Recommend some stuff to a Prog-Newbie

Yo IDDQD (nice name - brings back memories )

With no offense to the folks offering recommendations, I feel like some of them are off-base. Your list of bands includes ONE symph band (Camel), yet some of recommendations have been pretty much proggy-prog symphonic rock (Flower Kings?!?). Weird.

Based on your tastes I would say you MUST give Magma a shot, and also Present (who were formed by Roger Trigaux, formerly of Univers Zero, and are AMAZING - try High Infidelity). Also, since you like Henry Cow, try Art Bears, who kind of do the Henry Cow (circa In Praise of Listening) thing minus the improv and with concise, short song-form compositions and lots of Dagmar. I'll run with the RIO thread, given that you like UZ and Henry Cow, and recommend a few of the modern bands that are sort of along similar lines:

Thinking Plague - try any of them; I started with In Extremis
U Totem - the self-titled first is a masterpiece - sounds somewhat like Henry Cow's Western Culture
French TV - wacky American prog kind of like Samla Mammas Manna but with more of a fusion bent. The Violence of Amateurs is easily their best IMHO.

Don't know much about Krautrock, but you should definitely pursue Guru Guru and Amon Duul II. Also try Boredoms from Japan - Vision Creation Newsun is a great tribal freakout in the best Krautrock tradition.

In general I feel like many of the bands on the Cuneiform label (cuneiformrecords.com) would appeal to you, since the owner of this label is a monstrous fan of Soft Machine, Canterbury in general, UZ, RIO in general, and the kind of stuff you listed in general. Great label.

Hope these are helpful!

Edited by progreviews

Anathema, Porcupine Tree and Amplifier. 

None are metal but have enough crunch to satisfy the cravings.  None are strictly prog but have enough tension and dynamic and extended arrangements to reward repeated listenings.  None are strictly ambient but textured sounds and feeling of proximity are essential.

Originally posted by flowerchild Originally posted by King of Loss Hah, if you ever listened to Liquid Tension Experiment from my point of view, its like soiling in your pants to the Images and Words album except 100 times better If u ever listen to Tales from topografic oceans from my point of view. u would know that an orgasm isn't the strongest feeling

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!!!

 do any of you remember ivan_2068's signiture, man that was kooky

 does your posts have anything to do with stars

I highly reccomend the band Anubis Spire; get the album Old Lions In a World of Snarling Sheep. It is some of the most amazing guitar work I've ever heard.

If you like techno/electronic, pick up St. Germain. They have a definate jazz sound with a techno feel to it.

Everyone else's reccomendations sound good. If your not already into it, grab some Dream Theater.

If you like Metal and Prog AND Folk then try this spanish band ... Mägo de Oz. They're rather good. Vionlin and flute arrangements. For me, musically, they are somme kind of metalized Jethro Tull. But conseptually they are sort of different. The emphasyse more on the depelopping actions more than in the ideas (they don't have Ian Anderosn as songwriter).

Originally posted by King of Loss Originally posted by IDDQD It's just that I'm a Metal board mainstay, so it would be silly to come here and get Metal recommendations. ;) And what Metal board would that be?

metal-rules.com/bb

I don't endorse the views of the site, but the forum community is sometimes worth my while. Although there are enough morons there to get on one's nerves...

Originally posted by IDDQD It's just that I'm a Metal board mainstay, so it would be silly to come here and get Metal recommendations. ;)

And what Metal board would that be?

Originally posted by flowerchild Good choice, by the way, of bands to check out

Dude. I downloaded a live video of Focus doing the song Hocus Pocus, and damn, that's some crazy sh*t right there.  I immediately downloaded the album "Moving Waves" and I love it. Thanks so much for the recommendation.

Edited by Henkka