Prog Rock

as much as i try to move on, on the grounds that there's so much good music out there that isn't prog, i keep coming back to it. most if this is probably ashratom. my tastes don't entirely overlap with his, but he keeps digging up these obscure prog records and writing about them in an interesting enough way that i listen to them. some of them i like. today i'm listening to pentwater's "out of the abyss", which gets compared to yezda urfa - that gentle giant style us prog that went nowhere in america. it is, but what hooks me on music isn't the composition or the performance but the attitude. typically i decide within five seconds whether i like a record or not. this one's just ok, i think. still, it's better than epidermis.

that PENTWATER album is pretty good. the american prog ashratom reps is a revelation; it's like he's reporting from an alternate 1970s. the silver lining in prog getting negged so long is there is vintage shit waiting to be heard for the first time stoned to the gills

and the well hasn't run dry, either. the new WOBBLER album rules

I've brought up Alexander Gradsky on the prog threads before. He does all sorts, singer-songwriter, composer, opera singer and quite a bunch of his work fits quite nicely in prog.
Been meaning to buy some albums someday but last time I checked there's very little written about him in English despite him being a fairly big deal in Russia.

I love the song that starts around 6:15 and really wish I could get a soundtrack of this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8aItG4HYjM
A lot of the still images are by the great Anatoly Fomenko.

i am enjoying this:

<q>The Quartet Of Woah! - Second album from Portuguese band, graduated from stoner rock to psych prog.
https://thequartetofwoah.bandcamp.com/album/the-quartet-of-woah<;/q>

but they have *got* to change that spelling to Whoa...i'm not sure i can recommend them to ppl as long as it's Woah

crap, sorry for the bad formatting. was trying to quote Fastnbulbous

have we talked about the Physics House Band?

― Universal LULU Nation (upper mississippi sh@kedown)
Current album seems rather good on a couple of listens, especially the proggier bits like 'The Astral Wave'. I'm into it. They seem to have received short/no shrift here. Maybe a better fit for the leftfield prog thread

yeah they get closer to more proper math rock territory at times like Battles etc but they seem like they come from a nerdier prog place rather than descended from Don Cab or etc

my year-end round-up had me checking out the new accordo dei contrari. sounds good! altrock seems to have the best prog qua prog stuff out now.

From my genre breakdowns: http://fastnbulbous.com/lucky-17/#breakdown

Psych Prog
1. Motorpsycho – The Tower (Rune Grammafon)
2. The Dials – That Was The Future (Gear Discs)
3. Amplifier – Trippin’ With Dr. Faustus (Rockosmos)
4. Agusa – Agusa (Laser’s Edge)
5. Gungfly – On Her Journey To The Sun (InsideOut)
6. Electric Eye – From The Poisonous Tree (Jansen)
7. Cavalier Song – A Deep Well (God Unknown)
8. Sundays & Cybele – Chaos & Systems (Beyond Beyond Beyond)
9. The Physics House Band – Mercury Fountain (Small Pond)
10. Kairon; IRSE! – Ruination (Svart)
11. Wucan – Reap The Storm (Hansel & Gretel)
12. KOYO – KOYO (88 Watts)
13. Mother Engine – Hangar (Heavy Psych)
14. Ghost Against Ghost – Still Love (Out Silent Canvas)
15. Himmellegeme – Myth Of Earth (Karisma)
16. L’Ira Del Baccano – Paradox Hourglass (Subsound)
17. Samsara Blues Experiment – One With The Universe (Electric Magic/World In Sound)
18. The Quartet Of Woah! – The Quartet Of Woah! (Raging Planet)
19. Tusmørke – Hinsides (Svart)
20. Atavismo – Inerte (Temple Of Torturous)

Prog
1. Caligula’s Horse – In Contact (InsideOut)
2. Wobbler – From Silence To Somewhere (Karisma)
3. Leprous – Malina (InsideOut)
4. Krokofant – Krokofant II (Rune Grammofon)
5. Kaipa – Children Of The Sounds (InsideOut)
6. Steven Wilson – To The Bone (Caroline)
7. Dutch Uncles – Big Balloon (Memphis Industries)
8. Premiata Forneria Marconi – Emotional Tattoos (InsideOut)
9. Peter Hammill – From The Trees (Fie!)
10. Major Parkinson – Blackbox (Karisma)
11. Anathema – The Optimist (Kscope)
12. Sky Architect – Nomad (Freia)
13. Gold Key – Hello, Phantom (Venn)

Fast, what a list!
I know what I’ll be doing tonight

thatd be one crazy playlist for a bar calchief

Here's a playlist! https://open.spotify.com/user/1212496385/playlist/6N4mdJBAsTgGgqS7FcUVFi

fastnbulbous that WOBBLER album is so good. there are stretches of vintage virtuoso vibes on there that point the way forward still

xpost intrigued, are those all more or less contemporary?

fastnbulbous i'm surprised to see no mention of king gizzard, who just might have had the best year in prog since 1973 when YES released TALES and YESSONGS. can't help but be curious about that

Ya they're all 2017 releases. I had King Gizzard in my psych list, though I know they dabble with prog some. Nothing this year felt that proggy to me. It is fascinating to me the following they've built up pretty quickly. They have toured pretty hard which I respect. It's impressive how much they've cranked out, but I don't know that I'll be returning to much of it. I'd like to see them take their time on an album.

sketches of east brunswick is super-Canterbury. the latest of their four (!) 2017 albums, polygondwanaland, is totally progged out. give it another bong session if you're ever bored!

http://teamrock.com/feature/2017-12-20/2017-the-prog-critics-choice

1) Steven Wilson - To The Bone
2) Anathema - The Optimist
3) Public Service Broadcasting - Every Valley
4) Roger Waters - Is This The Life We Really Want?
5) Peter Hammill - From The Trees
6) Mastodon - Emperor Of Sand
7) Big Big Train - Grimspound
8) Steve Hackett - The Night Siren
9) Leprous - Malina
10) Motorpsycho - The Tower (
11) Amplifier - Trippin With Dr Faustus
12) Enslaved - E
13) Von Hertzen Brothers - War Is Over
14) Arcane Roots - Melancholia Hymns
15) Ulver - The Assassination Of Julius Caesar
16) Paul Draper - Spooky Action
17) Mogwai - Every Country’s Sun
18) Bent Knee - Land Animal
19) KOYO - Koyo
20) Soen - Lykaia

Not too bad. The only one besides mine that had Motorpsycho and Amplifier. Bent Knee is growing on me.

"Now with your toes in each others nose, rather nice I should say"

Supersister - Spiral Staircase

A conscious return to their early sillier material, very much like Gong with their pothead pixies stuff. They had an early song about a spiral staircase gnome and this album expands on it. It's fun and I might be more likely to give it a spin than some of the previous albums but I kind of wish it had been just a bit more ambitious, because the fun leaves you wanting a bit more. I think it was intended as a last album and they just wanted to have fun with it. Sadly one of them died before they could do a reunion studio album.

The bonus tracks (I waited patiently to find a decently priced reissue with the bonus tracks included) are a collaboration with a band called Los Alegres, including a cover of Harry Belafonte. But I could swear this band also appears on the main album for "Gi Ga Go"

I should start with The Nits soon.

"I'm schizo ohohoho

I'm schizo yiho yiho yiho!"

The NIts have become one of my very favourite bands over the last ten years, there's no prog in there, more arty chamber pop.

I'm in, whatever the genre, even if it's not Stips heavy but I'd like to start on one of the more Stips orientated albums.

Apart from Nits and Golden Earring, hardly anything on cd from the 70s and 80s. He has quite a bunch of stuff on his bandcamp but it looks like odds and ends. Some of his solo albums easy to get on mp3.

This is Robert Carlberg reviewing Rond on amazon

Robert Jan Stips has been in some very good bands -- Supersister, Transister, Nits, Sweet d'Buster, Golden Earring -- but his solo albums -- U.P. (1981), Egotrip (1995), Greyhound (1999), Rembrandt 2000 (1999) and now Rond (2008) -- do not reach the same heights. They are less well-developed than the band material and often repeat tracks from his earlier triumphs.

Nowhere is this more true than his latest solo CD + DVD, which is just him playing a grand piano and singing in a Dutch studio. Although the playing is fluid he's never been a great singer, and the lack of instrumental color puts all the emphasis on his weaknesses. Ten songs from his back catalog and only three new songs make this a sort of career retrospective, recorded in a single afternoon, with no post-production. This minimalist staging is brave perhaps ... but not particularly impressive.

Well, Stips joined in '82 (8 years after the band's inception) and he had 8 years out in the late nineties but he's a pretty integral part of the band really.

Saint Just - La Casa Del Lago.

I can see why some people didn't like the vocals. They're a bit too repetitive, too much lalala-ing. I really liked the 3rd and 5th tracks but it doesn't come close to the debut album. It'll probably be quite some time before I check out their reunion album.

Yezda Urfa - Boris

Aside from the singer stealing too much from Jon Anderson, there's some really great songwriting in here. Looking forward to Sacred Baboon but it seems to be mostly the same songs.

Did anybody hear anything about Sunbeam records folding. Somebody mentioned it on another board and I don't think I have heard it elsewhere.
They reissued quite a bit of proggy stuff.

Yezda Urfa - Boris

Aside from the singer stealing too much from Jon Anderson, there's some really great songwriting in here. Looking forward to Sacred Baboon but it seems to be mostly the same songs.

― Robert Adam Gilmour

have you heard "the basis of dubenglazy"? fuckin' craziest song they ever did, it's wild man

Yes, with all the overlapping vocals.

pre-koenji hyakkei

A friend recommended me Malicorne - Le Bestiaire and it's fantastic. Wonderful singing, folky stuff and even slightly disco-y parts that don't feel out of place.

RAM, "ashratom" is another trustworthy recommendationizer. The Fusion Orchestra is AMAZING ~

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/ashratom/post-psychedelic-proto-progressive-with-female-vocals/

i tend to get hung up on the little things. when that incessant cowbell started up i checked out. there was an archival live album this year which i gave a listen to but it's basically a mediocre audience bootleg and isn't compelling either.

Malicorne were like the french Fairport Convention but a bit darker and possibly medieval, so maybe more Steeley Span? I thought Gabriel yacoub had been with Alain Stivell since they were mining the same area roughly.
I* mainly know the first 2 s/t lps though. Which is good stuff.

Ougenweide may be a German equivalent.

now, on the other hand, this is a jam, even though i don't usually get into the dutch prog

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmSVLHvdv98

New, Stips-led Supersister record and gigs coming up this year, interesting.

https://supersister.nl/

Cool. Stips previously said that they'd never do anything again because Sacha and Ron are deceased but I assume the new band (with old drummer intact) will do the old style.

He's intending to use a lot of different people it would seem and not stick to the same format as the original band.

Well, hopefully somewhat similar.

Nektar - A Tab In The Ocean

This seems to be the fan favorite but also one of the least available somehow. Really liked it but not quite as big a deal as I hoped. But this part gives me lovely shivers: "turn the key, open your door, don't make believe you've seen this before".

I always see Remember The Future as the one to have if you only get one.

Recycled was always my favourite, side 1 anyway.

https://www.loudersound.com/features/when-the-sweet-went-prog

Le Orme - Felona E Sorona

I like this quite a bit but it wasn't the slammer I had hoped but it does have some of the character I expected. Some nice crescendos in there.

I have the Italian version, I would have tried to get the one with both Italian and English if I knew it existed.

https://www.discogs.com/Le-Orme-Felona-E-Sorona/master/15370
I've always loved the cover art, turn out it's by Lanfranco Frigeri, who died only weeks ago! Frigeri's only other album art is for the band La Maschera Di Cera's ‎sequel to the Le Orme album. I've never heard of another band doing a direct sequel to someone else's album.

https://www.discogs.com/La-Maschera-Di-Cera-Le-Porte-Del-Domani/release/4435534

That’s a cool one. I’ve always linked it with the Semiramis album with kinda similar but creepier cover art: https://www.discogs.com/Semiramis-Dedicato-A-Frazz/release/6629001

Yeah, I love that too. Very good album but I think the art is so fascinating that the music doesn't quite live up to the weirdness.

Yezda Urfa's Sacred Baboon is nowhere near as good as Boris. Only 3 newer tracks and the new versions of the older songs just aren't up to the same standard.

American Behavioral Scientist: "Retrospective Consecration Beyond the Mainstream: The Creation of a Progressive Rock Canon" -- https://t.co/2o53Bexk7N. pic.twitter.com/fsU6JQKZ6P

— Dan Vergano (@dvergano) July 30, 2019

Three Agents of Consecration

I just bought a ticket to see Nektar! I honestly listen to zero prog rock these days, but the Remember the Future album meant a lot to me as a youth, and the only time they ever toured here 40-some years ago I missed it. Main singer is dead and one other guy retired, so it's kind of a tribute act these days, but it's in a cool old theater and they still have their old lighting guy running a (hopefully) trippy light show, so what the hell, I'm in.