Author Topic: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)  (Read 1281 times)

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Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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I just found this group today. The name seems like it'd be some supergroup, and maybe it is, but I didn't recognize any of the names. This

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvHmqY1A37g

is the only song I've heard so far, but based on it alone, I feel like I'll really enjoy their material. They're definitely a progressive rock band, but they've got a really smooth sound. The singer's got a great tone and the melodies are lovely, plus this song features a saxophone pretty much throughout, and it melds really well with the other instruments. The instrumental sections are definitely there, like you'd expect from a prog band, but they never push the soloing too far and it all comes together really well.

Anyway, this apparently came out in 2014, so maybe everybody already knows about this group and I'm years behind like normal, but if you haven't heard of them, I'd recommend giving this song a try.

Offline jingle.boy

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #1 on: July 08, 2018, 05:55:12 PM »
They played RoSFest (or at least, some bastardization of the band) 15 months ago. Excellent stuff. Very much a Flower Kings vibe. You should check out Southern Empire - some of the same band members, iirc.
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Offline KevShmev

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #2 on: July 08, 2018, 06:34:41 PM »
That song was pretty good.

Definitely not a good band name, and from the looks of it, they have just the one album.

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #3 on: July 08, 2018, 06:52:26 PM »
They played RoSFest (or at least, some bastardization of the band) 15 months ago. Excellent stuff. Very much a Flower Kings vibe. You should check out Southern Empire - some of the same band members, iirc.

I remember them. They were pretty good live. Day 3 sucked except forThe Fierce & The Deas, which you missed. They were great live.
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Offline Shadow Ninja 2.0

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #4 on: July 08, 2018, 07:33:18 PM »
They played RoSFest (or at least, some bastardization of the band) 15 months ago. Excellent stuff. Very much a Flower Kings vibe. You should check out Southern Empire - some of the same band members, iirc.

Oh, interesting, I'll definitely check them out!

Offline ich bin besser

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #5 on: July 09, 2018, 11:27:29 AM »
The German Steven Wilson (Marek Arnold) kinda saves the album.  :hat
 
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Offline RoeDent

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #6 on: July 19, 2018, 07:25:27 AM »
Ah yes, the other group formed from the ashes of Unitopia. Sean Timms, the keyboardist, formed Southern Empire, and Mark Trueack, the singer, formed United Progressive Fraternity. UPF only have the one album so far. Southern Empire release their second tomorrow.

Offline Nick

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #7 on: July 19, 2018, 12:34:51 PM »
Unit-DB at RoSfest was an amazing surprise that I loved.
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Offline The Letter M

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #8 on: August 29, 2023, 11:06:46 PM »
Having been a fan of Unitopia since before Artificial came out in 2010, I was upset when the band moved on. I recently went back and got the previous two Southern Empire albums along with the newest one that just came out, but now I'm curious if it's worth getting into UPF, who also just had a new album come out earlier this year. From what I've gathered, it's a double album and a sequel to their second album released in 2019. The new one features literal dozens of guest musicians from all over the prog world, past and present.

I was thinking of picking up their 2nd and 3rd albums off LaserCD if I like them but I wanted to see what others here thought of this group!

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Offline Fritzinger

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Re: United Progressive Fraternity (Better than the name implies)
« Reply #9 on: August 30, 2023, 04:44:22 AM »
Having been a fan of Unitopia since before Artificial came out in 2010, I was upset when the band moved on. I recently went back and got the previous two Southern Empire albums along with the newest one that just came out, but now I'm curious if it's worth getting into UPF, who also just had a new album come out earlier this year. From what I've gathered, it's a double album and a sequel to their second album released in 2019. The new one features literal dozens of guest musicians from all over the prog world, past and present.

I was thinking of picking up their 2nd and 3rd albums off LaserCD if I like them but I wanted to see what others here thought of this group!

-Marc.

I really liked UPF's debut album. The following Planetary Overload 1 was exactly what its name implied though. Overload. Way too much sugar, way to many ethno/world influences and not enough rock and prog. I guess that's what Sean Timms brings to Unitopia, which becomes evident when you hear Southern Empire's albums.

Unfortunately, the new UPF album is no exception. 2 hours of Overload (again), every idea Trueack had seems to be on this album. Cut this album down to 1 hour and you would get a nice retro prog record (still no masterpiece though), but like this it's just bloated and sugary.
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