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Don't forget the stuff Zappa did with The Mothers. Not exactly there, but it gets close.
-Freak Out! (Help I'm a Rock, Return of the Son of the Monster Magnet)
-Uncle Meat (King Kong, Dog Breath, Uncle Meat)
-We're Only In It For the Money (pretty much the whole album, it's not that long)
-Weasels Ripped My Flesh (Didja Get Any Onya?, Toads of the Short Forest, Oh No + The Orange County Lumber Truck).
You can also look up just about everything he ever did on Saturday Night Live.
While I personally like these albums, someone coming at them from the angle of wanting to listen to some prog might not get what they're looking for. The stuff Zappa did with the original Mothers does sometimes stray into prog territory, but mostly in a tangential way, unless you want to categorize prog as any music that is done by a rock band, and which involves more complex musical patterns than your average rock song. For instance, I wouldn't categorize Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, as proper prog. You get some good proto-prog stuff in Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, among others, but it's more on the Psychedelic Rock side of things. Prog goes farther than the random stuff you tend to hear in a lot of psychedelic rock -- it's usually more deliberate.
The albums I mentioned feel more prog to me, while the albums you mention feel more "proto-prog". Although King Kong is very prog. Weasels Ripped My Flesh is mostly jamming (with some really great passages) but it only approaches prog in a few places.
Technically it's not prog, but I've been listening to Yngwie Malmsteen lately. Parts of his tracks have quite a bit of guitar shredding, but other parts have odd time signatures and complex melodies. Hey, you've got Dream Theater on your list and they've had periods of power/symphonic/gothic whatever-you-may-call-it metal. Figure it's worth a suggestion.
While I personally like these albums, someone coming at them from the angle of wanting to listen to some prog might not get what they're looking for. The stuff Zappa did with the original Mothers does sometimes stray into prog territory, but mostly in a tangential way, unless you want to categorize prog as any music that is done by a rock band, and which involves more complex musical patterns than your average rock song. For instance, I wouldn't categorize Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, as proper prog. You get some good proto-prog stuff in Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, among others, but it's more on the Psychedelic Rock side of things. Prog goes farther than the random stuff you tend to hear in a lot of psychedelic rock -- it's usually more deliberate.
The albums I mentioned feel more prog to me, while the albums you mention feel more "proto-prog". Although King Kong is very prog. Weasels Ripped My Flesh is mostly jamming (with some really great passages) but it only approaches prog in a few places.
Well, I did mention 'not exactly there'. True enough, though; all of this came out before prog was even a thing. Hot Rats is basically the best album ever, though, and has some great prog. I'm more fond of Son of Mr. Green Genes, but you can't really listen to Frank Zappa without listening to Peaches en Regalia.
Or Bobby Brown Goes Down, depending on what you're going in for.
Also, I'll add to the recommendations for The Mars Volta. Just take the albums in chronological order; Deloused is one of their most accessible albums (I guess Octahedron is too, but it's also mellow).
Frances the Mute has their biggest hit, but it's not the strongest track on the album. I always figured people just dropped off during the 4th track. Do not do this, or you'll miss what follows:
Amputechture's takes a few more steps into weirdness. Well, I suppose weird isn't the word as much as dread, because this music is terrifying. Not bad terrifying, but genuinely scary. Like the pimped out version of every hammer horror movie soundtrack ever. This is probably the last album you wanna listen to on a trip - well, not last, but it's certainly low on the list. Provided you aren't, it has some of their most fantastic instrumental work.
...and then you listen to Bedlam in Goliath. Completely different level of awesome. This is the sort of album you sneak into your friend's playlist at a party just to blow everyone's ears out with the intro. Then after he adjusts the volume, go insane because it kicks ass
Devin Townsend and anything he's associated with. You'd probably also like Opeth's last two albums as well.
Not too big a fan of DT, I like "by your command" and watching him live, thats about it I don't know what it is, just can't dig him... I appreciate him as a guitarist and a person, but his music is awd
yeah chimp spanner, tesseract, animals as leaders, cloudkicker, circles, vildjharta, rxyzyxr. etc there's a shitload if ambidjent out there. most of it is web distributed because they're self produced
Posts
While I personally like these albums, someone coming at them from the angle of wanting to listen to some prog might not get what they're looking for. The stuff Zappa did with the original Mothers does sometimes stray into prog territory, but mostly in a tangential way, unless you want to categorize prog as any music that is done by a rock band, and which involves more complex musical patterns than your average rock song. For instance, I wouldn't categorize Pink Floyd's first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, as proper prog. You get some good proto-prog stuff in Astronomy Domine and Interstellar Overdrive, among others, but it's more on the Psychedelic Rock side of things. Prog goes farther than the random stuff you tend to hear in a lot of psychedelic rock -- it's usually more deliberate.
The albums I mentioned feel more prog to me, while the albums you mention feel more "proto-prog". Although King Kong is very prog. Weasels Ripped My Flesh is mostly jamming (with some really great passages) but it only approaches prog in a few places.
Check out my new blog: http://50wordstories.ca
Also check out my old game design blog: http://stealmygamedesigns.blogspot.com
Well, I did mention 'not exactly there'. True enough, though; all of this came out before prog was even a thing. Hot Rats is basically the best album ever, though, and has some great prog. I'm more fond of Son of Mr. Green Genes, but you can't really listen to Frank Zappa without listening to Peaches en Regalia.
Or Bobby Brown Goes Down, depending on what you're going in for.
Also, I'll add to the recommendations for The Mars Volta. Just take the albums in chronological order; Deloused is one of their most accessible albums (I guess Octahedron is too, but it's also mellow).
Frances the Mute has their biggest hit, but it's not the strongest track on the album. I always figured people just dropped off during the 4th track. Do not do this, or you'll miss what follows:
Amputechture's takes a few more steps into weirdness. Well, I suppose weird isn't the word as much as dread, because this music is terrifying. Not bad terrifying, but genuinely scary. Like the pimped out version of every hammer horror movie soundtrack ever. This is probably the last album you wanna listen to on a trip - well, not last, but it's certainly low on the list. Provided you aren't, it has some of their most fantastic instrumental work.
...and then you listen to Bedlam in Goliath. Completely different level of awesome. This is the sort of album you sneak into your friend's playlist at a party just to blow everyone's ears out with the intro. Then after he adjusts the volume, go insane because it kicks ass
Chimp Spanner. Instrumental and damn awesome
Tesseract
psn: lankyplonker
Not too big a fan of DT, I like "by your command" and watching him live, thats about it
this is pretty fucking nuts though:
yeah chimp spanner, tesseract, animals as leaders, cloudkicker, circles, vildjharta, rxyzyxr. etc there's a shitload if ambidjent out there. most of it is web distributed because they're self produced