April 1974 - Hamburger Concerto

Almost two and a half years since "Moving Waves", Focus released their fourth studio album "Hamburger Concerto" in April of 1974. They released a third album in between that I don't have,  and this is the last album in my library by these Dutch rockers. Bassist Cyril Havermans and drummer Pierre van der Linden have both since departed, leaving guitarist Jan Akkerman and keyboardist/flutist/singer Thijs van Leer. They remain a four-piece, recruiting bassist Bert Ruiter (who was also on their third album) and drummer Colin Allen (who is new on this album). Similar to "Moving Waves", side one of this record has a few regular-length songs, and side two contains the twenty-minute epic that takes up the whole side! They did a great job on the last one, can they do it again? Let's find out!

The album begins with "Delitae Musicae", a short instrumental intro with some cool guitar and flute. Up next is "Harem Scarem" which has a nice upbeat riff led by van Leer on piano. Akkerman plays some cool background guitar and van Leer sings some wordless vocals. We hear a couple short guitar solos inbetween the epic piano, but Akkerman gets a good length solo towards the end. He's backed by some great bass by Ruiter and this solo is pretty good. They play one final piano verse to close it out. Track 3 is "La Cathédrale De Strasbourg" and some slow, very epic grand piano carries this song. Van Leer sounds like he's the Phantom of the Opera! He plays some beautiful, really great sounding stuff in this true piano solo. After about 2:00, the rest of the band joins in, including some decent singing by van Leer. He also whistles along to the music pretty well, then we hear a sweet slow guitar solo by Akkerman. It ends as it began with epic piano and this is a pretty cool slow song. The side ends with "Birth" and Akkerman opens the song with an interesting guitar solo, then the rhythm section sets up a nice, slow beat. Van Leer plays some cool organ and in the "chorus" he plays flute as well. Akkerman plays lots of great guitar throughout the song and van Leer takes off for a really good flute solo. Ian Anderson would be impressed! Then it's Akkerman's turn as he churns out a really good guitar solo as well. They return to the "chorus" and it's a pretty catchy riff. Flute and guitar continue to lead the way in this great instrumental song as van Leer and Akkerman are both at the top of their game.

The second side is taken up entirely by the title track "Hamburger Concerto", which opens with some great keyboards and epic drums by Allen. Akkerman adds a cool slow guitar riff but van Leer's keyboards are everywhere: organ, synths and piano. He carries the first several minutes with some cool stuff, and around the 5:30 mark we hear a new part start with some crazy wordless vocals. It's a little similar to "Hocus Pocus", but van Leer actually ends up singing in Dutch and his deep voice sounds quite good! Van Leer then goes off for an organ solo that sounds pretty awesome! The rest of the band keeps a soft beat and van Leer switches to flute now and his flute solo also sounds great. It's Akkerman's turn to shine now as he delivers an extended solo that lasts around 5 minutes! Not only does he play some pretty quick, great stuff but he also keeps you interested the whole time in a pretty cool guitar solo. A new riff emerges from the end and this slow, relaxing riff moves into a new Dutch vocal part. Van Leer sings as if he's in church, and the accompanying organ lends to that feeling in this hymn-like part. We hear some great piano overtop of haunting synths in the next part and Akkerman adds cool guitar as they jam it out. They bring it back to the catchy guitar riff from earlier and they tie it all together nicely to finish another pretty good 20-minute epic.

That is the end of "Hamburger Concerto" and I thought it was another solid effort from Focus. The first side had some cool stuff, and the title track was put together well. But how does it compare to "Moving Waves"? Other than the amazing "Hocus Pocus", I think the first side of that album was not quite as complete as the first side of this record. But that song is really good, and I think "Eruption" was way, way better than this album's epic. So "Hamburger Concerto" will have to settle for second place. Still a pretty good album that I'm happy to have.

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