Latest music discovery..

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MusicDirector

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I just discovered a band called Porcupine Tree. I actually heard the name mentioned on a tech show on TWIT. I went and looked them up on Spotify and have only listened to 2 or 3 songs at random so far, but I like what I hear!
 
In doing a little research I find that they are considered a Prog Rock group. Hmm, not totally what I hear. To me, they are a cross between prog rock and post-rock which in my opinion is one is one hell of a combination....wicked good!
 
Their recent albums are more "angsty", and heavier, but their earliest material is like prime Pink Floyd, with long tracks full of dreamy guitar solos.
A good first exposure would be the live disc "Coma Divine". For their most accessible (downright poppy even) material, get "Stupid Dream". Both are excellent, and better than their current stuff.
Alternatively, you might want to explore the man behind the band, Steve Wilson. He's got 2-3 solo albums, the last one "The raven that refused to sing" is quite good, and with great sound quality.


alexandre
 
asiufy said:
Their recent albums are more "angsty", and heavier, but their earliest material is like prime Pink Floyd, with long tracks full of dreamy guitar solos.
A good first exposure would be the live disc "Coma Divine". For their most accessible (downright poppy even) material, get "Stupid Dream". Both are excellent, and better than their current stuff.
Alternatively, you might want to explore the man behind the band, Steve Wilson. He's got 2-3 solo albums, the last one "The raven that refused to sing" is quite good, and with great sound quality.


alexandre
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Me likes dreamy guitar solos as well. I may like the majority of their stuff once I start digging. Yes, Steve Wilson is also noted for being one of very very very few who knows what they are doing when making a surround sound encoded CD. He developed a technique so that nothing is lost or pushed in the process from what I understand according to Steve Gutenberg anyway.
 
MusicDirector said:
Me likes dreamy guitar solos as well.
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Mr Director, or anyone else interested, If you PM me your addy I would be happy to send you a few samplers. Back in the day at Audio Review-Rave Recordings, we traded compilation disks to find new music. Then we went out and purchased what we liked. I have some Porky Tree, older stuff and up to Deadwing. I also took apart 8 or 9 Riverside disks and made a Dreamy Mix which will let you get lost on Gilmore like guitar solos. Plenty of other similar prog samplers in the rack.

 
MusicDirector said:
Me likes dreamy guitar solos as well. I may like the majority of their stuff once I start digging. Yes, Steve Wilson is also noted for being one of very very very few who knows what they are doing when making a surround sound encoded CD. He developed a technique so that nothing is lost or pushed in the process from what I understand according to Steve Gutenberg anyway.
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Yes, he's quite good at remastering classic albums for 5.1 and hi-res. He's now working on the Yes catalogue, with "Close to the Edge" already out, and "Yes Album" coming soon. Needless to say, it's excellent, in DVD and BD. He did a great job on the first ELP album as well.


alexandre
 
asiufy said:
Yes, he's quite good at remastering classic albums for 5.1 and hi-res. He's now working on the Yes catalogue, with "Close to the Edge" already out, and "Yes Album" coming soon. Needless to say, it's excellent, in DVD and BD. He did a great job on the first ELP album as well.


alexandre
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I didn't know he did any outside of his own albums! He's working on the Yes catalogue?!!! I'm all over that, especially the Yes Album!!!!! We need to turn him loose on a couple of Rush albums perhaps and some Pink Floyd!
 
Oh yeah, he did lots of hi-res reissues, most of the King Crimson catalogue, actually. I think he did one or two Jethro Tull, the ELP, and now he's tacking Yes, and XTC.

But I agree, Rush is in dire need or proper (re)mastering. The hi-res stuff that came out is OK, but could be better...


alexandre
 
asiufy said:
Oh yeah, he did lots of hi-res reissues, most of the King Crimson catalogue, actually. I think he did one or two Jethro Tull, the ELP, and now he's tacking Yes, and XTC.

But I agree, Rush is in dire need or proper (re)mastering. The hi-res stuff that came out is OK, but could be better...


alexandre
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Rush in dire need of remastering? Yes, Vapor Trails was an absolute disaster, but they fixed it now. (I have not compared it yet, but will get around to it). I have the "first" remasters of all their albums...well up to the last one that we remastered which was either Test for Echo or Counterparts. They are much improved over the stock ones and the ones issued in the Sector box sets. I was thinking more along the lines of remastering them for surround or something like they tried to do with the Sector sets, but failed. The Rush albums that don't sound up to snuff are the ones they handed off to someone else without their input in the process. (Except Vapor Trails, but that was done during very bad times for the band with lots of tragedies and such).
I have not heard the Hi-Rez stuff because I tried a couple of Hi Rez files and to me they lack dynamics and sound more sterile than CDs and MP3s. Of course, I also don't have the correct gear to handle the Hi Rez stuff properly reproduced, so that has a bit to do with it.
 
Just heard 2 more songs by Porcupine Tree -holy cow, they are good! The bands sound to me is like a combo of Pink Floyd and Rush with post-rock and a pinch of The Moody Blues from back in the day. One hell of a burrito!
 
NorthStar said:
I like Jethro Tull, a lot. Yes too, King Crimson, ELP, XTC, Gentle Giant, Genesis, ...but they mostly need new life in their quality recordings. It's a tough proposition, both from analog and digital.

NIN I like too.
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I like Jethro Tull a lot too. I call JT Renaissance Faire rock (I know they are considered progressive rock, I just sometimes make up my own categories, I can do that, I have the chops).:P I actually prefer JT's acoustic stuff, but I like it all. I have the JT Remaster CDs of most of the albums, but for some reason, but the vinyl versions sound much better to me.
One of my favorite Yes songs is Starship Trooper. I don't like the Yes SACDs, they sound lifeless to me, like there is no dynamics. The regular Remastered CDs are alright though, but again, the vinyl brings it all out for me with Yes. Especially that Yes Album, gods! That's a good one!
King Crimson, ELP, XTC, Gentle Giant, NIN and Genesis just don't resonate for me regardless of format.

My Prog Rock bands of choice are: Rush (numero uno in my book), Yes, Jethro Tull, The Moody Blues, Renaissance, Lighthouse and now Porcupine Tree (although I'm not too sure I'd call Porcupine Prog Rock..they are kind of a different burrito, but still fit the Prog category). Pink Floyd, Kansas and Boston are ok.
Not done discovering though, I might run across another sometime.
 
Fish era Marillion is a lot like early Genesis. Check out a youtube of Grendle live. parts of it will remind you of Suppers Ready.
 
NorthStar said:
Do you guys remember the band Soft Machine?

Eric, do you like Queen? ...The Doors? ...Depeche Mode? ...Ultravox? ...Yello? ...Frankie Goes to Hollywood? ...Concrete Blonde?
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I'm not familiar with Soft Machine.
I used to like Queen, but am completely burnt out on them as of years ago. That said though Brian May is a guitarist extraordinaire.
Big Doors fan. Hmm, you could call them progressive rock come to think of it. Anyway, I met Robbie Krieger I don't know how many years ago, back in the late 80s, early 90s.
I met and spent an hour chatting with Johnny Densmore (I believe I told the story of how that happened).
Sadly, never met Ray.
I used to like Depeche Mode more, but now I only like the Music For the Masses album. Never really got into Ultravox, Yello, Frankie Goes To Hollywood or Concrete Blonde, but have heard much of all them.
 
Shadowfax said:
Fish era Marillion is a lot like early Genesis. Check out a youtube of Grendle live. parts of it will remind you of Suppers Ready.
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Ah, I need a re-listen to Marillion. I heard a few songs many many years ago. Now that my taste are matured, refined and dialed in so to speak, I need to check them out again, starting with this video.
 
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