The Prog Thread

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Transatlantic.

Pretty much my favorite prog supergroup hands down. Featuring members of equally excellent bands like Dream Theater, Spock's Beard, Marillion, and The Flower Kings.
 
Would you believe there's such a thing as Fascist Prog Rock?

Some guy at Krautkanal said:
Casual listeners hastily assume Prog Rock is an apolitical genre (of course, the more informed listener knows better, especially when considering the Rock in Opposition movement) but Italy's own Progressive scene thought different. Some of the prominent bands from the more avant-garde wing of their Progressive music scene strongly affiliated themselves with communism, most famously Area and the Stormy Six, but others on the furthest fringes of the genre sang from entirely different hymn sheet. You know, Fascism.

Janus, formerly Janum, were affiliated to the Neo-Fascist MSI party, regularly playing live at their amusingly-named "Hobbit Camps," named after the musician fellowship's shared interest in Tolkien. The band's history is somewhat turbulent. Most of the original copies of their album were destroyed in a fire at the only bookstore bold enough to sell their work. Their original guitarist was even killed in a political riot the year this album was released.

Recorded on a low budget, Al Maestrale sounds a little crummy in terms of production so doesn't come close to matching the Mussolinian bombast of Museo Rosenbach's Nietzschean masterwork Zarathustra. But the rawness of this recording is certainly a nice antidote to the slew of self-consciously 'pretty' bands who had sprung up in the scene. There are notably few symphonic influences, opting instead for a folk-tinged fuzzy hard rock style, not a world away from the early Black Widow. And some of the guitar playing on here is very mean indeed!

When it feels like there are few genuine obscurities in Prog left, it's nice to have something like this still out there, and the political affiliations gives this band a dangerous edge a lot of Prog admittedly lacks.
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Genesis will always be my favorite band. Their music is a big reason I became a musician myself (keyboardist - I'm a HUGE fan of Tony Banks!). People here of course are mentioning the Gabriel years of Genesis, but prog remained the majority of their work up until Duke in 1980 which had a 30-minute long suite hidden in it. Trick of the Tail, Wind and Wuthering, And Then There Were Three and Duke were all spectacular albums. The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway will always be my favorite album of theirs, and sure they put out a couple of mediocre albums, but a bad album? They have none to speak of. Plus, they never fully abandoned their prog roots. You have the Home By the Sea suite on their eponymous album, Domino and the Brazilian on Invisible Touch (plus Land of Confusion is a tour de force regardless of one's musical preferences), Driving the Last Spike, Living Forever, Fading Lights and Dreaming While You Sleep on We Can't Dance, etc.
 
As my username, avatar and banner all suggest, I am indeed a Peter Gabriel and Gabriel-era Genesis fan, though Selling England by the Pound has always been my favorite, followed by Foxtrot. I've also grown up in a Yes household, and I'm intimately familiar with the output up to 90125.
 
Colin Marston has many projects, including Dysrhythmia. The album "Veil of Control" is good. Hidden gem.
 
I was prepared to lowkey seethe about another KF thread where everybody says all the bands that I like suck but no these are all good.
 
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