Which bands are really progressive?

I sure tend to think the same sometimes, but if we could right now give an easy answer on how music could be totally renewed... We would keep it for ourselves and work it out

Guldbamsen wrote: Current progressive acts found on PA? Chrome Hoof Bent Knee

Zappy wrote: This band might be a bit off-topic and you may already know them but when it comes to bands that I find extremely original sounding I have to mention The Tea Club, especially their last album 'Grappling'. Yes, it is classic prog influenced but those brothers (Heads of the band) share a very distinct and unique composition style, using extremely original tone-material. The production is very interesting (even though semi-pro) and wonderfully dynamic. There is so much energy in this album and to me it just felt very forward thinking, which is why I am mentioning it here.

Every album of Holger Czukay is different from every other of his albums and actually from every other music there is.
Try this, for example:



David Sylvian has progressed in an amazing manner throughout his career.

Sometimes I come across bands or artists of which I think that they do something really unique and progressive (without defying that they have their influences), one such example is Everything Everything.

Of course to what extent something really is new and "progressive" I can't know... I guess that there is more good African music that makes this lady not quite as original and progressive as she appears to me but still:

I used to be a huge prog rock fan. Then I realized there's no such thing as a distinction between progressive, prog and regressive. But that's just my opinion.

I reckon Aquaserge are an interesting modern prog band, they hail from France and have an interesting jazzy/avant-garde approach to progressive rock. Lots of others in this thread have also pointed out how so much truly progressive music is being created, except that it is not necessarily contained simply to prog rock; this is very true. In terms of hip hop, I advise people to listen to Death Grips (if you are willing to listen to something wild and dissonant and noisier than you might be used to, mind) for some innovative rap music. I feel the most recent four Swans records have been wonderful collections of groovy post-rock with these towering climaxes that seem fit to break walls with the sheer sonic force of them. The wonderful harpist and singer/songwriter Joanna Newsom must also be mentioned; such a beautiful songwriter. Another rapper, Danny Brown, has had a recent record out that is very experimental with both fun and somber beats and brilliant songwriting. Deathspell Omega are a black metal band that utilize a lot of dissonant songwriting techniques to create these fascinating, grotesque soundscapes and I implore anybody reading to listen to The Synarchy of Molten Bones, their most recent work. 

Upon re-acquainting myself with VENOM - back in the 80's, this was brutal, hard-core sh*t - I dared not listen to this too loud when I was 16. Now, Cronos and his cronies sound almost laughable in there extremities. Sure, they sound like a bunch of drunk kids stumbling upon a garage full of musical equipment, but as 'neanderthal' as they sounded back then, truth is - they could play. Perhaps drummer Abaddon was a bit sloppy, but truly relentless - and there's no 'blast-beat' double bass-drum work to match his at the time. And Cronos can pull off some real good and creative bass-lines surprisingly enough. The guitarist is blistering and knows what he's doing........ Great band, ballsy musicianship, and innovative. Really, an ambitious 20 minute 'Extreme' Metal piece back in 1984, must have some sort of 'Progressive' qualifications........

DDPascalDD wrote: There is something which can be examined and put to use which hasn't been done yet: microtonality.

It's certainly been done, but I'd say that we've only scratched the surface of it so far.

One frustrating thing about it is that contemporary musical gear is not easily conducive to exploring microtonal music in depth.

I've suggested to keyboard manufacturers, for example, that they should make it easy to do custom tunings by simply defining the pitch in cents for each key on a keyboard--it seems that that should be a relatively easy thing to engineer, but they don't bother because there is close to no demand for this.

I've suggested likewise for drum machines with respect to odd times including theoretically possible time signatures like 7/3 for example (they're mathematically possible and effectively akin to metric modulations), polyrhythms, being able to program tempos that aren't steady/regular etc., but likewise, there's very little demand for anything like that, especially when most folks just want to know how to do cliched things with "boots and pants" grooves.

Edited by Terrapin Station - December 15 2016 at 03:57