Your Favorite Prog: Older, Newer, Doesn't Matter?

Each decade has music that I thoroughly enjoy from it, but the 70's and 2000's+ are far and away the leading lights for me. There will never be bands that really sound like Genesis, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Le Orme, Banco..., QVL, National Health etc but at the same time there's so much creativity abounding in the last 15 years or so that was largely missing from the 80's and early 90's that I have to hold the two era's as equal.

guyuz wrote: On one hand, the classics have something to them that I just can't explain. They're just, composed different. I don't know. When I think of a Yes song verse, I can't divide it into words and riff, or something. It's all connected. In newer prog, I don't feel that.

It seems to me that the major part of the classic prog bands from the mid 60's and 70's listened to more Classical Music than the general newer ones. That elements in common excited me a lot when I began to listen classic prog, in the beginning of 80's. But nowadays I'm digging out hoping to find superb new prog bands, Just now I'm glad to enjoy some tracks from Autumn Whispers, Mostly Autumn, Karfagen, Fatal Fusion, Persona Grata, Morild, Ontofiled etc. The list is quite large and they have an advantage: there aren't "academic" bands anymore, which rather enhances the free way of composing.

Edited by Rick Robson - December 09 2013 at 18:20

I doesn't matter to me.

Underground Progressive Rock for a musician/writer in the 70's ...was actually a means of opportunity to be signed to a major record label and create/experiment all on your own. That was what I was attracted to. You were only being half promoted, maybe booked in the U.S. as an opening act for a major headliner, blah, blah, woof, woof. Like PFM opening for Rory Gallagher or ELO? Bands like The Enid never crossed the ocean, but many others in fact did. The days of the early Curved Air signed to Warner Brothers Records...you know the deal? I love the 90's as well...like Anglagard and of course the 80's with Univers Zero. I loved Jethro Tull, Yes, Genesis, and King Crimson...but I was overwhelmed by the Krautrock scene and the underground Classical Rock....so I think I've always been more drawn to the underground obscure music in Europe.

My fave period is the 70's but I'm still buying new bands and have enjoyed Big Big Train, Daysbetween Stations & Haken in recent years.

I used to listen to as much modern prog as classic. But I always felt there was something missing from the more recent music. Never been able to put my finger on what it was that was missing. Suppose thinking about it all that was different was the way it was recorded giving it a feeling apart from the classic music of my youth. I sold up the modern section of my collection several years back as I was out of work and badly needed funds to pay the bills. These days I just collect the classic period which is what I managed to keep back and could not bring myself to sell on...not even to pay the bills.

I'm a life-long fan of Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Jethro Tull (saw them live on my 17th birthday!) and Peter Gabriel. Got into King Crimson & Miles Davis as a teen. Still discovering things like VdGG, Centipede, Porcupine Tree, Ozric Tentacles and Gentle Giant as an adult. I don't really have a preference as to era, but I think I'm more sentimental about the older stuff because it's been with me through all the stages of my life. Lately, I've been discovering a lot of semi-obscure old folk like John Fahey, Incredible String Band, John Renbourne and Current 93. I love the sound of guitars in DADGAD tuning. Thanks to this site, I've been digging deeper into RiO. I've been familiar with Art Zoyd and Henry Cow for decades thanks to late night college radio, but Univers Zero and Thinking Plague are new to me.
Is anybody else on here as excited as I am about the new crop of space rock bands like Failure, The Life and Times, National Skyline and Hum? Also, how does everybody feel about post-rock being a manifestation of prog now the way RiO was in the 80's?

I don't judge music by date and I can find music I love from every year.  That said, the years 67-73 seem to have a disproportionately high percentage of magic emanating from them. 

The 1970's, especially 1971-75, are uncontested. Nevertheless I like recent years almost equally.

I feel the term "Newie but goodie" should be adopted by some of the members of this site.

"it's a newie" "oh god no" "but it's a goodie"