The 10 Minute Prog Rock Jelly Post
seem to be doing short snappy posts just lately, so let's expand a little
on that last post. . .
I was searching for reviews of the new Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard album
Farscape when I came across a list of Fran Keylard's Rogues'
Gallery podcasts. And oh look, he played a track on this show here so
lets download it and have a listen. What, 4 hours long! Phew. I wonder what
these bands sound like . . .
Now I have to admit that modern prog rock has largely passed me by. I
enjoyed chunks of the genre from the 1970s, but I was a bit picky. For
instance when it comes to ELP's Tarkus, I actually prefer the likes of
Jeremy Bender to most of the title track. Stop mucking around lads
and play something decent! (OK the last quarter of side one is good; after
15 minutes of practise it should be.) But give me The Lamb Lies Down On
Broadway or Thick As A Brick any day. I kind of gave up on the
genre back in the 80s when the likes of Genesis and Jethro Tull were past
their best. (Ok, the synth-pop version of Genesis did knock out a few
great songs, but you need a bit of Gabs and Hackett to make the neck hairs
stand on end). I did try the first two Marillion albums but soon got bored
of them (both the band and Fish solo are still going and sound rather
decent from what I've heard so far). Krautrock and experimental music were
my in-thing by the 1990s, but I did note the general avoidance of the term
"prog rock" by bands who were actually progressive and quite definitely
"rock". The term did seem to have a bad smell, associated with half-hour
tracks about elves eating magic jelly, concept albums about aliens
invading Earth and turning humans into jelly or short tracks played in
13/pi time with impossible chords, usually played on instruments made of
jelly.
OK, so the jelly part is probably untrue, I'm suddenly fancying a nice bowl
of the wibbly-wobbly stuff. There is something about jelly that brings joy
to the dinner table and makes people like me digress. So get back on topic
Boolbar, or no jelly for you!
When it comes to music I don't care much for labels, apart from the labels
"I like this" and "I don't like that". Admittedly genres can help point me
in the right direction. For example the likes of R'n'B or modern Heavy
Metal tend to leave me cold so I may avoid music labelled as such, but even
so I can see that the best of those genres is still great music. It seems
now that the label "prog rock" means it sounds like it should be prog rock
even if it isn't actually progressive but it is just using familiar proggy
sounds and structures. Fair dos. I mean an oil painting is hardly
progressive art nowadays, but if it looks great then I'll hang it on my
wall.
So back to the podcast (show #256 if you are wondering) and initially it
dribbled in the background with the sort of heavier poppy rock that has
been around for a couple of decades now, but suddenly it caught my
attention with a bit of live Spock's Beard, continued to intrigue with
DeeExpus Project and kept me entertained until the end. Now I'm not saying
it's so good, I must rush out and buy lots of albums, but it was great
accompaniment to four hours of working at home. And the excellent new Elbow
material that was played has banished the rather piss-poor live performance
I saw them do 5 years ago. The Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard new 30 minute
epic track that was played was typical modern Schulze, pretty and hypnotic
but kind of pointless, with typical Lisa Gerrard's wonderful wordless
warbling. (She might be singing about jelly I suppose, which would make it
wonderful wordless wibbly-wobbly warbling.) I'm not sure about it being
worthy of buying, from the reviews I have read the album has over two hours
of the duo doing much the same. Then again I wasn't too sure about the
earlier The Crime Of Suspense at first with Julia Messenger's
wonderful meaningless warbling over Schulze's pretty and hypnotic
keyboards, but I now enjoy its relaxing meanderings.
I have since downloaded a few other shows and some bands are definitely
worthy of attention like Von Hertzen Brothers, The Pineapple Thief and
Days Between Stations as well as the aforementioned Spock's Beard and
DeeExpus Project. With the likes of Radiohead, Muse, Elbow and (blimey!)
Kate Bush also appearing on the playlist I think I might be listening in
again.
As for The Pineapple Thief's track Different World, this is just the
sort of lengthy track I like. A bit of hardness, a bit of softness,
emotive vocals, folky elements, chunks of guitar, pounding drums, tweeting birds, strings and
memorable tunes. Great stuff! If I had a list of my favourite tracks of
around 10 minutes length then I'm sure it would get in.
Hmmm... lists... go on then, off the top of my head...
Genesis - The Musical Box
Current 93 - All The Stars Are Dead Now
Julian Cope - Safesurfer
Renaissance - A Trip To The Fair
Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Wildlife
Can - Future Days
Nurse With Wound - Nil By Mouth
.. oooh, I can feel a whole new post coming on. Meanwhile back to the jelly.
