Desert Island 2.5: Prog Island Album Game Rules and Sign-up Thread

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Axver

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Welcome to the B&C Prog Island Album Game! This competition is essentially edition 2.5 of the Desert Island Album Game, serving as a mini-tournament bridging the gap between the recently completed second edition and the third edition that will take place later in the Northern summer/Southern winter. The reason we are running a mini-tournament is that we would like to test out some new ideas, plus we just like the genre and wish to give it some exposure while dispelling cliches. Screwtape2 and I will be co-maintaining the tournament; Screwtape will handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff while I'll be doing threads and whatnot.

This tournament alters the basic premise of the game a little. Instead of being stranded on a desert island and seeking the best tracklist to enjoy while there, we're heading off to Prog Island to savour the best that the prog genre has to offer. There is a strong emphasis in this competition not just on good individual songs, but on creating a cohesive work of musical art.

So what the hell is prog? "Prog" is an abbreviation that refers to progressive rock, and more recently, progressive metal too. It is a hard genre to precisely define, but involves a rejection of basic musical norms in favour of uncommon musical styles, structures, and ideas; this is rarely music you hear on the radio. To give a brief history, there have been essentially three waves of prog. The first wave began in the late sixties with groups such as King Crimson, and some of the psychedelic scene merged with the prog one, e.g. Pink Floyd. This was the most commercially successful wave of prog, with bands such as Genesis, Yes, Rush, et al dominating the charts in the seventies. The punk movement, however, rose in rebellion against perceived excesses of the prog genre and brought about its demise. The second wave rose in the eighties and brought in some pop sensibilities, and had some success, most notably Marillion. Then at the start of the nineties, the third wave of prog and the birth of prog metal occurred, fuelled primarily by Dream Theater's seminal Images And Words album. This wave of prog continues to today and features such bands as Porcupine Tree, Pure Reason Revolution, and Transatlantic.

For more, see Wikipedia, or for a light-hearted piss-take, the 101 rules of prog metal.

Now, with that introduction out of the way, here's the important stuff if you want to compete.

THE RULES
1. Your collection may not exceed 4 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds in length (240 minutes). You may employ any medium you desire, including unbroken "iPod tracklistings". ANY ENTRY 240:01 (4 hours, 0 minutes, 1 second) OR LONGER WILL BE AUTOMATICALLY DISQUALIFIED.
2. As this tournament's criteria are significantly narrower than the previous edition, you ARE allowed to use multiple songs by a single artist. However, please do this judiciously; any contestant who is seen to over-use any artist will be asked to revise their tracklist. We do favour diversity. Also, although you cannot include U2 songs as they lack discernable prog attributes, we will permit some use of Passengers material.
3. Every selection must appear on an OFFICIAL RELEASE by that artist. It may be any form of release: album, single, official live release, rarities box set, iTunes only release, or even a free track from the artist's official site. Unreleased tracks and live bootlegs are not allowed ("official bootlegs" by bands such as Dream Theater are permitted).
4. Also, due to the narrowness of the tournament's definition, we will permit contestants to use any tracks they may have used in previous editions of the Desert Island Game, and the use of tracks in this tournament will not preclude them from use in any future tournament banning repeats. Nonetheless, we would enjoy new stuff, so repeats are discouraged to an extent.
5. Tracks may not be edited/shortened in any way, e.g. you may not cut a 10 minute chunk out of Pink Floyd's Echoes to fit it into the time limit. You must use the official album run time. Naturally, this rule does not apply to official edits covered by rule #3, such as radio edits. Furthermore, you may edit a track to remove a separate hidden track at the end, e.g. Transatlantic's Stranger In Your Soul.
6. Any entry that violates one of these rules or pushes one of these rules is subject to being banned from the competition.

READ THE NEXT PARAGRAPH
IT IS VERY IMPORTANT

For this competition, please do NOT post your entries in this thread. Please e-mail them to the two of us: myself at amakaxver@gmail.com and Screwtape at InaKafkaTragedy@aol.com

Here's what we require from you:
1. Your tracklisting. See below for formatting.
2. OPTIONAL: Links to uploads of your tracklisting so that others may hear the music they do not know. This is highly recommended to boost your chances of progressing to later rounds. In the past, we have used "save file.com" (remove the space), though it can be a pain in the arse to upload stuff.
3. OPTIONAL: A paragraph with any additional details on your tracklisting, e.g. why you made the choices you made, any important facts you wish to note, why you think people should vote for your tracklistings, etc.
4. OPTIONAL: A cover for your tracklist, and any other additional materials you believe are essential to the full package.

FORMATTING - READ CAREFULLY
We require submissions to use the following format EXACTLY. If you do not follow it, we will ask you to edit it. The format is:

Forum name: [Your Interference name here]

Tracklisting:
Track #. Band Name - "Song Title" - Album Name (Time in Minutes:Seconds)
1. Please - "Follow This Format" - Thank You (20:15)
2. It Helps A Lot - "If You Follow This" - To The Letter (10:45)
3. Life Is Easier - "When People Do" - What Is Asked In The Rules (15:00)
4. Rules - "Are Not Hard" - To Follow (15:30)
5. Grammar, Punctuation, And Order - "Should Be Just Like They Are" - In This Example (7:15)
6. Thank You Very Much - "In Advance" - For Adhering To This Style! (43:20)

Total runtime: 112:05

DEADLINE
All submissions MUST be made by 10pm US eastern savings time, 31 May 2007. That is 2am on 1 June 2007, Greenwich Mean Time (an hour BEHIND British savings time, so 3am in London) and midday on 1 June 2007, Australian eastern standard time. You may submit items separately, e.g. you do not have to provide upload links the second you submit your tracklisting, but you must have all submissions made by that deadline.

CONTESTANTS
As this is only a mini-tournament with a limited scope, we will have just eight contestants. Below, I have included the five people who have already definitively indicated their intention to participate. In this competition's new format, the eight contestants will be divided into two groups of four to play a round robin against each other in order to qualify for the finals. Exact details are still being determined.

To register your intention to compete, add your name to the following list:

1. Axver
2. Screwtape2
3. liamcool
4. GibsonGirl
5. phanan
6.
7.
8.

The unfilled places will be taken on a "first come, first served" basis.

I think that's everything. Got a question? Ask away and we'll be more than happy to clarify details! :)

Good luck!
 
No-one else has signed up yet. :madspit:






:wink:

(PS Thanks, Screwtape and phanan, now I feel like my 30 song tracklist has too much short material! :lol: )
 
^:lol:

I haven't had a free moment for a while. I'll show it to hubby, but I'm doubting he'll want to do 4 hours worth of music. You never know though!
 
Hurrah! :hyper:

I'm fretting over my tracklist. The one I've made so far has 29 songs on it...the thing that bugs me about it is that I've doubled up on six or seven different bands/artists. I wanted to have as many different artists as possible, but for the sake of having good flow, I had to make some sacrifices. No one artist has more than two songs on my list though, so I guess it's not too bad.

Also, I really wanted to do a tracklist comprised of spacey/atmospheric/ethereal kind of music, but a lot of the prog I have tends to be of the bouncier variety. There are only a few artists in my library who fit the aforementioned criteria, so I'd have to include four or five songs per artist if I wanted to go that route. Obviously, that's not going to happen, so I've had to say goodbye to the idea of a purely atmospheric tracklist. :sad:

Despite all this, the tracklist I currently have is coming along rather well. The transitions are quite nice. There's also a cool little section of four live songs. But knowing me, I'll change the whole thing at the last moment. Turn it into a massive concept album or something. :lol:
 
Even though Axver listed the generalities of the prog genre, don't feel like you have to give up on your atmospheric type of music. That can be just as progressive as the more straight forward stuff. While I have a lot of the usual suspects, I also feel like I branched out a little, too (although probably not as much as I should have).
 
I would assume everyone's definition of prog might be slightly different.

Hubby asked - What if a song has a title, and within that it has movements. Could he just use a movement? He also was pondering his vinyl collection, titles that he doesn't own on CD or were not made in the format. I suggested if he does compete to leave them out, as there wouldn't be a way for us to record the vinyl onto CD to then upload. He's a 'maybe' right now...
 
Lila64 said:
I would assume everyone's definition of prog might be slightly different.

Hubby asked - What if a song has a title, and within that it has movements. Could he just use a movement? He also was pondering his vinyl collection, titles that he doesn't own on CD or were not made in the format. I suggested if he does compete to leave them out, as there wouldn't be a way for us to record the vinyl onto CD to then upload. He's a 'maybe' right now...

Movements are totally allowed and if he doesn't have some things on CD he could just them leave out when uploading. Hope that convinces him. :wink:
 
phanan said:
Are the movements categorized as separate tracks? If so, that would be ok, but if we're talking about taking a section of one track out, that wouldn't be allowed.

Yep. I'd suggest to anyone that if you like a certain part to see if it is separated on a limited edition or import.
 
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He said yeah, separate tracks. No biggie either way. I saw him making a list. I think he's got 2 hours so far. I'm thinking he's probably in :shifty: He's not looking so much for the flow of it - probably just putting tracks together.

He said he hopes he doesn't get penalized if there's nothing after 1980 :lmao:
 
Screwtape2 said:

I'm half-tempted to do a concept about a man who's slowly going insane without realising it...Supertramp's Asylum (which is already on the list I have) would be the perfect centre piece. "Please don't arrange to have me sent to no asylum, I'm just as sane as anyone!" It would end with him finally acknowledging that he's completely loopy...and of course, that's where Brain Damage/Eclipse comes in. :drool:

I don't know, I'll think about it. :wink:

I've also branched out a bit too, phanan. I mean, I've got a live version of Dire Straits' Private Investigations on mine. The Dire Straits are so far from prog, it's not even funny. But the live version from the On The Night album has a lot of prog tendencies, especially towards the end. I was thinking of including Roger Hodgson's Give Me Love, Give Me Life as well. Clocking in at 7:33, it's the most progressive pop song I've ever heard! Complete with tempo changes and a synth solo. I dunno though, it might be pushing it...
 
Lila64 said:
He said yeah, separate tracks. No biggie either way. I saw him making a list. I think he's got 2 hours so far. I'm thinking he's probably in :shifty: He's not looking so much for the flow of it - probably just putting tracks together.

He said he hopes he doesn't get penalized if there's nothing after 1980 :lmao:

That would be great - I'm sure he has a lot of relatively unknown stuff from the 70's, so his listing would really be a great addition.
 
After I described GG's post to him (he's in the kitchen cooking dinner), he said that there would probably be some Waters music in GG's list.
 
BonoIsMyMuse said:
I don't know a lot about prog, so these playlists will be a good lesson for me.

I can't tell you how glad I am to hear that. :up: A lot of people write off progressive rock without even listening to it or giving it the slightest chance.
 
Lila64 said:
After I described GG's post to him (he's in the kitchen cooking dinner), he said that there would probably be some Waters music in GG's list.

:lol:

I have It's A Miracle and Each Small Candle from the In The Flesh tour CD on my list. Your husband's very astute. :wink:
 
Are the following artists/albums eligible?

> Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive
> Journey - Escape
 
I'm assuming you can count my husband in for now. Though I'm the one that'll probably have to end up doing all the work of uploading :grumpy:

:wink:
 
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