PROG ROCKS!

"Prog Rocks!" is a 2 CD compilation of some of the greatest prog artists on the planet and it comes in at a nice price and jam packed with wonderful music; one of the best Prog compilations. There is not a bad choice here and not surprising as "Prog Magazine" editor Jerry Ewing compiled the music. In his liner notes he states what Prog is "intelligently stimulating and thought provoking music that draws from a myriad of influences by musicians unsullied by a fear of displaying a prodigious talent." That's an apt description for this music. It also mention the progarchives website in passing as follows, "when one leading prog rock website lists almost 30 differing sub-genres of prog, and given the somewhat obsessive nature of the fans themselves, it is perhaps not surprising that debate rages on well over 40-years after progressively inclined artists helped change the face of rock music forever." Well, that has to be our glorious site he references. The obsession we all feel can be found right here on this compilation. A lot of the songs and artists that are well discussed online are here including legends of prog on the first CD and more recent up and comers on the second. Every track is unique and epitomises what is great about prog. As such this makes an excellent introduction to Prog without a doubt. For me personally I had heard most of the songs on CD1 but I was delighted to discover some bands on CD2 that I will definitely pursue further such as Frost. The other great thing about this compilation is the songs are all from original albums but are remastered for some solid gold quality sound. Even songs I had heard before sound even better and it is great to hear them one after another like listening to a prog radio show without having to put up with any breaks. Furthermore the tracks are listed in a quasi-chronological order which is better than thrown together thoughtlessly.

The song choices themselves are very unusual so instead of the usual songs that appear on countless compilations we have the like of some of the strangest songs such as Deep Purple's 'Bird Has Flown', The Nice's 'Country Pie/ Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 (Live) from "Five Bridges", and ELO's 'Look At Me Now.' The choice for Eloy, 'Madhouse', is awesome from "Floating", and I loved hearing Hatfield and The North's 'The Yes No Interlude' again. The CD also features tracks from some of the greatest prog albums, The Roxy Music debut is represented as is Hawkwind's "Hall of the Mountain Grill". Jethro Tull's "Aqualung", VDGG's "The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other", Gentle Giant's "Free Hand" and Gong's "Angel's Egg". It was a nice touch to include all the album covers in the booklet too and where each song belongs for newcomers to prog who want to pursue these masterpieces further.

CD2 features more recent prog from the Neo prog 80s to the modern era. It begins with mesmirising Tangerine Dream's 'Rubycon', Kevin Ayer's 'Blue', and then onto Neo classics from Marillion, Pallas and Frost. The 10 minute 'Black Light Machine' of Frost really made me take notice and the album "Milliontown" is a definite album I will get hold of as a result. It was good to hear from relative newcomers Oceansize, The Tangent, Beardfish, IQ, Ayreon and The Flower Kings. Beardfish's 'Tightrope' reminded me of how brilliant the "Mammoth" album is. Sweet Billy Pilgrim is another artist I had not heard of and he has an incredible guitar style with odd meters and general weirdness. And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead is here again but I have yet to hear the album it comes from.

On the complaints department I have to say that if one had bought "Prog Magazine" and received the 1 CD sampler titled also "Prog Rocks!" just for confusion, some of the songs chosen on that CD are the same as here such as the choices for Ayreon, IQ, Beardfish, and The Flower Kings. It would have been better to have different choices here so that both CDs could be listened to together without repetition. Also interestingly enough some of the artists on the 1 CD mag sampler such as Karmakanic and Transatlantic are not included on the 2 CD release. Might I add also that there are some bands that are criminally missing such as Genesis, ELP, King Crimson, Pink Floyd and Rush. I guess it doesn't affect me as I have everything from these legends but as a sampler perhaps it needed to include them. The problem stems from the fact that the sampler is totally dedicated to EMI and Inside Out Music labels so in this case it is actually a better than average sampler spanning a huge plethora of musical styles within the prog umbrella.

It could be looked upon as a marketing tool for those labels and indeed "Prog Magazine", blatantly given an ad in the booklet for subscribers. However I still maintain that this compilation is excellent for all the reasons mentioned. It is purely stunning music and it fits into 2 and a half hours very neatly. It is very cheap and has quintessential prog for your ears to feast on. Hopefully it will introduce thousands to the world of prog.

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