prog rock

[nypost.com]

"the failure to grapple with the enduring influence of krautrock bands like Can and Neu! is a glaring omission." maybe i'm saying this because I'm a much bigger fan of the German bands than the Brits, but I don't consider them part of the same scene. Can and Neu went the opposite of tighly controlled, virtuosic, compositionally complex music - they favored loose, one-chord drones.

Also, Johnny Zhivago over at the 'Die or DIY' blog makes the point that a lot "post-punk" was really just nu-prog. Prog that learned from punk what not to do. Isn't, say OMD's "Architecture and Morality" really just New Wave prog? So prog didn't entirely die, it was somewhat absorbed into the punk wave. Just ask Fripp, Gabriel, Kate Bush...



Post Edited (06-14-17 00:31)

I concur with MrFab. I did a series on my blog years ago on this very topic.

[postpunkmonk.com]

I was amazed when OMD picked up the Mellotron; about the least trendy musical instrument possible, in 1981! Of course, little did I know at that innocent time, that OMD began life as a Prog band! McCluskey and Holmes kicked off their musical adventures in school, in 1975 as a band called Equinox. Let me guess... I'll bet no dance beats were involved.

As for the whole Krautrock: Prog or Not? controversy, I strongly side with MrFab there. It's my opinion that Krautrock was the German response to the groundbreaking work of The Velvet Underground from several years earlier. I see that as the antithesis of Prog, which was exactly about technical mastery of complex forms [which usually collapsed into quasi-classical kitsch]. Prog was an attempt to fuse the excitement [some would say bluster and bombast] of Rock with non-blues based, classical forms. The hybridization of the Old World [European] sound with that of the New World. Krautrock was about exploring drone space and repetition as a trance inducing form. The only thing I see in common was the rejection of [dominant] blues form and the somewhat concurrent timeline in which they both occurred.



Post Edited (06-14-17 08:35)

Former TP subscriber [81, 82, 83, 84]

[postpunkmonk.com]
For further rumination on the Fresh New Sound of Yesterday®

I wasn't aware that prog is extinct. It may have died as a pop-culture phenomenon, but last I checked, there is plenty of prog music still being created today.

Or did I miss the point of the article (which is entirely possible)?

MrFab, as for "New Wave prog, I once used that term to describe Japan to someone that was curious about their style of music. There are certainly other "New Wave" or post-punk bands that could be described similarly.

What I find even more interesting are the bands that were prog in the '70s that began incorporating elements of New Wave into their music by the early '80s. For example, IMO Rush's best album was Signals, and the reconfigured King Crimson were better than ever.

Prog, that form of music that by all accounts, self indulgent.
I reckon the true practioners & purveyors of this sorta maniacal music keep their songs under
11:58. It's no coincidence, that's exactly how long it takes to sit through RUSH's "By Tor AND the Snow Dog'

see XANADU, that's song is a mere ten minutes and change.

HAPPY FATHER"S DAY !
Now go and hang up your strides for work tomorrow.



Post Edited (06-18-17 18:09)