Totally agree that Gavin puts the work in just like Neil. He gets that the groove needs to be there, and somehow figures out how to do it even for odd time signature sections. Compare with say, Dave Weckl or Ted Kirkpatrick (RIP!), or say Terry Bozzio when he was with Frank. Super amazing, technical players, less groove to be found.

I’m not sure I think his playing is as recognizable as Neil’s, but that sinking into the song is part of Gavin’s style on purpose. Neil chose to stand out because there was only the 3 of them.

Agreed. Gavin's is much more into the framework of the song, while Neil's stood out more. Bottom line is they are both fun to listen to.

I believe the term is “juicy pocket”… both of them are incredible at being deep into a groove. Neil would be more obvious about showing the technical skills off, while Gavin is like a hummingbird back there, just throwing out tons of color without being so obvious. What I have always appreciated about Gavin is that he can just go from a juicy pocket into shredding technical blast beats, and then back to the pocket, like nothing ever happened.

Either way, both are simply incredible musicians.

If you want another technical drummer that can throw down a nice deep pocket, check out Larnell Lewis…. Another gift from Canada…

Exactly!

Seeing Porcupine Tree in Milwaukee in a few hours.

Best part about is that my 21 year old son will get to see them...and I never thought that would happen.

He’s 21 now?!?! Holy crap! Enjoy the show, wish I was there.

Tell that “little boy” of yours I said hi.

It has been 17 months since this thread had a post. What's new and recommended for prog lovers?

Funny, I kind of game up on listenting to it over the past year as I'm getting into more older soundtracks and other non rock music. But on a pinball run this week I listened to some old school Spock's Beard and Marillion.

Not new, but I jumped back into 80s Rush recently, picked up the Signals and Waves Ultimate box sets. (HIGHLY recommended!) My favorite album of that era is Grace Under Pressure, so we'll see if that one is worth it too.

I'm a humungous fan of the finnish band Amorphis; you have to at least accept growly vocals, but they are a great heavy band with a lot of 70s prog influence.

Opeth has a new album coming out soon. I'm cautiously optimistic that this will be a slight turnaround from their deeply [boring] navel-gazing efforts of late. I'm done otherwise.

Not really "prog" in the 70s psych/technical sense, but definitely progressive - I have really enjoyed the latest Descartes a Kant album "After Destruction", which is a really unique concept album about a computer program that "creates" an album based on user input, after a breakup or something. There are some really great songs on it - it's sort of 'indie rock' but heavy enough I still enjoyed it. Some of it is pretty avant garde but there are some great riffs thrown in. The band takes on a Devo vibe in their videos. great stuff.

https://descartesakant.bandcamp.com/

Totally forgot about the forthcoming Ayreon live release "Live beneath the waves". I thought it would be out by now, but looks like it may be a few months out.

Recently found out about the band "Siamese", who are Danish and seem to have a good mix of hard rock and prog and are actually integrating modern-ish sounds, which is just amazing to hear.

Looking forward to other suggestions; I am not a huge fan of the majority of the metal stuff out there right now, and very few prog releases seem interested in breaking beyond the existing traditions of the genre. New DT this year though, I am really interested to hear that.

New Steve Hackett album out. Can’t wait to hear it.

Norwegian band called Airbag.

Wow, super Pink Floyd vibes. Nice.

I can't stop playing this one, here is a description from there site: McStine & Minnemann is a duo consisting of two multi-instrumentalists; Randy McStine and Marco Minnemann (The Aristocrats). Their sound is a blend of hard rock, progressive, art pop, post-punk, and more, balancing intense musicianship with memorable, compact songs.

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Yeah the guitarist/songwriter is very big fan of Gilmour (he does videos once in awhile on YouTube under the username of gilmour-ish). Some people get hostile and say he's just ripping Floyd off, which I get but the fact he's up front about his influence. Nonetheless, I really like what they have put out.