There is something very, very wrong with today’s music

[Ron Party]

Below are just a few example albums that scratched the itch for me in the 1990s after I'd already mined the accessible classic prog. Some sounded retro, some were new and unique, some mellow, some heavy. There were (and are) hundreds of bands cranking out prog within many sub-genres.

- echolyn - Suffocating the Bloom (1992)
- Angagaard - Hybris (1992)
- Anekdoten - Vemod (1993)
- Marillion - Brave (1994), Afraid of Sunlight (1995)
- Citizen Cain - Somewhere But Yesterday (1994)
- Grey Lady Down - The Crime (1994)
- IQ - Ever (1994), Subterranea (1998)
- Spock's Beard - The Light (1995)
- Glass Hammer - Perelandra (1995)
- Pendragon - The Masquerade Overture (1996)
- Steve Hackett - Darktown (1999)
- Ten Jinn - As on a Darkling Plane (1999)

I should also mention Dream Theater's Images and Words (1992) and Scenes from a Memory (1999), but I consider Prog Metal to be a separate style.

Too many to list since 2000, but here are some notable releases that fit my tastes:
- Porcupine Tree - Lightbulb Sun (2000), In Absentia (2003)
- Marillion - Marbles (2004)
- OSI - Free (2006)
- Frost - Milliontown (2006)
- Phideaux - Doomsday Afternoon (2007)
- Presto Ballet - The Lost Art of Time Travel (2008)
- Big Big Train - The Underfall Yard (2009)
- Transatlantic - Whirlwind (2009)
- Haken - The Monutain (2013)
- Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused to Sing (2013)
- Major Parkinson - Twilight Cinema (2014)
- Magic Pie - King for a Day (2015)
- Lunatic Soul - Through Shaded Woods (2020)
- Pattern-Seeking Animals - Prehensile Tales (2020)

^^
Clearly a prog lover here.

I have all of these albums but one. Prog is alive and well.

 

[sergeauckland]

Thanks for that. I see they have a presence on Spotify - albeit they are listed as 'Artist' not Composer and their works are labelled Songs!

I'll be listening this evening.

S.

Quite liked the Jennifer Higdon album All Things Majestic which includes her Viola concerto and Oboe Concerto, so thanks for the recommendation. Tried two Max Richter works, Exiles and I'm currently listening to On The Nature of Daylight. Dear me, repetitive and dreary, but at least it doesn't sound like a piano being thrown down the stairs!

S

 

[rdenney]

I feel strangely compelled to share this splash graphic on an email I received this morning from one of my favorite "local" ("regional" is probably more accurate; it's about a 75 minute drive, but some of that's standard-issue ya cahn't get theah from heah New England road infrastructure).

View attachment 223519

My wind symphony actually played a concert with The Rogues, which is a piping band. Nothing about the programming fell into the bagpipe stereotype.

Rick "whose opinion of bagpipes didn't change, but did think well of the pipers" Denney

 

[mhardy6647]

I've mentioned the Harp Twins on this august forum before, I know. Possibly even in August.

This is probably as close as I am gonna get to dragging myself back on topic for this thread -- at least for a few more posts. This is sort-of modern, even if the cover's a golden oldie.

 

[Koeitje]

They actually did this In the video game Hades. You have to free the musician who refuses to play

Come to think of it, there are a lot of recent game soundtracks that are just excellent. Too bad they are often brickwalled to shit. But in terms of the music stuff like Hades, Doom or Hollowknight is just excellent.

 

[Vacceo]

My wind symphony actually played a concert with The Rogues, which is a piping band. Nothing about the programming fell into the bagpipe stereotype.

Rick "whose opinion of bagpipes didn't change, but did think well of the pipers" Denney

Everytime I ser you posting I think that at least, you don't play the flute. Because the only thing worse than a flute is two flutes.

Plus, your instrument is like a portable wind powered subwoofer and that gives you extra autatoc points!

Come to think of it, there are a lot of recent game soundtracks that are just excellent. Too bad they are often brickwalled to shit. But in terms of the music stuff like Hades, Doom or Hollowknight is just excellent.

The tracks Refused did for Cyberpunk 2077 are quite good.

For more indie stuff, the synthwave in Black Future 88 is quite, quite good too.

 

[Koeitje]

The tracks Refused did for Cyberpunk 2077 are incredibly good.

I'll give it a listen, never played Cyberpunk 2077 and not really into Refused (or hardcore for that matter), but if it even makes me power half as hard through cardio as DOOM's soundtrack does then its all good .

And if anyone thinks game music is just incredibly basic, I'd recommend watching this. Also probably the first music you ever heard that features chainsaws.

 

[Pearljam5000]

Most new music is crap
There is no new Kurt Cobain of this generation, no new Bjork
Music is pretty much dead

 

[Vacceo]

I'll give it a listen, never played Cyberpunk 2077 and not really into Refused (or hardcore for that matter), but if it even makes me power half as hard through cardio as DOOM's soundtrack does then its all good .

And if anyone thinks game music is just incredibly basic, I'd recommend watching this. Also probably the first music you ever heard that features chainsaws.

Doom is in a different league and far closer to my own tastes than Refused. Do I like punk? Sure! But I prefeer harsher sound like Crust (Doom, Siege, Crass...) or classics like Dead Kennedys.

Returning to Doom, it aligns a lot more to what I like since it´s essentially Industrial Metal. If you enjoy Mick Gordon´s work, the OST for Killer Instict is his too. He covered Trailblazer (the original stage song for Cinder) and turned it into this:

Most new music is crap
There is no new Kurt Cobain of this generation, no new Bjork
Music is pretty much dead

We have Flo Mounier:

 

[Ron Party]

Doom is in a different league and far closer to my own tastes than Refused. Do I like punk? Sure! But I prefeer harsher sound like Crust (Doom, Siege, Crass...) or classics like Dead Kennedys.

The Dead Kennedys recently reissued and remastered Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables.

 

[odarg64]

Most new music is crap
There is no new Kurt Cobain of this generation, no new Bjork
Music is pretty much dead

You aren't looking hard enough...

Soul Glo: Diaspora Problems
Corky
The Linda Lindas

to name just a few.

Tons of great new music.

 

[Vacceo]

The Dead Kennedys recently reissued and remastered Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables.

I love the very coarse sound of the record. So much that the version of Holiday in Cambodia found on Give me Convenience or Give me Death, to me sound completely un-punk.

 

[odarg64]

The Dead Kennedys recently reissued and remastered Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables.

Kill kill kill kill kill the poor
Tonight

 

[Andysu]

Kill kill kill kill kill the poor
Tonight

he put creatures in our bodies to control our minds .

 

[odarg64]

he put creatures in our bodies to control our minds .

Yikes!

Watched part of that episode recently.

 

[Dxnc]

I have all of these albums but one. Prog is alive and well.

Which one? If I had to guess, it would be Major Parkinson or Ten Jinn?

Based on what I listed, any suggestions for bands that even prog die hards may have missed? I'm thinking of bands like Karfagen, Minimum Vital, Taproban, Solaris, Gosta Berlings Saga, Gazpacho, Deeexpus, Elephants of Scotland, etc. - but I already know about those.

 

[Koeitje]

The Dead Kennedys recently reissued and remastered Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables.

One of the few hardcore punk bands I dig.

You aren't looking hard enough...

Soul Glo: Diaspora Problems
Corky
The Linda Lindas

to name just a few.

Tons of great new music.

The Linda Lindas are awesome. Not just awesome for a bunch of 11-17 year olds, but genuinely awesome.

 

[Jds81]

I have to wonder, each time the "new music is bad" topic pops up, there are tons of great suggestions that flood in, both for music and ways to find it. Could these be even better threads for promoting great recent music than threads with that explicit purpose?

 

[Ron Party]

Which one? If I had to guess, it would be Major Parkinson or Ten Jinn?

Based on what I listed, any suggestions for bands that even prog die hards may have missed? I'm thinking of bands like Karfagen, Minimum Vital, Taproban, Solaris, Gosta Berlings Saga, Gazpacho, Deeexpus, Elephants of Scotland, etc. - but I already know about those.

We have a winner! Ten Jinn. (I have six Major Parkinson albums.)

Suggestions for prog? Whoa, there's just soooooo many. Maybe start with Wobbler, any of their five albums.

 

[Ron Party]

Oh, and while you included two IQ albums, for me it's Dark Matter.