PALLAS - RAT RACING - THE WEDGE

[@workingman6549]

Great song and band.

[@Insekkton]

Years without paying attention to these gentlemen, and they DESERVE a lot !! Wonderful tempo and key changes !!!! Love it !

[@tumble9936]

Saw them live 3 times fantastic in the 80s

[@josephduggan3215]

The best scottish prog rock band ever

[@brogior1]

capolavoro assolutoooo!!! masterpiece!!

[@dar9501]

ottimo ! GRANDI RICORDI !

[@andreascala2663]

belloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

[@darakuT]

WOW che forza!

[@josephduggan3215]

The grearest scots band ever without douobt

[@WarrenCromartie2]

Neo prog was a curious creation. Unlike prog rock of the 70's which tore up the rule book and set out to challenge the listener, happily at the expense of alienating them too, the 'neo prog' of the 80 attempted the opposite. They desperately tried to grasp a bit of commercial success by taking prog rock, giving it a mullet haircut, and then penning long pop songs with guitar solos in the hope that people who liked Duran Duran would notice. In most cases, they didn't, and neo prog became a terminally unfashionable and slightly awkward sub genre of rock music. The music was awash with digital synths, and that horrible 80's production. The music lacked the organic gravitas of Yes and Genesis, or the intellectual darkness of King Crimson or Van der Graff, replacing it instead with an 80's, art school rock pantomime of pop melodrama. Marillion was the one band that the music industry illuminati allowed to be successful, but as much as they could often impress, they embarrassed in equal measure. For myself, I bought into it at the time. A big fan of Marillion, Pallas & IQ. For reasons of nostalgia I can still listen to these bands with some affection, but blow my mind they can not! The Wedge in some ways is better than The Sentinel. It's more mature, but lacks the symphonic dynamics and dreamy classic prog leanings of its predecessor. Some of their better work came along much later, but by then they were relegated to pub band status. They probably deserved better than that.

[@grayjohn6332]

Great comment- I think pressure from record companies made them go down the pop/ commercial route and the bands were not mature enough to say no to the record companies because the bands needed the record deal. Also remember these bands were taking the latest keyboard technology and trying to integrate it in to music. That is why it sounds dated. I listened to Dire straits Alchemy live the other day and the keyboards sounded very dated. But 70 yes and Genesis sounds dated. Only when these neo prog bands turned away from the big record companies and start to develop as song writers could they start to release more mature music. Remember in the early 80s prog was a dirty word, even though most post punk bands were in to prog and played prog. Come the 1990s all the neo prog bands were releasing fantastic albums. IQ, Pendragon and Marillion. Rush -Power windows and Hold your Fire are neo prog albums.

[@WarrenCromartie2]

@@grayjohn6332 Since my original comment I have revisited IQ and really enjoy listening to their 90's output (and beyond) Road of Bones could be their best album yet (?) The title track is a masterpiece IMO. Hogarth's Marillion always left me cold tbh. I did like the albums Rush put out in the 80's, but to me their obvious peak was Moving Pictures. Genesis also went into serious artistic decline after Duke, although obviously their record sales increased dramatically. Of all those old classic prog bands who were still working in the 80's and beyond, I think Yes came out the best. Drama, 90125 and Big Generator were all great albums IMO.

[@grayjohn6332]

@@WarrenCromartie2 Looking back appreciation at this music is interesting and put in to context with the music scene of the time. If you take Pallas' the sentinel obviously the record company was not ready for a double album based Atlantis. Even though it an extortionary brilliant album (the reissue). I always got the feeling these bands had imposter syndrome and were in a little bubble down the at the Marquee and when they hit the real world the record company could not allow these bands do concept albums so were made to fit in. All the big neo prog bands eventually set up their own labels and went their own way, Marillion is an interesting case of first crowd funded album. Genesis turned bad when Hackett left, Then there are 3 is awful nearly threw the cd across the room. More like Then they are rubbish. I agree, Yes came out of this very well and Talk is also an excellent album. Check out Marillion Marbles that is the best of Hogarth era. Rush Power Windows to me is better than Moving Pictures, think Rush with Frankie goes to Hollywood production, truly a modern progressive rock album, I do understand why people don't like it. Saga's early albums are great neo prog. And I agree Iq's Road to bones is brilliant I also love the previous album Frequency. I dont actually think there was much difference between early 80s The Cure, Pallas (neo prog bands) Iron Maiden. Its all great music. Script for a Jesters Tear is a goth album in my mind. If you love music you love every think. Its the dreadful reviewers taking sides is the problem I find it interesting we celebrate different like Kate Bush yet neo prog and prog is looked down upon -because its not cool? But the Smiths are cool, why? Thank you for your reply its great to have a discussion about the subject.

[@WarrenCromartie2]

@@grayjohn6332 It was a good time for music. I had this conversation a few years back with a friend who listened to BBC Radio 1 (despite being over 50!) I pointed out that in the 80's, daytime radio was very eclectic. One minute it was Dexy's then The Specials, then the Human League then Iron Maiden. These days it's just endless 'auto tuned mumble rap' (at least to my 55 year old ears) As for Genesis - probably my favourite band of all time - I get the disappointment around ATTWT, but for me it was the first Genesis album I heard end to end back in about 1984, so apart from the few singles I'd heard I had no real frame of reference. So I still have a lot affection for that album. When I went back and checked out all the Gabriel and Hackett era albums I was blown away of course, and they are better.. I still think ATTWT has some excellent songs, but in the spirit of Genesis they were 'experimenting' with shorter songs while still trying to convey some of the gravitas and drama of the albums before. It worked on some songs, failed on others and it was like a rehearsal for Duke which is a more cohesive album in that particular style. Beyond that..Abacab etc...Nah, not for me. The Smiths were deemed cool because they wrote - relentlessly - about the relatable awkwardness and trials of youth. Prog is too 'aloof' and abstract for most peoples ears, but I do like The Smiths ;-) But let's not forget that the likes of Genesis, Rush, Yes et al, they all outsold most of the 'cool' bands many times over.

[@Fretboard_Frenzy]

Obviously, they are deeply influenced by the massively talented mighty Canadian band SAGA. 🎶