Best progressive acts these days?

Cool - I'll have to add 21st to my list of bands to check out.

The DarXtar recording quality is usually horrible, no surprise there! Thanks for mentioning their website. For a couple years, all there was on the web about them was links to their old (even older than the "old" website they mentioned) website, which has been gone since the late 90's.
I just checked out the new one and it's nothing I've seen before.

As for Mr. Q's B., I ran across them on Jerry Kranitz' website, Aural Innovations (for all things space, talk to Jerry!) http://www.aural-innovations.com/ Great catalog, great guy.

I went to the record label page for Mr. Q's B. - they have several nice .MP3's you can legally download. Here's the link, in case you haven't been there: http://www.btinternet.com/~freakyfungi/mrquimbysbeard.htm

I really dig the track "Mossy". That's some groovy stuff!

The best still playing? Camel is still the best - saw them live this year, and "A Nod and a Wink" is excellent; King Crimson - their new release "Power to Believe" is the best in a while, Porcupine Tree - except I'm not that wild about "In Absentia", Mostly Autumn, Gordian Knot, Chroma Key; OSI (which includes personnel from the previous 2), Tunnels, Bill Laswell (and most of what he's involved in), Steve Hackett, Flower Kings. Those are my favorites now.
Some that have produced good recordings in the mid-late 90's but I'm not sure are still recording include - Robert Wyatt, Bryan Eno, Marillian, Mike Oldfield, . . . oh, yea - Pink Floyd
I do still miss some of the 70's acts though - Caravan, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Man, Strawbs

that's the ones I could think of for now . . .

The Strawbs are still around as well as Caravan.

thanks - I just haven't seen any new recordings from the Strawbs, and what I've read about Caravan - they just aren't the same band - I have Battle of Hastings (1995) and though it's good, it's not in the same class as the 70's stuff. With Camel, and King Crimson - their newer releases are excellent . . . actually fantastic.

For anyone who has an interest in the the Strawbs, there has been a real burst of activity from them (and related performers) in the last few years. The Acoustic Strawbs (Dave Cousins, Brian Willoughby, Dave Lambert) have toured extensively in the last several years- in 2001 they released the excellent "Baroque & Roll" on Witchwood Records. 2002 saw the release of "Hummigbird" by Rick Wakeman and Dave Cousins. Finally in 2003 the Strawbs released the full band studio album "Blue Angel."

In 2004 the full-band electric Strawbs (Dave Cousins, Brian Willoughby, Dave Lambert, Blue Weaver, Richard Hudson, John Ford; which is essentially the "Bursting at the Seams" line-up) will play in the US northest (dates/venues still pending). There will be a new full band studio recording and a DVD of a recent performance of the Acoustic Strawbs relesed as well.