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Spain's prog rock timeline
This our attempt to try and classify the most relevant Spanish progressive rock albums released in this country between 1974 and 1984.
The reason for choosing this particular period of the prog rock scene in Spain is the fact that it was during this period that this musical style appear in the country, no doubt following the trend already very popular specially in Great Britain, but also in other European countries (Italy, France, Germany.. )
Although this genre of music has attracted millions of fans throughout the years and critics and musicologists have tried to single out the characteristics that make this genre different from all other genres, it is still however sometimes difficult to answer weather a particular group or album can be catalog into the "progressive rock" category. Among the many reliable sources to help us identify what "progressive rock" is all about there is this
interesting introductory article on the subject on Wikipedia
On choosing the albums that we should bring to this list we have tried to follow the main characteristics generally acknowledged nowadays as key to determine whether an album should or should not be considered as a pro grock.
Many would be surprised not to find a particular group or music that they consider "progressive rock". As a matter of fact we have included in this list albums that we would not considered strictly prog rock.
The fact that many fans and critics in Spain do consider some of these albums as "progressive rock" have convinced us however to include them in the list. The instruments and sounds of prog rock can be found in these albums, sometimes the length of the tracks or some of the other characteristics of prog rock are there even though in many occasions the tunes, the melodies and harmonies so much characteristic of traditional prog rock are missing.
Progressive rock for example has fused particularly in Spain with Spanish traditional music, mainly andalusian or flamenco-derived music.
For these and other reasons we have not included in this timelime albums that we considered only tangentially "progressive rock". Sometimes they are more "folk" or "jazzy" than "progressive rock". There were very interesting examples of jazz-rock particularly from Catalonia that deserve a lot of attention from fans and critics. And the same can be said about folk-based or any other type of genre from the country.
Being Crack however a progressive rock band we will limit here our scope to the most representative "progressive rock albums" produced in this country during this golden era of the genre.
Concerning the beginnings of prog rock in Spain we decided to start our list (1974) with Ciclos considered the first undisputed example of the genre in the country. There are of course predecessors, although most of the time it is hard to place them fully into the genre. A special note here about
Los Módulos , a great Spanish group from the early seventies considered by many as the first truly representative of early prog rock in the country. There are clearly many sounds and ideas in their music that we will here a few years later on full-fleged progressive rock groups and ... If you haven't yet listened to Los Módulos, well,
don't miss them. Go here!
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