If there is one band in the history of dutch
progressive rock that has done it’s fair share of promotion it certainly
has to be Flamborough Head. Natives of the north of Holland the band had
been mailing numerous amounts of copies of their demotape longe before there
was even talk of their debut album “Unspoken whisper”. One of the
band’s classic epics ‘Schoolyard fantasy’ had been with us for years
before most of you out there could listen to it for the very first time. Add
to this the band’s very own Progfarm festival, where each time they are
one of the performing bands, and you might understand the fact that the band
suffered from a bit of ‘over exposure’ for a while. With the same
line-up the follow-up “Defining the legacy” was released as well as a
limited club edition on 500 numbered copies of
“Bridge to the promissed land” which was a CD-version of the
band’s 1994 demo tape. “Defining the legacy” was an important fase for
singer Siebe Rein Schaaf for whom the lyrics were too personal making the
whole album reflect on his own life. Together with guitarist André Cents he
decided to leave. At first glance it looked like all the hard work had been
in vain. Looking back to the band’s ‘Best new band’ award from the CRS
in 1998, the remaining threepiece decided not to call it a day but to seek
for replacements. These were found in the person of guitarist Eddie Mulder
(there’s also an Eddie Mulder the stuntman but that’s another guy,
whilst ‘our’ Eddie Mulder was a member of the band French Connection !),
and singer Margriet Boomsma. Not only did they switch a male singer with a
female vocalist but Margriet also introduced flute and recorders to the
band’s melodic music. It is that new found energy which has been spread
all over the new album “One for the crow”. It’s incredible how the arrival of new
bandmembers kind of injects new blood and adrenalin into the already
familiar format. Mainly based around the lush symphonic arrangements of
keyboardplayer Edo Spanninga, Flamborough Head emphasises on strong hooks
and melodies and with the addition of extra instruments their music is now
heading into a direction which introduces slight folky moves rubbing
shoulders with bands such as Camel and Mostly Autumn but sometimes also
evoking the vintage sound of a band like Kayak. It strikes me that more than
half of the album is written by newcomer guitarist Eddie Mulder,
illustrating that the already fully established band has full confidence in
their new arrival. Full marks also to the clear voice of Margriet Boomsma
getting close to that of Annie Haslam but containing a little more vibrato
and often leaning towards musical. The opening titletrack fully establishes
the band in the top regions of the current prog movement as it contains
everything a proglover can dream of whether it’s rhythmic passages or
modest parts with the spotlight both on the Steve Howe soundalike
guitarparts and the wonderful orchestral elements. As kind of a section
between two parts there’s even room for a demonstration by bassplayer
Marcel Derix. ‘Old shoes’ is yet another prog extravaganza as a lot of
things happen in just one song. Margriet’s voice glides over an Oldfield
style piano whilst synthsolo’s alternate with superb guitar contributions.
There’s even a snippet which sounds like Gryphon. In fact this
‘medieval’ type of music is all over the place during the short
instrumental ‘Separate’ illustrating the wonderful skills of Eddie
Mulder augmented with a little bit of recorder to enhance the general feel. Also ‘Daydreams’ is a concoction of
different styles with a decent amount of recorder adding to the fragile
nature of it all. The cristalclear guitar of Eddie is the focal point of the
short instrumental ‘Old forest’ which will certainly please fans of
Gordon Giltrap. The guitar in the intro for ‘Limestone rock’ however
sounds way too much like Robert Fripp’s riff in ‘In the court of the
Crimson King’ which is a shame as so far all of the material has been very
original. Imagine a cross between latter day Renaissance and Camel here with
once again some superb Latimer-like guitarplaying courtesy of Eddie.
There’s an ambient middle section which again benefits from the fragile
flute adding a dash of folk into the music. In fact it evolves into a
question-answer routine between flute and guitar. The album closes with a
reprise of the main theme from ‘Old shoes’ on acoustic guitar augmented
with the equally instrumental ‘Pure’ illustrating the versatile nature
of newcomer Eddie Mulder. It hardly happens that a newcomer gets the
chance to put his mark so firmly into the music of a well established band.
In the case of “One for the crow” it’s mainly both the newcomers which
get all the credit. Instead of just wiping away their tears the remaining
threesome of Edo, Koen and Marcel have used this opportunity to steer the
Flamborough Head vessel to another harbour, as far away from the neo-prog
island as possible in order to arrive at a brandnew destination which will
certainly be visited by a lot of new prog-tourists. I only hope Flamborough Head will be able to get
a decent mix whenever they perform as it will be the delicate details which
make up the complete picture. Yet those who have the beauty of the shining
silver disc in their possession know they’re in for a real treat ! Reviewed by : John ‘Bo Bo’ Bollenberg |
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