Top 10 Retro-Prog Albums

I refuse to call anything Retro Prog, because this name implies:

Roj M30 wrote: Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: I refuse to call anything Retro Prog, because this name implies:   That we are talking about a dead genre, and Prog never died, it's the same genre from 4 decades ago, only that bigger.   Why has a gernre to be limited to 10 or 15 years? Why can't Symphonic today be the same Symphonic than 20 years ago=   Most of this bands have some references to past icons, but they also have some new aspects.   I believe it's a harsh term,   Just my 2 cents.   Iván   Well said .   What Ivan has said pretty much sums up exactly how I feel on the subject.  Diaby had touched on this earlier too.  I hate the "retro" tag.   I guess people like Roine Stolt may admit they're "retro", but I just find it an insult to be honest.  The bands termed "neo" were given a whole new genre when they're clearly influenced by the very same bands.  Yet TFK, Tangent and Beardfish are dubbed "retro".  In any event I see a lot of new ideas in these so-called retro bands.  TFK's material for instance is extremely diverse.  And can anybody say that Transatlantic are a replica of the 70s giants?  I don't see it at all, and I was around in the 70s listening to those prog rock giants.  Remember too that Roine was actually in a 70s prog band!

Mr ProgFreak wrote: "Retro" ... the word does not seem harsh to me at all. Instead of Death I associate Nostalgia and Reminiscence of old times. There aren't many bands around that I would call Retro anyway, but there are many who at least from time to time add Retro elements. For example, any prog band which today uses classic Mellotron sounds is Retro ... at least to some extent.

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - April 28 2009 at 17:03

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Mr ProgFreak wrote: "Retro" ... the word does not seem harsh to me at all. Instead of Death I associate Nostalgia and Reminiscence of old times. There aren't many bands around that I would call Retro anyway, but there are many who at least from time to time add Retro elements. For example, any prog band which today uses classic Mellotron sounds is Retro ... at least to some extent.   Mike, the words Retro and Nostalgia implies a feeling of revival of something that existed before and no longer does. Symphonic Prog is a genre born in 1967 with Thoughts of the Emerlist Davjack, that was officially recognized with In the Court of the Crimson king, developed with bands as Genesis and Yes, continued existing with Hybris or Gothic Impressions and still today is alive with bands as Blank Manuskript, Karda Estra or Shadow Circus, Alex Carpani Band and Anton Roolaart. Iván

I disagree. Symphonic Prog was the most important movement of the classic prog era in the 70s (beginning in the late 60s). But in the late 70s the movement stopped. That doesn't mean that there weren't still a few bands on the planet that made this type of music ... it means that most music fans did not know them, they were "Underground".

Later bands appeared which based their music on those bands, but also brought in new influences ... the biggest example being Neo Prog. Clearly early Marillion is influenced by classic Genesis, yet it's a different style.

In the 90s even more bands began to make music that was inspired by classic (Symphonic) prog, but again they brought in new influences, Spock's Beard for example (American AOR)

But some bands in the 90s were making music that sounded exactly like classic 70s symphonic prog Anglagard and (later) Wobbler being good examples. Wobbler even used only instruments that were made in the 70s. And *those* I call Retro. There's nothing wrong with it. 

King By-Tor wrote: Whoo! Thread spinning wildly off topic!

1. Classic Symphonic
2. Italian Symphonic (Thanks God now it's RPI)
3. Scandinavian symphonic.
4. Ethnic Symphonic (For bands as Renaissance or Karda Estra who have evident Folk components)

And go on, but that's absurd, Symphonic is one and only one sub-genre, for special reasons Italian bands are in RPI, and I find some logic.

Edited by Ivan_Melgar_M - April 29 2009 at 10:13

Honestly Mike, i don't understand your intentions and obsession with tagging, maybe i'm wrong and creating endless tags is the best soluttion, but I doubt it.

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: Honestly Mike, i don't understand your intentions and obsession with tagging, maybe i'm wrong and creating endless tags is the best soluttion, but I doubt it.

I think that what you're wrong in is that you think that I want to create "endless tags". It's entirely up to each user how many tags they assign, or how many assigned tags they consider. I've tried a few variations ... if you currently take a look at the PF start page you'll see that for each album the system creates a label that uses at most 2 tags (+ prog status and genre) ... all the other tags are listed separately, and I'm working on a customization option that will allow each visitor to decide whether they want to see them.

But enough hijacking for today!

How many PA members does it take to make a top ten list?

17.

2 to actually begin to make a list, and 15 to say that no such list should exist at all! It's like the "Philosopher Soccer" sketch on Monty Python where Descartes argues with the referee that the ball didn't exist!

Now, I'll weigh in, as a guy who is in a retro prog band, that even I take no offense to the term (although I don't know how many people will still think we're retro after the next album)...


Edited by jplanet - April 29 2009 at 17:14

Mr ProgFreak wrote: cacho wrote: Is it me, or my post about this, which is really my thread, has been completely been ignored, which is supposed to be the most relevant one in this case, saying that my labelling or tagging is offensive... I read your post but honestly I don't know what to say. I fully support the label "Retro" ... and even if it can be interpreted differently by people and some even think that it has a negative connotation ... so what? Still nothing wrong about making a top 10 list of such albums. And to those who use this thread to rant about tagging: Sorry folks, but this is clearly not the place.

Ah, I really wasn't reffering to you, if not to Ivan and Diaby. Though still thanks, glad we agree.

jplanet wrote: How many PA members does it take to make a top ten list? 17. 2 to actually begin to make a list, and 15 to say that no such list should exist at all! It's like the "Philosopher Soccer" sketch on Monty Python where Descartes argues with the referee that the ball didn't exist! Now, I'll weigh in, as a guy who is in a retro prog band, that even I take no offense to the term (although I don't know how many people will still think we're retro after the next album)...