Y’all still enjoying the World Cup? I seem to be bad luck for all of the competing countries I’ve focused on during this most recent stretch of An Album A Day posts. If you haven’t been keeping up with the blog, I’ve been devoting the past several posts to sharing albums from my personal collection featuring bands whose countries of origins are vying for the World Cup this year. Today we’re gonna talk a little (and I mean VERY little, as I don’t particularly care for them) about Ekseption, the popular jazz-rock band from Haarlem, Netherlands.
Right now you’re probably asking, “Why do you own records by bands you don’t even like?” and the answer should be quite obvious. That’s what happens sometimes when you’re a collector. You see a bunch of German imports for $2.99 at a record store and you basically tell yourself, “Fuck it. I’ll buy it.” Worst case scenario you can probably flip it for ten dollars if you don’t like it. Then, invariably, you listen to it once or twice, file it away, and forget about it until you’re browsing for a dutch band to blog about.
Ekseption was active from 1967 through 1989, and the only constant band member during the entirety of their existence was trumpeter Rein van den Broek. That should give you a pretty good idea about what makes Ekseption such a middling prog rock band. There was nothing consistent for a listener like myself to latch onto, and when the lineup keeps changing it’s difficult to string together a few really good albums or hone in on a particular sound with which listeners can connect.
Trinity was the band’s 7th studio album. There’s a re-imagining of a Bach composition, and a song from Peru that sounds really cool when performed with rock instruments. Trinity draws some comparisons to Jethro Tull because whoever played the flute played it in the vein of Ian Anderson. Although, I imagine, if you played in a rock band in the ’70s and there was a flute featured as more than just a joke instrument you got compared to Tull. Then there’s an updated version of a Beethoven piece. So basically I like this album because it’s proggy versions of songs that were written a couple centuries ago. In other words, I don’t really like Ekseption, but it sounds kinda cool when they update old classical opuses.
The nerds on the Prog Archives website have awarded Trinity 4/5 stars. Not bad, I suppose.
I picked up my copy of Trinity (on the German Philips label) on August 20th, 2012. There was a copy of the album with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra also priced at $2.99, so I bought that one as well. “Maybe they’re worth twenty bucks,” I told myself at the time (sheepishly). Then when I was trying to sell some records to clear some space on my shelves for new vinyl I pulled both Ekseption records out an added ’em to the GOTTA GO pile. Then I thought it over for a few minutes and refiled them. Because I’m a pussy. “Maybe I’ll be mature enough to appreciate them,” I thought to myself (sheepishly).
Ekseption
Trinity
(Philips – 6423 056, 1973)
A1. Toccata (From Toccata And Fugue In D Minor For Pipe Organ)
A2. The Peruvian Flute [MP3]
A3. Dreams
A4. Smile
A5. Lonely Chase
B1. Romance (From Romance For Violin And Orchestra No.2 In F Major, Op.50)
B2. Improvisation
B3. Meddle
B4. Flight Of The Bumble Bee
B5. Finale III
