AMOC

Unusually good progressive jazzrock experiment gone terribly right, Denmark ensemble Coma's Amoc kicks some ass and made this grizzled veteran smile more than once, showing a band quite well versed in their understanding of rock and how it can interlope with almost any other form of music, even the unwilling ones. A creepy whistle intros 'Savværket', Jakob Mygind's sax leads a shaky mix as the band finds a pace, Viggo Steincke Bertelsen's fiery guitar pulling out a groovy vamp and some serious riffage that heats up nicely merging into 'Pigerne fra Himmelbjerget', funky 'Pulp', and cerebral 'Heavy Winter'.

'En saftig brosten' was (even in 1980) retro space-age fusion; 'Orientexpressen' tastily bobs & weaves and kicks out the rhythm; 'Love and Madness' is romantic pap; But the title cut is a prog/fusion honker reminding of John McLaughlin's dirtier days. Not entirely realized or completely finished, Amoc had more potential than it yielded but, even without the bells and whistles and pyrotechnics of an Al DiMeola, is still a rousing set of quality Hard JR/F.