Speaking of Swedish bands, Flower Kings have some nice tracks and sides.
Best progressive rock album side
My intent is to seek albums which I may not own from the recommendations of you all. I ranked best sides of progressive rock albums on vinyl that I own and came up with the following list. I don't want it to undermine anything else that an artist has created. I love it all but as far as start to finish on one side this is what I came up with.
#1: Supper's Ready
#2: Terrapin Station
#3: Atom Heart Mother
#4 The Court of the King Crimson
#5 Echoes
Of course there are many more. Some may not be complete sides like Atom Heart Mother but the intent of the artisan was to make it a complete side. I had a very hard time deciding between #1 and #2. Both are very worthy in my mind.
Showing 7 responses by sns
Can't believe no one's mentioned Soft Machine, Barclay James Harvest or Incredible String Band, all three progenitors of this genre. Barclay James Harvest was coincidently was first or one of first bands signed to Harvest Records, home of many early prog bands, I have multi volume vinyl and cd compilation of bands signed to this label purchased many years ago.
By the way, I'm a boomer NOT solely dedicated to reminiscing. I regularly stream music from virtually all genres and eras, prog rock stands up over time as legitimate genre. Some great musicianship, composition and explorations, certainly there can be excess, but what genre doesn't have it's filler. |
@spiritofradio Yes, you did mention Bundles per Soft Machine.
Some of the entries I'd not considered as prog rock prior to looking up definition of the genre. Far wider based than I thought based on these various definitions.
As for prog rock bands live. I saw any number back in the day, yes, many didn't live up to studio recordings. The major issue as I saw it was inability of technology as it then existed, to replicate studio sound. Melotron notoriously difficult to set up, keep in tune. And then, recall these were mostly pretty extensive studio productions, pretty difficult to replicate live back in the day. One can't judge these bands by live performance only, production values very important component of the music. For some, highly engineered and heavy handed production are the antithesis of good music, for me perfectly acceptable for this genre. Doing the same thing to straight rock, blues based rock or other genres ruins it for me.
Some genres benefit from direct raw emotion no frills recording allows, not the same for prog rock. For me, prog rock entices through manufactured soundscapes for the aural senses, and mind journeys that invite introspection and thought. Rather like classical and various forms of jazz in inviting the mind journeys. Hearing some Art Blakey and/or Glenn Gould juxtaposed to the right prog rock makes for a nice listening session in my book. |