DUTCH PROGRESSIVE & PSYCHEDELIC MUSIC (-FROM HOLLAND-)
review page

Surprieze ('71-'72)
Ton Vlasman ('70-'72)
Flamborough Head ('02)
Salmon ('01)
Purple Void ('01,'03,'04)
Sloterdijk ('00)
In Julia's Mind-Scene ('03)
De Wolff ('09)
Modest Midget ('10) (link)
The Machine ('10) (link)
Cosmic Dealer ('71/'12)

..more groups->

more ideas ? please e-mail me
Grey Past RecordsSurprieze : zeer oude klanken
en heel nieuwe geluiden -LP- (NL,1971-1972)****

I first read the reviews of the Surprieze LP's and did not expect to hear what I heard when I finally had the chance to listen. The descriptions I read were possibly not written by reviewers who liked or knew albums like Kalacakra, Dom, Siloah, etc., German acoustic improvisational Krautrock albums with a raga-like effect...

This band who started with their career with R&B in 1966 evolved to something completely different, something more psychedelic through avantgardistic and more pure mood improvisation styles. "Suprieze" refers to "surprise" and the music is surprising indeed, because there is not much music like this being made in Holland.

The first track is like Kalacakra, improvisational raga like.

The second track start like an experimental sounds creation like very early Kraftwerk. This kind of creativity with music being born from within the mood and sound creation was very ahead of it's time, and even now it's still not always understood by music writers. -Thanks to the newer more accessible works of Kraftwerk some people did take time to get into the earlier works of Kraftwerk for instance, but other groups were often still denied, although such "sound creations" on its own have abilities to look for and dig into the 'essence' of musical creation. Such transformational potential, within a psychedelic / bluesy raga like mood continuation, creating its own structures, becomes an accessible and enjoyable,  mind expanding experience.

After the first two long tracks in the described style two less appealing underground blues tracks come after that. The first track on side B, "Zero" is experimental acid blues, with a psychedelic repetitive rhythm, and with, let's call it "Native screams" and blues mouth harmonica.
The very short track "In Galop" to be followed are completely experimental free sounds. "Lazarus" is a long acid psychedelic improvisation, completely tripped out, with distorted electric guitars, bagpipes, echoed effects, psychedelic voice sounds / singing, flutes. "Lazarus" is a Dutch word for being completely farout which you can be by being drunk or stoned, but can become also when you would listen to this music. The title of the album itself means something like "old sounds for a new sound". 

Except for the two blues tracks this is a very interesting psychedelic record, maybe even the most psychedelic record from Holland.

According to Forced exposure : "Reissue of highly osbcure and utterly rare private pressing of ´one-man project´ Surprieze. Noisy, disjointed Psychedelia with lots of fuzz and effects. Pure acid-psychedelia! Imagine a Dutch freak attempting to overdo Velvet Underground´s ´Sister Ray´. Eddy vermeer plays a 3-string guitar with a sound somewhere between Ravu Shankar and Dick Dale, but then totally demented. Originals fetch summs of $600, as they not around anymore. Eddy was so disappointed in the sales when he releaed it in 1973, that he took then to the coast and threw them in the sea!"

Other review : http://members.lycos.nl/poph/encyclopedia/s/surprieze.htm
& http://gnosis2000.net/reviews/surprieze.htm
Some extra remarks on "Lazarus" at my next playlist (see last item on the list)
Red Fox Rec.                Ton Vlasman (NL,1970, re 2002)***°

Recently reissued is this Dutch psych folk item. Two songs sound like a Bob Dylan-a like. I would not have bought this gem for such tracks. But there are also two wonderful long raga like / finger picking instrumental tracks. The first one is accompanied by organ and sounds like an acoustic Pink Floyd, but reminds at the German 'Dom' LP too from that same year. The other instrumental is accompanied by flute in stead. The left over song is again psych folk with flute. An early Velvet Underground song we have here listed too.( The reissue is a welcome surprise).

More info : http://members.lycos.nl/poph/encyclopedia/v/vlasman_ton.htm
(The review has originally been published at http://psychedelicfolk.homestead.com/acidfolkreviews.html)
Cyclops RecordsFlamborough Head : one for the crow (NL,2002)**°

This is the fourth release from this Dutch band, with two new members, and from what I've read, and from what I experienced in the refreshing elements I heard in their style, this could possibly mean an opening up of the perspective & the sound of the group. Actually, this is the first release I've heard by them. No matter what neo-progressive / symphonic lovers would say, I think the approach on this album is solid and honest.

Margriet Boomsma's vocals are melodically an approach like the singer on Sandrose, slightly more prog-pop in a positive sense, with a slightly dreamy emotionality.
The orchestrations combined with the (melodic or accompanying) progressive rock arrangements on the title track, "One for the crow" and the following track work very well for me. Better than an average neo-symphonic group, Flamborough Head succeeds here in creating a spontaneous fresh sound, seemingly created out of the continuation of what late 70's symphonic projects were expressing and developing. Some part with piano / oboe, orchestrations combined with progressive rock & folk elements on "Old Shoes" I even find best, in an Italian symphonic way.
Another different contribution was by the guitarist, Eddie Mulder, with some brilliant warm acoustic guitar intro's, like on "Separate", a track which continues calmly with flute, guitars, keyboards (piano, synthesizer and mellotron), drums and electrified guitar. We hear him also with a small introduction part only on "Daydreams", a nice following track. "Nightlife" has here and there a few less appealing or less interesting parts, in a more melodic neo-prog style, with some more straight forward rhythms and composition, still this is enjoyable in its completeness.
Further on we have "Limestonerock" with a Gilmourish guitar based part. The last track is another fine acoustic guitar piece, but it's a bit lost being at the end of the CD, not leading to any other idea it could have introduced.

In general I like pretty much the combination of talents in this group, which are optimal on almost every track. Near the end the solidness of the CD concept falls a bit apart ; still this is a strong and fine enjoyable album.

News : Eddie Mulder & Edo Spanninga from Flamborough Head and Menno Boomsma  from Odysice also have a side project called Trion. They have a CD out now.

PS. I recently heard 2 other works of this group. I liked those less for they were more neo-styled than this one. So I guess this album will be amongst the better ones of them.

Homepage : http://www.flamboroughhead.nl/
Other reviews :
http://www.prog-nose.org/engels/albums_2002/flamboroughead_crow.htm
or http://www.progressiveworld.net/flamhead3.html & http://www.dprp.vuurwerk.nl/reviews/0216.htm#head & http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/jur/reviews/oneforthecrow.html & http://www.xs4all.nl/~joswits/flamcrow.htm
Dutch review : http://www.progwereld.org/cd-recensies/flamboroughhead2.htm
German review : http://www.durp.com/reviews/2002/f/flamboroughh/oneforthecro.htm
Review of older releases : http://www.elrose.demon.co.uk/CD_Reviews/body_flamborough_head_cds.html & http://www.btinternet.com/~archimedes/flamboro.html & http://www.dprp.vuurwerk.nl/reviews/9809.htm & http://www.progressiveworld.net/flamhead.html & http://www.stormbringerwebzine.co.uk/Reviews/F/FlamboroughHead.html
& http://www.gft-cyclops.co.uk/cyclops/fheadc9.html
http://www.watercolors-nl.i12.com/reviews.htm
German review : http://www.durp.com/reviews/2000/f/flamboroughh/definingthel.htm
Dutch review : http://www.progwereld.org/cd-recensies/flamboroughhead1.htm
Interview in Dutch :
http://www.prog-nose.org/nederlands/interviews/flamborough_head_interview.htm
& (with real audio) at http://home.planet.nl/~nomzamo/radio/spotlight-fhead.html
Reactions : http://www.e-prog.net/bands/flamborough.htm
About the name Flamborough Head : http://www.thornton1.freeserve.co.uk/flamhead.htm
Private   Salmon : Decade Reference (NL,2001)***'

The music of Salmon is partly very song orientated, with a accompaniment of a calm late 70's progressive pop rock style, with some symphonic influences starting from there. This makes an enjoyable style with tempo changes for instrumental passages. Only "Dancing Bird" is a bit different, as a romantic ? catchy soulful duo vocals song (male & female). There are longer instrumental passages, where the keyboards often lead to more melodic / symphonic approaches, the guitars are often more in rock / sympho pop styles, the vocals are often more romantic (especialy on "Houses on the Voorde banks", with harmonic vocal arrangements). An enjoyable release.

Homepage : http://www.salmon.nl/ with the CD-page with soundfiles : http://home.wanadoo.nl/salmonsymfo/ceedee.htm
Other reviews : http://www.dprp.vuurwerk.nl/reviews/0152.htm#salmon & http://www.xs4all.nl/~joswits/decaderef.htm &
(with soundfile) at http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/jur/reviews/decadereference.html
Purple Plazma Rec.Purple Void : Thru' the wormhole -cdr- (NL,2001)**

With a very psychedelic cover we expected psychedelic music in the real sense, but this is not exactly true. The album has a tendency towards psychedelic explorations, but basically it remains closer to a solo work of a singer-songwriter and (electric) guitarist with wider musical interests, including psychedelica, without always being worked out enough towards this direction to fit into the psych description. Defining it "psychedelica" can be misleading, because the potential in ideas still is in a pre-psychedelica state.
I liked the electric psych guitar improvisation solo play from Mark. Two tracks are such (live ?) improvisations. These two tracks on the cdr-copy I received, sadly have some "hollow echo" distortion as if recorded from a less good quality MP3. When Mark (or "Dr. Ungefehr") has contributive elements his style becomes even more interesting. Especially the title track that has a nice 'Bitches Brew' like trumpet (by "Bal" ?). First track, "Time.. acoustic mix" could be a perfect starting point for a symphonic rock arrangement, but it works fine as an acoustic version as well. The one singer-songwriter track, voice (& second female voice), acoustic guitars, drums, "Rain" I find successful as well. 

Purple Plazma Rec.Purple Void : Within the nebula of time (NL,2003)**

This second CD is with much more psychedelic improvisations, often in multilayered form. Unfortunately technically it's from a bad recording and has a flawed mixing quality. Also, I would prefer that Mark uses his talent to create a music group that wants to build on a similar sound (with a REAL drummer, a bass player,..), and record in a professional studio with them. Mark has enough talent with his guitar. But a solo release that lacks production and various musical sound reconsiderations that lack personal expression is not enough to work for me.

About the few other attempts on mini-cd's to create something in other genres (hiphop etc.)* I don't even want to talk about. * the hiphop thing actually was a joke, like hiphop might be "a joke" for us.

PrivatePurple Void : Aardvark (B,2004)**'

I said before I liked the guitar playing of the Purple Void’s leader Dr.Ungefehr. Even a guitar dominated album by the group still is my preference. And this is one like that (with electric guitars, drum, and electric bass accompaniment mostly). Although it still is not recorded in a perfect way, it’s very enjoyable. It's only on the third track that the voice doesn’t come over well. All tracks were recorded live without overdubs. This time Purple Void is a 5-piece band who accompany the improvisations well, never the less without contributing many other ideas than where the leading guitar-part brings them in. The extra handpercussion on the last track sounds very nice ! And the evolution still is as promising as before. I hope Purple Void will one day make perhaps a conceptual music piece like with other composers ? I will already invite Dr. Ungefehr to come and record some tracks in radio Centraal's studio’s(,-Antwerp-).

Info & soundfiles : http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/purplevoid
http://stage.vitaminic.nl/main/purple_void
Contact : purplevoid2003@yahoo.com

I still heard a few tracks later efforts, with Zappa references and such but I didn't feel the discipline to increase the quality really, so I lost interest and efforts a bit to keep following each small move.
Lollipoppe Shoppe      Sloterdijk : Integration (NL,2000)**°

This group evolved from out of the Dutch Trance scene, but was also clearly influenced –beside from a couple other influences- by improvisations from groups as Ash Ra Temple & Hawkwind, they became another psychedelic spacetrip music group, who know how to create “the” effect.
Still, a little bit a shame about some tracks the “live recording” ? quality could have been better, although it still is good enough to enjoy, in a more stoned way.
5th track “Fred Goldman’s Moustache” starts a bit differently, as a trance psychbeat song oriented with a German wave background repetition, evolving towards psych-space-rock. Also “The Thunderbirds” is a mixture between Hawkwind bass repetition guitars and a stoned kind of psychwave song, with synthetic recorded drumming which still fits.
“Unnamed psychedelic jam” continues in Hawkwindish droning spacepsych style, while last track has some good (mid period Psychic TV or something) semi 80’s mystic vocal narration. This track is more keyboard dominated trance psych droning.
An enjoyable release !

PS. There also exists a renowed German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk but I don't see any reference to him. I still wonder where the name comes from.

Info : http://www.lollipopshop.de/artists/sloterdijk01.html
Contact label : henning@lollipopshop.de
Review of this release : http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue13/slotdijk.html
Other review & interview : http://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue16/slotdij1.html
& http://the-rocker.freeservers.com/May2001/sloter.html
& http://the-rocker.freeservers.com/sept2002/devil.html
DemoIn Julian's Mind-Scene : 2 track demo (NL,2003)****

A very moody recording with a folkjazz flavour of  Mark Versteegen, acoustic guitar, voice, Niels Van Heumen, trumpet, flügelhorn, Martijn Buser, drums & percussion, Daniel Antonis, double bass. Song based, but with much attention to the musical aspects, with fingerpicking guitar, with Danny Thompson like double bass,  perfect trumpet / flugelhorn, and a very warm sound, with a singing in a matured Bonnie Prince Billy way. Both tracks sound like one perfect track of 15 minutes. Highly recommended !

The group was invited to the radioshow for a live recording the 2004, the 28th of July.

Contact : injuliasmindscene@hotmail.com (NL), Bluesfanaat@hotmail.com (B)

Their first LP was published in 2005. Review on next page-->
Re MusicDe Wolff : Strange Fruit and Undiscovered Plants (NL,2009)*°°

After having won a teenage band contest in Amsterdam called Kunstbende (the trio was 14,15 and 17 years old) after 18 finales, they had several television appearances and lots of gigs. This is their debut after their previous EP. I have never heard their well received EP. This release gives a bit a mixed feeling. Like they said in interviews the band is best in long tracks, something which shows off in the great “Silver Love Machine”, where they have a great band sound (with just fuzz bass guitar, Hammond organ and drums) and improvisational mood. The shorter bluesrockers however don’t bring much deeper meaning to the youngster’s game with the style (with the bluesier tracks as the weakest) : here they suffer of a certain simplicity in the approach. I hope they know their limits and strengths. I can imagine they could be a good live retro band.

Info & audio : http://www.myspace.com/dewolff
Label : http://www.myspace.com/remusicmanagement
Homepage : http://www.dewolff.nu/
Other review : http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=15159&lang=en
Rating : http://rateyourmusic.com/...
World In SoundCosmic Dealer : Child Of Tomorrow (NL,1971,1972,re.2012)**°'

This Dordrecht band was first called The Floating Fudge Featuring The Cosmic Dealer but this was soon shortened to Cosmic Dealer. They have released two singles followed by an LP called “Crystallization” (1971). This LP still is worth high bucks ! There definitely is an American influence in their style with English lyrics, besides an English one. Several tracks in the studio mix show a slight sunshine harmonies influence in the singing and atmosphere, while they tend to be a bit harder in style, and more east coast if you wish. Some songs are slightly hit-sensitive. The mix is done perfectly with good balance in the arrangements. Besides the song aspect of the band there’s also an element of a guitar based creative band. On the LP there are few very good ideas in arranging the electric guitars with harmonies, working well on the rhythms, melodic and at times played fast. Some of the improvisations given to the guitar however are of slower development and are rather long while the bass/drum repeats their rhythms during this extension. On one of the singles and live recordings they also show flute playing. When playing on the rhythm and with the flute, “Winterwind” therefore directs a bit towards East Of Eden occasionally. The live recordings show that improvisation, often with bluesrock and harder rock were also playing part of their being during their concerts.

PS. The left over band members recently reunited.

Band info :  http://members.home.nl/gerser/dutchprog/cdealer.htm
& http://the60sound.blogspot.be/2010/07/cosmic-dealer-crystallization-1971_24.html
& http://www.facebook.com/pages/Cosmic-Dealer/259464490782100
LP info : http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/cosmic_dealer

More reviews of

new bands :
Ford's Imaginary Inferno : Summer Breeze And Magic Trees,
neo-60's music is reviewed on http://psychemusic.org/progressive.html
Ndromeda, s/sw is reviewed at
http://singersong.homestead.com/newsingers-7.html#anchor_300
Use Of Ashes
is reviewed on http://www.psychedelicfolk.com/acidfolkreview27.html

old bands :
Orange Sunshine, hard bluespsych reissue is reviewed at 
http://progressive.homestead.com/prog.html
Rainman (solo album from Q65)
on http://singersong.homestead.com/Rainman.html
Places in Holland that list "Progressive Rock" :

013, Tilburg http://www.013web.nl/
De Boerderij http://www.boerderij.org/
Melkweg, Amsterdam http://www.melkweg.nl/
Het Kasteel, Alphen aan den Rijn http://www.hetkasteel.nl/
Paradiso, Amsterdam http://www.paradiso.nl/
De Pul, Uden http://www.depul-uden.nl/
Tivoli, Utrecht http://www.tivoli.nl/
Mezz http://www.mezz.nl/
festival is dedicated to the prog, power and gothic rock & metal scene :
http://www.progpower.com/pp_europe/index.htm

Distribution in Holland / Belgium of better material (in general) :
Clearspot : http://clearspot.nl/ & http://www.konkurrent.nl/
Bookings : Slavetraders Booking Agency : slavetraders@planet.nl
Other booking offices (and other useful links) : http://www.popinstituut.nl/adressen/codes.boeking__managementkantoren...

general festivalinfo benelux : http://www.festivalinfo.nl/festivals.php


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