VELVET THUNDER

The groan-inducingly (yet amusingly) titled Fjord Focus is classic Focus bottled and labelled with the word ‘Vintage’, as Gootjes’ sublimely lyrical playing dances all over the track sprinkling fairydust in its wake, and it is impossible to suppress the immediate impression of ‘at last – Focus are back!’

Focus are a peculiar band – or to put it more precisely, a band with a peculiar history. Having come onto the early ’70s prog scene as Holland’s foremost musical export, their highly promising if uneven debut album In And Out Of Focus was followed up by the freak hit single Hocus Pocus (not to mention the sublime, and equally successful Sylvia), and one of the strongest three album runs of the whole decade. Moving Waves, the double Focus 3 and Hamburger Concerto were each, arguably, even better than the last, and the band’s Rainbow show resulted in the terrific live album Focus At The Rainbow to underline things. At that point, however, the wheels quite suddenly and bafflingly came off their wagon, and they metaphorically careered down a chasm to a disastrous halt. 1975’s Mother Focus was somewhat patchy, though still had its moments, but then the band’s talismanic guitarist Jan Akkerman left just before a UK tour, which was completed disastrously with late replacement Philip Catherine. With little to no time to rehearse, the shows consisted of almost entirely new material of very variable quality, with only House Of The King and a breakneck Hocus Pocus reminding the audience of the band they had come to see; and the audience reaction did the band no favours at all. In fact, so ill-prepared was Catherine that he had to have guitar parts written down for him to use during shows, and even claimed to have needed to listen to Hocus Pocus on a pub jukebox the afternoon of the first show to brush up on it! From there, the ridiculous led to the frankly absurd, as the band lurched into a baffling collaboration with ’60s trouser-splitting has-been singer PJ Proby for the Focus Con Proby album. The world tried to cover their eyes and ears and pretend it wasn’t happening, and the band imploded with barely a whimper.

Until, that is, three decades on when they suddenly appeared out of retirement in such an unexpected fashion that Thijs Van Leer might as well have been dressed as The Shopkeeper from Mr Benn, and despite having Van Leer himself as the only 70s member still around, began making a real name for themselves on the live circuit. This only went up another notch as ageless drummer Pierre Van Der Linden returned, while the find of the decade was surely guitar prodigy Menno Gootjes, who possessed an ability to channel the genius and sublime sound of Akkerman so completely that if you closed your eyes it was 1973 at the Rainbow all over again. This was no mere heritage show either, as the band began recording and releasing new albums as if they had never left off, with only van Leer’s transformation from slim rock star to avuncular old Hogwarts Potions Master offering evidence of the passing of time. Still, however, one thing remained not quite right in the Focus garden – while all of the new recordings contained some excellent material, none came even close in terms of consistency to be able to be regarded in the same breath as those early ’70s classics. Until now, that is, as Focus 12 has managed to be the best thing the band have released since Hamburger Concerto 50 years ago – and if anyone forecast that happening, I would like to borrow their crystal ball for next week’s lottery numbers!

The ten tracks on the album do not contain any ‘epics’ – no Eruption, Anonymous II or Hamburger Concerto here – with only one track stretching to over five minutes. However, that isn’t really missed. Certainly, some stretching out with longform playing would always be welcome, but the pieces which are here are far from commercially simple compositions, with most containing significant twists and turns to belie their relatively brief span. The opening trio of songs are easily the strongest opening salvo to a Focus album since the days of Hamburger Concerto, and possibly minute for minute even stronger that the opening 10-15 minutes of any of the classic albums. Front-loading an album with the real dynamite material is often risky, as the tail off can be disastrous, but happily here it’s all good enough to survive that opening triumvirate. The groan-inducingly (yet amusingly) titled Fjord Focus is classic Focus bottled and labelled with the word ‘Vintage’, as Gootjes’ sublimely lyrical playing dances all over the track sprinkling fairydust in its wake, and it is impossible to suppress the immediate impression of ‘at last – Focus are back!’. That impression is maintained with the slightly confusing non-title-track Focus 13 (while this is the 12th album, it is the 13th piece to bear the name Focus). Of course, a thread has run through all of the ‘Focuses’, and this one can live with the best of them. With its beautifully melodic first half shifting gear (in the Fjord Focus perhaps) into a far harder rocking beast, yet still topped off by that remarkable guitar, it is very nearly at the level of the immortal Focus 2 and Focus 3, and can certainly sit at the top table with them. Third track Bela initially flatters to deceive, appearing to be a gentle Van Leer keyboard instrumental, until the triumphant moment a minute and a half in when the unexpected entry of the guitar leads into a full band piece of genuinely strident beauty, and continues in this vein for its remaning three minutes. It’s a masterpiece in contrast, and elevates that superb second part to another level still.

Of course, the album cannot possibly carry on at that rarefied level, but even when things become a little more earthbound so to speak, they are still excellent. Meta Indefinita and All Aboard see the band experimenting a little with an almost free-form element to the playing, with the jazz influence which always lay within the Focus catalogue still in evidence. Nura and Positano are two more ambitiously varied pieces, while the joyous Gaia closing the album leave things on an infectiously upbeat note. Perhaps the only piece which could be said to outstay its welcome just slightly is the oddly titled Bowie, which is in fact a restrained piano showcase which continues just a little longer than its optimal length, but that is really the smallest of issues, on what is a better Focus album than I certainly could have ever hoped for or expected.

One area in which the album improves over its illustrious predecessors is in the cover artwork. The run of classic-era albums never really had particularly eye-catching artwork, whereas the first thing to notice about Focus 12 is the striking Roger Dean design, particularly on the sumptuous vinyl gatefold edition. In terms of the material, the playing, the packaging and the general form of the band, Focus 12 is a triumph whichever way you look at it, from a band who sound like a living, organic extension of their classic years, without a hint of a tired ‘heritage’ label about them. I for one can’t wait to see some of this material live. Marvellous!