DAY OF PHOENIX

The Wide Open N-Way (1970) album is a great psychadelic/ progressive rock album with long jam-like compositions with lots of guitar solos and inventive playing by the two guitarists in the band. It´s generally considered a classic Danish psychadelic/ progressive rock album. The Neighbour's Son (1972) which featured three members of the newly disbanded Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe is widely considered a disappointment with its more vers/ chorus radio length rock songs. I think the idea to release this compilation is great but as The Neighbour's Son doesn´t hold much interest for me it does drag my rating down a bit from 3.5 stars to 3 stars. Get a hold of Wide Open N-Way in any way possible if you´re interested in the psychadelic/ progressive rock scene in Denmark though. It´s a nice gem.

Unfortunately the band have changed their style a bit too much for my taste. The songs are ( with a few exceptions) vers/ chorus build rock songs totally lacking the dark psychadelic/ progressive element that made Wide Open N-Way such a great album. The musicianship is on a very high level though and compared to the debut that part is actually better. The two guitar attack which was a trademark on the debut is still very much present here. But when the songs aren´t more challenging than is the case here, it´s only a minor plus. The only song I found that appealed to me was the 6:37 minute long Paradox. It´s the longest song on the album and it´s the song that reminds me the most of the material from Wide Open N-Way. The rest is not bad but it´s rather mediocre.

The production by Tony Reeves ( Colosseum, Greenslade) is professional and well sounding. Pleasant and organic.

The music on The Neighbour's Son is mostly not to my taste but I actually find that the high level of musicianship, compositions and production does bring my rating up to a 2.5 - 3 star rating. But do check out Wide Open N-Way before you make up your mind about Day of Phoenix. The Neighbour's Son does not show them from their best side.

First a little related background info from the Danish scene for those who have an interest in that.

Cy Nicklin who was British had started his music career in the Danish based folk duo Cy & Maia with Danish singer Maia Aarskov whom he had met at a dinner party in 1965. The duo later became a trio and was renamed Cy, Maia & Robert, when Danish based French musician Robert Jean Francis Lelièvre who had deserted the French army in 1962 and lived in political exile in Denmark, joined the two. Cy & Maia recorded the single Portland Town/ Chickens Are Coming in 1966 and it was the only recording they made as a duo before Robert Lelièvre joined them. Cy, Maia & Robert recorded their debut album On the Scene in 1966 and their second album Out of Our Times was released in 1967. They also released three singles in that period Green Rocky Road/ Harvest of Hate (1966), A Church Is Burning/ Take a Look Inside (1967) and Cheers Dears/ Natural Man (1967). The latter was recorded using the name Maia & Full Limit. Cy Nicklin and Robert Lelièvre also played guitar on Scottish folk singer Alex Campbell's 1967 album Alex Campbell At the Tivoli Gardens (1967). Cy, Maia & Robert split up in November of 1967.

Robert Lelièvre then went on and recorded an album called Alliance (1968) with Scottish folk singer Iain Campbell and then went to England where he recorded a solo album The Hare (1968 or 1969) and was signed by Polydor as a songwriter and studio musician. Robert Lelièvre came back to Denmark in June of 1969 where he teamed up with Cy Nicklin again ( who had just left Day of Phoenix with whom he had recorded the single Tell Me / I Think It's Gonna Rain Today (1969)) and formed the folk/ rock band High Crossfield. That band later evolved into the progressive rock act Pan whose sole self-titled album Pan (1970) is widely considered as one of the most important progressive rock ( proto-prog) albums in Denmark. Robert Lelièvre sadly suffered from depressions and took his own life in August of 1973 ( Pan disbanded in 1972). Cy Nicklin had left the band before the recording of Pan and formed Culpeper's Orchard who is also considered one of the most important bands on the Danish progressive rock scene.

Day of Phoenix initially started out as a blues rock band but after Cy Nicklin left their style took a more experimental and psychadelic turn. The music on Wide Open N-Way is a mix of west coast psychadelic rock and semi-progressive rock with a touch of jazz/ rock. The music is guitar driven and the two guitarists Karsten Lyng and Ole Prehn compliment each other brilliantly throughout the album. Hans Lauridsen´s vocals are pretty strong and as a plus the Danish accent is actually not that obvious ( which is something that can´t be said about many Danish bands singing English language lyrics in the sixties and seventies). The rythm section with drummer Henrik Friis and bassist/ pianist Erik Stedt ( also a member of Danish psychadelic rock act Beefeaters). Erik Stedt sadly died in 1971 and Day of Phoenix disbanded for a while) are also very capable musicians. The music is generally pretty dark and with three out of five songs on the album that has a playing time over 10 minutes each there´s lots of room for long jamming guitar solos. The music is well composed but sometimes suffer a bit because of the experiments. Sometimes those experiments are succeful but sometimes they just don´t work that well. My favorite song is Mind Funeral but the other two lengthy tracks Wide Open N-Way and Cellophane #1 & 2 also stand out as something special IMO.

The album is produced by Tony Reeves ( Colosseum, Greenslade) and got lots of attention because of that. This is not to say that the music isn´t of high quality because it certainly is but the choice of producer was wise. The production is very good but I hear more than one technical error in the playing which under normal circumstances would have been corrected but isn´t here. Maybe it was a money issue or limited studio time but it gives the album an unpolished quality that you don´t hear in music today. Quite charming really.

I´ve enjoyed Wide Open N-Way since the first time I was introduced to it by a friend in secondary school. Let´s just say we were influenced by some of the same things in those days that the hippies consumated in their heyday and this was one of the albums that we listened to in my friend´s room a lot along side albums by other Danish psychadelic/ progressive rock artists like The Young Flowers, The Savage Rose, Beefeaters, Alrune Rod, Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe and Steppeulvene. I return to those days every time I listen to the album but somehow the feeling of freedom and youth just don´t feel as strong anymore. I used to love the album but now I only hear a very good and interesting album. Very enjoyable with excellent moments but not fully worth the 4th star. 3.5 stars is my rating.

Musically much less enthralling, DotP plays tracks between 1:55 and 6:36 sounding like a flute-less Jethro Tull or Free, but without the songwriting skill. Even the longer tracks don't allow much room for musical interplay and there is little to remind us of the patchy but enthralling debut album. It's even hard for me to give you a preferred song, because they ll sound a bit alike, but the closing track is always a good one, because it sounds so nice once the raucus stopped. .

Best avoided if you ask me, this straight rock album is probably as interesting as are the later Midnight Sun album, also released on Sonet.

The album starts with two lengthy numbers that are more improvs than epic, with their West Coast double guitar attack, with the enigmatic title track being a collage of a few clumsily assembled parts, the middle one sounding like a garage band days Byrds or Dead. Quite messy really, but the group sounds fresh enough that they can be forgiven easily. However I'm wondering how Tony reeves could let that by, knowing how Colosseum was way more self-demanding. The following Cellephane is split into two parts, but it doesn't seem to make them anymore tidier or tighter, but it's clearly the band's best moment on this album

The flipside is a bit more uneven (and much shorter despite having one more song) with the rockier If You Ask Me (fairly straight forward), the ultra short Tick Tack and yet another 12-minutes track promisingly titled Mind Funeral. Obviously the album's other highlight, Mind Funeral sees the appearance of future Secret Oyster's Knudsen on piano and Ulrik Jensen on oboe, both giving a demented jazzy

Days Of Phoenix will find itself invaded by ex-BRI members, following that group's first line-up break up, with another future Secret Oyster Jess Staehr playing on bass. But for now, their debut album had enough interesting moments to make this album definitely worth the hearing while not being essential.

The two Cellophane parts are noticeably headed by Karsten Lyng and Ole Prehn delivering an excellent accentuated virtuoso twin guitar work. And then Mind Funeral has to be mentioned - they didn't take the song title literally by the way - as for the compositional aspect at least. The song consists of two different moods - first the solid westcoast psych touch. And then the band takes a deep breath in the second half and offers a wonderful jamming jazzy part which you may not have expected when listening for the first time.

'Wide Open N-Way' is not plain psych/space music - you should brace yourself for sophisticated psychedelic based rock with some jazz elements by contrast - sometimes even eclectic and ahead of the times in 1970. Highly recommended because absolutely enjoyable even nearly 40 years later!