Excellent mix of instrumental rocking electric & mellow solo
D. Gorman "Crystalline Structure M | 01/20/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"when amazon recommended this to me, i had to grab it up! i used to have it on vinyl back in the day, and i loved it! hearing it again brought back great memories! the first tune is nearly 20 minutes long & took up the entire side 1 of the vinyl record. it starts with jan playing a mellow bit on a fender rhodes (electric piano) for a minute or two and then goes into a rocking guitar jam with a band that, although it is a studio recording, it almost sounds like a spontaneous concert jam with the old dutch prog-rock group he spearheaded, focus. this album was done around the time his group focus was big (the early '70s), and this side-long 20 minute jam clearly ranks up there with focus' side-long opuses like "eruption" and "hamburger concerto". the opening tune on this album "fresh air" starts with 2 minutes of mellow fender rhodes, then goes into an 18-minute rocking electric, jamming guitar jam that you really gotta hear if you like those drawn-out '70s, 'oops, i forgot to stop' guitar jams! i love stuff like that, and often played side 1 last when playing the album, just because it was a great way to end the listening experience! After that, side 2 was mostly short, acoustic guitar solo tunes, which is a great antithesis to side 1...you get both ends of the scale. the short, acoustic guitar tunes are very well done, and there are even a few short, electric band pieces (mostly with a strong blues element) to keep the side interesting. it's entirely instrumental, well-thought-out, with moments of classical mixed with the hard-driving rock of the '70s. i highly recommend this entire album! and i also recommend (even though it's on cd) playing the part with the short acoustic & blues jams first, and saving the grand, long rocking nearly-20-minute opus for last! believe me...your ears and your brain will thank you!
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Track Listings (8) - Disc #1