You know, now that I think of it, I'm not quite sure what to say. While I have a general idea of what you like, I wouldn't want to make recommendations that turn out to be totally off target for your personal tastes. We do seem to share tastes for some types of music, but that doesn't mean there aren't CDs that I love that you would hate. I also don't know what CDs you have, so I might end up suggesting a bunch that you're already familiar with. Then there's the fact that I'm not very good at describing music. I can tell you if I like a band or not, but I have a hard time explaining why. I guess I just don't have enough technical music knowledge and vocabulary to do the job right.
Still, if you can give me an idea what types of bands you'd like me to recommend, it might help. Or you can also just ask me to mention any of the bands/CDs that I personally like, in which can I can try to make a few blind recommendations. I might not be very good at describing them, though, as I mentioned.
What about you? I mean, are there any bands/CDs that you'd like to recommend, be they Zeuhl/RIO or otherwise?
I know what you're saying Francois. There are very few people whose tastes I feel I know well enough to make those kind of recommendations. Even then I could be wrong. I think it's probably better to just talk about and recommend things that one likes rather than try to interpret the tastes of others. My tastes are really difficult to describe; it runs from all types of rock and pop music (even commercial music up until the early 80s), all eras of jazz, and European Classical music (particularly late medieval, renaissance, and 20th century stuff). I have always tried to listen to whatever I could get my hands on and own a number of things that I don't like, persay, but about which I was very curious. I also had a tendency, when I was purchasing a lot of music, to take 'risks' upon hearing short descriptions of bands that appealed to me.
The extent of my knowledge sometimes ends with my wallet, like you alluded to. The music can be expensive and there are a lot of things that go unheard by me. I apologize in advance if I end up discussing music with which you are already familiar. With regard to R.I.O. bands, my favorite, and one of my all-time favorite bands, is Henry Cow. They were on their way out as a band when they organized the initial R.I.O. festival. But I have made a point of following the subsequent careers of the band members, and some of the music has been very rewarding. I have 5 of the 6 Henry Cow albums that were released, and there isn't anything that they put out that wasn't high quality in my estimation.
Unrest is my favorite album of theirs, but the song "Living in the Heart of the Beast" off
In Praise of Learning is one of the greatest pieces of music I've ever heard (Dagmar's voice may take some getting used). They were very into Olivier Messiaen, the French Classical composer, who has become my favoite. The Art Bears were direct descendants of Henry Cow, containing three of their members and others who participated on their first album (which was originally intended as a Cow project). The second and third album,
Wintersongs and
The World as it is Today, are compiled on one CD, and I think they're great. Also, bass player John Greaves and lyricist and part-time Cow member Peter Blegvad put out an album shortly after Cow's demise called
Kew. Rhone that is quite good. Univers Zero is, for my money, the R.I.O. band that comes closest to the quality of writing that was present in Henry Cow.
I don't know how familiar you are with Gentle Giant. Of the mainstream prog bands, they were the best in my opinion and produced stuff of remarkable quality that was comparable to the non-mainstreamers.
The Power and the Glory,
Acquiring the Taste,
Free Hand, and
In a Glass House, are good examples. The first Hatfield and the North album and the aforementioned National Health
Missing Pieces document are very good non-standard prog with very strong writing and without the pronounced avant-garde leaning of a band like Henry Cow (generally- I saw live footage of National Health where this was not the case).
There is other good material that came out of the Henry Cow camp. Some of the stuff Fred Frith does can be very avant-garde and wouldn't be for everyone. I liked his band Massacre's
Killing Time (a trio with Bill Laswell and Fred Maher) and his albums Speachless and Gravity. If you ever see him play a solo concert it's like watching a magician at work. I think News from Babel, Cutler's band, was good, as was some of Tim Hodgkinson's solo output, but I don't own their material.
Are you familiar with This Heat? They were a band from London, part of the avante-garde, political, and very difficult to characterize. They would be too harsh for many people, and I wouldn't say that their music has a lot of moving parts the way, say, Magma did (they were only a trio). But the music was original and uncomprimising- perhaps bleak, but that's all in the ear of the behearer. Their drummer and vocalist, Charles Hayward, has since been associated with some of the above people.
Do you like Voivod at all (they're from Montreal), or are they not your cup of tea? They draw from some interesting sources and came up with something equally interesting music. Here's live, in studio, footage of them: youtube.com/watch?v=A5XrfPMx1WQ
As to where I hear of bands, we have one good store here in New York City for prog and avante-garde type rock and roll: the Downtown Music Gallery. I haven't been there in quite a while as I haven't wanted to spend the money that I spend when I go in there. They often play stuff while I'm in the store browsing (for hours- another reason why I haven't gone) that I end up purchasing. There are a number of bands which I like which I've never discussed with anybody but them (they're the only ones I've met who are familiar with them). I use to buy a magazine from London called "The Wire." It was helpful and I may have relied on it's judgment, but it was expensive ($5.50). The 80s Trouser Press Record Guide was a very good source for offbeat rock and roll (the 90s version took an unfortunate turn and begin to ignore the underground). There was a prog forum that I checked out which might give one ideas. Youtube is a good source for checking out bands to see what they're about, and I use it now.
Around three or four years ago, when I was purchasing new music on CD, I picked up a number of recent prog efforts. I can't really recommend any of them, however, even though I thought some of it was decent. Guapo came highly recommended and I bought
Five Suns; it's not bad. I think Sotos
Platypus was the best of them, but I'll have to go back and listen to it...
A few more ideas: Stereolab is a recent band that I love, and it might appeal to people that are into prog. I like many of their albums, but I suppose I would start with
Dots and Loops. You may not be into jazz, but there is trumpet player from Canada by the name of Kenny Wheeler of whom I think very highly. He was part of the London jazz scene and produced some great music. If you have a chance, see if you can sample his album
Deer Wan in one of the music stores. The music and writing may surprise you.
). His own band sported great line-ups, and I would recommend One of a Kind.
