Do you think that 10s is a great decade for Prog?

[daoubourg]

Well, we're almost at the end of the 10s, aren't we? Indeed, a lot of magnificent Prog albums are released in this decade. For instance, Steve Hackett's Genesis Revisited II, Wolflight and At the Edge of Light, Fish's A Feast Of Consequences, IQ's The Road Of Bones, Big Big Train's English Electric (Part One), Galahad's Beyond The Realms Of Euphoria, Comedy of Errors's Fanfare & Fantasy, The Far Meadow's Foreign Land, Dream Theater's Distance Over Time, to name a few. There are also many stunning debut albums released in this decade. Thus, do you think that the 10s is a great decade for Prog as some people say?
Personally, I like the 10s, and I think it's a truly great decade for the genre.

EDIT: As a non-musician and a fan only, I thought about the quality of released music only. I mean, this is not a thread about the problems which the record companies faced recently nor how much money a virtually unknow band could (not) to earn from an online release.

[thedunno]

I do not think it has been a 'great' decade.

Although there have been absolutely some great albums released this decade there are also many not so great developments.
- the Altrock label seems to have stopped activity (although I have not heared any official news)
- Cuneiform is still going (thankfully!!) but in a slightly trimmed form
- One of my favorite bands Aranis called it a day due to lack of Financial support.
- the willingness of venues to program prog acts seems to get less and less (at least in my country)
- A lot of prog festivals seem to be struggling
- While It has become a lot easier in releasing your own music but MUCH harder to actually make a bit of money from it.

Although I am happy with every great new release, like lost crowns this year, the overall tendency is not so great.

[Poisoned Youth]

I think the 10s have been quite average overall, but I would be more inclined to make that determination based on artists that emerged during that time or slightly before. When one’s list of favorite contenders for the decade primarily consists of artists from the 70s-90s, it implies a scene that is in decline.

This has been discussed before, but there really are very few if no “torch bearers” in the modern prog scene that have emerged this decade. It’s primary reliant on artists with roots in the past.

[Trane]

Well, we're almost at the end of the 10s, aren't we? Indeed, a lot of magnificent Prog albums are released in this decade. For instance, Steve Hackett's Genesis Revisited II, Wolflight and At the Edge of Light, Fish's A Feast Of Consequences, IQ's The Road Of Bones, Big Big Train's English Electricity (Part One), Galahad's Beyond The Realms Of Euphoria, Comedy of Errors's Fanfare & Fantasy, The Far Meadow's Foreign Land, Dream Theater's Distance Over Time, to name a few. There are also many stunning debut albums released in this decade. Thus, do you think that the 10s is a great decade for Prog?
Personally, I like the 10s, and I think it's a truly great decade for the genre.

I suppose it depends on perceptions, but you haven't named a single album I would consider as essential prog or something out of the scope from the very "conventional" (read restrictive) definition of prog.

Foe ex; in terms of Zeuhl, for ex, I think that the 10's were a very good decade

EDIT: As a non-musican and a fan only, I thought about the quality of released music only. I mean, this is not a thread about the problems which the record companies faced recently nor how much money a virtually unknow band could (not) to earn from an online release.

yup, things aren't any better than during the 90's or the 00's in those regards.

I do not think it has been a 'great' decade.

Although there have been absolutely some great albums released this decade there are also many not so great developments.
- the Altrock label seems to have stopped activity (although I have not heared any official news)
- Cuneiform is still going (thankfully!!) but in a slightly trimmed form
- One of my favorite bands Aranis called it a day due to lack of Financial support.
- the willingness of venues to program prog acts seems to get less and less (at least in my country)
- A lot of prog festivals seem to be struggling
- While It has become a lot easier in releasing your own music but MUCH harder to actually make a bit of money from it.

Although I am happy with every great new release, like lost crowns this year, the overall tendency is not so great.

The OP specifically said he wasn't speaking of these aspects (of which I agree with most of your post )

BTW, as opposite to other Belgian bands, Aranis had plenty of financial support from Flemish cultural subsidies (they were quite good at hunting them down too, IMHO), whereas UZ and Present did absolutely nothing to get them from a broke francophone cultural ministry (so they wouldn't have gotten any anyways, so they probably didn't even try)

[Kcrimso]

It is a great decade for interesting and progressive music. Best since the seventies I think.

[NogbadTheBad]

I think any 10's list that starts with a bunch of 80's & 90's based bands is pretty sad. In terms of newer bands I'd say there has been an emergence of a French scene based around Lyon with bands like Poil and ni. We have good new UK bands like Knifeworld, North Sea Radio Orchestra and associated bands. In Switzerland there are rockier minimalist jazz bands like Sonar & Schnellertollermeier. In the USA we've had bands like Jack O The Clock, Bent Knee & Thank You Scientist appear. Not too shaby from my perspective.

[Trane]

I think any 10's list that starts with a bunch of 80's & 90's based bands is pretty sad.

Actually, I had only half-spotted that trend in the OP list...

With a brief look as to my decade's best rated music on G2K (Gnosis), I'd say that roughly a third of my selected albums are from the 90's ( Aka moon & Anekdoten for ex), 80's (Miriodor and Present) or the 70's (UZ, VdGG & Magma)

In terms of newer bands I'd say there has been an emergence of a French scene based around Lyon with bands like Poil and ni. We have good new UK bands like Knifeworld, North Sea Radio Orchestra and associated bands. In Switzerland there are rockier minimalist jazz bands like Sonar & Schnellertollermeier. In the USA we've had bands like Jack O The Clock, Bent Knee & Thank You Scientist appear. Not too shaby from my perspective.

I'd also point out the French scene but more in the Jazz-fusion (Forgas, the French-associated Ibrahim Maalouf, Perret, etc...) or Zeuhl (Setna, Scherzoo, Vak, etc...) realms, but the Manchester (via Gondwana) and London (via Brownswood) scenes as well

[miamiscot]

The 10's have been great!!!

Wobbler
Tusmorke
Jordsjo
Knifeworld
Big Big Train
The Tangent
Lost Crowns
Neal Morse
Big Big Train
Steven Wilson
Bent Knee
Phideaux
Riverside
Haken
Discipline
Glass Hammer
The Dear Hunter
Anglagard
Anekdoten
Astra
Asturias
Kaipa
Karmakanic
The Flower Kings
IZZ
Transatlantic
Spock's Beard
The Flower Kings
Gong
Unreal City
Opeth
Anathema
Gazpacho
Logos
Beardfish
echolyn
Pineapple Thief
PinioL
Nad Sylvan
White Willow
Magenta
Kotebel
Karfagen
Il Tempio delle Clessidre
Regal Worm
All Traps On Earth
OVRFWRD
Southern Empire
Samurai Of Prog
Roz Vitalis

I could go on and on but all the above released truly astounding music this decade. Yeah, some are "legacy" acts to varying degrees but who cares?
Twenty years from now we'll appreciate it a little more, I think.

[NogbadTheBad]

I'd also point out the French scene but more in the Jazz-fusion (Forgas, the French-associated Ibrahim Maalouf, Perret, etc...) or Zeuhl (Setna, Scherzoo, Vak, etc...) realms, but the Manchester (via Gondwana) and London (via Brownswood) scenes as well

All good points, some terrific stuff.

I don't know Brownswood, do you have any bandcamp recommendations?

[Trane]

All good points, some terrific stuff.

I don't know Brownswood, do you have any bandcamp recommendations?

here is the label sampler they released one year ago

https://weouthere.bandcamp.com/album/we-out-here

[progmatist]

As a symph weenie, I lament symph prog becoming more and more scarce in the 10s.

[Sputnik]

I'm honestly surprised and gratified how much great stuff has come out in the past 10 years. On balance, I'd say the 10s were as good as the 00s, but I have a sense this is the last decade I'll say that about.

I think the reason we don't see newer bands becoming "torch bearers" has more to do partly with market rather than musical forces, and partly to do with the incredible defraying of interest within the umbrella of "Prog Rock." Tastes are so varied now, it feels like there's really no center anymore, and without that I don't think even the most popular newer bands can get much traction. Couple that with the difficulty selling product and getting gigs, and it just becomes difficult to the point of near impossibility.

But, lack of new "torch bearers" aside, from a musical level and from the perspective of there still being a somewhat discernible "Prog scene," the 10s I think were quite good, at least from my perspective.

Bill

[Zeuhlmate]

There is plenty. But the art of copying or being 'VERY inspired by' isn't praised much in my household.
The problem is to find the bands that doesnt just copy earlier days prog. That can be ok too, but tends to be tedious. been there, heard that.
Especially sympho & metal aren't progressing much these days, allthough elements of math can spice it up.

[Soc Prof]

As a symph weenie, I lament symph prog becoming more and more scarce in the 10s.

I don't see any shortage of symphonic prog: Flower Kings, Glass Hammer, Nad Sylvan, Samurai of Prog, Willowglass, just to name a few that come to mind.

[rickawakeman]

As a symph weenie, I lament symph prog becoming more and more scarce in the 10s.

Miamiscot's great list above is replete with symph (my favorite genre). An embarrasment of riches for symph weenies like us.

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

I suppose it depends on perceptions, but you haven't named a single album I would consider as essential prog or something out of the scope from the very "conventional" (read restrictive) definition of prog.

my thoughts exactly

Here is my personal 'Top albums of the 2010s'

Asturias Missing Piece of My Life
Alco Frisbass Le Bateleur
Asturias Fractals
Alco Frisbass Alco Frisbass
Änglagård Viljans Öga
Asturias Elementals
Asturias At the Edge of the World
Asturias Across the Ridge to Heaven
Caillou Caillou
Cobham, Billy Spectrum 40 Live
Daal Dodecahedron
F.M. Transformation
Human Factor Homo Universum
Kotebel Concerto for Piano and Electric Ensemble
Kotebel Cosmology
Maat Lander The Birth Of Maat's Galaxy
Madden, Christian The Wrecking Place
Nova Collective The Further Side
Panzerpappa Pestrottedans
Pink Floyd The Endless River
Rothery, Steve The Ghosts of Pripyat
Ske (Paolo 'Ske' Botta) 1000 Autunni
Tubo Elastico, El El Tubo Elastico
Tubo Elastico, El Impala
Worrell, Bernie / Orchestra BWO is Landing

a few "torch bearers" but also a bunch of established artists
still, not as big a list as some other decades would make

it certainly has been the decade of the instrumental Symph Rock band Asturias!

[Trane]

There is plenty. But the art of copying or being 'VERY inspired by' isn't praised much in my household.
The problem is to find the bands that doesnt just copy earlier days prog. That can be ok too, but tends to be tedious. been there, heard that.

That's indeed a problem, though it started well before the teens

the "retro" thing started in the late 80's like Tangle Edge and Lenny Kravitz's debut Let Love Rule (to place something out of the prog realm)... Let's not even talk of the PërAnglaDotenBerkLindh quadrilogy thing)

But nowadays, even in jazz, the retro thing (it was always there, as that's one music that has always looked back upon the elders and foundations) has hit me, with stuff like Matthew Halsall, Shabaka Hutchings, Kamasi Washington, Nat Birchall , Graham Costello who all seem to pillage the 60's & 70's New Thing jazz and rename it "spiritual jazz"

But I crave for it, just like I craved for that Scandinavian retro prog thing in the 90's

my thoughts exactly

Somehow that makes me nervous

[Scrotum Scissor]

the "retro" thing started in the late 80's like Tangle Edge and Lenny Kravitz's debut Let Love Rule (to place something out of the prog realm).

The retro thing was actually an ongoing endeavour ever since the so-called Paisley Underground phenomenon appeared approx. 1982/83, sporting pseudo-famous acts like Green On Red, Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade, Three O'Clock, The Long Ryders and Opal. Some of those musicians transmuted into other constellations in other genres, notably "desert rock" or cowpunk or what's become known as Americans, like Giant Sand, Thin White Rope and countless others. And all of this was essentially before British goth-bands likeThe Cult did Electric in 1987 and The Mission released Children (1988). Kravitz' issued his debut a year after this, by which time the entire "retro" enterprise was already a big deal in Europe through the success of the "Madchester" scene.

So it was certainly not a particular "prog" thing, and I don't think it was a "new" thing in itself either. Tangle Edge were criticized not for "sounding" retro, but for thinking retro and for shamelessly displaying it in their artistic outlook. Nowadays, their first album (1989) comes across as ghastly experimental and creative compared to much of that stagnant reproduction routine which would follow within the moniker of alleged "progressive rock" during the 90s.

[IncogNeato]

Personally, I have discovered some brilliant stuff in the 10s...some, I knew of prior, obviously...but they released some amazing music in this decade.

Big Big Train
The Tangent
Bent Knee
Riverside
Haken
The Dear Hunter
Anekdoten
Opeth
Anathema
Gazpacho
Beardfish
echolyn
Pineapple Thief
Kayo Dot
Sigh
Leprous
Caligula's Horse
Voivod
Ihsahn
Crippled Black Phoenix

[Trane]

The retro thing was actually an ongoing endeavour ever since the so-called Paisley Underground phenomenon appeared approx. 1982/83, sporting pseudo-famous acts like Green On Red, Dream Syndicate, The Rain Parade, Three O'Clock, The Long Ryders and Opal. Some of those musicians transmuted into other constellations in other genres, notably "desert rock" or cowpunk or what's become known as Americans, like Giant Sand, Thin White Rope and countless others.

I had to look up all of these bands, because I'd never heard of any §mind you, that was the period when I shut the radio off to explore 60's & 70's jazz)

And all of this was essentially before British goth-bands like The Cult did Electric in 1987 and The Mission released Children (1988). Kravitz' issued his debut a year after this, by which time the entire "retro" enterprise was already a big deal in Europe through the success of the "Madchester" scene.

I stopped listening to The Cult after I was so disappointed in hearing Electric, after their good goth post-punk Love album, and I barely remember Mission's albums... I didn't study the Madchester thing , but from what I remember from it, I didn't detect any 70's sonics... FTM, if memory serves, sounding anything close to 70's was a real non-no in the 80's, untim Kravitz broke it big[/QUOTE]

So it was certainly not a particular "prog" thing, and I don't think it was a "new" thing in itself either. Tangle Edge were criticized not for "sounding" retro, but for thinking retro and for shamelessly displaying it in their artistic outlook. Nowadays, their first album (1989) comes across as ghastly experimental and creative compared to much of that stagnant reproduction routine which would follow within the moniker of alleged "progressive rock" during the 90s.

Yeah, I know the retro thing could even be linked to The Stray Rats and The Blasters (maybe even FYC in some cases) doing new rockabilly in the early 80's, but they were onto 50's retro.

Tangle Edge certainly sounded anything but later-80's rock sonic values, and therefore sounded very 70's. I even wonder if they didn't spark AnglaDotenBerk's respective interests by making it possible to still release records with such sonic values.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I stopped listening to The Cult after I was so disappointed in hearing Electric, after their good goth post-punk Love album, and I barely remember Mission's albums... I didn't study the Madchester thing , but from what I remember from it, I didn't detect any 70's sonics…

The 'Madchester' scene applied vintage sonics to some extent (for instance in The Charlatans' prominent use of a B-3 Hammond), but their most obvious look-on-yore was the influence from certain Krautrock antics (cacophony, motorik drumming, repetitive chord patterns etc.). Of course, they weren't only that, rendering an argument of "renewal" rather than rehash. The Mission turned bombastic beyond belief, whereas Electric was The Cult's attempt at being somehow consciously unhip. And yes, that album was a major commercial triumph, although significantly less musically interesting than their earlier work (IMO), some of which was actually very good (particularly their Southern Death Cult moniker). As for Kravitz' "retro" alibi, I found it embarrassingly fake and fraud already back then. "My Mama Said, Ooh" - Gawd, I cringe just thinking about it now.

[moecurlythanu]

^ Rockpile was plenty retro in the late 70s, well ahead of Stray Cats or the Blasters.

[Trane]

The 'Madchester' scene applied vintage sonics to some extent (for instance in The Charlatans' prominent use of a B-3 Hammond), but their most obvious look-on-yore was the influence from certain Krautrock antics (cacophony, motorik drumming, repetitive chord patterns etc.). Of course, they weren't only that, rendering an argument of "renewal" rather than rehash. The Mission turned bombastic beyond belief, whereas Electric was The Cult's attempt at being somehow consciously unhip. And yes, that album was a major commercial triumph, although significantly less musically interesting than their earlier work (IMO), some of which was actually very good (particularly their Southern Death Cult moniker). As for Kravitz' "retro" alibi, I found it embarrassingly fake and fraud already back then. "My Mama Said, Ooh" - Gawd, I cringe just thinking about it now.

TBH, I don't hear much "retro" (or what I associate with retro) in any of those Madchester bands.

BTW, yes, I got really sick of Kravitz's style my the time of his second album (Mama Said), but his debut Let love Rule is a stone-cold classic in my rock realm... Don't forget he played everything except the KB parts on that and the next album, probably because he couldn't find someone his age to play that way anymore. I've no idea of what he's done since the millennium - outside that fake cracking-the-leather-pants-and-genitals-flashing stunt, that is.

^ Rockpile was plenty retro in the late 70s, well ahead of Stray Cats or the Blasters.

absolutely, but they didn't dress up like 50's retards. Unlike The Jam who dressed up like Mods (at first anyways).
But if we go that way, most of the 80's Brit acts were retro'ing something (New Romantics, for ex)

[Scrotum Scissor]

TBH, I don't hear much "retro" (or what I associate with retro) in any of those Madchester bands.

But there are people who "don't hear" how certain "prog" bands were total ripoffs either, although they farted about with immaculate facial makeups, wonderful flowerpot-hairdos and lush potatoes down their singers' throats. When The Stone Roses issued their debut album in May '89, the "retro" print of it was the very name of the game - the core intent of its provocative goal. The fact that it appears like just another semi-digitally produced indie/alternative Brit-pop fad now does not detract from this. When All About Eve experienced their "Martha's Harbour" single hit in '87, the grand controversy was its acoustic hippie flare and what was perceived as an attemptive rehabilitation of vintage aesthetic. And basically this was all it was - an aesthetic - give or take the sonic outcome.

[miamiscot]

my thoughts exactly

Here is my personal 'Top albums of the 2010s'

Asturias Missing Piece of My Life
Alco Frisbass Le Bateleur
Asturias Fractals
Alco Frisbass Alco Frisbass
Änglagård Viljans Öga
Asturias Elementals
Asturias At the Edge of the World
Asturias Across the Ridge to Heaven
Caillou Caillou
Cobham, Billy Spectrum 40 Live
Daal Dodecahedron
F.M. Transformation
Human Factor Homo Universum
Kotebel Concerto for Piano and Electric Ensemble
Kotebel Cosmology
Maat Lander The Birth Of Maat's Galaxy
Madden, Christian The Wrecking Place
Nova Collective The Further Side
Panzerpappa Pestrottedans
Pink Floyd The Endless River
Rothery, Steve The Ghosts of Pripyat
Ske (Paolo 'Ske' Botta) 1000 Autunni
Tubo Elastico, El El Tubo Elastico
Tubo Elastico, El Impala
Worrell, Bernie / Orchestra BWO is Landing

a few "torch bearers" but also a bunch of established artists
still, not as big a list as some other decades would make

it certainly has been the decade of the instrumental Symph Rock band Asturias!

I am obsessed with Asturias right now!!!