What's prog? I sure has hell don't know, but an awful lot of different kinds of music are label "prog" even if the specimens have precious little in common with each other. Not that I mind - it's great to just hunt the web for new prog and end up with all these wildly different but equally brilliant bands and albums :)
Earlier this week I ended my
Big Big Train marathon with their latest, the awesome aural twin towers known as
English Electric, Full Power. It's an almost perfect set: no clunkers, precious little doodling around and a sense of a hazy English sunset enveloping the proceedings. There's also very little "hard prog" on the album; I'd call this Cinematic or Narrative Rock instead of prog. The way the pastoral and majestic blend with the rocking and modern is somehow utterly British; this music could not have come from any other place. There are the fleeting nods and audible influences, to
Beatles,
Genesis,
Tull and
XTC and some more esoteric predecessors: I swear I can hear Roy Wood's
Wizzard's "Wear A Fast Gun" reflected in the awesome hymn-like brass arrangements of "Swan Hunter", one of the cornerstones of the album. Labels mean nothing - I just love this album.
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Switching gears, I was delighted to discover the Israeli prog metal band
Distorted Harmony had released their second album,
Chain Reaction. The debut,
Utopia, I thought was excellent, a very impressive entrance, way more colorful and adventurous than most prog metal. Therefore I may be just a teensy weensy bit... not disappointed but slightly "they could have jumped the tracks a bit more on this one." In a word, this is more mainstream in its genre that the debut was (like
Haken's 2nd was to their 1st). But: in the genre, it shines. DH have such a sure command in what they do, it's just a pleasure. And if the final track, the 8-minute "Methylene Blue", is anything like an omen for things to come, I believe we are in for something really grand in a year or two.
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To close this chapter, I just have to recommend
Lalle Larsson's fairly new album
Until Never. I praised Lalle's earlier stuff some days ago (see Dazed #4), but this one is utterly different. The previous albums charted the prog waters from poetic Nordic melancholy to fiery Middle East -influenced almost-metal, in a grand style. They were band albums but this one features just Lalle, the bass guru Jonas Reingold and Richard Hallebeek on acoustic guitar. And no, this one is not prog at all, unless prog has become a generic word for anything that's not pop/rock by today's standards.
This is sparse, incredibly nuanced and glowing music. Jazzy, but not jazz. Melodic but uncompromising. Often heartbreaking but not saccharine. Quiet but not timid or flat. The only reference that comes to my mind are Pat Metheny's certain compositions and albums from the more romantic/elegiac end of his stylistic spectrum. Sunset music, songs for departures, solitary travellers and last calls. You know what it is, and it needs no labels. Go listen.
