Progressive Rock Focus

Today we're having a listen to the new album by our favourite prog rock band from Amsterdam, Focus. Still fronted by legend Thijs van Leer. If all you know of Focus is Hocus Pocus, then you're in for a bit of a treat. The album opens with Fjord Focus, the name of which I will move swiftly past. It's a glorious jam, rooted I would say in classic 70s prog, not unexpectedly. Great guitar work. Eminently listenable. The second track, Focus 13, starts with a guitar solo that strays close to the line of sentimental but just about stays the right side, before it morphs into something rather faster. Never obvious, always interesting, I have to say this really makes me want to listen to a lot more. I'll be honest, I've been put off for years by Hocus Pocus, which is, let's face it, a rather silly track. Good, but silly. The third track starts with piano. Harmonically sophisticated, and again just about staying on the right side of sentimental. Thijs clearly has a formida...

With a new album imminent from Public Service Broadcasting, it's time for a look. The Race For Space is an album from 2015, their second full studio album. The opening track is a beautifully written choral piece underpinning JFK's famous speech about going to the moon. It makes for a great opener, but reveals little about what's to come. On Sputnik, the album gets into its stride. Starting out as an extremely sparse piece of electronica, it develops by layering sounds rather than structurally. It works - over 7 minutes the track builds to a convincing conclusion. There's not a lot of harmonic complexity - this is about creating an atmosphere, not changes in tempo or key modulations. No singing - this album is mostly instrumental. The album uses a lot of spoken word samples to evoke the events of the 1960s (plus a little either side). Their use is mostly pretty well judged. Let's move on to track 5, EVA. Again, building an atmosphere on a riff, this time guitar-based...

This is an album from 1986. I am sure you remember 'Calling all the Heroes' - that's on here, and I'll talk about it later. But does it still stand up as a good album? Firstly, the production is very  80s. In places it is abrasively so - for example, the instrumental section most of the way through the first track. At times it's like someone is smacking you round the head with Phil Collins' snare. The drums are really over the top, and some of the synth sounds are extremely dated. At times (track 3) I thought I was listening to that dreadful track on Abacab with the horn section. I'm also not a big fan of the vocal. I find it a bit contrived, like someone trying a little too hard. Having got those gripes out of the way, let's talk about the good stuff. The melodies are terrific. All In Red, the second track, has a fabulous hook line. Whole New World has a great chorus. First and foremost, you can see that IT Bites put a lot of work into crafting catchy t...

To date, one person has read my review of Jadis - No Fear of Looking Down, so you can hardly accuse me of chasing numbers in my follow-up review of Somersault, their album from 2010. But so impressed I was by No Fear, I've been looking further into their catalogue. Opening track Live This Lie reminds me of 'IT Bites' - remember them? Funnily enough they are still going and I will be doing a review soon. There's a kind of 80s pop sensibility to Jadis which I find very engaging. The vocals are rhythmically and melodically interesting, the musical arrangement interesting, the harmony is full of interesting tweaks and turns. There's clearly a very creative musical intelligence. This song is a very long way away from a simple verse/chorus structure. And what a great ending! Second track Batstein (Batstein?) follows on stylistically. There's a kind of cheerful Englishness about Jadis which reminds me of Camel. And Steve Hackett in his most Narnia-esque mood. Great syn...