SOLUTION

The first thing that immediately strikes home about the opening section of this album is the assured and accomplished playing, and the beautifully clean recording. Ensemble playing at its best, Tom Barlage leads a four piece Sax/Flute, Piano/Organ/Elec Piano, Bass and Drums outfit with a pleasing blend of the happening influences of the time. There are plenty of tempo and dynamic changes which perhaps inevitably remind the listener of Focus, but also Pink Floyd, Van Der Graaf, Soft Machine, The Nice and even Frank Zappa. There are extended passages of jazzy soloing over pleasing well written riffs and plenty of first class Hammond backing to keep the interest throughout.

It's fully 14 minutes into the album before Peter Van Der Sande's somewhat superfluous vocals make their first and only showing. His voice is not unappealing, but the focus and strength here is mainly instrumental, and the first four pieces flow beautifully into each other for the first 30 minutes of the album.

This mood is rudely interrupted with the intro to epic closer `Circus Circumstances' which is a kind of jokey Focus type Dutch leap-around, which then rather surprisingly uses a direct quote of The Nice's `For Example' as a jumping off point for more bright and appealing jazz influenced prog.