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From: gtaylor@cornell.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: New Progressive Rock Groups
Message-ID: <47@cornell.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 16-May-84 22:15:08 EDT
Article-I.D.: cornell.47
Posted: Wed May 16 22:15:08 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 17-May-84 07:11:53 EDT
References: <3787@yale-comix.UUCP>, <675@pyuxn.UUCP>
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept.
Lines: 41

I imagine that the gentleman who's looking for twelfth
night and pallas (surprised he didn't mention Marillion)
is using the term in the same way that my wife's 
collegues in German Literature use the term "modern."
as opposed to "contemporary."

Rich is correct to wonder out loud about what is "new"
out there. Lotsa what's going on at present involves
either the repackaging of some old sound or style (REM,
the Neats, Lyre, Three o'Clock), serious technological
upgrading of the same "small is beautiful" approach that
gave us the singer/songwriter in the 70's (Dolby, and in
some ways Laurie Anderson...the current apotheosis of
artist as "troubador") or the "new" as a catchphrase
for the record industry's newly filled coffers.

Most of the stuff outside of those basic approaches
involve a SERIOUS atavism that make the individuals
hard to find, and tough going once located (I'm thinking
of the new Black Flag, 23 SKidoo (who I've decided I
REALLY am interested in), This Heat, SPK, or Einsturzende
Neubauten. For that reason, I find that I'm scanning the
pages of OP magazine much more seriously these days, searching
for that spark of recognition or tickle of curiousity that
says there's something out there worth checking out.

It looks to me as if the "ambient" school is taking some
really interesting twists and turns these days-moving away
from some of the german "new-age" stuff into some ethno
territories and collage techniques that wind up producing
pieces that remind you of the way that Debussy could write
those big, dense fogbanks of humid orchestra. The stuff
like that that I'm getting these days for review and personal
consumption has been more satisfying than any single sort
of music I can think of.

If anyone is interested, I could post a sort of listing of
what of this stuff I'd say is pretty interesting. Drop me
a line.

gtaylor