MAD CURRY

MAD CURY were a band out of Belgium who released this their debut back in 1971. A five piece of keyboards, drums, bass, baritone sax and vocals. The female singer Viona Westra sort of steals the show here and she also had a hand in composing all but the 2 minute closer. This is jazzy with the sax but man I love the rhythm section especially the drummer. The keyboardist almost always plays the organ but there is some piano too. I think a comparison might be what Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger were doing in the last half of the sixties. The first half of the album is very solid, quite well done but the quality does diminish on side two with the last three songs.

"Men" the opener has this catchy rhythm section to start as the vocals join in. I love when she lets it rip vocally before the first minute. When she steps aside the sax takes over as this is contrasted. "Big Ben" opens with bass and organ as drums and passionate vocals join in then sax. This section will be repeated. "Beauty" has both male and female vocals and she has an attitude in this catchy number. I like the drumming early on especially. "Music The Reason Of Our Happiness" is uptempo with lots going on including scat singing from Viona. This is so cool, love it! This is contrasted with her soft vocals. "Jack Is Away" is the longest at almost 5 1/2 minutes and the last really good song in my opinion.

Still I feel this is a solid 4 stars with 3/4 of this being "B+" material and this is one of the earlier adventerous albums to come out of Belgium sounding like a late 60's work to my ears.