What is neo-prog?

My very personal views is that Neo Prog is a tag meant to describe Marillion, Pendragon, IQ, Pallas & co. Hence, Neo Prog for me sounds like spruced up sound and an AOR'ised version of symph prog. 

So to make this a "food recipe":

Take one half of Symponic Prog

Take one half of AOR

Put it into a food processor and let it blend together for 3 minutes. 

Put it on a plate and into your micro wave oven for six minutes before eaten luke warm.

Neo-Prog is best taken together with some glasses of Chardonnay white wine from Australia, Chile or South Africa. 

Edited by toroddfuglesteg - February 04 2011 at 17:22

bands that sound like Fish-era Marillion , with emphasis on drums and keyboards, and the typical "weeping" Hackett-like guitar soloing.

After the 70's era ended, people didn't wanted complex music, so in order to survive, prog bands created a new genre that shared elements of Symphonic (vastly Genesis influenced), but blended with some mainstream sounds, and more emphasis in the guitar than Symphonic ever had.

Oddly enough there is a definition on this site that works just fine for me even though the only band I really know is Marillion.  The artists who have stuck around and continue to produce new stuff may no longer fit the mold of the original neo prog movement, as I think most of the artists did prog that owed heavily to the older artists when those were taking a commercial turn and now I suspect as time went on they went on in their own direction.

Edited by Slartibartfast - February 04 2011 at 21:45

Conor Fynes wrote: So.... anthem prog.

naw, it's "I wish I were Genesis" prog

Snow Dog wrote: Not quite. It was a term used to describe the new prog bands of the eighties. Now it has been reworded to decribe a certain style of prog.

Absolutely spot on. You could call it the 2nd wave of prog which burst out of the UK in the 80's by bands such as Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon, Pallas and so on.

It seems to have morphed into a sub genre where the bands are "strongly influenced by" or "sound like" the classic bands of the 1st wave of prog, although, to these ears, most of the bands under the sub genre are very much in the wrong classification if that is what it is supposed to be.

My own preference would be to do away with the sub genre and reclassify bands into symphonic, crossover and so on, and I say this, by the way, as a huge fan of most of the bands you will find in the neo top albums charts.

As an example (and I've probably said this before, so sorry), I would cite The Flower Kings and Marillion. I love both bands, but the former are in symphonic. If ever there was a band who wore their Yes influence on their sleeve and sound it is TFK, so I actually think they properly belong in neo. Marillion haven't sounded a bit like Genesis, yes, VDGG and so on since probably Fugazi, and definitely Misplaced Childhood. When Hogarth joined, the band left it behind absolutely, and they, IMHO, clearly now belong in Crossover Prog.

Lastly, I do actually think the neo label puts a lot of fans off from trying. As a good example, I would recommend all fans of heavy prog, symphonic, and eclectic to try Pallas' new opus, XXV. As a bit of reassurance, it is a great album (I'll review it soon), and bears no resemblance to 1980's wannabee Genesis etc whatsoever.

^

 

^well, 'Prog' was also a term pinned by journalists, wasn't it? That means that Prog bands have nothing in common other than being contemporary?

harmonium.ro wrote: lazland wrote: Snow Dog wrote: Not quite. It was a term used to describe the new prog bands of the eighties. Now it has been reworded to decribe a certain style of prog. Absolutely spot on. You could call it the 2nd wave of prog which burst out of the UK in the 80's by bands such as Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon, Pallas and so on. That's interesting, because all the bands you mentioned have a strong stylistical similarity, making a common (sub)genre if you ask me. I can't hear them just as bands that happened to be contemporary. Or maybe that wasn't what you were trying to say?

No. What Ian said is right, in that those bands were at the forefront of the "new wave" of prog in the 1980's.

You could make an argument (although I would not necessarily agree) that the first couple of albums by all of these bands shared commonalities. However, listen to all of them now. They have absolutely nothing in common whatsoever, excepting that they are prog rock bands.

IQ have never had anything in common musically with Marillion. Pendragon sound absolutely nothing like either, whilst Pallas, in the last three albums certainly, have moved far away from their pure neo roots into a sound that is altogether heavier.

I also happen to think that Marillion especially are extremely contemporary.