MOTHER FOCUS

I can remember being perplexed and disappointed when hearing this. Returning to it I find I cannot warm any more these days to it - in fact it sounds positively embarrasing at times. My first impression was the thinness and predictability of the soundscapes: horrible string machine creeps in on many tracks (replacing the glorious mellotron of Clochard & Pupilla), talk-box guitar & electric sitart replaces the tough humbucking overdrive of Akkerman's custom Les Paul, and the drums have been relegated even further to backbeat status. Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against a shift to disco rhythms (closet Abba fan that I am) and Akkerman's funk could be top-notch (Crackers from Ship of Memories is tight white- boy funk in the vein of White Cherry) but the ideas here are thin and rarely worked out. Listen to how the high class 'No Hang-ups' (actually premiered on their previous Hamburger Concerto tour) just dribbles away into a pointless fade rather than become a Focus epic. Focus iv is a poor relation to it's sublime forbears - no direction and that horrible string machine again... Bennie Helder (who?) and Father Bach certainly merit a listen, and Mother Focus is not too bad, but the rest are sub-MOR jazz noodles unworthy of this band. In they end they were following a trend: ELP - from Trilogy to Love Beach / Gentle Giant - from Octopus to Giant for a Day / Focus - from Moving Waves to Mother Focus.