SUPERSISTER

As we know, progressive rock music was born in the end of the 60's. During the 70's it was essentially a phenomenon that occurred in the UK. Despite of that, it also appeared in many other countries all over the world. But, it had an important expression in other European countries, especially in Italy, France, Sweden and the Netherlands. The most key Dutch bands at the time were perhaps Focus, Finch, Kayak, Trace, Earth And Fire, Golden Earring and Supersister.

Supersister was formed as a sextet in The Hague in 1967/68, albeit with the strange name of Sweet OK Supersister. At some point in the late of the 60's, "Sweet OK" and two band's members were lost. The four remaining members Robert Jan Stips, Sacha van Geest, Ron van Eck and Marco Vrolijk pursued with their musical project. With this quartet the band released three studio albums, "Present From Nancy" in 1970, "To The Highest Bidder" in 1971 and "Pudding And Yesterday" in 1972. However, after the third work the band broke up. Stips and van Eck, who wanted to change the band's sound more towards jazz, continued, Vrolijk and van Geest went their separate ways. With different lines up the band released two more albums in the 70's, "Iskander" in 1973 and "Spiral Staircase" in 1974, the last under the name of Sweet OK Supersister. In 2019 a fifth work was released, "Retsis Repus" under the name of Spersister Projekt 2019.

So, "To The Highest Bidder" is the second studio album of Supersister that was released in 1971. The line up on "To The Highest Bidder" is Robert Jan Stips (lead vocals and keyboards), Sacha van Geest (vocals and flutes), Ron van Eck (bass guitar and fuzz bass guitar) and Marco Vrolijk (drums and percussion).

If anything can be said about the successor of their debut album is that its 1971's follow-up, "To The Highest Bidder" is probably even better still, concentrating the band's considerable energy into just four numbers. It's hard to pick a favourite from the three lengthy opening numbers as they are all great. With their second work, Supersister have largely freed themselves from the Soft Machine influences and creating their own Dutch version of the Canterbury sound with a lively, slightly floating jazz rock with at times clear classical influences, especially with regarding to the keyboard work. This is accompanied by rather reserved vocals quite reminiscent of Richard Sinclair. Immediately upon its release, listeners and critics at the time were surprised by the progression the band had made compared to their first work. The songs were of decent length and the lyrics were also a lot more mature, if not more pessimistic. But above all, the band's sound seemed to be much more compact. Finally, the production of the album can be called an excellent work.

"To The Highest Bidder" has four tracks. The first track "A Girl Named You" is one of the band's very best tracks. It's a lively carousel ride made up of psychedelic, classical and jazz rock, with one leg still in the 60's and the other already in the progressive rock of the 70's. It starts with a lengthy instrumental section where the piano and flute play energetic themes and riffs before the track seamlessly changes form into the vocal part that features one of the most infectious and memorable vocal melodies the band wrote. The second track "No Tree Will Grow (On Too High A Mountain)" strikes completely different, darker tones than the opener. It's slightly untypical, being a slow and not all that complex ballad with a progressive edge. With the quiet and relaxed vocals to the more solemn jazz rock, flute sounds, vibraphone and Mellotron strings, the result is quite peculiar track. The third track "Energy (Out Of Future)" is possibly the band's most demanding and intricate piece. The music becomes very varied, sometimes quite free. Here they blend a complicated web of quirky themes, melodies, chord changes and rhythms, taking each style to the very limit. The piece offers the brisk, perfect interplay of the band, which rushes from melody to melody, from section to section and from sound to sound. This is a very entertaining piece, despite its length, which becomes a bizarre, electronic orgy of sound in the last few minutes. The fourth track "Higher" is very short, a contemplative and relaxed track, which is quite reminiscent of the somewhat more pop numbers by Caravan like "Hello Hello". This short light ballad seems like a very modest finale compared to the rest of the album. It proves that a big part of prog rock is also about contrasts, dynamics and variation.

Conclusion: "To The Highest Bidder" is really a nice work that can be recommended to any Canterbury lover. Overall, this is an album with great complexity. It's very unique and great what Supersister has developed here. This is an album that just oozes the joy of playing and delivers a work that is fun from the beginning to end. It's an album with many fine moments that are fun and clever too. But what it mostly accomplishes is to exorcise the band's interest in the studio experimentation, paving the way for more focused song writing on their next third work. If you're looking for an album that delivers a beautiful melodic and instrumental sound without being kitschy, you shouldn't go wrong with this album. So, this is a great album, an excellent starting point to further discover the music catalog of the group from The Hague.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

The band tackled a completely new sound on its fourth album ISKANDER, a concept album about Alexander The Great. The album title is the Turkish name for the Macedonian king who reigned from 336-323 BCE). While not totally abandoning its Canterbury creds as heard on the Soft Machine organ and bass work, the album took on the most serious nature of SUPERSISTER's career with a wildly unpredictable ride through a mostly instrumental album that narrated the emperor in nine tracks that added up to just over 42 minutes of playing time. The album found a cameo from Pierre Morelen on marimba and percussion on "Bagoas" as well as former member Sacha van Geest dropping in for a flute performance on the closing "Looking Back (The Moral Of Herodotus)."

The album has been a divisive one with many fans of first three albums finding it to be too dramatically different from the first three but for those with a sense of adventure and an appreciation for a brilliant album outside the usual scope of a band's established sound, ISKANDER is actually a phenomenally brilliant album showcasing extremely strong musicianship and clever composiitons but then again unlike many of its Dutch counterparts, SUPERSISTER never released a single bad album out of the five that emerged under its name in its 1970s run. ISKANDER begins and ends with the sounds of antiquity with the opening "Introduction" and closing sounds of "Looking Back" but quickly embarks on a superb journey of jazzy progressive rock that showcases the band's new style as well as allowing the new members to prove their worthiness.

The first true track "Dareios The Emperor" establishes the sax as having replaced the dominant flute sounds on previous albums and also displays a firm control on excellent compositional fortitude with clever arrangements that offered diverse motifs, plenty of shifting time signatures, tempo changes and abrupt hairpin curveballs into completely unrelated yet logical extensions of the varying musical motifs that alternated into a greater sum of the parts. The music adds an exotic ancient Greek feel with various musical scales being implemented but for the most part ISKANDER is a veritable mix of jazz-rock, symphonic prog, scatterings of Canterbury jazz and wild eclectic styles from various sources. While sounding nothing like the previous SUPESISTER albums, Stips' keyboard antics are imprinted all over the album's run. The music is as dramatic as what one would expect from a great king from a faraway time and place with mood swings and stylistic shifts that dominate the soundscapes offering a journey through sound into that world. The album is surprisingly effective in evoking the spirit of its subject matter.

The album should by no means be compared with SUPERSISTER's previous albums as its really a stand alone in the band's canon but one that showcases an amazing display of prog virtuosity as well as an ability to convey a concept primarily through tones, timbres, rhythms and dynamics. The album finds scattered vocals throughout with "Bagoas" and "Babylon" featuring the most lyric oriented moments but even here the vocals are subdued and very subordinate to the musical prowess of the four members delivering an amazing powerhouse of a concept album. I honestly cannot fathom why everyone doesn't love this album. While the stylistic approach may not have been expected during its time of release, this album is absolutely brilliant on so many levels and best of all highlights how SUPERSISTER could totally reinvent itself an still deliver an above average product unlike fellow Dutch prog act Focus which quickly dropped the ball after "Hamburger Concerto." While not up to par with the band's first two masterpieces, ISKANDER is an album i enjoy thoroughly from beginning to end and am truly exhilarated by its ingenuity every time i experience it. One that deserves much more appreciation than its gotten so far :)

Supersister was a Dutch progressive rock band that was founded in The Hague, Netherlands in 1967. When it comes to Dutch prog rock, many people think of, Finch, Kayak, Trace, Earth And Fire and Golden Earring. However, there is another super group in the Netherlands that has gained international fame, Supersister. They became known as one of the best Canterbury bands, which is very ironic because they weren't from Canterbury not even British. Supersister melted strongly the influences of the Canterbury style with jazz and some typical Dutch progressive rock trademarks.

'Present From Nancy' is the debut studio album of Supersister that was released in 1970. The line up on 'Present From Nancy' is Robert Jan Stips (lead vocals, keyboard and vibes), Sacha Van Geest (vocals and flutes), Ron Van Eck (bass guitar and fuzz bass guitar) and Marco Vrolijk (vocal, drums and percussion). 'Present From Nancy' has also the participation of Gehard Smid (vocals and guitars).

There are few bands who have managed to record such a strong, fully developed first album after only two years of existence. Supersister's debut effort remains as one of the Netherland's best progressive rock albums and a classic of the genre worldwide, even though the group garnered only fringe interest outside of Europe. All the elements of the band's sound are already firmly in place on this album. It presents tracks that fuse the Dutch rock with the experimental jazz rock of Canterbury, where occasionally classical melodies appear. It received high praise from many critics and was relatively successful commercially. You can feel the Canterbury's elements in almost all of the tracks with their unique sense of humour. 'Present From Nancy' is one of the finest debuts from a Dutch progressive rock band, really.

'Present From Nancy' has ten tracks. The album consists of three suites divided into several tracks and two separated tracks. The three suites are 'Present From Nancy', 'Memories Are New (Boomchick)' and 'Metamorphosis' and the two isolated tracks are 'Corporation Combo Boys' and 'Dona Nobis Pacem'. So, 'Present From Nancy' suite has two tracks, 'Introduction' and 'Present From Nancy'. 'Introduction' is a jazz/rock piece that opens with drums and piano as flute follows in this up tempo number. This is a nice jazzy piece with great flute and piano over an energetic drum work. 'Present From Nancy' is another up tempo piece. It introduces some more jazzy complexity with a prominent piano. This one is light and breezy with the flute taking a prominent role. It's a great instrumental piece of jazzy prog. The 'Memories Are New' suite has three tracks, 'Memories Are New', '11/8' and 'Dreaming Wheelwhile'. 'Memories Are New' is a great vocal track with an experimental and eerie sounding and vocals in Richard Sinclair's style. It has a fine melody and nice instrumental passages combined with complex and interesting moments. '11/8' is a frenetic track that sounds a lot like the early sound of The Soft Machine. It shines through with progressive rock explorations beyond the Canterbury scene. Here you can see how much The Soft Machine influenced Supersister. 'Dreaming Wheelwhile' has very relaxed and dreamy ambience with its quiet flute heading the bass and cymbals. It's a floating meditative piece that offers some breathing space with its cosmic melody elongated. 'Corporation Combo Boys' is a short piece, a brief musical parody including some silly ensemble chanting and a final applause. It's a vocal track with references to Frank Zappa. The 'Metamorphosis' suite has also three tracks, 'Mexico', 'Metamorphosis' and 'Eight Miles High'. 'Mexico' is a more aggressive number with a clear Soft Machine influence. It fuses their two styles quite well, the jazz patterns and the fun soft rock with a slightly psychedelic attitude. This is a very beautiful and powerful piece. 'Metamorphosis' is a typical Supersister number that includes some of the densest passages on the entire album. It's probably the most experimental and odd of the all pieces on the album. 'Eight Miles High' is a very brief piece, The Byrds' song combined with George Gershwin's 'Summertime'. It leads us to the contemplative final track on the album. 'Dona Nobis Pacem' is completely different from the rest of the album. It can best be described as experimental and improvised progressive mood music, and makes a mind expanding finale to one of the finest debuts from a Dutch progressive rock 70's band.

Conclusion: As I mentioned above, one of the best Canterbury's bands was ironically enough not from Canterbury or even British at all. The excellent debut album of these young lads brings to us partly a very energetic and frenetic Canterbury sound but also touches classical music. The closest connection would be The Soft Machine around 1969 but Supersister had slightly less jazz feeling were more accessible, less academic and had classical elements. But, unfortunately, 'Present From Nancy' was a successful debut album by a band that has rightly been almost forgotten today, despite the high quality of their works in the 70's. However, anyone who appreciates Soft Machine and Caravan or the Canterbury sound in general shouldn't have any problems with it. This is an album that must be recommended.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

'Gonna Take Easy' continues in the humorous direction, this time reminiscent of Frank Zappa's parodic songs (that I dislike). I don't like the tinkling piano either. There's some nice organ for a little while. Over-extended in nearly three minutes, judged against the musical substance, this throwaway song is something I prefer forgetting.

I am being kind and give a second star for this Dutch band not taking themselves too seriously and toying around with various styles, even though my personal rating would be one star for the annoyment.

'She Was Naked' is related to the album's 8½-minute prog highlight 'Dona Nobis Pacem' but they really are very different pieces. 'D.N.P.' is an instrumental and pretty esoteric organ-centred piece slightly reminiscent of 'Sauceful of Secrets' by Pink Floyd. At its peaceful beginning 'She Was Naked' has a CARAVAN reminding elegance with lots of flute and tender vocals not so far from the style of Richard Sinclair (or Rick Wright in his early non-album Floyd songs). Then at 1:40 the intensity suddenly speeds up with a faster tempo and a fuzz guitar, and soon slightly Gregorian-inspired vocals sing briefly in latin ("Dona nobis pacem..."). Some frenzy instrumental playing finishes this peculiar song that seems to end too suddenly. Keyboard player and vocalist Robert Jan Stips (later a member of NITS, which I always like to mention) and his band were most clearly influenced by The Soft Machine, Caravan and the late 60's Pink Floyd.

'Spiral Staircase' is a rather annoying piece of humorous intentions. The music in itself is silly with the staccato electric piano, but the mock-horror narrative read in a monotonous voice is nothing but a joke that wears out quickly. 3½ stars for the A side and 1½ stars for the B side, but for the non-album contents I round the ratio upwards.

Because Supersister embodies the type of prog a favour: quirky, playful, beautiful.

To the highest bidder has been my first real intro to Supersister. A relatively short album with four tracks.

A girl named you - starts playfully and keys, bass and drums go wild. When the song shifts gear and mellows out, it's truly atmospheric. 9/10

No tree will grow (on too high a mountain) - This is a beautiful slow song about a sad topic. The laughter at the end is far removed from the atmosphere of the song indeed 9/10

Energy (Out of future) - This is the highlight of the album as they are firing from all registers 9.5/10

Higher - This song is a nice closing of a near-perfect album 8.5/10

I love this. The chauvinistic me wishes to grant 5 stars, but 4 stars is a better depiction of my praise for the album.

Memories are New IV is a reference to a Nits song and is a chill opener with really neat breaks away from the main idea of the song.

Track 2 has a great keyboard opener and the classic lazy echo vocals of Robert Jan Stips. The contrast between singing and keys is fantastic.

Sister Talk 1 is a brief interlude of vibes, yeah it's pretty,

For You And Nobody Else is a cool song and the longest on the album. It features some sublime catchy vocals and violin. One of the highlights of the album for me. A lot of the song has this sublime chamber feel and just exudes character throughout.

Max Eco is a pro nature song that I find to be of average quality. It isn't bad but isn't good.

Hope To See You There Again is a cool instrumental with atmospheric leads over a thumping drum groove.

Yellow Days is a three part song clocking in at four minutes, absolutely beautiful. Opening with a section sort of keeping up the vibe of the previous track it sounds like a full band effort, full attention to the composition. The second part contains vocals and is keys/violin with haunting singing.. The final part is an electronic section that came as a total surprise and oddly enough works very well.

Sister Talk 2 is like the it's previous instalment. It's an interlude y'know?

Next Door Movie opens with Marimba and alongside brass forges a cool instrumental.

Cuckoo is a sillier number, it's got this over the top female choral part that I really dislike yet also has a majestic spoken word piece. I get the meaning behind this song is why it sounds like it does but I care about sound over meaning and it's not worth it for me. I would prefer this song as like a digital bonus track.

Hope To See You Again ends the album with slow drumming and dramatic violin. An effective closer.

Overall one of the best things about this album in my eyes is how despite being short songs these are still well developed changing/engaging songs. I don't think anything on this album is below average and when the music is at its best it is absolutely excellent.

Overall this a great album, no duds just great music. A shame they didn't continue on with this kind of music, who knows what masterpiece could have been made.

To the highest bidder is great, this is not.

The opening is a short Supersister song that changes midway into a deeper/darker song with a narrator providing rather lame narration. The second song is not a song, although It's potentially my favourite track on the album. Psychopath is no 3 and is a another short song with vocals that are again delivered in a meh manner, not as bad as radio, 3/5. The fourth song is where the album begins getting bad. It consists of deep drones for minut after minute with a small respite then back to the ambient. The last song is by far the worst and why this album get 2/5. It is a sprawling mess of 20 minutes that is arduous to get through. No beauty to be found, all the stereotypes about this kind of music come true, riff salad, excessive length, terrible.

Initially I considered this to be 4/5 as the first two tracks didn't speak to me. The second side was jaw dropping instantly and had me check out the bands discography. Energy is the perfect long track, angular sections, soul tingling vocals amazing. Higher is arguably the best short song I've ever heard, again breathtaking. Now, the first two songs are not what I was looking for when I fist tried this album which is why I rated it 4/5. I was looking for music to satiate a specific itch, which was unsatiated by the first two songs which caused me to write them off immediately after hearing the second side. Fortunately the good music shone through my lapse in judgment, the songs make this album 5/5 by having their own character. A girl named you transcends jazz and progressive rock, just fantastic, I don't know what I used to hear this song sounding like. The second song I initially found dull. Then I found myself singing it a lot, memorable and the aaahhhs in it are haunting, lovely track.

All in all I love every song here and they complement one another so well. 5/5, highly recommended. Oh the bonus track "Groupies Of The Band" is hilarious btw.

Canterbury Sound Score 4/5, I think Supersister started out with a straight up Soft Machine clone debut but progressively moved away from that with each album, really finding their own voice that reminds me of Avant Pop at times (The High Llamas, Testbild, Etc)