Jan Akkerman - Jan Akkerman

Got to hand it to the Dutch. When they're not busy fixing dikes or coming up with new ways to mess with how an auction is supposed to work to sell flowers, they've quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, exported some pretty awesome music - from Ayreon to Golden Earring, and somewhere in the middle was Focus, who gained notoriety for their 1972 hit "Hocus Pocus," which is a great piece of music.

Jan Akkerman was the fretmeister who gave Focus their bite, and he released this solo effort in 1977. I'm the first to admit I don't know a lot about him, and I can't go that deep into his old band Focus either, but I'm aware of him, and I found this album a while back and passed on it because it looked pretty iffy in terms of being able to clean it up, and the cover had some obvious water damage.

I kept seeing it, and each time I looked it over, it seemed like something I should take a chance on ... but I'd defer. And then, like one day, like Popeye, I'd had enough: "That's alls I can stands, I can't stands no more." I took it to the counter, paid my dollar, and brought it home.

There were a couple of spots that looked pretty worn, but I have to say that after a decent clean it looked passable. The first side there was a bit more crack and pop, especially on the first cut, which has a bit of rash but only for a few moments, and then it settled down. The second side more or less had the same issue, and again I was thankful the snaps and pops only lasted a few seconds. Honestly, once the music started they were barely noticeable. All in all, this was in much better condition than I expected it to be.

I'm not a connoisseur of jazz fusion, but I know what I like, and generally instrumental music that is heavy on guitar makes me pretty happy. Which reminds me, I should go dig out Al Di Meola's Elegant Gypsy one of these days, as it too was released in 1977. That will be a story for another day, if it gets told at all.

Let's start at the beginning, and see what happens. "Cracker" leads off the album, and it's got a great groove, and everything is very tasty. The thing about instrumentals is the names don't really mean anything. For all I know, Jan was sitting in his kitchen looking for inspiration and started naming songs after the stuff in his pantry. The next song wasn't named after a food item, so there goes that theory.

Musically, this is a much more cohesive band sound than I expected. I wasn't sure what to expect. I guess I was thinking it would be wall-to-wall guitar noodling and finger gymnastics. Oh, make no mistake, Jan lights it up throughout the album, but it's within the context of the song.

"Angel Watch" has him front and centre, but it doesn't feel overdone. It's a long song, clocking in around 10 minutes, complete with strings and a very cool piano solo that's played over, dare I say it, a jazz disco beat. It's awesome.

The album moves gracefully from song to song, and there aren't any missteps or things that make me cringe or want to hurry things along. What I really like is the songs don't feel rushed or overlong. He gives them room to breathe, and everyone gets a chance to shine and add to the experience.

Make no mistake, though, this is Jan's album, and while he shares nicely with the other kids, particularly Joachim Kuhn on keyboards, this is his album and by golly he owns it. The phrase "monster player" is not overstating his prowess on the guitar. The man's tone is unbelievable.

The album closes with the acoustic "Gate to Europe," and it is a beautiful piece of music accompanied by a string arrangement that doesn't distract you from the actual melody. It's a short piece and a great way to close out a really solid album.

I suspect this is a nod to the cover art - he's finally enticed into playing with his acoustic - or I'm just reaching wildly for some pithy way to wind things up.

This was a great surprise, and I'm glad I finally took a chance and picked it up.

Styx - Paradise Theater

Styx was hands down one of my favourite bands as a kid. They were a strange band, even back then. They were a hard rock band, almost progressive at times, who had a penchant for sucky ballads. I know there's a tendency for people to zero in on "Babe" as the song that killed the band's credibility. The roots go way back to almost the beginning when Styx released "Lady" on their second album. It showed a side to the band that needed to be kept in check, and for the most part the band kept things on a pretty tight leash. The band had been setting a gruelling pace, releasing an album a year (two in 1972) and by the time they released Paradise Theater (if I end up writing theatre later it's because that's how we spell it here) in 1981 they'd dropped ten albums in less than a decade. I snapped this up as soon as I saw it, and it became a fixture on my turntable. Like the band had announced on "Borrowed Time" from 1979's Cornerstone , ...

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