Prog Rock Thread

First new album in 8 years from Anekdoten will be released on April 10th.

S.D. wrote:

First new album in 8 years from Anekdoten will be released on April 10th.  

and it is great!

It's on my massive want list.

So far this year we've had great releases from Beardfish, Steven Wilson, King Crimson, Special Providence, The Tangent and Anekdoten. Later this year will bring new stuff from Riverside and Big Big Train among others.

Good year for progressive rock so far.

S.D. wrote:

It's on my massive want list.  

So far this year we've had great releases from Beardfish, Steven Wilson, King Crimson, Special Providence, The Tangent and Anekdoten.  Later this year will bring new stuff from Riverside and Big Big Train among others.  

Good year for progressive rock so far.  

absolutely. I am really looking forward to the new Riverside and Tangent.

That song sounds great! I kinda lost track of them after From Within. Looks like I'm going to have to play album catch up with them.

I didn't know The King was a fan! Do you like Anglagard as well? They have a couple of excellent albums.

chewie wrote:

That song sounds great! I kinda lost track of them after From Within. Looks like I'm going to have to play album catch up with them.

I didn't know The King was a fan! Do you like Anglagard as well? They have a couple of excellent albums.

yep! I like Anglagard. I am also a big Anekdoten fan.

ran across these:

magic pie - king for a day



Jacco Gardner - Hypnophobia

Damn. Stumbled across this early group (1970) known as Tomorrow's Gift--CD is out of print and worth hundreds; vinyl is hard to find and worth a pretty penny as well. From what I can tell they get pegged as Krautrock, but whatever it sounds like heavy prog to me. Lots of flute work, organ, intricate drum work, and heavy guitar rhythms at play--some of the riffs are just menacing for 1970. The vocalist, a chick, could be off-putting to some but she really grew on me. I'm completely addicted to this album right now and have spun it twice tonight. It's that good. Favorite track is Tenakel Gnag (04, 16:36) which has a sinister vamp.



Whole album is over an hour long (2 record set? Bonus tracks on CD?) and it's so entertaining and in-your-face it doesn't even feel that long. Apparently they released only one other (out of print) album which was much jazzier and lighter than what can be heard here.

Sounds good! lots o hammond going on there.

Ooh, I've heard of that Tomorrow's Gift album and I'm fairly sure I've had it in my wantlist on rateyourmusic for a long while now. Thanks for reminding me of it, man.

I'm gonna try and seek out a (not so moral) route of acquiring it, haha.

Prog Magazine just gave out the yearly Prog Rock Awards at a ceremony in London.

Prog God - Tony Banks (Genesis)

Album Of The Year - Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.

Band Of The Year - Opeth

Lifetime Achievement Award - Gentle Giant

Visionary - Bill Nelson

Guiding Light - Roger Dean

The Chris Squire Virtuoso Award - Danny Thompson

Commercial Breakthrough - Steven Wilson

Vanguard Award (new artist) - Purson

S.D. wrote:

Prog Magazine just gave out the yearly Prog Rock Awards at a ceremony in London.  

Prog God - Tony Banks (Genesis)

Album Of The Year - Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.  

Band Of The Year - Opeth

Lifetime Achievement Award - Gentle Giant

Visionary - Bill Nelson

Guiding Light - Roger Dean

The Chris Squire Virtuoso Award - Danny Thompson

Commercial Breakthrough - Steven Wilson

Vanguard Award (new artist) - Purson

Purson missed out on the Limelight award last year (to their former bass players band) so it's nice to see them pick this up

S.D. wrote:

Prog Magazine just gave out the yearly Prog Rock Awards at a ceremony in London.  

Prog God - Tony Banks (Genesis)

Album Of The Year - Steven Wilson - Hand. Cannot. Erase.  

Band Of The Year - Opeth

Lifetime Achievement Award - Gentle Giant

Visionary - Bill Nelson

Guiding Light - Roger Dean

The Chris Squire Virtuoso Award - Danny Thompson

Commercial Breakthrough - Steven Wilson

Vanguard Award (new artist) - Purson

Cool, props to all, especially Wilson.

I knew Wilson was basically a lock for album of the year, HCE is such an impressive concept (and realized flawlessly) I knew it would inspire the voters.

Glad Opeth got band of the year, they were also nominated in the album category for Pale Communion.

Really cool to see Bill Nelson getting some recognition. Sounds like he's been having a rough go of it, health-wise, so some praise being thrown his way must be at least a LITTLE nice for him.

Yugoslavia had a strong prog scene.
Time, led by the legendary bass player/singer Dado Topić:


Macedonian jazz fusion masters Leb i Sol, with the guitar god Vlatko Stefanovski:


Korni grupa, a band where many famous rock and pop singers, including the aforementioned Topić, started their career:


Smak, with Serbian guitar master Radomir Mihajlović Točak:


Hope you guys like some of this stuff.

So, one of my "honorable mentions" for 2015 is the new album "Delusion Rain" from Mystery.

Why is it an honorable mention instead of actually making it on my best of 2015 list? Simple. There's 1 truly f*cking great, outstanding track on this album...the 20 minute epic "The Willow Tree". It's a beauty , one of the most impressive mainstream prog tracks I heard last year. And the production on this album is just stunning, it's a beautiful recording and mix.

But here's the problem. The rest of the album isn't nearly as good as that one song. In fact, a couple of the tracks are just flat-out awful. There is 1 other song I like on this album, the track "Wall Street King" is pretty rocking. But there is something about every other song that irritates the crap out of me.

I'm going to end up buying the album just for The Willow Tree, I'll just pretend it's a 2-song EP.

Isn't that Benoit Davids band?

S.D. wrote:

I just picked up Rare Bird's first album.

chewie wrote:

Isn't that Benoit Davids band?

It is, although I'm not sure if he's still in it.

S.D. pointed me toward the new solo album The Unbendable Sleep by Rikard Sjöblom, the man behind Beardfish. I thought the latest Beardfish album was one of the best things about 2015--and I surprisingly enjoy this a bit more. It's a fluid concoction of various genres and moves at a brisk pace--in short, it's very much like a Beardfish album. Perhaps a bit more singer-songwriter elements and less density. It's pretty great, and so far my favorite album of 2016's first quarter.

The clip below has an insane middle section that travels from Canterbury to space rock to funk to metal etc etc etc.

Kind of folk prog but it is truly wonderful so I'm leaving it here.

Not sure if this qualifies or not, but it is as close as they got. A long track, but around 7 minutes in is "Fanfare For The Common Man".

mikeinfla wrote:

Not sure if this qualifies or not, but it is as close as they got. A long track, but around 7 minutes in is "Fanfare For The Common Man".

Actually, they do. They have a lot of excellent Prog tunes. Suite Madame Blue is an awesome Styx prog tune as well!

Grove Of Eglantine
Young Man
The Serpent Is Rising
Castle Walls
Mother Dear
Man Of Miracles
A Day
Father O.S.A.
Evil Eyes
Golden Lark
This Old Man
Lights
and so on...

They might have done it differently, but they are one of the great U.S. Prog bands of the 70s. Kansas being the other and they were way more progressive. Unfortunately, they both had chart success and a lot of Prog Snobs don't like that!

However only released two albums, but they are really good ones. They range from "normal" prog to quirky Zappa kinda of stuff.

One of my favorite tunes with Kit Watkins guesting on keyboards:

TheGreatDuck wrote:

Yugoslavia had a strong prog scene.

Here's a band that I do have.

Tako: