What are essential bands/albums to listen to for a prog novice?
I'm looking to explore more into this genre and I'm looking for some recommendations. I've listened to some Floyd and Dream Theater but that's about it, so any help is appreciated.
2007-10-31 15:41:38 · 14 answers · asked by Dani G 7 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music ➔ Rock and Pop
Oooh, so many great bands...where do we start?
Personally I'm a self confessed 70's prog rock snob. I've heard all the neo prog stuff like Opeth(not really prog at all), Like Wendy, Pendragon, Black Bonzo, ect. To me it all seems rather boring, and might appeal to some people, until they discover the real thing!
I'd recommend the following for the novice. All of the following are 70's prog bands:
Gentle Giant - Playing the Fool, The Power and the Glory, and Octopus.
ELP - Tarkus
Caravan - In the Land of Grey and Pink, and 'If I could Do It All Over Again...I'd Do It All Over You' (great example of early prog)
Fantasy - Paint a Picture
Camel - Self Titled(1st), Mirage, The Snow Goose, and Moon Madness.
Nektar - A Tab in the Ocean, and Remember the Future (sort of prog space rock, a cross between Pink Floyd and Deep Purple or Hawkwind...nice)
Kahn - Space Shanty
Soft Machine - Self Tiled and Volume Two(great examples of early Canterbury prog)
Egg - Egg, and Polite Force (great examples of early Canterbury prog)
Supersister - Present From Nancy, and To the Highe$t Bidder (great Dutch keyboard prog, in a Canterbury style)
Gong - Angels Egg
England - Garden Shed
PFM - Chocolate Kings, Photos of Ghosts, Live in U.S.A.(very cool Italian symphonic prog band)
Here and Now - Give and Take
King Crimson - Larks Tongues in Aspic
Triumvirat - Illusions on a Double Dimple, and Spartacus (these guys are an early 70's German ELP type band, so very keyboard driven, and in many ways better than ELP believe it or not! Highly recommended. All their albums are good, but Illusions is fantastic, followed by Spartacus).
Van der Graaf Generator - H to He, and Pawn Hearts.
Random Hold - The View From Here(sort of new wave punk meets prog, produced by VGG frontman Peter Hammill, great album)
Contraction - La Bourse ou la vie (very good French Canadian prog band)
Focus - Moving Waves, Focus 3, and In and Out of Focus, (great Dutch band)
Genesis - Selling England by the Pound, Foxtrot, and Musical Box.
Arti & Mestieri - Tilt, and Giro di valzer per domani (fantastic Italian prog band)
Venegoni & Co. - Rumore rosso (guitarist from Arti & Mestieri. Great stuff!)
Coupla Prog - Death is a Great Gambler (heavy prog)
Finch - Glory of the Inner Force (great Dutch band)
Spontaneous Combustion - Self Titled, and Triad (heavy prog band produced by Greg Lake)
Happy the Man - Self Tiled (1st), and Crafty Hands(cool American prog band)
I always have a tough time answering these questions, as there is so many great 70's prog bands, besides the mainstream stuff like Yes, ELP, an King Crimson.
Progressive rock is like a drug in many ways. You need to start out small, build up a tolerance, and eventually you're ready for the big leagues! I could mention a bunch of really obscure bands all at once, and you may have an information overload, and possibly O.D. Watch out for that 70's Italian prog. Once you try it, there's no turning back!
I highly recommend these progressive rock websites. Take your time, do some cross referencing, read reviews etc, and go from there:
http://www.gepr.net/geprfram.htm
http://www.progarchives.com/
http://www.italianprog.com/index.htm
http://www.progquebec.com/index.html
Here's some really cool blogs with a mix of prog, psych, hard rock etc. All of these blogs have free music downloads. Some use rapid share, so unless you pay, you've got to wait 2 hours between downloads. Many give you an option of zShare, Megaupload etc, and you can download until your hearts content. Many have links to other similar blogs, and you can select by country of origin on some of them. When you scroll to the bottom of the pages you can select "previous post'. At one of these blogs you'll be prompted to enter a password. It's provided next to the link in the blog.
Most of the people I've forwarded these blogs to have become totally consumed by them. There's just so much cool music. Especially at the Chrisgoesrock, Sometime World, Garden of Delights, and Black Acid blogs.
The Black Acid blog is in Spanish, so to advance through the blog and see the next page(previous post) scroll to the bottom and click on 'Entradas Antiguas'.
Have fun!
http://www.sometimeworld.blogspot.com/
http://crotchbat.blogspot.com/
http://chrisgoesrocks.blogspot.com/
http://sakallimusic.blogspot.com/
http://lysergia.blogspot.com/
http://ofintelligence.blogspot.com/
http://dunkel-inderholle.blogspot.com/
http://drwoe.blogspot.com/
http://nanstruehole.blogspot.com/
http://unitedsounds.blogspot.com/index.html
This is also quite possibly the best music reference site going. It allows you to write and review albums, as well as read other members reviews and ratings. Their data base is phenomenal! If the band you're looking for isn't listed (which is rare) then you can add it. It's very informative, and I think it's essential to a person wanting to find out more about music, regardless of genre. It's free to sign up. Here's the main page:
http://rateyourmusic.com/
Here's my homepage:
http://rateyourmusic.com/~DrProgensteinphp
Sarah C and Darth, check out these blogs as well. I know you'll find them interesting. You may even become addicted to all the great music you can download!
2007-10-31 17:35:38 · answer #1 · answered by Smiley 4 · 7⤊ 1⤋
Dead?? Hardly. It is making a huge comeback. I have been a hard rock/metal fan since the early 80's. There is more activity in this area now than in years. Iron Maiden just ended a highly successful N. American tour, Motely Crue just released a new album and sighn a $120 million deal with Live Nation. This just scratches the service. Oh and the band DragonForce? From the silly video game Guitar Hero? Progressive.
2016-03-13 09:17:02 · answer #2 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Why does everyone forget Mike Oldfield?
Two general compelation albums are :~
The Complete Mike Oldfield ; The Platinum Collection
His non-pop albums are :~
Tubular Bells ; Hergest Ridge ; Ommadawn ; Incantations ;
Platinum ; QE2 ; Tubular Bells II ; Amarok ;
Tubular Bells III
He started adding pop-rock songs, but also one or two prog tracks, on these :~
Five Miles Out ; Crises ; Discovery ; Islands ; Earth Moving ;
Heaven's Open
Other than that, general 'best of' starting points :~
Jethro Tull ~ Very Best Of
Pink Floyd ~ Echoes {best of}
Focus ~ Hocus Pocus: The Best Of
More specific :~
Jethro Tull :~
Benefit ; Aqualung ; Thick As A Brick ; War Child ;
Songs From the Wood ; Heavy Horses ; Stormwatch
Pink Floyd :~
Dark Side of the Moon ; Wish You Were Here ; Meddle ; Animals
As you can see, my knowledge of Prog is still a bit limited!
I am currently listening to an album that was produced and engineered by Alan Parsons {he also worked on DSotM, and Abbey Road}, and apparently his band The Alan Parsons Project is Prog.
2007-11-01 04:48:27 · answer #3 · answered by Lady Silver Rose * Wolf 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The Alan Parson Project
E.L.O.
The Moody Blues
Yes
Supertramp
Manfred Mann
Squeeze
Loverboy
Genesis
2007-11-02 16:19:49 · answer #4 · answered by Your Name 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes - The Yes Album, Relayer, Close to the Edge
Kansas - Masque, Left Overture
Emerson Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Rush - Caress of Steel
Try these and you'll get an idea of your preferences. Then you can explore them deeper.
2007-10-31 15:49:00 · answer #5 · answered by Andrew 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Genesis (when Peter Gabriel was a member)
King Crimson
Sigur Ros
Yes (even though I hate them, they're definitely one to listen to)
Kansas
Dixie Dregs
Any of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's projects (my personal favorites are Ayreon and Ambeon)
Opeth (specifically "Damnation)
Some of Queensryche's stuff
The Mars Volta
2007-10-31 15:48:23 · answer #6 · answered by Muse - Viktor's Mommy 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There is a bunch of genres "progressive" can fit into. so here is a little bit of variety.
By the End of Tonight
Explosions in the Sky
Tera Melos
Sleeping People
The Number Twelve Looks Like You
The Mars Volta
2007-10-31 16:15:37 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rush
King Crmson
Yes (probably the epitome of prog)
Jethro Tull
Genesis (make sure peter gabriel's still in it)
ELP
ELO
Van der Graaf Generator
Asia
More Modern stuff:
Porcupine Tree
Opeth (warning: kind of border edge death metal)
Riverside
Spock's Beard
If this helps, I found this YahooAnswer link:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=A9FJui.gPSlHjHIA1QPsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071023222354AAALJQ2
Chunga's Revenge and Fonzie's answers... our 2 resident Prog experts
*edit, almost forgot, Gentle Giant and Marillion
*edit
Chunga... do you think I'm ready for the dive into Italian prog? I'm a little scared :0)
2007-10-31 15:44:22 · answer #8 · answered by meep meep 7 · 6⤊ 0⤋
This website is a great resource whether you're just getting into the genre or you're a prog rock aficionado looking for new bands to check out:
http://www.progarchives.com/
They have band bios and discographies, streaming audio and video, definitions of the many prog sub genres, message boards, and album reviews. It's a great site.
2007-10-31 15:45:17 · answer #9 · answered by McLovin 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I Mother Earth! although they might be too straight ahead... some stuff is pretty prog, like their last CD 'the quicksilver meat dream" vid link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxfVaufgdaE
ISIS
Dream Theater
Fates Warning (esp FWX!!!)
Saga
Mastodon
Black Sabbath- "Sabotage"
Liquid Tension Experiment
Particle
PHISH
soundtribe sector 9
2007-10-31 23:14:56 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
some modern prog rock that i love is mew.
all three of their albums are so amazing, it's just escapism redefined.
i can't get enough of them, you should really check them out.
they're not like pink floyd, but they are prog rock, so.
2007-10-31 15:45:01 · answer #11 · answered by We Hope That You Choke 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋