Welcome to PA, excellent question!  I agree, much electronic prog is limited in terms of vocals, mixed instrumentation etc.  I look forward to responses from the PA members!  

http://battles.bandcamp.com/album/mirrored" rel="nofollow - http://battles.bandcamp.com/album/mirrored

https://zombi.bandcamp.com/album/spirit-animal" rel="nofollow - https://zombi.bandcamp.com/album/spirit-animal

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=8522" rel="nofollow - http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=8522

Many prog electronic bands will have ambient moments, even if they're heavily sequencer-driven. Cosmic Ground, for example, frequently starts out ambient before transitioning to sequencer-driven. And some artists, like Tangerine Dream, make some albums that are completely ambient, and others that are more energetic. So, it's kind of a hit & miss affair. That being said, here are some of my favorite up-beat prog electronic albums...

Cosmic Ground (Cosmic Ground 2 & 3)

Klaus Schulze (Royal Festival Hall Vol 2, Are You Sequenced)

This site ( https://www.synthsequences.com" rel="nofollow - https://www.synthsequences.com ) has a lot of reviews of prog electronic, including their sub-genres (ambient, Berlin school, etc).

https://stevehauschildt.bandcamp.com/

Hi,

(Welcome)

I'm not sure that your choices are going to give you something that you are going to enjoy. Electronic Prog, is not, for the most part, a song at all ... and the best example would be Tangerine Dream, though some of it is not exactly slow, but it is not DT fast, either, but they know how to use the guitars and the electronics within a format that is more symphonic than anything else, and there are no vocals ... the music stands out by its own emotions, and it is not something that even compares to a song.

I was thinking that Jean Michel Jarre might fit, but I think you are looking for songs, and that area of Progressive Electronic does not quite fit songs, since almost all of the music within the Electronic Progressive field is designed and defined as "visual", a lot more than they are a "song".

Things like Larry Fast/Synergy are also very electronic, but again they are very visual and sometimes designed/defined as if they were music for films, if they were allowed to expand, rather than do simple ditties to augment 10 seconds of screen time.

Ambient, by design, is about its ability to help people meditate and focus inside. I think (I THINK) that most Prog-Electronic is about giving people a VISUAL LANDSCAPE, not a song, or just a small passage that should have been a part of something larger and bigger, instead of just a "song".

Gert Emmens is really special and sometimes you get a feeling that TD is his teacher or inspiration, but his work is very different, although you can easily see the influence and touch. For that matter, the current German Electronic scene is very lively and a lot of material is being released and it really has that special feeling that the early experimental "krautrock" had in the old days ... sort of like listening to Neu and friends in those early days, though a bit more electronic.

I hope you find what you are looking for, but I can't help thinking that you are looking in the incorrect place.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DIpUCsQgg0" rel="nofollow -  Flamen Dialis - Symptome Dei    &   http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DIpUCsQgg0" rel="nofollow - Dionne Bregent - Deux

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DIpUCsQgg0" rel="nofollow">

Some artists, like Steve Roach, work in both ambient and rhythmic styles. Here's a sequencer piece from the album I still like best, Empetus (1986).

(If you like that, also check out his albums Now, Traveler, Stormwarning and Proof Positive.)

An engaging track from the sixth Synergy album, Audion (1981).

(If you like that, check out all of his albums, including Reconstructed Artifacts [maybe skip C.E. Vol. One]:  http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=1825" rel="nofollow - SYNERGY discography and reviews (progarchives.com) )

And then there's Mark Shreeve, who went from Schulze emulator to forge his own style of hi-octane, beat-heavy synth instrumentals. Opening track from one of his best albums, Crash Head (1987).

(If you like that, Legion, Crash, Nocturne and the live album Collide reflect what Mark was doing in that phase before he moved on to form Redshift:  http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=6131" rel="nofollow - MARK SHREEVE discography and reviews (progarchives.com) )

And here's the title side from one of the greatest albums by Tangerine Dream, though this also involves piano, guitar, and, in this instance, real drums.

most of the highly rated ones are ambient based. Too me far too many are overrated although I do enjoy Edgar Froese - Epsilon In Malaysian Pale which (excuse the sport analogy) knocks it out the ball park in terms of ambient electronic for me.

However I enjoy the following which don't really draw from ambient ideas as much

Jean Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields/ Rendez-vous

Tangerine Dream - Cyclone/Underwater Sunlight 

Neuronium - Heritage

 

I had been thinking about asking a similar question, although I was considering phrasing the question as asking for electronic music that doesn't sound like Tangerine Dream. However, I do think we're asking for something similar. I was thinking that the creators of electronic music typically do so with a particular mindset about what electronic music is, whereas in truth, electronic music is simply music created using electronic sounds, and shouldn't really dictate a style of music. On the other hand, such music might be placed in different subgenre, even though it is electronic music.

 

Pretty much the same here, as I'd also like to get more into electronic prog, but stuff which is more akin to the likes of Kraftwerk than Tangerine Dream.

Interesting question indeed. I'm not a fan of the ambient kind of electronic music and most albums of TD, Schulze, Jarre a.o. I find them quite boring. And although most of them have been very progressive regarding electronic music, I cannot really classify them as - dominantly - rock and thus neither as prog rock. But well, that's another debate and not that interesting.

What I personnaly would consider electronic prog is e.g. Ozric Tentacles (but here on PA they are in another sub-genre). Since we talk about him lately, I quite like Geoff Downes' The Light Program album. I wouldn't have been surprised to see the two Chris Evans & David Hanselmann collaborations (Stonehenge and Symbols) here on PA, although they might be considered more as synth dominated pop-rock than as prog...

I'm also very intrigued by the electronic pioneers of the 50s and 60s, but we're not at all in the "rock" realm here (although some of Pierre Henry's album's might qualify...).

Hi

Terry Riley

Beaver and Krause for sure. 

Probably the two best known of them.

Most of these, though, are very experimental and a serious attempt at getting some sort of control over the electronic new instrument, and most of them failed, in the sense that things could not be replicated easily enough. Thus, their ability to go on tour and take the instruments was prohibitive, and this was a very serious issue with Tangerine Dream on their first several years in concert. They could not redo things, and that was the main reason why their bootlegs were so HOT ... it was all different, not to mention that according to Edgar's book there were massive issues with the equipment not warming up enough, and the weather and the room temperatures, one of which was freezing (not enough electricity to handle it all) and guess what ... a live album came out of it ... POLAND! In freezing temperatures!

None of these and TD's early material comes close to "prog" or "song" ... it is all pretty much a free flow or a stream of consciousness based on the sounds they were able to create. The book that will really help us learn more about this would be CHRISTOPHER FRANKE's if he ever got around to do it, but his break with TD was not good, and to this day he has remained quiet about it, and decidedly ... it looks like musically retired now!

There would be more, for example, there were electronics that were not specifically credited in the film FORBIDDEN PLANET and some other really far out sci-fi early films that really pushed the genre until the time that Ray Harryhausen brought it all to a stop with Bernard Herrmann music. However, Bernard's music was not really electronic, but the use of different instruments differently that allowed for moods and touches that were way out of town and far out. It is epic in many ways, but not something that the "rock" oriented folks in PA (for example) might enjoy left and right, but they are (by far!) some of the nicest and most exciting film soundtracks ever made.

There is an article, and I can not find it, that even describes the experimental stuff in electronica in the 60's and went so far as to say that in the West it was more free form and tripped out, and in the East it was more thought out and less trippy, and it seemed to take a different angle. In many ways, Beaver and Krause would fit as "west" while Terry Riley would fit as "east".

I'm not specifically well learned on how electronica came to Europe, specially Germany, but in the late 60's it was the Berlin group and school that helped bring it all to the foreground to what it has become today. Those early folks at that school, were very keen on "non-Western music concepts" which no doubt helped their work come alive within improvisation, which was a big thing at the time, in theater and film and some of the arts in Germany. Edgar Froese said that it was a new time, no past references (all destroyed) and many folks only had themselves and the instrument to look at and they came up with something that was different.

This last detail is a very important detail in the growth of electronic music. That a lot of it ended up mixed with rock, is way later and in many cases not even as interesting as the originals and the great ones.

^ Definitely! I mean, Riley, Beaver, Krause, TD, Jarre, Kraftwerk, and others still... they were all pioneers in some more or less defined way. I actually like the first two TD albums, but after those they mostly just bore me, however "pioneering" their subsequent efforts maybe were. It is also about "it touches me or it doesn't touch me." I listen with my "guts", in that sense...

That said, regarding the electronic music of the late 40s, 50s, 60s (and I'm thinking of the likes of Pierre Schaeffer, Pierre Henry, Dick Raaijmakers, Tom Dissevelt, Delia Derbyshire, to name just a few), they were mostly working in laboratories (of universities or private companies like Philips). So yes, that wasn't suited for touring. But these electronic pioneers were a major influence on those electronic pioneers of the 70s and beyond that adapted these experiments into more "popular" (or "rock" if you wish) music. That's the intriguing part of musical influences and prog, in general, is full of those influences coming from completely different domains (classic, electronic, folk, etc...).

(BTW, the concept of "song" wasn't used by the OP, and I don't think it has much value in this present discussion... but that just as a side note...)

(edit: on another side note, it is true also that cinema very early on has introduced electronic instruments into their sound tracks. I think it was Edgar Varèse who incorporated as first composer an electronic instrument in a composition, but composers and sound engineers for cinema were on it very quickly. I have no literature on that at hand, I think, but it is an interesting subject on itself...)

If you're looking for more bands like the Ozrics (since that's not prog EM), they're out there. One is Belgium's Quantum Fantay.

I love that album, too, so that gives me a better idea of what you may like. Another album came out the same year — Synergy's The Metropolitan Suite — and it has a similarly symphonic feel. It doesn't sound like Jarre, TD, Vangelis or anyone else (but Larry Fast has never sounded like them).

If you've never heard it, try Vangelis' 1988 album, Direct. It's wonderful.

^^ Thanks, verslibre! I don't know Quantum Fantay, so I will try to get a listen to their work.

I remember having listened to a Synergy album a long time ago and it didn't really stick to me. I don't remember which album it was, I guess it was either Sequencer, or Games, or Audion..., but I don't think it was the later Metropolitan Suite... Will give it a listen too...

It's an interesting topic... I think I have not thought of most prog electronic albums as ambient. Yes, there are a few Tangerine Dream records that are 'proto-ambient' or something like this, but overall I think prog electronic albums are just... prog electronic albums.

Ambient is another genre, and believe me, there are no ambient artists on PA.

(For example, check Atrium Carceri... I can't imagine seeing them here )

Ah, but should they be? Surely they're prog? 

Hi,

I'm on the bubble about this, since for me TD is not about "prog electronic" or "ambient" at all, but in the early days a lot of excursions about the behemoth synthesizers and later, what I would call "pastoral classical music done electronically", that we could close our eyes to and fly away with. 

Sometimes the title of the pieces in a subtle sort of way mentioned a book or a piece of art, and while this might have been Edgar's way of identifying how he saw a lot of his music, in the end, I have never felt it was "wrong" or out of place. Listening to his Kafka album, is almost better than reading the book (The Castle), and the same goes for a lot of his music, going back to STRATOSFEAR, though I think that the earlier material might be considered "ambient", 20 years before the term even came around!!!!!!!!! But they were a very fine "interpretation" of many things, and ideas, even if the titles were a bit strange and out there!

Another example ... I would rather listen to the live concert of "SORCERER", than I would to sit and watch the movie, since what he did with the music is something that even the director could never have understood or thought about! ... and it was finally done in its entirety in the last concert series that Edgar Froese did in this life before he departed.

I don't know that we are capable, anymore, of just listening to music and enjoy it, WITHOUT having to put some sort of label in it ... it's just scary to me, that we must label something in order to even consider putting a little ear to it! At that point, it is not about the MUSIC and its ART ... it's about glorifying the fan, and ignoring the artist!

I do think Friedkin would have an idea. Apparently he's in possession of many hours of tapes of music Edgar sent him. In an interview, he said he was returning them to Bianca. I was under the impression we'd get to hear some of what's on them, but so far, no developments.

Hi,

It is possible and likely, but in the end Friedkin would have to deliver a film that involved too much music that could not (at the time) be shown as much as Edgar felt, at least. Friedkin, while a nice director, was not really one for using music well in most of his films, unlike some other directors who were not afraid to display the music to its better effect, right down to creating magic moments in film, like the ending of BLADE RUNNER or the use of music in CHARIOTS OF FIRE, and some other things done by Ryuichi Sakamoto that the director allowed to let the music live. Or even how Werner Herzog lined up his work along the Popol Vuh music in the earlier days!

Some of those "hours" of tapes, were likely used in the live concert series, possibly updated and improved, but you and I do not know  exactly which material it was, except that what was used in the film was not even close to what TD did in their final shows with Edgar in Australia.

I imagine that when Bianca passes, Jerome will be in charge of everything, and we might find some new things in there that are not being seen, or shown at this time, possibly because Bianca might have been privy to some comments by Edgar while he was alive. That's another story, I imagine.

Rather than have the "new" version of TD do something too electronic to be classically inspired, I would love to see them bring out some of the stuff that is buried, although I think that Bianca might be too attached to it to allow it to be seen, or perhaps it is thought to not be as complete and clear as a lot of TD's music seems to be, but (again) I'm not sure what is and isn't at this point.

All I can say is, that I miss TD a lot, and that the version without Edgar is lacking a lot of feeling, and I find it too electronic, rather than musical but that might be considered an opinion of mine, rather than the reality. I miss the "trips" and the newer version of TD did not have a tripping feel as before, which to me breaks the "prog-electronic" thing as much as the "ambient" thing. Both of those types of pieces were about extending your feelings, not just extending solos on top of solos!

ProfPanglos wrote: I think TD lost their fire to a great degree when Christopher Franke left.  For me, there was a noticeable change, a lack of edge & complexity, when Franke departed.  As much as I love the band, Optical Race was the beginning of the end of the TD I knew and loved.  Not to say there are some really good tracks here and there after Franke left, but there was also a tremendous amount of... what I would call 'canned,' somewhat 'cheesy' music that they churned out.

I totally agree; with "Optical Race" TD went totally downhill, even if they did an album inspired by one of my favourite books afterwards: "Der Engel vom westlichen Fenster" by Gustav Meyrink. (The title was badly translated as "The Angel from the West Window" by TD; correct would have been "The Angel of the West Window").

Hi,

I disagree. There is some outstanding material by TD after that, and as expected, it was slightly different, and I wonder if it wasn't (at the time), Chris's ability to get past the behemoth synthesizers he was still in love with, and still played in his first solo albums, although it appeared they got simplified and he had a much better control of them, something that Edgar stated in the book, was always a problem and caused the other members to have to improvise while Chris found what was needed for the piece they were trying to do.

It wasn't easy, but Edgar admits that most often Chris did get it right, though not always the same.

It was, just another change in their history, but the amount of material that ended up coming out and its presentation on stage was fantastic and second to none. I don't think there EVER WAS another band that was so clean and so mature in concert, and then even be able to add moments of improvisation to the show ... it's all over their live concerts that were video'd, and it's just sad that it is not appreciated as much as it should have been. Even the time with Jerome was nice, not specifically outstanding, but it was a much needed ability to be added to the band, and right after the addition if Iris (along with Linda) made it a superb live show ... but folks still think that she should have stayed at home making babies, or the keyboards and not played the saxophone or the flute. 

Sadly and crazy that their 3rd (or 4th or 9th) life in music is not enjoyed. It should be!

As a fairly die-hard, hardcore fan of TD, and as someone who always immediately purchased their new albums as they came out, here was my experience of the post-Schmoelling material (I'm skipping a lot of in-between soundtracks, etc. and just looking at studio albums):

1986 - Underwater Sunlight  [LOVED IT]  (and saw the tour)

1987 - Tyger  [LOVED IT]

1988 - Optical Race  [LOVED a couple of tracks, LIKED most of the others, DISLIKED the title track]  (and saw the tour)

1989 - Lily On The Beach  [LIKED 2 or 3 tracks, DISLIKED the rest]

1990 - Melrose [LIKED 1 track, DISLIKED the rest]

1992 - Rockoon [DISLIKED the entire album] (and saw the "220 Volt" tour)

1994 - Turn Of The Tides [DISLIKED the entire album]

1995 - Tyranny Of Beauty [DISLIKED the entire album]

1996 - Goblin's Club [DISLIKED the entire album]

1997 - I bought "Tournado," couldn't get through 15 minutes, and gave up on buying any new Tangerine Dream from that point onward.

I've of course revisited some of these titles, and plenty of their later 2000-2020 music too - and *some* of it I have found to be interesting and even pleasant (Seven Letters of Tibet" and "Jeanne D'Arc" I thought were pretty decent recordings), but I stand by my comment that they "lost their fire."  It didn't help that Edgar couldn't seem to stop messing with adding tracks/sounds to existing classics and re-issuing re-worked old stuff or TDI putting out tons of compilation material.

Edited to add:  I recently listened to "Turn Of The Tides" and enjoyed it (for the most part).

And another personal, subjective complaint:  Their record covers really went downhill after Underwater Sunlight, too.

And we did not list the incredible list of concerts that stood out, and specially the last 2 the band performed with Edgar. Both are tremendous and a magnificent testament to a band that did not quit, and went on with their music.

There is some far out and incredible material in all these and I'm missing Mahlia (not sure the spelling) or something like it. They are not all "perfect" but there are some outstanding things. The Kafka album is actually "better" than the book if one can say that ... it's interpretation is excellent, for example. The Madcap thing is different and while I did not think it was great, it was nice.

(I'm not a great fan of the TD after Edgar ... too mechanical and they lost their "classical" feeling altogether, which was likely essential and very important. It feels like (now) just a bunch of synths with no life of their own other than the electricity!)

Zombi

Hi ! I know well Quantum Fantay because I've got many albums of them. But I think it is more psychedelic / space-rock not progressive electronic music.

You can try the album of the keyboardist of Galahad: Dean  Baker - Constellations (UK).

A kind of mix of Jean-Michel Jarre and Tangerine Dream.

https://twelfthnightuk.bandcamp.com/album/constellations" rel="nofollow - Constellations | Dean Baker | Twelfth Night (bandcamp.com)

Specifically, it was hours' worth of music Friedkin was sent for Sorcerer. The new music in the live shows didn't come from those tapes.

In the same interview, Friedkin said he'd known Edgar had been ill for some time. He didn't elaborate.

Edgar's distinct melodies are greatly missed. When he let Jerome have more and more control in the '90s, Tangerine Dream sounded more and more generic.

Indeed. Chris took his vast sound library and sequencer templates (one of the aspects that distinguished TD from their imitators, that nobody could quite get a lock on) with him.

One would think Johannes' departure would have been a more immediate critical blow, but somehow the band produced Underwater Sunlight without him, which is a positively fantastic album that features some of my favorite guitar playing by Edgar. The "Song of the Whale" suites sound as fresh today as they did in 1986! With that album, TD's trademark for each new album bearing a remarkably new 'sound' ended, with Tyger being something of a coda to that arc.

Optical Race has some beautiful compositions ("Sun Gate," "Mothers of Rain," "Cat Scan," "Atlas Eyes") and some strangely half-cooked duds. The sound palette is noticeably milquetoast, which doesn't help the less inspired pieces one bit. The title track is forgettable contempo. "The Midnight Trail" has a cool intro and a very unsatisfying resolution. "Twin Soul Tribe" should have been another worthy contribution of Edgar's, but it goes nowhere.  

Tournado had the same effect here.

My intense dislike for Goblins Club has lessened a bit. I think the last three tracks are pretty good, with Edgar's 10-minute piece, the album-closer "Sad Merlin's Sunday" being the best (and he fires up his guitar for that one, too).

Tyranny of Beauty has some decent cuts, the best being "Bride in Cold Tears."

Once Jerome found the door, it seemed like things began to get back on track, to shift back toward what made TD iconic in the first place. 

I quite like the 2008 album Views from a Red Train, which is essentially an Edgar Froese solo album with contributions from Thorsten Quaeschning.

ProfPanglos wrote: And another personal, subjective complaint:  Their record covers really went downhill after Underwater Sunlight, too.

True. The weird thing is...Monica was still designing them.

Your comment here cracked me up, because when I posted above that I loved a couple of tracks, the 2 I had in mind were "The Midnight Trail" and "Twin Soul Tribe!"  (Although I can agree that The Midnight Trail needed to go much deeper.)

I loathe that title track.  I always thought it sounded like some crappy video game theme.  I still remember hearing it for the first time, and thinking, "This is Tangerine Dream?"

I would also add the entire Booster Series ( I own the lot) and Views from a Red Train. What's really interesting about that last album for me is the guitar.

I also enjoy the more recent Particles album which features the theme tune to Stanger Things. I know you don't like the 'Hits' but you have to admit that (the theme not the TV series) is good!

I also very much like the Kyoto album that was originally recorded in 1984 by Edgar and Johannes. No Christoph which perhaps ties in with some of your earlier comments.

Thanks for the recommendation, I had never heard of this before... and loved that Galaxy Taxi track!

Another one I thought of that definitely qualifies as "prog-electronic that is not ambient" is Eddie Jobson's Zinc.

Totally enjoyed what I've heard so far.  I'll be coming back to your bandcamp page to do some more listening.  Thanks for posting (and writing your music)!

 

The funniest thing where that track is concerned is that it was their final encore at the Optical Race concert in San Diego!! 

I saw that tour at the Somerville Theater in Boston.  Overall I thought it was an enjoyable show, and great light show to accompany it.  They did cover *some* decent material on the set list, if I recall correctly.  (My memory of that show is a little fuzzy, I may have been stoned, haha.)  I remember I did buy the tour t-shirt and a cool triangular bottle opener with the TD logo on it.  

Overall, it was a great show. We talked to some cool people (including one guy who saw U.K. open for Tull). The highlights were "After the Call" (which turned up on Miracle Mile), the new music later dubbed "Parabola 1-3" (I understand that was mainly Ralf's contribution), excerpts from "Phaedra," "Logos" and "LiveMiles Part 1" — and Edgar's and Paul's solos. The show covered most of Optical Race, and we got no other soundtrack material (we didn't get "Alexander Square," while the Los Angeles show right afterward did).

Electronic prog which isn't ambient or just regular rock played by synths? That's a challenge.

ARS NOVA is a Japanese symphonic band famous for having only synths and drums - no guitar or bass. Problem is, they're trying to sound like Japanese 80s videogame music, so that's not for everyone.

Russian SOLARIS is probably my best pick. Their albums are not all synths, but the songs are epic.

Dave Greenslade and Patrick Woodroffe have an album called PENTATEUCH OF THE COSMOLOGY! The music isn't as bombastic as the title, but it's  a concept album designed to be listened to while you read the accompanying book, which is pretty prog.

Dionne Bregent's 1977 album "DISC 2"-  it's not all synths, but it's moogy and pompous, (at least the best parts are!)

And pretty much the whole Goblin discography would count, wouldn't it?

There's Goblin imitators like ZOMBI and NIGHT TERRORS that use only synths, so maybe those would be more up your alley?

Igor Wakhevitch (sp?) has an album called HATHOR, which is dark and soundtracky

Par Lindh and Bjorn Johansson have a soundtracky, quiet album called BILBO, which is mostly moogs.

Then there's the self-titled Sagrado Coracao Da Terra album!

Finally, how about Teddy Lasry's SONIMAGE. Faster music, half with drums, half sort of ambient.