Forget about that stupid thing called "feeling" , Mention your most br00tal band in technicality terms

Mine is Planet X (sick runs in this one) :

 

 

When I think of "tight" I think of that feeling where everyone hits a note as if one hand motion create the sound. When it's staccato it's very obvious, but tightness is what turns a group of players into a band. When it's on, it is such a thrill, and one of the biggest appeals of metal.

 

 

The tightness in Meshuggah has nothing to do with tone/effects/etc. These guys can play (and memorize) polyrhythmic stuff in a way that is not human!

Magma is not that tight; in fact, they're quite loose because they improvise a lot; their music is quite flexible.

but i think some of the tightest playing i have heard comes from Symphony X. Live versions of The Odyssey never miss a beat

1. Toto live with S. Phillips and J. Porcaro (+) I had the opportunity to see them live in 2006. Awesome musicians. Dream Theater are just beginners compared to them. 

2. CAB with Dennis Chambers on the drums. 

3. John Mclaughlin and Chick Corea (Five Piece Band) with Vinnie Colaiuta

4. John McLaughlin Trio - Live At The Royal Festival Hall

 

Amon Duul 2

 

So hard and so much and so full ... that anything past their early day concerts sound like the worst crap you ever heard.

 

Some music, you can not let go down the tubes, and is not meant to be done as a folks song or accapela by Renate and a guitarist ... that simple!

 

The only live stuff of theirs that sounds good is in the "Live in London" album.

 

Sometimes I think they take their "freedom" of expression thing and recklessness for creativity a little too seriously and think that anything they do now is more important than what was done then, or before ... and while there is a point to be made there, there is also a lack of respect for the good work that was done before ... and that has nothing to do with one's opinion of it later in life.

 

To my ears, AD2 is a very sad thing today ... I will listen to one more album though!

Not as prog (though still progressive)  but Phish is absurdly tight.  They take improv's about as far as physically possible and go through some crazy stuff whilst staying amazingly tight.

And did somebody say improvised music isn't tight?  I don't see how it being improvised is relevant, if anything it's more impressive that it's tight when improvised.  Tightness is how well everybody clicks and reacts to each other, not how many of the same notes they hit at the same time.

And to me having feel is required of all music, so I don't really care for a lot of the absurdly heavy bands that stay consistently heavy at all times.

 

Not according to Stella.

 

They are tight, because they rehearse a lot. But they do have moments in the choral score that allows some freedom, and they tend to work with each other, because at times Christian is gone, and you have to stay with him, or Stella is gone off the high voice, and he goes with her. But other than those small parts, in general, most of Magma is very tight and well rehearsed.

 

The music would not have lasted, or survived, if it wasn't so. And I think that this was the one thing that Christian understood very well about what he created -- although I don't think that he could have done all this by himself ... and that the time and place and people helped provide him with a template ... that is still going strong 40 years later.

 

 

"Polyrhythms" are when you play two rhythms against each other that don't go together normally. Such as playing five in a beat and 4 in a beat at the same time. I don't count 3 over 2 as this is a very simple rhythms. Or even 4 over 3, but anything more complex than that is - such as 3 over 5, 7 over 6 etcetera. 

Anyway, yeah, Magma are very tight. So are other Zeuhl bands - Ruins especially. Zappa is probably the tightest though... "Echidna's Arf (Of You)" and "Don't You Ever Wash That Thing?" are two displays of astounding tightness! 

Anything with Chick Corea?

I agree with what I read here about Behold... the Arctopus and Phish (Especially anything on Lawn Boy, like Reba).

Colosseum II

Return to Forever

Zappa's Roxy & Elsewhere touring band

Hatfield & the North

National Health

Genesis (pre-drum-machine)

Gentle Giant

Yes

 

 

As tight as a duck's ass !

 

 

 

 

They're in the Roxy & Elsewhere live album, one of the greatest live albums and probably one of Zappa's finest releases ever.

 

I would also agree that Zappa has to be tight ... for th emost part, or the music can fall apart into chaos real quick ... and lose listeners.

I'm a big fan of Mr. Phillips myself, but Toto? Ouch! La cuenta, por favor. I'll go with the Giant, gently.

so many live albums show how they reproduce their arrangements so well

for a lesser known act : `carmen`

cheers

i had a chat with `paul fenton` about the band ., he advised i get `dancin on a cold wind`

i got it ., and its an excellent accompaninment to `fandango`s....` lp

 

if this is not as tight as a mountain, then what is tight

 

with Simon Phillips

 

 

Jeff Porcaro

 

 

actually next year will do for that gem.

I agree with the first part... but Derek was the voice and had the charisma to be the front man.

Village of the Sun up through the end of the album is the greatest Zappa that ever happened.  (this contains the songs he spoke of as well)

 

But this begs a question: does compositional complexity have to go hand-in-glove with tightness?

Someone mentioned Phish, but Phish is (also) a lot of jamming / spontaneity, right?  How can spontaneity be tight? To be tight you have to know what the next note is going to be, dont you? (That is, unless you are INSTINCTIVELY tight.)

 

Just wondering.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyways - this new-ish band, Deluge Grander is pretty damn tight.

How about Spyro Gyra:

 

I mean, you could program this on MIDI and it would sound the same... : )

I have to say that this music can be very entertaining, but there is always some level of ugliness that go with it.. In this case I have a hard time with sax, though.

 

But, more interestingly if we compare the 20 biggest, most famous prog bands, which would be the "tightest"?

I think Jethro Tull. But not in a bad way. They have a folky swing to their playing, so it's never stiff or tight in a boring way. I realized that when I was discovering them, that some of the more complex parts with interplays between instruments in their music reminded me of Gentle Giant, but it's played more seemlessly than Gentle Giant. It's all very fluid, in a good way. So I would say Jethro Tull.