Progressive Rock / Art Rock - Autism, now in music form!

[Braless & Slightly Slack]

Question for the Prog rock enjoyers, can you give me what you think are the staples/genre defining albums? I wanna get into prog and see if it's my jam.

Check the OP

 

[asr]

Check the OP

Yup added everything to my list, I started with In The Court of The Crimson King for no other reason than the album art, it was great!

Starting from Dark Side of the Moon -> Wish You Were Here -> Animals, all by Pink Floyd, should ease you in. From there, if you want heavier and more technical move to Rush (Moving Pictures was their commercial hit but this is Prog so it’d be better to go to the Closer to the Heart/Hemispheres duology), if you want weirder more Jazz influence listen to Yes (Fragile is the perfect starting point). Those three groups really are where a lot of people start.

Other good staples to start:
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Electric Light Orchestra - Eldorado
The Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the Sky
Kansas - Leftoverture (though I’m more partial to Song for America myself)
Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Self-titled
King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King
Uriah Heep - Demons and Wizards
Focus - Moving Waves
Dream Theater - Images and Words

A couple good things to remember are: a lot of this music was made at a time where you sat down and could reasonably be expected to listen to an entire album, start-to-finish in order, in one go, even non-concept albums. This also means, especially for some of the more experimental groups, that a bunch of their best albums are acquired tastes that need a few listens to really latch on to what they were going for.

Thanks for the reccs! I have heard dark side of the moon I just wasn't aware that it was prog rock. I do happen to like post rock alot so i'm used to sitting down for an hour or more while studying to be able to enjoy the music. Are there any particular concept albums you like? I really like unique concept albums, always have since my first experience with one.

 

[Helping Friendly Book]

I’m looking through this thread and found no mentions of some Volta, so here it is.
Frances The Mute - The Mars Volta

 

[McMitch]

I have heard dark side of the moon I just wasn't aware that it was prog rock.

Pink Floyd has been babby’s first Prog Rock for a long while.

Are there any particular concept albums you like?

I’ve got a post on the first page of the thread that has a lot of recommendations.

 

[Jimmy Hopkins]

@asr The Wall and Animals are great Pink Floyd concept albums. Lamb Lies Down On Broadway is great but I recommend waiting until you're used to prog it's kinda hard to get into.

 

[Braless & Slightly Slack]

Not sure if anyone has heard of this band beforehand but I recently found this one called Ill Wicker

Some songs kinda remind me of Comus and Jethro Tull, what do you guys think?

 

[Wol]

I've getting into Zeuhl lately, but I've taken more to Magma [and their equally French affiliates/spin-offs, Eskaton, and Weidorje] then I have to Koenji Hyakkei. Koenji Hyakkei is a bit too hyper-active for me, even though there are some parts within tracks that I kind of liked. Magma and the like have sounds of a personally appealing quality that follows from traditional prog where albums or long tracks are composed of harmonious movements that flow into each other. Koenji seems to not have that, so I think many of their tracks did not stick with me. Aside, the lyrical conlangs, being a frequent characteristic of Zeuhl, were not really the appeal to me when I looked at the genre, but I do like how their use for lyrics facilitates interesting vocals, especially on Magma's albums, that can only be emphasized as instruments.

Spoiler: Magma and Zeuhl Journey

When I first listened to Zeuhl, I was going by progarchives' top rated albums and then, from that, I first tried to listen to Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh (MDK). I actually ended up instead listening to the live, Retrospektïẁ recordings, specifically the version of MDK among them, after trying to search for the original MDK to stream and becoming confused at the versions. I found out later MDK and other albums have inconsistent availability for their official releases on every service except on Bandcamp. At any rate, when I got to listen to both original and Retrospektïẁ MDK, I really enjoyed the application of thrashing drums and bass in the former over most parts of the latter although I respected the more tempered tone with greater presence given to piano and other instruments. In all, there are definite parts in both that I like.

Intermittently, I checked out Weidorje's titular album. I liked Elohim's Voyage, for having a nice build up to the trumpets with the deeper guitar backing the vocals, as well as Rondeau, a live track, for offering a somewhat surreal composition involving interesting bass and quiet piano interludes.

This was also where I found Koenji via Dhorimviskha. A long car drive alone with this album on didn't sell me any tracks to remember and contribute to a first impression of the band, probably as per the above, but admittedly I have yet to thoroughly listen to their other works.

Eventually, I went to hear KA to start the Köhntarkösz album trilogy once I gave MDK [and Retrospektïẁ's Theusz Hamtaahk] good listens.
I ended up buying the albums of said trilogy after I ended up listening to all of them put together. In order, I particularly liked Köhntarkösz Anteria (KA), Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré, and then Köhntarkösz.
For KA, one can hear the album deviating from the oppressive motifs of Zeuhl by being remarkably jovial and choral, enough to where I can say I enjoyed it through and through all its movements. It's a little of everything from funky themes to choirs to rock, providing a charming variance of themes that go into the next so well, especially prevalent in K.A. 2.
Köhntarkösz then returns to Zeuhl, but becomes less choral and more macabre and insidious with the opener setting the theme. It was difficult to appreciate considering it drones in some sections within its two parts, but I did better appreciate the darker riffs of the whole piece once I discovered the synopsis of the trilogy itself.
Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré felt nice upon hearing the Kobaian vocals return to presence with a very ethereal first movement. This then gradually descends to a darker tone over the second movement going into the third by taking some of the material delivered in Udu Wudu's tracks before returning to that bliss of the first movement in the fourth. Knowing the synopsis of Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré, it does indeed reflect an uplifting before some treachery and then a somber downfall; it is interesting hearing the old material playing its part while not feeling terribly disjoint in the process.

Spoiler: Translated Synopsis of Köhntarkösz

From this 2013 interview with Christian Vander (A):

The "Köhntarkösz" trilogy contains KA, Köhntarkösz, and Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê. KA is the quest of the young Köhntarkösz – he is only called Kontark at that time. It's a nod to Edgar P. Jacob. In short, Köhntark discovers things, so he looks for all sorts of directions, in all possible places, such as Egypt, Catholicism, and others. Many things happen and at the end of the record, we hear the chords that will be the premises of Köhntarkösz. Right at the end, there are some held notes that are the same type of chord that will appear in the title track, where Köhntark will become Köhntarkösz following an initiation, which he will receive by going down into an Egyptian temple/mausoleum. From there, he will have received everything; it is a simulacrum by a chorus of piano, synths, violin (at the time, Didier Lockwood), almost very disordered, the ideas go in all directions. Köhntarkösz has everything in him, after that it will take him his life to find its meaning and essence. Which leads to Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê, where we tell the story of Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê, his master, assassinated by jealous priests, and therefore not having been able to achieve anything. He had almost reached his goal, when he was assassinated. From this point on, it may be up to Köhntarkösz to pick up the road where Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê left off. In short.

As of now, I'm at Eskaton - 4 Visions and I will be giving the album some [re]listening.

 

[kazuhiro]

Are there any particular concept albums you like? I really like unique concept albums, always have since my first experience with one.

In the prog vein, Rush's 2112 and Hemispheres (mentioned in the thread already) have great multi-part concept tracks (Rush did that a lot in the 70s). Fantastic albums all around.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5jwxrTqoEA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0zN0VjA3As

Queensrÿche are more metal/heavy rock than prog, but their Operation: Mindcrime is an absolutely classic concept album that a lot of prog fans would appreciate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGhU8zaJYm8

 

[Postmodernist Disaster]

Finally, a thread where my pfp has more than just shock value. Even though I mostly heard classical and electronic inspired VGM. Once I got to prog everything clicked since I'm a sucker for music that follows a develops an entire musical idea from start to finish instead of simple verse/chorus songwriting. Also love that this is the first time I see some lesser known bands like Nektar or Henry Cow mentioned outside the Prog Archives.

https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=88509
Has progarchives always been like this?

When I saw this thing on the top 24 hours in PA, a site populated by mostly boomers and gen X, I lterally had to blink and double check to be sure I was on the same site and after reading the artist bio, I immediately came here because I knew there was more than meets the eye. Still mindblowing how they thought it was a good idea to have basically softcore furry porn on the front page of a public site.

Was that quote on the accursed remaster? It's one of the worst albums I've made the mistake of buying, as I wasn't aware that the MFSL re-release was based on the original recording:

Same I first listed to the 1987 remaster and only heard the original 1976 mix sometime afterwards, although I like some of the additions like the guitar solo in The Raven or the organ in Dr Tarr and Prof Feather, everything else is 80s production excesses like the gated reverb everywhere, extra instrument layers on some songs and overall different processing techniques on the whole album. I'm just glad the original mix is finally available for most people after almost 15 years through the 2024 reissue.

Thread tax:

Solaris is a painfully underrated band from Hungary that's still putting solid releases to this day.

I originally discovered this band because a portal 2 mod used a shortened version of this track for its endings. Looking for it online was my first interaction with prog and led me to discover the PA. Listened to the rest of the album afterwards and I loved it. Shame these guys stopped making music a long time ago.

One of the downsides of prog is that there's a lot of one off groups that make an album or two and then dissapear from the face of the earth.

 

[McMitch]

I have created a flowchart to help anyone who is struggling to figure out what genre their selection of music belongs to:

Spoiler: Big