Your own essential attributes of great prog

Last evening I prepared for my friend extensive list of my most favourite prog albums, about 50 albums of all time. Looking at that list with quite wide array of styles, I started to ask myself :  Are there any attributes, any qualities, any recognizable elements, which are common to all or at least absolute majority of my most loving prog albums ?

 

Surely enough it's not a matter of subgenre(s), my best prog albums are coming from many different subgenres of prog. Majority is coming probably from eclectic prog, many from symphonic, RIO, fusion. Canterbury, Italian symphonic, Zeuhl and even progmetal are also present.

Surely enough it's also not a matter of the era, I love albums from 1969 - 2008.

Despite it I think I can express some common attributes of my best prog. Here are the results of my observation :

 

1) DARKNESS, DARKNESS, DARKNESS

            Absolute majority of my best prog selection are albums with dark, brooding, gloomy or melancholy mood. I can say that happy, sweet, romantic, pathetic or too uplifting prog has not for me the same emotional depth as dark prog. Albums by Yes are the only one exception in  the rule.

 

2) ADVENTUROUS APPROACH

            I don't want to use the term "complex". Complexity is often good thing for me, but not always necessary. e.g. solo albums by Peter Hammill : often not "complex" - sometimes just pH's voice over one single instrument, but what a chord progression, what a melody development. Certainly far from mainstream approach.

            Simply I prefer adventurous prog to prog with mainstream influences, to catchy or too melodic prog.

 

3) RIGHT MIXTURE OF CALM, EMOTIONAL AND INTENSE, HEAVY

            I can say I prefer such a mixture to prog, which is heavy from the first second to the last, which is too mellow or too soft or which has too much of avant-garde noise.

 

My question is : Do You have also any essential, for you important, attributes of great prog, according to your taste? Thanks for your opinions.

I would say a few of these things:

TGM: Orb wrote: 1. Emotion... music needs a feeling, an underlying emotional idea, something there. That's beyond essential 2. Expression... the album needs to express that emotion, and if it does so in more ways than one, that can make it great. 3. Dynamic... dynamic matters, changes of pace, of force and volume are what makes music truly hit for me Preferably, throw in quality lyrics, a spontaneous feel and diversity, but those don't matter too much.

TGM: Orb wrote: 1. Emotion... music needs a feeling, an underlying emotional idea, something there. That's beyond essential 2. Expression... the album needs to express that emotion, and if it does so in more ways than one, that can make it great. 3. Dynamic... dynamic matters, changes of pace, of force and volume are what makes music truly hit for me Preferably, throw in quality lyrics, a spontaneous feel and diversity, but those don't matter too much.

All very important. But I'm both broad and contradictory when it comes to what I deem good and essential. I think what I look for mostly is some kind of abstract "realisation of ideas" that of course is extremely subjective. Most albums try to be something in a certain way, and when I find it to be expressed properly, with all the parameters discussed in this thread - I like it!  

Just about the only thing that I consider to be truly essential is a full and complicated sound.  Mellotrons have a huge part in the history of prog for a reason.

For me:

Creative and artistic. That's the whole point of prog isn't it?
Variation, a band should be able to be both crushing and beautiful.
Unique, they shouldn't sound like every other band in the world.
Layered, a prog band should be very multilayered and should always have new things to discover in the music.
Progressive, I don't mean as in Prog, I mean that the band should always be changing and progressing from album to album.
Dynamic, their songs shouldn't just follow a formula, they should change and spiral and spread and flow...

Being obviously written and performed by people who consider mescaline part of the food pyramid. 

What I enjoy the most :

1) Dynamism : Music must be driven by a force. Changes of pace, ups and down, sudden intensity...

2) Spontaneous feel : I like music when it sounds like it was only half written before the recording process. I also like when someone obviously tried something out during the song and it's been kept on the final recording. Gives out much more expression to the music.

3) Trance inducing music : I like when the music grabs your mind and doesn't want to let it go. May it be extended psychedelic jams, insane repetitive rythmns, musical intensity, cosmic grooves or anything else.

4) Atmosphere : I like when music has the potential to totally change your current state of mind to a specific atmosphere.

5) Chaos : This may be redundant but I like when music just sounds chaotic in parts.

6) Guys having fun : Something that may sound strange but that thoroughly affects me is when music sounds like it was just made by a bunch of guys wanting to have fun on random night out. Overwritten or really dark music kinda turn me off. For some reason, I also like when the sound quality is kinda bad on an album. It reinforces the "guys just having fun" part. Like it was recorded in a living room or something not caring about the final results.

Obviously, I like a lot of bands not fitting these criterias but they're mostly bands that I discovered while exploring prog. Now that I've listened to most sub-genres a lot, I can definitely say those are my favorite musical attributes. I'm focusing on this kind of music now.


Edited by Bern - November 23 2008 at 14:07

Emotion - senseless virtuosity irritates me the most

Unexpected changes (adventurous) - parts of the song/album that escape the norm, introduce different ideas and make you fall off the chair...

Structured - I often find that albums with no structure fail to impress me. Good ideas thrown one after another with no clear 'destination' don't work for me (there are always exceptions: see The Art of Love and the Making)

Epignosis wrote: Certif1ed wrote: Epignosis wrote: (...)sorry "Moonchild" fans- it's noodling.  I stand by that belief(...)   The fact is that it's NOT noodling, and there is evidence that is about as close to empirical as you can get in music in my review.   Your belief and reality need re-alignment - but I'm not saying you have to like it So long as you don't force me to listen to it.