Information in This Section :

• Postal Address for CD's / DVD's
• Review Policy
• Our Rating System
• Our Review Team
• Frequently Asked Questions

Please read the guidlines on this page before submitting any material !

CD's / DVD's should be sent to :

Bob Mulvey
DPRP
29 Lutton Crescent
Wolviston Court
BILLINGHAM
TS22 5DZ
UK

Please remember to include any supporting material and contact details etc. If you are sending us a CD/DVD please drop us a line so we can look out for it - things do sometimes get lost in the post ! .

TO ALL RECORD LABELS AND BANDS
Please read the following guidelines before submitting your material for reviewing:

• Please send promotional copies for review to the address above. This will ensure that ALL the DPRP Reviewers will be offered the chance to review a particular album.
  
  
• DPRP will only review CD/DVD's that fall into the Progressive Rock, or closely releated, genre and retains the right not to review material outside of this remit.
  
  
• DPRP will only review CD/DVD's that are available for sale to the general public, either through a distributor or a website.
  
  
• DPRP will not review Demo CDR's.
  
  
• DPRP apologises that we are unable to return any CD/DVD's sent to us, whether reviewed or not.
  
  
• DPRP try to review all received material as soon as possible and a Review Update normally appears every week.
  
  
• If requested DPRP will arrange a Roundtable Review (RTR) for major releases, however, we would require multiple promo copies.
  
  
• DPRP is happy to arrange a competition to support a major CD/DVD release. This would require the supply and distribution of prizes by the band / label concerned.
  
  
• All CD's should be sent to the address above.
  
  
• You may request a review by a particular team member and this should be noted with your CD/DVD. Details of Team Members can be found on the Contact & Credits page. We will try and accommodate your request - workloads permitting.

Remember that anything 8 and above gets a DPRP Recommended tag !

Although we are known as the Dutch Progressive Rock Page because DPRP was initially created by an enthusiatic Dutch team, however, our Review Team has expanded and grown since then, and our team members are now located in The Netherlands, UK, USA & Canada. [Therefore all emails in English please!]

The Netherlands Bart Jan van der Vorst Christos Ampatzis Dries Dokter Ed Sander Edwin Roosjen Leo Koperdraat Martien Koolen

Belgium Dave Baird

The UK Andy Read Bob Mulvey Dave Sissons Geoff Feakes Jez Rowden Mark Hughes Ron Faulkner Tom De Val

The USA Chris Jackson Jim Corcoran Canada Gerald Wandio

For further details of the team members - please visit our Credcon Page

How does DPRP go about reviewing albums?

The content of the CD reviews page basically depends on what bands and labels send us, as well as the private purchases of the review team. Reviews are coordinated centrally by the DPRP Reviews Editor of the review page, who makes sure that the steady flow of new albums is divided evenly among the reviewers. When dividing the albums among the reviewers, the personal tastes of the individuals is taken into account. The reviewers all work according to a 'manual' and use a DPRP rating system - see above. A reviewer is basically free to decide what kind of review to write; for example, one time he will opt for a track-by-track review, another time he will write a more overall conclusion.

I would like DPRP to review the CD of my band. What should I do?

First read the review policy above and check if your band's music complies with the guidelines mentioned there. If so, you can then send a copy of the CD/CDR/DVD to the address listed below. You're welcome to ship the CDs without the jewel cases to save costs. Please do not send CD/CDR/DVD's by registered mail, since this often results in having to drive down to the post office to pick up the package. Similarly do not send large batches of material which may incur charges from Customs/Taxes.

Because of the large number of albums we receive, we normally do not confirm receipt of CDs. Depending on the current workload, it might take 2-3 months before your album is featured in the reviews column. Don't worry, we always drop the band and label an e-mail (if it is mentioned on their websites) when we upload their review. Therefore, please send some background information and the address of your web site together with the CDs, the less work we have to do to dig out background information the more time can be spent listening to your album.

The new album by popular band X has not been reviewed on DPRP. Why not?

There are two reasons why a certain CD is reviewed on DPRP.

First of all, if the concerned band or label send us a promotional copy, and we feel that it fits the progressive rock genre, then we will review it. Unfortunately, not all bands feel they need the publicity on DPRP to get the attention of their target group. This is especially true for the more well-known bands. Unless we have a very good relation with these bands or labels we will not receive any promotional copies of their new albums.

The second reason why a CD gets reviewed on DPRP is when one of the team members buys the CD himself and thinks it's worth a review. The whole DPRP operation is carried out by a group of volunteers who spend a lot of their free time on DPRP. We do not get any money for our work and we don't have a large budget to buy all kinds of new releases. You will therefore understand that a team member will only spend his money on the bands he really likes. This way the specific preferences of the team will trickle through to the reviews pages.

In a nutshell, unless we get a promotional copy from a band or label OR the concerned band is a personal favourite of a team member, the CD will not be reviewed.

I completely disagree with the review you wrote about album Y by band X! How could you write something so ignorant?

No matter how objective you try to be when writing a review, there is no such thing as a 'perfectly objective review'. Judgement of a CD will always be based on what a reviewer thinks is good or bad, and will always be influenced by his personal tastes and preferences. However, we do try to be as objective as possible and at least try to explain why we think something is good or bad, or try to indicate to which peope the CD might or might not appeal. Sometimes we write Duo reviews so that our readers get the viewpoint of two different reviewers. At the end of the day, no matter how good or bad a CD is, there will always be people who will disagree with a written review.

In case of major releases DPRP will try to provide so-called roundtable reviews in which more than one team member gives his opinion about the CD. This depends on whether the Record Label or band concerned will supply more than one copy.

Can I send my own review to you for publication on DPRP?

No, sorry you can't. For the purpose of consistency we have decided that CD reviews will only be written by members of the DPRP team. There are several reasons for this. First of all, we would like to give priority to those bands who send us their material. Second, the visitors of DPRP know the style of our reviews and know what to expect. They also know if they often agree or do not agree with a specific DPRP reviewer. Therefore they are able to judge for themselves if the CD is worth buying or not, based on that reviewer's opinion. Third, certainly not the least important one, however bad a CD really is (in our opinion) there will always be someone who is raving about the CD. People who volunteer to send us reviews will probably be very positive about the concerned album. In other words, accepting 'outside reviews' would probably result in decrease of objectivity and a majority of very positive reviews.

How can I become a CD Reviewer?

Currently we do not have any vacancies for reviewers. However, if you join the DPRP Mailing List, occasionally when the need arises, we will ask our mailing list membership if anyone is interested. We prefer people with HTML coding experience but this is not always necessary.

What is a 'roundtable review' and how is it done?

When a new CD is issued by a major progressive rock act (e.g. Pink Floyd, Spock's Beard or IQ) DPRP often presents a so-called Duo Review (2 reviewers) or Roundtable Review (more than 2 reviewers). Sometimes a major act provides us with multiple review copies, but more often we use temporary CDR copies of the promo. These copies are distributed among the reviewers who volunteer to participate in the RTR. Normally each reviewer has about 2 weeks to listen to the CD and write a review independently. Their individual contributions are then compiled into an article by the CD Reviews Editor of the reviews page. When time permits (which is not very often) we might try to forward the individual remarks of the first reviewer to a second reviewer and so on, so that they can build on each others comments.

We rarely write Rountable Reviews for smaller or new bands because time often doesn't permit this and the interest of the readers of DPRP in this band does not merit the necessity of a RTR either.

Please contact the DPRP Reviews Editor should you wish to arrange an RTR.

Does DPRP also review demos?

We are sorry but we reserve the right not to review Demo's. We try only to review material that is sold commercially to other people; whether through the old fashioned record shops or via a personal web site.

DPRP has been sent our CD for review but it hasn't appeared yet. Why not?

First we have to receive the CD/CDR/DVD's and then decide which reviewer will accept that piece of work (or whether it is rejected because it does not meet the Review Policy criteria). It then takes time for us to re-distribute the CD/CDR/DVD's to the team reviewer (who now cover many countries around the world). The current workload and available time of each of the team members may also effect this the time it takes for a review to appear.

DPRP has said it will not review my work. Why not?

DPRP holds the right not to write a review for an item which is not considered to be Progressive Rock or related to Progressive Rock, Symfonic Rock or Progressive Metal by the team. We are certainly not trying to define what is progressive and what's not, but in the past too much time has been wasted on heavy metal, grunge and new age albums. Not only does it take a lot of time to carefully evaluate a CD, DPRP's visitors aren't interested in these releases anyway. Any such material we receive and which is 'rejected' will not be returned to the sender.

I would like DPRP to run a Competition to promote my CD release? How is this done?

DPRP are happy to run competitions to support the release of a major CD/DVD. However, you must provide DPRP with three questions plus prizes to award to the winners. You must undertake to post the prizes direct to the winners and cover the postage costs. Please contact the DPRP Reviews Editor for further details.

Why doesn't DPRP review MP3 files of our music?

Several reasons. Here's some of them:

• In our opinion, if a band wants their music to be reviewed by DPRP, the initiative and costs lie with the band. Why should our editors spend time (and money) downloading MP3s?
• Our reviewers always play CDs several times when reviewing; using MP3s would mean they can only review using a PC, not their car or home stereo. Not only is this very inconvenient, but it would also delay the review process unnecessarily.
• We normally review all aspects of an album, including sound quality (often of inferior quality if a low sample rate is used in an MP3) and artwork (not available when reviewing MP3s). DPRP therefore only reviews albums in their commercially available format.
• There's a certain barrier to overtake for a band to release a CD. Currently lots of band are releasing and selling home-made CDs. The majority of these is of doubtful quality. Making a downloadable MP3 available has an even lower barrier. The high quantity of MP3s and low quality of the material (from a compositional point of view) will probably make reviewing MP3 files not only uninteresting and tedious, but also sheerly impossible with the capacity of the DPRP team.

Last Updated : Saturday, 14th June 2008 !