Supper's Ready

Second's Out is one of my favorite albums. I am a huge Genesis fan and like both eras but at the end of the day I prefer the Collins versions of all the songs overall.

I am also a fan of Peter Gabriel and while Genesis would not be Genesis without him, I gravitate toward his solo artist material. 

As for Supper's Ready I think the Second's Out version is the winner. I also am rather partial the the last two sections performed after the In The Cage medley on the Invisible Tour in 1986 here in the US.

@larsman 

Yes, I know "Strange Days".

Back in the mid to late 70's in LA, there was a 2 hour radio show on Sunday nights, on one of the major rock stations.

It was called, "Over There", and they specialized in prog from all over the world, It was a sponsored by a record store with several branches, called Moby Disc. They, of course, specialized in music, mostly prog, from all over the world.

That is where a friend and I found out about "Strange Days", as well as so much more, obscure bands from many countries, besides the UK.

@simonmoon - that is very cool! I'm familiar with Moby Disc, though we didn't have that up here in San Francisco, where I've lived since '73. In the '74-'76 era, one of the big stations in San Jose, KOME, was all prog, all the time - it was brilliant!! I picked up on so many wonderful bands through them - one who they really championed was Man, from Wales, but also Camel, Caravan & the Canterbury sound, etc - they mostly stuck with British, though they'd get some Continental stuff and 'Krautrock' as well. I didn't hear about Strange Days from them, though - a real prog junkie friend of mine turned me on to that amazing album. 

Do you like Marillion and/or Fish at all? Early stuff especially was very Genesis-influenced, as were Fish's vocals then. The first time I'd ever heard of Steven Wilson was when Fish's 'Sunsets On Empires' came out, and I saw this guy produced it and co-wrote a lot of it.... I hung out with Fish and the lads when they were here in SF on the 'Clutching At Straws' tour.... 

If you get a chance, go see "The Musical Box" a cover band that does the PG era stuff. They bought the costumes and props from Genesis, IIRC, and I've seen shows in small theaters where they choreographed every move off old Genesis film. It's like a time machine to Selling England By the Pound tour, etc. Really fun. Cheers,

Spencer

As I previously mentioned, prog had a huge revival starting in the early mid 90’s.

Bands in the 80’s, Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pendragon, and all the "neo prog" bands, were good. But to me, they were kind of watered down. They tended to have the surface veneer of prog, but the deeper structure of the music, was just not as complex, creative, lacked the musical theory as most of the 70’s bands, and overall, the musicianship was not at the same high level of the 70’s bands.

Something happened in the 90’s, up through the present, where many of the new prog bands, were much more like those of the 70’s, not in that they were all retro-prog, but the level of musicianship, complexity, music theory, etc reached the same levels of the 70’s bands.

I can recommend many new prog bands, but my tastes are not always in the symphonic style (Genesis, YES, King Crimson, etc). I like a lot of avant-prog and Zeuhl prog, so, YMMV.

Bands like:

Anglagrad (Sweden) / complex, symphonic prog, with king Crimson, Genesis, Schicke, Fuhrs and Froeling influences.

Deus ex Machina (Italy) / jaw dropping musicianship, intense prog, that sometimes straddles the line between prog and fusion. Lead vocalist has a 5 octave range.

Tipographica (Japan) / avant-prog in the Henry Cow vein

Höyry-Kone (Finland) / more avant-prog, with some Crimson influences

Aranis (Belgium) / more avant-prog, with incredible musicianship. Not quite as thorny sounding as some avant-prog bands

Echolyn (USA) / great US band. Early on, they has some Gentle Giant influences in their complex vocal parts and constant time changes. Lately, they are a bit more song oriented

Miriodor (Canada) / kind of a mix of Canterbury scene prog, and avant-prog.

Koenji Hyakkei (Japan) / Magma influenced Zeuhl prog.

Corima (USA) / more Magma influenced prog

D.F.A. (Italy) / great band that sort of straddles the line between prog and fusion

Forgas Band Phenomena (France) / another prog / fusion line straddler

Mike Keneally and Beer for Dolphins / complex, quirky prog with Zappa influences

5UU’s (USA) / avant-prog

Isuldar’s Bane (Sweden) / really good, complex, symphonic. They have a couple recent albums, one with Steve Hogarth from Marillion on vocals, and one with Peter Hammill on vocals.

After Crying (Hungary) / started out being a chamber-prog band, later became more symphonic, with some ELP influences. Really good band. They did a great live album with John Wetton on vocals.

Finisterre (Italy) / very good, classical sounding Italian prog

Transatlantic (International members) - really good, classic sounding prog.

Other bands of various subgenres of prog: Univers Zero (Belgium), Setna (France), Riverside (Poland), Discus (Indonesia), All Traps on Earth (Sweden), Manna/Mirage (USA), I could go one for pages.

Once again, some of these bands will not be in the; washes of Mellotron, Hackett like guitar playing, Hammond organ, Squire bass playing type of prog. They will be a bit more 'thorny' sounding, with use of atonality and dissonance, and very complex arrangements. Some might even say, they may take a bit of work to get into (it did me), but the rewards are high.