VALENTYNE SUITE

Valentyne Suite is an old classic from 1969, the year where influences from classical music and jazz became increasingly important in psychedelic rock. It won't register as prog with everyone yet and people that don't like either blues or jazz won't probably go wild over this release at all.

For me this is first and foremost an superb collection of heartfelt music, with varied songwriting and an open-minded attitude.

With The Kettle we take a strong rocking start with heavy psychedelic blues rock, rather similar to what also Deep Purple was doing those days. Elegy remains equally upbeat, but with a more jazzy swing. Time for a blues on Butty's Blues, traditional in style but simply excellent. I could become a real blues fan from listening to this stuff. The Machine is a track that I could do without. It's not bad but rather straightforward, except for the noisy ending that reminds of PF's Bike.

On to what everyone was waiting for, Prog! A whole suite of it actually. The first part brings The Nice and Deep Purple to mind, full of heavy rocking energy and classical-inspired organ melodies. It develops into a great organ and sax jam on a rockabilly bass line. Part two starts a bit more mellow, full of oohs and ahs and romantic themes. Part three lets the guitar come to the fore. The band runs wild again on this one.

An inspired and vigorous lump of early prog rock, with the emphasis on rock!