Airbag - All Rights Removed ( 2011 )
You wouldn't know it from my previous recommendations but prog rock is definitely still alive and kicking in the 21st Century, and one of the best of these new bands is Norway's Airbag. Formed as a Pink Floyd covers band, they eventually graduated to writing their own tunes, and their second full length All Rights Removed is a doozy. There's no shortage of bands out there that evoke vintage Floyd, but Airbag are a little different in that they perfectly capture the claustrophobic feel of the Animals album - not an easy task. There's a touch of Porcupine Tree to the vocals, but it's the soaring Gilmouresque guitar leads and memorable choruses that really grab the listener's attention. If this floats your boat it'd also be worth tracking down either of Think Floyd's albums - although their sound is more geared towards post - Roger Floyd. BUY IT HERE
Ian Carr with Nucleus - Solar Plexus ( 1971 )
Ian Carr may well be the single most important figure from the 60's / 70's English jazz scene.
A Miles Davis disciple, he took the template Davis set with Bitches Brew and Jack Johnson and crafted an impeccable run of funky prog jazz gems, with Solar Plexus being my favorite. There's a huge variety of music to be found here, from the creepily Doctor Whoish Elements I & II, to the lyrical Changing Times, to the fantastically loose Snakehip's Dream, a close cousin to Side One of A tribute to Jack Johnson. BUY IT HERE
Gila - Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee ( 1973 )
With only guitarist Conny Veit left from the first album's line up, this is a very different proposition. While the first album relied on dense space rock jams with plenty of improv passages, this second album is a much more carefully structured piece of work with plenty of acoustic guitar passages, making it sound a little like a folkier version of the middle part of Pink Floyd's Meddle, with a touch of West Coast psychedelia also present in the mix. Epic closer, The Buffalo Are Coming is the proggiest and best cut by a long shot with it's dramatic, thunderous percussion. BUY IT HERE
Curved Air - Phantasmagoria ( 1972 )
Their third album, and the last by what's generally regarded as the classic line up, this fulfills the promise of their first two albums and expands upon them dramatically. Things start off safely enough with a couple of solid and relatively straight forward prog folk cuts, before things get a little more unusual with the tracks Not Quite The Same, Once a Ghost Always a Ghost and the excellent title track, all of which are quirky prog pop gems with memorable choruses and adventurous jazzy time signatures. Things get a little too adventurous on Whose Shoulder Are You Looking Over Anyway?, a tuneless, atonal keyboard dirge, but otherwise this is heaps of fun and should appeal to fans of the Canterbury Scene. BUY IT HERE
Opeth - Damnation ( 2003 )
A very divisive album this one, which tends to be viewed with suspicion by their loyal fanbase, but loved by a more contemporary audience. Mikael Akerfeldt had never made a secret of his love for 70's prog rock, naming three previous Opeth albums after some of his favorite obscure bands, but no one seemed to expect this - a full blown melodic prog album with no sign of their metal roots and Akerfeldt using his sweet singing voice exclusively. Producer Steven Wilson provides a contemporary sheen so that you can never mistake this for a lost seventies relic, although the sound on this album does tend to recall Camel, but with a less dated keyboard sound and an extensive use of mellotron. Consistently great, the highlights are Windowpane, Death Whispered a Lullaby and the Andy Latimer inspired Ending Credits, although final track Weakness is an underwhelming finale which sounds like it would make a better prelude to something more dramatic, than a closing note for the album itself. BUY IT HERE
Steel Mill - Green Eyed God ( 1972 ) A memorable hard rocking prog album by an English outfit that had some success in Germany with their first single release, but didn't stand a chance in their homeland with their record label holding back the album release for a ridiculous amount of time. It's all very English and very pastoral, although don't think of pastoral in terms of Barclay James Harvest or Spring. This taps into something much more pagan and sinister. You can definitely see why metal label Rise Above chose it for reissue. There's some haunting flute work that sounds nothing like Ian Anderson despite what a lot of other reviewers seem to say, and some excellent sax which places this up there with early Black Widow and Ginhouse as one of the better atmospheric dark prog outfits. BUY IT HERE
Camel - Mirage ( 1974 )
Being asked to pick a favorite Camel album is a little like deciding which of your children you like the best. After much deliberation I've decided that throwing you in the deep end with Mirage is probably the best bet. While it's two follow ups The Snow Goose and Moonmadness are both excellent too, Mirage strikes the best balance between showing off their prog credentials and their songwriting skills. Pete Barden's keyboards are accomplished, but it's Andy Latimer's fluid guitar work which impresses most. Lady Fantasy may well be the ultimate Camel track ( although Ice from I Can See Your House From Here better highlights Latimer's lyrical guitar playing ). BUY IT HERE
Marsupilami - Arena ( 1971 )
Their self-titled debut is generally regarded as their finest hour, but I've got to admit a preference for this much darker follow up, which is a loose concept album centred around the violence of ancient Rome. Enlisting Camel's Pete Bardens for production duties didn't do any harm and neither did expanding their musical palate to include a lot more woodwind and mellotron. Musically this is complex, multilayered stuff with pleasingly obtuse melodies - like a much more aggressive version of the stuff that Genesis and Yes would soon be coming up with. Great drums too. Certainly a more difficult listen than the first album, but more rewarding in the long run. BUY IT HERE
Titus Groan ( 1970 )
This is an excellent early proto prog oddity with some psychedelic and blues touches. With it's reputation for being a bit wishy washy, I was very pleasantly surprised by this album. While it's lack of commercial success made a follow up financially unfeasible, these guys definitely had the chops to go far. Excellent drums and woodwinds, with some nice organ work on most tracks. The obvious highlight is the epic Hall of Bright Carvings, with it's memorable oboe and guitar refrain suggesting an unearthed Tudor relic. BUY IT HERE
Aphrodite's Child - 666 ( 1972 )
They'd had a hit a few years previously with the appealingly mawkish psych pop ballad Rain & Tears, but it was only with this, their third and last album that Aphrodite's Child became Greek prog gods. Sure it's a little bit too long ( lose the twenty minute jam on side 4 perhaps? ) but this is an epic and totally unique listening experience who's reputation seems to be on the rise lately. The Four Horsemen is the highlight, but there's plenty more gold here. And Demis Roussos bass playing skills were a big surprise to this listener. They called it a day before this was even released, with Vangelis heading off for a successful solo career, and Demis Roussos on his way to easy listening glory. Show some respect and remember them for this. BUY IT HERE
You can find parts 1 & 2 of this feature here and here.
Affinity - Affinity ( 1970 )
One of the earliest and very best progressive jazz rock releases with very strong vocals from Linda Hoyle, and lots of Hammond organ. I Am And So Are You is punchy and direct and should have been a hit single, while the following Night Flight stretches out a bit more with a great guitar riff during the outro. Their cover of All Along the Watchtower could perhaps do with some judicious editing but otherwise this is prog jazz gold of the highest caliber. BUY IT HERE
Babe Ruth - First Base ( 1972 )
Excellent progressive hard rock with superb guitars by Alan Shacklock and another strong female vocalist in Jenny Haan. Amazingly assured for a debut, they never bettered this. Most well known for The Mexican, based on Morricone's For a Few Dollars More, there's also much more to enjoy here in the form of The Runaways' steadily building crescendos, Black Dog's straight out rock and their immaculate take on Zappa's King Kong. BUY IT HERE
Gravy Train - Staircase To The Day ( 1974 )
Patchy but interesting final album from this UK outfit who started out on Vertigo, before moving to the dawn label. Opener Starlight, Starbright has a great riff and an anthemic glam inspired chorus, Never Wanted You is a nice slice of Deep Purple- lite hard rock, and the intro from the excellent title track absolutely has to be the inspiration for Metallica's Call of Cthulu. Navigate your way around the Dad-rock tracks and you've got a fine album of prog boogie fusion. BUY IT HERE
Roy Harper - Stormcock ( 1971 )
Folk and Prog often make uneasy bedfellows, but you wouldn't know it from this, Harper's masterpiece. Basically a prog rock album played on acoustic instruments these are long, complex, multifaceted pieces with virtuoso guitar playing from Harper and guest Jimmy Page, exquisite orchestral accompaniment by David Bedford and some of Harper's very best songs sung with unwavering conviction. Everyone should own a copy of this. BUY IT HERE
Manfred Mann Chapter Three Volume One ( 1969 )
Absolutely stonking progressive jazz from this most unlikely of sources. Some fairly dark prog rock tunes with a swampy voodoo vibe and mindblowing sax solos that verge on free-jazz at times. At the other end of the spectrum, One Way Glass is a stomping upbeat brass driven rocker that gives Chicago a run for their money. Click here for a more in depth review.BUY IT HERE
Caravan - If I Could Do It All Over Again I'd Do It All Over You ( 1970 )
One thing I love about Caravan, and the Canterbury Scene in general is their wacky sense of humor and pop smarts. There's a perception that progressive musos are all humorless boffins, who approach their music with scientific precision, and little in the way of joy. One listen to the bouncy title track on here should help dispel those misconceptions, and there's a lot of fun to be had all over this record. The follow up, In The Land of Grey And Pink is generally more highly regarded, but this is a much more enjoyable record and catches them at the cusp between their earlier psych identity and the progressive monster they were to become. BUY IT HERE
Comus - First Utterance ( 1971 )
An astonishingly creepy progressive folk masterpiece that the world was just not ready for in 1971. Dark stuff with subject matter that touches on madness, pagan sacrifice and more, this is a totally unsettling, but compelling listening experience which defies comparison ( but I'll try anyway ). Musically they sound a little like A Beard of Stars era Tyrannosaurus Rex, only with Bolan's woodland elves replaced with a keen interest in demonology. Opeth's Mikael Akerfeldt is a big enough fan to have named one of their albums ( My Arms, Your Hearse ) after one of their lyrics. BUY IT HERE
Still Life - Still Life ( 1971 )
This one's got a bit of a poor reputation, but is pretty great if approached with the right expectations. A Hammond organ led 3 piece, these guys come across like a less complicated and much darker version of the more highly rated Vertigo outfit Cressida. Simplistic, hard rocking prog with mysterious occult lyrics, which would probably appeal more to a hard rock audience than a prog one, which may explain it's reputation. Aside from some wonderful Hammond work, there's also some great flute and the choruses on tracks like standouts October Witches and Love Song No. 6 are as good as anything from the Uriah Heep songbook. BUY IT HERE
Ragnarok - Ragnarok ( 1975 )
Great debut from New Zealand's best prog outfit. The only album they released with stunning female vocalist Lea Maalfrid, this is an intriguing mixture of Eloy style space rock with obvious Pink Floyd influences, with some hooky choruses, notably the glammish Caviar Queen, while opener Fenris features the sort of vocal gymnastics that bands like Nightwish aim for. The follow up album Nooks, is also rather good and heavy on mellotron for those that like that sort of thing.
The Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery & Imagination ( 1976 )
There are people out there rolling their eyes at me for including this, but this is smooth, radio friendly progressive rock at it's best. Based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, there's a bit of everything here from the prog-pop of (The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather, to the demented ( but still immaculately smooth ) Arthur Brown voiced Tell-Tale Heart, to the orchestral suite of The Fall of the House of Usher, which sounds like it comes straight from one of the Corman Poe films. A guilty pleasure. BUY IT HERE. YOU KNOW YOU WANT TO.
Gnidrolog - Lady Lake ( 1972 ) These guys are a little more unusual and definitely not everyone's cup of tea. Their debut In Spite of Harry's Toenail is a pretty eclectic mix of avant-garde prog rock which is very entertaining but not for the faint-hearted. For this, their second they added woodwinds ( flute, oboe, recorders, sax and more ) cleaned up the production and toned down the wackiness a little. The title track is reason enough to buy this one - an epic with an impeccable arrangement. Fans of Gentle Giant and Van Der Graaf Generator should investigate immediately. BUY IT HERE
East of Eden - Mercator Projected ( 1969 )
A real product of it's time this one, that could have just as easily fit onto one of the psychedelic lists. Groundbreaking proto prog with catchy riffs and excellent use of wind instruments including a very beatnik flute solo in the excellent Isadora. Waterways combines tribal drumming, eastern guitar and sax scales and underwater vocals to create a bit of an epic. Oh yes, and the violin player from Baba O'Riley is in the band. Interested yet? BUY IT HERE
King Crimson - In The Wake of Poseidon ( 1970 )
Generally ignored in favor of their classic debut In The Court of the Crimson King, this is actually a very fine follow up which, while not covering much in the way of new ground, still has plenty to offer. Pictures of a City rocks and will give fans of 21st Century Schizoid Man plenty to smile about. Cat Food is as close as this line-up got to radio friendly, and The Devil's Triangle ( based on Holst's Mars ) is a dark and moody mellotron tour de force. BUY IT HERE
Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds ( 1972 )
Another maligned album by an otherwise respected artist, I've never been able to work out why people don't seem to click with this album. If anything it's a little darker and more adventurous than their previous works, with some krautrock motorik rhythms and drone experiments that they never really revisited. With a lot of instrumental pieces, there's plenty of room for some lovely David Gilmour guitar work, and Wot's Uh The Deal is one of his nicest acoustic tracks with a stunning slide solo. Definitely an album that's due for reappraisal. BUY IT HERE
Far East Family Band - Nipponjin ( 1975 )
Very entertaining space-rock release, heavily influenced by Pink Floyd ( especially the guitar work ) and Hawkwind. Long tracks with wonderful keyboard and mellotron work ( by a pre-new age Kitaro ), lots of sitar, massive lyrical guitar solos and general all round epicness, with tracks that build to massive crescendos. Marvelous stuff. BUY IT HERE
Room - Pre-Flight ( 1970 )
Love this one. Somehow the budget for this unknown outfit's album ( apparently the rarest U.K release on the Deram label ) stretched to a full orchestra, which they use to amazing effect on the mindbogglingly good Cemetery Junction, a fantastically gloomy doom-prog suite, which may well be my favorite prog track of all time. The title track is also successfully ambitious. Elsewhere there are moments that bring to mind the jazz rock of Affinity, and the guitarist has a trill that would do Tony Iommi proud. Great. BUY IT HERE
Woody Kern - The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk ( 1968 )
Where's the love for this entertaining piece of proto-prog? Generally given a bum wrap, this is actually a pretty great album. Very early prog, but with more of a grounding in blues and psychedelia as was normal at the time. There's a lively cover of Spirit's Uncle John, but the stand-outs are their own Xoanan Bay and Gramophone Man, both prog-psych gems, and the moody, woodwind driven Tell You I'm Gone.
Gracious ( 1970 )
A rather excellent and varied debut, from this most English of prog bands, on the treasured Vertigo swirl label. Intricate arrangements, with complex, classically influenced keyboard work, some nice guitar and excellent pop harmonies. Opener, Introduction suggests Black Sabbath covering the Beatles, while Heaven and The Dream feature copious amounts of mellotron. This one takes a few listens but stick with it, there's lots of gold to be found if you keep digging. BUY IT HERE
Spring ( 1971 )
Produced by Elton John producer Gus Dudgeon, and featuring future Dire Straits drummer Pick Withers, this album has an interesting pedigree, but never sold in big numbers and is now one of the most valuable releases on RCA's Neon label. A mellotron lovers dream there's also some tasteful, clean guitar work and a very pastoral, English sound. Grail and Golden Fleece are the stand outs. Less complex than most prog of the era, it's generally chilled sound makes it a perfect Sunday afternoon prog album.
Black Widow - Sacrifice ( 1970 )
With a stage show that culminated in a mock human sacrifice you'd expect this to sound a lot heavier than it does. Once you've come to terms with the fact that you haven't discovered a new Black Sabbath, there's a lot to enjoy here. Musically this is more along the lines of Jethro Tull, with added hammond organ. The lyrics are entertaining occult hokum, politely English and seemingly inspired by the works of Dennis Wheatley and Hammer Horror, and they even managed a minor hit with Come To The Sabbat, probably the only hit single of the seventies to name check Satan? BUY IT HERE
1969 was a good year to be a successful young musician.With the majority of major English record companies forming underground labels specifically for the more adventurous counter-culture longhair market, artistic freedom was at a high. Philips established the highly collectable Vertigo label, and one of their first releases was Manfred Mann Chapter Three Volume One. Manfred Mann was of course a very well established pop group with hits like Pretty Flamingo and Do-Wah- Diddy-Diddy. Ready for a change, Mann and electric pianist / vocalist Mike Hugg dropped the rest of the band and enlisted former East of Eden bass player Steve York, drummer Craig Collinge and most importantly a five piece brass section comprised of some of the hottest young talent in the U.K at the time, and set out to explore their love of jazz.
For a band who's previous release only a year before had been a singalong cover of Bob Dylan's The Mighty Quinn, a dark, voodoo jazz-rock LP replete with Albert Ayler inspired free-jazz solos must have come as a shock to long term fans. Clearly this is not your Dad's Manfred Mann.
Along with contemporarys like Ian Carr's Nucleus and Colosseum, Mann and co. were instrumental in these formative years of the merging of jazz and progressive rock. American bands like Chicago were already working the brass rock formula, but the U.K scene was pushing the envelope a considerable distance further.
Not that the Manfred's pop hooks were gone - perhaps as a concession to older fans One Way Glass toned down the jazz elements and with it's clattering drums, insistent fuzz bass and psychedelic vocal treatments should have been a hit.
And to me what raises Chapter Three above other U.K acts of the time is the quality of the songwriting. There's no doubt that there were plenty of fine players on this fledgeling scene, but few had compositions this strong to launch from. Snakeskin Garter, One Way Glass, and Sometimes are all particularly memorable.
Mike Hugg's voice may be an acquired taste for some, but fans of the creepy juju stylings of early Dr John are in for a treat. It's a particularly good fit for their spooky half speed take on the Yardbird's Mister You're A Batter Man Than I.
Konekuf and A Study In Inaccuracy verge closer to Nucleus territory and give the brass section plenty of room to flex their improv muscles, while Where Am I Going supplies a calm, contemplative coda.
They also supplied the soundtrack for Jess Franco's psychotronic film classic Venus in Furs - a great headtrip of a score which needs to see release, as well as Chapter Three Volume Two and part of a third album before they folded leading to the formation of Manfred Mann's Earth Band who produced some interesting progressive rock ( notably Solar Fire ) in a more Pink Floydish style before being back in the charts with their cover of Bruce Springsteen's Blinded By The Light.
