What's your Modern-day Supper's Ready/Close to the Edge/insert epic track here?

[Neptune]

IQ: The Seventh House
Underground Railroad: Through and Through
Spock's Beard: The Light

Woops, sorry - The Seventh House is only 14:26 and The Light is 15:33.

[Neptune]

Flower Kings: Garden of Dreams! Always fancied that one.

[R. Totale III]

Magma - Felicite Thosz

[Progtopia]

The 20-minute thing is arbitrary. I'll accept The Seventh House and The Light.

[Boceephus]

Mei.

[sonic]

The Dissonati album is quite good, and even clever, Sonic.

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to check out those mp3s.

[Soc Prof]

The Flower Kings--Stardust We Are
Ezra Winston--Ancient Afternoons of an Unknown Town
Frogg Cafe--Waterfall Carnival

[Trane]

Absolutely nothing - I wish.

Mmmmhhh!!!... I didn't post right away, to give myself the time of reflection and see what others submitted....

I suppose everybody submitted songs (and not albums), and that some of the choices are inducing the same amount of joy that these 70's epics...

But in my case, I can't thinkl of many/any, even if I think of 70's groups' 90's & 00's works (UZ, Present, Magma, VdGG or Yes' Mind Drive).

From the "new generation", maybe the magnum opus in Par Lindh' Mundus Incompertus.... but I'd have to get up and check it's title....Sooo that gives you an idea on what height it goes up compared to those classic epics...

It's of course not a question of quality, but the enthousiasm it raises within me...

[sonic]

It's of course not a question of quality, but the enthousiasm it raises within me...

Yeah. I find it hard to get enthused about epics these days. Most new epics just make me wonder when the track is going to end. None of them raise the same level of interest in me as favs like Nine Feet Underground, In Held Twas in I and Syntelman's March of the Roaring '70s. And too many seem to be trying too hard to sound like the '70s.

[Crystal Plumage]

Ritual - A Dangerous Journey
Beardfish - Sleeping in Traffic
Karmakanic - Who's the Boss in the Factory

[flowerking]

Flower Kings - Stardust
Phideaux - Doomsday Afternoon (yeah, its not a single track, but its pretty damned great)
IQ - Harvest of Souls

[Scrotum Scissor]

Most new epics just make me wonder when the track is going to end. None of them raise the same level of interest in me as favs like Nine Feet Underground, In Held Twas in I and Syntelman's March of the Roaring '70s. And too many seem to be trying too hard to sound like the '70s.

As for your first paragraph: I fully agree with you if we're talking "symphonic" progressive - 90% of modern/current takes on that specific idiom sound blatantly contrived to me, including the mandatory "epic". Made to reproduce perceived aesthetic, not to express an artistic statement from first principle.

Move away from it, and there are lots of goodies out there.

[Yehuda Kotton]

The single most impressive "modern" epic I heard was arguably the title track from Ahvak's one and only album.

I couldn't come up with anything, but I forgot about that one.

[polmico]

Matthew Parmenter has a few. "Rogue" is my fav.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Matthew Parmenter has a few. "Rogue" is my fav.

Word. Although I always thought that lengthy one on Unfolded could have used more or longer instrumental sections. The closing epic on Astray is very good, but actually my least fave track from that otherwise so fine an album. The latest Discipline is just scorching, though - and "Rogue" in particular. The fact that they let totally loose and keep vast, almost completely open spaces for that voice of his to lament, shriek and moan...

[Canvas]

It Bites-Once Around The World
Neal Morse-So Many Roads (from Lifeline)

[bondegezou]

I enjoy some of the traditional pieces in this mode, like Transatlantic's "All of the Above", but I guess what I like more are some of the concept albums, which you may or may not wish to count as single epic pieces, like Towering Inferno's Kaddish and Biota's Object Holder.

Henry

[Kim Olesen]

To me i think modern day "very long tracks" just pales in comparison with those that the pioneers of prog made. Maybe it's because they draw from inspirations that was before prog but latter day bands draw from progbands and thus kind of water out the inspirational sources.

We've had fans ask us when we finally will go full throttle and do the 30 minute track thing, but i'm really not much for it because the last thing i want is for people to listen to an Anubis Gate track and wondering when it will end.

[Ursa Minor]

What about the track "Boatman's Vision" by the German band Martigan. Clocks in at 23.12. Great track, just popped up on the old mp3 player on random.

[sonic]

A lot of those classic epics were more like song cycles anyway - combining a lot of very different parts into one big piece. I think that is the best way to go these days in the age of digital files — divide up your epics into its separate components rather than running it all together as was necessary in the vinyl days.

[Kim Olesen]

A lot of those classic epics were more like song cycles anyway - combining a lot of very different parts into one big piece. I think that is the best way to go these days in the age of digital files — divide up your epics into its separate components rather than running it all together as was necessary in the vinyl days.

I Hate that i must admit. What is an entity should be heard as such. In these days with shuffle/random play i don't want my epics cut up in random portions.

[Big Ears]

Maybe not the most musically ambition epic ever, but THE LIGHT by Spock's Beard has always been a favorite of mine. It's just non-stop action packed, perfectly delivered, and chuck full of great melodies and segments that makes it so memorable.

If it is not ambitious, it is certainly adventurous and experimental. The Light is one of the few 'modern' progressive works that ranks with the best of the seventies. I just wish that Neil Morse, while far from terrible, had a high quality voice like Greg Lake, Jon Anderson or Chris Thompson. My gripe with modern progressive rock is usually with poor lead vocals (as well as cold production).

[Scott Bails]

I Hate that i must admit. What is an entity should be heard as such. In these days with shuffle/random play i don't want my epics cut up in random portions.

Totally agree with Mr. Olesen.

I hate the way Spock's Beard has decided to chop up their longer pieces these days, for example.

[Scrotum Scissor]

If it is not ambitious, it is certainly adventurous and experimental. The Light is one of the few 'modern' progressive works that ranks with the best of the seventies.

Hm. I think you'd find that surprisingly many would disagree rather vehemently with this assumption. I'm a sucker for every possible turnabout on the "70s progressive" thing (which was not one single "sound" but denoting a whole wide genre umbrella), and I can't hear anything adventurous or experimental in anything Spock's Beard ever did. Very good players, but 70s progressive rock ("post-psych" until 1970, Canterbury, "symph", "Kraut", "Zeuhl", "RIO" et al.) was about actually creating something - which most of the iconic artists did. Now you can obviously jumb back to, say, 1973-4 and ask "what didn't they explore - for whatever reason - from that specific angle?" and come up with what Änglagård has done, for instance. Or Dungen, or Anekdoten, or White Willow, or '91-98 era Porky Tree, or Thinking Plague. Or whatever. But Spock's Beard? I still can't hear it.

[sonic]

I can't hear anything adventurous or experimental in anything Spock's Beard ever did.

Nope. SB are pure retro.