Best Dutch progressive band

Mine is Kayak by the way. No real weak albums, except maybe a few after the '90's reunion. Still an interesting band. Loved the Merlin show with the orchestra, ballet, stageplay and of course the music...

Not much of a progressive band in the true sense of the word, but a lot of great compositions and playing.

I think that Focus created the second best dutch rock album that I am aware of. Golden Earrings Moontan being the best. Focus 3 and Moving Waves are almost a toss up. I think Supersister's Present From Nancy and Earth & Fires Book of the Marching Children are very good also. Trace, Kayak and Finch also produced a good album at their peak.

I only know Focus and Kayak.Jan Akkerman is a great guitarist but Kayak have made some beautifull albums.

1. Kayak

2. Focus

Focus is a very good Dutch progressive rock band. Moving Waves and Focus III are good albums to start with, I guess. It's mostly instrumental prog, with a lot of Hammond-organ, great guitarplaying (Jan Akkerman is one of the best guitarists in the world, just as versatile as Yes' Steve Howe)

Earth and Fire has two sides: they had a lot of hitsingles in the Netherlands and in some other countries, but they also made some conceptalbums: Song Of The Marching Children and Atlantis are the standout-albums.

Kayak made progrock in the tradition of Yes and Genesis, though more songbased, like Procol Harum. Their first three albums are the best: See See The Sun, Kayak and Royal Bed Bouncer. Also very good is the recent concept-album Merlin, Bard of The Unseen.

Supersister is a progressive band in the true sense of the world. They have a unique sound, which is difficult to describe.

Ayreon makes state of the art progrock, a bit on the heavy side, and the band is the brainchild of Arjen Lucassen, and he cooperates on his album with many well-known musicians. Not one of my favorite bands, but many people like them, so I mention them anyway.

Some good non-prog bands:

Golden Earring are a bit like the Dutch version of the Rolling Stones, though with more variety, and they changed their sound several times, like U2 did.

Massada had a progressive attitude, but were a mixture of Santana-like rock, funk and Indonesian music. Pukul Tifah shows a lot of different styles and great musicianship.

The Ex makes some of the strangest music you ever heard. They have punk roots, and they're originally a very loud band, but they evolved in many different, but very experimental, directions.

Dutch Progressive Rock is defined by excellent musicianship and a superior knowledge to Classic and Jazz. The generation that made music in the 70ies in Holland was indeed a gifted generation, producing talents and fantastic musicians.

FOCUS being the most known to the general public with wonderful recordings. They produced Moving Waves, Focus III, Live At The Rainbow and Hamburger Concerto. Four MUST have recordings. Those who have seen Thjiis van Leer in concert knows that he is the absolute master of the Hammond keyboard. Jan Akkerman revealed his talent while with Focus. If you have Focus III or Hamburger Concerto you'll find the finest bass lines of Prog Rock history, Burt Reiter was at his top at that time. Pierre van Der Linden's drumming is imitated to the day of today, and is now back with Focus for the 2005 World Tour. This tour marks the release of the FOCUS 9 album and I have tickets for the Rio de Janeiro and the São Paulo concerts

TRACE was by all means the "best" Dutch Prog Rock band ever. IMO...Their compositions were more complex and by far, more classical based than Focus (which had a more jazzistic tendency). Rick van Der Linden is a keyboard player whose skills surpasses all those you can dig up in the UK or the USA for that matter. I believe that only Rick Wakeman is more skilled. Trace made 3 great recordings; Trace, Birds and The White Ladies. Rick van der Linden was the main musician behind Ekseption, and departed to create Trace together with Pierre van Der Linden (no they are not related), and bass player Jaap van Eik. Rick van der Linden then left Trace and joined Kayak in the Starlight Dancer album, and years later re-joined his original band Ekseption.

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