The Golden Years of Dutch Prog

I promised DutchProg fan sometime ago that I'd set up a Dutch Prog Blog, so here it is.  Although the Focus might fall inevitably on one very well-known Dutch Prog band, they are just one of several bands from the classic 1970's Dutch Prog era. Here's a few more:-

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - December 12 2019 at 09:41

miamiscot wrote: Big fan of Supersister, Kayak and Focus but you missed Finch and Trace!!!

Edited by Psychedelic Paul - December 11 2019 at 14:35

Manuel wrote: Great bands, with an excelkent variety of music.

My recommendations for starting with these bands are:

ALQUIN (Jazz-Rockn & Symphonic) - Mountain Queen, then Marks
EARTH & FIRE (Symphonic Prog) - Song of the Marching Children, then Atlantis
FINCH (Symphonic Prog) - Glory of the Inner Force, then second album
FOCUS (Symphonic Prog) - Moving Waves, Hamburger Concerto, Third, First, Ship of Memories.
GOLDEN EARRING (Heavy Prog) - Eight Miles High
GROUP 1850 (Psychedelic/Space Rock) - debut (if you like obscure music)
KAYAK (Crossover Prog) - Second, The Last Encore (my favorite), Royal Bed Bouncer, Phantom of the Night (great pop album). I also listen frequently to their later albums like Close to the Fire, Nightvision, Merlin, Nostradamus.
SOLUTION (Jazz-Rock) - Cordon Blue
SUPERSISTER (Canterbury Scene) - First three in that order.
TRACE (Symphonic Prog) - debut (very ELP-esque)

friso wrote: My recommendations for starting with these bands are: ALQUIN (Jazz-Rock & Symphonic) - Mountain Queen, then Marks EARTH & FIRE (Symphonic Prog) - Song of the Marching Children, then Atlantis FINCH (Symphonic Prog) - Glory of the Inner Force, then second album FOCUS (Symphonic Prog) - Moving Waves, Hamburger Concerto, Third, First, Ship of Memories. GOLDEN EARRING (Heavy Prog) - Eight Miles High >> Sevebn Tears, Walls of Dolls & Moontan as well GROUP 1850 (Psychedelic/Space Rock) - debut (if you like obscure music) KAYAK (Crossover Prog) - Second, The Last Encore (my favorite), Royal Bed Bouncer, Phantom of the Night SOLUTION (Jazz-Rock) - Cordon Bleu >> The first two are very different but very much worth the discovery SUPERSISTER (Canterbury Scene) - First three in that order. TRACE (Symphonic Prog) - debut (very ELP-esque)

I love the song King Bird by Trace. It's IMO one of the best Dutch prog tracks ever made.

I first heard Trace's "King Bird" a couple of weeks ago and was mesmerized by it. Problem is finding something from them all the way here in my forgotten corner of the world

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Sean Trane wrote: Psychedelic Paul wrote: SHOCKING BLUE (Proto Prog)   you evil cheat     Yes, I confess, I shockingly sneaked Shocking Blue into my Dutch prog list, even though they'd already been rejected by ProgArchives. I was hoping no one would notice.

^^ Thanks! The only band I'd previously heard of on your list is After Tea, although I didn't know they were Dutch.

I myself forgot to mention Cargo's sole album from 1972. Very nice twin-guitar oriented heavy prog album. Well recorded too.

Listeners of proto-prog can indeed also dig into Cosmic Dealer's album.

Not very prog, but the the Cuby's Blues compilation of the blues-rock group Cuby & the Blizzards is also highly recommended. Doomy blues songs like 'Somebody Will Know Someday' and 'Window Of My Eyes' are essential for a Dutch sixties/seventies collection.

Flairc is indeed a very high-level acoustic instrumental (chamber) folk group. Perhaps the best multi-instrumentalist group we have.

The fusion albums of Spin sounded quite lackluster to me, but they are professional and well-recorded.