So much ‘prog’ (and all of its sub-genres) seem to be very fast, aggressive, and I’ve listened to hundreds of 70s albums, and after 20 years, self-awareness, and helps from others; it’s easier to narrow things down.
Another characteristic I hear with 70s prog is that the women sing vocables, and create melodies out of ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhhs’ for 10-minute songs, and it’s always so soothing and relaxing… I notice flutes and violins being key to some of the best stuff I’ve heard. Unfortunately, this one prog station I listened to hardly ever mentioned artists names, or song titles, it was just entitled “70s Prog”, but their website went down years ago unfortunately.
A slow rhythm doesn’t have to be boring, 4/4 stuff… There’s some latin rhythms, jazz, waltz, middle-eastern, funk, etc., only played slowly.
Anyway, here’s an example. It doesn’t have to be long, and use the term ‘prog’ as loosely as you want. Flora Purim is an example, and her song “Dindi” is very short. She was also the vocalist on the first two albums of Return To Forever which only have moments of “chill”, usually at the beginning of the song before the drums kick in. There has to be some slow-tempo, jazz that still sounds good. A drummer doesn’t have to “be in the pocket”.
Electronic Skylab - Skylab
