Dear Ron,
Best wishes for you! I’m delighted to add a playlist this year. My friend Fred de Vries, a Cape Town based journalist, and I are working on a series of 22 essays on progressive rock. We’ve been writing these articles for Dutch record collectors magazine Platenblad. In each essay we explore one specific album. I used to be a prog-rock-fan in my youth, so it was fun going through all those forgotten bands and records. As a consequence, most records I played in 2016 were classic prog-albums. I will share five bands and videos here with you. 

Tangerine Dream – Bathtub Session (1969)
Genesis – The Knife (1973)
Van Der Graaf Generator – Darkness (1970)
The Peter Ivers Band – Audience of One (1974)
This Heat – The Fall Of Saigon (1977)

What else did I listen to this year?

Bad Bad Not Good: IV (2016)
Baton Bleu: Grand Death (2016)
Ravi Coltrane (with Jack DeJohnette and Matthew Garroison): In Movement (2016)
G.W. Sok: Listen To The Painters (2016)
Cinematic Orchestra live at Schouwburg Rotterdam (2016)

1. Tangerine Dream (German psychedelic rock band, gradually transforming into an electronic trio).  Chosen track: Bathtub Session (1969) – the ‘song’ derived from a session played live in the bathroom of Salvador Dalí at the artist’s house in Portlligat.

2. Genesis (British prog-band made three wonderful albums: Trespass (1970),  Nursery Cryme (1971) and Foxtrot (1972) before they indulged in pretentious symphonic rock). Chosen track: The Knife (1973) – a Gandhi-inspired pacifist and anti-terrorism song, played live at the Bataclan in Paris – Peter Gabriel seems to predict the gruesome events of last year: “Some of you are going to die”.  

3. Van Der Graaf Generator (British psychedelic prog band from Manchester, my favourite band when I was a kid. I still love all their records, especially Godbluff, 1975). Chosen track: Darkness (1970) – played live for a German TV show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDmhP6YiN6s

4. The Peter Ivers Band (Peter Ivers was a multi-talented American phenomenon who made a bunch of wonderful prog-pop albums before he was beaten to death in 1983. His best album was Terminal Love, 1974). Chosen track: Audience of One (1974) – a wonderful track from Terminal Love.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXuQOYMCT3k

5. This Heat (One of my all-time favorite bands. They made only two albums, but unsurpassed if you ask me. Their first show outside London was in Rotterdam, in Lantaren/Venster in 1979, organized by Peter Graute of the legendary Backstreet Records Shop at Boomgaardstraat). Chosen track: The Fall Of Saigon (1977) – taken from John Peel Session in april 1977.

What else did I listen to this year?

6. Bad Bad Not Good: IV (2016)

7. Baton Bleu: Grand Death (2016)

8. Ravi Coltrane (with Jack DeJohnette and Matthew Garroison): In Movement (2016)

9. G.W. Sok: Listen To The Painters (2016)

10. Cinematic Orchestra live at Schouwburg Rotterdam (2016)