Proto prog thread

[nosebone]

While combing thru my itunes library, I stumbled upon the delightful album Room - Pre-Flight , which sent me into a proto-prog binge.

Many years ago, PE member Mogrooves put together a stellar top 100 proto prog list and I saved it!!!

Here it is , and lets hear from everybody's favorites !

2066 & Then - Reflections!
A-Austr Musics from Holy Ground
Abacus - s/t
Ache - De Homine Urbano
Ache - Green Man
Affinity - s/t
Aquila - s/t
Arc - At this
Arcadium - Breathe Awhile
Arzachel - s/t
Battered Ornaments - A Meal You Can Shake Hands With In The Dark
Battered Ornaments - Mantlepiece
Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You
Beggars Opera - Act One
Beggars Opera - Pathfinder
Beggars Opera - Waters of Change
Black Widow - Sacrifice
Bodkin - s/t
Bram Stoker - Heavy Rock Spectacular
Burnin' Red Ivanhoe - M144
Burnin' Red Ivanhoe - WWW
Catapilla - Changes
Catapilla - s/t
Cirkus - One
Colosseum - Daughter of Time
Colosseum - Valentyne Suite
Comus - First Utteranace
Cressida - Asylum
Cressida - s/t
Culpepers Orchard - s/t
Czar - s/t
Dear Mr. Time -Grandfather
Diabolus - s/t
Earth & Fire-same
East of Eden - Mercator Projected
East of Eden - s/t
Egg - The Polite Force
Egg - s/t
Fairfield Parlour - From Home to Home
Family - Family Entertainment
Fantasy - Beyond the Beyond
Fantasy - Paint a Picture
Fields - s/t
Frumpy - Frumpy
Fuchsia - s/t
Fusion Orchestra - Skeleton in Armour
Fuzzy Duck - s/t
Galliard - New Dawn
Galliard - Strange Pleasure
Gnidrolog - In Spite of Harry's Toenail
Gnidrolog - Lady Lake
Gracious - This is... Gracious!!
Gracious - s/t
Gravy Train - Ballad of a Peaceful Man
Gravy Train - Second Birth
Greenslade - s/t
Greenwood, Nicholas - Cold Cuts
High Tide - Sea Shanties
High Tide - s/t
Indian Summer - s/t
Jan Dukes de Grey - Mice & Rats in the Loft
Jody Grind - Far Canal
Jonesy - Growing
Julian Jay Savarin - Waiters on the Dance
Julian's Treatment - A Time Before This
Kestrel - s/t
Khan - Space Shanty
Kingdom Come - Galactic Zoo Dossier
Kingdom Come - Journey
Krokodil - An Invisible World...
Locomotive - We Are Everything You See
Love Sculpture - Forms & Feelings
Manfred Mann's Chapter Three Vol. 1 & 2
Marsupilami - Arena
Marsupilami - s/t
Mellow Candle - Swaddling Songs
Missing Link - Nevergreen!
Odin - s/t
Orange Peel - s/t
Out of Focus - Wake Up
Out of Focus - s/t
Pete Brown & Piblokto - Thousands on a Raft
Pete Brown & Piblokto - Things May Come and Things May Go but the Art School Dance Goes on Forever
Parlour Band - Is a Friend?
Procol Harum - Shine on Brightly
Quatermass - s/t
Quicksand - Home is Where I belong
Rare Bird - As Your Mind Flies By
Rare Bird - s/t
Raw Material - Time is...
Room - Pre-Flight
Samurai - s/t
Sandrose - s/t
Second Hand - Death May Be Your Santa Claus
Skin Alley - s/t
Spring - s/t
Still Life - s/t
Subject Esq - s/t
T2 - It'll All Work Out in Boomland
The Greatest Show on Earth - Horizons
Titus Groan - s/t
Tonton Macoute - s/t
Touch - s/t
Tractor - s/t
Traffic - John Barleycorn Must Die
Warm Dust - And It Came To Pass
Web - I Spider
Wind - Seasons

[philsunset]

Something overlooked---Listening -- S/T (1968)

[nosebone]

Something overlooked---Listening -- S/T (1968)

Cool, but bluesy psych to my ears

[philsunset]

Cool, but bluesy psych to my ears

Yes there's that too.but a few things that are ahead of most at the time. That list has things that because of the release dates aren't "proto" (but still good)

[JKL2000]

Egg is prog

[ashratom]

Mogrooves put together a great list of early 1970s progressive oriented music. Kudos to him, as it's an excellent selection of music to check out (I own just about everything in it myself). To get into what is precisely "proto" or not, I'd rather jump off a bridge than have that debate. To me, I see a great mix of Krautrock, psychedelic, progressive rock, and yep, what is generally known as proto-prog, though the definition of such is hazy at best. There's some overlap here, but not total coverage, to a list I put together a few years ago, but with a specific female vocal slant. Including Room - Pre-Flight... so probably worth checking out if looking for similar sounds... https://rateyourmusic.com/list/ashra...female_vocals/

[Baribrotzer]

There's also retro-proto-prog: recent or relatively recent bands like EYE or Dungen, who recreate that sound from back when prog and psych and metal hadn't yet divided into separate genres. I don't know how much that division was made by fans and musicians gravitating toward one stylistic tendency or another, and how much by critics writing after the fact. Or when it began to matter, or if it ever mattered at all.

[Svetonio]

I'd like to recommend Vinum Sabbatum's new album that is recorded in proto-prog style >>> https://vinumsabbatum.bandcamp.com/album/apprehensions

[rcarlberg]

Off-Topic (OT) - discussions about other forms of music and arts. Inclusdes [sic] threads with Lists of ... whatever.

..

[Trane]

I'd put all three Warm Dust albums in the list...

[Scrotum Scissor]

I've got most of those, and I actually listen more to '68-71 "proto" these days than to, uhm, certain other stuff from right after. But I wouldn't really namecheck The Polite Force as such - that work was way more formally advanced than most of what came later in the UK.

And, of course, if we're to venture beyond the UK the list immediately starts to take up too much space. It was soon happening all over.

And where's Elias Hulk?

[Poisoned Youth]

..

SMH

[Poisoned Youth]

Thanks for bringing this up again. Lots of great music here to discuss. What's great about this collection of music specifically is that it blends well together and really puts you into a specific time and place. I have created playlists out of this and put it on shuffle play. I suggest anyone who has that ability give your own "proto-prog radio" a try for a day.

Battered Ornaments - A Meal You Can Shake Hands With In The Dark
Battered Ornaments - Mantlepiece

I have never heard these? Who are they like?

Catapilla - Changes

I recently spun this one and it was even tastier than I had remembered.

Cressida - Asylum
Cressida - s/t

I like the Cressida albums, but they fall under the "average" category for me relative to this list.

Egg - The Polite Force
Egg - s/t

I have been meaning to re-spin these for months now. I'm going to do so today.

[Levgan]

If I'm not mistaken, this list was a result of long discussion on the old PE where many folks, myself included, took part and suggested their favorites. I have it saved somewhere in my documents too. Opened my eyes to a lot of fantastic music, and I think now I have all of these on LP or CD save one or two odd exceptions.

[chalkpie]

What percentage of this list would you say are UK bands?

[JKL2000]

It would be interesting to see a graph showing what years they were released.

[Baribrotzer]

I've got most of those, and I actually listen more to '68-71 "proto" these days than to, uhm, certain other stuff from right after. But I wouldn't really namecheck The Polite Force as such - that work was way more formally advanced than most of what came later in the UK.

So were portions of Uncle Meat. Yet it would count as "proto" - for the dates alone, if nothing else. And one could argue that The Polite Force took cues from the earlier work: While there weren't many American "prog" artists at the time, the ones that were around were important - FZ perhaps most notably, but the Beach Boys, Burt Bacharach, and others had an influence as well.

[moecurlythanu]

I have never heard these? Who are they like?.

They're Pete Brown albums. I haven't listened to them in a long time, but I think they're slightly jazzier takes on the Piblokto! albums.

[Poisoned Youth]

^ Not proto-prog sound at all.

Svet, let's avoid getting into another genre/style argument AND avoid posting multiple video links in every post.

I am going to be following and moderating this DISCUSSION.

[Poisoned Youth]

They're Pete Brown albums. I haven't listened to them in a long time, but I think they're a slightly jazzier takes on the Piblokto! albums.

Thanks. Listening to a few samples now. Not bad, but likely not something I'd run out and purchase.

[moecurlythanu]

While combing thru my itunes library, I stumbled upon the delightful album Room - Pre-Flight , which sent me into a proto-prog binge.

Many years ago, PE member Mogrooves put together a stellar top 100 proto prog list and I saved it!!!

Here it is , and lets hear from everybody's favorites !

I recall the thread on PE 2.0. It was probably my favorite thread on the site, as Proto-Prog is probably my favorite sub-genre of Progressive Rock. My favorites from this list are:


Beggars Opera - Waters of Change
Bodkin - s/t
Bram Stoker - Heavy Rock Spectacular
Cirkus - One
Cressida - Asylum
Cressida - s/t
Culpepers Orchard - s/t
Czar - s/t
Fairfield Parlour - From Home to Home
Fantasy - Beyond the Beyond
Fantasy - Paint a Picture (My singular favorite of the style, and in my all-time top 10, regardless of genre)
Kestrel - s/t
Marsupilami - s/t
Parlour Band - Is a Friend?
Spring - s/t (Recently purchased an original of this one)
Tractor - s/t


Some of these are among my very favorites, but I think it's laughable that anyone would call them Proto-Prog. Some are Psychedelic Folk, some Progressive Folk, and one unclassifiable:

A-Austr Musics from Holy Ground
Comus - First Utterance
Fuchsia - s/t
Jan Dukes de Grey - Mice & Rats in the Loft
Mellow Candle - Swaddling Songs

I'm not sure where one draws the line between Proto-Prog and Rural Prog, so leaving those bands off, I still think a decent case for inclusion can be made for Junior's Eyes, Dogfeet and Pluto.

[100423]

Call it what you will, I dig a lot of the bands on this list and need to dig into some of the ones which I'm not familiar. Thanks for the thread!

[Trane]

I have never heard these? Who are they like? >> Pete Brown's first group, but he got booted out of his group before the second album and their Hyde Park concert. Chris Spedding and George Kahn are the main pillars. Personally, I prefer Ornaments to Piblokto, especially the Raft album, which loses itsqelf in lengthy jams going nowhere

I recently spun this one and it was even tastier than I had remembered. >> both Catapilla are worthy IMHO.

I like the Cressida albums, but they fall under the "average" category for me relative to this list. >> agreed, but slightly above average.

They're Pete Brown albums. I haven't listened to them in a long time, but I think they're slightly jazzier takes on the Piblokto! albums.

Well, the jazz label is present, but hardly a dominant one, IMHO

Okay, discussion ... I think it's idiocy to proclaim these important Progressive rock albums of the era as "proto-prog".

OK, we heard you once, and it's enough please

[nosebone]

Some of these are among my very favorites, but I think it's laughable that anyone would call them Proto-Prog. Some are Psychedelic Folk, some Progressive Folk, and one unclassifiable:

I think most of the list falls into the "in between" unclassifiable genre of late 60s/early 70s prog.

Its a "sound" of a bygone era .

The list represents our favorites of the genre .

[mogrooves]

Many years ago, PE member Mogrooves put together a stellar top 100 proto prog list

Mogrooves put together a great list of early 1970s progressive oriented music.

Just for the record, credit where credit is due, a few of us--Jim, Midnight-to-Six, and myself--compiled the list [and argued over some inclusions ]