Hmm……favourite bands and albums, eh? Well, I grew up with faves such as T. Rex and Slade, moving on to Bowie, Deep Purple and suchlike. I’ve always had a leaning towards the more ‘proggy’ end of the spectrum, whatever that might be, and so regard the likes of Genesis, Floyd and Yes as all time classic bands along with the less proggy Zeps and Purps. Although I like too many bands and amass too many albums to really buy-in to the concept of true favourites, I think it’s safe to say Jethro Tull, Rush and Peter Hammill have dominated my playlist and viewlist more than any others over the years.
However, I’m not the sort of chap who intends to spend the rest of his life listening to ‘Stairway to Heaven’…..
For the last ten years or so, Porcupine Tree and Arena have been my most common obsessions. These days there seems to be more and better music around than ever before, so my iPod tends to be wedged full of more recent bands. If pushed I’d list my current faves (and this will inevitably change by next week) as:
- Arena
- Beardfish
- Dream Theater
- Fish
- Flower Kings
- Joe Satriani
- Marillion (H era)
- Manning
- Porcupine Tree
- Primus & the various Les Claypool projects
- Riverside
- RPWL
- Satellite
- Sieges Even
- Spock's Beard
- Sylvan
On top of that, there are some artists who haven’t released enough albums to qualify as across the board faves (or I haven’t yet bought enough!) but nonetheless I’ve played more often than might be considered normal over the last year or so:
- Amaseffer
- Galahad
- Kaipa
- Kino
- Magenta
- Puppet Show
- Ritual
- Rocket Scientists
- Simon Says
- Thought Chamber
When it comes to albums I’m not even going to attempt to pick favourites. To be honest, what I’m playing at any one time is more often driven by what has just been released and/or purchased as much as anything else. But a couple of honourable mentions:
- Marillion – Marbles. When released it took me about 20 plays before it really jelled, but now I think it’s definitely one of THE albums of all time.
- Riverside – Rapid Eye Movement. I thought the previous offerings were about as good as things get, but then this one came along. Wow!
