The Shark introduces artists whose prolificness, talent, creativity, and trajectory stand out among the rest, reason why he call them "Gods in Music."

The Shark ranks the tip of the iceberg of his colossal library (100,00+ songs) while unveiling top-notch and under-the-radar recommendations.

Starring Rossi is a clash of Space & Psychedelic influences and is one of the most accessible spaced-out recordings of all time. Featuring the original space-guitar compositions by Manuel Göttsching smothered in the female narration of some cosmic chick named Rosi. An excellent album from start to finish and IMO this could serve as an excellent entry to the music of Ash Ra Tempel —accessible yet complex.

With Understanding Comes Appreciation For the sake of new comers, first things first. Of the many legendary artists to emerge from the Krautrock movement, few anticipated the rise of modern electronic music with the same prescience as Popol Vuh —they were the first German band to employ a Moog synthesizer and their work not only anticipated the emergence of ambient, but also proved pioneering in its absorption of worldbeat textures. At much the same time Popol Vuh was formed

With Understanding Comes Appreciation While the big bang of progressive rock was only a few years old, it is astonishing how so many bands diversified their sounds and perfected them in such a short span of time. While King Crimson went more in the direction of jazz influenced rock with avant-garde composing techniques, Pink Floyd went the space rock direction, Jethro Tull into the progressive arenas of folk and others like Genesis opting for a more vocally led theatrical sty

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Roxy Music debut with the eponymous album was epochal. There had never been any pop songs with such a rate of artistic sophistication. That was the trick that elevated Roxy Music from an art school project to the most adventurous rock band of the early '70s. Falling halfway between musical primitivism and art rock ambition, Roxy Music's eponymous debut remains a startling redefinition of rock's boundaries. Simultaneously embracing kitschy

With Understanding Comes Appreciation If you are into Krautrock or guitar driven space rock, I've got a record for you: Solar Music Live by Grobschnitt. There is fantastic music to be heard here, believe me! The music from this live album is extremely strong and if ever you tend to like crying guitars sustained by an exceptional drumming, a powerful bass playing, and lots of atmospheric keyboards parts, this album is tailor-made to your ears. All the elements that make a suc

With Understanding Comes Appreciation The reason why Banco del Mutuo Soccorso so much deserves their status as an epitome of the best Italian prog of all times is the fact that its first three efforts are highly remarkable masterpieces in which complexity and beauty are taken to their maximum levels. All three together follow a coherent line of artistic ambition and consistent recreation of sonic potential. Along with PFM and Le Orme, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso (Banco), make up

With Understanding Comes Appreciation 2112 achieved a triple feat: 1) it saved Rush's career. It was like Rush was at the plate with two out and two strikes on them and with 2112 they hit a homerun, and the rest is history, 2) it showed artistic integrity (after all it is a record that "doubles the bet" of its predecessor, incorporating even more elements of progressive rock) and 3) it was a major contribution to a sub-genre (that is, prog rock) that seemed to be in decline

With Understanding Comes Appreciation As the 60s abruptly became the 70s, the psychedelia of the former era was transmogrifying into something more sophisticated. With the prog-rock explosive nature of 1969 occurring with bands like East Of Eden and King Crimson forever changing the rock history books, bands who came before who were more focused on the psychedelic pop aspects of the scene rather than the sophisticated compositions of what would develop suddenly found themselv

With Understanding Comes Appreciation From start to end, this album is an absolute killer. Every single second is just excellent, the listener cannot lose his attention on the music. Last one with Robert Wyatt, Third is by far Soft Machine's best offering. With four pieces of approximately 20 minutes each, mainly instrumental, the musicians push back the frontiers of space modal jazz-rock and avant-garde far beyond. Hard to believe this is the same band who released their fi

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Trilogy , ELP's fourth album, features the trio settling down in more crowd-pleasing pastures. Actually, the group was gaining in maturity what they lost in raw energy. Every track on this album has been carefully thought, arranged, and performed to perfection, a process that also included some form of sterilization. ELP had reached their peak and this album is a prove of that. The hard Modern/Romantic Russian Classical influence in Keith

With Understanding Comes Appreciation The spacy province of Canterbury land was ruled by Daevid Allen-era Gong, and their You album is not only the definitive epitome of what Gong was all about, but also, the absolute apex in their musical career. This album, which completes the Radio Gnome Invisible Trilogy, encapsulates better than any other Gong record the perfect match between the band's ideology and spirit and the performers' sonic input. It is, to put it simply, their

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Eloy's masterpiece, period. Ocean delivers shivers on your spine with that spacey rhythm the band is so famous for. Each track here contains a "chapter" of the story of a marine city's birth, rise and decay, an apocalyptical epic journey through layers of synths and powerful guitar notes that make it a mesmerizing and at the same time accessible album. This is one of the legendary prog albums that must be considered in the whole history

With Understanding Comes Appreciation As a fan of Steven Wilson I was at the time very excited to hear that his newest work was going to be an album in the vain of the 70's prog rock. First of all I love good ol' progressive rock (King Crimson, Camel, Yes etc.), and when I saw the lineup SW had behind him, I knew this was going to be something special. Well, I was right. It was the most shining gem of the year 2013. If you really start to think about it, it is the best progr

With Understanding Comes Appreciation This is Yes, and perhaps even prog-rock, at its finest. I truly appreciate this album for what it is: a prog-symphony in four movements. It is very much classical in design and composition. For those expecting more of Fragile or even Close to the Edge, you will be disappointed. For those who appreciate great classical music, be prepared to be blown away by perhaps one of the greatest masterpieces of music of our time. From the opening not

With Understanding Comes Appreciation In just a few short years, Peter Hammill’s Van Der Graaf Generator project had evolved from a de facto solo effort (“The Aerosol Grey Machine”) to an early progressive rock band (“The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other”) and then up another few notches to one of the most innovative and boundary pushing pioneers within the prog world on “H To He Who Am The Only One.” And as if the world were coming to end in the foreseeable future, this

With Understanding Comes Appreciation When you see the cover, you say: hey! This look like "Aqualung!" But will the inside be on par with the outside? Three years also separates "Minstrel..." from "Thick as a Brick." Could the Tull come anywhere near these masterpieces? The title of the album and the cover refer more to a traditional folkish collection of songs than anything else. The Tull completely mistified everybody: the critics (which they truely hate at this moment of t

With Understanding Comes Appreciation The last album I reviewed on this corner was Tanz der Lemminge by Amon Düül II , a very complex, challenging, elaborated, and definitely, an acquired-taste piece of music. This time, I'm going to review the opposite side of prog-rock music; a refined, sophisticated and delicate masterpiece, which works as an emotional transporter, bathed with plenty of sonic textures rather than experimentations. Any prog collection and beyond would not b

With Understanding Comes Appreciation Gargantua & Pantagruel come to life! The entire classic era oeuvre of the British progressive rock titans Gentle Giant, founded by the three Schulman brothers in 1970, is indeed the perfect musical embodiment of the cheerful Rabelaisian spirit, colorful and picturesque as a fancy miniature from a manuscript, brought to life by the moving nature of the sound. Founded on the wreck of an unsuccessful and now totally forgotten soul-influenced