Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 10

For this last matchup of the first round, we have two somewhat dissimilar albums. The first features a British psychedelic prog band from 1972, while the second involves a 2009 avant progressive rock release by a band from Belgium.

Here are the descriptions:

Steel Mill - Green Eyed God

The main theme here is eclecticism: This has a lot of Blues and heavy psych in it for a prog album. But then lush, melodic and subtle winds as well as twists and turns contrast that. Earthy but airy, grounded but elegic and somewhat esoteric. Joining worlds that had been drifting apart by 1972 (the year this was created).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29G9WrqL3Qs&t=1s

Also to be found on spotify

vs.

Present - Barbaro

Dense ass avant-zeuhl chaos, and way better than a 2000s reunion prog album from an old act has ANY right to be. Band got started by the guitarist from the first two Univers Zero records, and this one closes with a cover/redo of Jack the Ripper off Heresie. Whole things a ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAFqDYKKhIM

Only stream I could find is on YouTube. Sound quality there is predictably a bit shit, so if any progheads are savvy enough to use Google drive, I also uploaded my copy into a shared folder for your beautiful ears:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IZRIrhQuCc0_NfWJ2Jfl6EKEaDlV76qZ

Once we have a winner here, Round 1 will be complete, and we'll know all of the survivors that will be moving on to our elimination round.

Fun fact: Of the first nine matches, only two of those I've voted for are moving on to the second round. Zoinks!

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 9 Results

OK, so this one was a nail biter. Here were my comments:

After one listen, I'm not totally sold on either album.

Are any of you guys familiar with the original film version of The Producers with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder? I like the first song on the Maquina! LP, but it reminds me of a serious version of Dick Shawn's "Love Power" from that film - it has the same chord progression.

When it came time to actually vote, I added:

My vote goes to Polis.

This is a case of Maquina! had me, but then lost me when they hit the extended instrumental section, complete with those sour wah-wah's and the endless drum solo. (I know those were a thing at the time, but usually on live albums, not on studio albums.) I liked the first couple of numbers (the second being "Why?" before the instrumental), and "Earth's Daughter" was OK. The second bonus track also got a little sour for my taste at times.

I found Polis solid, if not necessarily exciting, throughout. They avoided losing me more going out of their way to win me. 

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, we found ourselves tied 9 votes to 9 four days after the voting was supposed to have ended.

The final result came in this morning. 

Final Result: Polis 9 votes, Maquina! 10 votes. So I cursed another one.

Oh well. On to the final match of Round 1.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 9 Update

 For those of you who have been following along with this series, I promise I'm not slacking. We're still waiting for a winner. Right now, this contest is frozen at 9 votes a piece, and we're waiting for a tie-breaker. I'll let you know as soon as we have one.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 9

This time out, we have a modern (2020) German psychedelic prog rock album going up against an album by a Spanish proto-prog album from 1970.

Here are the details:

Polis - Weltklang

The album is full of elegant, laid back, yet energetic psychedelic, prog rock, from the beauty of the folk lullaby Abendlied to the jammy poetry of Eine Liebe, Taused Leben. Polis seem to love analogue instruments and the production values here are amazing. This is a total anachronism from the 70s. You can picture the band playing in front of you in an old village barn. It's psychedelic, it's prog rock, some people called it kraut rock, something I don't know shit about, and it jams so damn well.
The icing on the cake for me was hearing them sing in German. It's not often good bands decide to stick to their german mother tongue. I was moved in a way that didn't happen to me since I discovered The Hirsch Effekt.

Bandcamp: https://polisklang.bandcamp.com/album/weltklang

Youtube-Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lnhemXfO2DI4svUvZRxQ1Xglp8VusAJKQ

Also available on Spotify

vs.

Maquina! - Why?

Why? is a Spanish proto-prog record very heavily steeped in the psychedelia of the era. One wouldn't be shocked to hear the likes of the title track in a 1969 Grateful Dead live performance (with better vocals) as it runs on its acid fueled energy for around 25 minutes. Apparently this album was quite the historical achievement as one of the first of its kind to come from Spain and helped develop the prog scene there. For those who aren't fans of jam rock, this might not be your cup of tea, but there are still plenty of other moments that might satisfy including pretty killer basslines throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yng581COUU

I've got high hopes for this round. Let's see how it works out.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 8 Results

This was another pretty close round, at least until the very end. However, this time it didn't follow the pattern of come-from-behind victory that so many of the other rounds did. I had a few comments about the matchup throughout. Here they were:

Dagmar doesn't sound anything like I remember on the joint album with Henry Cow. 

After a brief discussion on the list about how this was more of a straight pop album as opposed to that one, I added:

Very much. There's even a "Girl From Ipanema"-type number.

After a discussion as to whether the Slapp Happy album should even be classified as progressive rock, I went on to add:

Well, as far as my scoring goes, I've told you guys before I don't worry about how progressive it is. I leave that up to the tournament host. And once an album has been accepted for the tournament, I score it solely on how much I like it.

Then I moved on to talk about the Jono El Grande album, saying:

The beginning of Jono El Grande almost sounds like Zappa to me.

When it came time to vote, I brought it all together:

I'm ready to vote. My curse...um, I mean vote...goes to Jono El Grande. (Sorry about that, zak.)

I like several of the tracks on the Slapp Happy album, especially the first one and most of the later ones. Some of the ones in the middle left me a little cold, though.

I liked the Jono El Grande album pretty much throughout. As several of us stated, it's in the vein of Zappa, but I found it to be a little more contained than a lot of Zappa. I liked a lot of the use of strings throughout the album.

For once, the majority of the group agreed with me. Although at one point, Slapp Happy led 5 votes to 3, in the end, the vote went the other way.

Final Result: Slapp Happy 7 votes, Jono El Grande 13 votes.

Only two matches left in the first round.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 8

We're starting to get down to the nitty-gritty in this first round here. This is the 8th of 10 matchups. Here are our next contestants:

Slapp Happy - Slapp Happy

This is Avant-garde Proggy Pop or Rock In Opposition band from England and Germany. When I listen to this album, I picture myself sipping absinthe and smoking a cigarette through a jade holder, on the balcony of an apartment on the Champs-Élysées.

The first 11 tracks on this link. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/5XTA3Hd1nmV2spLX2q5sU7?si=dCRIgOA_QKCOmO5n2bliSw

Or youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN6UYcG-DMU&list=PLVZbPSE4nfitHPj4zpmqZqgVKaYVcmUhA

vs.

Jono El Grande - Melody of a Muddled Mason

Norwegian nutter throws everything into an album that is mad, off the wall (and at times up it) comical, melodic, dark and playful all the while following a proggish forays into melody and rock.
Available in Bandcamp and other streamings.

https://jonoelgrande.bandcamp.com/album/melody-of-a-muddled-mason

So this round is going to be totally off the wall. We had a joint LP by Slapp Happy and Henry Cow a few years ago - does anyone remember the weird German lady singing about her hat? (I do, because the rat bastards eliminated my rec that year, the eponymous Flash album.) And it sounds like Jono El Grande is going to be as far out there. So we'll see how this round goes, and if my (somewhat tenuous) sanity can stand it.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 7 Results

Geez, it happened again! The album I voted for got off to a big lead and then crumbled down the stretch. My fellow Users are now all referring to it as the Diva curse.

Here was my vote, and my comments about it:

I'm gonna be honest here. With apologies to my friend Friday, I just don't like The Mercury Tree. I didn't like their last album, and I don't like this one. Their music is so deliberately sour that it doesn't matter to me how complex and well thought out it is, I just don't enjoy listening to it.

While All Traps on Earth isn't a total win for me, I like it more than not. I don't hear it as dark as much as very sci-fi. There are parts that sound a bit like Chick Corea, and those are the parts that don't totally work for me. But overall, I think this is a pretty strong LP, and one I look forward to re-listening to.

This vote was an easy one for me. I vote for All Traps On Earth.

At the time I voted, my vote made it 6 to 2 in favor of All Traps on Earth. The vote then closed up to 6 votes to 5, then opened up again to 9 votes to 5. Unfortunately for me, however, the last five votes all went to Mercury Tree, giving it the come-from-behind victory.

Final Result: Mercury Tree 11 votes, All Traps on Earth 10 votes. (Vote tally has been updated from my original post.)

As I said: "Geez."