FULLY INTERLOCKING

The Dutch fusion band here took a more accessible way to produce easier tracks, still having some lead vocals. The saxes, keyboards, bass and drums are well balanced, and it sounds melodic, joyful, fresh and good. The ensemble is rather catchy, pleasant to listen. I would say it is definitely romantic: the saxophones are greatly responsible of that. The keyboards are varied and often floating, while there are different kinds of pianos. The best track is definitely "Carousel", a beautiful sentimental masterpiece, totally jazzy and progressive, full of Fender Rhodes: you absolutely have to enjoy the intense quintessential bit, where intense sax solo, heavily floating keyboards, punchy bass and expert drums suddenly take the maximum room available, creating an unbelievable extreme dynamic romantic passage. WOW!

Actually I heard the name of this band just recently.So far I listened only to "Cordon Bleu", which was a good one,but as well nothing special or relevant in prog in fact and now I stumbled over this one here. And what a disappointment! It's even much much worse than the one before.Simple poppy and boring melodies as in the first track, extremely awful. Between this one and the last one there are four sometimes atmospheric, sometimes grooving instrumental jazz-fusion tracks, quite nice but nothing special as well. The last track is again a very commercial soul/jazz song, very boring and horrible.

As a summary I can only say after listening to two records of this band, that IMHO they are probably not worth to be checked out by someone interested in jazzz rock as I am. Maybe the first two albums are more interesting. This one might be something decent for fans of soul music.

I could not agree less with my namesake, Dieter Fischer. Fully Interlocking is one of my favourite albums and evey bit as good as the wonderful Cordon Bleu. Dreamy keyboards, great sax work and an inspired rhythm section with some wonderful interplay between instruments. The vocals are just OK - never a Solution strength, but most tracks are instrumental except the first and last. The recording quality (on my vinyl copy) is outstanding - the drum intro to Carousel is the best test of a hi-fi ever - and this adds to the spacey feel. Give Me Some More is particularly excellent (poppy? I don't think so!) and Carousel is marvellous but no track lets the album down at all; it's very consistent and excellent. Jass fusion at it's best and, oh yes, DEFINITELY prog!!

Solution - Fully Interlocking (1977)

The sound of Solution after Cordon Bleu can be described as mellow fusion with an Alan Parson's Project sound. Sometimes the band get's in an adventerious mood however, and these moments can be of interest to the listener of progressive music. The best moments of Solution remind me a bit of the Polish super-group, S.B.B.

The band has a drummer, a bass-player, keyboards and a sax. All are talented and sound professional. The sax was recorded very clean and poppy, I would have loved to hear a more bebob-kind of sound.

On Fully Interlocking Solution has basically the same formula as on Cordon Bleu, but somehow I can't get attached to this album. The adventerious moments on Cordon Blue were fantastic and some of the melodic song-writing truly swept me away, but on this follow-op album the music has lost it's impact on me. Perhaps it's a bit to cheesy and romantic, with way to clean vocals on way to 'relaxing' music. Some of the atmospheric intro's get me excited, but the band promises more then it delivers. Still, some compositions have their atmospheric moments and I must say the band seems to be in control. Perhaps a bit to much.

Conclusion. If you liked Cordon Bleu very much and you want more of this style of music this album is recommended. It's a good album for fans of clean-arranged modern fusion. The recording stands out as being utterly brilliant, warm and precise. But this doesn't safe this effort from being a back-ground music affair. Claims by other reviewers on this album being progressive are not valid IMHO, but the albums does sound symphonic. Two stars, but not because of lack of quality, but because of lack of a brave vision and catchy song- writing/composition.

3.5 for sure

Forth album of this discret jazz fusion band from Holland is my fav one from them, no matter what others said, that this is comercial jazz fusion with progressive rock leanings, to me remains their most inventive one. Released in 1977 named Fully interlocking , graced by a great cover art, Solution with this album change a bit tdirection of the previous album. This one is more mainstream jazz fusion with lighter aproach and is the most instrumental album from their catalogue, maybe together with their first one. Here from 6 pieces 4 are instrumental , the first and last tracks are with voice. I really like what I've heared here, even is light in content, are some very fine keybords, smooth and well performed, aswell some intriguing guitar chops are present, the album is well balanced and give a great atmosphere overall. The progressive elements are well interluded with jazz fusion ones, giving to me at least a pleasent listning from start to finish. From dreamy keybords to more upbeat ths album is a winner in my book. Carrousel is a perfect example. 3 solid stars rounded up to 3.5 .

Prog needs more soul.

Solution looked at Chicago and thought; we can do that. And there you have it: a nice mixture of r&b/soul and funk/jazzrock. Not the synth-driven spacerock or progrock of the late seventies but smooth and versatile. Nothing wrong with all the other music out there, of course. Almost all music is great, when you're in the right mood.

And this fourth album of Solution is perfect for the autumn/winter time. Music to dance to, groove to. Great songs to sing along, without being to poppy. You gotta give to them; this is a very well crafted album. If it was Chicago, I would have believed it. But this here: an underrated, unknown perfect smooth funky groovy jazzrock album that could've been great weren't they from the Netherlands.

The Netherlands always had very great bands, that didn't get the attention they deserved, instead the lowlands always focussed on schlager and carnaval music. So many band gone without a trace. But glad we have the records to spin.

Highly recommended for lovers of Weather Report, Chick Corea, Chicago, Toto etc.