discussion Music while building

[Guest]

Ooh, wishbone, now that has been a very long time!

 

[Guest]

Each to his own, I guess! I've come to the conclusion that whatever floats your boat etc... As a result of this thread, I've just worked my way through a LOT of Prog Rock, a bit of Jazz and some dirty Dub Electronica on YouTube whilst working. You've started something here...

I'm probably one of the more fanatic prog rockers here in Sweden, listening to bands even some Brits didn't know existed, but that's what floats my boat!
Prog rock has had an upswing the last 10 years which has paved the way for some new prog bands, but nothing beats the original ones.
King Crimson is on the road again although Fripp said he'd retired for good. Saw them in Brighton in 2016 and in Copenhagen in 2017 and they're better than ever - on all levels!
I even brought my kids to the last concert just so that they could experience them before it's too late and it was a success.

Dub Electronica isn't something I've had a go at. Is it any good? Who to listen to?

 

[rickoshea52]

I'm probably one of the more fanatic prog rockers here in Sweden, listening to bands even some Brits didn't know existed, but that's what floats my boat!
Prog rock has had an upswing the last 10 years which has paved the way for some new prog bands, but nothing beats the original ones.
King Crimson is on the road again although Fripp said he'd retired for good. Saw them in Brighton in 2016 and in Copenhagen in 2017 and they're better than ever - on all levels!
I even brought my kids to the last concert just so that they could experience them before it's too late and it was a success.

Dub Electronica isn't something I've had a go at. Is it any good? Who to listen to?

Funny. You listen the British prog rock while I quite like Swedish indies rock/pop.

 

[Guest]

I'm probably one of the more fanatic prog rockers here in Sweden, listening to bands even some Brits didn't know existed, but that's what floats my boat!
Prog rock has had an upswing the last 10 years which has paved the way for some new prog bands, but nothing beats the original ones.
King Crimson is on the road again although Fripp said he'd retired for good. Saw them in Brighton in 2016 and in Copenhagen in 2017 and they're better than ever - on all levels!
I even brought my kids to the last concert just so that they could experience them before it's too late and it was a success.

Dub Electronica isn't something I've had a go at. Is it any good? Who to listen to?

Fripp played at the festival I used to work for - 3 half-hour lunchtime sets, it was sublime!! As for Dub electronica, here would be a good place to start! In fact, the Dubmission label has an amazing array of talent.

 

[Guest]

Fripp played at the festival I used to work for - 3 half-hour lunchtime sets, it was sublime!! As for Dub electronica, here would be a good place to start! In fact, the Dubmission label has an amazing array of talent.

I can imagine it must've been a fantastic experience!
Not many people actually knows this but Fripp was hired by Microsoft to create all the sounds for Windows Vista!
The OS sucked but the sounds were good - especially for us who knew who were behind them

Thanks for the link!
It sounds to me like evolved Brixton/ska music with modern electronic music with lots of roots in 80's reggae/ska.
I liked some of the tracks for some "mood music" and I will dig a bit further.
Some days softer, less complicated, music is also nice where you don't have to analyse every tempo shift and 16:th note but I mostly prefer the really complex and exhausting music only prog rock and prog fusion metal can provide. It's the modern version of Mozart, Bach and Paganini if you ask me...

Here is one of the best concerts ever recorded in the history of music thanks to the wonderful people at BBC sound&vision in 1978
GG at GG (Gentle Giant at Golders Green)

A few of them are still active playing the songs of Gentle Giant as Three Friends. Not supported by the Shulmans but we fans love it!

I grew up in a musical home where everyone played several instrument, mostly folk music. As the young rebel I was listening to Deep Purple, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden etc growing up before finding prog rock and fusion metal - which suited me as a predominantly guitarist very well - and it certainly made me popular amongst the girls coming to our gigs
The once long hair is now swapped for a beard and I only play at home, but music is a central role in everything I do!

So THANK YOU Brits for inventing Prog Rock!!! (also for inventing British hard rock/metal and the Marshall amplifier!)

 

[Guest]

Wow, not heard GG or years, I was always a little surprised that they never really got the full-on success that others did. They had a massive cult following, but always seemed to be on the edge of things, but this is not at all taking away how great they were!
One piece I used to use a lot for working to (back in the painting days) is Fripp and Eno's "No Pussyfooting" a heady combination of talent! Thanks for that link, that'll be on during my next bench session!

 

[Guest]

Wow, not heard GG or years, I was always a little surprised that they never really got the full-on success that others did. They had a massive cult following, but always seemed to be on the edge of things, but this is not at all taking away how great they were!
One piece I used to use a lot for working to (back in the painting days) is Fripp and Eno's "No Pussyfooting" a heady combination of talent! Thanks for that link, that'll be on during my next bench session!

Derek Shulman wanted fame and glory and decided the band had to change for a more "commercial" sound in 1977 resulting in The missing piece, Giant for a day and finally Civilian which made the band cave in due to total commercial failure. I do not own these albums nor will I ever do.

They still have a large following and the vast number of attempts to get the band back together have all failed, but some members of Gentle Giant always turned up to the yearly fan meetup GORGG (Global On-Reflection Giant Gathering) where they would play music with their fans which eventually sparked the band Three Friends with Gary Green, Malcolm Mortimore and initially also Kerry Minnear from Gentle Giant together with some musicians from the cover band Rentle Giant. Sadly Kerry was "forced" to leave the band by the Shulman brothers (read; Derek) so they continued without him.
If you liked Gentle Giant back in the days please lookup Three Friends! I've only been to one of their concerts, and they don't do many, but it was fantastic!

Gentle Giant was one of the most talented group of musicians out there and they often each played several instruments per song, but that was also one of the prog rock trademarks.

Haven't listened to Fripp and Eno in a very long time to be honest but it's a pure showcase of Frippertronics for sure!

Last year I compiled a live album with King Crimson and took one live song from each concert they did and made a compilation.
Due to obvious copyright reasons I can't publish it anywhere, but I can make a zip file of the mp3's available for download as "personal usage" for those who want?
The songs were released for free, one at a time, for a limited time for us members and that's why I sort of don't mind letting others having it since it's not pirated in any way, but still...

One of my favourite prog rock acts that shows how silly you were able to be is King Arthur on ice by Rick Wakeman! It's 10x more bonkers than ELP and their rented trucks and the lettering on top!
Or Ian Anderson being the flute jester in Jethro Tull!!!

Musicians today are either far too serious or just lack the talent needed to pull it off

 

[Guest]

Wow, that is an amazing find - thoroughly enjoyed that, and a reminder of how damned talented these guys were! It also answered the "why weren't they more commercially successful - in a word, Genesis! As I recall, a lot of prog-rock folks had strong allegiance to one band - you have to remember, albums were very expensive back then for most mortals, so a big Prog-Rock habit could be ruinous! I'm gonna have to look up what Kerry Minnear got up to after GG, as he is a true virtuoso, and no mistake.

 

[Guest]

...any band sacking a musician like Minnear has a real problem! And Derek Shullman does come over as a bit of a knob anyway...;-)

 

[Guest]

Three Friends didn't sack Kerry Minnear, it was Derek Shulman who "strongly adviced" him to leave the band because he was butthurt that Gary Green & co were doing well and people stopped asking for reunions...
One has to remember that Derek is a record label director and if he's not making any money on GG music then it should be stopped and Kerry was caught in-between and backed out...
A really sad story to be honest but I managed to see them whilst Kerry was still in the band and they were as good as ever - which is a lot more than Derek could say!!!

Fun fact #1: Gentle Giant albums and merc are released under Alucard. Every album and thing you buy are packed by hand by Kerry Minnear and his wife - and they write a hand-written thank you note to each and every customer!!!
I'd like to see any other band member of such (former) fame do that!

GG at GG was Gentle Giant at their very peak - both musically and fame. These concerts (as you all probably already know) were secret. People were only given tickets to Sound&Vision but the artist was a secret.
The people in the audience knew every song and that tells a lot!

I don't know how much, or not, people only listened to one band, or bought just one artists albums. Most of my prog rock friends tells me about every concert and band they listened to back in the days and it seems to be a lot of them, but there were sub-factions within prog rock for sure, like the Canterbury scene that came out of classical music, or the more harder rock ones like King Crimson. Some were more purist than others but they all agree on one thing and that's that punk killed the prog.
I agree but I also think the smell of money had a hand in it because very few had major commercial success like ELP and possible YES? Genesis had it but much later imho, at least post Peter Gabriel.

The fact that prog rock still sounds as good today, in a world where rap music has overtaken rock (I'm shrugging just writing this), makes me happy and that there's still some hope for real music by real musicians out there!!!

(Not so) fun fact #2: I've read a really sad an alarming report that kids today don't learn to play an instrument any longer. They seem to think that Guitar Hero on XBox is an adequate "instrument"...

I haven't got an instrument in every room in my house but I've got more than enough to do so if I'd want to - and I can play them! (which I can't say about the XBox guitar controller thingy... )

I'm glad you enjoyed it!

 

[Gern]

There's a guy named Luca Stricagnoli I'm listening to at the moment. After hearing his version of 'Sweet Child o' Mine' I hear rumours that Slash had to go and have a lie down in a quiet room for a month; although he seems to be recovering and now just quietly cries himself to sleep every night.

 

[Peej]

There's a guy named Luca Stricagnoli I'm listening to at the moment. After hearing his version of 'Sweet Child o' Mine' I hear rumours that Slash had to go and have a lie down in a quiet room for a month; although he seems to be recovering and now just quietly cries himself to sleep every night.

Just checked out this guy on youtube as I had never heard of him before. What a guitarist. Amazing. May have to listen to some more next time I'm at the bench. Thanks Gern.

 

[Gern]

Thanks Gern.

You're very welcome. You might want to take a look at Mariusz Goli and Ewan Dobson.

 

[Guest]

This is a current snapshot of my "Modelling Mix" playlist.
It's mostly prog-rock/metal and old-school heavy rock/metal, mostly British but also some other influences. Virtually all songs are "upbeat" and driving because listening to sad and downbeat music isn't good for working IMHO because I only "get stuck" all the time...

The list contains some of the best albums ever recorded in the history of time and music so I hope it can be inspiring to someone? (It also contains a lot of "easy listening" music. Still good but perhaps not in the "best ever" category.)

Accept - Metal Heart, Balls to the Wall, Russian Roulette
Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath, Paranoid, Master of Reality, Vol. 4, Sabbath. Bloody Sabbath, Born Again
Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Black Clouds And Silver Linings, Awake
Deep Purple - Stormbringer, Perfect Strangers
ELP - Tarkus
Frank Zappa - Over-Nite Sensation, Apostrophe
Gentle Giant - Three Friends, Octopus, GG at GG
Jethro Tull - Aqualung, Thick as a Brick, various live sessions
Judas Priest - British Steel, Painkiller, Sad Wings of Destiny, Rocka Rolla
King Crimson - Red, Larks' Tongues in Aspic, The construKction of light
Liquid Tension Experiment - 1 and 2
Mike Keneally - Boil That Dust Speck
Myrath - Tales Of The Sands (North African prog-metal)
Neal Morse - The Similitude of a Dream
Periphery - I, II and III
Pink Floyd - Animals, Dark Side of the Moon, p-u-l-s-e
Rainbow - Rising, Down to Earth, Difficult to Cure
Rush - Moving Pictures (Tom Sawyer and YYZ are phenomenally good!!!)
Wishbone Ash - "Best Of" mix

If you like (prog) rock and want to hear something fresh - and the best new album I've heard in many years, I can recommend Neal Morse - The Similitude of a Dream!
It's an amazing album by amazing musicians and it's not overly complicated like a lot of the music I listen to. You won't regret it!
Also King Crimson - Red is a must in any compilation. Hands down the best album ever recorded!!! (sorry all Beatles/Pink Floyd/Led Zeppelin/Jimi Hendrix fans...)

I seem to be stuck mostly in the 70's and the 80's with a large portion of my music catalogue but music back then were made by talented musicians and their instruments, not by a dictator producer/label with computers and auto-tuners!

I also secretly listen to Adele whom I think is one of the best singers in the world currently alive - but don't tell anyone...

 

[PaulTRose]

nice list......Sabbath stands out for me of course :smiling:

my tastes are wide and varied.......im a huge fan of Julie Fowlis.....so relaxing

 

[PaulTRose]

I also secretly listen to Adele whom I think is one of the best singers in the world currently alive - but don't tell anyone...

you might like this Norwegian fellow then :smiling6:.....been subscribing to him on youtube for a couple of years

 

[Guest]

you might like this Norwegian fellow then :smiling6:.....been subscribing to him on youtube for a couple of years

I've been following Leo from the start so I know what you mean.
His cover of Toto - Africa last year is his best ever production if you ask me! It's so good it earned a permanent spot in my car mix!!!

 

[PaulTRose]

think my fave covers are Feel Good and Californication

 

[Guest]

nice list......Sabbath stands out for me of course :smiling:

my tastes are wide and varied.......im a huge fan of Julie Fowlis.....so relaxing

Julie Fowlis was new to me but I like folk music so I'll give her a go tonight!

Black Sabbath are very special to me. So special that I even formed a Black Sabbath cover band many years ago and we were all big Sabbath fans!
Damn, miss those days going wild on stage and having lots of very pretty girls asking for your number... We recorded one rehearsal on video that I must dig up. I still have a working VHS player and I hope the tape has survived the years...?
I can probably still play every Black Sabbath song from start to end, album by album, every riff and solo today without thinking - that's how great they were!!!

I saw Heaven and Hell in Copenhagen on their first tour and apart from terrible acoustics, the performance was magical!!!
I'm so glad I managed to see Dio again before he sadly passed away

I don't know what additives you guys have got in the water in Birmingham but there must be something that created all those awesome bands in the 60's and 70's!
You don't find this anywhere else in the world! Not that many awesome bands in one town... A real mystery!

 

[Steve O]

Almost forgot one of my favorite bands the Doobie Brothers, had them on this morning whilst applying decals.

Steve.