70's Symphonic Prog Binge 2019

[spiderfeathers]

10 years into my prog rock obsession (much to the chagrin of my wife) I see that great discoveries from the mid 70's are getting few and far between. That said, discovering Taï Phong has led me to jump in on the "Binge" posts. Any suggestions with video links for other lost gems like this, or more broadly, in the vein of Barclay James Harvest or Novalis?

[Progbear]

Atlas from Sweden:

[TheH]

[Progbear]

Another svenska group, Horizont. I am surprised how outside the radar they still are, considering how good they are, how much they sound like concurrent Kaipa, and how famous their lead singer (Tommy Nilsson) later became:

[moecurlythanu]

^ For some reason, I always thought they were from one of the Baltic states or Russia.

[Sputnik]

^ For some reason, I always thought they were from one of the Baltic states or Russia.

That's a different Horizont from the Russian band that did Portrait of a Boy and Summer in Town.

The one above is pretty cool, was it ever released on CD?

Bill

[Progbear]

That's a different Horizont from the Russian band that did Portrait of a Boy and Summer in Town.

Which is technically Gorizont, at least that’s how their name is spelled in Cyrillic. They are one of my favorite Russian bands, their mix of symphonic prog with avant-garde neo-classical ideas is completely radical, and totally unique. I rather wish more bands followed down their path but I cherish the two albums they did give us.

The one above is pretty cool, was it ever released on CD?

That might explain why they are so unknown. They had a second album, also unreleased on CD. APM had plans to release an album by them (seemingly of unreleased archival recordings) but they folded before they could get it out the door. I wonder if those recordings will ever see the light of day.

[Soc Prof]

I remember a Tai Phong track on the radio show Stone Trek with lyrics that included: I had a funny dream/The other night./I was a-floating on a cloud.

Does anyone know what song and album that is?

[Scrotum Scissor]

That's a different Horizont from the Russian band that did Portrait of a Boy and Summer in Town.

The one above is pretty cool, was it ever released on CD?

No, but both Horizont vinyls can still be had here in Scandinavia for 15$ at record fairs. They were widely distributed back in the day, and were reissued (albeit limited) later on with Nilsson's success in Sweden and Finland. Quite good, especially the first one, but as with late-70s Trettioåriga Kriget et al. they were as influenced by Dag Vag and the onslaught of New Wave as they were by Camel and Genesis.

Another underrated title in the exact same vein was Dimmornas Bro's debut:


The Soviet enterprise of Horizont/Gorizont (courtesy of Composer Sergey Kornilov of Novgorod) was a completely different animal; "avant-symphonic" rock akin to a merger of 80s Univers Zero and The Enid if anything. Great stuff, particularly their second, Portrait of a Boy:


The Eastern bloc had the most interesting "symphonic" progressive bands of the 80s. They pretty much conceived of music directly from their own creative table, Western influences notwithstanding.

[Poisoned Youth]

10 years into my prog rock obsession (much to the chagrin of my wife) I see that great discoveries from the mid 70's are getting few and far between. That said, discovering Taï Phong has led me to jump in on the "Binge" posts. Any suggestions with video links for other lost gems like this, or more broadly, in the vein of Barclay James Harvest or Novalis?

This may not be what you're looking for, but the inherent drawback with threads like this is not knowing the tastes of the person making the request as well as the depths to which they are already familiar. For example "lost gem" and "Tai Phong" are not two items I personally put side-by-side, so we might have a different interpretation on things.

One suggestion I have is to go to a website like Gnosis, go to "view top rated albums", pick a year, and start scrolling down until you find some highly rated artists you're unfamiliar with and check out some samples. I've discovered a lot of great music this way over the years.

If you're specifically looking for something like Novalis, you could do range of years in the 70s from Germany.

http://gnosis2000.net/cgi-bin/gnosearch.cgi


I did a quick search - 1975, at least 15 rates. Some of the items that popped out to me:

Harmonium - Les Cinque Saisons
Atoll - L'Araignee Mal
Modry Efekt - Modry Efekt & Radim Hladik
Apoteosi - s/t
Finnforest - s/t

I highly recommend all of these.

[spiderfeathers]

This may not be what you're looking for, but the inherent drawback with threads like this is not knowing the tastes of the person making the request as well as the depths to which they are already familiar. For example "lost gem" and "Tai Phong" are not two items I personally put side-by-side, so we might have a different interpretation on things.

One suggestion I have is to go to a website like Gnosis, go to "view top rated albums", pick a year, and start scrolling down until you find some highly rated artists you're unfamiliar with and check out some samples. I've discovered a lot of great music this way over the years.

If you're specifically looking for something like Novalis, you could do range of years in the 70s from Germany.

http://gnosis2000.net/cgi-bin/gnosearch.cgi


I did a quick search - 1975, at least 15 rates. Some of the items that popped out to me:

Harmonium - Les Cinque Saisons
Atoll - L'Araignee Mal
Modry Efekt - Modry Efekt & Radim Hladik
Apoteosi - s/t
Finnforest - s/t

I highly recommend all of these.

I've discovered music that way too, plus following the links on Progarchives and sorting by highest rating/year/sub-genre/etc. There's something about discovering music this way through peer suggestions that just feels better. I don't know, maybe it's the human factor vs. algorithm? But thanks for your suggestions. I've heard Harmonium and Atoll, but I'll check out the others.

[Progbear]

Finnforest were pretty far from “symphonic” to my ears. Straight-up jazz fusion.

I always have to recommend my favorite Japanese band, who released a masterpiece at the tail end of the 70s: Shingetsu

[spiderfeathers]

I always have to recommend my favorite Japanese band, who released a masterpiece at the tail end of the 70s: Shingetsu

Thanks Progbear! This is right up my alley. Love this kind of Fripp-style shredding.

[Rarebird]

[Progbear]

That Lethe album truly is a lost gem. Do check it out if you haven’t before. Stick with it; the first track is a sort of etude for oboe and solo piano that sounds rather new-agey, but it improves dramatically from there.

[Rarebird]

That Lethe album truly is a lost gem. Do check it out if you haven’t before. Stick with it; the first track is a sort of etude for oboe and solo piano that sounds rather new-agey, but it improves dramatically from there.

I have that Lethe album. Bought it from Philip de Goey, who still had some in stock. Alas he didn't have the Mirror album in stock, I think he only had his own copy.

[JKL2000]

I always seem to come back to this Indonesian classic, which just reeks of 70s prog (and international) history. I don't know of any CD release of it, but would love to have one.

[Progbear]

That Guruh Gipsy album is undeniably the best prog album to come out of Indonesia. Shadoks reissued it on vinyl a few years back, but I don’t know if it ever made it to CD (EDIT, it hasn’t, and the Shadoks vinyl release was an extremely limited edition that promptly sold out). Like a lot of Indonesian albums of its era, it was originally released on cassette, which explains its odd length (52 minutes).

Also of note from Indonesia is Abbhama, who are perhaps not as exciting or daring as GG, but they did make one album of very nice, sometimes quite dignified classical-inspired prog featuring some unusual sounds (oboe!). The Giant Step album Giant on the Move! suffers from those awful, screechy, Uriah Heep-style vocals that were inexplicably popular at the time (WHY?) scattered about its length, but musically it’s on point, one of the most musicianly prog albums from the nation.

Give Godbless a wide berth, though. Huma di atas bukit is quite lame, an album of limp covers and uncredited stolen riffs (from Genesis, Gentle Giant, etc.)

There are also a couple of “prog pop” albums that may be of interest, like Keenan Nasution’s first album (Di batas angan-angan) or the Harry Sabar Friends album. The latter reminds me of Kayak or maybe the early Stefan Zauner solo LPs (Narziss/Prism & Views), maybe comparable to Gino Vannelli circa The Gist of the Gemini with less jazziness and lighter vocals.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ I believe there was a Poor House (or whatever) pirate CD-R of the Guruh Gipsy album sometime about a decade back.

[Progbear]

I don’t consider obvious pirate editions (Poor House, Tachika, Flawed Gems, Paisley Press, etc. etc.) to be “official” CDs.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I don’t consider obvious pirate editions (Poor House, Tachika, Flawed Gems, Paisley Press, etc. etc.) to be “official” CDs.

Did I somehow indicate that I do?

The point here being that you'll most likely never see a CD issue of a vintage "symph rock" title from Indonesia at all - and that most aficcionados of said style probably never even knew that such a thing existed.

As for Tachika, I've had two CD-players soiled due to unfocused lasertracks on those bloody plastics.

[yesstiles]

Another svenska group, Horizont. I am surprised how outside the radar they still are, considering how good they are, how much they sound like concurrent Kaipa, and how famous their lead singer (Tommy Nilsson) later became:

Sounds great! Available on cd?

[Scrotum Scissor]

Sounds great! Available on cd?

No.

[Juba]

A beautiful album from beautiful Croatia (1979).

[yesstiles]

Another svenska group, Horizont. I am surprised how outside the radar they still are, considering how good they are, how much they sound like concurrent Kaipa, and how famous their lead singer (Tommy Nilsson) later became:

I just picked up this rare LP. It is soooo good. And a much better singer than Kaipa! haha