Moving Waves

Product Information

According to BBC Radio DJ Bob Harris, demand was so great for Focus LPs by 1972 that the band’s British label, Polydor, simultaneously ran vinyl at all five of its record plants around the clock. Hocus Pocus is nothing short of awesome, featuring some wonderfully manic yodelling by Thijs van Leer (you MUST watch the video to get the full effect). Within the framework of a kick-ass rock song you’ll find a killer hook, a pair of whizz-bang guitars solos, “yodeling gnomes” (thanks for the phraseology go out to my Dutch pal, Martijn de Vries), non-lexicable vocals, whistling, tasty jazz flute, and to quote Martijn again, “a drummer who makes me want to head butt the Eiffel Tower.

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Tommy" features a guitar solo and was named and written by Tom Barlage of the Dutch fusion band Solution. Once again, the combined talents of Thijs van Leer, Jan Akkerman and drummer Pierre van der Linden work a truly special kind of magic. Following the departure of original bassist Martin Dresden and drummer Hans Cleuver in 1970, the band recruited Cyril Havermans and Pierre van der Linden, respectively, and prepared material for a new album.

Having recently seen the new incarnation of Focus in a recent gig (with Thijs and Pierre), I promptly bought a stack of Focus CDs and would recommend this to any Focus and indeed non-Focus fan as it simply exudes fantastic musicianship. My pal Martijn informs me that “If “Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands” didn’t exist, “Hocus Pocus” would be the greatest song ever. The album features " Hocus Pocus" a hard rock song featuring keyboardist Thijs van Leer's yodelling, scat singing, and whistling, and "Eruption", a 22-minute track inspired by the opera Euridice by Italian composer Jacopo Peri. Overall, it's not a bad album at all, but there's a lot of better progressive rock albums out there. The vinyl is in excellent condition, minor spindle marks, the usually back ground noise in places and minor superficial surface marks on vinyl, not played much.Vote up content that is on-topic, within the rules/guidelines, and will likely stay relevant long-term. The passages Thijs has created roll out as a giant canvas for Jan Akkerman to color upon with bombastic tones as loud and punchy as an atomic blast yet fully in Jan's control as the blast settles into particles of drifting dust swirling and swaying, drifting and dancing back to earth. I bought this CD to save any further wear on my original vinyl LP which I bought in the early 70's just after the shortened single version of "Hocus Pocus" had been a belated hit in the UK. The track is in fifteen distinct sections, and the suite opens with an uncredited melody from the opera L'Orfeo by Monteverdi.