The soundscapeprog’s Podcast

It turns out that the music from Norway is so good that we made a part 2, and indeed part 3 is to come in some future episode. The exploration of this music has been so much fun and turned over so many new stones that there is still a plethora of progressive tuneage to mine for Part 3. Live listeners said that they really enjoyed Part 1 and Part 2 but you be the judge.

Next time we meet here it will be for the first Soundscape Halloween episode in about 3 years. This means that the dig has been very successful and that you will likely hear some new music to get your bones rattling and your feet tapping, just ignore the chill up the spine- but that is next time. For now, here is the set list from this week's episode. 

In this week's episode part 1 of our exploration of Norwegian Prog. This was a very enjoyable exploration of progressive rock and other musics from Norway. I really had no idea how deep the rabbit hole was going to go, but once I realized how much enjoyment I was getting out of the exploration, I knew that I would need 2 episodes to do this all justice. Although there is some modern prog, the set seemed to lean more towards the psychedelic and the strange. That's pretty normal for us, but I imagine many people will say we missed a lot. Well, we did, because there is too much to explore here. I imagine the next episode will lean more towards the symphonic and neo-prog- but as I say, the journey continues. 

Here we are, finally back on track. Our newest episode of Soundscape features a great many prog-rock fairy tales. There were so many to choose from, and likely we did not even play most of the expected songs, or even come close to exhausting the theme. This means that part 2 will probably happen at some point. Nevertheless, we think you will enjoy the collection we have made for you here. 

We wanted to identify what makes Generation X different from other generations. Many books that lay bare this question, but the one that informed most of my thoughts about Generation X was the book Generations by Jean M Twenge. Twenge did not make any real statements about the music of the generation. Instead, she identified differences mostly based on how we interacted with different technologies. For instance, Generation X is the last generation to grow up on analog music and the first to experience digital. We were the first generation to experience MTV which changed the face of music as we knew it. There are many more data points that Twenge pointed out that provide the parameters for Generation X. However the questions I wanted to answer were more related to the content we listened to.

What music defined Generation X? When we started creating our music, what were the trends we created? What impact did Generation X have on our beloved prog rock? Some of the answers may be contained here in this episode, in short, the results of my findings in this all-too-brief exploration of generational music were:

Regardless of the generational divide that seems to show up in culture wars, there is no escaping that the music we listened to growing up came from the previous generation.  Progressive rock itself is a Boomer genre of rock music. We grew up on Classic Rock, Punk, and 80s pop.  When Generation X did start speaking musically, we developed Grunge, and Hip-Hop. However, on the prog side, we had prog metal and post-rock. The earliest rock music from Generation X appears to have been Gun's and Roses (although some members just miss the identified cutoff). The earliest band to speak prog that was a Generation X fronted band, was either Majesty (later known as Dream Theater) or Echolyn. 

The episode provided here is not even close to answering all of the questions, but the research and theme did make for some enjoyable listening. We hope you enjoy this all-too-brief dive into this question.

This week Soundscape moved to its new time and place. We now broadcast on Wednesday evenings every two weeks at 5-8 pm CST. This episode is not themed at all. It is a grab bag of new music (at least to us). We will return with our Generation X theme in 2 weeks on 6/19.

Wow, what a journey! Over the last few weeks, I perused and listened to bunches of albums. I was seeking a particular sound, a psychedelic sound. When I started I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I even had extreme stress in trying to curate what was right for this show. I wanted to both offer some ethereal journeys and yet still provide enough landing spaces that it wouldn't overwhelm the passenger. Amidst chuggernauts, cosmic tinged distortions, and typical psychedelic poetry, I found the path. If there are bumpy moments I apologize. Most flights have some level of turbulence. I just know that we seem to have landed safely. Enjoy the ride and look out for the next exciting adventure in the Soundscape. 

As you may recall, in our last episode Suzi suggested we do something special to celebrate Cinco De Mayo. We chose to do this by playing a whole set of Mexican prog rock. For us, it was an enlightening journey and we found quite a few gems that we will keep in our listening queues. We hope that you will do the same.

Who knows why I would dare myself to develop a show based on dentistry in prog, but I did! Now lovely listeners I invite you to enjoy one of the stranger musical journeys we have done. Regardless of the strangeness, I think we created something here that is worth your perusal. Let us know what you think. 

Hello fellow music lovers!..... We are back!! It feels exciting to be broadcasting again. I have missed sharing music and researching great music. There are of course some key differences to our previous iteration of Soundscape. The most obvious is that the show is shorter and will only show up every other week (schedule allowing). This shorter time means we will focus on the theme for the entire show instead of having sections as we did before. What that means in terms of content is that we will not likely have as much new music, but that's ok because there are plenty of outlets for that stuff. You need only to turn your dials to progrock.com to get your new prog fix on with a wonderful array of prog rock radio podcasts. We will of course still incorporate new songs and bands as they impact the theme.

This episode is appropriately titled in that the theme this week is horns in prog. There were a few moments that brought the podcast back but the running theme of those moments was based on the use of horns in the music I was listening to. It was somewhat uncertain what the show would look like but I think we got a lot of good stuff in the mix. While we did not get all of the requests, I will make a short list of those available at the bottom so that you guys can check them out as well. Where a song was more well-known or expected, I opted for lesser-known material.

• Soundscape Intro

This was a wonderful set of music but we missed many and here is the short list of the ones that were culled:

• Procol Harum- Playmate of the Mouth

There are many more and I encourage you to come and talk about them in the chat over at Soundscape on Facebook.

Thanks for listening and please feel free to contact us at [email protected]

The system I use to broadcast Soundscape has never been the most reliable at doing its job. This episode took a while to put out because I was aware of the problems in the mix. During the live broadcast, the levels would change on every song. So I did not want to put it out as it was. I have done my best to equalize the volume across the episode. Hopefully, this will sate those thirst for a new show. 

The mix itself is mostly a gathering of newer music, tempered with the usual spices of older stuff. I hope you enjoy it. There were some really stand-out moments I thought. Share and Enjoy!

• Tony Levin- Welcome