Dark Prog

[Scrotum Scissor]

I somehow keep forgetting the most seminal Nordic "dark" prog band of all time, the inimitable Thule from Honningsvåg, close to the North Cape and the Arctic Plateau. They are a legendary cult band in Norway; surprisingly many up-and-going folks of my generation (born 1971) know about them, and particularly amongst musicians. Honningsvåg was originally just a tiny fishing village; extremely isolated and practically locked-off from everyone and everywhere. The place would traditionally and typically only accomodate folks into either the fishing industry, leisure servants (cafés and pubs, of which I believe there are three or four in all of town), daydrifters or the arts; many Thule lyrics deal with the existential challenge of coping with apparent nothingness up there.

Natt ("Night") was their second album (1989) and their absolute crowning achievement, merging Pink Floyd, Peter Hammill, post-punk (or "nyrock" in Norwegian) and faint folk tendencies sporting incredibly haunting lyrical images in their own Arctic dialect ('Finnmarsking'). The album as such is an allegory of social and psychological futility in trying to escape the "contextual" parameter of fate, breathtakingly corresponding with the collapse of the Eastern bloc's initial ideals of commonship and tribal grace. The finishing track, "Vinterbarn" ("Winter's Child") is one of the most visionary melancholy songs ever produced by a Northern rock band., but the whole album is indispensible for not only 'prog history' buffs but the seekers of spiritual shade.

[Zeuhlmate]

Trivia: My mother was from Honningsvåg

[Rarebird]

How about the Canadian group Indiscipline?

[neuroticdog]

Stara Rzeka is great and the Instant Classic label has a treasure trove of good stuff on it (anything involving either Kuba Ziolek or Waclaw Zimpel demands to be checked out, for a start).

Well thanks Walt and Macodagama.

I downloaded the two Stara Rzeka's and listened to the first last night. Loved it!


Of the stuff on IC that I have, darkest is probably Merkabah:

Mascodagama, would you mind giving a brief rundown of this label? What do you think is essential? A great deal is available on itunes. After just 5 minutes of listening to Merkabah I immediately snatched it...I know I'm gonna dig this one hugely.

I also procured a Waclaw Zimpel release called "Lines". Just listening to the short snippets on itunes convinced me this was a must have.

This label holds big interest for me...anything else you can recommend with table pounding intensity? (not the music necessarily, the recommendation)

TIA

best
Michael

[100423]

I somehow keep forgetting the most seminal Nordic "dark" prog band of all time, the inimitable Thule from Honningsvåg, close to the North Cape and the Arctic Plateau. They are a legendary cult band in Norway; surprisingly many up-and-going folks of my generation (born 1971) know about them, and particularly amongst musicians. Honningsvåg was originally just a tiny fishing village; extremely isolated and practically locked-off from everyone and everywhere. The place would traditionally and typically only accomodate folks into either the fishing industry, leisure servants (cafés and pubs, of which I believe there are three or four in all of town), daydrifters or the arts; many Thule lyrics deal with the existential challenge of coping with apparent nothingness up there.

Natt ("Night") was their second album (1989) and their absolute crowning achievement, merging Pink Floyd, Peter Hammill, post-punk (or "nyrock" in Norwegian) and faint folk tendencies sporting incredibly haunting lyrical images in their own Arctic dialect ('Finnmarsking'). The album as such is an allegory of social and psychological futility in trying to escape the "contextual" parameter of fate, breathtakingly corresponding with the collapse of the Eastern bloc's initial ideals of commonship and tribal grace. The finishing track, "Vinterbarn" ("Winter's Child") is one of the most visionary melancholy songs ever produced by a Northern rock band., but the whole album is indispensible for not only 'prog history' buffs but the seekers of spiritual shade.

Your description (and the linked song on youtube) has me intrigued and I need to investigate more. Thanks for this recommendation.

[battema]

I liked the Thule as well. Will probably go hunting around for a copy

[Steve F.]

I liked the Thule as well. Will probably go hunting around for a copy

The sample didn't do much for me. I liked SS's appreciation of it much more than the music itself!

[100423]

The sample didn't do much for me. I liked SS's appreciation of it much more than the music itself!

Maybe try this one, I dig the vibe of it:

[walt]

Aarktica(Jon DeRosa) covers "Am I Demon".I like it.

[Mascodagama]

Mascodagama, would you mind giving a brief rundown of this label? What do you think is essential? A great deal is available on itunes. After just 5 minutes of listening to Merkabah I immediately snatched it...I know I'm gonna dig this one hugely.

I also procured a Waclaw Zimpel release called "Lines". Just listening to the short snippets on itunes convinced me this was a must have.

This label holds big interest for me...anything else you can recommend with table pounding intensity? (not the music necessarily, the recommendation)

TIA

best
Michael

I certainly haven't listened to everything on the label, so my views will be partial. But there is a strong strand amongst their releases of stuff that combines in various proportions Krautrock, improv and minimalism, sometimes with additional helpings of noise / psychedelia / metal. If you go to their Bandcamp site you can hear all their releases streaming for free and sample things until you find what's to your liking.

Having said that, I'd heartily recommend these, all of which I have:

Alameda 5 - Duch Tornada
Alameda 3 - Pozne krolestwo
Innercity Ensemble - II
Innercity Ensemble - III
Kristen - LAS
LAM - s/t
Saagara - 2

Given your liking for Stara Rzeka, Waclaw Zimpel and Merkabah I think you'd find all those worth investigating.

[spacefreak]

I somehow keep forgetting the most seminal Nordic "dark" prog band of all time, the inimitable Thule from Honningsvåg,

Yep... memory lapses again. "Natt" is such a great album. From an era when progressive rock was quasi non-existent outside of RIO.

Ur Kaos "A Terrible Beauty Is Born", Lach'n Jonsson's albums and Czech band Urfaust "Faust and Margaret" can also be recommendations for this thread.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Ur Kaos "A Terrible Beauty Is Born", Lach'n Jonsson's albums and Czech band Urfaust "Faust and Margaret" can also be recommendations for this thread.

All three Ur Kaos albums are excellent, but whereas you can still hear the influence from bands like This Heat, The Virgin Prunes and Coil quite clearly on the first two, the third and later one, Av Sprucket Ut Är Valt Ett Inuti, is a completely singular listening experience - reminiscent of practically nothing else I've ever heard in rock music. But yes, extremely eerie at times, almost shamanistic in tone. As is Lach'n Jonsson's second solo album especially, Sånger Från Forfallets Städer from 1989 (Songs from Cities of Decay), which contains the darkest tune I know of in the mammoth "Monument" - basically an apocalyptic descent.

Urfaust from Czech Republic were quite interesting, and I agree that the F&M was good. They were one of many followers of Ser Un Peyalero's hold on the Brno underground at that point, along with groups like Narajama and Domaci Kapela (ex-Plastic People), whose Nedele from '92 is also a very gloomy work. This is a different "darkness", of course - very much a product of social despair and political pessimism in the tradition of Extemporé, Praszky Vyber, DG307, MCH Band and, obviously, the PPU themselves.

[Zappathustra]

Do I hear some echoes of Thule in Seven Impale, especially in the vocals? Natt comes from an era when a prog band didn't know exactly how to sound, this uncertainty, this openess makes things really interesting compared to our time, when a prog band sounds...well, just prog. Guitars sound sometimes metal, sometimes post-punk, a bit of 80's synths here, a bit of hammond there, it's a mix maybe dated sometimes but surely intriguing (the same could be said for a band like Ezra Winston)

[Scrotum Scissor]

Natt comes from an era when a prog band didn't know exactly how to sound, this uncertainty, this openess makes things really interesting compared to our time, when a prog band sounds...well, just prog.

If by "prog" you are implying the rather specific type usually namechecked as "symphonic rock", then I agree to some extent that these sort of artists nowadays sadly tend to stick to some basic formulaic recipés of templative sound. Back in the day, however, Thule were intensely self-conscious, stylistically as well as sonically. Like I said, they had a set of firm influences ("nyrock" denoting the particular Norwegian brand of immediate post-punk music, with experimental acts like Cirkus Modern, Blaupunkt and Holy Toy) but essentially carved their very own path almost from scratch all the same. Their 1997 album Graks (hear below) is completely different from Natt, but also highly interesting - utilizing a headmovie concept to convey a totally contemporary rock architecture.

Luckily, if "prog" is still intended as an abbreviation on progressive rock in general, I can name a few hundred artists off the top of my head who hardly submit to any uniform manifestation of exact sound. Too bad still about all of those who do, of course.

[Zappathustra]

I am not familiar with the names you refer to as influences so there's not much to tell there, to my ears it sounds as an object dropped from the sky in terms of originality. And yes, I am clearly implying the symphonic "branch" of prog-rock, since Natt is closer to symphonic rock than anything else, no?

I don't doubt their level of self-consciousness, but to my limited knowledge there weren't many bands in the late 80's trying this kind of music, so there was more room for an artist to wonder anew on how the instruments could/should sound in the studio. In terms of sonic production this is an absolutely original achievement, but also a product of its time, it comes from an era when things were less categorized, less clear and therefore potentially more open, more fruitful.

And I wonder out of the hundred names you could mention how many have a clear leaning towards symphonic prog. I am not such a devoted explorer of new music but my guess would be not too many.

[battema]

Okay, so admittedly this is stretching the whole "prog" idea pretty far, but I am loving the hell out of it so why not share:

Demen - Nektyr. New album from new artist on Kranky. Vocals are maybe best referenced as Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) coming down from a particularly rough night of partying. Music is cavernous, synth-heavy, almost dark ambient but still with beats. Nothing about it is particularly groundbreaking but as a whole, it is hitting all the right notes at Chez Batts and might work for some of you folks as well.

[neuroticdog]

My thoughts on what I've heard from this Instant Classic Label...

So I've listened to the Merkabah record and if you like Present, UZ and other dark chamber prog of that ilk well, Merkabah is sorta like that...only a whole lot noiser, a whole lot looser, a whole lot raw-er and generally, a whole lot more lo-fi punk(ish). Squealing saxonphones are the order of the day here as well as very rough and tough hewn guitar moves. I like it alot and I plan to disturb my neighbors with it soon.

The only Waclaw Zimple I've listened to is his "Lines" record. I'm not sure if this is typical of him but he's taking cues from perhaps Nik Bartsch by way of Terry Riley. Lots of interlocking organ lines and massed clarinets (speaking of "massed instruments", please listen to Paul Dolden's work...he's the king of "massed"! In fact, he's so "massed" that they need to retire the word "massed" and replace it with the word "Dolden". Thats how "massed" he is!!) Anyway, this album is very nice and hypnotic, perhaps good for late night listening while stroking your goatee, generally looking pensive and drinking brandy.

I'm also digging the two Stara Rzeka albums. These are loud as fuck stripped down synth and dirty guitar drone workouts. Both of them reside quite comfy in the noise space. I think I need to revisit these soon because I have this gut feeling that there may be other things going on but I'm not sure and I haven't figured them out yet. I think these will appeal to a certain group of people here, perhaps the goose and the ghost crowd, or maybe the pastoral prog cats...on second thought, no.

Then I gave this band Ampacity a listen. The album was called "SuperLuminal" and...while well played, I couldn't help but feel that this two guitar, vintage key, bass and drum outfit was a little to cock rock for my tastes. (something about that last sentence may be wrong, not sure). Maybe if you take the psych elements of Gong and/or Ozrics and throw them into a Steve Lillywhite(ish) blender, you'll get something like this. Really good energy here but I felt like I wanted to go out on my balcony in my underwear and air guitar the entire South Loop of Chicago to death. (And I'm 60.....ewwwe)

And now, the best for last...I dont know if the band is called Alameda, or Alameda 5 but their album "Duch Tornada" was fucking phenomenal!!!! I mean, I dont even know where to start with this since there was so much shit going on....and all of it good. Ethnic percussion/naive childlike vocals/speaking in tongue-like vocals/histrionic screaming in Polish (I think) vocals/copious amounts of studio fuckery-in fact probably the most important aspect about this album as it all seemed to be built up in the studio-no way they can play this shit live/electronic noises (or maybe something else from the real world that was manipulated electronically to sound un-worldly) that were wonderfully weird...all assembled into a 72 minute small "p" prog epic that would piss the shit out of Roine Morse.

That is all I've heard so far. I still have yet to listen to the Innercity Ensemble and a band called Alchimia but...those are imminent.

best
Michael

p.s. big thanks to Mascodagama and Walt for turning me on to this label...I'll be watching for other releases that interest me.