Canterbury (subgenre)

The Canterbury scene is a subgenre of progressive rock.
Some information taken from https://www.last.fm/tag/canterbury+scene/artists
== Definition and History ==
 NOTE: The following paragraphs are taken from http://www.progarchives.com/subgenre.asp?style=12 and written by Dick Heath until otherwise noted.
With many other types of English progressive music developing mostly in London, it may at first seem strange that the old pilgrimage centre and relatively quiet cathedral city of Canterbury, became the centre of this very English form of progressive music and jazz fusion. Originally the Wilde Flowers, a teenage band of members living in and around Canterbury, playing a mix of pop, R'n'B and band members with a developing love of jazz, was formed in the 60's and became the seedling from which the Canterbury Scene grew. Australian beatnik Daevid Allen during a long stop-over at Robert Wyatt's parent's home, a refuge for many left field artists, was to catalyse the evolution of the Wilde Flowers into the fledging Soft Machine and the development of some avant music during the English psychedelic and underground period. From 1963 to 1969, the Wilde Flowers included most of the figures who later formed Canterbury's two best known bands, (The) Soft Machine (Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Hugh Hopper) and Caravan (Pye Hastings, David Sinclair, Richard Sinclair, Richard Coughlan).
Canterbury was then to be the cradle for several of the more freewheeling British bands of the post-psychedelic era. While fans would suggest this is the home of an English musical quirkiness tempered with quite a bit of whimsy, within the Canterbury Scene's musical spectrum any similarities between Canterbury's major bands, (e.g. Soft Machine, Caravan, Gong, Robert Wyatt, Kevin Ayers, Hatfield and the North, Egg, National Health), are not immediately obvious*. Most bands will be found employing a clever fusion of rock rhythms and jazz improvisation with intellectual song-writing and varying strengths of psychedelia - some would too include folk elements (e.g. Spirogyra), others blues (e.g. Carol Grimes and Delivery). In addition, a number of bands employed various elements from classical music, for instance those bands with Dave Stewart playing keyboards. Whilst there have been a handful of excellent and distinctly different guitarists to play with Canterbury bands (e.g. Andy Summers, Allan Holdsworth, John Etheridge, Steve Hillage, Phil Miller), the lead instrument of choice has been keyboards. One English peculiarity of Canterbury is what the late John Peel called the 'School of Anti-song' because of particular Wyatt, Ayers and Richard Sinclair's approaches to vocals and perhaps the whimsy. More recently Richard Sinclair's vocal style has perhaps accurately been labelled as 'English jazz singing' by Jazzwise (i.e. singing jazz with an English rather than the usual American accent). In addition Canterbury musicians have experimented as avant garde, free jazz players, e.g. instance Elton Dean, Lol Coxhill, Steve Miller.
(*However, once you've heard some Canterbury bands the commonality becomes more obvious - chord sequencing e.g. Caveman Hughscore's electric piano opening on the tune 'More Than Nothing', the vocals, the lyrics etc.)
Both the Soft Machine and Caravan were popular in England's psychedelic/ underground scene before releasing their first albums in 1968, with Machine completing on level footing with Pink Floyd. However, by the early 70's a series of fragmenting changes of bands' line-ups, (Soft Machine went through about 30) and the subsequent formation of new bands, rapidly broadened Canterbury's range, with many newer musicians with only loose and in fact, no previous Canterbury connections. Early Soft Machine member Daevid Allen formed Gong in Paris. Both Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt left the Softs because of musical developments they did not like, to begin their own solo careers. By the mid-70's, most the old and new Canterbury bands had progressed away from psychedelia, developing their distinct forms of progressive rock some embracing jazz fusion, many playing extended jams with now limited lyrical input (e.g. Hatfield and The Norths, National Health, Gilgamesh). Caravan became more folky. However, as the 70's progressed several Canterbury bands would lose most of the rock element from their music. Gong retained their psychedelic side longest, but with the departure of Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage in the mid 70's, the band evolved into the percussion-oriented, jazz rock group Gong, which eventually became the modern day Gongzilla. Daevid Allen regained Gong's name in the 90's and through his solo work and with his University of Errors, is still evidently producing psychedelia. Steve Hillage's form of psychedelia evolved into the glissando rock of his own band and then into electronica, by the end of the 70's. In particular, Hillage through his work as a successful record producer of new bands from the 80's, develop his form of electronica through other bands. This music lost much of its complexity e.g. few riffs played over and over, rather than dozens per tune that previously had often typified prog, into a very popular form that is the antithesis of prog, i.e. the various forms of house music, with associated remixing/turntablism. For instance, Gong's "You" got the remix treatment in the 90's - but then to reflect his range of activities, Hillage has also produced and played guitar for Algerian Rai singer, Rachid Taha for over 20 years.
Many of Britain's better known avant-garde and fusion musicians of the 70's and 80's - including Fred Frith (Henry Cow), Allan Holdsworth (Gong, Soft Machine, UK, Bruford) and Peter Blegvad - were involved during their early careers playing in Canterbury bands. And still new musicians join the Canterbury Scene's ranks, Theo Travis being perhaps the most notable recently (Gong, The Soft Machine Legacy). The Canterbury scene was to have a major influence on musicians in Europe, especially France (e.g. Gong, Moving Gelatine Plates), the Netherlands (Super Sister)and Italy (Daedalus), and more belatedly in the USA (Hughscore). Caravan reformed in the mid 90's, while ex-members of Soft Machine could be found in various avant jazz and straight jazz fusion groups, e.g. Just Us, Soft Heap, Soft Works and most recently The Soft Machine Legacy. From the Canterbury Scene, RIO it its various forms has developed.
FOOTNOTE: As indicated above, many Canterbury Scene bands are acknowledged as having played/are playing jazz rock fusion. However, because of their strong Canterbury affliations are listed under "Canterbury Scene" in Prog Archives.
End of excerption from external site.
== List of Bands ==
The list is not necessarily in any chronological or other specific order.
=== Heavily Influential Canterbury Bands ===
The Wilde Flowers (1964-1967)
The Wilde Flowers is regarded as the band that sparked the Canterbury scene, it makes sense that they would be first on this list. Unfortunately, they never released an album. In 1994, a collection of previously unreleased demos was released. This compilation album was self-titled, called The WIlde Flowers, and contained twenty two tracks, which totaled 57:57 minutes. The Wilde Flowers inspired the Canterbury Scene through their style as heard live, rather than through albums. Caravan and Soft Machine, other leading Canterbury bands, formed out of the break-up of The Wilde Flowers, and went on to further the Canterbury scene's formation.
Caravan (1968-1978)
(reformed several times [1980-1985, 1990-1992, 1995-present day])
Caravan came out of the break-up of The Wilde Flowers, and went on to become one of the most prominent bands of the Canterbury Scene. Their third album, In The Land of Grey and Pink (1971), is regarded as one of the greatest Canterbury albums, as well as one of the greatest progressive rock albums. They went on to release many other albums, though none as successful, both commercially and artistically, as their first record.
Soft Machine (1966-1977, semi-reunion in 1982)
Similarly to Caravan, Soft Machine formed somewhat out of the break-up of The Wilde Flowers. Soft Machine had a slightly shorter run than it's "brother" Caravan, but still managed to release some significant albums. They definitely didn't receive as much success of any kind as Caravan, though.
Gilgamesh (off and on 1972-1978)
Though they only had two albums in their fairly short life, Gilgamesh's work is some of the best of the jazz-infused prog that makes up a large portion of Canterbury Scene style. Their second album, Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into (1978), is possible the better of the two, combining experimental neo-jazz with psychedelic and progressive rock.
=== Other Notable Canterbury Bands ===
* Robert Wyatt (1963-2014)
* Hatfield and the North
* Gong
* Egg
* Matching Mole
* Steve Hillage
* National Health
* Khan
* Kevin Ayers
* Daevid Allen
* Henry Cow
* Cos
*Hugh Hopper
=== Non-Canterbury Canterbury Bands ===
Though a band doesn't necessarily need to be from the Canterbury area to be part of the scene, and instead only needs to match the styles marked by the Canterbury Scene, some bands are both not from Canterbury, and also are not quite the same style, though similar. Despite this, these bands are still important to overall Canterbury and Progressive rock history, and will be listed here. 
* Camel 
* The Muffins 
* Arzachel 
* Picchio Dal Pozzo 
* Andreas Aarflot 
* Ain Soph 
* more...? 
Category:Subgenres