b o b

Back in my early days on the internet, I got into an email exchange with a complete stranger (I think the conversation may have started over a post on the Zappa newsgroup, but that's neither here nor there). Anyway, when he found out that I'd never heard any Focus, he asked for my address and about a week later this tape showed up with Moving Waves on one side and Hamburger Concerto on the other. The latter quickly became one of my favorite symphonic prog albums, but it was really just put on the tape as "filler" — the guy who sent it to me really wanted me to hear Moving Waves. Like Matt, I can't figure out why this seems to be the Focus album that prog fans usually recommend as the band's best. To its credit, there's "Hocus Pocus", which is an insanely catchy, energetic and fun instrumental (yodeling, scatting and all), whether it falls into the "novelty" category or not. And there's "Eruption", which meanders more than a bit, but hey — it's a trademark prog side-long epic. And there's "Focus II", which is another good instrumental track. But overall the album has a thrown-together feel, as if the band just had a few ideas and sketches instead of finished pieces, but went into the studio and recorded the album anyway. There's just something lacking on this disc, especially when compared to Hamburger Concerto, which sounds like a more "finished" (and more inspired) album. That said, Moving Waves is certainly not a bad album, and should appeal to symphonic prog fans. But unless you really want the long version of "Hocus Pocus" (there are a couple minutes in the middle edited out of the radio version), there are better places to start exploring the Focus catalog. review by Bob Eichler — 4-6-05 —

j o e

When I was growing up, someone told me that initially there was supposed to be lyrics to "Hocus Pocus," but the dude singing them was so much under the influence of acid during the recording, he could only yodel along rather than sing them. Sure, that's a bunch of crap (....er, right?), but still, I'd like to believe it were the case anyway and if you try to tell me otherwise, [covers ears] la la la I can't hear you. Though not quite scaling the heights of mega-stardom in the U.S. as some of their more famous British colleagues, Dutch prog band Focus, led by multi-instrumentalist Thijs van Leer and guitar god Jan Akkerman, were certainly worthy peers and still managed to achieve a degree of commercial success, mostly due to this album and its madcap opening track. "Hocus Pocus" sounds basically like Arthur Brown sitting in with Deep Purple. If you were born somewhere in the 1970s or earlier, you should recognize this tune as soon as the vocals kick in, if not before. But if you are one for whom "Hocus Pocus" represents the extent of familiarity with this band, you might be surprised at the introspection that immediately follows. While many will give two lighters up, way way up to Steve Hackett's "Horizons" or Steve Howe's "Mood for a Day," Jan Akkerman's "Le Clochard" is a classical guitar piece worthy of equal recognition. With the delicate ballet of Akkerman's nylon guitar dancing under a mellotron bed of stars, this would have blended in perfectly on Hackett's Voyage of the Acolyte. "Moving Waves" is also quite a beautiful piece musically. Though its lyrics are an often cited turn-off, I don't find these to be any worse than that of others from the era. The side-long epic "Eruption," which might be best thought of as a prog rock stab at "Pictures at an Exhibition" performed by a more restrained ELP, is a piece much like its early-prog epic contemporaries such as "Tarkus" or "Supper's Ready." No, it's not the world's most carefully thought out prog epic in structure. Taking a step back and viewing it as a whole, you can easily see the seams of piecing different, unrelated musical ideas together. Still, like "Tarkus" or "Supper's Ready," the piece flows so well from one vignette to another that you don't really notice or care. Two of the main themes of "Eruption" that act similarly to the recurring "Promenade" theme of "Pictures at an Exhibition" are the solemn "Orfeus," sounding like a Church processional, contrasted with "Answer," a fanfare in response. I have read that they actually copped one of these note-for-note from a classical piece. Disappointing, perhaps, though in their defense it should be reminded that this was not uncommon back then (ELP, Renaissance). From here, the band takes a laid-back detour, with the languid mellotron and vocalise of "Pupilla" (definitely a high point of the suite) and the bursts of electric sparks that fly from Akkerman's guitar on "Tommy." "The Bridge," representing the midpoint of the suite, is a pure blues jam that is incongruous with the rest (think of ELP's "Blues Variations" smack in the middle of Pictures of an Exhibition), but with the energy the band fires off, again you don't mind. The apex of "Eruption," however, is undoubtedly "Eurydice," with what for my money rests within the top handful of melodies you are likely to encounter in all of symphonic rock. Waves of piano and fragile flute, played to bittersweet perfection to fully capture the melancholy of the Greek mythology character for which it is named. "Eurydice" only takes up about a minute and a half on each of its two appearances, but each time it just pierces right through the heart and devastates. There are much more refined albums out there, but for me Moving Waves will always be a personal prog classic. review by Joe McGlinchey — 4-15-05 —

m a t t

If you know nothing else by the Dutch prog outfit Focus, you likely have heard their lone American hit "Hocus Pocus." It's that crazy song with the yodeling that you thought could have been by Deep Purple, if there wasn't any yodeling. "Hocus Pocus" is present here in all its deranged glory, although if you were hoping for an entire album's worth of like-minded mayhem, you'll be disappointed: the rest of the disc is made up of fairly vanilla stabs at symphonic prog. This album has a high reputation in progressive rock circles and I've never quite understood why. The playing is excellent, but I find the material a bit lacking. "Hocus Pocus" is what it is — a novelty song with a killer guitar riff. Three of the four short songs that follow sound either like unfinished sketches or spare parts. "Le Clochard is two minutes of treading water with mellotron and nylon guitar. "Janis" is a three-minute piece based on a flute theme. Both are OK, I guess, but they sound like they belong to something larger. The title track is the first song with vocals (and they're in English); just a piano and the singer. The lyrics are very awkward ("Moving waves / what motive is behind your impulse?") and, again, the song sounds more like a fragment of something else than its own entity. "Focus II" (title track, for those who bought the LP in Holland) breaks out of this mold some, as it actually sounds like a finished song. It has a wistful, jazzy melody and gives the album some much-needed character. That leaves "Eruption," a 23-minute piece that, like the most of rest of the material on the album, suffers from a lack of compositional rigor. It has its bright spots (like whenever Jan Akkerman is shredding his guitar), but it mostly comes off as a collage of ideas that were not fully developed. Parts of it sound like ELP and occasionally even Santana. The piece is too structured to qualify as a jam session, but too tossed-off to have much credibility as a suite. There is a really cool middle section in which guitarist Jan Akkerman lets loose, but why is the piece book-ended by ponderous church-organ bits? "Eruption" touches on a variety of progressive rock sonic cues, but does so haphazardly and often without a lot of creativity, even if it doesn't lack for energy or enthusiasm. Such meandering would be unforgivable for a later release; however, Focus can be excused somewhat because the album was recorded in 1971, near the genesis of progressive rock as a genre. So I look upon this album as being a bit of mediocrity — the product of a band still finding their way but who nevertheless possessed the raw materials to do better. review by Matt P. — 3-26-05 —