I'm fairly happy this evening, I'll tell you why. I f**king love new Prog. Neo-Prog, Avant-Garde, Art-Rock, Neo-Art-Rock, Avant-Garde-Neo-Prog. Whatever. I'm regularly on the hunt for new tracks and artists to take me on a journey somewhere. Every now and then however I'll stumble across a new group completely by accident, who take me completely by surprise. Earlier this evening I was browsing YouTube for some live Porcupine Tree, and these guys managed to find their way to the top of the suggested videos.
By the looks and sounds of things they already seem to have a huge (and well deserved) following. So I'm pretty late to the party, but I'm used to this by now, after all I was born too late to catch one of my favourite bootlegs being recorded in my home county.
Here's a clip from a live DVD of theirs, it is truly beautiful.
Long story short, I recommend you check them out. I don't have a lot of info right now, but I shall certainly be educating myself further as to their back catalogue.
So, thanks for reading. Remember, send me your suggestions as to bands, objects, artworks, all of that.
On the surface of it, Eurovision is definitely not Prog. But is that just a hurried jump to conclusions? It's unpredictable, varied, encompasses a wide variety of different genres and instrumentation. It's a glorious coming together of very different nations and cultures to celebrate a wonderful art form that we can all share and enjoy.
*Cough* Is it b****cks. It's none of those things. It's not about the art; the music is usually instantly disposable, and most of these performances will never be seen or thought of again. It's a glorified popularity contest and a tacky variety show for those of us at home. Prog doesn't need to be popular, it doesn't need to be voted to the top of a league table. In fact Prog would be perfectly happy to just exist on its own, oozing beauty and wonderment, shrouded in mystery and undiscovered for an age like an archaeological relic.
In previous years, to determine who should best represent our nation in song and dance, potential candidates have been put to a public vote. Ok, for a start most people are not Prog. Even if Steven Wilson did put forward the most brilliant 3 minute masterpiece, you can bet the population would rather latch onto a looped Amen Break, predictable synth chords and some recycled lyrics about clubbing. However this year I understand a song was chosen for us by the BBC. Clearly the public cannot be trusted with such things, and although I'm inclined to agree, music chosen by a commitee ranks just as poorly on the Prog scale. I haven't heard the UK's entry yet, so I may well be pleasantly surprised. I'm hoping to at least hear some metal in there this year, like this beauty from a few years back:
Thunderstone - Face in the Mirror
If there's one redeeming factor of Eurovision, it must be its unpredictability. That is if you haven't researched the acts beforehand, but then why would you do that? Usually the only way I can enjoy the song contest is heavily intoxicated, so this year I'll be watching the night unfold with a bottle of Baileys and friends close by to share in the bewilderment, probably sporting a stunned 'wtf' face.
So, leave a comment if you'd like to submit more items for judgement by the giant progressive scales of justice in my head. If you like what you read, or if you think I'm an idiot, get in touch and all that. Banter!
In
the true spirit of Prog I'm starting with something ridiculously over
ambitious and far more vast than I can cover in a sensible amount of time in
order to hold your attention.
Of course Space is Prog. It goes on and on for bloody ages, and in the grand
scheme of things it's actually very rare that you come across some decent
content to focus on. Not unlike this blog in fact. Most of it is pretty much
featureless and only serves to make the interesting bits even more impressive, but it's all good in its own way. When
I'm trawling Wikipedia and reading Space related content, I often find myself clicking through pages which focus on physics and chemistry, planetary trajectories and interstellar clouds, all of that gubbins, and
science by its very definition is
progressive. Constantly trying to better itself and discover new ways of doing
things, that's what it's all about. Just when you thought you knew your
favourite Prog album back to front, you give it another listen and something
else you never noticed before will jump out and grab you. Science! I think to
most people, Space evokes images of the distant future, when technological
advancements will hopefully bring us a lot closer to exploring ever more
distant worlds. That's Prog as f**k. So we're off to a good start, I reckon. The list of things we could cover is probably endless, be it an album or a band, or even just a random object. I think I might do Lego next, or Lighthouses, those are pretty Prog. So send
in your suggestions for future topics by leaving a comment. Feel free to
agree or disagree, let me know what you think of the site, and also point me
towards new bands. Ta.
