Focus - Moving Waves (1972)

This Netherlandish progressive masterpiece is one of the most hard rock progressive album made during that era: indeed Jan Akkerman's incisive and razor electric guitars are omnipresent: pure hard rock solos a la Led Zeppelin, and barely less timid aggressive riffs. The drums are restless, very complex and fast. The keyboards mostly consist in organ, mellotron, piano and harmonium. The intensely yodeling of Thijs Van Leer on "Hocus Pocus" is LEGENDARY: you are going to want to sing it! "Le clochard" has a beautiful floating mellotron in the background and impressive & relaxing acoustic guitar parts that should impress Steve Hackett himself. The peaceful and rhythmic "Janis" contains mellow flute parts a la Camel. The lead vocals on "Moving Waves" remind me early King Crimson. "Focus 2" is an OUTSTANDING very progressive track: Jan Akkerman "dances" with his melodic electric guitar: it seems that the other instruments follow his partitions, creating very structured and pleasant melodies through rhythm & air changes.

On side 2, the epic "Eruption" is a REAL progressive masterpiece, sometimes comparable to Jethro Tull's "Thick as a brick": the same organ sounds, tons on drums, very melodic bass, straightforward hard rock electric guitars; there are some intensely floating mellotron & backing vocals parts; there is a part which was composed by the Netherlandish fusion band Solution, coming from the "Divergence" album; there is a poignant & melodic piano part, accompanied with electric guitar and flute; the drum solo is absolutely impressive, having a bit the Neil Peart's style.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! FOCUS Moving Waves music reviews and MP3

Side 1
1. Hocus Pocus (6:42)
2. Le Clochard (2:01)
3. Janis (3:09)
4. Moving Waves (2:42)
5. Focus II (4:03)
Side 2
6. Eruption (23:04)
-a) Orfeus, Answer, Orfeus
-b) Answer, Pupilla, Tommy, Pupilla
-c) Answer, The Bridge
-d) Euridice, Dayglow, Endless Road
-e) Answer, Orfeus, Euridice

Total Time: 41:41

Line-up / Musicians -
Jan Akkerman / solo & acoustic guitars, bass
- Cyril Havermanns / bass, voices
- Pierre van der Linden / drums
- Thijs van Leer / organ, Harmonium, Mellotron, soprano and alto flute, piano, voices

Focus - Moving Waves

Focus - Tommy

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Focus - 8

25 years without hearing from Focus except from some compilations and then here we are presented with Focus 8. Its absolutely wrong to say that the brand name Focus was "used" for comercial advantages. Focus 8 is not about revival of a Dinossaur for the sake of the money. Its about a mans passion for music, Thjiis van Leer has this passion. This album has Focus writen all over it. For historical reasons most of oldtime Focus compositions and harmonies was made by Thjiis van Leer. Yoddling, handclaps, flutes and lots of wonderful Hammond riffs fill this recording to the rim, and all oldtime Focus fans can easily reconcile with Focus. As for the line-up, Jan Dumeé replaces the other Jan (Akkerman) with grace and many die-hard fans did recognize the fact that Akkerman was dispensable. Dumeé dd a wonderful job on the guitars, carrying Focus to a new dimention giving Focus the magic that fans always loved; Hammond-Guitar tunes blending jazz and classic music with a Rock approach that characterize Progressive Music. Bobby Jacobs fills in with quite powerful bass lines as in "Rock And Rio"and sometimes delicate as on "De Ti O De Mi". Drumming is executed just as Pierre van der Linden did in old Focus. Bert Smaak is perfect in most of his lines, maybe a bit too "heavy" on the more powerful tunes. Rock and Rio is a hard rock version inspired probably on Hocus Pocus, Tamaras Move has Focus III and House Of The King elements, Fretless Love has downgeared Sylvia cords. Hurkey Turkey is fresh and mingles Rock and Jazz with wonderful guitar and Hammond tunes in perfect harmony. The Title Track mellows out a bit with smooth guitar on piano and bass layers. Sto Ces Raditi...has absolute brazilian rythms with flutes, accoustic guitars as intro, where the song evolves to a bossa nova where the band seems to have a cool time enjoying the tune. Neurotika is another hard prog tune with lots of energy again with Hocus Pocus inspiration. Brother is a blues inspired tune executed first at a mellow pace, but builds up to high energy performance, again with a superb Hammond undertone. Blizu Tebe is the follow up of Brother, mellow and relaxing with unbelivable guitar playing by Dumeé. Flower Shower is the last tune of Focus 8 and believe me, its hilarious ! a minuette which demostrates that Focus dont take themselves too seriously. Its a "must have album" by those who really love Progressive Rock and needs to get away from mainstream revivals of dinossaurs. FOCUS Focus 8 music review by sclemche

Songs / Tracks Listing 1. Rock & Rio (3:27)
2. Tamara's Move (5:17)
3. Fretless Love (6:08)
4. Hurkey Turkey (4:15)
5. De Ti O De Mi (6:30)
6. Focus 8 (6:19)
7. Sto Ce Raditi Zwota (5:26)
8. Neurotika (3:47)
9. Brother (5:39)
10. Blizu Tebe (6:38)
11. Flower Shines (5:41)

Total Time: 59:07

Line-up / Musicians - Jan Dumée / guitars, vocals
- Bobby Jacobs / bass
- Thijs van Leer / Hammond organ, flute, vocals
- Bert Smaak / drums

Focus - Neurotika


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Focus - 3 (1973)

With the release of the bands third album in 1972, Focus accomplishes a massive achievement for symphonic progressive rock with a double LP that reveals the real musical potential of the band. The music that radiates from this work of art speaks loudly, incorporating a wide selection elements within itself that make it impossible to pinpoint the brilliance of the music to one single aspect. would seem impossible to believe that 4 musicians with ordinary rock instruments could produce such richly textured music. With these ordinary instruments they manage to compose music that, when listened to briefly, causes no deep impressions. However, if listened to attentively, it is possible to extract a wonderful mixture of talent, creativity and spontaneity.

For this album, the band eliminates lyrics completely, allowing themselves to focus on instrumental elaborations, and long, colorful jams. The lyrics, as in most cases, change a songs dynamics, given that they cover up the instruments, attracting a spotlight to the words that forces the instruments into second hand. Without the limitation of lyrics, the music was set free in a sense. But it is not solely the absence of lyrics that makes this album deserve attention . This so called musical freedom allows underlying aspects to rise above ground into the deserved spotlight, unleashing all the instrumental power that the band could muster into a beautiful symphony that transpires loads of musical feeling, exploring a variety of musical universes and emotions. Another fundamental thing that must be spoken of when this LP is mentioned, is how well the musicians are tuned in with each others wavelengths. It feels as if they were all aiming for the same musical target, and with the clear skill and dedication that each composer possesses they easily hit the bulls-eye. For each fragment of each track, the instruments seem perfectly teamed up with each other to produce those heroic, happy, catchy, beautiful and wonderfully harmonic, point and counterpoint melodies, that Focus is so famous for. This album demonstrates how they are skilled at capturing and transforming the abstract musical energy floating around their heads into a masterful sculpture.

Focus hit the right key on the organ for this album. FOCUS 3 music review by EMLonergan

Songs / Tracks Listing Side 1
1. Round Goes The Gossip (5:12)
2. Love Remembered (2:50)
3. Sylvia (3:31)
4. Carnival Fugue (6:09)
Side 2
5. Focus III (6:05)
6. Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers! (14:03)
Side 3
7. Anonymous Two (Part 1) (19:28)
Side 4
8. Anonymous Two (Conclusion) (7:30)
9. Elspeth Of Nottingham (3:15)
10. House Of The King (2:23)

Total Time: 67:09

Line-up / Musicians -
Jan Akkerman / solo & acoustic guitars
- Bert Ruiter / bass
- Pierre van der Linden / drums
- Thijs van Leer / vocal, organ, piano, alto flute, piccolo, harpsichord

Focus - Focus III

Focus - Focus 3


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Focus - Focus 9 / New Skin (2010)

This album plus the previous Focus 8 are definitely a return to form of the classic earlier period Focus, albeit without guitarist Jan Akkerman in the ranks. The guitarist on this album though certainly comes close to his sound and technical skills.

 With lots of instrumentals that certainly sound familiar and one track with real vocals this is on the whole a progressive rock fans delight with lots of flute and guitar with excellent bass and drums. This is also the first time original drummer P van Der Linden and Thijs van Leer have played together on record for over thirty years. One can only look forward to more releases like this.

Songs / Tracks List

1. Black Beauty (4:13)
2. Focus 7 (5:22)
3. Hurkey Turky 2 (4:03)
4. Sylvia's Stepson - Ubutuba (4:48)
5. Niels' Skin (6:03)
6. Just Like Eddy (5:08)
7. Aya-Yuppie-Hippie-Yee (5:20)
8. Focus 9 (7:57)
9. Curtain Call (4:32)
10. Ode To Venus (4:26)
11. European Rap [sody] (10:22)
12. Pim (3:00)
13. It Takes 2 2 Tango (8:01)

Total Time: 68:16

Line-up / Musicians
- Thijs van Leer / Hammond, keyboards, flute, vocals
- Pierre van Der Linden / drums
- Bobby Jacobs / bass
- Niels van der Steenhoven / guitars

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