Top 5 "Classic" Prog albums

[Tayo]

1) Yes Close To The Edge
2) Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here
3) Genesis Wind And Wuthering
4) Pink Floyd Dark Side Of The Moon
5) Yes Relayer

[HORDE]

1. King Crimson..............Thrak
2. Gentle Giant...............Aquiring The Taste
3. Yes.............................Close To The Edge
4. Genessis....................Lamb Lies Down
5. Pink Floyd..................Animals

[black max]

I admire you people's guts for trying to weed it out to just 5. No can do on this end. Random commentary:

Nice to see mention of later KC, Djam Karet, and some of the others. Djam's "The Devouring" is a tremendous choice; far and away their most "traditionally" proggy, it has a great Pink Floyd feel to it that most of their other material lacks.

I hate the term "prog." I use it for lack of a better term. The discussion of "art rock" vs. "prog" was interesting, but the term "art rock" is no better. Wish there was a really workable term for the music..."Weisenheimer," maybe, or "Shmoo."

[Rick and Roll]

is also another word (although Shmoo is a great word). Please don't start the old prog discussion. My ass still hurts from getting reamed by the comments.

Good to see some feedback on the Djam Karet. They're just an amazing group. The Devouring is a transcendental recording. It's like KC's Discipline, in my book.

The Live at Orion disc is also fantastic (I only live about 15 miles away from Orion Sound Studios). Snag it if you can find it. Discipline also has a incredible recording from there.

And for the Echolyn fans, they just played there Saturday (I had a previous commitment, for which I will be eternally pissed). Word has it that they recorded that show. Maybe there will be another Live At Orion disc soon!

[black max]

No, we don't want to start that chestnut rolling again. But it's too bad we can't come up with a term better than "prog." Dave Grisman calls his stuff "dawg music." That works for me.

Djam Karet is a major find for anyone who appreciates guitar-driven, uh, prog music. "Burning the Hard City" is one of my favorites along with "The Devouring," "Reflections from the Firepool," and others. The Live at Orion disc is very good, a terrifically clean mix, and a great place to start for people who are curious to find out what DK is all about. I'm slightly less taken with their last two albums, from what I've heard, but I know DK well enough to know that if I give the new stuff a chance, it'll grow on me.

[Rick and Roll]

Burning The Hard City is the one that really got me into them (along with Firepool). I agree - the last two are a bit inferior, even after comparison with Devouring. If they would have combined them (I think the last one is a short release), that would have been good.

[progdirjim(Admin)]

I'd have to agree - New Dark Age and Ascencion are a bit weaker than some of DK's better efforts (I especially like Firepool and BTHC), but there are some fine moments on there.

I've just ordered Devouring and will be adding that to the station shortly - not sure how I've gone without it for so long, since I think a lot of it. I also have the newest "A Night For Baku", and so far I'd rate it above New Dark Age/Ascencion - a bit more keys than is typical for them, and good songs. Look for it here soon as well...

[Rick and Roll]

I wasn't aware of a new one - I don't get out much anymore. I'll have to take a listen. Is Mike Henderson only on some of it, or it is it just keyboard-oriented?

[rick_wakeman]

very interesting...

Fish out of water
Wish you were here
Tales of t.o.
The six wives of henry VIII
Turbulent Zone (Versus X)



And so many others... It's a torture.

[progdirjim(Admin)]

The new one is called "A Night For Baku", and features all 5 members - both Aaron Kenyon and Henry Osborne are playing bass now. It's similar to "typical" DK, but with more keys than in the past. Still has the inspired guitar leads, ambient soundscapes, and jamming skills that we love so well...

[Rick and Roll]

that sounds like a winner to me!

[black max]

"The Ritual Continues" is also prime DK.

[Howard Roark]

Hello All,

I will start my virgin post off with my fav discs.

1 Rush- A Farewell to Kings
2 Starcastle- Starcastle
3 King Crimson- In the court of the crimson King
4 ELP- Trilogy
5 Max Webster- Mutiney up my Sleeve

Thanks for looking.

Originally posted by Howard Roark
Hello All,

I will start my virgin post off with my fav discs.

1 Rush- A Farewell to Kings
2 Starcastle- Starcastle
3 King Crimson- In the court of the crimson King
4 ELP- Trilogy
5 Max Webster- Mutiney up my Sleeve

Thanks for looking.

Nice to see someone with a Starcastle album in their list.......a first I think.

I bought their first album after reading a review in Sounds (a British music paper from "a While" back and never regretted it for a moment. As a Yes fan I could see the similarity but so what? The songs were good esp. Forces and they made me want to get some more. When I bought Fountains......... I was even more delighted. Citadel was a bit disappointing and Real to Reel was even more so. I thought they'd lost their Prog aspect completely and had become more Boston or Foreigner.

Enough raving. I'm off to request Fountains of Light from the play list.

Welcome to the forums Howard.

[Howard Roark]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for the welcome!

It's a shame that Starcastle had to suffer the pressure of their record label, so much that it caused the disband of the group!

Looking back on things I get kind of a charge out of the fact that many people were quick to make the Yes comparison, while today, most of the "New" bands that I hear ALL sound the same..just an old musicians perspective I guess.

Max Webster suffered the same fate, only they were in the shadow of RUSH, not a bad shadow to be in, but another talented group of musicians had to call it a day.

The good news is that Starcastle is getting ready to release a new CD,according to their website and with luck, these younger bands will get a chance to see some very talented musicians perform when they decide to tour. Starcastle was one of the best live bands that I can remember from that time period.

Thanks,

HR

[roger]

though I'm a new member, I've held my Starcastle roots under my hat; they seem to not get quite the respect they deserve. I would agree completely with your album reviews, Keith, Citadel and Reel were just plain disappointing, regardless of why they were written. Starcastle got me into other groups, like Yes, and later on, Genesis(around the Three Sides Live period, which suited me just fine; Wind and Wuthering is another favorite.) I wish my budget allowed me to experience the depth of AM!

one other group I used to listen to(yikes, 20 some years ago!) was Barclay James Harvest. not really sure if they qualify for prog status, it's been so long since I've listened! where's that vinyl...

[progdirjim(Admin)]

There's one other plus to Starcastle. I met Gary Strater at Nearfest 2001 - he was selling the Starcastle CD that's on AM and contains alternate versions of several classic Starcastle tracks and a few new pieces as well - and he's a heck of a nice guy. I was taking a break during one of the bands (I can only sit in a seat for so long before getting real antsy, so I was having a beer, listening to After Crying, peeking in occasionally, and talking with Gary.) He confirmed that they were working on some new material. There was also a guy attending Nearfest that was nearly Herb Schildt's (keyboardist) double, and we had a laugh over that - I even said "Isn't that one of your bandmates?"

Yeah, they were kind of derivative of Yes. So what? They didn't steal riffs - all their compositions were original - did anyone ever actually mistake them for Yes? If you're going to be inspired and heavily influenced by a band, there's choices that are much worse...

Originally posted by roger
one other group I used to listen to(yikes, 20 some years ago!) was Barclay James Harvest. not really sure if they qualify for prog status, it's been so long since I've listened! where's that vinyl...

Roger,

BJH? Now there's a pretty good band. They have been around for years as you say and, in the British press at least, were always reffered to as "The Poor Man's Moody Blues" - The band even released a song called that on their album "Gone to Earth". It was a very tongue in cheek rewrite of Nights in White Satin.

The only reason I could see for the comparison was their use of mellotron. I always liked the band and their songs were good and the playing excellent.

I'd say that they qualify for the AM playlist. Their songs have a definite prog sound/feel to them especially on ones like 'Mockingbird', 'Galadriel' and 'Summer Soldier'.

If we were to get some on the playlist a good starter would be the live albums "BJH live" and "Live tapes" as they have a good cross section of their work.