70's English Progressive Rock

A couple of CDs to add this week. One very old and one very new.

IQ – Are You Sitting Comfortably? (2005) I was listening to The Lab on XM and heard IQ for the first time. The guitars reminded me of Steve Hackett. That’s a good thing. So, I bought this CD without listening to it first and was nicely surprised at its overall quality. This is good modern progressive rock with it’s basis in the classic prog rock of the 70’s.

Vangelis – Earth (1973) Long before Chariots of Fire made Vangelis a household name (well almost), he was working toward the style that became the standard for many film scores for many years. The combination of psychedelic and progressive drives this album, which many believe is the best work from his early years.

# posted by Bruce Greenberg @ 8:36 PM 2 comments

I've got 3 great progressive rock CDs from the 70's and one CD from last year to add to the play list this week. I hope you enjoy them. And please keep those requests coming in.

Tim Morse – Transformation (2005) Prog rock in a classic style. I enjoyed this indie release and happily pass it on to you all. For more info you can go to his website at: www.timmorse.com

Emerson Lake & Palmer – Tarkus (1971) They were pretentious and arrogant, but they backed it up with some amazing pieces of music. Many great prog rock keyboardists have been influenced by this music. And Greg Lake is so underrated and deserves plenty of credit for balancing out Keith Emerson’s excursions into uncharted territory. And of course there is Carl Palmer’s drumming; Wow.

Esperanto – Danse Macabre (1974) The second of only 3 CDs from this amazing and unique band. With Pete Sinfield doing the production, they were just starting to find their sound. This and the third CD, “Last Tango” are available as imports in the U.S., but can be had on Ebay on a regular basis.

Gong –Live Etc (1977) They make so much more sense to me today. This is a fun CD to listen to, with its strange vocals, soaring guitar solos and jazz (or is it some form of modern classical?) backbone. Steve Hillage does some great guitar work on this CD which is collection of live performances from a few eras of the band (through 1977).

# posted by Bruce Greenberg @ 12:18 AM 0 comments