prog prog

Yes definitely, right up to the point that Gabriel left. After that it is of course bollocks. They played Shergold guitars too, and so do I.

Tony.

 

By sheer coincidence, I got out "The Yes Album" on loan from my local music lending library yesterday (without knowing that it was a personal fave of Lee's). Have also got ELP's "Triology" on loan too. Have yet to listen to either of them yet.

We use to have a school band (nope, I didn't play in it) who'd use to regularly perform a cover version of Slyvia by Focus. A really catchy little tune that I always liked. It wasn't until years later that I discovered who did it, via a "Project D - Synthesizer Hits" CD . I picked up a Focus LP second hand with the aforementioned track on it just purely out of curiosity as I wanted to hear the original version of Slyvia. Hocus Pocus is also on that album too. Must drag it out for a listen sometime.

Re Ozric Tenticles pigeon holed as prog? Yes, I raise my hand as another one of the guilty ones. I might have said they were perhaps "neo prog", as Tony said they were after the fact as you can definitely tell by their modern synth sounds. Less of the "classical strictness", OK agree, but still fun to listen to though in maybe a more poppy way of listening. So what exactly is the defintion of "spacerock"? Or "krautrock" even?

 

Lets do Krautrock first as its easier to nail down! It is a genre of German music that largely came out of the commune scene of the late 60s and early 70s. Where it differs totally from American or English music of the period is that it has absolutely no reliance on the blues and related structures. This point is incredibly important, there is very little popular music pre-techno that can claim that. It is also very often the direct result of free improvisation and unstructured experimentation – many of the most famous and wonderful Krautrock albums are basically edited jam sessions. Also whereas UK prog took from 'true' classical music such as Brahms, Mozart etc Krautrock took from Stockhausen and Cage – two members of the band Can actually studied under Stockhausen. There is also a absolute lack of willie-showing in Krautrock, so no widdly-widdly-widdly-widdly guitar solos or other such alpha male bravado.

Krautrock, despite obviously being German in heritage, is actually pretty much a British phenomenon. Many of the great Krautrock bands were almost unheard of in their native Germany. The genre's (partial) success arose largely from the UK subsidiary of United Artists being brave / mad enough to sign many of the great bands. Can, Neu!, Amon Düül II were all signed to Liberty / UA in 69 or so. I believe that UA employed certain members of Hawkwind's road crew and drug fuelled Ladbroke Grove commune dwellers as A&R people, this is almost certainly the reason that UA were responsible for many of the best albums recorded in the late 60s and early 70s. UA had such an incredibly strong catalogue: the German acts mentioned above, along with Man, Hawkwind, Nektar, The Groundhogs, Dory Previn etc. UA left a bigger a mark on the music scene than any other label I can think of in the early 70s. A truly awesome back catalogue.

Krautrock is a totally unique musical genre, there is nothing even remotely like it. If I had to pick four key works quickly I'd go for Can's Tago Mago, Amon Düül II's Yeti, Faust's 1st LP, and Neu! 1.

Spacerock has a lot of the freedom and lack of blues heritage of Krautrock, and shares the same lack of rock posturing and general showing off – it really only existed in the period just post-psyche and pre-prog, say 68-70, and is represented by albums such as Floyd's Saucerful of secrets, and early Hawkwind, albums which probably kick-started the Krautrock scene in Germany.

Tony.

 

Now if you want to hear PhilC drumming at it's best listen to Brand X, who I class as the finest Fusion band ever. Just get Unorthodox Behaviour or Masques (which is a bit more noodley) and bask in the sound of 5 musicians playing at their best. Even the current version, now called Percy Jones' Tunnels are excellent. Now there's a bass player

I think he still plays a WAL.

Edited to say 'Bugger img code is off' Why??