EARTH AND FIRE

This debut of the not-too-well-known Dutch band is estimated here to be quite different from their later work. Unfortunately this is the only one I've heard and so I can only give my humble impressions on this one (well, the copy I borrowed seems to have bonus tracks from their next album too... and, yes, those tracks may be slightly better on the average. But frankly I haven't yet listened to it many times enough to make thoughtful comparisons).

Their most distinctive feature is probably their powerful female singer Jerney Kaagman who is in the same league as, for example, women of AFFINITY, BABE RUTH or JEFFERSON AIRPLANE. Also musically EARTH & FIRE can be compared at least to the latter, but still they are bands of two quite different sounds.

E&F is a nice cocktail of hazy psychedelia and energetic rock, with guitars and organ on the front. There are no notable elements of symphonic prog, but still these songs have luring ideas enough to avoid falling into non-prog rock'n'roll category. Of course there are some tracks that are rather poor, but there are more that are good. In fact they sound better and better with each listening, even though the first impression may have been less than remarkable. What I like here is the sort of "dated" sound. I'm not meaning bad production (it's pretty good actually), but the overall feeling, call it hazy if you like. You can tell without a doubt this music comes from the fruitful era of '68-'72, and being European instead of American or British gives some extra to it all. Netherlands is indeed a good prog country. EARTH & FIRE is not in the same level as FOCUS but an interesting addition anyway.