Solution
Cordon Bleu

Looking through the eyes of a 21st-century music enthusiast at the immense musical repertoire left to us from that period of divine grace for rock that was the first half of the '70s, it's hard to do justice to all the bands. In just 5 years, the European music scene was literally overwhelmed by masterpieces from the likes of Emerson Lake & Palmer, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Soft Machine, or our own PFM, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, Area, and Battiato (considering what the recent past five years have given us, well, it brings a bit of anguish. But that's another story).

With such an extensive musical presence, both in quantity and quality, it's natural for certain phenomena to fade into the background compared to the "giants" of the period. However, digging a little, we discover that some people have little to envy from the big names. This is the case with this semi-unknown Dutch quartet, which in 1975 produced this honest, refined, and thoroughly enjoyable work straddling jazz-rock and progressive for Elton John's Rocket Records. The fact that the refined audience of Debaser has so far largely snubbed this band only further demonstrates how these four Dutch musicians are unjustly underrated, despite having produced a work of high caliber.

The mere 10 minutes of the first track, "Chappaqua", are worth the ticket price. It's thanks to this little forgotten gem of the '70s decade, played almost by chance by a local rock station a couple of months ago, that I discovered the existence of the Flemish quartet. A keyboard so exquisitely prog and the ever-present soprano sax of Tom Barlage dominate the first part of an A-B-A formatted track that manages the daunting task of being highly listenable without ever becoming banal, and refined without falling into the self-serving mannerism of many of their contemporaries. Saxophone phrases alternate with the keyboard evolutions of Willem Ennes, a virtuoso unjustly overshadowed in an era monopolized by the exploits of a certain Keith Emerson. The central part of the piece, introduced by a brief cadence on sevenths with a strongly classical flavor, is governed by a bold rhythm section, a pulsing bass line perfectly intertwined with a syncopated drum rhythm typical of jazz school.

It's over this almost arrogant rhythm section that the keyboards and sax sketch out, almost impressionistically, brief phrases like light brushstrokes completing a canvas with well-defined contours. The piece's romance form is thus closed with an anticipated return of the first theme, now with a triumphal ending carried by the sax. A diamond of remarkable craftsmanship created by four musicians who prove to have nothing to envy technically to Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, and company. The value of our Dutch musicians is even more pronounced in a piece like "Whirligig", with its continuous instrumental stop-and-go's, complex themes marked in unison by synth and sax, the harmonically challenging breaks, deliberately left in suspense and deliberately dissonant, and especially the sophisticated and tight rhythms impeccably followed by a group of musicians who take all the space needed to showcase their musical intelligence and talents. Again, without ever falling into whirlwind and aimless scales, and without resorting to self-serving technicalities, undisputed signs of a lack of creativity common to many other bands.

So why is the fifth star missing from this album I have praised so highly? The reason is simple. It's an instrumentally perfect album, but sometimes the voice of Frankie Fish arrives to mar such a finely crafted work, accompanied by the Yes-style choruses of the other members. The Yes-style choruses are better left to the Yes of Fragile and Close To The Edge, because outside of their natural context they appear blatantly pop and risk ruining the excellent instrumental work of the group. And perhaps this pop turn of the band in some tracks (flagrant in a song like "A Song For You", released as a single in Europe, where it sounds like an enamored Anderson singing a sappy 3-minute ballad to his lady, complete with background choruses) is partly due to Rocket Records itself, influenced by the easy-listening setup typical of Sir Elton John.

The vocal blandness in some tracks, combined with the striving at all costs for easily memorable melodies in tracks like "Last Detail", or the aforementioned "A Song For You", are small blemishes on an exquisitely refined work that could have been an unattainable milestone of an era, on par with a Trilogy or a Foxtrot, if only the musical prowess of the musicians had been given free rein without unnecessarily forcing the hand on the more "catchy" melodic aspect.

All in all, it's an album that every fan of prog, fusion, and/or jazz-rock should have in their collection. A somewhat difficult demand to meet, as it is an elusive record as rare as a phoenix nowadays. But a fan of the genre absolutely cannot ignore authentic gems like "Chappaqua" or "Whirligig".