I’ve seen a lot of talk about 2nd and 3rd gen bands, and about sub-genres (punk, prog metal) and standouts like Mars Volta and Porcupine Tree… But I wanted to make a list of all the 21st century schizoid stuff that I think descends from Prog (more broadly encompassing fusion, folk, psyche, Kraut, experimental); so here it is, with some album/song reccs and categories. Note: I’m leaving out a few obvious artists like Radiohead, Les Claypool… also won’t touch on “post-rock” or “math rock”:

First off I want to list a short playlist of on-the-nose prog:

Mondo Drag - “Pillars of the Sky”
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - “Hanoi 6”
Dungen - “Fredag”
Thee Oh Sees - “Sticky Hulks”
Mastodon - “The Sparrow”
Floating Points - “Silurian Blue”

Onward to looser interpretation!!!

1. The post-Kraut/Eno ambient line

- Mount Kimbie — Cold Spring Faultless Youth (2013)
- Boards of Canada — “Dayvan Cowboy”
- certain hip-hop adjacent producers like El-P, Kanye, and on many recent rappers’ beat tracks (esp Kendrick’s production) as a result if their influence.

2. The psychedelic chamber-pop / folk-prog mutation

- Midlake — The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006)

- Midlake — Antiphon (2013)

- Sufjan Stevens — The Age of Adz (2010)
- Grizzly Bear — Veckatimest (2009)
- Dirty Projectors — Bitte Orca (2009)
- Fleet Foxes — Crack-Up (2017)

3. Progressive possibilities of shoegaze

- Sweet Trip — Velocity : Design : Comfort
- Animal Collective — Merriweather Post Pavilion
- Seefeel

4. Studio-composition gene escapes rock altogether.

- 0neohtrix Point Never

- Floating Points — Crush (2019)

- Max Cooper
- James Holden
- Amon Tobin
- Basically all of Warp Label (Aphex, SquarePusher, Prefuse 73, Autechre)

5. Fusion’s bastard children

- BADBADNOTGOOD
- Black Midi
+ Geordie Greep solo stuff
- Floating Points Ensemble (same guy + band)
- Esperanza Spalding
- Blake Mills, Sam Gendel, Pino Palladio project(?)

6. The rhythmic-progressive lineage

- Crumb*

* ANYTHING by the band Crumb - check out their live albums after you go through the studio releases!! they literally inspired this post!
- Poliça — Give You the Ghost (2012)
- Jim James - Eternally Even (2016)

7. Concept album execution

- Arctic Monkeys — Tranquility Base Hotel (2018)
- Arcade Fire — Reflektor (2013)
- Lupe Fiasco — The Cool (2007)

…What am I missing and what do you agree/disagree with?

https://preview.redd.it/jt9j3eqzbzjh1.png?width=848&format=png&auto=webp&s=8215f92b8e2fca2baeea2351a05823699ae6f16e

/uj Monarch of Monsters is one of those love-it-or-hate-it albums. But unironically, I think there's something special in how this subreddit took an album that's too weird for most prog spaces, and introduced it to an audience that never would've otherwise stumbled across it. I (indirectly) discovered Vylet Pony via this sub, and I am eternally grateful for that.

So I'm curious, what are some other recent prog albums that excite you? Something that's underappreciated on mainstream forums/subreddits? Something with a bizarre premise that turns out to be way better than you expected? Something that takes you on a journey? That you feel compelled to re-listen to again and again?

Here's an open call for you to inflict that experience on everyone else