Collaborators' Top Albums of 2018

Cheers Logan, I'll put those two Cardiacs songs on my playlist, the first one is already sounding good!

deandob wrote: Cheers Logan, I'll put those two Cardiacs songs on my playlist, the first one is already sounding good!

Glad to hear it. :) The category is such a mixed bag, and ideally, it would be broken down into sub-categories and albums themselves would be assigned different multiple genre labels.   Much of it is like a quirky, more experimental sounding Eclectic Prog, or quirky Art Rock, there are ones that are on the "Avant Pop" side, it has a Crossover with Crossover Prog, as well as most every category here (I might call Cardiacs Avant Crossover Prog). There is the RIO side of things (Rock in Opposition) which is its own thing (based on festivals and it had a manifesto), there is "chamber rock" which intersects with RIO, music that is more Academic Music, or modern classical-oriented, "weird" stuff, sophisticated music etc. Traditionally I had favoured what would be called the chamber rock side of things when it came to the category, but there is so much more that I do love (and quite a lot that I wouldn't as it is so varied). One will find more dissonance and jarring moments in much Avant Prog than one would find in the more melodic rock oriented categories of PA.

Raff wrote: Logan wrote: deandob wrote: This list just goes to show how diverse the prog audience is, most of the titles especially towards the top of the list wouldn't be in my list (seems to be a bias towards avant bands, reflecting the tastes of the more active members here?).... ]    Avant-Prog listeners tend to be active, whereas ones who listen to vanilla Prog tend to be lethargic to the point of being comatose    A friend of ours uses the expression "plastic prog", which I think fits some bands to a T. Seriously speaking, though, those Avant bands are undoubtedly closer to the spirit of the original progressive rock movement - even if their music may not always be easy to listen to.

It is closer in spirit to the original progressive rock -- the experimentation, the progression and breaking free of convention (rock and pop conventions especially). There is so much conventional, conservative Prog-by-numbers that is not progressive at all, but instead is just imitative and commonly backward thinking.

There is plastic as in synthetic Prog, and then there's the good kind of plastic Prog of many Avant, unconventional, experimental, progressive Prog acts, meaning that it has plasticity. It is flexible, alterable and adaptable. It could take on so many shapes, be so many things, and needn't be set its ways (liberal prog I might say, which is open to new ideas and a freedom of expression - a liberal mindset as Bertrand Russell might say ;)).   Liberal Prog Rock, progressive prog rock, conservative prog rock, I'm making this sound very political (RIO of course had a political element).

Edited by Logan - February 24 2019 at 08:01

Gerinski wrote: Tapfret wrote: Here is the subgenre breakdown of the top 50. 9 Crossover 7 Eclectic 6 Avant 4 Neo 3 Symphonic 3 Psych 3 JR/Fusion (Just realized I mislabeled "Lady with" as Psike) 3 Folk 2 Heavy 2 Zeuhl 2 Tech/Extreme 2 DPI 1 Canterbury 1 Math/post 1 Prog Metal 1 Exp/Post metal It seems Prog Metal is dead

 

^Thinking Plague was exactly who I was talking about when I mentioned precision dissonance (Not sure if that was the exact term I used). It took me quite awhile to progress to their level. I think that they would be way over entry level.

I think the most recent Far Corner is definitely a good gateway. I personally like "Endangered" better, which is less of a gateway.

Korekyojinn would be good too. They actually include a great gateway on their Jackson album.


And speaking of Kido Natsuki, include "Salle Gaveau" which is chamber tangos heavily influenced by Astor Piazola. Very beautiful music.


I just love Kido Natsuki's playing. I need to cue this up tomorrow.

I said I wasn't going to do this.

Edited by Tapfret - February 25 2019 at 21:33

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