If we ignore the technical brilliance?

Ah, so you have official prog credentials? My bad, I didn't know. I bough to your superiority, sir.

Edited by MikeEnRegalia - June 13 2023 at 13:25

MikeEnRegalia wrote: siLLy puPPy wrote: Everyone seems to overlook the bloated production on acts like Porcupine Tree. Which album? The type of production varies a lot across their discography.

siLLy puPPy wrote: ^ bloated is not a bad word. It means immoderately wealthy in sound :)

moshkito wrote: Ideas come and go with all the turds, and we can have a beer, or a cup of tea over it and laugh ...

I'm fond of Swiss cheese; the more holes the better. It seems like a nice balance between the milder and stronger cheeses.

Logan wrote:  "The scales of cheese are not balanced by judging the wrong cheese and praising the right cheese, but from letting go of all cheesy illusions."

Logan wrote: ^ I'd like to sell Swiss cheese that is all hole. It would be in the diet Vegan section. "Cheesy Hole -- all of the hole, none of the cheese.".

They are two opposites which blend together well in music . Either one can attract the interest of people who develop attitudes about it and go to the extreme by giving other people the impression that one is in good taste and the other in bad taste. Although music is subjective it seems fanatical and a bit like an extremist to go beyond your personal opinion evolved out of your personal preference to like something about music that you have to magnify your dislike through measuring its value.

One example is a person who may sit and critique Kevin Godley's drumming with 10CC because they'd rather hear Billy Cobham, Tony Williams, Carl Palmer, or Bill Bruford. They may not reveal that , but it's part of their sub con. Think about it. Why would you want to place a more technical style of drumming in 10CC? That might make their music less desirable. A person who constantly listens for chops is missing out on the beauty of The Original Soundtrack and Sheet Music. They've drifted too far away from the simplicity of music to ever appreciate it. That's extreme.

Another extreme often surfaces through a person who prefers long bending notes of simplistic melodies on electric guitar and has a mindset that more technical guitar playing clutters music with noodling. They don't see the point of playing fast on the guitar and their comparison to improvisation and masturbation are one and the same. They can't see the point in playing something gymnastic and find it to be unnecessary to music because they've drifted too far away from that concept by putting more value into simplicity.

Some people enjoy both...however in my life I've found those people to be outnumbered. Maybe not...but sometimes it feels like a battle between the two

Just to clarify, I think that reviewers can and should point out things they don't like in the music! If you don't like "fast notes", then say so. If you like fast notes, but you think they don't fit in the piece of music you're reviewing, then say so. If you think that the playing is sloppy, or the intonation is bad, or the production is bad - say so. But the more negative your comment is, the more careful you should be to make sure that it is justified and that you actually mean to criticise the musicians.

Logan wrote:  Part of what makes The Shaggs so great is the incompetence... Too strong a word, that none of the girls were the kind of acclaimed virtuosos that one might expect to sell out, say, La Scala in Milan or win prestigious musician awards. Would we by so enthused by the masterpiece-of-something that is Tommy Wiseau's The Room if it were more traditionally competent? With Prog I do tend to appreciate a certain level of non-ineptitude in the music.