MIDNIGHT SUN

Get out your blender. Mix equal parts jazz, blues, rock, hippie psych, and soul. Crank your stereo to 11 and prepare to rock. I'm telling you right now that I'm not going to be able to do this album justice with my description; you just have to hear this.

This album knocked me into next week. This is not artsy prog as we often discuss here but rather just an insanely good blues/jazz/rock album by musicians whose chops are unbelievable. I am amazed that this album has not been reviewed and praised.

The Roger Dean album cover is wonderful but misleading. This is not Middle Earth folk music. Try to imagine if you can parts of Traffic, early Chicago, Eric Burdon's War, Cream or The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Then imagine that with jazz-fusion sensibilities rather than overblown acid rock craziness.

If you are a fan of percussion, you MUST hear this Carsten Smedegaard. He is the most amazing drummer I've heard since Furio Chirico. The lead guitar is scorching, the vocals are deep and smoky, the bass is dead serious, and the window dressing of flute, sax, and piano are super as they blend together in a jazzy bluesy slurry. Hard hitting, heavy, but always nuanced and near-virtuoso musicianship. The 15 minute long "Living on the Hill" is perhaps the most impressive track with plenty of space for everyone to let loose but there are no clunkers on this album.

The band is Danish (with English vocals) and compared to Burnin Red Ivanhoe though I'm not familiar with them yet so I can't say. There are two versions of this album recorded with different vocalists and I am reviewing the one with Alan Mortensen. The remastered Black Rose records version sounds great and has 8 tracks, not 7 as noted here.

PLEASE! If jazzy blues-rock is your thing, RUN out and get this immediately. You can thank me later for your blown mind. 4.5 stars.

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