ProgBlog
Most people have heard of progressive rock (or prog rock, or simply prog) but the great majority of them treat it with mild disdain (at best) or outright hatred (at worst). Most of the criticism is a mindless rejection based on current trends and a misunderstanding of the genre; “dinosaur” is a common term of abuse, neatly parodied by Adrian Belew on King Crimson’s 1994 album Thrak.
There is an increasing quantity of literature on the subject, ranging from the analytical or academic (Edward Macan, Rocking the Classics; Kevin Holme-Hudson, Progressive Rock Revisited) to the fairly straightforward lists (Charles Snider, The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock.) There are also thousands of fans out there who not only continue to attend concerts, but also contribute to a growing network of fanzines and on-line forums. Fans are even served by Prog, a glossy magazine from Future Publishing now in its twelfth year, entirely devoted to prog in all its forms.
The ProgBlog has been put together to encourage discussion about progressive rock music illustrated by personal observation.
The award-winning ProgBlog
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ProgBlog DISCovery
The original aim of the blog was to promote discussion about all and any facet of progressive rock but from time to time, bands and musicians contact ProgBlog with new prog-related material that they want to expose to a wider audience; ProgBlog's album of 2017 An Invitation by Amber Foil was one such approach. The DISCovery section has been introduced to better serve the requirements of musicians who contact ProgBlog with the aim of increasing the audience for their music; without music there can be no discussion of music. Discover some new music here
The ProgBlog Diary
A list of recent past, present and future happenings in the prog world
An Acquired Taste? The Enduring Legacy of Prog is the title of a PhD proposal from Paul Goodge, a student at Solent University in the UK who is championing the voices of prog fans to be recorded for academia.
Outlining his research in Prog 119’s Paper Late column, Goodge is looking for fans who are willing to relate how, when, where and why they got into and enjoy prog, to provide sufficient content to enable him to make a valid comparison between the fans’ view with that of scholars and theoreticians who have written about the subject.
The research is approved by Solent University Ethics Committee and respondents will be asked to complete an informed consent form. The interviews are carried out over Zoom/Teams and typically last for about 75 minutes.
Anyone interested in contributing to what will become a valuable and interesting resource should contact him at [email protected]
In other news:
Continuing Covid chaos
Keswick Collectables – the best record store in the Lake District?
ProgBlog Year books
Recent acquisitions
The Latest ProgBlog DISCovery – Daniele Sollo (Italy)
After formally studying bass guitar, Daniele Sollo formed the prog band VisionAir in 1997, contributing to both music and lyrics. VisionAir finally disbanded in 2011 having played a few well-received gigs and made a demo album titled INVISIBLE VISIONS, which was shelved when the band broke up.
Employed as a session musician, he found himself in the Fabio Zuffanti prog circle and played with Höstsonaten from 2016-2018. His first solo album ORDER AND DISORDER was released in 2020.
Read his story here
The Return of Live Music (posted 14/9/21)
Album review: Hypnopompia – Parallel (2021)
Hypnopompia’s just-released album Parallel is post-rock bolstered with jazz and psyche and put together with a prog sensibility, and should therefore be of interest to the ProgBlog readership. Hypnopompia is multi-instrumentalist Dave Alexander, a former Electrical Engineering grad student at Penn State University and member of indie rock outfit Lenina Crowne (2016 – 2019), playing saxophone and keyboards. Following the release of their album Everyone Belongs to Everyone Else, Alexander relocated to Dayton, Ohio and began recording Parallel.
Read the review here
