DE HOMINE URBANO

Ache is a symphonic prog rock band from Denmark. They are one of the few from the early seventies scene in Denmark which wasn´t exactly overpopulated. Most Danish bands were in the early seventies still mostly rooted in the pshychadelic era of the late sixties. There are a few exceptions and Ache is one of them. What is very interesting about Ache is that they have a very international sound as opposed to most other Danish bands of that era ( again there are few exceptions to that rule. Bands like Midnight Sun, Day of Phoenix and some of the material Burning Red Ivanhoe produced was very international sounding).

De Homine Urbano is a very organ driven affair which reminds me of a lot of the early seventies prog rock bands from England. What is a bit different is that the guitar from Finn Olafsson is very dominating when it comes to the soloing. He plays with the bluesy late sixties sound. The album consist of two side long compositions where the first one De Homine Urbano is music for a modern ballet. The second one is almost in the same style. There are lots of sections in the songs so they never get boring. Vocals are used sparcely.

The musicians are very good and they all need to be mentioned for the great playing. I´m not too impressed with Torsten Olafsson´s ( brother of Finn) voice. As mentioned he doesn´t use it very often on De Homine Urbano though.

The album is produced by the domestically famous Johnny Reimer. He is mostly known in Denmark for being the father of the Smerfs and for being an entertainer playing easy listening pop/ rock but in the early seventies he produced some rock albums too. The production is very good, and the music really sounds great with this sound.

Even though De Homine Urbano sounds very international which is an achivement in ifself for a danish band, it´s still pretty average early seventies symphonic prog rock. I´m not a big fan of the more organ driven bands in this style and therefore Ache isn´t my favorite band either. De Homine Urbano is a good album though and for fans of the aforementioned genre I´m sure this is very enjoyable. 3 stars is what I will give this album.