The Prog & Fusion Album Club

Guybrush · 01-10-2011, 03:57 AM

PFAC Club Update!

The poll is over. This week's album is the following :

Quote:

Originally Posted by boo boo

Lizard - King Crimson (1970)

This is the third KC album and the third of the Peter Sinfield era, though I often like to refer to it as the medieval era, for obvious reasons. Like the other records from this era it features a totally unique lineup that doesnt appear on any other record. Here the lineup is Robert Fripp on guitar and mellotron, Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals, Mel Collins on sax and flute, Andy McCulloch on drums and Peter Sinfield providing lyrics and synthesizer effects. It also features some guest musicians including piano virtuoso Keith Tippett, trombonist Nick Evans, cornetist Mark Charig and on the title track Yes vocalist Jon Anderson.

This is without a doubt the weirdest album in the KC discography and I realise that's saying a lot. It has the medieval feel of the first two KC records but it's much jazzier. In fact "medieval jazz rock" is the best way I can describe the entire record.

The medieval imagery on this record though is pure Sinfield era Crimson. Circuses, brothels, troubadours, maidens and epic battles. The music itself is too out there to accurately describe, it is the most unique KC album is all I can say, and certainly one of the most underrated. It's one of the more polarizing albums in their discography as in people either love it or hate it. But I love it and rank it among ITCOTCK, Red and Discipline as their finest work.

And I've put up a discussion thread for last week's homework

http://www.musicbanter.com/jazz-blue...th-1971-a.html

Guybrush · 01-12-2011, 02:56 AM

Tomorrow, I'll put up this week's poll. Don't forget to suggest albums

edit :

Next week's poll is up!

http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...um-2011-a.html

Guybrush · 01-17-2011, 08:43 AM

The poll is over! This week's homework album is the following :

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

Hatfield and the North - Hatfield and the North (1974)

Hatfield and the North's debut is, for me, the quintessential Canterbury album. It has Richard Sinclair singing on it (as Anteater has called him, the "voice of Canterbury") and a guest appearance by Robert Wyatt, whimsical song themes, avant-gardeness with a jazzy flavour sometimes coupled with a Caravanish pop sensibility and a very .. Canterbury-ish sound.

For me, at first it came across as a bit of a chaotic album. They have a lot of strange ideas pulling the songs in different directions. Still, the album is very comfortable on the ears. As the album becomes just a little more familiar and some order is structured from the initial chaos, it becomes a magnificent record, a true Canterbury classic.

About future polls, I hear there is a way to reset polls so that you can use the same poll thread over and over. If I figure out how, I will set up future polls in this thread.

edit :

Discussion thread for King Crimson's Lizard is up!

http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...rd-1970-a.html

Lisnaholic · 01-20-2011, 11:55 AM

I`d like to take up tore`s invitation and suggest a candidate for inclusion in the next poll. (Sorry,philster,no females on this one!) :

Cross Collateral by Passport (1975)

Back in 1970, the accomplished German sax/keyboard player Klaus Doldinger wanted to combine his jazz playing with the rhythms of rock so he put together his jazz fusion band, Passport. Although there were line-up changes along the way, right through the `70s and into the early `80s, Passport were pumping out albums at a rate of one a year, so this album, Cross Collateral, comes in the middle of a sustained creative streak. It is one of their best-regarded albums, and although KD is credited as composer for the whole album, he is helped out here by synthesizer wizard Kristian Schultze. Together they play some dynamic, sparkling leads while the rest of the band occassionally contribute the kind of riffs that a prog-rock band would die for. On other, more subdued tracks they go for a sound slightly closer to pure jazz.
All in all, this is a very accessible, clean-sounding instrumental album, but just how well KD succeeded in fusing jazz and rock would be for us to decide.

Guybrush · 01-20-2011, 07:12 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Lisnaholic

I've made a new homework poll for next week!

http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...work-poll.html

For the future, I've finally found out how to reset a poll, so now I can do one of two things. Either, I will keep one poll thread for doing homework polls or I will do homework polls in this thread. So .. how should I do it?

Poll in it's own thread
Pro : The poll thread is less cluttered with discussion not related to the poll and album info can always be found in the first post.
Con : We clutter the prog forum with a poll thread.

Poll in this thread
Pro : We don't clutter the forum with a poll thread anymore.
Con : There can be discussion and posts not related to the poll. Album information related to the poll options may be slightly harder to find as it's not in the thread's first post.

Whatcha think?

(edit : poll link updated)

Lisnaholic · 01-20-2011, 09:01 PM

Thanks for incorporating my suggestion into the poll so quickly, tore !

Quote:

Originally Posted by tore

For the future, I've finally found out how to reset a poll, so now I can do one of two things. Either, I will keep one poll thread for doing homework polls or I will do homework polls in this thread. So .. how should I do it?

Poll in it's own thread
Pro : The poll thread is less cluttered with discussion not related to the poll and album info can always be found in the first post.
Con : We clutter the prog forum with a poll thread.

Poll in this thread
Pro : We don't clutter the forum with a poll thread anymore.
Con : There can be discussion and posts not related to the poll. Album information related to the poll options may be slightly harder to find as it's not in the thread's first post.

Whatcha think?

As a happy PFAC member, I like the convenience of having the weekly poll clear and separate, although I don`t want us to be selfishly clogging up the prog forum.
As I understand it, the Poll-in-its-own-thread option means there`ll always be three threads in the forum : 1. the general PFAC thread, 2. the poll thread and 3. the chosen album of the week thread.

Is the prog forum full of members fighting to squeeze their different threads onto the first page ? That`s not the impression I get, so my vote would be to maintain a distinct poll thread. After all, is one extra thread really that much clutter?

Well, that`s just my initial reaction, tore, but how do you feel? Which option is easier or preferential to you ?

Guybrush · 01-21-2011, 03:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Well, that`s just my initial reaction, tore, but how do you feel? Which option is easier or preferential to you ?

I think I also would prefer to have polls in their separate thread, so I agree

I like stuff to be as functional and tidy as possible. The tidiest poll would have a thread of it's own, I think!

edit :

I think I managed to reset the poll. At least, I was able to re-vote. If anyone can't, please let me know!

Lisnaholic · 01-21-2011, 04:30 PM

Sorry, tore, but I was unable to vote in the new poll. It comes up, " You have already voted in this poll" and doesn`t respond to any amount of aimless clicking !

Guybrush · 01-21-2011, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

Sorry, tore, but I was unable to vote in the new poll. It comes up, " You have already voted in this poll" and doesn`t respond to any amount of aimless clicking !

I suspected that might happen. I'll continue filling up the thread graveyard with past polls as usual then.

I've made a new poll thread! This gives us a mere couple of days to vote for next week's album, but oh well. Here it is :

http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...work-poll.html

Anteater · 01-22-2011, 09:43 AM

Well, in an attempt to give the PFAC a slight change in pace, I have an album suggestion-

It Bites - The Tall Ships (2008)

I'll begin by saying this is undoubtedly the best progressive rock/pop-rock crossover album I've had the pleasure of getting my grubby paws on in recent years, driven by punchy arrangements, vocal harmonies up the wazoo and some good ol' fashioned guitar virtuosity to keep things from completely sinking into more commercial territory...all whilst remaining catchier and more enjoyable to listen to than anything that's been on radio for over a decade.

A bit of backround though - It Bites were originally one of those quirky anomalies of the mid 80's, blending 70's Genesis-like grandeur and instrumental virtuosity with pop trends from the era, yet ultimately synthesized these disparate elements far more effectively than most of their neo-prog. peers..including Marillion! They had their 15 minute of fame in 1984 with a little hit from their debut, 'Calling All The Heroes', but even that song was undoubtedly the proggiest thing to hit #1 airways since the mid 70's...a feat you don't see too often.

Anyway, this album came out two years ago after the band reformed in 2008 (after a 19 year hiatus!) with a new lead guitarist and vocalist (John Mitchell, who sang with experimental neo-proggers Frost* and played guitar with Arena).

The Tall Ships may surprise you at first with its deceptively mainstream leanings in places, but give it time -- there's a lot more to these songs than meets the ear.

01-12-2011, 02:56 AM	#102 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Tomorrow, I'll put up this week's poll. Don't forget to suggest albums edit : Next week's poll is up! http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...um-2011-a.html __________________ Something Completely Different

01-20-2011, 07:12 PM	#105 (permalink)
Guybrush Juicious Maximus III Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Scabb Island Posts: 6,525	Thanks for the suggestion Lisnaholic I've made a new homework poll for next week! http://www.musicbanter.com/prog-psyc...work-poll.html For the future, I've finally found out how to reset a poll, so now I can do one of two things. Either, I will keep one poll thread for doing homework polls or I will do homework polls in this thread. So .. how should I do it? Poll in it's own thread Pro : The poll thread is less cluttered with discussion not related to the poll and album info can always be found in the first post. Con : We clutter the prog forum with a poll thread. Poll in this thread Pro : We don't clutter the forum with a poll thread anymore. Con : There can be discussion and posts not related to the poll. Album information related to the poll options may be slightly harder to find as it's not in the thread's first post. Whatcha think? (edit : poll link updated) __________________ Something Completely Different

01-20-2011, 11:55 AM	#104 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	I`d like to take up tore`s invitation and suggest a candidate for inclusion in the next poll. (Sorry,philster,no females on this one!) : Cross Collateral by Passport (1975) Back in 1970, the accomplished German sax/keyboard player Klaus Doldinger wanted to combine his jazz playing with the rhythms of rock so he put together his jazz fusion band, Passport. Although there were line-up changes along the way, right through the `70s and into the early `80s, Passport were pumping out albums at a rate of one a year, so this album, Cross Collateral, comes in the middle of a sustained creative streak. It is one of their best-regarded albums, and although KD is credited as composer for the whole album, he is helped out here by synthesizer wizard Kristian Schultze. Together they play some dynamic, sparkling leads while the rest of the band occassionally contribute the kind of riffs that a prog-rock band would die for. On other, more subdued tracks they go for a sound slightly closer to pure jazz. All in all, this is a very accessible, clean-sounding instrumental album, but just how well KD succeeded in fusing jazz and rock would be for us to decide.

01-21-2011, 04:30 PM	#108 (permalink)
Lisnaholic ...here to hear... Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: He lives on Love Street Posts: 4,444	Sorry, tore, but I was unable to vote in the new poll. It comes up, " You have already voted in this poll" and doesn`t respond to any amount of aimless clicking !