I consider that prog rock is by essence mostly instrumental, moreover many artists & bands have ever made albums without any vocals. Among them can you name your favorite? No polls here, so it can be very open... 

Some of my fovorites:

Brand X - Unorthodox Behavior

Mahavisnhou Orchestra - The inner mounting flame

Camel - The snow goose

Liquid Tension Experiment - LTE I & II

Tomas Bodin - PinUp Guru

Frank Zappa - The grand wazoo (I don't call it vocals on No. 3 )

Mastermind - Excelsior!

Oh no, on National Health's 'Of Queues and Cures' is one vocal Track

 I probably dont have one single favorite but two that come to mind are ----

Gryphon -- "Red Queen to Gryphon Three"

Camel -- "Snow Goose" 

"In the Region of the Summer Stars", the Enid. Essential instrumental prog.

Six Wives (still a great album)

Phillippe, what about instrumental tunes that appear on an otherwise vocal album? That would open the field right up! e.g. "Spectral Mornings", title track, Steve Hackett, or "Beelzebub", If You Can't Stand the Heat, Bill Bruford.  

Soft Machine-5th

Nucleus-We'll Talk About It Later

Robert Wyatt-The End of An Ear

There are too much to list!

Off the top of my head:

Rick Wakeman -Six Wives Of Henry VIII

Tangerine Dream - Force Majeure 

Liquid Tension Experiment - LTE 2 (havn't got '1')

Colosseum II - Electric Savage (excluding 'Rivers' which Gary Moore sings on)

Sergio Alvarez - Escenas de ficcion

Gerard and Ars Nova - Keyboards Triangle

Stephen Caudel - Earth In Turquoise

Camel - Gods Of Light

Vangelis - Albedo 0.39

I still don't consider Mahavishnu or even really Brand X to be prog. They should be classified as Jazz fusion. That being said, usually the big difference between prog and fusion is that there is indeed no vocals or such on the fusion albums (except Visions of the Emerald beyond) and that is a highly distinguishing factor of the differences between the two. Most prog features vocals, most fusion doesn't. I could pretty much list off every Weather Report or Mahavishnu album as the best prog instrumental album. It doesn't work.

I vote for Six Wives (although, is it classical?...jk)

I love Snow Goose from Camel.

I agree with Gaston regarding jazz-fusion, it's not really prog. Bruford's albums are Jazz-rock, not prog.

An old band I just found out about is Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. The Iridium Controversy is excellent. Instrumental prog with some jazz, world music, fusion, classical. I'm still digesting it, but it is great.

Some say it's "boring" but I really dug the Gordian Knot CD's. Touch guitar galore. If you like touch guitar, check out Trey Gunn's "Joy of Molybdenum", awesome.

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http://stores.musictoday.com/store/product.asp?dept%5Fid=2135&pf%5Fid=JUCD06&band%5Fid=633&sfid=2">

among others...

Sorry, the eighth is the following :

Here's my list I'll keep it limited to 5

Vangelis- Albedo 0.39

Guru Guru- UFO

Focus- Hamburger Concerto

Peter Banks- Two Sides Of Peter Banks

Klaus Schultze- Audentity

King Crimson " Thrakattak " It´s not only a great album, it will clear any room from people within 30 seconds.

Velvetclown wrote: King Crimson " Thrakattak " It´s not only a great album, it will clear any room from people within 30 seconds.

YES!!

Vibrationbaby wrote: Here's my list I'll keep it limited to 5 Vangelis- Albedo 0.39 Guru Guru- UFO Focus- Hamburger Concerto Peter Banks- Two Sides Of Peter Banks Klaus Schultze- Audentity

...I like Audentity by Schulze, but its certainly not the most incredible instrumental album he made: "Mirage", "Irrlicht" or "Cyborg" are largely better.

Genesis- Selling England By The Pound

Peter Gabriel- Gabriel 3

Scotto'connor wrote: Genesis- Selling England By The Pound Peter Gabriel- Gabriel 3

Two great albums, but I do not consider them as instrumental..

..and welcome to the forum!!

[/QUOTE]

HAMMAR- Two great albums, but I do not consider them as instrumental.

[/QUOTE]

Yeah hi Hammar, good point about the albums not being instrumental. Technically all albums are instrumental, but I suppose you mean instruments playing the dominant role in a song. I think in 'Selling England' the instuments a big role in songs like 'Firth of Fifth' and 'Cinema Show'. With 'Gabriel 3' their not as dominant in the album but the instruments are just as important as the lyrics in creating his dark, eerie atmosphere.

That's why I chose those two albums, but in many aspects your right.

All:

I agree that neither MHO or Brand X are truly "prog-rock."  However, since they are included on the site, I would have to say that anything by either of them is among the best instrumental prog around (though some MHO has minimal vocals).  Also, Wakeman's "Six Wives" is definitely among the best instrumental prog albums ever.  I would also nominate the first two albums in Eno's 'Ambient" series, which are especially good.  And although others have brought up other groups (Soft Machine et al), it would seem that there is not a great deal of really good instrumental prog around.

Anyone feel up to listing prog bands that are entirely, or at least primarily, instrumental?

Peace.

 How about that Anglagard -- Epilog,  Maani?

As I recall, you didn't despise it, and I quite like it.  100% instrumental.

Focus were mainly instrumental, too.

Then there's Tangerine Dream! 98.6% instrumental!

danbo wrote: I love Snow Goose from Camel.

YES.

Peter Rideout wrote:  Anglagard -- Epilog

I love it.

Finch - Beyond Expression

In Spe - Concerto for Typewriter in D

Anglagard - Hybris and Epilog

Finnforest

Djam Karet - Reflections From The Firepool

Trace - Trace, Birds

National Health - Playtime

Gryphon - Red Queen to Gryphon 3

SFF - Symphonic Pictures, Sunburst

The Owl wrote: Djam Karet - Reflections From The Firepool

Owl, what did you think about DK's A Night for Baku? It's my first DK and I'm impressed, though the production, especially the drums, is a bit garage sounding.

Wurtemberg's "Rock Fantasy 9" is another forgotten and excellent instrumental album.

Andrew Lloyd Webber's Variations on a Theme of Paganini. (Oh yes it is!)

Twelfth Night - Live At the Target (what a classic!!!).

Interesting that "The Snowgoose" and "Hamburger Concerto" are considered instrumental albums, even though both do actually have vocals. (I do agree by the way).

I guess though the important point is that they don't have lyrics as such, just sounds. In that case, given that Yes' lyrics are written very much with the sound of the words in mind, not the lyrical content, I'll nominate "Close to the edge"!

Dick Heath wrote: Gaston wrote: I still don't consider Mahavishnu or even really Brand X to be prog. They should be classified as Jazz fusion. That being said, usually the big difference between prog and fusion is that there is indeed no vocals or such on the fusion albums (except Visions of the Emerald beyond) and that is a highly distinguishing factor of the differences between the two. Most prog features vocals, most fusion doesn't. I could pretty much list off every Weather Report or Mahavishnu album as the best prog instrumental album. It doesn't work. I vote for Six Wives (although, is it classical?...jk) But I'm sorry to say your opinion is based on  set of ideas generated in hindsight. Mahavishnu And Brand X from the early and middle 70's respectively,  were both categorised prog and jazz rock (jazz fusion seems to be a later term).  Not all prog has  been centred  around vocals, the instrumental work tended to be  dominant - perhaps somebody would like to calculate the percentage time the lead vocalist is in action on any early Genesis, Yes, King Crimson etc. album. I saw Yes two weeks after "The Yes Album" was released, and virtually every track played  was rearranged for different combinations of instrumentation than heard on the albums - a couple of tunes had Squire and Howe both playing bass. I'm one of those who were originally attracted to prog because of the high quality of musicianship shown, vocals being secondary (some lyrics could be just plain daft) - and the same logic applied to the early jazz rock masters, MO, Machine (but at least Mr Wyatt wuld do some sort of sonic effect with his mouth), RTF.  The rock djs on BBC Radio One, didn't see/hear  any distinction originally -  I heard the  full "Pharoah's Dance"  from Bitches Brew on Pete Drummond's BBC Rock Request Show and Kid Jansen played Lifetime's "Turn It Over" on his Radio Luxenburg rock show in 1970.

?

It was an accurate description. I wasn't talking about what some people thought the music should've been called back then, I'm taking modern day reality into account. You find progressive rock in the Rock section and you find Jazz fusion in the Jazz section. You don't find Mahavishnu Orchestra in ANY rock section anywhere except this site, so I don't know why the confrontation.

And anyways Heath, you want to proclaim that the idea is in hindsight, than the term PROGRESSIVE ROCK must be taken in the same light. You don't just call early Floyd and KC "real" prog, it extends to a wide category, but it stays within the rock boundaries, totally. It doesn't, however, cross into a Jazz category.

However, to concede a little, imo, Prog and Jazz fusion actually run into each other on the continuous list of how music meshes and melds into each genre.

Gaston

Alas you has to contend with old foogies like me, who come from a less cluttered and less organised period, and regret that modern  society  loves its pigeonholes (for example, how many variants of electronic dance and rap are there???). There was simplicity of ideas in the mid to late 60's - progressive because there was a perceptable change by hybridising with two or more musical genre, rock because it had rock rhythms, instrumentation, amplification. Hence jazz, folk, world, classical/serious were hydridised in a variety of ways. Anything that gave a new edge to rock and/or pop. 

 Nice liked their jazz (roots back to Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time Out); check out King Crimson Collectors Club issues, especially the Mel Collins/Wallace/Burrell period to hear them covering of Pharoah Saunder (Denver Radio recording??)!!! Where is the cut off point between Soft Machine the prog band and Soft Machine the jazz rock band? Bill Bruford has alway said he was trying to play jazz drums with Yes - and Jamie Muir was a avante jazz percussionist, who helped push Krimson further into the free rock/jazz area; Keith Tippett plays free jazz piano for Krimson. There are late 70's Genesis tunes which wouldn't seem out of place in the Brand X repertoise for obvious reasons - and why employ specificially a jazz rock drummer and jazz rock guitarist for live gigs? Have you heard Darryl Stuermer and Holdsworth together on Enigmatic Oceans? Caravan experimented with jazz ideas in their second album, before largely abandoning that area to their friends and  fellow Canterbury men (i.e Machine). John McLaughlin does his Hendrix inspired rock album with Devotion. ETC ETC.

Plenty more evidence to go but as you state:

However, to concede a little, imo, Prog and Jazz fusion actually run into each other on the continuous list of how music meshes and melds into each genre.

No real problem with this concept. As ever, you have your opinion which I respect, although I will try to change this through (I hope) good examples to support my arguement. However, I still don't accept that what we understood in the 60's should unnecessarily be altered by what pundits concoct in the 80's. The same applies to the post-punk/anti-prog writers who have long managed to skew the history of rock against prog (see my recent letter on Paul Connolly writings in the London Times' art sections).

What about the best instrumental piece?

To move beyond those great albums mentioned above I would suggest few tunes would beat ELP's Barbarian, Toccata and Hoedown, even if they didn't make the orignals themselves. Or if that should count one could as easily put in Tank, Abbadon's Bolero and  Karn Evil 9, 2nd Impression.