Lesser known Prog rock recommendations

LawryPopson · 03-31-2022, 10:02 AM

By the way, here's my playlist if you want to check it out:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0K...7d1089f3f24c65

Maybe you'll find something new you like.

Guybrush · 03-31-2022, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LawryPopson

By the way, here's my playlist if you want to check it out:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0K...7d1089f3f24c65

Maybe you'll find something new you like.

Nice, Lawry! My brain prefers 70s prog 9 out of 10 times for some reason entirely unknown to me, but I should be working on that and so might check out some of those tracks, even though I'm not a Spotify user.

By the way, maybe you'd like some Aksak Maboul for your list? I'm one of few people I've met who likes their new stuff even more than the old. Granted, the last two albums may be best described as avantgarde pop (with vocals), but there's stuff approaching progdom in there.

Like this fun instrumental tune from their 2021 album Figures.

Edit:

Also cool that you know Panzerpappa already

let's just say that doesn't happen often, great though that they are.

LawryPopson · 03-31-2022, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guybrush

Nice, Lawry! My brain prefers 70s prog 9 out of 10 times for some reason entirely unknown to me, but I should be working on that and so might check out some of those tracks, even though I'm not a Spotify user.

By the way, maybe you'd like some Aksak Maboul for your list? I'm one of few people I've met who likes their new stuff even more than the old. Granted, the last two albums may be best described as avantgarde pop (with vocals), but there's stuff approaching progdom in there.

Like this fun instrumental tune from their 2021 album Figures.

Edit:

Also cool that you know Panzerpappa already

let's just say that doesn't happen often, great though that they are.

Sorry, I was a bit unclear in my previous post, but actually no I didn't no them until today. I added them today shortly after listening the songs. So thank you for a great discovery.

Queen Boo · 03-31-2022, 05:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Meh, I always say Starcastle should have been called Sugarcastle. There's just something sickly sweet about their music that turns me off. I got one of their albums - think it was that one - and the moment I heard the first track I knew it wasn't for me. They get a lot of love in prog circles, which kind of baffles me. But anyway.

Do Starcastle get that much love in prog circles? I thought they were just acknowledged as a decent Yes ripoff and not anything more than that.

Paul Smeenus · 03-31-2022, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen Boo

Do Starcastle get that much love in prog circles? I thought they were just acknowledged as a decent Yes ripoff and not anything more than that.

That's precisely how I feel about them.

Trollheart · 03-31-2022, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen Boo

Do Starcastle get that much love in prog circles? I thought they were just acknowledged as a decent Yes ripoff and not anything more than that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul Smeenus

That's precisely how I feel about them.

I wouldn't even put them in the same class, but yeah, I've seen a lot of people recommend them. Takes all sorts I guess. I mean, for me: hell, you only have to look at the name of the band: Starcastle? What the actual ****?

Maybe that was okay in the hippy-dippy sixties or very early seventies, but these days such a name just makes me chortle.

Queen Boo · 03-31-2022, 09:17 PM

Well that first album came out in 76 when people were already starting to find that stuff cheesy, but then again not caring how much people find you cheesy is an important part of the prog rock ethos, shamelessly trying to sound like another band not so much.

This was also when Yes went 3 years without releasing any new material so the individual members could focus on solo and side projects so I have a theory that labels were signing up soundalike bands like Starcastle to try and fill that void.

Guybrush · 04-01-2022, 04:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Queen Boo

shamelessly trying to sound like another band not so much.

This is why I never got beyond Jester's Tear in Marillion's discography. They sounded so much like Genesis, I got embarassed listening to it. I'm sure the songs are great, but I just found their sound to be a turn-off, especially the singer who sounds like a Peter Gabriel understudy.

I have similar feelings towards modern bands if I feel they're copying the old. I love the first prog rock wave for creating so many new, original sounds and unique bands.

LawryPopson · 04-01-2022, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trollheart

I wouldn't even put them in the same class, but yeah, I've seen a lot of people recommend them. Takes all sorts I guess. I mean, for me: hell, you only have to look at the name of the band: Starcastle? What the actual ****?

Maybe that was okay in the hippy-dippy sixties or very early seventies, but these days such a name just makes me chortle.

It might be a bit more appropriate for a funk band name, but I don't know...its not that bad

Queen Boo · 04-01-2022, 11:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guybrush

This is why I never got beyond Jester's Tear in Marillion's discography. They sounded so much like Genesis, I got embarassed listening to it. I'm sure the songs are great, but I just found their sound to be a turn-off, especially the singer who sounds like a Peter Gabriel understudy.

I have similar feelings towards modern bands if I feel they're copying the old. I love the first prog rock wave for creating so many new, original sounds and unique bands.

Honestly? I don't think Marillion sounds that much like Genesis, I mean yeah Genesis are clearly an influence but I think they still stand out.

Fish kinda has a similar voice to Gabriel but his style of singing is actually pretty different, I have no problem telling the two apart, Gabriel is more of a crooner while Fish can f*cking wail.

I don't think the rest of the band sounds that much like Genesis either, Rothery's guitar playing style reminds me more of Gilmour and Latimer than it does Hackett or Rutherford. Yes they do have the gated drum sound Collins popularized, but that's the '80s for ya.

I might as well admit it, I actually like Marillion a lot, well Fish era Marillion at least, it's just the right mix of prog bombast and 80s pop gloss and I'm a sucker for both. The Hogarth stuff is ok but I'm not a fan of that guy's wimpy Christian rock singer voice.

Aside from Marillion I don't really care for the neo-prog scene, prog rock will always be a 70s genre to me first and foremost, most prog after that is built on nostalgia rather than really moving the genre forward, not that that's automatically a bad thing, there are good retro prog bands, Anglagard is one of them. But for me a lot of post-70s prog is too tame and conservative and lacking the hooks that the classic prog bands had. If any bands in the 80s and 90s were keeping the adventurous spirit of prog alive it was weirdos like Cardiacs, Ween and Mr Bungle.

03-31-2022, 10:02 AM	#11 (permalink)
LawryPopson Groupie Join Date: Feb 2020 Posts: 23	By the way, here's my playlist if you want to check it out: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0K...7d1089f3f24c65 Maybe you'll find something new you like.