod that come to mind. Both took me a long time to really understand, several years indeed passed before me comprehending what was going on in their music.

In both cases, listening to other musicians they either were inspired by or had inspired was the key to grasping either. In KC's case I didn't understand their noisiest material until after I had gotten into black/death metal and hence become accustomed to that abstract an approach to playing heavy guitar music. Voivod only clicked for me after I had become familiar with their punk and indie-when-indie-meant-something influences.


Edited by Toaster Mantis - March 22 2014 at 05:38

I am inclined to agree with you.  VDGG, KC, maybe their albums aren't likable straight up from the first listen but wouldn't call it inaccessible.  If you compare even Wetton-KC with a Morton Feldman or Terry Riley, the latter are much tougher to listen to and demand that you concentrate hard on the music rather than looking for a 'lick' to latch onto.