So here it is, the last match up of the first round of this year's mega prog contest. (We usually only allow 16 entrants, but this time, because it might be his last one, Friday allowed 20.)
Here's how it looks:
Collegium Musicum - Collegium Musicum
"When Czechoslovakia did not allow foreign band names except for Latin, these four Slovak composers, music theorists, jazzmen and experimentators chose a Latin name meaning "music collective" and set out to teach the world (but mostly Czechoslovakia) the extents of musical possibilities. In a society that is being drilled into its head that the only good musical genre is classical music and all that rock and jazz is just the Western usurpers trying to undermine the good communist morale, these absolute mad lads pretty much put the whole musical propagandist idea on its head, delivering rock music composed as classical concertos, elaborate jazz pieces and that sweet professional-educated-musician spiel that knocks the heathens outta park babey! Their influence is strongly felt on Czech and Slovak music scene today including various legendary bands like Blue Effect or The Plastic People of the Universe." - someone
Youtube: https://youtu.be/oKXg4PILseU
vs.
Kollektiv - Kollektiv
"Jazzy krautrock mit flute. More effects pedals than your Dad's favourite band. Viele spass fur alles. 2 votes just doesn't cut it. This write-up is short, but this album is long." - MiloRuggles
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4YXHLIh6mo
So there you have it - two experimental prog albums, both of which flirt with jazz from the early '70's. The first is Czechoslovakian, the second German. (Btw, when Milo says "2 votes just doesn't cut it", he's referring to the fact that at the start of the prog contest, the Killektiv LP only had two ratings on the Sputnik Music site. Remember that these are all supposed to be relatively obscure LPs - in order to nominate an album, it had to have had less than 30 ratings on the site (which is why no one nominated Close to the Edge or Thick As A Brick). I feel like I caught a real bargain with my Procol Harum album (which had something like 21 ratings when I nominated it, although now it has 33. I think it got overlooked because it's a live album, and Procol itself has somewhat been forgotten by time, at least with the younger generations.)
Anyway, this should be an interesting contest. And next week, we'll start Round 2.
