Support
Looper's Delight
|
Support |
|
|
According to an article in a recent Mojo, one Johnny Rotten's favorite bands in 1974-1975 (when he had long hair) was MAGMA. MAGMA were a French band lead by its drummer, Christian Vander. MAGMA invented their own language in which to sing. Most of their music involved a distant planet Kobaia who are invaded by the Orc, or something like that. MAGMA can be heard here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=jN8ncmwAofk&search=magma and here: http://www.magma-tv.com/#70 If you are a fan of Progie strains of music and you have not heard MAGMA, I can't recommend them strongly enough. A good place to start would be: Live: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000059ZDX/sr=8-3/qid=1151170791/ref=pd_bbs_3/002-5929728-3615217?ie=UTF8 and Udu Wudu: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000C6VSO/sr=8-4/qid=1151170791/ref=pd_bbs_4/002-5929728-3615217?ie=UTF8 David Kirkdorffer ----- Original Message ----- From: "mech" <mech@m3ch.net> To: <Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com> Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2006 2:15 PM Subject: Re: More Prog Rock (was: Hiromi) > At 3:23 PM +0000 6/21/06, Christophe wrote: > >I think the whole prog-bashing trend started as sour grapes on the > >part of kids who just didn't have the chops to play it. As I > >recall, at the same time that prog was declared a dinosaur by these > >young turks virtuosity in general was poo-pooed just as much. > > That's certainly not how it was when it started. For instance, The > Stranglers, who are generally given credit for releasing the first > Punk LP ('Rattus Norvegicus', which predated the Sex Pistols' 'Never > Mind the Bollocks' release by several weeks) had fantastic "chops". > Listen to many of the songs from 'Black & White', their 3rd studio > album, with Dave Greenfield's Manzarek-inspired keyboard runs or JJ > Burnel's hooky bass lines. They merely knew when to use chops and > when to let the song, however raw, speak for itself. > > And the early American groups that were the inspiration for the > British -- like the Ramones, MI-5, & Iggy Pop -- usually didn't > really trash the whole concept of being able to play well. That just > wasn't where they were interested in putting their emphasis. > > On the other hand, you also had just as many prog-rockers (such as > Phil Collins) slagging off Punk as completely without merit. "That's > not music; that's crap!" > > Then came the infighting and the genre wars; not to mention the > Post-Punk period, where if you tried to put anything left of the > party line back into your music, you were deemed a "sell out" and > gobbed upon by the leftover Punk contingent. This wasn't much helped > by the British music press, who were notoriously vicious at this time > (New Music Express, for instance, which was generally referred to by > most bands as N.M.E. -- as in "enemy"). They often exploited the > trend-hopping and infighting just to sell magazines. > > However, there still remains good expressive music on both sides. I > could probably name you a dozen fantastic Punk groups off the top of > my head (stop worrying; I'll spare you). Returning to the Prog side > though, I'm surprised that Henry Cow -- as well as many of the other > Fred Frith projects -- hasn't yet come up. Their first album, > 'Legend' (pronounced Leg End, heh!) alone is worth honorable mention, > if nothing else. > > And, out of left field, I'll also throw in the Dutch group Focus, who > achieved some minor visibilty with 'Hocus Pocus' during the 70's -- a > song which featured not only Jan Akkerman's lightening fast guitar > "chops" but also YODELLING!!! In this case, I've always been fond of > their 'Hamburger Concerto', which is alternately bombastically > overblown, simplistically silly, charmingly pretentious, and quite > genius. > > --m. > -- > _______ > "You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike..." >