Words: Andy Votel
Let me start this article by reinforcing the stereotype that many progressive rock fans have feebly attempted to dispel for over 30 pot-bellied and balding years: prog rock enthusiasts, to paint a picture, ate fat, lonely, boring, smelly and socially inept…just ask my wife.
But has this fact ever stopped tall, blonde, thirtysomething advertisting executives dancing on tables to an ultra-trendy DJ Shadow track, even though what they are really tapping their Prada-pointed toes to is the sonic armpit sweat of a pale-skinned Star Trek enthusiast who still lives with his mum? God loves a sampler.
Is there any point in writing this? I don’t have any desire to stand up and courageously fight for the honour of a generation of dandruff-peppered grease eaters. But a this mind-dung list progresses you’ll probably be able to tell that I’m already too emerged in a sea of bizarre records from far-off places, which due to the nature of my affliction happen to be prog.
My half-arsed opening gambit is not entirely true, but there’s no point trying to convert non-vinyl enthusiasts to a world that won’t bite them if they ignore it. Ironically, most British ‘progressive’ rock enthusiasts are as pig ignorant as the aforementioned table dance. Their record collections consist of every single recording, live session and out-take of Genesis, Yes and Caravan, but they rarely ‘progress’ beyond that.
Progressive rock is the product of a generation of forward-thinking musicians who were talented and courageous enough to try to change the face of centrefold rock ‘n’ roll armed with an open mind and unblinkered knowledge of music, art and culture from around the world (a bit like hip-hop). There’s not much more you need to know, apart from prog’s roots are in jazz and classical music and the tracks themselves are characteristically long and self-indulgent.
So, providing nobody beats you up and nicks your dinner money before you get to Ultima Thule Records in Leicester, here’s a list of recommended prog LPs from around the globe that arguably separate the men from the boys.
01: EGG
EGG
(DERAM NOVA, UK, 1970)
If there is one singularly pretentious icon that can be appropriated as the visual representation of prog rock, then it’s an egg. Eggs have graced hundreds of progressive rock sleeves over the past 30 years and many prog bands have adapted egg-based names. Britain’s own Egg were a three man power-cut that carried more keyboards than your local branch of Tandy and their copious amounts of electronic gadgetry, washed down with impossible time signatures, made this Canterbury-based three-piece into something of a proto-Add N to(X).
02: AME SON
CATALYSE
(ACTUEL, FRANCE, 1970)
Parts of this incredible record might remind you of the scene where Spinal Tap’s bass player Derek Smalls is given the opportunity to showcase his jazz odyssey. Other parts will blow your psychedelic socks off: like Can meets Soft Machine or Relics-era Pink Floyd wearing tin foil suits in a swimming pool full of wasps.
03: MUSICA DISPERSA
MUSICA DISPERSA
(DIABOLO, SPAIN, 1971)
Imagine Os Mutantes recording drone LP. Confiscate Rita Lee’s LSD supply and replace it with Brontosaurus tranquilisers and a textbook…slowly. This is acidic-commune-rock in an Agnes B sweater…but better.
04: AMON DUUL
DISASTER
(BASF, GERMANY, 1971)
As well as being leading exponents of Krautrock, Amon Duul epitomised the growing trend of politically-driven commune bands that swept Europe in the early ‘70s. In a career that has spanned three decades, they consisted of both bona-fide players and artists, improvisers, noise makers and feeloaders who survived by sharing supplies of food, drink, drunks and bathwater.
05: BRAN
AIL DDECHRA
(SAIN, WALES, 1975)
The track ‘Breuddwyd’ is an unsung prog masterpiece with a hip-hop break, classical fender rhodes paassages and malnourished fuzz, while the ‘haunted house’ cover art is as prog as it gets (even without an egg).
06: APHRODITES CHILD
666
(VERTIGO, GREECE, 1970)
A fuzzed-out conceptual masterpiece of epic proportions executed by a hirsute parliament of Greek psychedelic rockers including a young Demis Roussos and Vangelis. This haunting LP followed a string of tell-tale , freak-beat B-sides such as ‘Magic Mirror’, which the band previously recorded on location in progressive Paris.
07: GOBLIN
ROLLER
(ATTIC, ITALY, 1976)
Goblin really just wanted to be an avant-prog, sports-keyboard, cross-dessing symphonic rock group, but Italian film directors kept opening their checque-books and asking for soundtracks . Their scarce non-OST LP ‘Roller’ keeps plenty of Italian film buffs struggling to find a film of the same title…to no avail.
08: JAZZ Q
ELEGIE
(SUPRAPHON, CZECH, 1976)
In a country preoccupied with classical music and with an heritage of classically trained musicians, it wasn’t surprising that proto-proggers Jazz Q would bypass musical simplicity to forge their own blend of classical rock, utilizing the complexities of jazz forgood measure. By replacing brass and woodwind with a rack full of electric pianos and Moogs, Jazz Q would lay (some of) the foundations for the ‘80s electro boom – cue Graham Massey and 808 State.
09: SAN UL LIM
ONE
(SRB, KOREA, 1977)
This Korean answer to The Monkees got it so wrong that it turned out right…Pop + rock + electro keyboards + jazz + vocal effects + psych guitars + long tracks = prog genius.
10: STEVE MAXWELL VON BRAUNT
MONSTER PLANET
(CLEAR LIGHT OF JUPITER, AUSTRALIA, 1974)
Gifted synthesiserist and learn-on-the-job saxophonist and learn-on-the-job saxophonist Steve Maxwell Von Braund liked to hang out in his state-of-the-art home studio and record space-rock bespoke opuses wearing nothing but a kimono, mullet and handlebar moustache. Musically this is proto-trip-hop and probably the nearest thing to Krautrock that Australia was ever likely to create.
11: DRUGI NACIN
DRUGI NACIN
(RTB, YUGOSLAVIA, 1975)
Of all the Eastern European countries, it seems that Yugoslavia was the first to yearn for the proverbial ‘11’ on the volume knob. Drugi Nacin’s grasp of heavy rock put them in good stead for the impending metal years, but it was their bubbling eastern influence and fuzz and flute unisons that made the instrumental sections of this oppositional rock LP appeal to ‘the headz’.
12: PUGH
JA DA DA
(VAULT, SWEDEN, 1971)
Is this the greatest Swedish prog LP ever? Or does the fact that Pugh Rosefelt traded his credibility chips in to secure his position as a Swedish household name (by making ill advised disco LPs) dilute the original progressive potency? It didn’t bother DJ Shadow, but maybe you should ask Dungen.
13: POOKAH
POOKAH
(UA, USA, 1969)
Enter the quagmire and hoo-doo cesspit that is the cultural fleamarket called America… And show me a good obscure prog rock LP. Top of the pile ranks Pookah, Cleveland’s very own answer to 3 Hurel. ‘Merlins Party’ is the lack of choice, but it’s the voice of these twins of evil that dominate this medieval master-class.
14: J.A. SEAZER
DENEN NI SHISU
(SONY, JAPAN)
Within months of a chance meeting with svengali poet and film maker Shuji Terayama, this Damo Suzuki-esure street performer J.A. Seazer would single-handedly compose full-blown, operatic-suicide-psyche-outs like this.
15: PIRAMIS
PIRAMIS
(PEPITA, HUNGARY, 1977)
Instead of pursuing modelling careers in mid-70s Budapest, the five members of Pirimis were not just a bunch of dudes with interesting faces - they were rock ‘n’ roll intellectuals bringing rudimentary math-rock to prog’s playground and Gaussian glam rock to the classroom (I don’t think this is legal anymore).
16: MARC MOULIN
SAM SUFFY
(CBS, BELGIUM, 1975)
Judging by the photo on the back of this LP it seems that, unlike 99.99 percent of fat and balding prog rock luminaries, Marc Moulin was perhaps good-looking enough to not spend months on end learning to play the entire works of Rachmaninoff backwards on a double-neck guitar and actually go outside and get a girlfriend, but alas… No. Noodling, pretentious musical arrangements got the better of the Richard Beckinsale-lookalike.
17: AL BASIM
REVIVAL
(PERSIA, 1979)
The angry-faced portrait of Persian pop performer Al Basim perpetuates the aesthetic stereotype of a political activist more than my own passport photo. But contrary to the deceptive cover, this prog-by-default album is free from political and cultural boundaries due to a gross preoccupation with masturbatory, pre-E-bow escapism.
18: OS LOBOS
MIRAGEM
(BRAZIL, TOP TAPE, 1970)
Everybody craves the wannabe freak-scene aesthetic on gatefold paper because it’s cover artwork like this that brings Brazilian record collectors out in a cold sweat. Os Mutantes stylings run throughout this epic time-consumer of an LP, where pop-edits get lost in the mix.
19: 3 HUREL
HURAL ARSIVI
(DISKOTUR, TURKEY, 1975)
The demon fuzz which dominates this LP might as well have been the fourth member of the band, while the fusion of Neptunes style poly-rhythms, Cozy Powell hip-hop breaks and Radio Shack keyboard lines, provide the sonic glue that makes this one of the proudest and most sought-after discs of Istanbul’s ‘golden age’.
20. V/A
PROG IS NOT A FOUR LETTER WORD
(DELAY 68, GLOBAL 2005)
Global prog obscurities - remastered, repackaged and re-released.
Andy Votel
