NEW ACRES

'New Acres' is a rather charming little album by an all but forgotten Dutch band from the latter part of the seventies. It's also apparently the only thing they ever released, and has never to the best of my knowledge been legitimately reissued on CD although there is a Japanese mini of dubious authenticity floating around. The original vinyl was pressed to only 500 copies and fetches upwards of hundreds of dollars/euros. I saw a copy sell for $79 USD at auction a while back but it was apparently somewhat worn. There's also a very rare 1971 Dutch single titled 'I Love You, I Leave You' produced by Jan Akkerman and credited to the Tamalone who 'made his killer prog psych LP 'New acres' in 1979', but all indications are this Tamalone didn't form until well after that and didn't have the sort of connections needed for access to someone with the celebrity of Akkerman.

Anyway, the debts to Jethro Tull circa 'Songs from the Wood' are quite strong, obvious and undeniable. If the stories were a bit more English in nature and the flute a bit more prevalent I'd almost call it a tribute album. But while Ian Anderson is the voice and wind of Tull, flautist/vocalist/composer Cees Van Aanholt adds guitar to his repertoire and that tends to overshadow the flute for most of the album. The keyboards are also more noticeable here than on most Tull albums but include the same or similar mixes of organ and synthesizers that Tull employed in the same timeframe.

For the most part the band seems to have taken the simple approach of emulating Anderson's vocal phrasings (and folksy, sometimes bawdy lyrical style to a certain extent) as well as Martin Barre's alternating heavy and soloing guitar style to yield a sort of 'lost' Tull album that lacks the percussion skill of Barriemore Barlow and only hints at the range of Glascock's bass prowess. In fact, other than flute the bass is the most noticeably missing Tull trademark on this album.

The only song worth noting in my opinion is 'Song for Ophillus' which, while Tullish in style and sound at least tries to come off like something that was recorded for a 1979 audience and not three (or five) years prior. Anderson pushed his luck releasing 'Songs from the Wood' when he did given that style of folk rock was already in serious decline. Tamalone go even further by recording this as the seventies are winding to a close. Frankly the thing wouldn't have had a chance even with a decent label and some promotion, neither of which was forthcoming. The band broke up in 1981.

Singer Ester van der Hoorn (who doesn't sing enough but also plays flute) appeared on a record for the Dutch pop band Paragon shortly thereafter, and bassist Ad van de Staak recorded a couple albums for Savage Kalman & Explosion Rockets (never heard of them myself so don't ask me what sort of music they played). Otherwise I can't find much of anything the members did post-Tamalone.

A decent album that is highly derivative, but I can't bring myself to fault the band for that since they were clearly Tull devotees and seemed to do a pretty decent job of parroting the band's sound with nonetheless original compositions. So I'll go with (barely) three stars and a mild recommendation if you can find the album or some form of a reissue anywhere.

peace