Three bands that um..

It's got to be Eloy!

Amon Duul II for me as neither of the other bands really does that much for me. Micky has only recently converted to RIO/Avant so he's become a bit of an evangelist. 

Amon Düül II is surely the most interesting band on the list. Sure they were great in the beginning (Yeti and Tanz der Lemminge are on top), later they were hit and miss but they always tried to do something new, they hardly ever stood still, neither copied themselves nor any other band. Quite a number of things they did are of very questionable quality though, ultimately it's a matter of taste whether they do it for you or not. If you love the band like me you'll find even the low points (and there are enough of them) charming.

The other two bands are much more consistent, despite also having gone through some development. You've got to like Bornemann's singing for appreciating Eloy, which is a hard test. Look out for their bass player Matziol though, great guy! They are often accused of copying Pink Floyd and Yes but I think they have quite a few elements that are truly their own, particularly rhythm- and soundwise. Sometimes I'd have liked to see more substance in their compositions, though. Marillion I leave to others, they're reasonably nice to my ears but never really fascinated me.

Man With Hat wrote: rushfan4 wrote: What micky really wanted to recommend was Dream Theater but the worm in the bottom of his whiskey bottle advised him otherwise.  That Yeti album may be the least favorite album in my collection.  An awful racket that album is...although one day I was listening to it and thought "wow this is quite good".  I've only achieved that the one time however.  You will find that pretty much everyone in the world who listens to RIO/Avant type music posts on this site, and to a man or woman they all hate Neo prog type bands.  To me, it is the Neo prog bands that carry the torch for the sound of the music that I like.  i.e. guitar, bass, keyboard and drums with the occasional flute or saxophone and songs that tell stories.  The RIO/Avant types have tired of this formula and prefer the more out there musics that omit the guitars and keyboards and instead feature bassoons and marimbas.  This music is in theory more "progressive" than the more "retro" Neo prog but also to my ears doesn't really sound like the type of music that I fell in love with from the primary prog bands.  And to that end, the current music in these areas is still retro, but just to a different group of outlier bands instead of the primary prog bands.  Ultimately, there is room for all of us on here...but at times the sides can be as far a part as the alt-left and the alt-right.   I too like the RIO and the NEO.

That is very rare around these parts.  I like both as well, but prefer the Neo sound. 

I suppose Amon Duul II for me, if only for the strength of the first three records. 

I like all 3 bands

Eloy is the one I listen to most often, but they are all worth exploring.

octopus-4 wrote: I'm in ZART but I don't dislike the first Marillion. I like Bob Dylan, too.

You're in ZART and in Neo, like Keishiro. No reason why one can't like both. And as for Micky, I haven't had the impression over the years that he is big on RIO or Neo-Prog (which isn't to say that there aren't bands/ albums he likes in RIO/Avant as clearly there are, but probably not nearly as many there are for me).

Edited by Logan - August 16 2017 at 07:28

rushfan4 wrote: What micky really wanted to recommend was Dream Theater but the worm in the bottom of his whiskey bottle advised him otherwise.  That Yeti album may be the least favorite album in my collection.  An awful racket that album is...although one day I was listening to it and thought "wow this is quite good".  I've only achieved that the one time however.  You will find that pretty much everyone in the world who listens to RIO/Avant type music posts on this site, and to a man or woman they all hate Neo prog type bands.  To me, it is the Neo prog bands that carry the torch for the sound of the music that I like.  i.e. guitar, bass, keyboard and drums with the occasional flute or saxophone and songs that tell stories.  The RIO/Avant types have tired of this formula and prefer the more out there musics that omit the guitars and keyboards and instead feature bassoons and marimbas.  This music is in theory more "progressive" than the more "retro" Neo prog but also to my ears doesn't really sound like the type of music that I fell in love with from the primary prog bands.  And to that end, the current music in these areas is still retro, but just to a different group of outlier bands instead of the primary prog bands.  Ultimately, there is room for all of us on here...but at times the sides can be as far a part as the alt-left and the alt-right.

Excellent post. Scott, and it's because of thoughtful posts like this that I stick around here.

There is a level of polarity here between the more experimental minded and the more melodic-minded (I like melodic folk more than melodic rock). Good analogy on alt left and right. I have found Neo-Proggers, and Symph fans, tend to be more conservative, or right wing, in their politics as well as their music tastes than the Avant-oriented, and we all are alt. here to some extent. Or am I biasing my opinion too much because I assume that those with "progressive",more experimental tastes are more likely to be more progressive politically,and vice versa? Mind you, we have our more progressive left and regressive lefties when it comes to music and politics, and as for the right....

Politically, I don't want to be labeled left or right, more centrist if anything, even though my philosophy tends to put me on the left, and I also would like to move away from this dichotomy when it comes to music appreciation.

There is room for a wide variety of people here, but most of us, despite which side we tend to align ourselves with, still have common ground musically and ideologically so the apparent dichotomy is not as polarized as it may sometimes appear.

I'm exhausted and unsure if my post makes much sense.

EDIT to add] instead of making a new post: was thinking about how you you use the term alt-left which until Trump used it recently, I don't recall seeing. The regressive left vs. progressive left has been the popular one (Maajid Nawaz popularised it, but I know I used it before then, along with regressive rock, or Gorp as I like to call it) and alt-left might be thought of as a Trumpism.

Edited by Logan - August 16 2017 at 08:36