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Hello. Could anyone help me with making a “path” of Mike Oldfield’s albums to listen to? I was into Tubular Bells III 15 years ago, especially The Top of the Morning and Man in the Rain, but I never actually listened to his music more than that album, Ommadown and Moonlight shadow as a single. I like his world music approach very much. I accept every help from you. 

I recently dusted off two amazing prog live albums, Earthbound, and Le Orme in Concerto.

Both are spectacular. Both also sound bad. Like, really really bad.

And that got me thinking, we prog folk don't have much luck when it comes to live albums.

Earthbound, In Concerto, even the absolute classics like Yessongs, Welcome back my friends...., or Genesis Live leave a lot to be desired, sonically.

But that realization sent me down a wonderful rabbit hole of similar albums.

I covered my discoveries in the latest Needle Talk letter.

It's here, if you'd like to check it out: https://www.trueresaudio.com/needle-talk/Issue-3

These 80's efforts are in my personal-favourites, yet rarely see anyone mention them. Even Youtube doesn't have them in full-album format. I have them on CD.

- Introduction by Shub Niggurath: moody atmospheric psychedelic instrumental, with some dark-angel vocals. Superior to their later album which had some of the same compositions. Excellent sound on a big fat system. Full album officially here:

https://soleilzeuhl.bandcamp.com/album/introduction

- A Fiïèh by Offering: more well-known as Magma, this side-project had its ups & downs but they finished with this beautiful stunning album. The first 3 tracks especially are godly. Here's the title track, sounding like a sermon from the heavens:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cAMwrKouss4

- Carmina Burana by Ray Manzarek: the Doors keysman does his version of proto-zeuhl monster Carmina Burana by Carl Orff. Rock + Orff is delicious! Here's the famous bit:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jpiDOIDzmyo

Share your impressions of these and also your trio of candidates of 'lesser-known yet favourite prog albums' :D

I’ve heard Wish You Were Hear, The Wall and DAOTM more times than I can count and I love them (not in that order) - and then today I saw a post on IG and it used the song Pig Man as its music.

I’ve said so many times in my life that I wish I could hear DSOTM again for the first time bc it totally blew me away - even more so than any Beatles album and I’m a HUGE Beatles fan.

It’s almost too good to be true that I have an entire album of Pink Floyd to discover! Something I can listen to from beginning to end for the first time and an album clearly among their greatest.

So I have to go to the dispensary and then on we go!

Hi,

I just wanted to share a cover I just uploaded to my new YouTube channel. I did the full song of Redemption by Airbag, playing all the parts as an experiment in production, audio and video. I think my video skills have the furthest to come but please let me know what you think! Also, I plan on doing more modern and classic prog covers, so please consider subscribing since it’s a brand new channel. Be well! 🎸❤️🤘

For me it is Rush. I respect them, and I have tried to get into them. But its just not for me.

Been calling this "progadelic" music after I heard Sean Lennon describe his project that way. I play guitar and sing in this project. Is this a better fit in prog rock or math rock?

Most progressive rock fans are well aware of Curved Air, but do you think the band should have been more popular among the mainstream rock fans, like groups like Yes, Renaissance,ELP?

Ich habe in den letzten Wochen angefangen Rush zu hören und habe mittlerweile 6 Alben gehört.
Moving Pictures, A Farewell to Kings, 2112, Hemispheres, Fly by Night und Permanent Waves

Die drei erst genannten sind meine Favoriten
Mit welchem Alben sollte ich weitermachen/ welches könnt ihr mir empfehlen

Taking the original vocals of 'Night Fever' and recording a new backing track on GarageBand (no AI used whatsoever), I tried to imagine how it might have sounded if, instead of embracing disco, the Bee Gees had tried their hand at Rush-inspired Progressive Hard Rock! Hoped some in this sub might find it entertaining.

Hello all! We have an album coming out on October 2nd, it's the culmination of 3 EPs. I wanted to share one of the proggier tracks on the album - we call ourselves Garage Prog, because we're proggier than most rock, but it would be nuts to say we're the same genre as bands like Yes and Flower Kings. I would say we're about as proggy as Supertramp, but you'll have to be the judge.

This one was heavily inspired by two albums - Grace Under Pressure, by Rush, and Stormfront by Billy Joel. I think they both have a very serious tone in the instrumentals that give the songs a mature vibe. But just to be a little immature we made the song about The Mothman.

Please feel free to tell me what you think - especially if you hate it. I'll be here answering questions.

I’ve not posted this here for a couple of months, so I’m putting it out there again for anyone who might have missed it.

Catharsis is a completely DIY instrumental. I play everything apart from the drums, and I also created the artwork myself.

I’m always interested in hearing what a fresh pair of ears makes of it, so if you give it a listen, I’d genuinely appreciate your thoughts.

https://youtu.be/KNJgP5LihHs?is=_tNfdjiH83IoXw5m

Thanks,

Tom.

I made this album myself, folks; so for those who enjoy a sound packed with distorted guitars, I hope it’s music to your ears!

I’m open to your feedback—what did you think of the sound? Was there a track you really loved, or one you absolutely hated?

Cheers, everyone!

Squaring the Circle (The Story of Hipgnosis) is Anton Corbijn’s documentary about Hipgnosis, the groundbreaking album-cover design studio founded in 1968 by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey “Po” Powell.

It follows how the pair transformed album covers from simple band portraits into surreal, conceptual works of art, creating some of rock’s most memorable imagery—including Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy, and covers for Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel and others. 

The rehearsal venue, after some initial hesitant attempts in my home where we had initially gathered, was found in Imperia Porto Maurizio and was put at our disposal by Lagorio, located right on the same landing of the imperiese musician's residence.

There was only a brief interlude when it seemed that the cellist could host us in a room of the house where he still lived with his parents, during the very first rehearsal sessions of the lineup.

The environment was extremely evocative since it was situated in a room of an apartment in old Sanremo, filled with history and blessed with a splendid acoustics due to the presence of arches and natural sound traps.

But no one had reckoned with the cellist's parents, who, being lovers of classical and operatic music, poorly tolerated the presence within their domestic walls of these musicians who, although not absolutely noisy and disrespectful, certainly did not represent their musical ideal and what they hoped for their son, an aspiring concert performer.

Once the possibility of meeting in that place, which seemed suitable and definitive, was lost, the problem arose that almost all of us musicians were originally from Sanremo, with the exception of Schiavolini who was from Isolabona, a center located in the hinterland of Ventimiglia, and for this reason we had to travel all together every evening to be present at rehearsals in Imperia.

That was how my not particularly spacious Autobianchi A112 became the means of transportation for myself, Mariano, Giorgio, Marco, Riccardo, and his cello. Even today, we all still wonder how it was possible for five of us to enter, plus a rather cumbersome instrument like the cello, into a cabin as cramped as that of one of the most popular economy cars of those years.

Starting from an evening in the month of December 1972, the daily journeys from Sanremo to Imperia Porto Maurizio and back began, never before midnight. Rehearsals were also scheduled on Sundays and often during the afternoons of other official holidays.

The lesson of Il Sistema was always present: Passion, commitment, and discipline.

It must be said that the first approaches, especially for Lagorio and me, were quite traumatic since, with the exception of Mariano and Riccardo, all the musicians came from experiences with bands of a clear rock, jazz, and blues imprint.

But it was precisely for this reason that, by subverting all the styles and habits contracted in previous musical adventures, it was possible to access new expressive frameworks rich in stimuli and wider horizons.

The rhythmic-harmonic texture had to unravel around the structures created by Schiavolini, which mainly consisted of arpeggios, but immediately provided the exact indication of how the entire song should unfold.

Each of us contributed to filling spaces, providing new points of view, coloring with our own intervention and our own instrument the musical palette that was taking shape.

Everything was born partly from improvisation, and partly from precise, thoughtful choices verified multiple times.

***

To discover the absolute sonic essence born during those legendary sessions and dive into the high-fidelity acoustic layers of our definitive discography, explore our official international store. You can listen, stream, and secure your physical copies of the limited-edition vinyls directly from the maestro archives:

👉 CELESTE Official Bandcamp: https://celeste4.bandcamp.com/

Inner Garden Records

See you next Thursday for the next episode!

Title
Must be prog rock and under 6 minutes
Please and thank you