Best Prog Rock Album in the World… Ever! [BOX SET]

Best Prog Rock Album in the World… Ever! [BOX SET]
Customer Review: Why dosn’t this wow me….
On the surface this is a pretty good compilation of Prog rock tracks so why doesnt it wow me. Well its down to the tracks whilst there are many many gems here, but I already have them all (that is the ones that are good) there are no great surprises other than the final arrival of VDGG into the pantheon of great prog bands. In fact that is the biggest surprise that a “plague of Lighthouse keepers ” is featured at all. Having put one great prog classic on why did they shy away from some of the others the Yes track is good but “close to the edge ” would have been better. “Dancing with the moonlight knight” is excellent, but why not the massive “supper ready”. How come Matching Mole is represented by one of its weakest tracks ? For the money this is a decent collection of many memorable moments from Progs classic period but its not a wonderful collection. I imagine that a youngster who wanted a sampler would be put off of a number of acts because of the weak material that represents them here. It would also have been nice if it had contained even one rare or difficult to find gem but it doesn’t. If you want VDGG buy the remastered Pawn Hearts and you will have Theme one as well. Otherwise this CD is worth picking up if you like one or two of the tracks and want to check out some of the other groups included. Please don’t Judge Matching Mole on this one track although its loved by the MM fans it is untypical of that fine and understated group. As it is you can buy this three CD set for a low price right now used and that suggests that it doesnt satisfy a lot of folk. To summarize some good tracks but this is far from being the best prog compliation ever. Try Charisma Perspective (vinyl only ) and suck it and see (also vinyl only) for examples of great prog compilations.

Customer Review: Of Pomp and Circumstance
Growing up in England though the sixties and seventies for me was a great musical experience. We had the best of both world's, with the indigenous music scene generating bands like Pink Floyd, Family and Jethro Tull, not to mention such stalwarts as Brinsley Schwartz, Dr. Feelgood, Hawkwind, but we also had this great American music, mainly but not always from the Bay Area like the Dead, Airplane and Quicksilver but with H.P. Lovecraft, Moby Grape as well as the Fugs and the MC5 but without forgetting Frank Zappa.

As a disc jockey in the Locarno Ballroom in Sunderland I was able to draw on these bands and more, introducing some wonderful music from Germany as Faust and Cluster while my record collection grew almost daily.

The British Progressive movement encompassed many and more of the artists included in this three disc collection. It is hard to know where to draw the line really as so many influences were drawn upon to produce the unique recordings these bands made. While some may try to define the movement by the use of classical or modern jazz elements into the standard pop/rock form, there was much more to it than that. Complexity of composition or even the extension of songs beyond the formulaeic tin pan alley limit of three minutes would allow some to qualify. Surely we must accept that songs which sought to expand on the human condition beyond the predominant concern for teen love and angst of the top forty would qualify too.

This brief collection of songs was attractive to me even though I have most of the material on individual albums. But together they are a joy to play in the car or at parties. Back Street Luv by Curved Air with Sonja Kristina's unique vocals is a personal favourite and the populist minimalist rendition of a segment of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells is even a good contribution although I would have preferred Viv Stanshall's dulcid tones to that. Child in Time with Ian Gillan's chilling vocal leading a menacing Deep Purple pre-overture rocker does not seem out of place here. What I really like about this collection, aside from the songs and artists is the range of material on offer. You have Jethro Tull's 'Locomtive Breath' and Frank Zappa's 'Peaches on Regalia' from tha fantastic 'Hot Rats' album and there is a section of Peter Barden's Camel's 'Snow Goose' and Atomic Rooster's 'Tomorrow Night'. I had no sooner received this album than I heard from England that a band I had once introduced at the Locarno had reformed with the original members and was once again touring and appeared in the North East…Van der Graaf Generator. Shorty this review is for you.

All in all a great collection of songs and artists which took me back to pre-punk days where songwriting and virtuosity were valued and the musical world was opened up before us. There is a place for all sorts of music especially in the drab, monochrome hip-hop world we currently live in. I appreciate this piece of musical heritage and, although like many others I have a disagreement about which tracks and artists to include, I think that this collection gives a good taste of the material that is out there for further investigation. Highly recommended.

PS. One of my own personal joys was identifying how many of these artists had appeared at one of the Sunderland venues. It was easier to count which had not.

Enjoy

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