HATFIELD AND THE NORTH

This is one of the most difficult review I had to write. I had quite an headache deciding between 4 stars and 5 stars, as this is a milestone of Canterbury music, with many members playing with other well-known groups like Matching Mole, Gong, Caravan or Soft Machine, all great bands. "Hatfield and the North" is somehow a 'superband' allowing itself to play a bit more on the wild side of progressive music, that is, experimental jazz. This is always a risky experiment because if it is easy for masters of experimentation to achieve harmony it is far more difficult for an harmonist to successfully experiment.

That said, as much as this album is experimental and jazzy, the Canterbury touch is still there and there are some magic in many songs there. Of course, this is an album you have to listen from the beginning to the end, a bit like Camel's "The Snow Goose" or other albums alike.

Overall, this is a wild bird as some other reviewers rightly pointed out. Don't throw it away after one listening; after some listening it gets clearer and really this is a complicated but very good album! 4.2/5.0

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