Great neo-prog albums you try to keep in stock?

[GaetanL]

Great neo-prog albums you try to keep in stock?

 

[lasercd]

I try to keep anything that's great in stock, regardless of genre.

I guess I don't understand the question.

 

[GaetanL]

So, what are the neo-prog albums you consider to be great?

 

[lasercd]

Not that many to be honest. Not a genre that I am much of a fan. Sal and (God help me for saying this) Bob can give you a better answer.

For me neo-prog misses all the elements in progressive music that I need.

 

[lasercd]

Sal? Bob? Karl? Anyone?

 

[TCProgger]

What constitutes neo-prog, though? There are the bands that came about in the 80s of course - Marillion, Asia, IQ - but should we also include new bands that play in a classic progressive style, like Beardfish? I wouldn't call them "neo" in comparison to the other bands I mentioned, but how do we define the term?

 

[Metman]

Arena
I.Q
Pendragon
Satellite
Vienna Circle
Marillion
Frost
Sylvan
Anubis
Comedy Of Errors
RPWL
Galahad
Airbag
Believe
Echo Us
Gallion
Jadis
K2
Pallas
Millenium
Clepsydra
Madigan


These are some of my Fav. off the top of my Head..... 80% of my Prog cds Are Neo- Prog....

 

[Metman]

Not that many to be honest. Not a genre that I am much of a fan. Sal and (God help me for saying this) Bob can give you a better answer.

For me neo-prog misses all the elements in progressive music that I need.

 

[lasercd]

Its a valid question and one that I believe came up when Gaetan started a discussion about neo-prog on the PM: Rising board.

http://www.pmrising.com/pm/viewtopic.php?t=10152

To my mind neo-prog is a commercialized, streamlined version of Prog. I don't consider new bands playing in the classic progressive style to be neo-prog and I don't think they would at all. Some of them don't even think they are prog at all!

YMMV

 

[TCProgger]

To my mind neo-prog is a commercialized, streamlined version of Prog. I don't consider new bands playing in the classic progressive style to be neo-prog and I don't think they would at all. Some of them don't even think they are prog at all!

YMMV

I agree, Ken. I would never consider bands like Beardfish and Black Bonzo, for example, to be neo-prog, while I would more easily use the label on acts like Frost* or Flying Colors.

 

[lasercd]

Agreed.

To me IQ is the best of the neoprog bands - but that comes with a caveat. The IQ albums I like the best are the ones with Peter Nicholls after he rejoined the band. Those albums lose their commercial edge and have much more of an old school prog feel. Starting with Subterranea I think their releases have been outstanding. The Road Of Bones is fantastic.

 

[TCProgger]

I've been interested in delving into IQ for some time, I'll start there then. Thanks.

 

[GaetanL]

We have to be careful we genres. Sometimes a band is a mix of genres or their genre simply change through time. On progarchives.com a band have always one genre. I prefer the approach of metal-archives.com. They sometimes put multiple genre for a band or they write this genre "early" and this other genre "later".

The band IQ is really a great discovery for me. This is mainly why I want to explore more deeply the neo-prog genre. The genre will help me to find faster other band that I like but at the same time, I may overlook a band that I would have liked because it is not in the neo-prog category. The best is to listen to all bands but nobody have the time for that.

First IQ disc (Tales From The Lush Attic) (1983) (I recommend the 2013 Remix) starts with a 20 minutes song. To me, this is not what I call "commercial". I love this album. The album "The Wake" just after is great too. After that there are 2 albums ("Nomzamo" and "Are You Sitting Comfortably?") with another singer. I don't like these two albums. They sound very commercial. If most of other neo-prog bands sound like that, I think I will stop my research now. I love also the last three albums "Dark Matter", "Frequency" and "The Road Of Bones".

Ken knows old school prog a thousand times better than me. So if he said "The road of bones" have an old school prog feels. I want to hear more albums like that. But maybe they are produced by bands not in the neo-prog category. I like complexity in music when there is also a good sens of melody. Maybe IQ is a mix of Symphonic prog (old school) and Neo-prog. Maybe they should be listed like that on progarchives.com. Ok, maybe in this particular case, it doesn't make sens because we cannot be old and new (neo) at the same time!

 

[Metman]

I've been interested in delving into IQ for some time, I'll start there then. Thanks.

""Dark Matter"" Is a great release too....

 

[Metman]

Not that many to be honest. Not a genre that I am much of a fan. Sal and (God help me for saying this) Bob can give you a better answer.

For me neo-prog misses all the elements in progressive music that I need.

And what is that ,,,That you need...All kidding aside Ken ?

 

[lasercd]

And what is that ,,,That you need...All kidding aside Ken ?

Good question. Simply something that challenges my mind with more complexity.

 

[Magic Mountain]

Sal? Bob? Karl? Anyone?

Sorry, but I was on vacation the past couple weeks.

Good question. Simply something that challenges my mind with more complexity.

I have over the years acquired a vast collection across all genres of progressive rock and jazz. Neo is also not my favorite genre (jazz/Rock fusion being by far #1), but I do still enjoy some of the bands. I love diversity, and on any Saturday night I can go from listening to Henry Cow to Charles Mingus to Grobschnitt to Loreena McKennitt to Iron Maiden, you get the drift. Here are my Top 50 Neo albums (limited to 1 per group). The bolded are considered essential:

Lee Abraham - View from the Bridge
Airbag - All rights Removed
Arena - Pepper's Ghost
Believe - This Bread Is Mine
Black Mountain - Wilderness Heart
Clover Seeds - Innocence
Credo - Rhetoric
Disconnect - Enough Blame To Go Around
Echoes of Giants - At the End of Myself
Ferris Mudd - s/t
Fish - Sunsets on Empire
The Flower Kings - Meet The Flower Kings
Gazpacho - Night
Jeff Green Project - Elder Creek
Intensions - Place in Time
IQ - Dark Matter
IZZ - My River Flows
Karmakanic - Who's the Boss in the Factory
La Tulipe Noire - Nostimon Hemar
Magenta - Seven
Magic Pie - Circus Of Life
Marillion - Script For A Jester's Tear
Martigan - Vision
Mermaid Kiss - Etarlis
Metamorphosis - Dark
David Minasian - Random Acts of Beauty
Mindfields - One
Moonrise - Soul's Inner Pendulum
Neal Morse - ?
Nine Stones Close - Traces
Pendragon - The World
Phideaux - Doomsday Afternoon
Pineapple Thief - 3000 Days (Compilation)
Postures - s/t
Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third
Quidam - Alone Together
Ritual - The Hemulic Voluntary Band
Rocket Scientists - Oblivion Days
Salem Hill - Mimi's Magic Moment
Salva - A Handful Of Earth
Satellite - A Street Between Sunrise And Sunset
Soma White S/t
Spock's Beard - V
Sylvan - Posthumous Silence
Steve Thorne - Emotional Creatures: Part I
Timothy Pure - Blood of the Berry
Touchstone - Wintercoast
Transatlantic - SMPTe
Trion - Pilgrim
William Gray - Living Fossils

I know I've forgotten some. Remember this is just one man's opinion. YMMV

Karl

 

[TCProgger]

Interesting list there. But it brings me back in mind of my original question of how we define "neo-prog". Some of the albums you cite come from groups I wouldn't personally consider neo-prog, such as Phideaux, Spock's Beard, and Arena (at least not since their very earliest material anyway). While there are certain stylistic elements that I know separate neo from other forms of progressive music, I guess it can also be a matter of personal opinion.

 

[Magic Mountain]

Modern bands following the stylistic template developed by the 70s symph bands but with less focus on complexity and more of a focus on accessibility.

 

[_Gentleman of_the Snow_]

Frost* Milliontown is a must own, OP. Brilliant album with some of the best production you'll ever hear, even considering it's 10 years old.

Spock's Beard Snow is good. Is that Neo, though?