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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 30258 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2013 at 02:19
OMD used Mellotron which made them a bit of secret prog band on the sly.Smile
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Dean View Drop Down
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2013 at 02:48
Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

OMD used Mellotron which made them a bit of secret prog band on the sly.Smile
Andy McCluskey gave us Atomic Kitten (so by inference, also Kerry Katona) and plundered our pop music heritage to secure them hit records which makes him a bit of a ___, neither sly nor secret.
 
I saw OMD in 1979 and it was like watching wallpaper, Winston was the only band member with any stage presence.
What?
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Points: 11420 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2013 at 07:13
Weird thing is, the intro to OMD's Souvenir still sends delicious shivers down my 50 year old spine yet (dunno)

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Edited by ExittheLemming - April 14 2013 at 07:16
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Points: 6797 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 14 2013 at 08:25
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

OMD used Mellotron which made them a bit of secret prog band on the sly.Smile
Andy McCluskey gave us Atomic Kitten (so by inference, also Kerry Katona) and plundered our pop music heritage to secure them hit records which makes him a bit of a ___, neither sly nor secret.
 
I saw OMD in 1979 and it was like watching wallpaper, Winston was the only band member with any stage presence.
 
I don't think that McCluskey's post OMD involvement in music or the lack off any discernible stage presence (or personality) shouldn't take anything away from the music.  Having said that there is a case for McCluskey's 'dancing'  putting OMD into music's Room 101. 
 
 
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lct View Drop Down
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Points: 8 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 15 2013 at 13:09
Late genesis gets pretty synth heavy when they went polyphonic  
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richardh View Drop Down
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Points: 30258 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 16 2013 at 01:26
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Points: 2 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 17 2013 at 21:07
My synth music is not "electronica" because it is not played by machine.
Sometimes I use automated basic rhythms but all else is hand-played on keyboard synths.
 
It's not pop. It's not "ambient." And it's not "experimental" in the usual sense of some non-musician making non-melodic noises with electronic equipment.
 
My music is made of layers of relatively simple melodic lines that over time grow in harmonic and polyrhythmic complexity. The music is repetitive but ever-changing, not unlike Ravel's Bolero or Pachelbel's Canon in D. When the tune isn't changing, the sounds are changing.
 
Some of the tunes are light, some are darker. I play whatever mood I'm feeling. The tunes are improvised at the time of recording with no planning and no goal in mind. They way they turn out always surprises me.
 
You can hear all my synthesizer music free at http://aejotz.com
 
It's not prog but you can hear prog influence now and then. When I first made this kind of music in '83 I was listening to practically nothing but early Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Kansas, Renaissance, Triumvirat, Procol Harum, Tull, Nektar, Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Brand X, stuff like that.


Edited by AEJOTZ - July 31 2014 at 10:12
electronics = magic

retro futurism now

space age synthesizer music --> aejotz.com
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The.Crimson.King View Drop Down
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Points: 4596 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2013 at 01:10
Not sure if this fits the bill for the OP but some of my fave synth heavy albums...

Schick Furs & Frohling (SFF) : Symohonic Pictures, Sunburst
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Klaus Schulze - Picture Music
Tomita - Pictures at an Exhibition, Snowflakes Are Dancing
Richard Pinhaus - Chronolyse
Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987
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Points: 18605 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2013 at 10:21
Hi,
 
Tomita is one of the best interpreters of classical music there is on synthesizers. His version of "The Firebird Suite" is phenomenal, as is his first album on Debussy. And his version of "Pictures at an Exhibition" is very nice as well.
 
Looks like you guys got a few listed ... here are some more:
 
Ange - Early days had 2 keyboard players, and they meshed pretty well.
 
Eberhard Schoenner - although his work became increasingly more classical, and less experimental or rock.
 
Robert Schroeder - And you gotta get that album that plays at 45RPM and at 33RPM ... which makes both those pieces phenomenal ... one is teutonic hardcore stuff that elicits dark images and scary feelings, and the other is a wonderful piece otherwise. This is a MUST ALBUM FOR COLLECTORS, by the way, and was one of the first on KS's label, btw!
 
Clearlight Symphony/Cyreille Verdoux - Very nice stuff
 
Stomu Yamash'ta (spelling) - On his later days did some meditation stuff that was pretty nice.
 
Rick Wakeman in his solo albums (or Yes, for that matter) - although I am not a great fan of his solo stuff beyong the original Henry VIII.
 
Terry Riley - One of the riginal synthesizer composers, although I tend to think that some of the material came off a bit classically minded for my tastes when compared to others.
 
Beaver and Krause - Original experimental folks on the sunthesizers, did some wonderful things that got copied and used by many others out there ... see how many of their pieces you can find, and where!
 
Wish I had heard more of the keyboard work that Eurock and Archie P offer all the time over the last 20 years ... there is a lot of really far out stuff in there, and I have no idea who they are ... but a lot of it is keyboard heavy, which I think is Archie's preference.
 
AshRa - Manuel Gottsching involves a lot of synthesizer in the work he does along his guitar.


Edited by moshkito - August 18 2013 at 10:37
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Points: 18605 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2013 at 10:40
Originally posted by AEJOTZ AEJOTZ wrote:

...
.... I was listening to practically nothing but early Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Kansas, Renaissance, Triumvirat, Procol Harum, Tull, Nektar, Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever, Brand X, stuff like that.
 
I tend to not mention these as much since they are, for the most part rock music for the airwaves. Mahavishnu and Return to Forever, never really made it to radio, other than the more with it jazz stations, which only exist in the big cities, like LA ... and even then, they can play these nowadays, but it was not played then, and it was amazing that they got the recognition that they deserved, despite radio ... talk about progressive, and eventually showing that it could be done without radio ... but Stanley and Chick had already made their name in the field by that time!
Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told!
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verslibre View Drop Down
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Points: 19365 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 18 2013 at 19:56
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Robert Schroeder - And you gotta get that album that plays at 45RPM and at 33RPM ... which makes both those pieces phenomenal ... one is teutonic hardcore stuff that elicits dark images and scary feelings, and the other is a wonderful piece otherwise. This is a MUST ALBUM FOR COLLECTORS, by the way, and was one of the first on KS's label, btw!


Are you referring to Harmonic Ascendant? I have Time Waves, Computer Voice, Brain Voyager and Driftin'. I also had Paradise and Pegasus but I didn't feel they were very good, though many Berlin School aficionados love everything by Robert. I still haven't heard H.A..

Are you familiar with Michael Garrison? Sadly, he passed away some years ago and his albums are out of print. If you look around, you can secure a copy of his 1979 classic, In The Regions Of Sunreturn. Here's "The Voyage."

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jayem View Drop Down
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Points: 997 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 23 2013 at 09:38
Originally posted by Aragon Aragon wrote:

You should try Aragon, plenty of synthesizers and the singer is awesome, he sing like Fish in his much angry moments!!! 

But if u like symphonic progressive rock i recomend u Solaris








Aragon guitarist seems to stick to blues scales while keyboard's harmonic vocabulary is richer. The voice Axl Rose XPeter Hammil sounds "sensitive angry", that is when a sedate man gets angry.  Powerful !

Solaris is intense but also cool/laid back , I found it conveying more joy than what I'd expect in early 80's synth instrumental albums.

Solaris playing to a happy crowd




Edited by jayem - September 23 2013 at 20:48
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verslibre View Drop Down
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Points: 19365 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: September 23 2013 at 12:14
Originally posted by jayem jayem wrote:

The voice Axl Rose XPeter Hammil


Scary combination.
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Points: 7 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2013 at 07:54
Try Ampledeed
This is actually a band that I am in, but is heavily driven by diverse keyboard sounds and stylings.
http://www.ampledeed.com/ampledeed_004.htm
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Points: 956 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 24 2013 at 15:16
Originally posted by richardh richardh wrote:

It really shouldn't get to the 6th post for someone to mention ELOY

best albums for synths are Planets and Time To Turn. Those are two parts of a concept. There is also the excellent Colours album. They were all recorded in the early eighties









ABSOLUTELY AGREE WITH YOU...THESE ALBUMS ARE SUPERB!
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verslibre View Drop Down
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Points: 19365 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 24 2013 at 18:04
^^^If you love melodic space-rock with prevalent synths, you'd be hard-pressed to find a better band than Eloy!
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Points: 5898 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 25 2013 at 18:46
If you want some newer music in this vein, Maserati's Pyramid of the Sun album has a lot of vintage '70s-style sequencers but used in the context of a guitar-driven style that also draws on '80s new wave and contemporary post-rock scenes.


Edited by Toaster Mantis - November 25 2013 at 18:52
"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Points: 344 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 25 2013 at 19:14
Pendragon's The Masquerade Overture has a lot of different synths and sounds amazing
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