EKSEPTION

• Air Ekseption, 1969
• Adagio Beggar Julias Time Trip , 1970
• Peace Planet 3, 1970
• Ave Maria 00:04, 1971
• A La Turka 5, 1972
• Toccata Trinity, 1973
• Have Mercy On Me Back To The Classics, 1976

The cover you see here is the American cover, which is obviously different from the Dutch, but still released on the same label, Philips. The songs are all the same. To this day, this is the only EKSEPTION album I have, I hadn't got around to getting their other albums to give a real solid opinion of this band. What I do know is the band wasn't known for a steady lineup, and most people lost interest in the band after keyboardist Rick van der Linden left in 1973 to form TRACE. It seems no matter who was in the band, bassist Cor Dekker was the one constant. This was their first album, which consisted of covers of classical (which they were best known for), one original, and more. They do a cover of Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony", entitled "The 5th", which actually became a hit. This is basically a rock version of the famous Beethoven composition, with organ, guitar, bass, drums, and horns. The song starts off with the famous symphony version (sounds like a recording sampled from a real symphony orchestra), but then quickly changes to a rock version. They do a cover of JETHRO TULL's "Dharma For One", which is quite a bit tamer than the original, not so aggressive. They even include the proper, Ian Anderson-like flute where needed (just like the original). "Little X-Plus" is a band original, and a nice piece with some jazz influence and nice use of flute. "Ritual Fire Dance" is a nice number complete with horns, some '60s sounding guitar. They also cover George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue", which is truly the album's high point. There's also Bach's "Air on G String", which is the song that PROCOL HARUM borrowed for their hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale". This of course, is the Bach composition done EKSEPTION style, with harspichord from Rick van der Linden, and horns, and you won't mistake this for Procol Harum.

EKSEPTION is one of those bands that don't have much middle ground, you either dig the band or you don't. It all depends how much you like the idea of a band "rocking the classics". I still think this is much better than what Apollo 100 done (Apollo 100 was a British group who gave us the hit "Joy", which was a pop take on Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", and most of the rest of the stuff they did was rock versions of classical songs, and in my opinion, not as good as what EKSEPTION did).

If you do enjoy the music of EKSEPTION, this is a nice album to own.

Send comments to Proghead (BETA) | Report this review (#32836) | Review Permalink
Posted Sunday, March 20, 2005

I knew Ekseption for the first time was sometime in mid seventies. It was quite obvious at that time that local radio station in my country took the artwork as their icon. So I was then curious to know about the band and finally got the version of this album where I was hooked with the cover of Jethro Tull's "Dharma For One". I was reall satisfied with it and also the fact that the cover The 5th of Beethoven. The music of Ekseption is basically classical based but they successfully managed to blend the elements of jazz-rock into their music. They made the record due to their winning prize of Loosdrecht jazz festival in 1968 where the keyboard player (the famous Rick van der Linden) to make a debut album. Phillips was interested with them and this album was released in 1969.

It was quite strange knowing that once they released this debut, through the single with "The Fifth", the market did not react spontaneously until three months later when this single became a selling item in record stores. On the album Classic in pop (a French album) the song Ritual Firedance is replaced by Adagio and the song Dance macabre opus 40 is replaced by Italian concerto.

Overall, this is a collection of legendary tracks from Ekseption's interpretation of some classic heros plus their own creation "Little x plus". Those of you who want to trace back the 70s music, this should be one of them that you need to have.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Send comments to Gatot (BETA) | Report this review (#158245) | Review Permalink
Posted Thursday, January 10, 2008

Not going through the tracks. Just ill make it short this time. Ok, mostly covers of classical music with organ or piano and a brass section. A little improvisation here and there, but overall pretty uninspired. Overall rating: 2 STARS COLLECTORS/FANS ONLY. ... (read more)

Report this review (#132629) | Posted by Peto | Saturday, August 11, 2007 | Review Permanlink

Ekseption won a record deal while participating in the Loosdrecht Jazzconcours. The recordings they made for this album, however were rejected. To come up with something new they decided to mix classical music with pop music. They recorded The 5th, released it as a single, and it finally becam ... (read more)

Report this review (#75465) | Posted by Agemo | Wednesday, April 19, 2006 | Review Permanlink

REALLY: 4,55 The debut album of the Ekseption is already a masterpiece. You listen to the version of "The 5th", "Sabre Dance", "Rapsody In Blue" and "Dance Macabre Opus 40" and will not be able not to stay surprised from the genius of Rick Van Der Linden capable to rewritten these masterpie ... (read more)

Report this review (#62349) | Posted by | Friday, December 30, 2005 | Review Permanlink

This is the debut album of Ekseption, where Rick van der Linden (reknown for his virtuosity on the keys) presents the formula that was to make Ekseption one of the most successful Dutch bands of it's time: mixing classical music with rock and Jazz. Thus the 5th of Beethoven, Khachaturian's sabr ... (read more)

Report this review (#32835) | Posted by | Saturday, September 25, 2004 | Review Permanlink

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