SUPERSISTERIOUS

Live recording including all the classics from the first three lp's. Incredible after almost 30 years! You want to know Supersister? Get this one, and your done. Maybe get the two in one of the first two lp's and your definitely done.

One of my favorite live-albums of all times. Pity it is not on dvd...

Well:

1st of all, i want to make a comment for the band's definition as Canterbury Scene.

This band has nothing to do with Canterbury Scene, simple coz its a Dutch band, and has no relation with the Canterbury city/territory/musicians/bands etc. Because a band has a similar sound with_say_Caravan, this isnt a criterion to label this band as Canterbury Scene.

And now about the album: After 3 listenings and after seen the 4.20 rating, i couldnt resist!

One of the worst lives i heard ever! Bands like this gave a bad name to prog rock. If you never listened any prog rock album and you start with this, you'll never listen prog rock again.

The compositions are boring (the best of them) and silly/pointless/ridiculous (the worst of them). Although this is a 2000 live recording, the keyboards' sound is like a home-keyboard from '90s. You must try really VERY hard to make so poor and non-professional sound from any synth from this era, but it seems that Mr Robert Jan Stips is expert on this.

Unfortunately he is expert only on this, coz his playing on keyboards is so typical, dry and nerveless. Few times i had the impression that he run out of tempo. No comments for his vocals, and also no comments for the drummer Marco Vrolijk. Amateur is the right word for him (but he isnt the only amateur here....)

The 1st disc is better, but the 2nd disc it'll make you to bang your head on the wall. This record is my only SUPERSISTER record, thanks God... And again thanks God coz i have this live in MP3 format, this mean i got it for free. (Thats why we need MP3, we can save a lot of money avoiding to buy albums like this one)

I dont know how they sound in their studio albums (im sure they sound better) but in this live they sound at least amateurs. If you want to listen Dutch progrock, ignore this joke and listen the Great FOCUS. Quality band even today.

Rating: 1 star.

And this coz i rate this album as a prog rock album, in a progrock site. If i was in a prog-circus site, i'd rate it 4 stars.

Excelent live performance of a great progressive canterbury style band. Plenty of intrincate, smooth, catchy armonies and ritmic figures at same time.

First influences are soft machine (second album), egg, caravan and zappa, but thay have his own personality and music tools.

The music of this double live cd are taked from three first albums (the most progressive and best), and they sound very good after 30 years. This lost period means a few sincronity errors too, but they are humans, and are playing with great emotion.

The album included a girl named you, a 10 minutes theme with intrincated, fast music and a very strong interplay between the ritmic and melodic elements, and a reserved passage for the solist instrument. (flute, Sacha Van Geest). This is an underrated masterpiece!

Another great songs are: energy, judy goes on holliday, puding en gistering, mexico and present from nancy.

Recomended to caravan, camel (first years fans), they are in the samla mammas manna and wingwam line too. It is complex but desdramatized (relaxed) music.

4.5 stars

It is a shame that this double live album is out of print. I got their pretty hard to find first two albums and I moved heaven and hell to get this album. Which was a wise move from my part.

Most of the stuff is taken from their first two albums. Both of them are pretty much regarded as classics. That alone makes this a good live album. But Supersister also adds plenty of whimsy eccentricity and life into the live versions of these songs. The music is very much in the Canterbury scene vein, not millions of miles away from Caravan (add Focus into the mix too). Supersister is certainly more structured melody orientated than the more jazzy bands from this scene (Gong, National Health). It is ironic that one of the best, if not the best Canterbury scene bands are Dutch. I am even not sure if the guys in Supersister has ever visited Canterbury. Who cares ? They are great ! Not all the music on this two hours long album is fantastic. There are some talking and funny German bierkeller pieces of music. The band obviously enjoys and indulge themselves on the scene and that is very evident. But most of the music is jaw-dropping superb. This being a live album, I would also recommend the studio albums. But I agree with another reviewer here: This is indeed a fantastic live album. It is an essential Canterbury scene album. I just hope it could be more available because everyone into the Canterbury scene should own a copy of it.

4.5 stars from me.