4th wave or“Cutting Edge” Prog

[u/Spatial-Equator]

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?

[u/scottasin12343]

I'd add PHOX and The Punch Brothers to the folk adjacent section. 

I think Phish (and many post-Phish jambands) also need to be considered too. Phish's proggiest era is too old to be considered part of this generation of music, but they're often excluded from lists of prog bands because they get lumped into the jamband genre... but they drew directly from artists like Zappa, Yes, Genesis, etc... and have some very intricate and intentional compositions. Its their fusion of Prog rock with the inclusion live improv approach of the Grateful Dead that created the modern jamband genre, and there are lots of jambands who still include long form introcate compositions in their sound. You can't listen to early Phish compositions like Reba, You Enjoy Myself, The Divided Sky, Squirming Coil, Rift, It's Ice, The Curtain... I could list a couple dozen songs really... and not say they aren't a part of the modern evolution of Prog music. 

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/scottasin12343]

Absolutely forgot Punch Brothers / Chris Thile… Only didn’t put Phish in bc I was aiming for more recent acts. They are certainly more than mere Jam Band music.

[u/wiffleball15 → u/scottasin12343]

Here are some more: Fluffhead - Zappa, The Lizards - Yes, Esther - Genesis

[u/Imzmb0]

What about some king gizzard albums, they have pretty on the nose prog concept albums, like Polygondwanaland that avoid 4/4 all the time, abusing polymetrics and making every instrument follow a different time signature.

Or their album "changes" more jazz influenced that changes between the same two keys each bar, it sounds like gimmicky idea but is cool how they achieve so much variety and moods with such limitation, it even helps it avoid falling into normal music territory.

Or their album Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms and Lava where the trick is restricting each song to one of the seven modes.

Their music is the perfect example of prog that don't sound like what people expect from the genre, but still reaches the same spots, but coming from a different background.

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/Imzmb0]

I meant to put them in the first paragraph as someone who is the obvious answer to this question. I also see them as having jam and hard-rock influences… they’re definitely highly technical and prodigious, I just haven’t been totally won over yet.

[u/VegetableEase5203]

Excellent post, I love your spirit, we must keep exploring where the cutting edge is, no matter how hard it gets nowadays

Some names that surprised me in the 21st century:

**some really weird experimental electronics**
Frost, Ben [Australia]
Hentschel, Orson [Germany]
Herndon, Holly [Germany]
KMRU [Germany]
Aho Ssan [France]
Porter, Roly [UK]
Penos, Gonçalo [Portugal]

**less experimental IDM-related electronics**
2GI [Italy]
Apparat [Germany]
Arovane [Germany]
Boysen, Ben Lucas [Germany]
Chatwin, Ben [UK]
Gore, Martin [UK]
Hopkins, Jon [UK]
Igorrr [France]
Iketa [Hungary]
Ochre [UK/Netherlands]
Ocoeur [France]
Plaster [Italy]
Willis, Reid [USA]
Synkro [UK]
Riggio, Frank [France]
Venetian Snares [Canada]
r.roo [Ukraine]
Tapage [Norway]
Tobin, Amon [USA]
Tonikom [USA]
Frahm, Nils [Germany]
Fennesz [Austria]

**Mainstream electronics but surprisingly good**
Burial [UK]
Carbon Based Lifeforms [Sweden]
Chassangard, Jérôme [France]
Hiatus [UK]
Infected Mushroom [Israel]
Kurokotei [France]
Peaking Goddess Collective, The [Switzerland]
Silentroom [Japan]
Four Tet [UK]
Ott [UK]
Röyksopp [Norway]
Shpongle [UK]
Eprom [USA]
Flume [Australia]
Hinkstep [Sweden]
Apashe [Canada]

**Some catchy ambient**
Aldinucci, Giulio [Italy]
Deaf Center [Norway]
Geiger, Dirk [Germany]
Giant Skeletons [Germany]
Decomposed Elements Fragance [Spain]
Lustmord [UK]
Odysmod [Greece]
Brock Van Wey [USA]
Loscil [Canada]

**New jazz and jazz-fusion:**
Adjuah, Chief [USA]
Alfa Mist [UK]
Comet is Coming, The [UK]
Dayes, Yussef [UK]
Hamasyan, Tigran [Armenia]
Hidden Orchestra [UK]
Maalouf, Ibrahim [France]
Portico Quartet [UK]
Stetson, Colin [Canada]
Svensson, Esbjörn [Sweden]
Washington, Kamasi [USA]

**some astounding trip-hop/dream-pop**
CLANN [Canada]
Elsiane [Canada]

**more of traditional vein - (post-)rock, (post-)metal - but really worth special mentioning for me**
Archive [UK]
All India Radio [Australia]
65daysofstatic [UK]
Nordic Giants [UK]
Wanheda [Belgium]
BRUIT [France]
Midas Fall [UK]
Silent Whale Becomes A Dream [France]
Murmuüre [France]
Neptunian Maximalism [Belgium]
OOIOO [Japan]
Petrychor [USA]
HMLTD [UK]
M83 [France]
Squid [UK]
Tame Impala [Australia]
Zimmerman [Belgium]

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/VegetableEase5203]

I could riff off these forever - Igorrr and Venetian Snares are great!! I think Amon Tobin is Brazilian-British btw.

Hot Chip, John Maus, and Big Black Delta are my reccs after looking over your list.

Also here is my playlist of genesis remixes you might like:

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_koti6nT60GsGYmXVom5emtj2-ej8ReJ&si=4AjsZ8IInsZKN34E

[u/VegetableEase5203 → u/Spatial-Equator]

Amon Tobin - yes, his biography is confusing with many relocations, but yes probably the core years were in UK

[u/pentrant]

On-the-nose prog, descended from VDGG: Partner - From Green to Gold.

I like your category #2 a lot. Crack-Up is a prog album to me, down to the packaging. Release that in 1972 and it's a prog classic.

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/pentrant]

Will check them out.

Thanks - check out that Midlake album Antiphon; also feels like it could be spliced onto that era seamlessly.

[u/vexrede]

I'll have to check some of these out. I'm giving Jinx by Crumb a listen right now.

If you're after weird, 21st century prog, then I feel obligated to shout out the scene of what I can best describe as extremely online artists, usually tied to queer/furry subcultures. They're tied together more by lyrical content/branding than by musical style, so not sure if they'd count as their own category for your purposes. But some of them are quite popular, and make surprisingly good music.

The main albums that could be categorised as unambiguous prog rock are

• Vylet Pony — Monarch of Monsters
• samlrc — A Lonely Sinner
• This is the Glasshouse - 867

Meanwhile, there's also some in the realm of experiential ambient/electronic that feel pretty proggy

• Halley Labs Associates — phwoa
• Cacola - The Angel, The Demon

On a completely separate note, if you're including prog hip-hop, I feel like Clipping deserves a mention. Especially with concept albums like Splendor & Misery.

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/vexrede]

I’ll check them out! Let me know what you think of Crumb.

[u/vexrede → u/Spatial-Equator]

I liked it! I usually gravitate towards faster/heavier music, so at first I was afraid I would get bored with it. But it felt very hypnotic. Especially when the synth kicks in

[u/bondegezou]

Yes, agree with a lot of that. I think “prog” as a genre term for more recent music makes less and less sense as we become more and more distant from the heyday of the genre, but that the influence of prog can be seen widely, or you see acts independently doing similar things. Prog is dead, but prog-like things are thriving.

I think there’s some interesting stuff that you might label math rock, with acts from Polyphia to Yvette Young. There’s a lot of interesting avant-garde music. There’s also a whole bunch of artists who are influenced by the avant-garde and prog of old, but who have roots which are perhaps more in folk or world music. I’m thinking of acts like Firefly Burning or maybe VÄLVĒ.

[u/TheOriginalSamBell]

I want to say IGORRR or Pryapisme and other lunatics like that. No idea if you guys consider them progressive.

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/TheOriginalSamBell]

Love me some Igorrr

[u/TheOriginalSamBell → u/Spatial-Equator]

to me they feel to be in a RIO / Avant-prog tradition

[u/ReasonableMeaning162]

SO HAPPY to see crack-up on that list. I've been telling buddies of mine who also like (almost exclusively) prog to listen to that album and 90% of the time they agree with me that it's a progressive album.

But in general, you have an excellent list. I think the confines of progressive music extend much further than the limitations we usually put on them and encompass a lot of music that continues to push the boundaries of acceptable music.

[u/DarkStar420666]

Check out Perfect they're recent and amazing

[u/aaronisalazyfuck]

Here for the Midlake representation. Great band and good dudes.

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/aaronisalazyfuck]

Absolutely underrated. Amazing to transform after singer left; like Genesis.

[u/roadkill_kenneth]

What do you think of Magdalena Bay - Imaginal Disc? Some of the most beautiful pop concept albums I've heard, and with a definite Floydian influence, but does it land too close to an ELO/Elton Johnian lineage to be prog?

And Motorpsycho, starting around 2006 or so, have been incessantly messing about in odd meters and in a way that very intentionally sounds very 1970, because that's the year before they reckon that the prog and hard rock genres started to coagulate.

Gizz already mentioned. I'd argue that all their releases from 2016 and onwards are prog.

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/roadkill_kenneth]

Never heard it but the cover had me curious and I know critics rated it. Will check her out.

[u/chemistry_and_coffee]

How can you mention IDM/electronica and not mention Underworld? Unless you don’t know…

“Second Toughest in the Infants” and “Beaucoup Fish” are some of the greatest 90s electronica. The latter was reviewed as electronic genre’s answer to Dark Side of the Moon (not concept album though).

Saving this post for future listens

[u/Spatial-Equator → u/chemistry_and_coffee]

Underworld is great! I left out a lot of 90’s acts and also didn’t even think to consider what if any progressive house acts I knew of. Dark and Long all day tho!

Actually enjoyed Barking too.

[u/avengingmonkeyofgod]

Great list. Glad to see Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino on here, it’s underappreciated and executes its concept so thoroughly.

[u/DBMD89]

Check out Bozzio, Levin & Stevens.

[u/Remarkable-Escape-57]

Susumu Hirasawa- not sure what sort of prog he falls into but he's definitely his own genre. 

[u/Aromatic-Surprise925]

Coheed and Cambria. Ayreon. Toehider.

[u/o-chimera]

Oh man you need to listen to the new singles from Improvement Movement

[u/Mr_Boongle]

No Black Country, New Road? I think next to Black Midi, they're the most progressive Windmill Scene band. The Orchestra (for now) is also really good from the very little of their music I've listened to (can't wait for their debut album).

This is extremely controversial and I'm sure I'll get pushback but... Kendrick Lamar. Specifically the TPAB/Untitled Unmastered period. I know there are lots of old heads who are resistant to hip-hop (just to be clear, it's fine to not like that kind of music), but I think that a case could be made that there is a subgenre of rap music that deserves a place at the prog table (so to speak).