At the beginning of the 1990s, Phish, more than anyone else, established alternative rock on mainstream radio. Phish were more than just a surrogate of the Grateful Dead for the 1990s. They legitimized a return to the aesthetics of progressive-rock, particularly on the East Coast.

Blues Traveler were a simpler, domestic, rootsy version of Phish. Blues Traveler (1990) offered a judicious mixture of ballads and jams, and the band would eventually match and surpass Phish's commercial success.

Motherhead Bug (10) was a bizarre orchestra (accordion, trumpet, saxophone, percussion, trombone, violin, piano), led by multi-instrumentalist David Ouimet, that performed soundtracks for imaginary films. Zambodia (1993) was influenced by the music-hall, the circus, cartoons, marching bands, nursery rhymes, Sullivan's operettas. It was the equivalent of the Penguin Cafe' Orchestra for the new generation. Their offshoot Sulfur (1), formed by Ouimet and vocalist and keyboardist Michele Amar, carried out a similar work of stylistic collage, but the mood of Delirium Tremens (1998) was tragic rather than comic, and the atmosphere evoked Beckett's absurd theater.

The Spin Doctors became stars with the jovial and catchy ditties of Pocket Full Of Kryptonite (1991), that recycled stereotypes of funk, soul, blues, reggae, and rock music.

One of the leading groups of instrumental neo-prog came out of Boston: Cul De Sac (12). The lengthy tracks on Ecim (1992) bridged German rock of the 1970s, John Fahey's transcendental folk, Terry Riley's minimalism and Pink Floyd's psychedelic ragas. Their most innovative work, China Gate (1996), increased the doses of jazz and world-music, thus achieving both a convoluted and a hypnotic state of mind. The narrative largely revolved around the counterpoint between Robin Amos' atonal synthesizer and Glenn Jones's post-surf guitar. On Crashes To Light (1999) that contrast, enhanced with sophisticated arrangements, became a slick texture that enhanced the melodic center of mass, and even lent the music a spiritual overtone, halfway between trance and fairy tale.

New York boasted talented and innovative combos that descended from the prog-rock bands of the 1980s. The veterans who ran Run On (11), drummer Rick Brown and bassist Sue Garner of Fish & Roses, plus guitarist Alan Licht of Love Child, and violin player Katie Gentile, showed how prog-rock could yield engaging songs and not only difficult constructs. Start Packing (1996) was a festival of instrumental lunacy, brainy hypnosis, eccentric arrangements, and lightweight cacophony that mostly stuck to the format of the pop song. The oneiric folk-rock of No Way (1997), inconspicuously raised on acid-rock and Indian music, homaged the classics (Bob Dylan, Lou Reed, Neil Young) while steering away from classic rock. Nothing in these albums was obvious. Every note was where it was because "that" was not where it should have been, if one were a traditional composer. Brown and Garner's vision of music was a place where we should (obviously) all have been but have never even dreamed of being. Still (1999), credited to Garner and Brown, was, de facto, a late addition to the Run On canon.

Noise-punk-jazz 1992-95

God Is My Co-pilot (1) inherited Half Japanese's miniaturized dementia. I Am Not This Body (1992) packed 34 brief, childish, dissonant pieces that parodied all sorts of genres. Their chaotic approach bordered on free-jazz cacophony, and on party music for a madhouse.

In San Francisco, the Molecules, formed by former Rat At Rat R guitarist Ron Anderson, had already done something similar on Steel Toe (1991). Ditto for Love Child in New York and their Witchcraft (1992).

God Is My Co-pilot's idea was pursued by Spiny Anteaters in Canada, with the goofy, amateurish Last Supper (1998), Outhouse in Seattle, for example on Process Of Elimination (1998), Blowhole, also in Seattle, and featuring Amy Denio, on Gathering (1995), Harry Pussy in Florida, with Ride A Dove (1996), and many others.

Chicago's Flying Luttenbachers (12), the quintet of drummer Weasel Walter (the only stable member), saxophonists Chad Organ and Ken Vandermark, trombonist/bassist Jeb Bishop, guitarist Dylan Posa, explored the punk-funk-jazz-rock fusion pioneered by the Pop Group and the Contortions, as well as the epileptic noise-jazz of John Zorn, on Constructive Deconstruction (1994) and Destroy All Music (1995). A new line-up recorded the even more spastic and chaotic Revenge (1996), the six-movement suite Gods Of Chaos (1998) and the free-jazz chamber music for cello, trumpet, clarinet, violin and percussion of The Truth Is A Fucking Lie (1999), while Walter alone penned the delirious Rise Of The Iridescent Behemoth, off Systems Emerge From Complete Disorder (2003).

Chicago's Scissor Girls (1), led by keyboardist Azita Youssefi and drummer Heather Melowicz, devoted We People Space With Phantoms (1996) to a schizoid (and largely improvised) form of punk, funk and electronic music.

Boston's Debris were a punk-jazz outfit featuring horn players next to a power-rock trio and improvising chaotic jams in the vein of Frank Zappa and Henry Cow on Terre Haute (1993).

Virginia 1992-96

During the 1990s, progressive-rock staged a come-back (although it had never truly disappeared), and mainly in the USA. Throughout the decade, Virginia and the Washington area were the epicenter, with bands such as Echolyn (1), whose Suffocating The Bloom (1992) contained the 11-movement suite A Suite For The Everyman, and Boud Deun, whose best album was probably Astronomy Made Easy (1997). They were typical of the genre, derivative of the Canterbury school and of King Crimson.

The most creative group was perhaps Bill Kellum's Rake (11). After the two lengthy improvisations of Rake Is My Co-Pilot (1994) that evoked a demented form of free-jazz rather than conventional prog-rock, Rake indulged in The Art Ensemble Of Rake (1995), four lengthy suites that ran the gamut from minimalistic repetition to distorted guitar workouts to blues bacchanals to bubbling Moogs to ghostly ambience. Intelligence Agent (1996) betrayed the band's stylistic debts towards Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Can.

On the other hand, the most successful Virginia act was the racially integrated Dave Matthews Band, whose collections, such as Under The Table And Dreaming (1994), offered a sophisticated blend of jazz-rock, world music, folk and rhythm'n'blues.

Solo 1990-95

More spices were added to the progressive-rock scene by New York-based instrumental virtuosos. Marc Ribot (1), who had played with the Lounge Lizards, John Zorn, Tom Waits, and the Jazz Passengers, demonstrated his fluid style, capable of bridging cacophony and melody in a smooth and swinging manner, on Rootless Cosmopolitan (1990), featuring jazz masters Don Byron on clarinet and Anthony Coleman on keyboards, and one of the few albums to evoke Peter Green's End Of The Game. Ribot followed that achievement with the minimalist noir jazz of Requiem For What's His Name (1992) and the relentless sonic (and frequently dissonant) assault of Shrek (1994).

Nicky Skopelitis (2), who had played with Anton Fier, Bill Laswell and Sonny Sharrock, concocted a subtle form of ethnic funk-rock, orchestrated for small multi-national ensembles, on Next To Nothing (1989) and Ekstasis (1993), the latter featuring bassist Jah Wobble and Can's drummer Jaki Liebezeit.

Blind Idiot God's guitarist Andy Hawkins (1) penned the four abstract extended improvisations of Azonic Halo (1994) at the border between free jazz, heavy metal and droning music.

Buckethead (1), Brian Carroll's extravagant project, specialized in a goofy fusion of heavy-metal, funk and psychedelic music, which he administered on Frank Zappa-esque concept albums devoted to cyberpunk themes, such as Bucketheadland (1992) and Dreamatorium (1994), credited to Death Cube K. His best album, Day Of The Robot (1996), marked a more serious exploration of ambient and dance music. Despite a hiatus as Guns N' Roses' guitarist, Buckethead continued to reshape his futuristic funk-metal fusion on albums such as Monsters And Robots (1999), Cuckoo Clocks Of Hell (2004), Island Of Lost Minds (2004), Kaleidoscalp (2006).

A unique case, Loren Mazzacane Connors (2) devoted his career to a solo instrumental music that transcended stylistic boundaries, particularly when it crafted abstract country/blues/gospel/folk meditations on Come Night (1991) and Evangeline (1998). A spectral, purer, zen-like quality, amid a John Fahey fixation, characterized the more ambitious multi-part suites of The Little Match Girl (2001) and Sails (2006).

Just like in the previous decade, a number of Frank Zappa alumni launched solo careers based on unique (and uniquely iconoclastic) styles. Ant-Bee (11), Billy James' project, was responsible for one of the most crazed albums of the decade, Pure Electric Honey (1990), that wed Brian Wilson's flair for eccentric arrangements with Frank Zappa's passion for deviant dynamics, and mixed up the result with techniques borrowed from musique concrete and psychedelic freak-outs. Lunar Muzak (1997), that collected veterans of the Mothers Of Invention (Bunk Gardner, Don Preston, Jimmy Carl Black), Gong (including Daevid Allen himself), Alice Cooper and Hawkwind (Harvey Bainbridge), was another madhouse party.

The compositions of Mike Keneally (1), whether the sprawling ones on Hat (1994) or the microscopic ones on Boil That Dust Speck (1995), whether the poppy ditties of Sluggo! (1997), his best album, or the all-instrumental tracks of Nonkertompf (1999), sounded like sprightly fragments of rock operas.

Gary Lucas was instead a veteran of Captain Beefheart's band. The swirling, cyclical structures of Skeleton At The Feast (1991) overflew with otherworldly guitar inventions.

Run On's guitarist Alan Licht concentrated on anarchic and dadaist noise with the lengthy improvisations of Sink The Aging Process (1994), Rabbi Sky (1999) and Plays Well (2001).

King Crimson's bassist Tony Levin fused world-music and chamber jazz on World Diary (1995).

Former Frank Zappa's and Missing Persons' drummer Terry Bozzio (1) lived several lives in parallel, performing solo drum improvisations, such as the ones on Drawing the Circle (1998), as well as composing surreal symphonic music worthy of his master, notably the two Chamberworks (1998) for drums and orchestra.

Thinking Plague's guitarist Bob Drake (1) recorded highly original instrumental albums of avantgarde roots-music: What Day Is It (1993), a post-modernist deconstruction of country cliches; Little Black Train (1996), a reckless venture into progressive bluegrass; Animal Medallion Carpet (1999), a wild ride down the dark but fascinating alleys of a very perverted musical mind, one that evoked the lunacy of the Residents and of the Holy Modal Rounders; and The Skull Mailbox (2001), which focused on pop melody, but Drake had enough imagination, and enough perversion, to turn each melody into a musical nonsense.

West Coast 1990-91

Mixing demented novelty tunes and goofy instrumental workouts, San Francisco's Primus (13) seemed to emulate Frank Zappa's versatile and iconoclastic irreverence. Frizzle Fry (1990) was typical of their capricious art: like an amusement park, it was a combination of rollercoaster rides, comedy shows, relaxing strolls and childish games. The changes in speed, mood and fashion were as abrupt as virtuoso, thanks to the inventions of bassist Les Claypool (one of the all-time greats), to the quirkiness of former Possessed guitarist Larry Lalonde, and to the monumental support of drummer Tim Alexander. King Crimson-ian instrumental convolution was offset by funny lyrics and a self-demystifying attitude. The intellectual puzzles became popular songs on Sailing The Seas Of Cheese (1991) and Pork Soda (1993), when the fusion of heavy-metal, funk, jazz and music-hall reached an almost mechanical efficiency. The trio's sonic exploration in Tales From The Punchbowl (1995) was more adventurous, but also highlighted the limits of the pop format.

Faith No More-associates Mr Bungle (1) were inspired by Frank Zappa and George Clinton on their debut, Mr Bungle (1991).

Seattle-based multi-instrumentalist Amy Denio (2) led and collaborated to a number of bizarre jazz-rock projects in the vein of the Canterbury school, notably the Tone Dogs (1), whose Ankety Low Day (1990) was a quirky flight of the imagination, and Degenerate Art Ensemble, that straddled the line between jazz, classical and rock. Tongues (1993) set forth her ambitious program of deconstruction of world folk music, that can evoke Pere Ubu's abstract sonatas for accordion and synthesizer as well as Dario Fo's onomatopoeic theater. This led to a string of albums, culminating in The Danubians (2000), that were dominated by Denio's bizarre phonetic wordplay and by her spirited accordion playing. With these works she proved to be a devil of a composer, of an arranger, of a performer, and of a conductor.

The same scene spawned Portland's Caveman Shoestore (1), a guitar-less trio formed by vocalist and keyboardist Elaine DiFalco and by veteran jazz players Fred Chalenor (bass) and Henry Franzoni (drums). Their Master Cylinder (1992) ran the gamut from pop melody to Soft Machine-esque jazz-rock to dadaistic cacophony to Art Bears-esque lieder.

The Thessalonians (1), based in San Francisco and featuring percussionist Larry Thrasher, guitarist David James and keyboardists Kim Cascone, Don Falcone and Paul Neyrinck, performed live improvisations for electronic and acoustic instruments, documented on Soulcraft (1993), that were the ultimate cybernetic-psychedelic ragas. Falcone's own Melting Euphoria were disciples of the Ozric Tentacles' cosmic-progressive rock.

Zazen (formed by four veterans) added Eastern overtones to the style of Yes and Genesis on Mystery School (1991).

International progressive 1992-96

In France, Philharmonie experimented with the unusual format of a guitar trio, particularly on Les Elephantes Carillonneurs (1993). The creative and unorthodox aesthetics of the Canterbury school was revived by Xaal, a French instrumental progressive trio whose most ambitious work was Second Ere (1995); while Volapuk (1) continued the neoclassical school of Art Zoyd and Univers Zero with albums such as Slang (1997).

Tear Of A Doll, featuring guitarist Francois L'Homer, fused progressive-rock, punk-rock, jazz, exotica and noise on Tear Of A Doll (1996). Later Francois L'Homer relocated to Burma and started Naing Naing, a project devoted to "music without instrument", as demonstrated on Toothbrush Fever (2004) for natural sounds, computer and studio mixer.

In Canada, Slow Loris' The Ten Commandments And Two Territories (1996) straddled the border between free-jazz and acid-rock.

Sweden continued to enjoy a fertile progressive scene. For example, In The Labyrinth, i.e. Peter Lindahl, blended neoclassical and ethnic music on The Garden Of Mysteries (1994).

In Japan, Happy Family betrayed the influence of King Crimson, Frank Zappa, Magma and Univers Zero on their second album, Toscco (1997); while Koenjihyakkei, the Magma-inspired side-project of Ruins' mastermind Tatsuya Yoshida, eventually achieved a baroque complexity on Angherr Shisspa (2005).

In Britain, saxophonist Kevin Martin launched a number of projects that explored the unlikely marriage of jazz, industrial, dub and punk-rock. The three lengthy jams of Possession (1992) and especially the chaotic nightmares of The Anatomy Of Addiction (1994), both credited to God (1), were relatively old-fashioned excursions in mood reconnaissance and neurotic stream of consciousness; but Techno Animal (11), a collaboration with Godflesh's guitarist Justin Broadrick, unleashed the destructive force of Ghosts (1990), a meeting of Foetus, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Anthony Braxton and one of the most powerful works of its time; a vision that was matched by the brutal and visceral sound of Under The Skin (1993), credited to Ice (1). Techno Animal's Re-Entry (1995), instead, delved into the claustrophobic darkness of ambient dub, summoning the likes of Jon Hassell, Bill Laswell and Brian Eno. Tapping The Conversation (1997), a collaboration between Kevin Martin and Dave Cochrane credited to Bug (1), crafted an obsessive sense of fear through a psychophysical torture of extreme hip-hop and dub deconstruction.

Roger Eno attempted a music at the border between classical, jazz and prog-rock with the ensemble Channel Light Vessel (featuring Kate St John, Bill Nelson, Laraaji, Mayumi Tachibana) on Automatic (1994) and Excellent Spirits (1996).

Italian-Swiss guitarist Luigi Archetti (1) debuted with the brief demential/dissonant guitar vignettes of Das Ohr (1993) and Adrenalin (1994), in the vein of Fred Frith, but matured with Cubic Yellow (1999), that added sampling, electronics and drum machines to Archetti's eclectic and surreal guitar soundscapes. After the electronic vignettes in the droning/microtonal style of Transient Places (2004), Archetti gave his most abstract and intense works, Februar (2005), an atonal "concrete" symphony in 14 movements.

After 1991, when the Berlin wall fell, Eastern Europe developed a very creative brand of rock music, often indebted towards the local folk traditions and often looking to the avantgarde. Uz Isme Doma, in the Czech Republic, were perhaps the most adventurous with their progressive-rock performed with punk-rock fury, that freely mixed cabaret, folk, noise, ethnic, classical and dance music on albums such as In the Middle of Words (1990).

Babel 1996-98

Towards the end of the decade, the Babel of progressive-rock multiplied. In Boston, Bright's Bright (1996) bridged Cul De Sac and shoegazing. In Florida, Meringue mixed the verve and imagination of Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and Gong on the monumental Music From The Mint Green Nest (1996); while Obliterati's Havy Baubaus Inflience (1998) sounded like a meeting of the Art Bears and the Contortions.

Ohio's Witch Hazel (1), the project of multi-instrumentalist Kevin Coral, indulged in a poppy and baroque form of progressive-rock on Landlocked (1995).

An erudite form of instrumental progressive-rock was coined in Boston by Cerberus Shoal (3). The neoclassical suites of And Farewell To Hightide (1997) and Element Of Structure/ Permanence (1997), particularly Permanence, sounded like Grateful Dead's Dark Star performed by a chamber ensemble. Deeper jazz and world-music undercurrents destabilized the two tours de force of Homb (1999), while the pieces on the transitional Crash My Moon Yacht (2000) sounded like collages. Mr Boy Dog (2002), both irriverently amusing and wildly creative in the tradition of Frank Zappa, offered sonic charades that mixed Albert Ayler, Nino Rota, Sonic Youth and Pink Floyd while deconstructing world-music, funk and free-jazz. The dense orchestration and inventive dynamics capitalized on three decades of progressive-rock.

In San Francisco, the Tin Hat Trio (2) evoked the Penguin Cafe' Orchestra and the Lounge Lizards on Memory Is An Elephant (1999) with a mixture of tango, jazz, folk, avantgarde and world-music. Helium (2000) was its cerebral counterpart, a kaleidoscope of quasi-dissonant jamming, pseudo-Balkan frenzy and atonal lounge melodies.

Species Being (1) penned the 11-movement suite Yonilicious (1998), an adventurous sonic odyssey through the musical genres.

Florida's Big Swifty (1) crafted the austere compositions of Akroasis (1997) around drones a` la LaMonte Young, minimalist repetition a` la Terry Riley and microtonal techniques.