Monday, January 21, 2013

Let's Talk Prog...

Soft Machine
...Or more like, essential Prog, because there is a lot of craptastic Prog Rock that I've never dug.  From my somewhat limited knowledge of Prog Rock, the ones that are tops are the first few Soft Machine albums (Volume One, Volume Two, and Third), King Crimson In The Court of The Crimson King, Gong You and Angel's Egg (though sometimes they are a bit too lyrically quirky for my taste at times), Caravan In The Land of Pink and Grey, and Egg's first album Egg.  Definitely of the Prog I've delved into over the past seven-eight years that I've liked the most is the Canterbury scene Prog, and I've never quite gotten into Yes, ELP, type of Prog. This is the kind've stuff by Soft Machine off their first album that I dig:
 As I mentioned I get sometimes get turned off by some of Gong's quirkiness, but sometimes their music really hits on all cylinders, like when they get into a groove with flutes, crazy drumming, and of course, Prog's essential, the Saxophone:
I have begun to just recently get into Egg, part of the Canterbury scene of the early 70's.  Check out their rendition of a Bach composition:
Recently I've been thinking I need to delve deeper into Prog, but it's hard to wade through the crap and find the cream of the crop.  Maybe my like of Prog is mainly of the Canterbury bands--a little more poppy, but still the prominent keyboards, drumming, and saxophones are all there. 

3 comments:

  1. Hey Man, I like me some Prog Rock. I really like the Egg track you posted. Of course I dig a lot King Crimson (a band Jimi Hendrix considered the best in the world). Yes' Fragile albums is very much a classic I think, you should give it a chance sometime.

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    1. Yeah, I should give Yes "Fragile" album more of a shot. I few years back I found it for a buck and didn't care for it, but I wasn't in the "prog" mindset at that time. Dude, I got to give you credit for you were the one that turned me onto "The Court of the Crimson King" many years ago.

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  2. Oh yeah and dude, you *have* to watch this all the way through. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W35wtfcByIY

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