W.W.W.

Using the same line-up as their eponymous sophomore album, this weird but prophetically- named album W.W.W. is the very proud follow-up taking the same kind of psychey-jazz brass-rock and perfecting (if that was possible) it to reach a sort of perfection that is rather hard to achieve in this controversial style. With another weak artwork and a bizarre name, this album had better have good tracks on it.

Obviously BRI was having time to tour England (this is sufficiently rare to mention as England was a bit of a impenetrable or closed market, due to strong musician union and enforced quotas) and they wrote this excellent track about their hotel in Croydon after a gig in Fairfield Hall (where Genesis and Caravan were regulars) where Menzer's flute resembles that of Traffic's Chris Wood. Some of the other sonic similarities that can be heard are reminiscent of the excellent German group Out Of Focus. The title track starts out dreamily as an oriental-desert psyched-out trip: you could almost see the early 70's hippies crossing Iran on their way to Kathmandu in their Combi VW while listening to this. Close to the best German groups such as Embryo, this track is a pure delight. With almost no transition we veer into Kaskelain (these guys were most likely smoking some dynamite stuff), which is definitely more dynamic and brilliantly played and ends up in motif that is exactly the one that the next track uses to pick up the pieces. Karsemore (give me their dealer's name, I must taste the stuff ;-), this tracks starts almost basic but soon veers into a demented jazz-psyched out rock. Cool stuff and BRI is on top of their game in this lengthy three-piece suite (mmmmmmmhhh!!!.. Not even going to touch that one ;-). After another stand out track Oblong Serenade is a phenomenal succession of blistering solos over a great rhythm and a fitting outro for the album.

Traffic, Out Of Focus, Colosseum. Does it not make your mouth salivate better than a naked Mcpherson? Run for it guys!!! After their next album Miley Smiley, a live-in-the- studio album recorded in 8 hours, Karsten Vogel will leave the band to form one of the best Danish band Secret Oyster (after a track on their second eponymous album) and will enjoy a long solo career as a jazz muso.

W.W.W. is the third studio album from Danish progressive jazz/ rock band Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe. I´m a big fan of the debut album called M144 from the band while the selftitled second album went too far into jazz territory for my taste. It´s still a good album though. With W.W.W. Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe returns to the more psychadelic leanings of the debut while still maintaining their jazzy edge.

The change in style compared to the predecessor is very obvious when listening to the first couple of songs on W.W.W. Karsten Vogel plays the organ instead of his characteristic sax on both the opener Second Floor, Croydon, the second song W.W.W. and the third song Avez-Vous Kaskelainen while Kim Menzer plays the flute rather than his usual sax. This change in intrumentation really gives those songs a different sound to the normally very sax dominated Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe we´re used to. The sax does return later on the album but never in the jazzy way it´s used on the predecessor. There are vocals on Second Floor, Croydon, All About All and Oblong Serenade while the rest of the songs are instrumental. My favorites here are Second Floor, Croydon and Oblong Serenade with it´s characteristic trombone theme. The only song I don´t enjoy much is the psychadelic organ dominated title track. It´s way too long and really isn´t very interesting.

The musicianship is excellent. On W.W.W. we really get to hear every facette of Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe´s sound from jazz/ Rock to psychadelic rock to more progressive moments like the ending of Second Floor, Croydon. The interplay between these musicians is magical IMO.

The production is really good and pleasant. Very organic just like the sound on the first two albums.

W.W.W. is a really good album and even though it´s not as challenging as it´s predecessor or as groundbreaking as the debut from Burnin´ Red Ivanhoe it´s a pretty unique album from the band. I´ll rate W.W.W. 3 BIG stars.

I've enjoyed each of BURNIN RED IVANHOE's first three albums fairly equally. I'll be the first to admit that when some of these guys went off to form SECRET OYSTER it was the right move. I'm just a huge fan of that band.

"Second Floor, Croydon" is laid back with vocals. It does kick in before 1 1/2 minutes. Flute before 4 minutes. Drums and organ lead after 7 minutes. I much prefer the second half of this song. "W.W.W." opens with not much going on until we get some haunting sounds that come and go after 1 1/2 minutes. The organ and drums start to come and go as well with no real melody. Interesting tune to say the least. "Avez-Vous Kaskelainen ?" starts to build with drums and organ. Great sound after 1 1/2 minutes.

"Kaske-Vous Karsemose" is my favourite track. Again the drums and organ lead. Sax 3 minutes in. The drumming is excellent. Two incredible songs in a row. "All About All" opens with strummed guitar and drums. This is catchy with vocals. Silly lyrics and horns too. A fun tune. "Oblong Serenade" is another song that can't be taken too seriously with the horns and theatrical vocals. I like the guitar late. "Cucumber- Porcupine" has this catchy beat with horns. Vocals before 2 minutes.

Of their first three albums this might be my favourite, but they're all good. 3.5 stars.