KAYAK

I have been listening to bad music from good and great bands for the past month or so. Kayak's Phantom of The Night has got to be the worst thing I've heard yet. Nothing comes close to this colossal turd. I sat through The Rolling Stone's Dirty Work and through Wishbone Ash's Locked In. And as bad as those were, they sound fresh and fun compared to the music here. This is music for people who think that jogging is a dangerous activity. Or music to torture someone. This music is horrendously awful. Think of Supertramp's worst album. Then have a bunch of teenagers from our CURRENT year try to do something like it. That is what this album sounds like. The Grinch would die if he heard music this "happy".

This is my first foray into Kayak and also incidentally into writing a review. I was talking to a friend last week and somehow Ruthless Queen came up. So this week I thought I would give this album a listen. Turns out I have now listened to the album probably 6 or 7 times, so clearly there is something to this album that sticks.

The first impression is how much this album sounds like late '70s Camel, in particular Breathless. Phantom of the Night and Breathless were also recorded and released around the same months in 1978, so the similarities are quite coincidental. But It is probably no surprise that Ton Scherpenzeel (the principal composer) ended up working with Andy Latimer at Camel from the early '80s onwards.

The order of the songs in Apple Music is different from the listing on ProgArchives and from that I can gather is the same order on how the album was released in The Netherlands on vinyl. I think the order on vinyl makes sense musically (Winning ways, Keep the Change, Ruthless Queen, Crime of Passion, First Signs of Spring, Daphne, The Poet and the One Man Band, No Man's Land, Journey Through Time, Phantom of the Night).

There are two sides to the songs on the album. There quite a few basic pop/rock songs, such as Winning Ways (quite nice), Keep the Change (very middle of the road), Crime of Passion (passable), The Poet and the One Man Band (shades of Down on the Farm), No Man's Land (very simple). If these were the only songs on the album, then it would be a forgettable experience.

Luckily the others rescue this album from obscurity. Ruthless Queen, First of Springs, and Phantom of the Night are great songs, but perhaps not the most progressive in song structure. Daphne and Journey Through Time are the most progressive songs on the album and the latter song nicely segues into and Phantom of the Night as the closer. All these songs are well composed and each offers something interesting, if not overly progressive.

I read on Wikipedia that Ton Scherpenzeel was unhappy with the mixing of the album and that the recording was plagued with issues in the then new studio. On this remaster I am happy to say that the sonic quality leaves very little to be desired. The musicianship is of a very high quality and also the vocals of both Edward Reekers and the backing female vocalists sound great. Definitely pleasing to the ear to listen to.

I have doubted whether to award 3 or 4 stars as I think it deserves more than 3 stars for the five best songs, but ultimately landed on 3 as the most appropriate rating. Well worth a listen if you like Camel from Breathless onwards.

KAYAK is this Dutch brontosaurus group founded in 72; it takes you to progressive and symphonic lands such as ASIA, KAIPA, ARENA, ALAN PARSONS and QUEEN.

"Out of This World" for a major start, piano and grandiloquent, symphonic orchestration, MAY-style guitar, a sound unlike any other, twirling, a little AOR, a little on the best KANSAS; the superb voices on the singer of Martin BARRE, I read a musical diamond, I confirm; grandiloquent and majestic with choirs and strings, it starts strong. "Waiting" on an entry riff from CARS, airy and eclectic guitar, the voice on that of MAGIC PIE or BOWIE, a pop-rock ballad title from the 80's in the era of pop; the guitar pulls out the notes, tweaks them and leaves for another musical space. "Under a Scar" and the sound of QUEEN's plaintive guitar, a moment of music like a film unfolding in front of you; the strings get started, bring up the theme on the prog opera, that of the 70's of 'Phantom of The Paradise', the jousts of MEAT LOAF and QUEEN again; it's rhythmic just enough to make you sway your hips without forcing the neck of the femur; Bart's voice melts on this glamorous finale, full of emotion. "Kaja" for a musical break, an interlude with piano and spleen guitar that will make you melt; the second part with the solo which rises even higher, a symphonic anthem. "Mystery" with vocals in harmony, piano and vocals for a radio edit; a pop-folk song with sounds reminiscent of 'Love Is All' from afar for the symphonic part, a little ELO too. "Critical Mass" for the intro to The Exorcist, no but you believed it, bells in any case as an intro; it starts on JETHRO TULL for this voice, on FM rock, the enjoyable piano-guitar digression framed by the drums and the synths, the surly solo which hurtles down the notes; it's beautiful, fruity, airy; the following break on a romantic spleen which reminds us that we are indeed on prog lands here at the ARENA with a worked ending, take the lead. "As the Crow Flies" for a title that goes everywhere, drums and synths to the fore; a haunting groove track, a little TOTO behind it, a romantic bluesy tune for a soft COLLINS-style melody, to be taken as an interlude.

"The Way She Said Goodbye" short acoustic track, piano, guitar and synths to accompany the voice on an intense love story. "Traitor's Gate" for a spicy, energetic title eyeing the dynamics of TOTO just for the keyboards, an aerial pop solo. "Distance to Your Heart" surprises with the ELO intro with these progressive strings, a smoothly conducted 'Kashmir' bass and a beautiful and redundant melody, the Mayesque solo still resonates. "Red Rag to a Bull" for a concentrated title and concentrating prog in all its forms; from the intro to the rhythm, from the chorus to the sounds with reinforcements of solo synths on crystalline guitar notes, final stage in the distance then a small choir which leaves. "One by One" à la Leonard COHEN finally Kristoffer here for a song about our inevitable future end; simplicity of vocals, violins and emotion until the progressive movement pulling towards the starting anthem towards there! Country piano to digest. "A Writer's Tale" for the moment and monument of the album; majestic intro, pompous in the good sense of the word, strings, speaking guitars, expressive; the chorus, a folk beat, slides towards dancing choirs with Marcel's guitar and takes on a QUEEN-style rock opera, rhythm'n blues, then musical soundtracks of the 70's and 90's; from KANSAS, STYX, QUEEN, MEAT LOAF, from the grandiloquent KAYAK. "Cary" for a short burlesque interlude, BEATLES lineage on a plot on the accordion, bordering on folk and psychedelic. "Ship of Theseus" to close the album, Robert Wyatt-style voice, serious symphony on horns and guitar, a title which denotes by the musical rupture, a bit of the madness of BOWIE and the piano which tolls the death knell.

Kayak is a band that is mostly known for their somewhat broadway musical sound, their verse-chorus based song structures and their - for a lack of a better term - pop leanings. That's not exactly the case with their debut "See see the sun" album, although the core sound of the band is already there.

For a debut album one must say that it already posesses a really mature sound and the compositional skills and musicianship of the members are of a very high caliber. The dominant presence is of course that of piano and keyboard man and main songwriter Ton Scherpenzeel, but the rest of the band members are there, and gain their fair share of the listener's attention. Especially guitarist Johan Slager, without being overly flashy or self indulgent, serves the compositions really well and has his fine moments, like on the instrumental part of "Mouldy Wood". Also worth mentioning is drummer Pim Koopman. Although there are no really tricky or innovative drum parts, his playing is solid but varied enough to keep things interesting, let alone that he is also an important music contributor having credits on 7 out of 9 tracks on the album, with "Lovely Luna" credited only to him. Interestingly enough, this track has minimum percussion presence.

A very interesting aspect of the album is the overall build up of the vocals' sections. Main vocalist Max Werlerofzoiets (kudos for one of the most unpronouncable names ever!) is nothing funcy, (the band would have better vocalists in the future), but gets the job done. The most obvious influence would be Jon Anderson with some Peter Gabriel thrown in the mix. The opening track "Reason for it All" or "Mammoth" being a fine example of the former case, while "Ballet of the Cripple" shows the Gabrielesque side of things. That being said, I would have to point out that the most interesting thing about vocals is that they are generally a result of team work, with 6 people in total credited with vocal duties. There are some interesting well thought-out vocal parts throughout the album, although again this is an aspect of their music that would evolve and improve on later releases.

All in all, this is probably Kayak's album that is the closest to symphonic prog they ever got. The influences by Yes, Genesis or Moody Blues are generally smoothly incorporated to the band's fairly original character. (with the exception of "Reason for it All" which is a bit too Yes-y). During the late 70s they would develop a sound more of their own, but this (maybe along with following year's "Kayak" album) is their proggiest moment. A strong, solid, 3 1/2, close to full 4 stars, release.

Kayak is the 2nd studio album by Dutch symphonic and crossover prog band Kayak, and my point of entry to their #symphonicprog years.

The lineup at this point was comprised of Max Werner on lead vocals, percussion and Mellotron; Johan Slager on guitars and backing vocals; Ton Scherpenzeel all types of keyboards, organ and piano; Cees Van Leeuwen on bass and harmonica; and Kim Koopman on drums and vocals.

In a nutshell, a great band with exceptional musicianship and songwriting; Kayak is an album where the symphonic prog fan will find some resemblance to early Genesis on songs such as the mini epic They Get to Know Me and the haunting Woe and Alas; some Yes in songs like the jumpy Serenades and Trust in The Machine; and the #classicrock and prog pop fan a little Supertramp in Wintertime; an ode to The Beatles on the fabulous closer His Master's noise, and more upfront rockers on the opener Alibi or mainstream rock ballads like Mountain Too Rough? so there's a lot of great sounding and perfectly executed variety to keep the listener entertained. A great late discovery for me, a band with more than fifteen albums on their backs, with more than half of those worth checking out? this one is barely over 35 minutes so is a very quick and fast listen. Guess I have some homework to do! My personal highlights:

- Wintertime

- The Get to Know Me

- Serenades

- Woes and Alas

- His Master's noise

It is strange to think that soon we will be coming to Kayak's 50th anniversary, an achievement for any band. Of course, there have been multiple line-up changes over the years, plus the band has had breaks, but the current five-man line-up stands proudly when looking back over their achievements. Of course, at the heart of it is all is Ton Scherpenzeel (keyboards, lead & backing vocals), the founder who has kept it going all these years. Drummer Hans Eijkenaar joined in 2010 before leaving and then rejoining recently, while the others all joined when Ton reset the band after 2014's 'Cleopatra ' The Crown of Isis'. They are of course Bart Schwertmann (lead & backing vocals), Marcel Singor (guitar, lead & backing vocals) and Kristoffer Gildenl'w (bass, lead & backing vocals). Yes, there are a lot of singers on here, and while Schwertmann can be heard on most of the tracks, Marcel Singor takes lead on three, while Kristoffer Gildenl'w and Ton Scherpenzeel have one each. On top of that, drummer Hans Eijkenaar debuts as composer, working with Ton to write the music of 'Traitor's Gate' while the rest of the album was written by the band leader alone.

This is not a band using a name to get some publicity, but instead are showing they are standing on the shoulders of giants as they continue to thrive and deliver an album which is a delight from beginning to end. This is not some geriatric outfit with nothing to offer who are still surviving on loyalties built from music in the past, but have produced an album which is exciting, inventive, immediate and an awful lot of fun. There is a mix between different styles, some more commercial than others, and the result is something which any proghead will enjoy the very first time they play it and will continue to gain more as they repeat. There is some tasteful guitar here and there, while Ton is of course a wonderful in- demand keyboard player, here providing both swathes as backdrops or taking leads, while the drums set the foundation and of course multi-instrumentalist Gildenl'w is always there to add to some finesse.

It is a highly polished release, full of crossover elements which sees it bring in some pop as well as some symphonic, and it is nice to listen to an album which is just so easy to enjoy and not have to work at. Let's hope they have more in them yet as this is not the sound of a band ready to retire.

The Dutch melodic symphonic crossover group Kayak is going through a brilliant phase since founding member Ton Scherpenzeel reformed the group in 2018 with the record 'Seventeen'. The 'Live 2019' record showed the new band to be in a glorious form on stage (which I also witnessed myself in the city of Arnhem). Vocalist Bart Schwertmann is the best singer the band ever had (which is saying a lot) and master guitarist Marcel Singer is the ballsy counterweight to Ton Scherpenzeel's very melodic and classically influenced type of songwriting. On their latest record 'Out of this World' the band manages to bring some of that great podium flair to the record (something lacking on the rather flat sounding 'Seventeen' record). The production is quite good here. Kayak usually makes albums with a few strong progressive rock tracks and a string of lighter melodic pop rock songs and this album is no different. There are however a lot of great five-star progressive tracks here; 'Out of This World', 'Under a Scar', 'Kaja', 'Mystery', 'The Way She Said Goodbye', 'Critical Mass', 'Red Rag to a Bull' and 'A Writer's Tale' are all tracks fit among the best material of the band. Think of extended Kayak classics like 'Merlin', 'Icarus', 'Starlight Dancer' and 'Daphne'. The band uses some classic building blocks to make the sound typically 'Kayak'; the intelligent harmonic chords patterns by Scherpenzeel, the endless melodic lines in vocals and guitar, the interesting mood changes within songs and the band's recognizable 'light touch' to tie it all together. Sadly the album is also plagued by three out of place sounding pop songs on which guitarist Marcel Singor has lead vocals. As much as I adore his guitar playing, I just don't see how these songs fit on a Kayak album with their strong influences of Bowie and perhaps Sting. Other notable songs are 'One by One', a ballad sung by bass player Kristoffer Gildenlöw that could have been written by Trans-siberian Orchestra. The last songs 'Ship of Theseus' is sung by Ton Scherpenzeel himself and is actually a nice ending with a ghost ship theme and atmosphere. This album could have easily been Kayak's 21th century swansong and it would still have had a playing time of 50 minutes, but as it stands I can't give it more than four stars. 'Out of this World' does however offer some of the best symphonic progressive rock of 2021 and therefor comes as highly recommended to listeners of before-mentioned genres.

The exquisitely arpeggiated piano intro to the title track lets everybody know from the very beginning that this classic Dutch outfit is back, and in the best form. And not only the instrumental prowess is back with them, but also the melodies, the tasteful (and tasty) arrangements and that fine pop craftmanship delivering great songs.

Having said that, it doesn't mean that there's few or nothing for the prog ear in this album, on the contrary: the good melodies take off and reach great high in the interplay and in the always sensible vocals. And the best part is that this happens with each and every track, you don't have to digest a lot of fillers in order to find just a couple of listenable tracks. The whole album flows nicely in a high level of musicianship, it never leaves you just waiting to see if the next track can save the day.

As a sample of the more basic, song-oriented material, give a listen to the track 14 Cary. As for the more epic content, go for the opener, and the tracks 3 Under a Scar, 6 Critical Mass, & 13 A Winter's Tale. The closer, even when brief, is a great symphonic moment.

As what seems to be the case with most people, my introduction to Kayak was through the excellent album "Phantom of the Night". This album, once it grows on you, will possibly influence you to check out Kayak's discography, and you'll find out that the band got it's start in 1972 and then disbanded in 1982 after releasing around 9 albums. During this time, the band saw many line-up changes, but founder Ton Scherpenzeel has been the one constant through the years. Then, in 1999, they were invited to participate in a TV show, and they decided to re-form. Since then, they are still active and have released several more albums since. There are, as a result, many albums to choose from.

Kayak's music has pretty much been a progressive pop style, not unlike that of The Alan Parson's Project in the use of pop, prog, and symphonic styles that make you sit up and listen while not really realizing that you are listening to progressive music until you get to know it better. It is bright music, led mostly by piano and other keyboards, but also not afraid to let the guitar take charge along the way.

So, if you are interested in checking out their discography, the album "Starlight Dancer" can be a somewhat confusing affair. It was released in Europe in 1977, and another version was released in North America at the same time. Now, this was a practice that was done by the record companies quite often. The track line-ups on the different versions of "Starlight Dancer" are quite different, to the point of them being two different albums. This was done in order to pick out songs that the record company "Janus" thought would appeal more to the population of the US and Canada. Instead of replacing one or two songs, though, the NA version only kept 4 of the songs from the European version of the album, and on top of that, replaced two of those with "demo" versions of the original album tracks. These songs were the title track, "Turn the Tide" and demo versions of "Irene" and "I Want You to Be Mine" They also included a track not on the European album version that was only released as a b-side in Europe; "Ballad for a Lost Friend". The other 6 tracks all come from the previously released album "The Last Encore". As a result of this, the NA version of "Starlight Dancer" actually becomes a compilation, with most songs coming from the previous album, not the current album. To make things even more confusing, the album cover on the US version is the exact same as the album cover from "The Last Encore" (except for the album title).

So, this particular review is for the North American version of "Starlight Dancer". I have not been able to listen to the European version, so I don't know how to compare it to that one. However, this version demonstrates the direction that Ton wanted to take his band, and it includes some bright, prog pop tracks that those who listened to "Phantom of the Night" would probably expect, but also contains some nice, soaring ballads, all with the prog edge needed to keep them interesting, but with pop-centered riffs and melodies that will stick in your head, but in a good way.

The album begins and ends with the demo versions taken from the recording sessions from 1977. Why the label decided to use the demo versions is unknown, but they both sound quite finished to me without hearing the finished versions of them. "I Want You to Be Mine" is a good opener and prepares the listener for the signature prog-pop sound of the band. "Ballad for a Lost Friend" is a bit more like a ballad which picks up later in the song and one of my favorites from the album. By the time you get to "Nothingness" you are ready for something not so bright, and you get it here with a soaring and sweet ballad which carries over somewhat in the next track that grows off of that.

The title track opens up the 2nd side with what is probably the best track on the album. At this point, more of the symphonic style is added in though throughout the album you have heard the use of the string ensemble, you'll really notice it here along with the Alan Parson's Project similarities. After this, the tracks are a bit shorter and begin to sound alike as they continue in this manner with the bright prog-pop they are known for. Things cool down a bit for the softer and flowing instrumental, the demo version of "Irene" which closes the album.

Just as is the case with most of Kayak's music, this album spotlights that pop-prog sound with the right mix of symphonic and folk influences that make it feel like, on first listen, that you are not even hearing prog. But as you become more familiar with it, you start to notice the non-standard phrasing and lyrical tendencies and the other subtle things the band uses to give it a light amount of complexity. As with most of their albums, it is a very pleasant listen, not at all challenging, yet not groundbreaking at all either. Many hard-core progressive fans will not like this because it is quite light on the progressiveness, but if you enjoy the lighter side of prog, then you should know this band because this is what they specialize in.

I think there's another version to this single (intended to the US market) where the prime side was given to "Keep the Change", a nicely paced mid-tempo song with radio potencial, dealing with romantic disappointment.

On the A side, from the album of the same name, we have "Phantom of the Night", a romantic ghosts tale, with nice vocals, exquisite classical piano and electric guitar lines rounding the chorus in a way that is really hard to forget.

On the B side, "Ivory Dance" is a nifty, yet not tremendously inspiring keyboards excercise resulting in some amusement for a night where your dining plans went overboard.