PRESENT FROM NANCY

I am in the process of rounding out a Canterbury collection that is getting pretty respectable (if I do say so my self). In an effort to do this I have purchased the first two albums by the lesser touted Canterbury band, Supersister. I also went out on a limb and bought Soft Machine's Third-considered to be a classic. Well my first impression of Supersister was that of surprise. When people talk about Canterbury it always seems to be all about bands like Caravan, Hatfield and the North, Soft Machine, and a few others. Little is ever said about Supersister. Supersister is not only a good Prog. band, but one of the best. "Present from Nancy" is quirky like other Canterbury albums but has an underlying dreaminess and eeriness that I instantly fell in love with. I would definitely rank them above National Health, Matching Mole, and Gong. And this album definitely blows away Soft Machine's Third--that classic album that seems to be half dissonant filler and half redundant keyboard/saxophone interplay. The first thing I was surprised at was the decent vocals, the best vocals I've heard from a Canterbury band; they are understated like Sinclair's, but much less monotonous. Another thing I like about this album is the heavy use of the piano. The piano parts, acoustic and electric, are well played and well thought out and help Supersister avoid the mistake of overused organ that plague other Canterbury bands. There are some spacey/synthy parts on this album which seems to be a Canterbury staple; even though I am not a fan of this spacey filler stuff, when Supersister does it they pair it with the flute and that makes it much more interesting. The flute seems to be a lead instrument in there music and its interplay with the keyboards really defines the Supersister sound. All and all, this is a fantastic Canterbury album. Supersister are definitely Canterbury, but they are not derivative of any other band. This is Dutch Canterbury, and it can stand tall with its English counterparts.