Prog Related?

For those of you who have never gone for a visit to http://www.progarchives.com/ , it’s a fantastic site with over 20,000 prog albums from over 4,000 bands catalogued. They’ve got a lot more reviews and info than I could ever accumulate here and a forum. But one thing about the site I don’t like is a category, called “Prog Related”. This is an umbrella category designed to hold all sorts of artists that are not prog, but have some progressive influence in their music. Today, I seek to work through an issue I have with this category.

The problem is for way too many of those entries they don’t strike me as having an ounce of prog to them. A smaller number have enough to be at least “Crossover prog”, which is the opposite, progressive music that has influences from mainstream pop in addition to all the jazz and classical. Have a look at their top 5 albums in prog related:

· Queen II- Queen
· Argus- Wishbone Ash
· A Night at The Opera- Queen
· Led Zeppelin IV (a.k.a. Zoso) - Led Zeppelin
· Seventh Son of a Seventh Son- Iron Maiden

Now I like Queen, but what in their music is progressive exactly? From their own site, prog is defined as “a mostly British attempt to elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility."[1] Queen does come from Britain, but the problem is Queen doesn’t really elevate rock music to new levels of artistic credibility. They aimed and succeeded at the singles market, and while their songs did vary in genre, very rarely would something progressive make its way in. It’s not that Queen never did anything prog, it’s just that it wasn’t frequent enough to be even considered anywhere in the same ballpark. I like Queen, but because their songs and albums are fun, not progressive.

Led Zeppelin’s and Iron Maiden’s inclusion confuses me even more. These bands are blues/ hard rock and metal, respectively, and those genres are almost contradictory to prog. The focus here is getting famous, taking drugs, having sex. Prog music explicitly stays away from these themes in the music to concentrate on the art value. I own over half of Zeppelin’s albums and have heard most of the rest, and there’s not a thing on any of them that even sounds progressive, let alone is progressive. I’m not as familiar with Iron Maiden, but knowing the 80s heavy metal scene as I do, you can’t be both progressive and metal.

This leads me to my qualm with all these “Progressive Metal” bands like Dream Theatre and similar acts. Prog Metal does have some use, some bands that are not 80’s Hair Metal-type Metal do use unusual chord structures and playing patterns in the music, but the term is way to generalized. The problem is they sound much too similar to pop music, normal metal music, or just standard prog all too often. Whenever I hear a Yamaha grand piano or grunge guitar in “Prog Rock”, I find the music too commercial. It is for these reasons that I concentrate on classic rather than modern prog.

So can music straddle the line between prog and other music? Yes. In my first article, I mentioned Prog can also be called “Art Rock”. This is not entirely true if you want to be a purist. Art rock artists make their music for the sake of making an artistic statement, Progressive rock artists want to elevate rock music by trying something new. For an analogy, Realist painters in the mid 1800’s are art in the same way art music works: Gustav Courbet and John Singer Sergeant wanted to make painting more exact, technical, and anti-Romanticist. They made heavy commentary on the state of the world of painting. Impressionists from the same period are “Progressive”, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas wanted to try new experiments with light and color in their painting.

Obviously, it’s easy to do both at the same time, which is why for many people, myself included, Art rock and Prog rock are interchangeable terms. But when I get very technical, I’ll differentiate. Pink Floyd’s music works as both art and prog rock, as their stuff is both making a statement with the way they do things, and inventive. Jethro Tull, King Crimson, and many more work the same way. “Emerson, Lake, and Palmer” however have a statement to act absolutely ridiculous. Many prog fans pan them for being too much of a joke, such as myself. They did not make a great statement, they just had some fun. ELP are prog, but not art rock. Let’s talk about the last of Prog Related’s Top 5, Argus. This is a hard rock album form 1972. They didn’t really do anything new or close to new, despite deep lyrics and technical playing. They are Art rock, but not prog.

Taking a look at some of the other artists from the top 20 Prog- Related albums we can discard some non-prog like entries Blue Öyster Cult, Metallica, and Muse, and clump the others into an “Art, not Prog” category, like Black Sabbath and David Bowie. From here on, Count Felix’s prog blog declares all art rock albums that are not progressive are fair game on this blog, but I’m not going to waste time on the famous stuff like Sabbath or Bowie. There’s plenty of literature on the internet about them as is.

[1] http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive-rock.asp “A definition of Progressive Rock Music”

Camel- Mirage

Briefly, an announcement. Since Italy and France tied in the recent poll, I’ve decided they both win. Each will have a featured month of strictly Italian or French artists towards the end of the year. There will also be a month celebrating prog's 40th anniversary in October.

Camel is one of my favorite prog bands. Their style of symphonic rock is laid back and often veers into a soundtrack-like mode. While some people hold this against the band, I find this quality relaxing and very listenable. Mirage, released in 1974, shows the band in top form, as the first of a power trio, followed by The Snow Goose (1975) and Moonmadness (1976)

Camel evolved out of an earlier band called The Brew. The classic lineup consisted of Andrew Latimer on guitar/vocals/flute, Peter Bardens on keyboards, Doug Ferguson on bass, and Andy Ward on drums. After playing their way through clubs they released a self titled debut in 1973. Latimer and Bardens did most of the writing and led most of the musical direction. After Mirage as the sophmore effort, Camel started to pick up some notoriety, and The Snow Goose broke them internationally. Their success was always moderate, not great. Camel was sometimes mistakenly associated with Camel cigarettes.

Mirage kicks off with one of the greatest songs of all time, “Freefall”. What a masterpiece this is. After fading in, the bass starts hammering away, then guitar and drums join in. After a while, we hit a chorus, sung spaceily by Latimer. The guitar here is heroic and powerfull. “Freefall” moves through other movements that sweep and drive, until returning to the chorus. Then it all comes to a rock n’ roll ending. Fantastic stuff. It’s followed by “Supertwister”, which is a nice little instrumental flute solo. It’s not very technically advanced or anything, but creates a great mystic mood. This is Camel at their most signature soundtrack-like mood. “Nimrodel/ The Procession/ The White Rider” follows it, and it’s a three part suite. Nimrodel consists of Bardens playing some keyboards with quite an electronic tacky sound. The Procession is… Marching music! It strikes me as something you’d expect from the Sultan’s grand parade. Most of this track’s 9:18 length, however, is The White Rider, which has lyrics about the Lord of The Rings (Most specifically Gandalf.) Sort of a hybrid between the prior two songs, this movement is relaxing yet engaging. After it ends, time for Side B.

Next up comes an instrumental, “Earthrise”. This song also follows that spacey, soundtrack like pattern, going through intense movements with keyboard and guitar. “Earthrise” showcases the cohesion of all the players most effectively, and is perhaps the least minimalistic song on Mirage due to the movements constantly changing. Finally, the album’s Tour De Force arrives, “Lady Fantasy” At 12:45, this song takes it’s time working through the sections. This song is Camel’s best known, but I consider it Mirage’s weakest due to too much quiet noodleing around in the middle without going anywhere for a while. The opening has great keyboard work, and a fantastic vocal, after which a hard rock movement also proves itself quite good. Laitmer stars in many parts with his strong guitar work. There’s a part in the middle where mere guitar hum occupies way too much space. The final movements come back in full force, similar to the openers, and close Mirage off with gusto.

Some themes repeat over the course of Mirage. Many of the songs have a brief intro, move into other movements, and cycle back to it. There’s quite a bit of hard-soft-hard progressions also. Camel’s strength lies in Laitmer’s guitar and their ability to create a heavily atmospheric mood, without even the slightest hint of excess.

While there are some very small faults, Mirage’s strengths are overwhelming and creative. One of symphonic prog’s best albums, I give it a Grade of A.

Pink Floyd- The Dark Side of the Moon

Ah, what would a prog blog be without a mention of this one? Yes, yes, we have all heard of this album. Dark Side of the Moon was released in 1973, a year many (myself included) consider the absolute peak of the progressive age. The Album sold like hotcakes, and the worldwide sales figure has exceeded over 30,000,000 units, making it in the top selling albums in history across the world. But what in this album has made it the most successful prog album of all time? Proficiency plus accessibility.

Dark Side culminates the growth and development of Pink Floyd since their foundation in 1965. Syd Barrett (Guitar/Vocals), Roger Waters (Bass/Vocals), Rick Wright (Keyboards/Vocals) and Nick Mason (Drums) organized as a psychedelic outfit, popular on London’s Underground scene. In 1967, the group released The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, a key album in British psychadelia but a total flop in America. Barrett was the group leader, but experiences with LSD and undiagnosed psychological disorders prompted the others to abandon him in 1968, replacing him with David Gilmour. Through the remainder of the 60’s, the group toyed with psychedelic expansion, and when Progressive Rock appeared, they turned to its freedom for expression. Dark Side was their 8th album, and all the individual songs segway directly into each other. Waters wrote all lyrics, while the entire band got involved with the composition.

The album begins with “Speak to Me”, a tape collage of all the sounds that the rest of the album uses (heartbeats, cash registers, clocks, screams, and more). Waters compiled it, but gave it to Mason as a gift for royalties. The song segways directly into “Breathe”, a sonic song with lush keyboard atmospheres. Lyrics deal with the subject of birth. This song is the most open and free on here. Afterward another electronic collage called “On The Run” comes in, combining speeded up synth waves, meticulous pressing of buttons in the studio, and more sound effects to make a transition a song in itself. One of the three longer, key pieces, “Time” (Seven Minutes) follows. Time is about, well, time, and how we regret all the missed opportunities in our old age. A montage of alarm bells starts of the song, and Gilmour showcases great guitar prowess here. The A side of the record closes with “The Great Gig In the Sky”, a slower piece consisting of Wright playing grand piano, and hired female vocalist Claire Tory wailing. An interesting end.

Side two takes off with the world famous “Money”, the biggest hit from Dark Side. In 7/4 time, this song has thumping bass, an amazing sax solo, killer guitar, and all around, is utterly fantastic. “Money” by far rocks the hardest on Dark Side of the Moon. The lyrics deal satirically with the issue of greed, praising the consumption of caviar and corruption for personal gain. Afterward, we are treated to “Us and Them”, a song about war. This has an open feel, contrasting with the hardness of “Money” that preceded it. The song bounces around as if in open air and also has another sax part. Afterwards, there is a segway into the instrumental “Any Colour You Like”, an instrumental that’s mostly just some prog rock elevator music (in a good way). After that comes “Brain Damage”, a song about insanity. The lyrics include the line “I’ll see you on the Dark Side of the Moon.” leading to misconception that this is the title. This song about lunatics bounces around, but not like prior songs. It seems more closed in. “Brain Damage” has less instrumental prowess than the rest of the album. Dark Side closes with the brief “Eclipse”, which takes a look at the worthiness of a human life. The album returns to the heartbeat that started “Speak to Me” and fades out. (Bonus! If you turn the volume way up about 25 seconds before the album ends, you can hear an orchestral version of The Beatles “Ticket to Ride” played, but only on CD, probably due to a mastering error.)

There are millions of interpretations of this album, and any Google search will produces lots of literature. Personally, I see the Album as social commentary on the choices we make during life and the way we handle them after the fact. Songs like “Money” and “Us and Them” talk about decisions, decisions to use money honestly or corruptly, what to do in war, or under pressure. Meanwhile “Breathe”, “Time”, and “Brain Damage” all handle what the effects of the choices we make has upon us (helplessness, regret, insanity). “Eclipse” speaks about what the true meaning of life is: everything we do in itself gives life meaning. Roger Waters himself, however, had in mind the concept of human nature and the mutual experiences of man.

This is not an essential prog album. It is an essential album. Dark Side of the Moon challenges listeners to really think and draw conclusions, all to a backdrop of sonic guitar, keyboards, and bass. Excellent in every way, Dark Side deserves a Grade of A+.

Soft Machine- Third

Before beginning the meat of this article, I’d like to take some time to note the loss of Hugh Hopper, bassist with Canterbury Scene giants Soft Machine, as well as lesser known but equally good bands like Gilgamesh, Isotope, and Soft Heap (a band now completely passed on). He died on June 7th of Leukemia. Hopper was a truly great bassist, contributing greatly to the development of the rhythmic bass sound of Canterbury prog. Additionally, Hopper was well respected and always kind and generous to the fans who loved him back.

In honor of Hugh, my first Album feature will be Soft Machine’s Third, released in 1970. This album is really jazz, and barely rock at all. The lineup for Soft Machine at the time of Third consisted of Hopper, Robert Wyatt on drums and vocals, Mike Ratledge on Keyboards, and Elton Dean on Sax (Third features some guests on trombone, clarinet, flute, and violin). Third is, well, the third album by the group. Forming out of the remnants of the Wilde Flowers in 1966, Soft Machine initially played psychedelic pop on their eponymous debut (1968). Ratledge was a big jazz fan, however, and on Second (1969) had begun to implement jazz into the Soft’s sounds, creating what could be considered the first Canterbury album. By now, the Soft Machine was almost purely jazz, and this is the last album that could be considered prog. Only 4 tracks are on this Double album, each a side long Jazz fest lasting 17 to 19 minutes.

The first track, “Facelift”, written by Hopper, starts out with literally 3 minutes of amp dissonance. Don’t fear, for soon Dean and Ratledge take you away on a spacey sax and synth workout. At 6:40, the sound suddenly crashes into a heavier, aggressive onslaught, led by power drumming from Wyatt. Later, after 5 minutes, this dies down into guitar-like fuzz, on which flute plays melody on top of. Later Hooper and Ratledge join back in, leading to a disorganized yet beautiful finish, with reversed keyboard effects. This song was actually pasted together from various concert performances. Trippy.

Side B contains “Slightly All the Time”, a much more conventional Jazz piece. Hooper’s humming bass defines the rhythm of this track, and he starts us off. 45 seconds later, Dean comes in with a fantastic sax performance. The song moves through many varied sax movements, and is slow paced but rich in sound. The track’s bass is the most redeeming feature, and Hugh Hopper certainly stars. There are some nice keyboards and flute here also, and the last three minutes start a speed up for a grand finale. Overall, a nice Jazz Fusion piece.

“Moon in June” is the least Jazz and most prog song. This makes sense, as Robert Wyatt was the writer, and he was disinterested in the extremely jazz direction the others were heading, preferring prog. This is the only cut to feature vocals on the album. Wyatt’s fantastic tenor and drums lead the song in. Since the other members did not want to record this song, they only jump in at various parts. Robert carries himself very well. This song is most typical of what would become the Canterbury scene. Since Wyatt plays many of the instruments, I’m not really sure who did what, but the keyboards and the bass make this light ballad-like jazz song go down very easy. Some shrieking violin helps to close the song.

Last but not least, there is “Out-Bloody-Rageous”, which fades in with five minutes worth of lots of electronic noises, into another jazz fusion track like “Slightly All the Time”. This one features all four members prominently, especially the entrapping sax from Dean. The piano’s usage achieves much, as does the rhythm sections’ diligent and strong backing. This one also flows through sax led moments. Probably the most minimalistic and passive of Third’s tracks, it nonetheless is just as strong as what came before.

Third is hailed as the high water mark of Soft Machine’s career, and an essential Canterbury album for all prog fans. The Jazz metamorphosis continued onward, and after Fourth the next year, Wyatt left the group. due to this direction. He would found Matching Mole, a more rock-oriented band. In 1973, he fell out of a third story window while drunk, paralyzing him from the waist down. Despite no longer being able to drum, he continued to sing as a solo artist, and to this day he continues to produce strong and well-received music. After Fifth (1972), Dean would leave (he passed away in 2006), and Hooper would follow suit after Six (1973). By 1976, Ratledge was also gone, though the group continued with no original members under Karl Jenkins until 1984.

In short, an innovative, interesting, and great addition to any Prog or Jazz collection, I give Third a Grade of A-.

13 Great Prog Songs Lasting Under 4 Minutes

Well, time for some music recommendations! Rather that throwing my readers right into side-long suites, I’m going to start with prog at its most accessible. While long extended songs make prog what it is, on occasion a prog band would create a short song, sometimes even a single, for fun and for recognition. These are some of my favorites, in chronological order.

Curved Air, Back Street Luv (1971); 3:37
Curved Air was a British band featuring Sonja Kristina on vocals, Darryl Way on drums and violin, Francis Monkman on guitar and keyboards, Florian Pilkington-Miksa on drums, and Ian Eyre on bass at the time of Second Album. Kristina is considered my many as one of prog’s top female vocalists. This defiantly helps out on “Back Street Luv”, a song about prostitution. Kristina’s strong vocal presence drives this song, not to mention the very heavy drumming and Moog synthesizers in the background. The song hit number four on the British charts, but unfortunately never broke in America.

Jethro Tull, Hymn 43 (1971); 3:19
On Aqualung, one of Tull’s best known albums, the B side of the record contains an attack on organized religion. Ian Anderson’s vocals are quite dramatic here, and his flute playing is very aggressive. We can’t forget guitarist Martin Barre, bassist Jeffrey Hammond, keyboardist John Evan, and drummer Clive Bunker (his last album with Jethro Tull.) I particularly like the smooth guitar on this track.

Yes, A Venture (1971); 3:15
Yes’s popularity broke through during 1971 on the strength of tracks like “I’ve Seen all Good People” and “Starship Trooper”. On the same album (The Yes Album), A Venture takes a largely ignored role. It’s quite unfortunate, as this song has quite a bit of bouncing rhythm and honky-tonk piano without any tackiness. Jon Anderson’s falsetto-like vocals (Editor’s Note: His natural singing and speaking voice is actually that high!) sound very strong and medieval to fit the theme at hand, and the keyboard element is featured quite strongly, which is not common for this era of Yes. Highly recommended.

Focus, Sylvia (1972); 3:32
Do you like guitar? Then you will like Focus. Focus, from the Netherlands, may very well be the most hardcore band ever. Guitarist Jan Akkerman is one of the best guitarists I’ve ever heard, on par with Hendrix. Let us not forget the always entertaining Thjis van Leer on keyboards, one of the funniest men in prog! Burt Ruiter plays bass and Pierre van der Linden provides drums on the album Focus 3 where Sylvia is found. This song was originally composed by van Leer for a girl who sang with him in a backing group for a Dutch superstar, and she hated it. Later, he reworked it for Focus. Akkerman’s guitar skills are at the fore, and his solo is a great example of how wonderful prog rock guitar sounds. No lyrics, just some wails of sorts from van Leer.

Pink Floyd, Burning Bridges (1972); 3:30
In 1972, Pink Floyd recorded a soundtrack called Obscured by Clouds for French film La Valée. While not their best work by any measure, there were several great tracks, this being one. Burning Bridges is distinctively Pink Floyd, with spacious, cloudlike keyboards carrying forward the mood. Heavy drum pounding and Rick Wright’s rich vocal add to the power of this song. Great for thinking too.

King Crimson, Book of Saturday (1973); 2:56
King Crimson had had no consistent line up at all since its 1969 founding. On Lark’s Tongues in Aspic, their 5th studio album, the lineup consisted of Robert Fripp on guitar (the only consistent member, can’t be KC without him), John Wetton on bass and vocals, Bill Buford on drums, Jamie Muir on percussion, and David Cross on violin. Book of Saturday is an interesting song. Unlike most Crimson songs, the vocals take center stage, with Wetton’s distinctive baritone carrying the early part. Later on, the violin becomes more prominent. The guitar sound is played as so it can’t be really discerned weather Fripp plays electric or acoustic. Overall, the song is a ballad-type, with no percussion at all. A very nice soft piece from one of the great prog albums.

Le Orme, L'equilibrio (1973); 3:48
One of the many great prog bands out of Italy, Le Orme hailed from the area around Venice. In 1973, they released Felona e Sorona, widely considered their best effort. This song (and album) is a great introduction to Italian prog. It has the nations signature synth sound, very cheesy by modern production standards, yet they manage to work. Le Orme also uses a fair bit of piano here, to great effect. Other instruments don’t come to the fore. Members were Aldo Tagliapietra on vocals/bass/guitar, Tony Paglucia on keyboards, and Giuseppe de Rossi on drums. Very 70s, very progressive, very good.

Rick Wakeman, Catherine of Aragon (1973); 3:47
Wakeman is most famous as the on-again, off-again keyboardist from Yes. On The Six Wives of Henry VIII, his first attempt at solo material, Wakeman used a crapload of equipment to make an extremely digital sound, strange for emulating Tudor times. While this pompousness drags some of the tracks down (Anne of Cleaves), it actually works very well for Catherine of Aragon. Not much besides the grand piano and synthesizer is heard on the track. The very forceful piece includes a choir. Probably the least accessible piece on this list, but worth looking into.

Camel, Supertwister (1974); 3:19
Camel is one of those bands that every proghead knows, but everyone else doesn’t. I absolutely love these guys. Classic Camel consisted of Andrew Latimer (Guitar, Vocals, Flute), Doug Ferguson (Bass), Peter Bardens (Keyboards), and Andy Ward (Drums). This instrumental from their Mirage album is an absolute gem! Basically an extended flute solo, this song also has great bass and keyboards to accompany. Brief, but great melody. This is a great song for the sympho-prog fans.

Tangerine Dream, Sequent C (1974); 2:20
These giants of progressive electronic released the album Phaedra in 1974. While most of the songs take up 9 or more minutes, the album finishes with this short breath of air. Using the mellotron synthesizer, TD creates an ambient flute atmosphere without the use of any woodwinds. This song is not engaging really, just light, airy, and relaxing. Great intro to the mellotron.

Genesis, Counting Out Time (1974); 3:36
During 1974, Genesis’ front man Peter Gabriel came up with the double concept album, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. The rest of the band consisted of Phil Collins (yes, that Phil Collins) on drums, Mike Rutherford on bass, Tony Banks on keyboards, and Steve Hackett on guitar. Counting Out Time clashed with the somewhat darker tone of parts of the lamb, as the song is quite upbeat and a bit silly at parts. The silly sound effects work together with fun keyboards /piano and bombastic vocals. Prog at her most accessible.

Renaissance, I Think of You (1974); 3:07
Prog rock isn’t exactly known for love songs. However, this one defiantly delivers the goods. Sung by Annie Haslam, with a 5 octave vocal range, this song is an acoustic ballad loceted on Turn of The Cards. Renaissance was a near all acoustic band, as they used no electric guitar or piano and the bass is essentially nonexistent. The band’s signature is this acoustic, classic sound. Members at the time were Haslam, John Tout on piano, John Camp “on bass”, Terry Sullivan on drums, and Michael Dunford on guitar. Good stuff.

Camel, Rhayader (1975); 3:02
More Camel! Their 1975 album The Snow Goose was all instrumental, based on the book of the same name (evidently quite popular in England). Rhayader, the protagonist, is introduced through this electronic and flute led piece. The flute finds its way into prog quite often, and I absolutely love the melody here. Pete Bardens contributes a keyboard heavy section in the middle, with the flute passages bookending. A single version lasting 3:13 exists.