DPRP In The Media: OOR Magazine March 2000

Orderly Universe

What do you expect from a website? If you're looking for information, the best isn't good enough. You want to be taken by surprise, overwhelmed by the load of unknown information and the many original points of view from the maintainers. Take for example the Dutch Progressive Rock Page; anyone who is only slightly interested in progressive rock or the prog-metal crossover, simply can't get around www.dprp.vuurwerk.nl. Don't think that this site confines itself to what is happening in the Dutch prog scene. No, this website is set up by Dutchmen. It is written in English and contains a lot of info, covering a great deal of the worldwide prog scene plus subgenres. Hence a great starting point for those who are looking for information on artists who are not easy to track down in real life.

On the no-nonsense main page you are being notified of the update mailing list. If you subscribe, you get a couple of messages per week from Nicole & Jan-Jaap, René, Henri, or Ed, among others, telling you about the updates on the website. The team of maintainers consists of twelve people at the moment, including someone from Sweden and the United Kingdom. All those updates are also lined up on that main page. Often, these updates apply to the home pages that DPRP hosts for bands like Arena, IQ, Jadis, Landmarq, Pallas, Spock's Beard, and Wolverine. And then of course, there's a steady stream of CD and concert reviews being added to the archives.

Also worth mentioning is the Counting Out Time series, where very important albums from 1967 to 1999 are put in the spotlight. On the Releases page, you'll find a list of prog releases to be expected later this year.

Note that the team never thinks they know it all - there are loads of links to labels, bands, and fans. DPRP leads you into an orderly universe that is so outstretched, that after weeks you still haven't seen all of it.

Mark van Schaick