'90's That You May Have Missed...
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Music Lounge
Forum Description: General progressive music discussions
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=121876
Printed Date: February 19 2025 at 19:56
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Topic: '90's That You May Have Missed...
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Subject: '90's That You May Have Missed...
Date Posted: December 27 2019 at 15:34
OK this one is for all of you Sad Sacks that are stuck in the '70's when it comes to progressive music. And other stuff that may not be officially considered prog around here.  I will kick it off with stuff either recorded and/or released in 1990.Summers, Andy Charming Snakes 1990 Feb. Oldfield, Mike Amarok 1989 Sep.- 1990 Mar. (not satisfied with just doing one track LP songs per side...) French Frith Kaiser Thompson Invisible Means 1990 March (my first FFKT album and my favorite) Fripp, Robert & The League of Crafty Guitarists Show of Hands 1990 Jun. (I saw them live and found it rather interesting that when they weren't playing Fripp apparently required them to lay their non fretting hand down on their legs. Hmmm...) Eno, Brian/John Cale Wrong Way Up 1990 Apr.-Jul. (wow this one has memories. In 1990 I had what I thought would be my job through retirement. In 1991 there was an economy crash and I got laid off.  )Holdsworth, Allan Group Then! 1990 May Various Dali: The Endless Enigma 1990 Feb.-Jun. (I got this one on my first visit to the museum in St. Petersburg. It was my first encounter with Djam Karet and Steve Roach. I didn't really fall for them until A Night For Baku was fresh out.) Hackett, Steve Time Lapse (Live) 1981 Nov./ 1990 Oct. Curved Air Alive 1990 1990 Sep. Sting Soul Cages, The 1990 Apr.-Nov. Gismonti, Egberto Group Infancia 1990 Nov. Eno, Brian Shutov Assembly, The 1985- 1990 Badalamenti, Angelo Soundtrack from Twin Peaks 1989 -1990 (I think the Bad man is progressive composer. Anyone with me on this?) Belew, Adrian Young Lions 1989- 1990 (Belew back with Bowie for a few tracks after Bowie stole him away from Zappa and Fripp stole him away from Bowie and he stole himself to solo albums before he was stolen away by Bears... )Mitchell, Joni Night Ride Home 1989- 1990 Yothu Yindi Tribal Voice 1989- 1990 (Saw then on the short lived Dennis Miller show before he became a right wing nut job. How has that been working out for you, Dennis?) Vangelis City, The 1990 Feb. Rel. Ozric Tentacles Erpland 1990 Jun. Rel. (Ozrics continue to provide high quality exercise music despite being major stoners. I know this because I have a concert DVD with backstage footage. )Manzanera, Phil Southern Cross 1990 Rel. (Phil with commercialitis. He came back in a big way with 6PM) Stewart, Dave/Barbara Gaskin Big Idea, The 1990 Rel. (My favorite by the duo and their most progressive. I remember this one for when I was unemployed and driving around and crying to some of the tunes.) Wakeman, Rick In the Beginning 1990 Rel. (Religious Rick. It's OK. One of these days I'm going to play it for the Christians who hang out outside the MARTA station entrances trying to sell or give out their literature. I haven't yet engaged them because I am usually rushing to get to a bus.) Kindler, Steve Across a Rainbow Sea 1990 Rel. (dull dull dull) Manzanera, Phil & Sergio Dias Mato Grosso 1990 Rel. (a much better album from the Manz.) Varney, Mark Project Truth In Shredding 1990 Rel. O'Hagan, Sean High Llamas 1990 Rel. (this would become a band with the next album. They kinda fizzled out for me later on but the first few are really good.) Anderson, Jon Toltec 1989- 1990 (Jon never did make an album as good as Olias but the Animation albums came close.) Hedges, Michael Taproot 1990 (His most progressive album in my opinion. Worthy of his inclusion here but oh well.) Isham, Mark Mark Isham 1990 (Not one my favorite of Mark's. The music that hooked me was his soundtrack work for Never Cry Wolf. It was a big influence on my synthesizer playing.) Harrison, Jerry Walk on Water 1990 (Eh. This one by Jerry isn't as good as The Red And The Black, which I don't think has ever been released on CD.) Hassell, Jon City: Works of Fiction 1990 Triggering Myth, A Triggering Myth, A 1990 Rel. ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
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Replies:
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: December 28 2019 at 01:17
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Music in general ( not just prog) picked up in the 90's. Bands that actually wrote their own songs ( and could play them!) hit the UK charts and Scandinavia introduced us to a new/old symph prog revival. Prog metal and neo prog came up with some hard hitting releases while new and unique bands like The Cardiacs and Echolyn surfaced. So much better! My favourite album for each year 1990 Mike Oldfield - Amarok 1991 Tangerine Dream - Canyon Dreams 1992 Anglagard - Hybris 1993 IQ - Ever 1994 Par Lindh Project - Gothic Impressions 1995 Arena - Songs From The Lions Cage 1996 Porcupine Tree - Signify 1997 Radiohead - Ok Computer 1998 Mansun - Six 1999 Liquid Tension Experiment - Liquid Tension Experiment 2 |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: December 28 2019 at 04:22
Classic Cardiacs actually happened in the eighties. Eighties haters take note!
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richardh wrote:Posted By: Mortte
Date Posted: December 28 2019 at 05:58
| Faust made comeback in the nineties with really great albums, so did Gong at least one good album. Caravan`s Battle Of Hastings is not their worst album, but Cool Water from the same decade is (it´s recorded in the seventies). In Finland Wigwam, Tasavallan Presidentti & Haikara made at least some kind of comebacks, Haikara succeeded best it´s Domino-album. Outside prog P J Harvey, Sonic Youth, Tom Waits, the Red Krayola, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds & Nomeansno made some of my favorite albums. |
Posted By: dougmcauliffe
Date Posted: December 28 2019 at 07:35
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I will always stand by Rajaz by camel being one of the best 90s prog albums ------------- The sun has left the sky... ...Now you can close your eyes |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: December 28 2019 at 09:35
| Lot's of 90's stuff gets overlooked around here especially Ozric Tentacles, Djam Karet, Mastermind, Par Lindh Project(although I have seen them mentioned recently)and to some extent Echolyn. Also, solaris, after crying, salem hill and ad infinitum. The list could go on and on. |
Posted By: progaardvark
Date Posted: December 28 2019 at 17:11
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The 1990s were the decade I returned to Prog after college. It started off innocently enough with tribute albums by the Magna Carta label which led to purchases of albums from Cairo, Magellan, and Shadow Gallery. Then the discovery of the debut albums of Anekdoten, Spock's Beard, and Änglagård. A colleague at work got me into Arena and a late introduction to Marillion. Fun times. ------------- ---------- i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag that's a happy bag of lettuce this car smells like cartilage nothing beats a good video about fractions |
Posted By: HackettFan
Date Posted: December 28 2019 at 22:41
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Thanks. French Frith Kaiser Thompson - Invisible Means, I never got this album, only their prior album Live Love Larf and Loaf (1987). I ought to look into it. Steve Hackett, I love Time Lapse, which you mentioned. Also not mentioned were: Guitar Noir (1993) Blues with a Feeling (1994) Genesis Revisited (1996) A Midsummer Night's Dream (1997) Darktown (1999) ^The last two are not among my favorites, but worthwhile nonetheless. I was not persuaded about the virtues of the 80s and I pretty much knew about everything mentioned even if it wasn't something I saw fit to own. By comparison, I was much less active in collecting music in the 90s other than Hackett and Crimson. They were both finding their way back in a very promising fashion from the low points they had found themselves in. A lot in this decade I'd found out about in retrospect, so I could have easily missed a lot. ------------- A curse upon the heads of those who seek their fortunes in a lie. The truth is always waiting when there's nothing left to try. - Colin Henson, Jade Warrior (Now) |
Posted By: tamijo_II
Date Posted: December 29 2019 at 02:12
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+1 to Brian Eno/John
Cale Wrong Way – Brilliant Other
albums from your list I especially like would be: Erpland, Young Lions (far
from his best thought) and Then!. Other albums to recommend from 1990, completely random order: Ali Farka Touré - The River: my favorite album from one of Africa’s most famous artist. Try this if you have any love for world music. Anthony Phillips - Slow Dance, A highlight in late Symphonic Prog and thanks God without the typical Neo-Prog approach. Dead Can Dance – Aion, This may be the most strange and medieval/renaissance inspired album from Dead Can Dance, to an extend where you find yourself in a church somewhere 500 years ago in southern Europe, a bit too much to listen often but still interesting experiment. While we are at the “Catholic Church” might as well also mention: Enigma’s debut album MCMXC a.D, a ground breaking
experiment of mixing Gregorian chant with PoP music, beautiful German project
and deserves a listen for those who have never heard it. And while we are in German - If you got something stuck in your ear and can’t get it out try: Mekong Delta’s Dances of Death, progressive thrash metal at its best or worst depending on the listener, I think it quite good at times where I am in the mood for something as hard as this. If into progressive metal also California based Psychotic Waltz made a fine debut in 1990 with “A Social Grace”. Not fantastic but not bad either. Blind
Guardian - Tales from the Twilight World, maybe a bit too much D & Dragons,
but a fine prog metal album never the less. In my opinion one of the very best albums from this year is Mother Gong - The Owl and the Tree, the only Mother Gong album with Daevid Allen. Very fine Jazzy Canterbury style prog. Robert Plant released one of his best solo albums in 1990, Manic Nirvana – I my opinion especially "Tie Dye on the Highway" stands out of one of his best songs outside Zep. Must not forget Primus - Frizzle Fry, A killer debut album !! Very hard to describe what we got here, let’s say Funky experimental metal with a lot of characteristics you also find in prog. Finally will mention Sinéad O'Connor’s rocket to fame “I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got”. She was overexposed on MTV and as such could be seen as awful mainstream pop, but I have the deepest respect of what O'Connor stands for. To me it is just a good female rock album with a brilliant vocal and sadly there are not too many of those, she made better albums but can’t deny this is the most well-known. ------------- Same person as this profile: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/member_profile.asp?PF=22524" rel="nofollow - Tamijo |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: December 29 2019 at 04:22
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My top prog albums from the 90s are probably (in order of appearance): Talk Talk - Laughing Stock Fred Frith - Helter Skelter Holger Czukay - Moving Pictures .O.Rang - Herd of Instinct Art Zoyd - Häxan Tarentel - From Bone to Satellite If I had to crown a best album of the 90s it would pretty certainly be between .O.Rang and Talk Talk (and Mark Hollis' solo album is also excellent, only very little behind those listed), all of these are Talk Talk and related.
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Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: December 29 2019 at 20:35
| Really impressive list. I don't think I can add anything to all these. |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: December 30 2019 at 14:19
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Just off the top of my head, the 1990s prog revival produced a few gems of the Italian variety, along with quite a few others that bests the 80s output. Of note is the number of bands releasing several excellent albums during the decade Clepsydra (Swiss Italian) - "Hologram", "More Grains of Sand" and "Fears" Eris Pluvia - Rings of Earthly Light Hostsonaten - Mirrorgames Il Castello di Atlante - " Men of Lake - s/t and "Out of the Water". I would say both are very good not great but they both have great songs Le Orme - Il Fiume Others Asturias - Brilliant Streams Camel - "Dust and Dreams", "Harbour of tears", and "Rajaz" Clannad - Landmarks Eloy - Chronicles I is rerecordings of 1970s and 1980s classics and totally worth it as was "Tides return Forever" and "Ocean 2' Faun - "Wondrous End" - this is a different German group called Faun from the current one Grace - Pulling strings and Shiny Things Harnakis - "Numb Eys, the Soul Revelation" Kerrs Pink - "A Journey on the Inside" and "the Art of Complex Simplicity" Dead Can Dance - Aion and "Into the Labyrinth" Nick Magnus - Inhaling Green Jim McCarty - "Out of the Dark" Morrigan - "Rides out" Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells III Promethean - "Gazing the Invisible" Red Jasper - two classics - "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "A Winter's Tale" Sagrad Coracao da Terra - "Grande Espirito", "Farol de Liberdad", "A leste do sol..." David Sylvian - Dead Bees on a Cake Tempus Fugit - Tales of a Forgotten World Andreas Vollenweider - Kryptos Tenhi - Kauan Tri Yann - Belle et rebelle |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: December 31 2019 at 04:17
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The 90's were (much) better than the 80's for sure, though it's debatable about what was played on the mainstream airwaves, filled with crud that wasn't really better than the 80's commercial crud. And not just because of the rebirth of prog either, but I liked some Grunge, some Trip H and most Post Rock (someone mentionned .O.Rang, which is in some ways the successor of Talk Talk >> I really like Webb/Rustin Man's Drift code that came out in March of this year, BTW) Not going to list anything, but I started returning to rock (I had fleed it in the second half of the 80's in favour of jazz of the 60's) via Kravitz , Neil Young, Nirvana and RHCP around the very start of the decade, than discovered the Swedish retro-prog wave (I didn't like the Magna Carta label stuff)
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Posted By: Prog-jester
Date Posted: January 01 2020 at 20:21
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Actually prog-wise 90s is my third favourite decade after 70s and 00s, so many gems: Shadowland - Ring of Roses Discipline - Unfolded Like Staircase Collage - Moonshine Camel - Rajaz and of course all these Landberk, Sinkadus, Anekdoten releases
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