Maximalist music?

https://neptunianmaximalism.bandcamp.com/

Without question. I have yet to listen to his The Red Planet album. My headphones died a couple days ago, sadly. 

Necrotica wrote: I think the majority of Devin Townsend's music would be considered maximalist  (obviously with the exception of albums like Ghost, Ocean Machine, or Terria)

I agree. That is why I posted Empath, which is the absolute craziest in my opinion. 

I prefer to stay away from extremes (minimalism or maxi) and go with things more in the middle. But if I had to choose, I'd go with simpler, as it's more of a challenge to appreciate, but also more rewarding when you get it, and see its value. Cluttered music seems only fitting for a cluttered mind.

Hi,

I'm not sure this is right. It's like equating the traffic in the middle of NYC to the traffic in Pointsburg, Oregon, a city with 150 folks!

It's really about the totality of the music, and to me 150 instruments is not better than 3, or vice versa, however, we seem to think that just because someone added something else, it makes it ... something else.

I have never met, an artist, (mostly writers for me) that added something to their poem, or work, for the sake of MAXIMALIST, or Masochistic ideas about their composition! Some times, what you see before you set out to define it in notes, or words, is difficult, and you have to describe it more, or add more notes or different this or that ... but I never found GG to have one instrument too many, or AD2 to have one instrument too many, or FX to have one note too many with the bicycle pipes or kazoos. WITH ONT EXCEPTION ... PDQ Bach adds things on purpose, regardless of composition, and this is done in concert, which kinda defeats the idea of "maximalist" altogether since the next day in Tulsa, Wisconsin the audience of 12 would laugh with or without it anyway.

I think that we are getting caught in having to create stupid definitions that don't talk about the music and how it is put together. And I (specially) do not appreciate the geekery attitude towards defining "progressive" or "prog" regardless of the music and its history. And I wish that the Admins would lock this thread, because it is getting ridiculous, and half the mentions are not even close to something akin to that term! 

THE MUSIC IS THE MUSIC ... why does it matter to you if it has 110 instruments, or 6 with low level players that add effects to make it sound/look better than it really is? It's about the music ... not the max or the min of anything, and I wish we would wake up to that! All this really says, is that you are not man enough to create your own composition and have to compartmentalize everything else. How boring!

Hi,

I find it weird that you chose the song with Ninet to say that ... a song that is inherently EMOTIONAL and has a strong meaning ... way beyond the majority of listeners within the "progressive" market place ... specially into an area that is important and has a lot more meaning than 99% of the cheesy lyrics found in so many "progressive" materials. And something that SW himself will never be able to do again!

Maximalist is a bizarre, and silly term. I guess that the best of them would be STRAVINSKY but I'm not sure that person has any idea what that means. FZ to my ears, was not a maximalist. His main desire was to see how this and that could work with something else, and he made it valuable to our listening experience with only one odd ball thing that many still don't like ... 200 Motels, which is excellent, but a satire on something totally different in classical music that rock fans will never appreciate. If you EVER bother to listen to the live performance of this at UCLA before Gayle passed away, you will understand it better ... how a choir took to this so seriously and did it magnificently without saying that they were bored with all the crap they had been singing for years in so much classical music. Sadly, I don't think this group has the appreciation for something that heavy and important.