PUDDING EN GISTEREN [AKA: PUDDING & YESTERDAY]

I finally got a chance to listen to a Supersister album and I was very impressed. Although Dutch, these guys can out-Canterbury some of the original Canterbury bands! This is their third album and you could describe this as a mix of Soft Machine and Caravan. They definately have the instrumental prowess of the former and the humour of the latter. The lyrics are in English but delivered in a heavy Dutch accent, which I actually quite enjoy. The instrumentation includes bass, drums, flute, organ and Rhodes piano. Not much guitar here, but the fuzzed up bass and organ can sometimes equal a rockin' guitar.

The majority of "Radio" is in a poppy, Latin jazzy kind of vibe. Some a capella vocals then it switches to a more intense Canterbury sound with some operatic "la la la" harmony vocals. Some exotic string instrument can be heard. "Psychopath" is some kind of baroque-pop. Funny lyrics. Some nice harpsichord here. You can listen to "Judy Goes On Holiday" here on PA. This begins with a modified organ imitating a racing car. Then it goes into some great jazz-rock with an awesome flute melody, sometimes doubled on organ. The bassline in this part is good too. Changes to different sections with great drumming throughout. Eventually the opening jazz-rock section gets reprised. All of a sudden goes into a drumless section with Rhodes and flute before some bass notes from the organ. Some crunching sounds and a little bit of vocals.

Later some great Rhodes start to play, being joined by flute. Then some guitar comes in after awhile, followed by some vibraphone. The music stops and then some jazzy drumming before the first jazz-rock part gets reprised yet again. Music stops again and then it goes into a Zappaesque doo-wop parody. I like this but I can understand how some would think it's just stupid. If that song wasn't amazing enough, we get the 21-minute title track. A great Canterbury epic. First few minutes sounds like a cross between Canterbury and Zappa. Later some start/stop playing before it gets more jazzy.

Around 3 1/2 minutes is a great drumbeat and some hummed vocals that mimic the Rhodes. Then the flute plays the Rhodes melody before an organ solo. Goes through some more changing sections. In the middle gets polka sounding while the tempo keeps increasing until it changes to a jazzier section. Goes back to the polka part briefly before changing to a new section yet again. Later on some lovely flute gets joined by spacey and avant sounding piano and organ. The music stops briefly then a great part with cool bass and wah-organ. Later it switches to fuzz-organ and some start/stop playing. Around 17 minutes what sounds like a synthesizer starts to solo. Some crazy drumming at one point.

The last few minutes is just piano and flute. I was in for a suprise the first time I listened to this part of the epic. I had a total "WTF?" moment. I heard some piano chords that I instantly recognized. After a minute of thinking about it, it hit me: "Ohhh, the Rabbit In The Headlights song!" In 1998 Radiohead singer Thom Yorke made a song with electronic duo UNKLE. The song was called "Rabbit In Your Headlights" are was entirely based on a sample of the ending piano chords of "Pudding En Gisteren". How cool. It never ceases to amaze me how some seemingly obscure prog groups get sampled by modern artists. I really enjoyed this album, especially the last two tracks. I want to hear their other albums now. This is highly recommended to fans of Canterbury. 4 stars.