Camel, Gentle Giant, Renaissance, VDGG

Hey, great. I love all 4 bands!!!

Camel - Nude

Gentle Giant - Acquiring The Taste

Renaissance - Live At Carnegie Hall

Van der Graaf Generator - Maida Vale

My favourite band: Camel

Yanns wrote: Funny, nobody has answered the second part of my question.

Wow, there was a second part. Sry bout that.

Gentle Giant

Camel & Rennaisance are my joint faves from this lot.

I love John Touts piano playing. The intro to 'At the Harbour' is fantastic, and apparently is a variation on a Debussey piece. Can anyone confirm?

Blacksword wrote: Camel & Rennaisance are my joint faves from this lot. I love John Touts piano playing. The intro to 'At the Harbour' is fantastic, and apparently is a variation on a Debussey piece. Can anyone confirm?

i cannot confirm but i have also heard thta before, Renaissance 'sample' quite a bit of music uncredited.  but they do it well in my opinion.  I alos like Jon tout a lot.   just straight piano, no crazy synth work.

blacksword wrote :

Gentle Giant - I've only heard Octopus, and to be honest I'm not that keen. Excellent musicians but their songs dont really strike a chord with me.

It's funny. I purchased Octopus few months ago and it was realy nice. although I thought that it is not that essential as most reviewers claim. Then I went to the store and the only other available was their first (gentle giant) so I took it. And for some odd reason I like it much more.

Yanns wrote: Trouserpress wrote: Yanns wrote: Trouserpress wrote: Interesting band selections! To explain: soft and simple/crunchy and complex/soft and simple/crunchy and complex. Personally, I don't have much time for soft and simple, at least not from the likes of Camel or Renaiassance. I much prefer the meditative side of Krautrock for times when I want something gentler, so I can't really answer on those two. Haha! And now, whilst typing this I've remembered JUST how much I love GG and VDGG... I couldn't pick a favourite with either. Tempted to say Godbluff for VDGG but that's only 'cause I was listening to it earlier this evening. No, sorry - I can't answer this one at all! How useless am I?! Trouserpress: I read, reread, and reread your post. I came to the conclusion that there is not one bit of info in there. There isn't! I fully intended for it to be a useful post, but it's rubbish! Very true rubbish, but still rubbish! Oh well... I'll just go and stand in the corner, shall I? *shuffles off, mumbling quietly as he does so*

 trouserpress has a wonderful way with words  ... go check his website its really rather good .. but not for the fainthearted ... I was having nightmares last night about that poor little decapitated gingerbread man ...

Tony Fisher wrote: Camel soft and simple? My arse!! Complex and melodic; packed with emotion. (snip) Trouserpress, I don't normally denigrate other contributors but you are talking utter bollocks IMO. If you don't like Camel, leave them to those of us who do.

Compared to much of my collection Camel's music is very gentile and simplistic. Sorry, but that's the truth. I'm not saying you can't enjoy them. Personally I can't understand your attitude to VDGG - or indeed anyone who complains about Hammil. It's HIS music! He writes 90% of it, and he writes it FOR HIS VOICE.

If you don't like it, fair enough, but don't just blame the man's singing. VDGG is Hamill's artistic vision.

Camel -- Snow Goose

Renaissance -- dont know, not much into them

VDGG -- Pawn Hearts

Gentle Giant -- In a Glass House

The best are VDGG for me from these bands.

Camel: Harbour of Tears (The reason is that I also like celtic music)

Renaissance: Scheherazade. Just great.

Gentle Giant: Octopus, with Free Hand in a very close second position

I really can't stand Peter Hamill's voice, so I don't listen to VDGG.

Which one is the best? All of them are top prog, and all of them have their followers and even clone bands. Thay can't be compared. My favourite is Camel, because it's the most moving music I've ever listened to. I understand in this forum there are a lot of people who prefer hiper-complex music, and usually dissmiss groups like Camel and Renaissance (although most of the time, like in this topic, with respect for both bands). But I came to prog searching for emotion, and ironically you need a certain degree of complexity to archive and comunicate this emotions better. But sometimes I find too complex and avant garde music can dismiss this element (for example, Gentle Giant's 'Interview')