"A terrifying scramble through the overgrown forest of progressive insignificance"
-- Sarah Dempster (The Guardian)


I'm typing as fast as I can ...
ow ... ow ... ow ...
Maybe I should try using my fingers.

5/31/10


This release's Prog News is so large that I didn't want to take up the GEPR's front page with it. So, click here for Prog News




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5/31/10 Update

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

A little late for the "Happy New Year" you say? Hey, I've been trying to prepare a set of GEPR updates since mid-November of 2009. Then my Mom passed away, a big project at work started encountering problems, and a bunch of other general ... uh ... stuff ... hit the fan and I found myself going from little spare time to zero. The date kept pushing out and out, and now it's been just about a year since the last update. Those of you who gave up on me, don't count me out quite yet. Hope you enjoy what's new.

An interesting thing of note ... to me at least ... is that the last half of 2009 was the point at which the number of digitally-transmitted promos I received for review exceeded the ones I got that use hard media. (OK, I have to ignore my Musea Records promo pack to be able to say that, but it's almost true). I'm not sure that's a good trend, but it's an undeniable one. Next time you go shopping for CD's in a brick and mortar store (if you can still find one that carries them at all!), look around you. Is there anyobdy there that's under 40 years old? Chances are there isn't. And guess what? Young people buy the most music. Well, would you invest in a company that makes CD's for a living? Neither would I. I always guessed that Progressive Rock would be one of the last genres to switch over to digital, and it probably is. But even those old hold-outs have been forced to concede that this is the way of things. Several of these releases aren't even available as hard media (see reviews of The Coma Cluster and Electric Sorcery for example).

On the exact flip side of this observation is the fact that there's a lot of vinyl being pressed again (hehe ... get it? "Flip side" of vinyl?). The new album from Øresund Space Collective is vinyl-only, and the new album from Gong had a 2LP version released (with a CD also included). Of course, Porcupine Tree and a few others have always had vinyl options on their releases, but it seems to me like this trend is increasing. Playing an LP is such a pain for me these days that I almost never listen to any of my LP collection. It seems like my only "quiet time" to be able to listen carefully to music (and decent Prog must be listened to carefully, not just something going on in the background) is in my car, and LP's just don't do well in a car stereo. Are there still people my age (I just turned 55) who can lay on a pillow between loudspeakers and just listen to a piece of music in their homes without interruption, like I used to do in college? If there are, I envy you. That's so not what my life is like. So I'm afraid I have little patience for LP's. Except, of course, that they provide a decent-sized canvas for artwork, unlike a CD. For that reason, I got the LP of the new Gong album for an old friend for Christmas. But when we went to listen to it ... you guessed it, we played the CD.

One more observation. A person whose name you would recognize from the Prog world mentioned to me in passing that the GEPR had become irrelevant. In fact, he thought that most prog had become irrelevant. Judging from the reduction in reviews I've been receiving for publication and the reduction in fan mail, I'm tempted to agree. The GEPR is "so Web 1.0" in its look and feel. I'll be the first to admit it's really become a blog of what I'm listening to and what I think of it in the guise of being an Encyclopedia. I can't begin to keep up with all the progressive / avant-garde / experimental music being made out there in quantities of 500 CD's (or, as I just mentioned, no CD's at all, just downloads). Even when I had lots of outside contributors, I couldn't keep up with it. Now it's just absurd to even pretend I can do it. I've been doing the GEPR like this for 10 years now. Maybe it's time to re-think things. So, I would like to ask the opinion of those of you who still stop by here from time to time to peruse my pages. Where should I go from here with the GEPR? Write me at webmaster@gepr.net and tell me what I should do. Here's some ideas, or tell me your own if you have one.

  • Hang it up. Kill yourself. The GEPR is a waste of disk space and you're a waste of air.
  • Be like Axiom of Choice ... stop adding anything new, but keep the old stuff here as a historical document.
  • It's fine like it is. Keep on Proggin'.
  • It's basically fine, but I'd rather see smaller updates more frequently instead of once or twice a year.
  • Some format changes would be nice ... maybe it should look and feel more like The New York Times web site (but without ads).
  • Change to a Blog format, with links to the older material. This would allow some user interaction via comments. Maybe this could also look more like a newspaper.
  • Make the GEPR totally interactive ("Web 2.0"), like ProgArchives. Hmm. Maybe without the excessive advertising or links to nonexistent ring tones or free downloads.
Oh, and one other question: Should GEPR have a Facebook presence?
  • What's Facebook?
  • Who cares?
  • Only if you feel like it. I might look at it sometimes.
  • I live on Facebook. Blow off the web site if you have to. You gotta be there.
I dunno, what do you think? Let me know.

Keep on Proggin',
Fred Trafton


Here's what's new in the 5/31/10 GEPR update:

GEPR Editor Fred Trafton (USA) contributed new entries, reviews, updates or news items for Agents of Mercy, Aisles, Algernon, Apogee, Astra, Baraka, Amin Bhatia, Big Big Train, Cazuela de Condor, Cheer Accident, Citadel, Citadellion, Citizen Cain, The Coma Cluster, Nick D'Virgilio, Darwin's Radio, Dream Theater, Electric Sorcery, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, The Enid, An Endless Sporadic, Esagil, Et Cetera (Canada), Far Corner, From.uz, Glass Hammer, Gong Global Family, Gösta Berlings Saga, Grey Lady Down, Haiku Funeral, Half Past Four, Headspace, Here and Now, Horizont, IQ, Jerusalem, Karen Cooper Complex, Kopecky, Pär Lindh Project, Lord of Mushrooms, Lost World, Ma Banlieue Flasque, Neal Morse, Neuronium, Øresund Space Collective, Phideaux, Phish, The Pineapple Thief, Porcupine Tree, Radio Massacre International, Random Hold, Redshift, Shadow Circus, Sky Architect, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, Soundscape (Rob Thorne's), Spock's Beard, Roine Stolt, Slychosis, Syzygy, Tesseract, Transatlantic, TRIO (The.Rhythm.Is.Odd), Univers Zero, University of Errors, Adam Wakeman, XII Alfonso and Yang.

Other contributions this release:

New bands or
artists added
Reviews/news added
to existing entries
Updated discographies,
added or fixed links
Update 5/31/10
Agents of Mercy
Algernon
Astra
Cazuela de Condor
Citadellion
The Coma Cluster
Nick D'Virgilio
Darwin's Radio
Electric Sorcery
An Endless Sporadic
Esagil
Gong Global Family
Haiku Funeral
Half Past Four
Headspace
Jerusalem
Karen Cooper Complex
Lost World
Ma Banlieue Flasque
Neal Morse
The Pineapple Thief
Sky Architect
Soundscape (Rob Thorne's)
Tesseract
TRIO (The.Rhythm.Is.Odd)
University of Errors
Adam Wakeman
Yang
Aisles
Apogee
Amin Bhatia
Baraka
Big Big Train
Cheer Accident
Citadel
Citizen Cain
Dream Theater
Emerson, Lake and Palmer
  (Emerson/Lake concert review)
The Enid
Et Cetera (Canada)
Far Corner
From.uz
Glass Hammer
Gong
Gösta Berlings Saga
Grey Lady Down
IQ
Lord of Mushrooms
Neuronium
Øresund Space Collective
Phideaux
Porcupine Tree
Radio Massacre International
Random Hold
Shadow Circus
Spock's Beard
Syzygy
Taylor's Universe
Transatlantic
XII Alfonso
Univers Zero
Aisles (discog update)
Apogee (discog update)
Baraka (discog update)
Amin Bhatia (discog/photo/links)
Big Big Train (discog/new photo/links)
Cheer Accident (discog/photo/link to SGM)
Citadel (discog/links)
Citizen Cain (links)
Dream Theater (discog update)
The Enid (photo/links/embedded video)
Et Cetera (Canada) (link to MySpace page)
Far Corner (discog, news, link to Haiku Funeral)
From.uz (discog/band name modification)
Gong (new band photo/concert photos/link updates)
Gösta Berlings Saga (discog/new animated photo)
Glass Hammer (discog update)
Grey Lady Down (links to Darwin's Radio and IQ)
Here and Now (link to University of Errors)
Horizont (removed bad links)
IQ (discog/links)
Kopecky (news/link to Haiku Funeral)
Pär Lindh Project (discog/formatting/links)
Lord of Mushrooms (links to MySpace, Philharmonie and Yang)
The Mars Volta (discog update)
Neuronium (formatting/discog/photo/web site link)
Øresund Space Collective (discog/embedded MP3)
Phideaux (discog/MySpace link)
Philharmonie (links to Lord of Mushrooms and Yang)
Phish (discog/MySpace link)
Porcupine Tree (discog update)
Radio Massacre International (discog/link updates)
Random Hold (discog/links)
Redshift (discog update)
Shadow Circus (discog update)
Shylock (formatting/link to Yang)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (discog/link to Cheer Accident)
Slychosis (discog update)
Spock's Beard (discog/links)
Roine Stolt (discog/photo/internal links)
Syzygy (discog/photo/links)
Robin Taylor (link to Art Cinema)
Taylor's Universe (discog/link to Art Cinema)
Transatlantic (discog/new photo/links update)
Univers Zero (discog update)
Rick Wakeman (discog update)
Wobbler (discog update)
XII Alfonso (discog update)

For archives of previous "What's New" entries, click here.
For archives of previous monthly update tables, click here.
For a nauseatingly complete listing of every little change, click here.



Associated Sites:
Gnosis   Ratings of Prog albums by a panel of volunteers
Ground and Sky   Progressive Rock album reviews
Axiom of Choice   Jurriaan Hage's Prog Rock site, reviews/sounds
Progressive World   Progressive Rock and related music reviews
ProgressoR   Vitaly Menshikov's Progressive Rock Web Site in Uzbekistan

Other Progressive Rock (and related) Web Sites:
Aural Innovations   The Global Source For SpaceRock Exploration, e-zine/reviews/Internet radio
BayProg   Web site for news & info about California Bay Area prog bands
DURP   "Tales From the Progressive Ocean" webzine in English and German
Dutch Progressive Rock Page   The site name says it all, but it's mostly in English!
e-Prog   Home of Keyboard-based Progressive Rock
Ectagon   List of Progressive Rock web sites, with links
Estonian Progressive Rock Web Page   They have Prog in Estonia? You bet!
Ghostland   Progressive Rock news, reviews and more
The Giant Progweed   Progressive Rock Reviews
Israeli Prog   A site covering the Israeli prog scene - in English!
Italian Prog   Dedicated to Italian Prog, in English or Italian
NewEARS   New England Art Rock Society - bringing Prog to the U.S. Northeast
Planet Prog   Weekly Wisconsin Prog radio show/Internet radio
Planète Prog   French language progressive site
Prog4You.com   General prog site w/ reviews, interviews and MP3's
Prog Archives   Very comprehensive prog site, with lots of album and band reviews
Progbibliography   Books about Prog bands, and literary resources that inspired Prog rock
ProgNaut   General Prog site with band lists, etc.
Prognosis   Prog reviews
Prog Pushers   Progressive Rock web ring
Prog Rock CD Compilation   CD covers w/songs & times, by Nilo Stolte
Progressive Ears   Progressive rock web site, mailing list & message board
Progressive Newsletter   German Progressive Rock site
Rock Progressivo Brasil   Brazilian Progressive Rock web site
Rock Progresivo de Chile   Chilean Prog Rock site, in Spanish
Sea of Tranquility   Heavy Metal, Prog Metal and Progressive Rock webzine
SPRP - Spanish Progressive Rock Page   Prog bands from Spanish-speaking countries
Strawberry Bricks   A Progressive Rock Timeline from 1967-1979
Through Different Eyes   Progressive Rock and Metal reviews
Traverses   Independent Prog web magazine (in French)

Progressive Rock Magazines
Acid Dragon - Published in France with text in English 3 times a year. Focused on "Frog Prog" but also prog from other countries.
Audion - Published about twice a year in Great Britain. Focus seems to be on Krautrock, Experimental Electronic and Zeuhl.
Exposé - Published quarterly in the United States (black and white). Focused on all prog and experimental music.
Progression - Published quarterly in the United States (color glossy). Focused on all prog and experimental music.
Tarkus - Published quarterly in Norway. Broad focus, RIO to Neo, from the 60s to the 90s.



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In association with the following fine Progressive Rock web sites

Ground and Sky
Progressive Rock
Album Reviews


Progressive World
Progressive Rock
Album Reviews


Jurriaan Hage's
Axiom of Choice
Progressive Rock
Album Reviews


ProgressoR
Progressive Rock
Album Reviews



Gnosis
Progressive Rock
Album Ratings
and Reviews


The GEPR is maintained by Fred Trafton
Email me at: webmaster@gepr.net
Site last updated: 5/31/10
This page has been accessed

times since Aug. 30, 2004