SECRET OYSTER [AKA: FURTIVE PEARL]

Out of the ashes of Burning Red Ivanhoe, Hurdy Gurdy, and Coronarius Dans (or maybe just leasing the house next door) comes Danemark's wildest and most inventive psychedelic jazz-rockers.

1. "Dampexpressen" (4:24) slow entry of a space-psychedelic keyboard before the whole band joins in rather explosively; it feels as if I'm listening to a freak out jam from an early rock band like The Who, The Yardbirds, or The Moodies. Alto sax and electric guitar eventually emerge as the two leaders, trading solos before merging into one. Kenneth Knudsen's electric piano tries to step into the spotlight a couple of times but is nearly washed out by its low volume. Surprising and inventive. (8.875/10) 2. "Fire & Water" (5:34) another psychedelic jam that opens like a drug-induced jam on "The House of the Rising Sun" but then suddenly leaps into third gear to run out of the intro gate into a motif that presents a rather hypnotic psychedelic weave of bass, drums, electric piano, and organ backing Claus Bøhling's heavily-effected lead electric guitar, soloing on all parts of his guitar. Even when Karsten takes a turn in the lead on the organ Claus' crazy squealing/sizzling electric guitar commands all the attention. Crazy and fresh if not really jazzy: more like stoner rock. (9/10)

3. "Vive la quelle?" (8:50) structure! Some crazy that reminds me more of early avant-garde/RIO music from Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, The Who, or early Jeff Beck Group. The drums are the real star of this show and kudos to Bo Thrige Andersen for holding it together with all eyes on him (at least, for the first five minutes)! The rest of the band eventually rejoins Bo with a very hypnotic four-note weave over which Kenneth Knudsen bangs away on his electric piano while Bo continues banging away underneath on his batterie. Claus takes over at the end of the seventh minute with a hard-rockin', less effected solo that plays right into the crazily disturbing weave until the ninth minute when the band revisits the disciplined structure that was the song's beginning. Quite remarkable! (18/20)

4. "Blazing Lace" (4:45) the band open with a clever and quaint little three-bar jazz-rock motif that they circulate over and over while individuals step out of the weave to solo: first Karsten vogel with his saxophone, then Claus Bøhling with an abrasive rock guitar that sounds like Alvin Lee, then Kenneth Knudsen's electric piano as the music is faded out. Interesting and once again displaying the band members' commitment to disciplined song construction. (8.875/10)

5. "Public Oyster" (10:46) percussion play (mostly cymbals) and repetitive/hypnotic electric piano play that plays out over the first 2:30 before fading away and being replaced by hypnotic bass riff and vacant drum play with more hypnotic background electric piano and "distant" electric guitar scratchings for a minute until the "dirty" electric piano becomes established as the de facto lead instrument (despite the creative echo-guitar noodling going on in the background). The creative echo-guitar noodling supplants the electric piano in the sixth minute as the drum and bass foundation thicken a bit with harsher play on the drum kit. At 6:15 soprano sax emerges out of nowhere to lead/solo, seemingly floating around in an ethereal dimension somewhere above or around the rest of the band--which gets even crazier when Claus rejoins with his guitar noodling--nearly matching, for a while, the cat-like screaching of Karsten's sax, note for note! Mads Vinding's note play becomes chord strokes, gaining in aggression and volume as we finish the cat-fight solo and return to some electric piano, briefly, before watching Claus step back into the spotlight with a highly-effected wah-wah-and-other-effects guitar solo in the tenth minute. The rest of the song sees Claus' "failing" guitar lead the band into a petering out until it all comes to an end in the eleventh minute. Weird but, I've got to be honest: creative! (17.5/20)

6. "Mis(s) Fortune" (1:28) bass and mellowed-down electric piano duet. Could be inspired by a classical music piece but really goes nowhere--serves no purpose unless as an étude. (4.375/5)

7. "Ova-X" (4:56) super spacey synths, sax, cymbal play, and electric piano play opens this rather chaotically for about 90 seconds before the band forms around a Herbie Hancock Mwandishi/Weather Report-like groove for a bit before devolving again into primordial cosmic soup. Interesting composition by Karsten Vogel.! It's as if Dr. Patrick Gleeson were in the house for this one! I like it! (8.875/10)

Total Time 40:43

B+/four stars; an excellent, highly creative, and surprisingly well-synchronized and cohesively consistent album that I might, someday, feel inclined to elevate to "minor masterpiece" status for its delightful uniquities.

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