Best Prog Rock album ever?

[Bilbo]

Some Prog (and Jazz Rock) has dated quite badly.

[ambient]

Theo Travis's new album is rather good, and definitely falls into the 'Prog' pigeon hole.

[Bilbo]

Travis is working with Soft Machine Legacy now so a jazz rock/prog connection is there.

[chris_b]

Was Manfred Man Chapter 3 ever considered a Prog Rock band? Steve York on bass and Craig Collinge on drums.

[spectoremg]

[quote name='dmccombe7' timestamp='1439152159' post='2840459']
Not sure why the attitude towards me on this topic when few others had the same thoughts as myself ?
If i've taken it the wrong way my apologies.
[/quote]I'd personally take a best of anything to represent a particular short time scale whether it be sport, art etc. I love Second's out but it does represent seven years worth of the bands output, including line-up changes.
Apologies if I was a bit short - I do that

[BassTractor]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1439220688' post='2840978']
Was Manfred Man Chapter 3 ever considered a Prog Rock band?
[/quote]


If once is good enough as "ever" then yes.
I do!
To me personally, prog is mainly about the unexpected, and about a preference for everything multi or poly. Multi-style, multi-meter, polyphony, etc. (Progsters aren't regular phonies; they're polyphonies.)
To the degree that that personal take is workable, I'd say Chapter 3 were prog.

Great call again.
Luvverly band they were.

Edited August 10, 2015 by BassTractor

[dmccombe7]

[quote name='spectoremg' timestamp='1439221148' post='2840983']
I'd personally take a best of anything to represent a particular short time scale whether it be sport, art etc. I love Second's out but it does represent seven years worth of the bands output, including line-up changes.
Apologies if I was a bit short - I do that
[/quote]

Cheers
Not really knowing you i wasn't sure how to take it but now that i understand i'll take it in good faith next time we talk prog.

Dave

[BigRedX]

How about "NO MORE STORIES ARE TOLD TODAY, I’M SORRY THEY WASHED AWAY // NO MORE STORIES, THE WORLD IS GREY, I’M TIRED, LET’S WASH AWAY" by Mew?

[toneknob]

Yes - Relayer (and Yesshows, much better than Yessongs)
A Formal Horse - first EP (70s crim with a female singer)
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing
Caravan - In The Land Of Grey And Pink (none more "English" than this Bilbo)
Camel - The Snow Goose
801 - Live (Eno, Manzarek, Simon Phillips, Bill McCormick, Francis Monkman)
Porcupine Tree - The Sky Moves Sideways
The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
Änglagård - Prog på Svenska: Live in Japan
Knifeworld - The Unravelling
Diagonal - The Second Mechanism
Comus - First Utterance
Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïw Kömmandöh
That should keep you going!

[toneknob]

Did anyone say the McDonald & Giles album yet? Essential for early Crim fans.

[Old Man Riva]

[quote name='RhysP' timestamp='1439158598' post='2840507']


Listen to "Back to Nature" from "Secondhand Daylight" - totally prog, even the bass part sounds like Chris Squire.
[/quote]
For the keyboard parts alone, yep, it's definitely prog!

Also noted on the Wikipedia page that the album wound Garry Bushell up at the time so that's another plus point..

[RhysP]

[quote name='Old Man Riva' timestamp='1439240901' post='2841280']
Also noted on the Wikipedia page that the album wound Garry Bushell up at the time so that's another plus point..
[/quote]

Excellent - I love it even more now.

[timmo]

Not too sure if Jeff Wayne`s War of the Worlds is prog rock. That is listenable in my opinion

[spectoremg]

[quote name='timmo' timestamp='1439243265' post='2841311']
Not too sure if Jeff Wayne`s War of the Worlds is prog rock. That is listenable in my opinion
[/quote]Damn fine album either way.

[Mark Dyer]

[quote name='KevB' timestamp='1439018531' post='2839375']
Prog fills quite a few slots in my collection so 'best ever' is just too big a task for me to seriously consider. I'll chuck in a slightly contentious one as it even divides the band's fans:
[url="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Topographic_Oceans"]Tales From Topographic Oceans[/url]
Wildly over ambitious, double album containing just four pieces of music covering quite abstract mystical quasi religious bases, Not for the faint hearted.
[/quote]

I always remember a review of the album at the time in the NME (I think) it went thus:


[b]Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes[/b]

[b]No.[/b]



Still makes me laugh.

[alyctes]

[quote name='Mark Dyer' timestamp='1439322569' post='2841959']
I always remember a review of the album at the time in the NME (I think) it went thus:


[b]Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes[/b]

[b]No.[/b]



Still makes me laugh.
[/quote]

I think that was Charles Shaar Murray?

[alyctes]

[quote name='Old Man Riva' timestamp='1439151911' post='2840453']
Never would have thought of Magazine as a prog band (not sure I do now!), what makes you think of them as prog?

I've seen early Simple Minds included in prog rock conversations but never Magazine.

Edited to say, I've just revisited The Light Pours Out Of Me and I'm shifting my stance!
[/quote]

I'd go with early Simple Minds, and some Magazine.

And Japan.

[Bilbo]

[quote name='Mark Dyer' timestamp='1439322569' post='2841959'] I always remember a review of the album at the time in the NME (I think) it went thus: [b]Tales From Topographic Oceans - Yes[/b] [b]No.[/b] Still makes me laugh. [/quote]

Fantastic review (I am listening to it as I type - it's not all bad!!)

I was thinking as I was driving to work this morning. Hardly any mention for the other Canterbury Scene bands: National Health, Hatfield and the North, Egg, Matching Mole etc. I struggled with some of them at the time because I probably wasn't ready for it but I quite liked National Health and Hatfield and the North (The Rotters Club). I kind of thik of some of the as Jazz Rock (Soft Machine?) rather than Prog but I think there are blurred lines with these guys.

[toneknob]

[quote name='Bilbo' timestamp='1439367717' post='2842131']
I was thinking as I was driving to work this morning. Hardly any mention for the other Canterbury Scene bands: National Health, Hatfield and the North, Egg, Matching Mole etc. I struggled with some of them at the time because I probably wasn't ready for it but I quite liked National Health and Hatfield and the North (The Rotters Club). I kind of thik of some of the as Jazz Rock (Soft Machine?) rather than Prog but I think there are blurred lines with these guys.
[/quote]

Hatfield are great, there's been a few "archive" releases since their first two albums. Hatwise Choice and Hattitude have some gems on them but can go on a bit. More recently live album/DVD Access All Areas is a cracker.

I never really "got" Soft Machine, but have enjoyed their renaissance gigs as Soft Machine Legacy - it was great to see Hugh Hopper before he left us.

For an up to date Canterbury sound, have a listen to Syd Arthur, their first album On And On is recommended.

[peteb]

I don't think that anyone has mentioned The Yes Album yet? My favourite, probably because it isn't 'too proggy'!

Close To The Edge is immense as well. Funny how of all the prog stuff I listened to in my youth, Yes are the only band that left a lasting impression...

[Cosmo Valdemar]

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1439369451' post='2842153']
I don't think that anyone has mentioned The Yes Album yet? My favourite, probably because it isn't 'too proggy'!


[/quote]
The Yes Album is my personal favourite too. It retains a sense of reckless abandon, as if the band are just starting to realise just how good they are.
I think it's a stronger album than Fragile which always sounds a bit disjointed to me, thanks to the 'solo' pieces. Wakeman's is particularly embarrasing, but then he was a bit limited in what he was allowed to do on that record.

[Bilbo]

One of the attractions of Prog for me was what I call the virtuosity element. I know that this is what was seen to alienate the punk generation but I loved the rich tapestries of sound and texture that were available within some of these ensembles. RIck Wakeman and Tony Banks (and, to a lesser extent, Keith Emerson) clearly led the field in terms of keyboard wizardry (literally, in Wakeman's case) but Steve Howe's astonishing arsenal of guitar sounds and techniques, the multi-guitar layering of Genesis 12-strings, double neck guitars etc, the vocal harmonies of Anderson, Squire and Howe, the amazing compositional skills of Anderson particularly but other members of Yes and Tony Banks' compositional expertise in Genesis etc. It was a really creative period that is unlikley to be repeated.

I find a lot of the second/third generation Prog bands lacking in this element. Marillion were an example of competent but mediocre musicans making much of what they had but, in the end, as musicians, they are only ok. Bands like Twelfth Night, IQ, Pendragon, Pallas etc all had some nice ideas etc but lacked that major virtuosity element. I have not spent much time with the Spock's Beard generation of Prog bands but my immediate impression is that they, too, lack the technical skills available to Wakeman et al. I can't help feeling all of these advanced techniques are lacking. I may just be out of touch.

[crez5150]

Don't listen to too much Prog but do love Frost*. Maybe because its more of a commercial sound its easier to listen too for me anyway.

One of my fave albums of theirs - https://youtu.be/xW2hjRO_2DA

[KevB]

Although they've been around quite a while (with a very flexible lineup) I expect many would class Big Big Train as 'new' prog so for the uninitiated here's one of their more recent;
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JeLGchO7s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4JeLGchO7s[/url]

Also worth checking out are The Tangent;
[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcUUPVSR_6s"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcUUPVSR_6s[/url]

[toneknob]

[quote name='peteb' timestamp='1439369451' post='2842153']
I don't think that anyone has mentioned The Yes Album yet? My favourite, probably because it isn't 'too proggy'!
[/quote]

[color=#252525][font=sans-serif]Perpetual Change, Starship Trooper and YIND are among my top Yes songs. Shame that All Good People quickly outstays its welcome and lets the side down a bit.[/font][/color]