FOCUS II [AKA: MOVING WAVES]

Focus is a Dutch progressive rock band founded in 1969, in Amsterdam, by the organist and flautist Thijs van Leer. It's now considered as one of the biggest and most important bands of the progressive rock music. His extensive and almost exclusive instrumental compositions and improvisations contained several references to the erudite music.

"Moving Waves" aka "Focus II", is the second studio album of Focus and was released in 1972. After the release of their debut studio album "Focus Plays Focus" aka "In And Out Of Focus", Jan Akkerman, dissatisfied with the lack of success of that album, left the band to form a band with the bassist Cyril Havermans and the drummer Pierre van der Linden. After Hans Cleuver and Martin Dresden left Focus, and after Thijs van Leer has heard about that new band, he contacted them. They invited him to join to the band that remained with the same name, Focus. They recorded their second album, "Moving Waves", the first album to have some impact and that received positive international reviews.

So, the line up on the album is Thijs van Leer (vocals, Hammond organ, piano, Mellotron, harmonium and flute), Jan Akkerman (guitars and bass guitar), Cyril Havermans (vocals and bass guitar) and Pierre van der Linden (drums and percussion).

"Moving Waves" has six tracks. The first track "Hocus Pocus" written by Thijs van Leer and Jan Akkerman is an extraordinary track. This is a legendary track from the band with intensity perfectly astonishing and, at the same time, we may also say that it has some beautiful insanity on it. It's a track that soon we heard it, soon we sing it, and that, in the end, we remain completely free from all tensions and stress after a day's work. This always was one of my favourite progressive tracks ever. The second track "Le Clochard" written by Jan Akkerman is a classical oriented song in the most pure tradition of the classical guitar playing, very well accompanied by the Mellotron on the back. This is a beautiful bucolic song that shows perfectly well one of the many facets of the band. In this case we can see the more melodic side of Focus. This song represents a terrific contrast with the frantic "Hocus Pocus". The third track "Janis" written by Jan Akkerman is also a soft track as the previous one. Curiously, despite is a Jan Akkerman' s song, in this case, the lead is taken by the magic flute of Thijs van Leer, perfectly supported by the other band's members. This is a very simple song but the melody and harmonies are so perfect and catchy that makes of it, somehow, a memorable song. Like some other reviewers, this is also a song that reminds me my good old and beloved band, Camel. The fourth track is the title track "Moving Waves". It was written by Thijs van Leer and Inayat Khan. This is my less favourite song on the album. It's a sweet and gentle piano song, but not very inspired, especially on its vocal performance. This is another melancholic song dominated by piano and the voice of Thijs van Leer, but the final musical atmosphere is in really a bit boring. Unfortunately, in my humble opinion, this is a song that failed completely to be part of this album. The fifth track "Focus II" written by Thijs van Leer is a very interesting and melodic piece of music that curiously, and in contrast with "Janis" written by Jan Akkerman but where Thijs van Leer lead the song, on here, we have another ironic twist, the song was written by Thijs van Leer but is dominated by the guitar of Jan Akkerman. This is a song that continues the Focus series, with good song writing and great musical performance by all band's members, as is usual. The sixth and last track "Eruption" is divided into fifteen parts. Mostly of them were written by Thijs van Leer, but others had also the collaboration of Tom Barlage, Jan Akkerman, Eelke Nobel and Pierre van der Linden. "Eruption" is the magnus opus of the album and represents the best piece of music on the album, despite "Hocus Pocus". This is a magnificent piece of music with great musical moments that reminds me strongly the classical baroque music, in some parts. This is entirely an instrumental long suite with about 12 minutes and where the music flows continuously. It has several themes that come and goes and where some of them develop through some musical improvisations. "Eruption" is a track full of virtuosity and a perfect example how to make progressive symphonic music with a high quality level.

Conclusion: "Moving Waves" is, without any doubt, a great progressive rock album and represents clearly a big step forward, relatively to their previous debut studio album "In And Out Of Focus". However, it hasn't the same quality level of their greatest masterpiece "Hamburger Concerto". In my opinion, "Moving Waves" is a better album than "In And Out Of Focus", it's at the same level of "Focus 3" but it's less good and less balanced than "Hamburger Concerto". "Moving Waves" has two excellent musical moments, "Hocus Pocus" and "Eruption". Although "Le Clochard", "Janis" and "Focus II" be very good songs, it lack something to them, in order to can be considered three great songs. By the other hand, and as I said before, "Moving Waves" is its Achilles' heel, which seems to be on the album, as a fish out of water.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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