Biko (Peter Gabriel, 1980)

Why "Biko" should be considered as aprog song? Tell me, why not? It's a highly experimental track, combining (sampled) Scottish pipes and (real) African choirs, offering some 7 minutes of distressing atmosphere and mysterious landscapes, and finally featuring clever and strong lyrics against Sourth-African apartheid. If you better like I file this under the label world music, well, I'll certainly do, but still I'll keep it here in my blog. "Biko" has the power to move me deeply each time I listen to it and I sincerely admire this deal of great musical ideas Peter gathered in one wonderful track.

Taken from the third Gabriel's album (also called "melted"),

Biko was released as a single in several different supports.

This one was a 12" vinyl single.

I can't decide what's the best one: the Scottish thing? The electronic drumming melting in the African background? The martial and sad verse? The strange and effective chorus Biko, Biko because Biko? The intense vocals? Name yours, I really can't tell, so, if you please, I take the whole lot. Thank you Peter, thank you so much and if you think a prog blog isn't your place, well, forgive me, but this is exactly what I call prog.

La mente vola (Alphataurus, 1973)

This Italian band only released this self titled album before the recent (and welcome) reunion. This track ("La mente vola", "The Mind Flies", in English) is my favourite one and fully represents the fantasy and the rich flavour of such an underrated record. The song is roughly divided in two sections: the first one is a long instrumental intro, where the listener appreciates an excellent drumming and a clever structure, revealing the main theme step by step, so that one letterally sees the airy melody rising out from the pulsing rythmic background.

The artwork for "Alphataurus" by Adriano Marangoni.

The second part is a good and typical Italian prog song, with a piano intro and a stretched sung theme, whose verse is well performed by the lead singer. Even if the whole song is soaked by a '70s atmosphere and the relative keys paraphernalia, the final effect is as surprising and pleasant today as it was in 1973. So, it's no surprise if the album and this song are more popular today than ever before.

The Ninth Wave (Kate Bush, 1985)

I don't think Kate Bush could be tagged as a prog artist, nor as part of any other novement. She's a world apart, a unique mix of feelings and skills. That said, this beautiful suite taken from the album "Hounds of Love" (1985) is probably her proggest release ever. Seven movements, deep folk roots, clever orchestral arrangements, spooky moods, electronic touches, the story about a drowning person, everything here suggests a personal research both in sounds and lyrics.

This is the Aivazovsky's masterpiece titled "The Ninth Wave",

painted in 1850, that inspired Kate Bush.

As usual, the excellent melodies are perfectly in tune with the concept and a wide range of special effects and samples add a theatrical touch to the track. Kate takes care of everything, each detail is meant to add something relevant to the big picture. The listener goes through irish jigs, gloomy choirs, bright tunes and electro-pop beats in a surprising and coloured soul journey, inspired by Ivan Aivazovsky's painting and transfigured by Kate Bush's wild sensitiveness. Such an experience is certainly worth some 25 minutes of your life.

Duel with The Devil (Transatlantic, 2001)

This epic, taken from "Bridge across Forever", the second album of the supergroup Transatlantic, is a five movement suite, probably one of their best compositions and performances and, IMHO, one of the best from any prog group of the 21th century. In a way, it's a very traditional prog epic, with all the most common ingredients of this genre in it: tempo changes, instrumental progressions, rock riffs, atmospheric ridges, epic lyrics, complex arrangements, returning melodies and so on. But it's a new and fresh song too, the real fruit of a cooperative work involving all the band members and full of joy, emotions, surprise and energy. That's why it can't possibly get old or trivial.

Transatlantic are, left to right, Pete Trewavas (Marillion & more),

Mike Portnoy (ex Dream Theater), Neal Morse (ex Spock's Beard)

and Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings, Kaipa & more).

As those musicians are among the best ones in the current prog rock scene, when they work together and they share so many good ideas as in this suite, the outcome is simply stunning. "Duel with the Devil" is a challenging piece of music, with slow and fast movements and ever changing moods, also open to some jamming-born passages. So, classically ruled tunes follow jazzy, wild sections and also the instrumentation is unusually rich for the band, with additional violin, viola and cello by Chris Carmichael, Keith Mears' sax and even the charming Elite female choir. An abundance that never becomes confusion or musical pastiche, a variety that prevents tiredness and boredom.

The Moon Is down (Gentle Giant, 1971)

This track comes from "Acquiring The Taste" and is one of my favourites ever in the Giant's eclectic production. There's anything Giant-esque in it: the medieval choir arrangements, the risch and even unusual instrumentation, some sudden tempo changes, instrumental passages and so on. I like very much the sung theme, but I'm especially charmed, as usual, by the inexhaustible fantasy of this band.

A milestone in prog history: "Acquiring the Taste".

This song is like an ever changing water, including dozens of good ideas and never lingering on them. I bet many other artists could get ten good songs from this material, such it is abundant, but this was the most challenging phase in Gentle Giant's career, a real blast of creativeness and unpredictability. In a word, prog at its best.

The Invisible Man (Marillion, 2004)

Marillion did a great work with their album "Marbles", released in 2004 and this opening track is one of the CD peaks. Starting with a pulsing rythm and a sad melody, it goes through many changes, so many and so strong that one could describe it like a rhapsody or a brief suite. The first tempo change is by far my favourite, when the pulse leaves place to a floydian atmosphere and Hogarth sings an excellent theme the way we all know, with his inner, almost painful feelings. And there is more than this. Next change, next big surprise.

"Marble" was also graced by this strange and effective artwork.

Now the rythm has some oriental smell and the singer keeps on charming the listener with a precious helping hand from Mark Kelly's keyboards and an increasing, distressing tempo. Then, third dramatic change and here's another world, no far from a soul ballad, with a penetrating electric guitar provided, of course, by Steve Rothery and a sweet piano. At the end of this section, the rythm increases once more and the cried out loud finale letterally runs over the listener. What else could I say? Just this: listen to this song if you're searching for a strong musical experience.

Prelude: Song of The Gulls (King Crimson, 1971)

I'm always charmed by this orchestral track I consider a masterpiece. The structure, the arrangement and the instrumentation are those of a classical composition, elegant, peaceful and admirably balanced between strings and wind instruments. Rock music seems completely absent here, but please don't forget progressive rock is a hybrid genre, living and growing up tearing down the walls we sometimes build up in our minds. So, this Robert Fripp's sweet and relaxing melody could have been a rock ballad or an acoustic guitar solo, and maybe it was at first. 

A fashionable Robert Fripp.

But it isn't now, of course, and Fripp offers us this crystal machinery, this delicate clockwork belonging to a higher and lighter world I get lost in. Last but not least, this song is a Prelude, introducing the title track of "Islands", another masterpiece you may read about in this blog, so that the suspended atmosphere and the pointed rythm of "Song of The Gulls" counter-balances the gloomy and inner following song. Once again, well done!