CULPEPER'S ORCHARD

This album was my own introduction to the Danish progressive rock, and it is certainly a very good album. Though the opener "Banjocul" is quite unnecessary intro without much happening in it, the following "Mountain Music part 1" really shows the band's talent and the characteristic manners of their style, this being artistic bluesy hard rock of the early 1970's with many kind of details and influences enriching their sound as unique and personal. Layers of acoustic guitars soften the quieter parts, which contrast the more faster and heavier phases, creating nice tensions to the songs. Compositions are also quite sophisticated, and the majority of the music is controlled with surprising rhythm changes and arrangements for larger amount of instruments. All this is also nicely balanced with moments for open jamming, and the music sounds free, relaxed and powerful. In the first song's guitar work I'm hearing some similarities in the playing of The Who's Peter Townshed style, aggressive rock'n'roll riffs with manic rhythms and roaring tones. The heaviness of this music could be compared to early 1970's Deep Purple, only that these guys are more personal, artistic and richer with nuances than the British group mentioned. "Hey You People" is a short upright acoustic piece with multiple vocal harmonies, and it leads directly to "Teaparty for an Orchard", over a six minutes long track with euphoric acoustic beginning, which morphs as a another sequence with different melodies trough an acid soundscape. "Ode to Resistance" has some nice flutes, and as these are companied with an acoustic guitar, baritone vocals and interesting hard rock punches, this could be compared with "Aqualung"-era Jethro Tull. "Gideon's Trap" sounds then like Procol Harum, as it builds up from minor steady beating bluesy tune for piano and organ, the roaring solo guitar bursting at the end. The theme of the first song continues in the conclusion, creating a loose concept structure to this fabulous album, which I would really recommend to all those who like artistic 1970's classic rock music. What here was really pleasant to my ear were also the singing, as this is not done in the usual fjord vocals style familiar from the days of this recording (Uriah Heep's vocals were called as such, sounding like somebody is falling of a fjord in a very cold day).