BURNIN' RED IVANHOE

I'll skip the 2 first tunes I consider passable and focus on what I find the most interesting elements of this album.

Saxophone piece 1 is a short and interesting instrumental, a jazz tune dynamic, fast, so fast we could almost consider it as a transitional piece.

Marsfesten is much more psychedelic with its psalmodic female choruses, the structure is noticeable with an alternate of rocky parts and psalms with a "vague music theme" both at the beginning and the end of the tune.

Antique Peppermint beats it all as strong psychedelic jazz instrumental and psalmodic voices.

Indre Landskab is clearly a classic rock with a strong riff, the sustained presence of harmonica, and a wah pedal.

Jizzlou is simple, efficient, not a masterpiece but a really nice track and a good blues-rock.

lo and behold! We have Saxophone Piece 2, it has a more grating side which makes me think of Captain Beefheart in his Trout mask replica (curiously released the same year!), we are more at the borders of the bruises, Avant-rock, and experimental in some way.

Medardus starts with a row of trumpets, quite masterful and worrying, then comes the chorus, and in the end, a song clearly structured in several parts that best shows what is BURNIN RED IVANHOE, a jazz-psyche rock band whose borders are frankly erased in some of the tracks, this one is the best proof I think.

Larsen is another sympathetic psychedelic tune, sung in English, with extensive use of the wah-wah pedal, and flute.

Oyizl is a longer instrumental, absolutely jazz, the highlight is the drum solo, very demonstrative.

Ivanhoe In The Woods revolves around a trumpet version of I can get no (satisfaction), this pastiche is quite amusing but fail to stand out.

Ida Verlaine shows quite well the blending of pure blues-rock and psychedelia

Inside, is again a short but pleasant instrumental lead by brasses which announces the final track.

...and the end is psychedelic with Ksilioy, the longest piece of the album, a bit lackluster in my mind.

As we have seen, M144 is a varied album in its style, it is an album with uneven content. There is a good psychedelic base - blues rock and we venture throughout the tracks into pure jazz-rock, even pure jazz, psychedelic rock, or proto-prog. Some pieces are well-posed in their kind, without leaving it, and others see a fusion of the kinds sometimes happy other times more hazardous.

Overall, it's a good rendition for a debut album, it has many elements of proto-prog but is still kept in a primary category of jazz/proto-prog, it is still a very good demonstration for this period. Many tracks are self-explanatory and kept my attention, somewhat the album is a bit marred by some dull compositions that fail to enter any category or to blind correctly with other styles. 'eager to see what the following albums have in store for us...

"BRI" documents Burnin Red Ivanhoe as a band still going strong, a vital unit still able to produce the goods 46 years after it was formed. As far as style is concerned, this isn't an album that sticks to progressive rock as such though, which might be regarded as a negative dimension for some, but if you can enjoy a band that opts to explore a broader stylistic framework that contains anything from radio friendly rock to experimental progressive rock, then this CD merits a check.

"Second Floor, Croydon" is laid back with vocals. It does kick in before 1 1/2 minutes. Flute before 4 minutes. Drums and organ lead after 7 minutes. I much prefer the second half of this song. "W.W.W." opens with not much going on until we get some haunting sounds that come and go after 1 1/2 minutes. The organ and drums start to come and go as well with no real melody. Interesting tune to say the least. "Avez-Vous Kaskelainen ?" starts to build with drums and organ. Great sound after 1 1/2 minutes.

"Kaske-Vous Karsemose" is my favourite track. Again the drums and organ lead. Sax 3 minutes in. The drumming is excellent. Two incredible songs in a row. "All About All" opens with strummed guitar and drums. This is catchy with vocals. Silly lyrics and horns too. A fun tune. "Oblong Serenade" is another song that can't be taken too seriously with the horns and theatrical vocals. I like the guitar late. "Cucumber- Porcupine" has this catchy beat with horns. Vocals before 2 minutes.

Of their first three albums this might be my favourite, but they're all good. 3.5 stars.

"Across The Windowsill" is a good opener with the focus on the strong vocals. This one's catchy and I like the tasteful guitar at 1 1/2 minutes that goes on and on as organ, bass and drums support. Vocals return around 3 1/2 minutes, sax a minute later. "Canaltrip" is a jazzy, trippy tune with mostly sax and drums throughout. "Rotating Irons" is a bluesy track with harmonica.

"Gong-Gong,The Elephant Song" has lots of horns and cymbals until it kicks in before a minute. I like the beat here. It settles after 3 minutes then kicks back in quickly. "Near The Sea" is a laid back tune with guitar and light drums early as vocals join in. Flute after 2 1/2 minutes. "Secret Oyster Service" is the almost 10 minute closing track. Not much going on here,some dissonance around 3 minutes then it kicks in before 5 minutes.

This is a band I enjoy, but as yet I really haven't been bowled over by them yet. 3.5 stars.

"Ivanhoe I Brondbyerne" is a good opener with the forceful vocals and drums while the organ plays along. I really like the organ in this one and the mellower sections. Flute before 2 minutes. "Ridder Red" opens and closes with horns but the rest is fairly laid back and catchy with outbursts of guitar. The vocals are almost spoken. The drums come to the fore after 2 1/2 minutes. "Saxophonepiece 1" is uptempo with sax playing over top. "Marsfesten" has these soft vocals with a mellow soundscape which are contrasted with the fuller more passionate passages. "Antique Pepperment" has this catchy beat with horns. Guitar after 2 minutes. Vocal melodies a minute later. "Indre Landskab" also has a catchy beat with what sounds like harmonica.Vocals join in. "Jiizlou" opens with horns and drums. Guitar 1 1/2 minutes in. "Kaj" and the next three tracks are the best stretch of music for me. Raw guitar opens this one before drums, bass, organ and vocals join in. I like the sound here a lot. Horns 1 1/2 minutes in. "Tingel-Tangelmanden" is slower paced with the focus on the vocals early. I like the guitar that goes on and on as the drums pound from 1 1/2 minutes to 4 1/2 minutes.

"Laeg Dig Kun Ned" has a good rhythm and they have two vocalists singing different lyrics at the same time. It works ! "Saxophonepiece 2" has a Rio flavour with the dissonant horns. "Medarjus" opens with solemn horns. A change after a minute as drums take over. Bass joins in,guitar and horns follow. Vocals after 2 minutes. It ends as it began. "Purple Hearts" reminds me of Syd Barrett. A fun song with lots of organ. A nice prolonged instrumental section to end it as well. "Larsen" is laid back with reserved vocals and floating organ. "Oylzi" is taken over by the drumming fairly quickly. Violin comes in then horns. A drums solo after 3 minutes. "Ivanhoe In The Woods" opens sounding like "Satisfaction" by the STONES. Lots of horns. "Ida Verlaine" is mournful to open. It kicks in with guitar before 1 1/2 minutes. "Sensitive Plant" opens with organ and drums as vocals join in. It's ok. "Inside" is experimental with sounds coming and going. "Ksilioy" is the 10 1/2 minute closer. It's uptempo with vocals right away. A good rhythm as vocals come and go. They jam for a long period of time. I like it.

Very much a mixed bag as most double albums tend to be for me. So much to like here though. I'm looking forward to hearing the more Jazzy followup. 3.5 stars.

The music hasn´t got much to do with the progressive jazz/ rock that made Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe such an exciting band in the beginning of their career. There´s a definite modern nineties pop/ rock touch to the sound and the songs are generally very commercial and not the least progressive IMO. I think Karma Cowboy ( with lyrics by the famous and sadly deceased Danish poet and author Dan Túrell) and the instrumental Jammin´ My Animal with the very distinct didjeridu, are partially enjoyable while I can´t really find much joy in the rest of the tracks.

The musicianship is excellent as usual but the music is not as challenging or focused on instruemental sections as was the case on the first albums from the band.

The production is professional but not really to my liking.

I can´t say that I´m very excited about this album and my rating lies somewhere between 1 and 2 stars. There are a few enjoyable momemts here and there so I´ll stretch and give Lack of Light 2 stars. Lack of Light is just a notch better than Shorts but overall it´s not very recommendable.

I don´t know if the original LP version only had ten songs as it is stated here on PA but the CD version that I have is a double CD. The first CD contains the same ten songs that were on the LP version while the second CD contains the same songs but now with English sung lyrics. The first CD has Danish sung lyrics.

The music is far from the experimental Jazz/ Rock style Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe is generally known for and I´m sure that fans of the first three and most famous albums would cringe with embarrasment if they heard Shorts because this is bad eighties AOR if I´m being nice and really bad AOR if I´m not. You can still hear Karsten Vogel´s saxophone playing here and there but it´s about the only thing that links this album to Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe of the seventies. What a shame. This is such a cheesy album full of simple pop tunes with trivial arranged instrumentation.

The musicianship is good, but it´s no surprise if you´ve heard their albums from the seventies.

The production is a horror of an eighties production. Just listen to that terrible drum sound.

This is a terrible disappointment for me and even though I read on the inner sleeve to Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s debut album M144 that the eighties weren´t very good for the band, I imagined that their excellent music just wasn´t inn at the time, but sadly it´s the other way around. The music was simply too bad to be enjoyed by anyone at the time. There is literally nothing I enjoy on this album and even though the musicianship is good I can´t give this album more than 1 star. BIG disappointment. I can highly recommend that you stay away from this one and purchase one of the first three albums from the band instead.

Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s normal progressive jazz/ rock approach has been left in the background on 6 Elefantskovcikadeviser which is basically a folk rock album with Danish sung lyrics. Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe is known for their elaborate intrumental sections, but on this album the instrumentation is a bit more stripped down.

The album consists of nine tracks, but there are really only six real songs on the album as Introduction sigvaldi, Kometen v sigvaldi and Introduction til Medardus are basically only some live talking. Wallifanten is the first real song and it´s great. One of the best songs on the album. It´s also the first song where we´re introduced to Povl Dissing´s characteristic voice. Narrevise is the next song. Again it´s a great folky track but it´s the next song Snehvidekys ( Snowwhite Kiss) which takes the price as the best song on the album for me. It ´s an extremely beautiful and emotionally sung love song that really moves me. Ta fri ta fri us another great bluesy folk rock song and the same can be said about Et Samfund which is the only song on the album where Povl Dissing doesn´t sing. Ole Fick handles the vocals on this song as he usually does on Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s albums. Tingel-Tangelmanden is a reworking of the original track from the debut and it has extensive soloing during it´s 10:27 minutes and some great vocals from Povl Dissing. This is probably the song that will be most enjoyable for fans of the first three classic albums from the band ( M144, Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe and W.W.W.).

The musicianship is as always excellent even though this music is much more basic than the more challenging playing which takes place on the first three albums from the band. Povl Dissing will be an aquired taste, first of all because he sings in Danish but also because of his distinct vocal style which will probably scare some people away( he is very famous in Denmark because of his vocal style and his poetic lyrics). Despite of the lineup info here on PA, the sleeve notes on the original album says that it´s the same lineup who recorded W.W.W. who also recorded this album just with the addition of Povl Dissing on the latter.

The production is excellent. Nothing to complain about there.

6 Elefantskovcikadeviser is not an album that will satisfy many visitors here on PA and it has something to do with knowing the Danish language because half of the enjoyment here IMO is the way Povl Dissing sings the poetic lyrics and that part unfortunately gets lots in translation. But for people who like folk rock with a bluesy touch this might be an enjoyable album anyway. I like the album so I´ll rate it 3 stars.

Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe:

The selftitled second Studio Album from Danish act Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe was released in 1970. The debut album from 1969 called M144 is a really excellent album and one of the most important Danish progressive releases. Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe even enjoyed some success in both UK, Germany and the rest of the Scandinavian countries which was ( and still is) very rare for a Danish band.

The music is bluesy jazz/ rock very much in the vein of bands like Colosseum and Audience. On this second album there is a much more dominant experimental jazz/ rock touch to songs like Canaltrip and Secret Oyster Service compared to the style on the debut, while the blues influence is clearly heard on Rotating Irons and Across the Windowsill. Near the Sea is a mellow song. Gong-Gong, The Elephant Song is also in experimental jazz/ rock territory with dominant brass work. The main theme reminds me a bit about The Mothers of Invention ( King Kong). There is also a harmonica solo in that song.

The musicianship is excellent. Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe was and still is one of the most accomplished bands in Denmark. The two brass players Kim Menzer and Karsten Vogel dominate the music but the vocals from Ole Fick which this time is solely sung in English are also really good. Jess Stæhr on bass and Bo Thrige Andersen on drums also makes for a really tight and excellent rythm section.

The production is excellent. Organic, pleasant and well sounding.

M144 stands for me as one of the most groundbreaking and important progressive releases in Danish music history and that´s pretty hard to compete with. Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe is a bit too much in experimental jazz/ rock territory for my taste. Not unlike Soft Machine really even though this album is much better than anything Soft Machine ever did after the first two albums. This is still a good album though and it deserves 3 stars IMO.

W.W.W.:

W.W.W. is the third studio album from Danish progressive jazz/ rock band Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe. I´m a big fan of the debut album called M144 from the band while the selftitled second album went too far into jazz territory for my taste. It´s still a good album though. With W.W.W. Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe returns to the more psychadelic leanings of the debut while still maintaining their jazzy edge.

The change in style compared to the predecessor is very obvious when listening to the first couple of songs on W.W.W. Karsten Vogel plays the organ instead of his characteristic sax on both the opener Second Floor, Croydon, the second song W.W.W. and the third song Avez-Vous Kaskelainen while Kim Menzer plays the flute rather than his usual sax. This change in intrumentation really gives those songs a different sound to the normally very sax dominated Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe we´re used to. The sax does return later on the album but never in the jazzy way it´s used on the predecessor. There are vocals on Second Floor, Croydon, All About All and Oblong Serenade while the rest of the songs are instrumental. My favorites here are Second Floor, Croydon and Oblong Serenade with it´s characteristic trombone theme. The only song I don´t enjoy much is the psychadelic organ dominated title track. It´s way too long and really isn´t very interesting.

The musicianship is excellent. On W.W.W. we really get to hear every facette of Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s sound from jazz/ Rock to psychadelic rock to more progressive moments like the ending of Second Floor, Croydon. The interplay between these musicians is magical IMO.

The production is really good and pleasant. Very organic just like the sound on the first two albums.

W.W.W. is a really good album and even though it´s not as challenging as it´s predecessor or as groundbreaking as the debut from Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe it´s a pretty unique album from the band. I´ll rate W.W.W. 3 BIG stars.

Conclusion:

Both Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe and W.W.W. are very worthy purchases and therefore this boxset is a great opertunity to get both albums for one albums price. I rated both individual albums 3 stars but as the idea of putting them out together is really great I´ll give this boxset 4 stars. Both albums were BIG 3 star ratings anyway.

The change in style compared to the predecessor is very obvious when listening to the first couple of songs on W.W.W. Karsten Vogel plays the organ instead of his characteristic sax on both the opener Second Floor, Croydon, the second song W.W.W. and the third song Avez-Vous Kaskelainen while Kim Menzer plays the flute rather than his usual sax. This change in intrumentation really gives those songs a different sound to the normally very sax dominated Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe we´re used to. The sax does return later on the album but never in the jazzy way it´s used on the predecessor. There are vocals on Second Floor, Croydon, All About All and Oblong Serenade while the rest of the songs are instrumental. My favorites here are Second Floor, Croydon and Oblong Serenade with it´s characteristic trombone theme. The only song I don´t enjoy much is the psychadelic organ dominated title track. It´s way too long and really isn´t very interesting.

The musicianship is excellent. On W.W.W. we really get to hear every facette of Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s sound from jazz/ Rock to psychadelic rock to more progressive moments like the ending of Second Floor, Croydon. The interplay between these musicians is magical IMO.

The production is really good and pleasant. Very organic just like the sound on the first two albums.

W.W.W. is a really good album and even though it´s not as challenging as it´s predecessor or as groundbreaking as the debut from Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe it´s a pretty unique album from the band. I´ll rate W.W.W. 3 BIG stars.