Not a big fan of LTE either. Though Tony Levin is my favorite bassist, largely for his work with KC, obviously.

King Crimson have written some great instrumentals, but most of all "Fracture" - my favorite instrumental of all time, Robert Fripp is a ****ing machine. I also enjoy Emerson, Lake & Palmer "From the Beginning", and agree with whoever mentioned Intersteller Overdrive.

I am a big fan of Celtic music and would agree with this. Their jigs/reels have a really unique energy, and they're very intense live!

I'd say no, I prefer post-rock instrumentals.

Same here. Although I like alot of prog **** too. Alot of post-rock instrumentals are just so damn amazing.

That and I find that a lot, not all, but a lot, of prog instrumentals are just there to showcase technical ability.

There are a few bands that I have found use instrumentals just to showcase technical ability (i.e. Dream Theatre IMO) where it just turns into this whole showing-off, look what I can do, phase. But there are heaps of prog instrumentals that I enjoy that aren't really like this at all... I love instrumentals from Tool, Porcupine Tree, Pink Floyd... and heaps others. And don't think they just do it to showcase their technical ability.

But you're right in a lot of post-rock instrumentals are also awesome.

I've stayed out of this, since a lot of prog bands tend to shy away from purely instrumental tracks, even if they have 10 minutes between vocals. But bands like Camel and Wishbone Ash and of course Zappa prove that prog does have the best there is to offer, outside of classical, or GY!BE.

Guessing we are ignoring jazz as well? :p: Just wondering...

Oh god, hadn't considered Jazz, and that has some of the best instrumentals too.

Soft Machine and The Polite Force for the win eh :p: