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:: Dreams ::

:: The Peruvian Flute ::

:: Lonely Chase ::

Like Phil, I sometimes have trouble wrapping my head around certain European varieties of music. Particularly when Continental musicians are going for a "westernized" pop feel. With just a little effort however, Eurorock can sometimes yield great rewards. What at first sounds "cheesy" may later reveal itself as pure genius, or not.

Prog rock has always been uniquely European. If you ask me, Prog never did exist in North America. Fuck that Rush, Styx and Kansas bullshit. So while I mostly think of King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant and other British bands when it comes to Prog, PFM, Amon Düül (I and II) and other bands from the Continent qualify as well.

Prog, of course is a general term encompassing many sub genres, one of which is "classical rock". Not classic rock, you knitwit, I'm talking about classical music elements with drums, electric guitars, organ, synth and just about always a breathily executed flute. And thus you have Ekseption, a bunch Dutch musicians who were apparently quite successful in Europe in the late 60s and early 70s, although I never heard of them until recently, once again proving that I know very little.

Ekseption had no vocalists, and their classical rock came spiced with bits of jazz and psych as well. It's distinctly European, and they don't aspire to much of any western pop influences, but I still roll my eyes a bit. Can't help it. On the other hand I like this stuff, and it reminds me of a period of time when rock went all cerebral and "yeah, yeah, yeahs" and "oh baby, oh baby, oh babys" were frowned upon. Thank goodness that didn't last too long.

Now, hopefully Phil will do a good punk rock post on Monday. Or not.


Mike

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 18, 2006 at 10:06 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.