DE HOMINE URBANO

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The first Ache album is a weird one as the music was written for a BALLET if you can believe it. There was rock-opera and now rock ballet. Actually only the first side epic was written for the ballet , borrowing lots from the Classics masters (much like The Nice did) with heavy instrumentation (sometimes a bit exagerated but never in the terms of ELP either). When I speak of The Nice's interpretation of classic music , I want to make clear I speak of Bernstein's America and Gerschwin's Blue Rondo Ala Turc superb (and Nice) arrangements and not at all like the pointless Brandenburger Concerto or Five Bridges Suite.

Outside of that comparison , the guitar is also very present (as it was in the Nice's Thoughts albums) and very full of energy but the album is not flawless. Some riffs can even approach Zeppelin's power.The second track (also approaching 20 min) is less classically orientated but full of the typical (and great) instrumental excesses of that era.

One of the best album to come out of Denmark, at the time. The follow-up is also fine but more restrained and both albums have been released together as Eric pointed out out on that page , this is a master buy.

Ache is a symphonic prog rock band from Denmark. They are one of the few from the early seventies scene in Denmark which wasn´t exactly overpopulated. Most Danish bands were in the early seventies still mostly rooted in the pshychadelic era of the late sixties. There are a few exceptions and Ache is one of them. What is very interesting about Ache is that they have a very international sound as opposed to most other Danish bands of that era ( again there are few exceptions to that rule. Bands like Midnight Sun, Day of Phoenix and some of the material Burning Red Ivanhoe produced was very international sounding).

De Homine Urbano is a very organ driven affair which reminds me of a lot of the early seventies prog rock bands from England. What is a bit different is that the guitar from Finn Olafsson is very dominating when it comes to the soloing. He plays with the bluesy late sixties sound. The album consist of two side long compositions where the first one De Homine Urbano is music for a modern ballet. The second one is almost in the same style. There are lots of sections in the songs so they never get boring. Vocals are used sparcely.

The musicians are very good and they all need to be mentioned for the great playing. I´m not too impressed with Torsten Olafsson´s ( brother of Finn) voice. As mentioned he doesn´t use it very often on De Homine Urbano though.

The album is produced by the domestically famous Johnny Reimer. He is mostly known in Denmark for being the father of the Smerfs and for being an entertainer playing easy listening pop/ rock but in the early seventies he produced some rock albums too. The production is very good, and the music really sounds great with this sound.

Even though De Homine Urbano sounds very international which is an achivement in ifself for a danish band, it´s still pretty average early seventies symphonic prog rock. I´m not a big fan of the more organ driven bands in this style and therefore Ache isn´t my favorite band either. De Homine Urbano is a good album though and for fans of the aforementioned genre I´m sure this is very enjoyable. 3 stars is what I will give this album.

3 stars...I, to tell my truth, want to give the album 4 or 5 stars, personally.

Estimate it's a rare case that an album of a progressive rock band is remarkably influenced by The Beatles. About this album...in the first song De Homine Urbano we can hear the parts of Every Little Thing, and the second song's title is Little Thing...ha-haa!

Indeed the band's vector might mimic or imitate The Beatles' one, but the sound has deep individuality, for 1970, the album born. Especially the heavy and lazy riff by bass guitar is very impressive and always knocks me every time. About 20 minutes songs are not so long and not boring for me.

Just on this period, I want to say, this album is too excellent.

A week ago, while walking through the CD store, saw an old vinyl copy of "De Homine Urbano" by the Danish band ACHE, the album was in very good condition and very cheap, so more with curiosity than with real conviction got it, at the end. I wasn't expecting real Symphonic rather than a late Psyche/Melodic hybrid.

While listening it, started to wonder how many things had to pass so an old record sold 38 years ago in a Danish store ended in my hands here in Perú, when I saw the signature of a friend inside the cover, it was quite funny, his father gave it to him when he came from a trip, he treasured it, but his cleaning obsessed wife sold all those dirt covered albums in a format "nobody sane" uses any more.

But back to the album, my prejudice was not accurate, the album is a gem, combines in the most delicate possible way echoes from the Psychedelic 60's with strong elements of the recently born Symphonic sub-genre, the massive use of Hammond is simply delightful, I could talk about some FOCUS influenced, but due to the date of release, this is not likely.

"De Homini Urbano" consists of two epics, the first one the self titled ballet (Yes it's true) which starts with a clear Emerson (THE NICE era) influenced performance, it's evident Peter Mellin likes pomp and brightness, the guy exploits all his skills and plays as loud as he can, combining instruments in a perfect way, hitting synths and piano with the same fury, but the star is always the organ, like suspended between the 60's and 70's in some sort of limbo, well covered by Finn Olafsson's distorted guitar.

There's nothing static in the track, everything is in perpetual motion, the radical changes come one after the other without rest, the band seems to have horror of silent spaces, covering every instant with music, when not the piano or guitar, you can clearly listen the bass or drums playing restless, like a sonic wall that hits you from start to end, simply wonderful expression of musicality.

But the closing section is exceptional, totally experimental for a band in the 70's an uncontrolled cacophony with a Baroque background, this guys were years ahead most musicians from the era, something strange for 1970 Prog of Scandinavia.

"Little Things" is a 18 minutes sort of Opera with THE BEATLES classic "Every Little Thing She Does" (also performed by YES) as main ingredient, but as anybody can imagine, they have 18:31 minutes to explore every possible variation and experimentation available on those years.

The vocals are not outstanding even when better than the average band...............From this point we get complexity, experimentation, pomp, excesses, everything that makes Prog so special, but is better to listen it than to read whatever I can say, because it's unique, so this is as far as I will go to avoid spoiling the experience.

Four solid stars for a very ambitious album that deserves more attention.

De Homine Urbano is an early progressive rock album from Denmark, firmly rooted in the heavy psychedelic rock of its time. There are some progressive ambitions hanging about but they aren't always fully explored.

The instrumental title track is an excellent piece of early organ driven symphonic rock with a very natural rocking sound, close to bands like Focus and the Nice, and it should sure please fans of those bands. The piece is engaging all the way through, only the finale part, which mainly consists of the riff Deep Purple also used on Black Knight, is a bit disappointing. The second track is an improvisation around Every Little Thing She Does from The Beatles and it doesn't offer much thrills. The flat vocals and the drawn out instrumental extensions are rather dull.

De Homine Urbano is a promising but not entirely convincing career start that doesn't immediately motivate me to investigate this band much further beyond this. Not bad but for gem-hunters only.