STRAIGHT TO THE KRANKENHAUS

Straight To The Krankenhaus is the 4th full-length studio album by Danish jazz/ fusion act Secret Oyster. The album was composed and recorded simultaniously with Vidunderlige Kælling (1975), but was not released until 1977. The band had enjoyed great succes with their first couple of albums and they had even been in contact with Colombia Records who had told the band that they might try and market the band in the US. Unfortunately Colombia Records changed their mind as they felt Secret Oyster sounded too much like Weather Report. The band ended up disillusioned and split-up in December 1977 after a short but but bright career. The original version of the album contained 9 tracks while the 2007 Laser´s Edge CD re-issue features 2 bonus tracks.

The music on the album is high energy jazz rock/ fusion. Weather Report is an obvious influence so in that respect Colombia Records were right, but Secret Oyster are not a clone band. Their brand of jazz rock/ fusion is very catchy and while there are plenty of soloing by especially sax and guitar on this album, the songs never drag or drown in excessive soloing. The band are exceptionally well playing but that´s not their only asset as the songs on the album are also high quality compositions. To top that off you have an excellent and warm production. The kind of warm production you only hear on seventies albums.

Straight To The Krankenhaus is slightly more interesting and a bit more in the band´s usual style than its predecessor, and while I certainly enjoyed Vidunderlige Kælling very much, Straight To The Krankenhaus is just a notch better. 4 stars are well deserved.