BINGO

It's quite funny that I found the cassette of this album yesterday at the secondary market. When I saw it I was not aware that Ekseption has ever made an album with this name 'Bingo' and unfortunately I could not search the net for information due to bad or weak signal of my mobile phone. Interestingly no one seemed interested to buy this cassette so finally I decided to purchase it. It turned out from the net that this album was the first one from the band without the involvement of one of its founding fathers Rick van der Linden (keyboard) who left the band to form Trace. His position was then replaced by Hans Jansen (1974- 1977).

As we all know that Ekseption was a Dutch progressive rock ensemble with changing membership, active from 1967, with the embryo of bands named as The Jokers and Incrowd. The group started out playing jazz, pop and R&B covers, but, impressed by a gig of The Nice, Rick van der Linden (keyboard) decided to concentrate on producing classical rock, modern re-interpretations of classical works with bass, drums and horn charts. Most of their albums contain both original songs and re-interpreted classical pieces.

Having known the departure of van der Linden I then did not expect a lot with this album. But I was wrong because I can assure you that this Bingo album is actually as good as its predecessor Trinity - I would say. And the most important thing is that the album still maintains the character of original Ekseption music with great opening of 'From Ekseption' with great dynamics and composition. The music flows typical of Ekseption with great combination of jazz, rock as well as classical music. The usual use of trumpet backed with keyboard still show good musicianship of the members. There is quite a long and interesting drums solo in the middle of the track. The following track 'Nightwalk' is a mellow one with key dimensions of classical music represented by keyboard work. You will also find the famous 'Sabre Dance' demonstrated in anenergetic way with great combination of keyboard and trumpet in relatively fast tempo. 'Brother Rabbit' is a short track with nice opening of percussion work followed with music in mellow style with some sudden changes of tempo during transition pieces of trumpet work.

Overall, this album is an excellent addition to any prog music collection. The composition has nice melody that flows nicely from track to track with many tempo changes in the middle or during transition pieces. Despite the changes of tempo and sometimes style the music still have a solid structural integrity so that it demonstrates as one cohesive whole. Keep on proggin' ...!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW