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Moving Waves

£5.865£11.73Clearance
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Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term. Euridice" is a classical lied which segues into the Gregorian-inspired "Dayglow" and followed by van der Linden's drum solo, "Endless Road". It is the fate of a select few bands to conquer the world with one song of brilliant Hieronymus Bosch weirdness, then go on to become yet another cult band.

Overall, it's not a bad album at all, but there's a lot of better progressive rock albums out there. Once again, the combined talents of Thijs van Leer, Jan Akkerman and drummer Pierre van der Linden work a truly special kind of magic. Moving Waves, also known as Focus II, is their second full-length record, and includes the group's most successful single “Hocus Pocus”. Eruption” includes tributes to classical composers and other Dutch fusion acts, and an intense drum solo by Buddy Rich disciple van der Linden. But proof that Focus was capable of bending the time-space continuum can be found in the album’s opener—also the band’s biggest hit.Please remember it can take some time for your bank or credit card company to process and post the refund too. Formed by Thijs van Leer, Hans Cleuver, Martijn Dresden and Jan Akkerman (whom had left his previous band Brainbox to pursue Focus), the band went on to become one of the most influential Dutch rock bands. The too winsome by far instrumental “Le Clochard (Bread)” is moldy guitar strum; on follow-up instrumental “Janis” the flute does the heavy lifting.

You come out of the adrenaline rush of Hocus Pocus to the gentle acoustic guitar of Le Clochard, so perhaps this was not the best way to start an album; play your ace first. My pal Martijn informs me that “If “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” didn’t exist, “Hocus Pocus” would be the greatest song ever. La band è una di quelle , nel panorama progressive , dal sound più europeo dal quale prendono ispirazione miscelando musica barocca/rinascimentale con grinta e forza espressiva del rock anni 70.

No one in English and America, and I’m including Frank Zappa, could have created a song so utterly off the wall. Hocus Pocus” is a sublimely weird rondo that alternates among van Leer’s scat singing, whistling, and yodeling and Akkerman’s incendiary guitar work—a siren song for hard rock fans everywhere. After releasing their debut album Focus Plays Focus (1970), the group suffered a setback when Akkerman requested that van Leer fire Dresden and Cleuver so his former Brainbox bandmate, drummer Pierre van der Linden, could join the band. The lineup that recorded In and Out of Focus (aka Focus Plays Focus ) sprang out of the pit orchestra of the Amsterdam staging of Hair and featured flautist/ keyboard player Thijs van Leer as its primary driver. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Proof that Focus was capable of pulling off pretty much anything in those days can be found in “Eruption,” a 22-minute hard rock rendering of Jacopo Peri’s opera Euridice that canvases the record’s second side. It went on to peak at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart, [6] number 8 on the US Billboard 200, [7] and number 4 on the Dutch Album Top 100 chart.Side two contains the 22-minute track "Eruption", a loose rock adaptation of the tale of Orpheus and Euridice from the opera Euridice by Italian composer Jacopo Peri. It’s a prime embodiment of what later became known as “progressive rock”: a melding of classical composition elements with rock ’n’ roll tempos in the vein of Frank Zappa, plus jazz fusion passages and a handful of truly masterful guitar licks.

But if “Hocus Pocus” isn’t the greatest song ever, I never hear it without an admixture of mirth, awe and admiration. The song was written as a rock parody, and it was recorded for the album as it lacked any "outright rock" tracks at that point. After a bit of reflection most of us realised that there was far more depth and genuinely great music on this album. Le canzoni sono tutte molto belle e alcune delle piccole perle , una tra tutte la sezione di Eruption denominata "Tommy" (in onore di Tom Barlage , sassofonista olandese membro dei Solution , dal quale è stata presa e rielaborata in forma chitarristica la linea di sax sulla canzone "Divergence" dell'omonimo album). The Dutch prog band Focus' debut album is a progressive rock album too but with their second studio effort Moving Waves they adopted even more complex form of prog rock.Of course, Akkerman and van Leer were exceptional in writing to each others’ strengths as musicians: Akkerman’s “Janis” is really a showcase for van Leer’s multitracked flute parts, while Akkerman totally steals the show with his guitar arpeggios on van Leer’s fusion track “Focus II. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. The guitar playing by Jan Akkerman is sublime as is the keyboard work of Thijs Van Leer and it is driven along by the superb Bass of Cyril Havermans and drums of Pierre Van Der Linden. Thijs Van Leer quì mette in risalto le sue doti migliori che lo contraddistingueranno nel corso degli anni con la band : eclettismo , polistrumentismo , follia e magia.

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