El ejemplar de “Explicitly Intense” (una oscura revista gringa de Rock pesado) de Diciembre pasado, aparece una entrevista con Steven Wilson, el lider de la banda britanica de rock progresivo Porcupine Tree (PT). De ahi cito textualmente un parrafo:
Jeff Nau (Explicitly Intense):
As far as progressive rock goes and had gone, what do you feel about what's happening now? Dream Theater is still doing very well, and now there's a new kind of prog rising up with bands like the Mars Volta and even Radiohead – but also with older-sounding groups like the Flower Kings and Transatlantic. What do you think needs to happen for it to survive?
Steven Wilson (Porcupine Tree):
Okay, I think that answer is very simple: bands like the Mars Volta, Tool, and Radiohead – these bands are the future of progressive music.
Bands like the Flower Kings and Transatlantic? The DEATH of progressive music. These are the bands that reinforce every prejudice people have about progressive rock: old-fashioned, pompous, pretentious, hung-up on sci-fi concepts – that for me is rubbish. But there's a new wave of bands that for me are being influenced just as much by hip-hop as they are King Crimson or Godspeed You Black Emperor and bands like us as well, I hope.
For me, Transatlantic and the Flower Kings – and I have heard these bands, unfortunately – they're following the blueprint from 1972 so closely; it's completely pointless and redundant. They're never going to better the originals, anyway – why bother? Whatever's going around should be part of their musical vocabulary.
I don't particularly dig generic music, whether it's hardcore metal or hip-hop, even down to the prog bands you mentioned. They're following a formula way too closely. For me, being progressive is about taking the word at face value: if a band is going to try to be progressive, they shouldn't be looking at the past – they should be looking at everything that's going on around them now, from hip-hop to trip-hop to death metal to trance. The word 'progressive' is about the FUTURE....
A pesar de ser consideradas dentro de la etiqueta de rock progresivo, tanto Flower Kings como Transatlantic (junto con otras bandas como Dream Theater y Arena) carecen del toque “avant-garde”que antaño caracterizaba al genero. En otras palabras, no solo no han “progresado” en terminos creativos o fusionantes, sino que siguen repitiendo hasta el paroxismo los patrones del rock progresivo de los 70s. No obstante lo anterior, estas bandas continuan teniendo un relativo exito en el mercado. Por darles algunos ejemplos, Trasantlantic, que a mi parecer suena como una version muy “light” de Yes, ha llegado a venderle a su base de fans hasta 65,000 copias, mientras que el ultimo album de Dream Theater, Octavarium llego a ocupar el #36 en el Billboard de US.
Sin embargo, no me sorprende (desde el punto de vista del marketing competitivo) que sea Steven Wilson quien intente diferenciarse de este par de bandas “progresivas” en este preciso momento, pues recordemos que Porcupine Tree lleva ya varios años (desde 2002) queriendo imponerse con una fusion “progresiva” con el death metal. PT ha logrado ampliar su mercado precisamente dentro de la comunidad metalera (muy a a pesar de que los metaleros en general detestan la suavidad blandengue y la complejidad del rock progresivo sinfonico del tipo de Yes, ELP y del primer Genesis), gracias a la introduccion de bajos y percusiones pesadas, que le dan un tono surrealista y mas dark a sus ultimos dos discos (In Absentia vendio mas de 100,000 copias en su primer año).
Technorati tags: Porcupine Tree, Flower Kings, Transatlantic, Dream Theater, Progressive Rock, Musica, Rock Progresivo
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