guitar-less modern prog bands?
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Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
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Topic: guitar-less modern prog bands?
Posted By: tokyoganglion
Subject: guitar-less modern prog bands?
Date Posted: September 02 2019 at 19:42
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Something that interests me about 70s prog: the diversity of instruments / lineups. To be precise: there were some big bands with no (or minimal) guitar. ELP of course, but also VDGG . . . even Genesis, the guitar was never in the front. But it seems like that aspect got lost with the prog revival in the 90s. Can anyone recommend "post-golden-era" bands with either no or minimal guitar? My puny list so far:
Thanks for reading!
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Replies:
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: September 03 2019 at 00:19
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There are probably quite a few. ELP has always been my favourite band so I tend to look for this kind of stuff. I would check out RPI as Italian prog has always been ripe with keyboard orientated bands. I am a fan of the US band Glass Hammer. They generally have a 'Yes vibe' more than ELP but the keyboards (Fred Schendel) are very strong and upfront in the music. Albums particularly I like by them include If , The Inconsolable Secret and Shadowlands. Of more recent stuff that is 'keyboard heavy' band Far Corner . They released a brilliant album Risk last year. you will enjoy! Oh and fancy a band with 2 keyboard players that is not Greenslade? Fright Pig is another US band and they only released one album but they spent a year writing and recording it . Something of an overlooked modern classic. Do you like Pipe Organ? Three Monks released a couple of very lovely albums and not a guitar in sight! |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: September 03 2019 at 06:20
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A few come to mind but not all are three piece bands(mostly late 60's and early 70's bands): Rare Bird Aardvark (UK band) Still Life Egg Hansson and Karlsson The Nice (after first album) Ekseption Le Orme The Trip Tripod (the only one on this list not from 60's or 70's since their only self titled album is from 2003) I'm not an expert on all of these bands but I believe most had a mostly keyboard driven sound with either minimal guitar or guitar was not usually the main focus. I apologize for not sticking to the rules of post golden era but I couldn't really think of any. Maybe someone else will be interested though. |
Posted By: Argo2112
Date Posted: September 03 2019 at 08:43
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Levin, Minnemann & Rudess |
Posted By: auxfnx
Date Posted: September 03 2019 at 10:43
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Rascal Reporters are entirely based around keyboards with the help of drums, and ocassional bass and guitar appearances. Very Zappa, very avant-garde, and making new music presently. I am a member of the band but got there by being a massive massive fan so this is a serious recommendation!! I recommend Happy Accidents (1988) from here to start with: https://rascalreporters.bandcamp.com/ Redux vol. 1 is a new release (this year, and is the first one I've been involved with) and We're God is from 1980, but freshly remastered this year, so all are good choices IMO!
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Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: September 03 2019 at 13:46
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There are quite a few "post-Golden Era" guitar-less bands. Blue Motion (Swiss one-off trio of double-keys + drums) Cerebus Effect (as a keyboard-led trio on Live at Orion only) Far Corner Flat 122 Gerard Maxwell's Demon Majeure (Zombi drummer A.E. Paterra's electronic side project) Rudess Morgenstein Project Three Monks ...and myriad Berlin School electronic acts, if you're into that. Ars Nova did expand to a line-up with a guitarist (not a guest). ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: September 04 2019 at 00:09
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2 other suggestions that came to mind (both Scandi prog bands) Par Lindh Project - the first 3 albums are superb (the last one Time Mirror is just average) . Elephant 9 - I've only stumbled across this band recently but they are great. Hard for me to recommend one single album but if you like the classic Hammond Organ sound and fast jazz style drumming then this band fits the bill perfectly.
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Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: September 04 2019 at 00:11
didn't the drummer go to Ars Nova? Yep great band , Live In Marseille is one of the heaviest albums I've heard. Play it loud!
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verslibre wrote:Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: September 04 2019 at 10:09
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Masuhiro Goto did some guest drumming on Biogenesis Project and some live shows, but then he moved on. Ars Nova had a completely different line-up again after that. They did a couple reunion shows that featured Akiko drumming again. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: September 04 2019 at 10:14
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I should have remembered Par Lindh Project, but Gerard makes me recall another great, if short-lived, Japanese keyboard trio: Social Tension. Their first album MacBethia is fantastic. Ex-Deja Vu keyboardist Motoi Sakuraba (aka the Japanese Wakeman) has a few albums and a DVD where he performs his soundtrack material arranged for trio. Ex-Gerard bassist Atsushi Hasegawa's involved. Great stuff. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: September 04 2019 at 10:18
| There's definitely guitar on PLP. |
Posted By: richardh
Date Posted: September 05 2019 at 00:10
Yep Gothic Impressions included a bit from Roine Stolte! On the whole though it was never a lead instrument in the music. The last album Time Mirror does fit the criteria (no guitar) but isn't that great unfortunately.
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Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: September 05 2019 at 06:27
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Hi, The one I really like is ... SEVENTH WAVE ... both their albums are excellent. AND, I missed (finals!) a concert of theirs in LA, that was billed as ... 7 keyboard players ... and I have never found or heard a bootleg of that thing ... if anything needed to be bootlegged, that show would be it! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: Archie
Date Posted: September 06 2019 at 09:33
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Hiromi is an amazing keyboardist who often plays with just a drummer and bassist. Her stuff is fusiony and sometimes goes full jazz, but it's proggy enough and great - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNTt-XPv2n0" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNTt-XPv2n0 And, if you don't mind me plugging myself, my band Identikit does prog without even a bass guitar (I play upright instead) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0wBizHWRI" rel="nofollow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJ0wBizHWRI
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Posted By: verslibre
Date Posted: September 06 2019 at 11:23
Yeah, love that gal. Been following her ever since her debut Another Mind. ------------- https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_ipg=50&_sop=1&_rdc=1&_ssn=musicosm" rel="nofollow - eBay |
Posted By: tokyoganglion
Date Posted: September 24 2019 at 17:13
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I didn't expect so many answers! RICHARDH: Thanks! I should have remembered Far Corner, since I learned about them on this site. RISK is an amazing album, and I look forward to checking out Fright Pig and the other artists you mentioned! AFLOWERKINGCRIMSON: I’d forgotten that Egg and Le Orme fell in this category! But if the rest of the bands you recommended are half as good as those two, I’m going to have a fun time learning about them. AUXFNX: That’s great you’re in Rascal Reporters! I’m a fan of the Happy Accidents LP, and I’ll check out the Redux album. VERSLIBRE: Majeure is great stuff, so I’ll check out the rest of your list. As for Berlin School – that's another style of music I learned about from this forum, back in the day. . . which is why I’m glad this forum is still around. MOSHKITO: I’ll check out Seventh Wave as well. ARCHIE: Hiromi Uehara? I’m a fan of her Time Control album. If you like her and are into more dissonant prog and free-jazz as well, you might enjoy LE*SILO, another piano-led band – they’ve been called “The Japanese Etron Fou Leloublan” |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: October 04 2019 at 07:16
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Hi, I know I made a suggestion and went looking at my collection and could easily name many more ... but I lost my taste for it half way through it ... the reason being that to my mind (it's a never ending movie!), it makes no difference if a guitar is there or not ... there are many "lead guitarists" that know how to "underplay" their instrument in favor of the music ... and as such, to me, that's just like a band with no guitar ... However, of all "new instruments" in the 20th century, the electric guitar is likely to be considered the most important instrument of all, as a lot of music has shown ... as it is capable of "carrying" the music, something that previously we thought only an orchestra could do ... and so on. A great example of this, is if you listen to EOS by Terje Rypdal ... with David Darling (skip the first cut ... !!!), and when you hear it, it's like the prettiest chamber music ever created ... with an electric guitar and a cello with some small electronics. And the result is ... you don't think of it as an "electric guitar", but as an instrument helping to carry a specific feeling about the music that was created ... and it is spectacular, and to me is Jimi Hendrix ... a natural extension of where he could take his experiments, instead of playing the same rock music again and again, until he is dead and bored! It's similar with Mike Oldfield, for example ... since he will over lay many guitars and all of them are doing different things, and to think that this one is the lead is kinda strange sometimes ... it kinda is thought to be the lead because it is the loudest, but a minute later something else is. Or Vangelis ... he doesn't use any guitars either ... well, he does use spoons, but you are NEVER EVER going to look for them ... because you are looking for a guitar (not you tokyog) ... that makes the music "progressive" ... it is not the guitar that makes it so ... or one third of all "progressive" and "experimental" folks out of Europe are just a bunch of idiots ... well, some Americans too ... how about the stickmen? and some of their side projects ... you don't need a guitar ... but "conventional" tastes (and that _______) definition of the music says it must have a guitar ... and a bass, and a keyboard and ... some other stuff that you want to dump in the bathroom!  ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: wiz_d_kidd
Date Posted: October 05 2019 at 08:05
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Once you open up the Prog Electronic genre, you'll find many. Here's a few off the top of my head (which I'm pretty sure are guitar-less, but I haven't completely checked)... Anders Helmerson
Zombi Cosmic Ground Robeone |
Posted By: tokyoganglion
Date Posted: October 13 2019 at 21:16
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Moshkito: You said, "it makes no difference if a guitar is there or not ... there are many
"lead guitarists" that know how to "underplay" their instrument in favor
of the music ... and as such, to me, that's just like a band with no
guitar ..." I agree with you, and that's why I said in my original post that I was looking for bands with no guitar, or where the guitar is in the background. I mentioned Genesis as an example. To me the larger issue is not "guitars are bad" . . . the larger issue is, I'm trying to imagine an alternate reality, where 90s prog revival bands imitated the diverse and unique instrumentation of 'golden era' prog bands, instead of everyone imitating dream theater. (There, I said it) Anyway, learning about modern-age bands with diverse instrumentation helps me picture what might have been, had the 90s gone differently. |
Posted By: Tapfret
Date Posted: October 13 2019 at 22:31
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Niacin - Drums, Bass, B3 Going back to 1977: Island - Drums, Keys, Sax, Vocals ------------- https://www.last.fm/user/Tapfret" rel="nofollow">  https://bandcamp.com/tapfret" rel="nofollow - Bandcamp |
Posted By: tamijo_II
Date Posted: October 13 2019 at 22:37
If you are just looking for Bands that does not sound too much "metal" aka DreamT Porcupin Tool, there is a lot. Änglagård comes to mind with a very diverse and nice instrumentation in a very 70's sound. Also a lot of band in the Avant segment ------------- Same person as this profile: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/member_profile.asp?PF=22524" rel="nofollow - Tamijo |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: October 13 2019 at 23:53
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Violent Silence (keyboard-oriented prog from Sweden). ------------- 
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Posted By: awaken_yesfan
Date Posted: November 06 2019 at 02:46
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I made short Hammond organ solos in prog compilation (only modern bands) featuring Standarte, The Flower Kings, Beardfish, Transatlantic and Jordan Rudess solo. all mentioned are worth to check in the context of keyboard-driven prog |
Posted By: awaken_yesfan
Date Posted: November 06 2019 at 11:34
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another band comes to mind Nathal Mahl (RIP Guy LeBlanc) there's guitar , and some really good guitar (Holdsworth-style) , but since band was led by keyboardist, keyboard is a leading instrument, and guitar is more on supportive side. LeBlanc was very versatile player , combining vintage and modern sounds (Hammonds, vintage & digital synths, pianos and electric pianos) My favorite albums are Clever Use Of Shadows and "Heretic" trilogy
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Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: November 06 2019 at 12:03
I think it was mainly just the prog metal bands imitating Dream Theater. An interesting thing is that the band Mastermind released their first two albums before Images and Words and yet their sound was similiar(in the sense that it was heavy and almost metallish at times and also prog)but was more influenced by ELP. They did have guitar but often the guitar synthesizer(I think it was)sounded like keyboards. An overlooked band these days worth looking into. Ars Nova were another ELP influenced band from the 90's but I'm not as familiar with them. Anyway, there was plenty of non DT clones and even non neo prog stuff from back then you just have to dig for it.
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Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: November 06 2019 at 22:30
| How about Iamthemorning? Mostly piano and beautiful female vocals. |
Posted By: awaken_yesfan
Date Posted: November 07 2019 at 14:55
Interesting band! I used to listen it, and it's a weird example of ELP influenced band without keyboard at all :-) Guitar-synthesizer and MIDI pedals are responsible for creating all "synth-sounding" leads and textures on 1st two albums. long track "Brainstorm" is kind of a nod to Tarkus . on later album Angels Of The Apocalypse they employed real keyboardist - no less than Jens Johansson another obscure band is Symphonic Slam from Canada. their guitarist used a lot of guitar synthesizer, although there was also keyboard player |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: November 07 2019 at 22:11
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Did anyone mention Weather Report yet? ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: November 08 2019 at 06:20
...  ...  ... mannnnnn ... you know that's prehistoric stuff ... and most folks were not there to have a good idea! And listening to that old stuff ... where's the lyrics man? ...  ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: November 08 2019 at 06:23
Even better than the more "conventional" use of the organ in these pieces, is the stuff that the Stickmen, and related groups (Reuter, Bruford et al) do ... who needs a lead guitar when another Stick can lead just fine? ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: November 09 2019 at 00:25
LOL!! I saw WR on April 10, 1977 with Al Dimeola opening (Land of the Midnight Sun tour). Al put out enough guitar licks for two bands!! WR were sublime...Jaco, Zaiwanul etc. Proof that you don't need guitar to be prog! ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: tamijo_II
Date Posted: November 09 2019 at 01:08
WR brilliant but hardly modern prog. ------------- Same person as this profile: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/member_profile.asp?PF=22524" rel="nofollow - Tamijo |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: November 09 2019 at 06:53
This is the scary part ... what helped CREATE what is called "progressive music" is now dismissed because it is not "modern". The main difference for my ears, today, is LOUDNESS and a hundred effects on the guitar ... NOTHING ELSE ... and some of the rankings here, even, are being done, BY THE SOUND, not the music ... if you unplug them, they have crap for music ... but the "sound" makes it music! For me, and I think it would help folks here, you have to discuss "Progressive Music" with its history ... other wise too many bands are not getting any attention or credit. Not to mention, that when it comes to creativity and music design, a lot of the "modern prog", has the same song design over and over ... always a bridge, always a solo, always the dang lyrics ... and calling it "prog" of any kind, is sometimes ... a real oxymoron! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: November 09 2019 at 11:24
Thanks, M! Your post was on the money....the version of Weather Report that I saw included some of the FINEST talents in progressive music (Jaco, Joe etc.!), but they don't seem to fit in a prog world dominated by symphonic bands. I tend to think that most "modern prog" is crap anyway. Sorry, I said it. Peter Banks agreed with me. ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: November 09 2019 at 20:08
I don't know what to think of the whole thing ... but I kinda have this idea that this is the result of the whole thing being relied on and dependent on 5 bands (so to speak), and in the end, what you find is that the bands that do not have the same "instruments" (or worse ... the sound) as the named top big bands in Progressive Music ... and it makes a lot of people forget/dump some of the things that were incredible that helped the music we love get here! This is why I never forget the history of it ... and sometimes I think that we need more Admin support in this area ... and also one of the reasons why I did not like that "the instruments of pork" book ... it was an insult to so many bands and their creativity ... that in the end, made "Progressive Music" look more like a cartoon, than it did real music! There are/were many folks that had even further out and better instruments, that such a book will not report, because it's not this or that ... from the top five! Heck ... what the fudge will Jaco need an effect or a blue funky looking guitar for? Take that you "progressive" ... idiolist!  Again, compared to all of Europe, many of the English bands were not exactly the best ... there were many bands bringing out a lot of great music ... that no one, even here, will even listen to ... however, today, there are more listens to different bands from various places, with only one concern ... the cookie copies are ... a bummer ... it's like their own culture and ability is not worth anything ... just to do a bunch of "metal songs" ... is actually weird for me! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: cstack3
Date Posted: November 11 2019 at 00:22
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I'm friends with Amy and Joe from their little band "Clatter," check this out!! They are now moving from the USA to Sweden! ------------- I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!! |