Music Banter - View Single Post - I know what I like: Trollheart's History of Progressive Rock and Progressive Metal

Trollheart · 12-04-2016, 03:03 PM

Okay, let's take a break from all this hard work to have a little fun.

Oh, go on with you! As I mentioned in the intro, although I'm charting the progress of artistes who contributed significantly to what became known as progressive rock, there were those albums out there on the fringes, albums or even artistes who are largely unknown, made little real impact on the scene and whose albums hardly became classics, but who, for one reason or another, resonate with and are linked with this period of time. In general, I guess you could describe them as fun albums. Or, to tie in with what I have now decided will be the title of this section: if you consider that the bigger prog bands were all busily working in the garden, planting, tending, and eventually harvesting crops of amazingly-coloured flowers, tasty vegetables and exotic plants which would all go to make up the landscape of prog rock, these guys were outside smoking cigarettes, sneering perhaps at the hard work going on in the garden while they worked just as hard as the other bands did, but in a vastly different way. They would have been more or less shut out of the main prog rock scene, and muttered and laughed and cursed as they carried on their own unique experiments in sound

I'm going to do these alphabetically, and so the first album up is this

Album title: Brainbox
Artiste: Brainbox
Nationality: Dutch
Label: Imperial
Year: 1969
Grade: n/a
Previous Experience of this Artiste: Zero
The Trollheart Factor: 0
Landmark value: n/a
Tracklisting: Dark rose/ Reasons to believe/ Baby, what you want me to do/ Scarborough Fair/ Summertime/ Sinner's prayer/ Sea of delight
Comments: Perhaps not quite as unanchored to the prog scene as I had at first thought, as Brainbox introduced us to both Jan Akkerman and Pierre van der Linden, who went on to form Focus, of whom much later. But I imagine if you mention the name to any one, even a diehard prog fan, they might have difficulty recalling this band and this album. Possibly. I have to admit, I'm not quite sure now where I got the quote about the warning of psychological damage – I've searched my usual sources and nothing has come up – but I know I read it somewhere. Be that as it may, it's a relatively short album with only seven tracks, though in fairness one of them is seventeen minutes long.

Kicks off with psychedelic flute and drums, man, kind of an eastern/Indian feel I guess then the guitar comes in and it morphs into a sort of blues/rockabilly tune picking up serious speed as it goes. Yeah, it's basically an extended jam, with added flute. And more flute. It's good, it's enjoyable but there's not really a whole lot more I can say about it. Some great guitar from Akkerman, but then, that goes without saying, does it not? Next one's basic blues with a little folk, whereas I've heard comparisons made to the late Rory Gallagher, which I hear in “Baby what you want me to do?” In fact, were I not sure what album I was listening to, I would have sworn that rather than listening to vocalist (and drummer) Kaz Lux I was listening to the lamented bluesman. Nothing faintly prog so far though, barring the flute in the opening track.

Next up is a rather nice rendition of the song made famous by Simon and Garfunkel, “Scarborough Fair”. Unsurprisingly there's a lot of flute in it, though perhaps surprisingly not as much as you might expect. The song goes on for way too long though. Then they take a stab at my number one favourite song of all time ever, the beautiful “Summertime”. Led on a dark organ line, it's actually quite a decent attempt. Blues boogie then as we again almost hear the ghost of Rory (who of course was alive and well in 1969, but you know what I mean) on “Sinner's prayer”, taking us into the closer, and surely the closest this album can be expected to get to prog, the seventeen-minute “Sea of delight”. Hmm. Yeah, basically it's a 17-minute instrumental jam, with the odd smattering of vocals. Oh, and a bloody long-ass drum solo. Not that impressed really. The only possible reason I can see that there may have been that warning about psychological damage if you listened to this was from pure boredom, at least on the last track.

Favourite track(s): Baby, what you want me to do, Summertime, Scarborough Fair, Sinner's prayer
Least favourite track(s): Dark rose, Sea of delight
Overall impression: I have to admit it was a little all over the place – blues, psych, folk, even the odd showtune in there, and jams too – but in general I found it a little boring. Nothing I could say would add to the growing prog rock movement, despite that closer. Fringe, definitely, for me. Also an early and unwanted example of technical wankery, the kind of thing ELP would go on to flog to death over the next ten years or so.
Personal Rating:

(No Legacy rating as these albums are not taken as being all that important to or involved in the whole evolution of prog rock, so it's just purely what I thought of them as standalone albums)

12-04-2016, 03:03 PM	#110 (permalink)
Trollheart Born to be mild Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: 404 Not Found Posts: 26,970	Okay, let's take a break from all this hard work to have a little fun. Oh, go on with you! As I mentioned in the intro, although I'm charting the progress of artistes who contributed significantly to what became known as progressive rock, there were those albums out there on the fringes, albums or even artistes who are largely unknown, made little real impact on the scene and whose albums hardly became classics, but who, for one reason or another, resonate with and are linked with this period of time. In general, I guess you could describe them as fun albums. Or, to tie in with what I have now decided will be the title of this section: if you consider that the bigger prog bands were all busily working in the garden, planting, tending, and eventually harvesting crops of amazingly-coloured flowers, tasty vegetables and exotic plants which would all go to make up the landscape of prog rock, these guys were outside smoking cigarettes, sneering perhaps at the hard work going on in the garden while they worked just as hard as the other bands did, but in a vastly different way. They would have been more or less shut out of the main prog rock scene, and muttered and laughed and cursed as they carried on their own unique experiments in sound I'm going to do these alphabetically, and so the first album up is this Album title: Brainbox Artiste: Brainbox Nationality: Dutch Label: Imperial Year: 1969 Grade: n/a Previous Experience of this Artiste: Zero The Trollheart Factor: 0 Landmark value: n/a Tracklisting: Dark rose/ Reasons to believe/ Baby, what you want me to do/ Scarborough Fair/ Summertime/ Sinner's prayer/ Sea of delight Comments: Perhaps not quite as unanchored to the prog scene as I had at first thought, as Brainbox introduced us to both Jan Akkerman and Pierre van der Linden, who went on to form Focus, of whom much later. But I imagine if you mention the name to any one, even a diehard prog fan, they might have difficulty recalling this band and this album. Possibly. I have to admit, I'm not quite sure now where I got the quote about the warning of psychological damage – I've searched my usual sources and nothing has come up – but I know I read it somewhere. Be that as it may, it's a relatively short album with only seven tracks, though in fairness one of them is seventeen minutes long. Kicks off with psychedelic flute and drums, man, kind of an eastern/Indian feel I guess then the guitar comes in and it morphs into a sort of blues/rockabilly tune picking up serious speed as it goes. Yeah, it's basically an extended jam, with added flute. And more flute. It's good, it's enjoyable but there's not really a whole lot more I can say about it. Some great guitar from Akkerman, but then, that goes without saying, does it not? Next one's basic blues with a little folk, whereas I've heard comparisons made to the late Rory Gallagher, which I hear in “Baby what you want me to do?” In fact, were I not sure what album I was listening to, I would have sworn that rather than listening to vocalist (and drummer) Kaz Lux I was listening to the lamented bluesman. Nothing faintly prog so far though, barring the flute in the opening track. Next up is a rather nice rendition of the song made famous by Simon and Garfunkel, “Scarborough Fair”. Unsurprisingly there's a lot of flute in it, though perhaps surprisingly not as much as you might expect. The song goes on for way too long though. Then they take a stab at my number one favourite song of all time ever, the beautiful “Summertime”. Led on a dark organ line, it's actually quite a decent attempt. Blues boogie then as we again almost hear the ghost of Rory (who of course was alive and well in 1969, but you know what I mean) on “Sinner's prayer”, taking us into the closer, and surely the closest this album can be expected to get to prog, the seventeen-minute “Sea of delight”. Hmm. Yeah, basically it's a 17-minute instrumental jam, with the odd smattering of vocals. Oh, and a bloody long-ass drum solo. Not that impressed really. The only possible reason I can see that there may have been that warning about psychological damage if you listened to this was from pure boredom, at least on the last track. Favourite track(s): Baby, what you want me to do, Summertime, Scarborough Fair, Sinner's prayer Least favourite track(s): Dark rose, Sea of delight Overall impression: I have to admit it was a little all over the place – blues, psych, folk, even the odd showtune in there, and jams too – but in general I found it a little boring. Nothing I could say would add to the growing prog rock movement, despite that closer. Fringe, definitely, for me. Also an early and unwanted example of technical wankery, the kind of thing ELP would go on to flog to death over the next ten years or so. Personal Rating: (No Legacy rating as these albums are not taken as being all that important to or involved in the whole evolution of prog rock, so it's just purely what I thought of them as standalone albums) __________________ Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018 Last edited by Trollheart; 03-23-2021 at 03:57 PM.