CHIMERA

There are bright spots, particularly the soft-rocking “De Stalknecht” with unmistakable eighties riffs and danceable rhythms but also quite lovely vocals from Ms. Verkade and a couple of dulcimers that aren’t prominent but serve to balance the electric guitar. “Da Stirkganz” is also quite good, very similar to the stuff the band recorded on their first album with plenty of recorder, flute and violin to accent Verkade’s excellent vocals. “Wachten” features more of the same but includes vocals from Verkade’s husband as well.

The last couple of tracks veer off into artsy pop-rock territory though, with a combination of violin and keyboards that is toe-tapping enough, but not at all in the same mold as the rest of the album and a bit ill-fitting on the record as a whole. The band sounds like they spent a fair amount of time in the studio trying various sounds and styles that might click with several audiences, but instead of working toward cohesion they simply threw everything together and called it a day. Taken individually the songs are all decent, but none of them stand out with the possible exception of the slightly stodgy “Da Stirkganz”.

Of the two Chimera albums I prefer the first, but this one is slightly more approachable for broader (i.e., non-folk) audiences. Neither record is very memorable, but I have to give this one a slight nod over the other only because the group is obviously trying to stretch themselves; it’s just that they may have stretched a bit too thinly. Mildly recommended and three stars.

peace

The lyrics are Dutch I presume, certainly some sort of Scandinavian tongue that sounds awfully warm and inviting on the tongue of young Marry Verkade, and the music is so heavily folk-leaning that I hesitate to even call it progressive or even contemporary folk. This stuff is firmly rooted in older Dutch traditional folk, with variations on violin and flute-driven reels abounding throughout and a couple of more laid-back pastoral pieces, the most eloquent of which is easily the instrumental “St Vitusdans” which features every instrument in the band’s repertoire including an Indian organ, violin, flute, whistles, recorder, dulcimer, mandolin and of course a couple of guitars.

Another track (“De Droghen Haring”) hints at the slightly more rocking and modern pose the band would strike for their second and final release ‘Obstakel’ a year later, but beyond that most of the album is quite well-played but rather pedestrian folk. The band offers up something of a magnum opus with the 9-minute plus “De Loteling”, reminding me for some reason a whole lot of the British contemporary folk act Faraway Folk despite the cultural and language differences. Mostly the interplay of Marry Verkade’s tempered soprano and the various male singers on the song I suppose, sort of a non-harmonizing trio/quartet much like what Faraway did for several years.

Not much else to say about this record. It hasn’t ever been released on CD to my knowledge, although I know Bas and Marry Verkade reformed the band as a trio with their eldest son a few years ago and expressed some interest in reissuing their back catalog. The three of them don’t appear to have been active in some time now, so I don’t expect anyone will re-release this of ‘Obstakel’ any time soon.

I have nothing against this album and actually kind of enjoy the interaction between Marry Verkade and the traditional instruments; but much like groups such as Dulcimer, Horden Raikes and Heron this is quite good folk music but not so much progressive. I’ll have to go with two stars but only based on a prog-folk scale; would be three easily if I were only judging the folk quality of the music.

peace