What do you like best in prog?

[Michael Rawdon]

I think that fundamentally what I appreciate about prog is that it rarely strays into the basic pop form of verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus. The structures are varied and fluid, and it just feels like a more "mature" form of music, to me.

This hearkens back to when I was first "seriously" getting into music and discovered The Who's Who's Next, which plays with song structure throughout the album.

Even prog tracks that which do adhere to that basic form tend to have other things going on behind the basic structure which mutates or breaks the structure.

I admit I am a sucker for a good hook, and fundamentally I feel like I'm always looking for what Pete Townshend seemed to be looking for: A melding of the "trash" art form of rock music with more challenging elements to create something which appeals to both ends of the spectrum. This probably goes a long way to explaining why I'm a big fan of neo-prog but don't care much for groups like Wobbler or Somnambulist. (What would you call such groups' style, anyway? "Hard" prog? "Pure" prog?")

Essentially, I like a good hook, but I also like music which plays around with structure and presentation.

By way of example, consider that the albums which have most recently "blown my mind" have been Hourglass' Subconscious, Tr3nity's Precious Seconds, and Magenta's Revolutions and Seven.