MIDNIGHT SUN

Considered as a legend of Danish Rock, this band, hailing from Copenhagen, started as Rainbow Band in 1970 with Bent Hesselmann on saxophone/flute (from Psych/Pop group Maxwells), Peer Frost on guitar (formerly of Young Flowers, a 60's Psych Rock act), Carsten Smedegaard on drums, Niels Bronsted on piano, Bo Stief on bass and Lars Bisgaard on vocals (also ex-Maxwells).They recorded a self-titled debut on Sonet, but, when Bisgaard left and was replaced by newcomer Allan Mortensen, they decided to re-record the whole album with new vocals.To avoid legal issues with their name they changed it to Midnight Sun and the re-recorded version of their debut was released in 1971 simply as ''Midnight Sun'', featuring an beautiful painiting by Anne Marie Brauges on the front cover.

This is cool, energetic and pretty loose jazzy Psychedelic Rock, featuring the intense, melodramatic vocals of Allan Mortensen and a nice team, which could perform both in jazzy and psychedelic enviroments, adding often doses from Soul, Horn Rock and Folk.Lots of acoustic and electric piano textures with emphatic, heavy guitar runs and solos and a steady rhythm section, supported by the sax work of Hesselman.The tracks evolve from dramatic instrumental passages and strong lyrical moments to abstract solos and individual beams of technique, always having an evident jazzy flavor, but the pieces fronted by the saxes are rather too commercial and even outdated.Most of the material is good though, highlighted by the fine talents of Peer Frost on electric guitars and Niels Brondsted on piano, while Hesselman's work on flute regarding ''Sippin' wine'' is trully efficient.All these just before the 14-min. closing farewell of ''Rainbow song'', where Midnight Sun jump on the jamming wagon to deliver dense, mostly instrumental and slightly improvised Jazz Rock with endless, scratching guitar soloing, fiery Heavy/Psych leads, powerful grooves and impressive bass and drum work.Some sort of structure wouldn't hurt, but even so this piece unleashes strong amounts of energy.

In 1972 Mortensen was replaced by a third singer, Frank Lauritsen, and Stief left his place to Jens Elbol.The new-line-up recorded two more albums, ''Walking circles'' (1972) and ''Midnight dream'' (1974), both of them showed the band reducing the complex, abstract ideas for a more accesible sound with Pop leanings, before fading out in November 1974.

Sweet and intense Psych/Jazz Rock with fiery performances and a nice bunch of interesting solos, eventually hurt by a number of indifferent, more radio-friendly tunes.Recommended.