portrait of this blog's author - by Stephen Blackman 2008

Monday, October 21, 2024

The Definitive Prog Rock compilations! 3 attempts plus 5 (FIVE!) from URBANASPIRINES



 A KOSTAS SPECIAL


The Best Prog Rock Album In The World ...Ever! (3CD) 2003 + 5 More Prog Rock Compilations By Urban Aspirines 2024

 


The sampler itself is actually not bad at all.   It has three CDs full of superb music. One of the strong points of this sampler is that it covers the majority of the different progressive rock styles. 


From space rock, via art rock to symphonic prog. This is as close to an essential prog rock taster for newbeginners a sampler can get. I am pretty sure it is the best prog rock sampler on the market today. 


The guys who created this compilation feel they are the owners of the ultimate taste by naming this mixture "The Best Prog Rock Album Ever" (What a pompous name!!!). There's no use to comment the songs because 90% are masterpieces. 


There's no King Crimson, no Gong, no Supertramp, no Eloy, no Jane, ect. But you can't squeeze every major prog band into a 35-track compilation.  



Notable omissions include Pink Floyd (there's a bunch of EMI material on here, but Floyd may have just been too expensive to license), King Crimson (not terribly surprising, given Fripp's territoriality), Gong (the rights to Gong's music evidently being in some confusion at the time, with material showing up, licitly or not, on many different labels), Renaissance, The Nice, Strawbs... 


But getting upset about that is special pleading on behalf of one's favoured groups- they had limited space and budget to work with, and made the most of it. KOSTAS
                          

I noted that many (most ED) of the artwork here is by the incomparable Roger Dean who I had come to my shop here at home and give a signing. [Amongst others like Gilbert and George, David Mach, and photographers Robert Doisneau, Eve Arnold, Elliot Erwitt etc)  He turned out to be one of the very nicest and most patient and easy going artist it was ever my pleasure to welcome to the Oxford based Art & Poster Shop. His fans were quite unique and totally extraordinary, ever faithful and real fans like for a rock star! Those sci-fi freaks loved their artists to the exclusion of all else !



check out the full 8 CDs here

2 comments:

Kostas said...

I worked many hours to selsct the bands and their songs for my 5 compilations, and I used many of Roger dean masterpieces. Thank you friend.

Andy Swapp said...

Always welcome Kostas and you know I support you especially when you do so much work on these things but really wanted to post this link in support after such seemingly negative feedback! More power to you my friend!