Prog Island Album Game: Round 3, Heat 3

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  • phanan's tracklist

    Votes: 7 63.6%
  • hardyharhar's tracklist

    Votes: 4 36.4%

  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .

phanan

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Please vote for the tracklist you LIKE THE MOST.

Welcome to the third heat of the B&C Prog Island Album Game's third round! This competition is essentially edition 2.5 of the Desert Island Album Game, serving as a mini-tournament bridging the gap between the second and third editions, and we are trialling some new format ideas. 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.

In a recap of Round 2 for Group 2, Screwtape2 triumphed over hardyharhar, 7-3, while phanan captured his second win with a victory over notAxver, 8-2. The table for Group 2 heading into the third round is as follows:

Forum name: total competition points, won, lost, votes for, votes against, votes difference
phanan: 4, 2, 0, 15, 8, +7.
Screwtape2: 2, 1, 1, 13, 10, +3.
hardyharhar: 2, 1, 1, 7, 10, -3.
notAxver: 0, 0, 2, 5, 12, -7.


This will be the last round before the semifinals, where the top two from each Group will advance. This heat features phanan against hardyharhar. Below are the tracklistings.

Forum name: phanan

phanan writes: When I set out to do this, I briefly considered constructing it around a certain theme, but in the end, I decided that the best theme was to present an overall snapshot of how vast the progressive rock music genre is, from its early beginnings in the late 60's to now. Consequently, a majority of the artists represented here are well-known, and a good portion of the selections will be ones that are quite familiar to most people. But it's the beauty of arranging those songs in a certain way (and mixing them in with either more obscure titles or cuts that break away from the traditional progressive vein), that tend to give them a certain musical freshness when you listen again. Let's face it - you're not going to hear Anathema and Kraftwerk back-to-back very often, but it's amazing how the two songs by these artists work so well together in this sequence (due in no small part to the major presence of the vocoder on both). Same thing with King Crimson and Can. Who knew that such a well-known epic with quite the sudden ending would work well being followed by a 3 minute tour-de-force of improvisational and experimental sounds with strange vocals. But hey, that's what progressive rock is all about, isn't it?

I have several important notes to a few of the tracks listed here. The third song is by Asia. Yes, this is the supergroup from the 80's that became a brief sensation in the corporate rock world, but by the dawn of the 1990's, this group as we knew it ceased to exist, and transformed itself into more of a progressive entity. Having only one original member during this era (Geoff Downes, the keyboardist), they took on an entirely new sound that worked on some albums and misfired on others. Their crowning achievement came in 2001 with the album Aura, a beautiful piece of work that is highlighted by "Free". Take a listen for yourself and tell me they're the same group (the original members have since reformed though, which is a shame, because they'll never match what this other version came up with at times).

There will be other selections that people unfamiliar with progressive rock may raise an eyebrow at. Electric Light Orchestra? You mean ELO? They're not prog! To be fair, they did take a turn to a more conventional rock sound as their albums progressed, but in the early 70's, they were as progressive as anyone else. There certainly weren't too many bands out there combining rock with classical music. I'd say that's progressive. And Kraftwerk are the true pioneers of electronic music, creating a unique sound never heard before. Why? Because they were progressive.

Finally, when you look at my listing, I will be indicating the original albums where the selected songs come from, because people should know where to look first if interested in hearing more. However, for the purposes of this playlist, two selections will not technically be drawn from those albums due to different edits being available, or for sound quality purposes. The first is "The Cinema Show" by Genesis. You'll find this song on the classic Selling England By The Pound album, but the version on my playlist actually comes from the Platinum Collection, which has better sound quality and a nice fade out that worked well here for sequencing purposes. Also, with ELO's "Mister Kingdom", a version from the Flashback box set was used because of the use of a fade out, whereas with the original album it's on (Eldorado), it goes right into the next song. Other than those two, everything else is the original album version.

Enjoy!

1. Porcupine Tree - "Even Less" - Recordings (14:06)
2. Dream Theater - "Metropolis, Part 1: The Miracle And The Sleeper" - Images And Words (9:32)
3. Asia - "Free" - Aura (8:12)
4. Spock's Beard - "At The End Of The Day" - V (16:29)
5. Tangerine Dream - "Cloudburst Flight" - Force Majeure (7:26)
6. Genesis - "The Cinema Show" - Selling England By The Pound (10:49)
7. Kansas - "The Pinnacle" - Masque (9:37)
8. Electric Light Orchestra - "Mister Kingdom" - Eldorado (5:08)
9. King Crimson - "The Court Of The Crimson King" - In The Court Of The Crimson King (9:26)
10. Can - "Spoon" - Ege Bamyasi (3:04)
11. Crack The Sky - "Ice" - Crack The Sky (4:38)
12. Emerson, Lake & Palmer - "Knife Edge" - Emerson, Lake & Palmer (5:06)
13. Yes - "Starship Trooper" - The Yes Album (9:27)
14. Rush - "The Camera Eye" - Moving Pictures (10:59)
15. IQ - "Failsafe" - Subterranea (8:57)
16. Pure Reason Revolution - "The Twyncyn/Trembling Willows" - The Dark Third (7:16)
17. Porcupine Tree - "Anesthetize" - Fear Of A Blank Planet (17:45)
18. Anathema - "Closer" - A Natural Disaster (6:19)
19. Kraftwerk - "Europe Endless" - Trans Europe Express (9:39)
20. Vangelis - "Pulstar" - Albedo 0.39 (5:46)
21. Pink Floyd - "Echoes" - Meddle (23:31)
22. Tangerine Dream - "Sequent C'" - Phaedra (2:17)
23. Transatlantic - "Bridge Across Forever" - Bridge Across Forever (5:33)
24. The Third Ending - "Fingerprints" - The Third Ending (28:25)

Total Time: 239:21


Forum name: hardyharhar

hardyharhar writes:
At first I thought, “easy - Genesis ‘Foxtrot’ & ‘The Lamb’, Pink Floyd ‘DSOTM’, Yes ‘Close To The Edge’, first King Crimson and a couple odd tracks. That should be 4 hours”. But that would be too easy and there were many unknown bands I could give some brief exposure to. So that’s what I did. Most of these tracks are from the first wave of progressive rock, about 1970 through mid 70’s. My main years of interest in it. Though it was never embraced by the mainstream media, it was still an exciting and experimental branch of rock music. What most people forget is that the band members were still teenagers and college age when they began. I started off with King Crimson, because with all due respect to Sgt. Pepper, psychedelics, Moody Blues, early Floyd, this album probably had more influence on the direction of the early purveyors of ‘classical rock’ like Genesis, Yes and ELP, and therefore everything to follow. The first half is mainly UK bands, where prog was initially embraced. The one glaring omission is Pink Floyd, I just don’t have any on disc. The 2nd half takes us to Europe, where Genesis, Van Der Graaf Generator and others influenced a huge movement there. The groups here are from Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland, and Italy. Most of these bands focused on longer tracks which are more along the traditional prog lines, but I wanted to get as many less known groups in as possible, so I chose tracks that were a bit shorter in duration. All in the hopes of giving a little exposure to some bands who for whatever reason fell through the cracks. An outcome all too common for many of the early prog groups. It was tough breaking up 25 minute songs and keeping some sort of flow going, so my Genesis ‘Lamb stew’ was scrapped because after each song there was a pause, ruining any continuity I was striving for. I kept a few tracks by others where it’s obvious another song had begun, but I tried to keep that to a minimum.

I’m pretty sure I’ve committed votercide with this list, but my intention here is to give a few people who enjoy this music a chance to hear some things that are obscure and soon to be forgotten. I’m not sure I’d take all these if I was to be dropped on a desert island, but I know I’d miss them if I didn’t. 4 hours isn’t very long in the realm of progressive rock.

1. KING CRIMSON – “21st Century Schizoid Man” In The Court Of The Crimson King (7:20)
2. THE STRAWBS – “Hero & Heroine” Hero & Heroine (3:20)
3. MARILLION – “Heart Of Lothian/Wide Boy/Curtain Call” Misplaced Childhood (6:06)
4. YES – “America” Fragile (10:33)
5. STEVE HACKETT – “Ace Of Wands” Voyage Of The Acolyte (5:25)
6. GREENSLADE – “Drowning Man” Greenslade (5:50)
7. PAVLOV’S DOG – “Episode” Pampered Menial (4:03)
8. CAMEL – “Separation” Camel (3:57)
9. CARAVAN – “Grandma’s Lawn” Caravan (3:25)
10. GENESIS – “Can-Utility And The Coastliners” Foxtrot (5:47)
11. ENGLAND – “Poisoned Youth” Garden Shed (16:17)
12. EMERSON LAKE & PALMER – “Knife Edge” Emerson Lake & Palmer (5:09)
13. VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR – “Man-Erg” Pawn Hearts (10:21)
14. GRACIOUS – “What’s Come To Be” Gracious!/This Is Gracious (3:32)
15. RAW MATERIAL – “Ice Queen” Time Is… (6:44)
16. ARTHUR BROWN’S KINGDOM COME – “Gypsy” Journey (9:14)
17. SECOND HAND – “Death May Be Your Santa Claus (Reprise)” Death May Be Your Santa Claus (5:21)
18. BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST – “Medicine Man” Once Again (3:55)
19. VANGELIS – “La Mort du Loup” L’Apocalypse des Animaux (3:07)
20. TANGERINE DREAM – “Mysterious Semblance At The Strand Of Nightmares” Phaedra (9:55)
21. TAI PHONG – “Circle” Windows (5:30)
22. MACHIAVEL – “Beyond The Silence” Mechanical Moonbeams (6:11)
23. GROBSCHNITT – “Otto Pankrock” Solar Music Live (7:25)
24. SAHARA – “For All The Clowns” For All The Clowns (11:01)
25. SHYLOCK – “Le Quatrieme” Gialorgues (13:11)
26. ANGE – “Exode” Au DelaDu Delire (4:59)
27. KAYAK – “Mountain Too Rough” Royal Bed Bouncer (3:56)
28. EARTH & FIRE – “Voice From Yonder” To The World Of The Future (6:58)
29. FOCUS – “Eruption” Moving Waves (23:02)
30. LATTE E MIELE – “Introduzione” Passio Secundum Mattheum (2:20)
31. LATTE E MIELE – “Getzemani” Passio Secundum Mattheum (4:16)
32. LATTE E MIELE – “Il Processo” Passio Secundum Mattheum (1:30)
33. LE ORME – “Collage” Collage (4:49)
34. MUSEO ROSENBACH – “Degli Uomini” Zarathustra (4:07)
35. SEMIRAMIS – “Frazz” Dedicata A Frazz (5:09)
36. IL VOLO – “I Primi Respiri” Il Volo/Essere O Non Essere? (3:54)

UP NEXT: Screwtape2 vs. notAxver

Competition master list.

Have fun and vote! :)
 
Phanan's is probably my second favourite here, behind my own and ahead of notAxver. :up:
 
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