KAYAK

Whilst it is Focus who get all the praise, those who reaLly know their Dutch prog will tell you that the 'Hamburger Concerto' stars ain't the only boys in town. Then, after a quick mention of Trace, Supersister, Finch and Group 1850, they'll recommend the first pair of studio albums by this briefly-brilliant five-piece, which equates to this debut release from 1973 and it's eponymous follow-up(which is often to referred to as 'Kayak II') from a year later. Hailing from the South-Eastern city of Hilversum, Kayak was formed by talented duo of Ton Scherpenzeel(keyboards, vocals) and Pim Koopman(drums) sometime during the latter half of 1972. A search for musicians to fill out the group brought Johan Slager(guitar), Cees van Leeuwen(bass) and Max Werner(vocals, mellotron) on board, and after signing a deal with the British label Harvest found themselves teamed with producer Gerritt-Jan Leenders. Recorded during the winter of 1973 and issued in early 1974, the subsequent 'See See The Sun' marked Kayak out as a truly unique outfit, blending quirky progressive rock riffs with an almost Canterbury-style sensibility and much oddball humour. Listened to now, it sounds as fresh and as vital as ever, the slick production wringing every shade of very note from the group's excellent playing; now, reissued and remastered on the Esoteric imprint, it sounds even better. However, musically it is Scherpenzeel who dominates proceedings, adding thrilling solo displays with a host of instruments - organ, piano, synthesizer, harpsicord, accordion and even harp figure - to the magnificent opening track 'Reason For It All', the jaunty highlight 'Hope For A Life' and many other of the album's quirky pieces. Aided by Slager's wailing guitars and Koopman's battery of drum licks, the bulk of 'See See The Sun' proves fairly addictive, very much an album that, when started, must be finished. 1974's follow-up, the post-titled 'Kayak II', would somehow manage to surpass its predecessor, in the process outlining just what a fearsomely-inventive group Kayak were. Strangely, however, 'Kayak II' would mark something of a peak, as pervading musical trends and other factors - including line-up shifts - saw Kayak producing a more radio-friendly style of rock, their sound gradually softening as the 1970's turned into the 1980's. It is for their first two albums that we remember them for however, and both remain undoubted jewels of the rich Dutch prog-rock scene that flowered during the early- seventies. If pushed, this writer will plump for 'Kayak II' as the better, yet all that really shows is just how good the debut album is. A great little group; check 'em out now. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

Kayak started in 1973 with a Genesis and Yes inspired "See See the Sun". Their second record (often called "the second") shows more Pink Floyd influences and a more distinctive "Kayak" sound. This "Royal bed Bouncer" may be Kayak's first effort which is only typical Kayak with no obvious links anymore to Yes, Genesis or Pink Floyd, except that it's mostly symphonic based. In my opinion Kayak was growing from their first effort till this Royal bed Bouncer, which is together with the next "Last Encore" the peak of their carreer (or at least their first peak). For fans of Yes and Genesis however I'd rather advise Kayak's first effort, because of the similarities in sound.

On the Royal Bed Bouncer Kayak has perfected their formula of song based sympho prog with a nice balance between up-tempo tracks and prog ballads. Their is a lot of clean piano to be heard and some nice guitar tunes; also some mellotron for the atmosphere. Because of the short track lengths their is no time to mesmorize the listener with the more charming atmospheres, but the continual mood changes and great mixing of the record makes this one long trip. The vocals of Max Werner are as good as ever and some of the tracks are outstanding like the up-tempo opening track "Royal Bed Bouncer" with excellent piano arrangements and "Patricia Anglaia" which is a song based on a female vocal solo by guest musician "Patricia". The record is actually nice troughout and ends with the great "My heart never changes" which is so emotionally filled that I think it will do something to most of the listeners.

In my opinion this record is as best described as a better balanced version of Genesis' "Lamb lies down on Broadway" with less repetition and shorter tracks. Further I'd like to mention that their is a version on the market with a different album cover with a picture of a loyal coach on it which suits the record much better then the cover displayed on progarchives.

Merlin can be seen as a stolen idea from Rick Wakeman's "The myths and legends of King Arthur..." because of the use of the same legend and even the use of the same songtitle 'Lady of the Lake". Well, it's true, but IMO we deal here with far superior material. Whereby the vocal department of Wakeman's record was at best mediocre, Kayak always had great vocalists. Also the songwriting is far better, although the Merlin concept only takes one side; the other side contains weak pop material. The first side of the record is actually of such high quality that Kayak picked it up again in the 00's and wrote more material besides it to fill a whole record about this legend. The succesfull theatre tour that followed in 2003 was recorded and is highly worthy video material of these Dutch prog veterans.

The concept of "Merlin" begins with the mysterious titletrack which has a very good memorable guitar melodie which introduces the heavy - even bombastic - rockin' part of this song. Later on in this song it turns back to the mystical theme. The earlier catchy guitar melodie is now replaced by a multivocal session, which is quiet intriguing. Then the guitar takes over this melodie and there is some time for a great keyboard solo (the only hardrock solo Scherpenzeel ever recorded?). The keyboard solo flows fluidly over in the guitarsolo which builds up to the climax. This is what I call a good start: this may be the most rockin' composition of Kayak's whole career.

The next songs contain sympho prog ballads ("Tintagel" and "Lady of the Lake") and a medieval influenced rock song ("The King's Enchanter"). The song "The Sword in the Stone" has the same feeling as the opening track, but cannot match that quality. Still a good song. The last track "Lady of the Lake" ends perfectly with great high guitar tunes.

A reason for getting this 80's record aboth the '00 is that this record is more up-tempo/rockin'. In my opinion this semi conceptual record only has one good side, but this side is somewhat better then the average quality of the '00 record. If you can get this one on vinyl you will find a really good quality side. Side one: 4 stars/ Side two: 1 star.

Kayak are one of those bands that give me a nice warm fuzzy feeling inside. Prog can be steely cold and unwelcoming but Kayak much like their compatriots Focus are never that. Admittedly they couldn't be accused of being over ambitious either. There are no long sprawling epics. These are songs allbeit there is one of 9 minutes but thats a rarity for Kayak. Much of the goodness in their music comes from keyboard player Ton Sherpenzeel who is sort of cross between Rick Wakeman and Tony Banks style wise. Never as flashy as the caped crusader but he has his ability applied much more along the lines of Banks tastefull artistic approach. The band are as tight as you like. I like the druming of Pim Koopman very much. Straight foward and quite heavy but not lacking a few tricks here or there. Max Werner is also a very good singer and perfect for the songs. I would recommend this for anyone that likes song based prog with strong symphonic elements. The recent remaster has been lovingly done. Sounds great and there is an additional track Give It A Name. Kayak probably never bettered this album.

Although Focus were undoubtedly the most popular and well-known group of the vibrant Dutch prog scene of the 1970s, they had plenty of healthy competition from the likes of Group 1850, Trace, Kayak, Finch and Supersister keeping them on their toes. Of these outfits it was arguably Kayak who featured the most eclectic style, the five-piece enjoying a prolific phase of activity during progressive rock's heyday that saw them produce a pair of excellent albums in the shape of their 1973 debut 'See See The Sun' and this superior, self-titled follow-up from a year later. Featuring Ton Scherpenzeel(keyboards, vocals), Cees Van Leeuwen(bass), Max Werner(keyboards, vocals), Johan Slager(guitar) and Pim Koopman(drums), Kayak were a fiercely-creative group who adhered strictly to the genre's principle ideals of experimentation, brewing up a unique sound that encompassed a clutch of influences and thus lent their overall sound an almost schizophrenic quality shot through with reckless abandon. As a result, pigeon-holing Kayak is virtually an impossible task, both of their first two albums skipping brazenly between styles in a way that shouldn't really work. Yet somehow this approach does work, and very convincingly too. Opening track 'Alibi' crosses Steve Howe-style guitar lines with jaunty, Canterbury-flecked jazz-rock; you have the nine-minute epic 'To Woe & Alas' feeding classical-shaped ELP organ solos through Yes-tinged symphonic washes; and melancholy-but-pretty organ drones adorn the mysterious throwaway ditty 'Mireille'. Thrilling in its execution and smart enough to avoid the occasional longeurs that occasionally blight lesser albums, 'Kayak' is a singular musical beast indeed, and very much the apex of the group's 1970s output. Simply put, what we have here is a wonderful example of the colourful nature of Dutch progressive rock, a scene that offers up a wholly eclectic musical viewpoint that surely ranks amongst the finest in Europe. Later Kayak efforts maybe pale in comparison, yet for a brief moment Kayak really did scale some lofty progressive rock heights of a none-too familiar kind. Impressive. STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

This desert submarine brings me back to were my prog addoration began!

It is about eight years ago when I bought a second hand pick-up and a few vinyl records: Mike Oldfields Tubular Bells and this record of Kayak. The price of the pick-up and the records was about 15 euro together and became the starting point of my vinyl collection which turned into a vinyl addiction in the next years. I explored all the categories within rock and soon became a huge fan of bands like King Crimson, Yes, etc., etc... It's quiet amazing now that the thing that made me decide getting a pick-up was the promise of a colleaque that I could have his Motörhead vinyl of "Ace of Spades" if I had one.

Because I only owned a few records in the beginning I listened to this record dozens of times. This up-tempo cross-over prog with some nice symphonic melodies is still one of my favourite Kayak records. It's optimistic songs bring forth an enthousiastic atmosphere and the music is full of nice solo's. One of my favourite tracks is "Stop that song" with the great melodie started by flute and followed by guitar. The trumpet is doing a great job here by blowing some happy tunes.

This record is full of cross-over prog with some nice ballads and up-tempo rock songs. The songwriting is aboth average. It's just since a week ago I discovered that this record is from the 80's. When I keep in mind that progressive rock was having a hard time to survive these days my admiration of this record grows. This is no masterpiece however, but just a nice and warm record. It's an easy listening without much tension, but with great enthousiasm and some good songs. 3,5 stars.

The Last Encore is the last record with Max Werner on vocals and marks the end of the symphinic progressive period of Kayak. After this record Kayak moved more into the cross-over prog scene hoping to achieve some more commercial succes. The last Encore seems less influenced by other bands like Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyed and the sound is just Kayak as if they had never heard another band!

The sound of the Last Encore is mostly piano centered, maybe because Ton Scherpenzeel is one of the main songwriters in Kayak together with Pim Koopman. The music is really symphonic, almost like "Scheherazade" of Renaissance, but is quiet different in it's emotions. This record is full of emotion and sounds really natural; and that's why this record may be the best Kayak recording, although it didn't sell that good.

"Love of a Victim" is the only straight forward rock song. This is one of my favourite songs on the record, because it is more up-tempo and therefor brings some energy in the otherwise slower and more symphonic recordings. Still this song is quiet unusual in it's sound and progression. "Love me Tonight/ Get on Board" may be the weirdest track on the record. The song sounds like an old recording out of the beginning of the 20th century, but this was intended. It's happy and strange and is a real nice addition to this record.

Max Werner stopped after this record as a vocalist, because he sufferd from severe podium anxiety. So he changed his role from the frontman to the drums, which is more in the background and which he really loved to do. One of Kayak's greatest fans became the new vocalist. So, this recording is the end of an episode, and in my opinion a worthy end. This is symphonic prog at a high level.

Ok, well, yes ,it is not exactly a masterpiece of PROG Rock, and yes, there are two or three weak songs, but I LOVE IT. Cannot give it less than 5 stars!

I admit I have a weakness for musicals, an thats what this basically is. There are prog Elements, but to call it a Prog Musical would be an exaggeration. There are also Folk and medieval elements but otherwise it is" just" a musical, but by far the best Musical I ever heard!

There are so many wonderful pieces of music with great melodies, a trademark of Kayak. Written by Andrew Lloyd Webber, this would have been a major success. Sadly, it wasn't.

Songs like "Save my wife", "Settle down", Friend of the stars" and many others are jsut incredible ..

So if you like me do like symphonic prog and like the occasional musical (like Jesus Christ Superstar), jsut get it !!!

Merlin is an excellent album that was released long time ago in 1981 and I like the album very much. More than 20 years after the original Merlin was released Kayak released a new Merlin album, which consists of 5 old songs and 9 new ones; all of them were composed by Ton Scherpenzeel. The album revolves around Merlin or King Arthur's court the characters on this album are as follows: Merlin and Lancelot parts are sung by Bert Heerink, Mordred is Rob Vunderink and Morgaine and Guinevere's "roles" are sung by Cindy Oudshoorn. If you listen to the album for the first time you will be amazed by the beautiful songs and excellent orhestratio - something that Ton Scherpenzeel has been good at.

As original Merlin has been with me as one of my favorite albums where I know exactly how the vocal and the music sound together, it was quite hard for me to accept this new version of Merlin because the vocal is different than the original one mainly sung by Edward Reekers. For me, the vocal quality of Edward Reekers had become an integral part of the Kayak music and it's non replaceable. If I had never heard Merlin original version, I might consider this album as masterpiece. But's it's practically difficult for me to say so now as, again, the vocal quality of Edward Reekers has become an integral part of Merlin music.

I could say that the title track is a real masterpiece with outstanding orchestration, but something is missing on the vocal side. I am not saying that the vocal quality of the new singer is bad - in fact he has much power than Reekers - but ...still ...something is missing. The classic "old" Niniane (Lady Of The Lake) sounds really different on this 2003 version. Even though all the five old songs sound refreshing and more alive but they should be sung by Edward Reekers.

I am sure most people would consider this album as excellent or masterpiece. Well, I have to admit, they are right because musically this 2003 is really excellent especially with its orchestration. But, at personal level, the original Merlin has engrossed deeply into my mind. It's like enjoying the original Genesis' 'Carpet Crawlers' with the new recording even though the singer is the same but the overall nuance of the song has lost. So is the case with this new Merlin. So I consider it as a three star rating album - bearing the fact that the Merlin itself is an excellent album and this new version lacks originality despite the new songs. Keep on proggin' ...!!!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Here is one best bands I discovered since the flower kings came around,Is this prog cuz vocal harmonies r top notch.I hear elo ad pink floyd in this male and female is powerhouse,This is there 2nd cd im exposed to letters from utopia was the first.I heard it month ago this one is more prog-pop but man is it good.

Life is good the best song on he cd,The woman just bellows all over this while male singer does backing.Like I said is this prog,Prog is known for music not so much for the vocal harmonies.These guys been round for 30 years,I plan on buying most there catlogue very shortly.As one my new fave bands I discovered since tfk and elo and floyd. Over you is nother song the lady sings good on also,Like the femael vocals cd on this alot.Which is by far like 3-4 she does lead,Rest has male or cross of them sharing backing vs lead.

If i had to describe this bands sound,It be if pink floyd elo had baby this be it.Vocal harmonies r very eloish music is kinda pink floydish,Mixed with some hints of elo it classicaly without string arrangements.anywhere but here nother good song. Overall this cd has some songs that r not lackluster,But it excellent addition to prog collection to hear those good 5-6 songs on the disc it worth picking up.

3.5 out of 5 igave 4 since there is no half stars