"The Heart Of A Saturday Night" by TOM WAITS (March 2018 Anti CD Reissue - Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan/Karl Derfler/Peter Lyman Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Skipping Like A Stone..."

DAMN and DOUBLE DRAT! - Fantastic audio folks - but lacklustre, even sloppy lazy packaging.

Like so many lifetime fans I've been waiting just that for decent affordable Remasters of Tom Waits stunning Asylum Years catalogue stretching from 1972 to 1980. And here they are in March 2018 on Anti Records CDs, DLs and LPs – his musical home since "Mule Variations" won awards galore in 1999. But even though the CDs are priced at just under a tenner in the UK – outside of the sound and knowing what could have been given to us – they’re hugely disappointing on almost every other front.

Each reissue is housed in a faded card digipak, has a picture CD of sorts, a booklet and new Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan/Karl Derfler supervised tape transfers – mastered in turn by Peter Lyman at his Infrasonic Mastering Studios in California (a renowned studio with Grammy award-winners on their resume). The 16-page booklet provides lyrics and album credits but bugger all else. In fact they couldn't even get this right. The lyrics to "San Diego Serenade" and the musician credits page are repeated twice in the booklet and in the wrong place! Then they forget to print the lyrics to "Semi Suite" altogether.

I bought the "Small Change" album too – but again in a booklet with only lyrics on offer - instead of actually giving you the myriad words to the witty "Step Right Up" – we get the original album credit that asks you to send off an SAE and get the lyrics by return! You open the digipak to "Small Change" and you're confronted with nothing - no photo on the left and nothing beneath the tray on the right. As with "Small Change" - the booklet for "Heart Of..." has no new liner notes, no history (not even a catalogue number for the original release) and worse not a single extra track when these reissues have been screaming out for deluxe editions for years. It's hugely disappointing. But at least the first four Remastered titles are also to be released on 180-GRAM VINYL with a download code built in (see list below). So what do you get from your CD...what diamonds on your windshield...

UK and EUROPE released Friday, 9 March 2018 - "The Heart Of Saturday Night" by TOM WAITS on Anti 7566-2 (Barcode 8714092756623) is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of the 11-Track 1974 album originally on Asylum Records (USA) and plays out as follows (41:33 minutes):

1. New Coat Of Paint [Side 1]

2. San Diego Serenade

3. Semi Suite

4. Shiver Me Timbers

5. Diamonds On My Windshield

6. (Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night

7. Fumblin' With The Blues [Side 2]

8. Please Call Me, Baby

9. Depot, Depot

10. Drunk On The Moon

11. The Ghosts Of Saturday Night (After Hours At Napoleone's Pizza House)

Tracks 1 to 11 are his second studio album "The Heart Of Saturday Night" - released October 1974 in the USA on Asylum Records 7E-1015 and June 1976 (belatedly) in the UK on Warner Brothers K 53035. Produced by BONES HOWE with all songs written by Tom Waits - it didn't chart in either country.

TOM WAITS - Vocals on all Tracks, Piano on Tracks 2, 3, 4, 7 to 11, Electric Piano and Electric Guitar on Track 1, Acoustic Guitar on Track 6

MIKE MELVOIN - Piano on Track 1, Electric Piano on 7 and Conducts Orchestra on Tracks 2, 4 and 8

ARTHUR RICHARDS - Electric Guitar on Track 1, 2, 3, 7 and 9, Acoustic Guitar on Track 4

JIM HUGHART - Upright Bass on All Tracks

OSCAR BRASHEAR – Trumpet on Tracks 3, 7, 9 and 10

TOM SCOTT – Tenor Saxophone on Tracks 3, 9 and 10 - Clarinet on Track 7

JIM GORDON – Drums on Tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 and 10 - Knee slaps and Percussion on Track 6

BONES HOWE – Production (all songs) and Percussion on Track 2

The digipaks are pretty - each coming with a generic 'Newly Remastered with Waits/Brennan' sticker (Kathleen Brennan is his wife) - but when you open the digipak there's nothing on the inside but one photo to the left - zero beneath the see-through tray - and again - not a single extra. It all feels staggeringly lazy and instead of being a celebration of this American songwriter's magnificent catalogue – it comes across the same way the Neil Young reissues did – what could be gotten away with instead of giving fans something to get their teeth into. The inevitable ‘unreleased stuff’ Box Set will follow on Anti no doubt - thereby costing fans more dosh and yet another purchase. But let's concentrate on what is great - the amazing Audio...

I went immediately to my TW-craves - "Shiver Me Timbers" and the title track "(Looking For) The Heart Of Saturday Night". Both of these gorgeous buccaneer and street ballads were done by Lee Herschberg in 1986 on the truncated CD reissue of the 1984 double-album "Asylum Years" and then later by Rhino's Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot on the fabulous "Used Songs 1973-1980" CD compilation from 2001 (see separate review). Here the audio is so much more full - in your face with its clarity and not uber-trebled for the sake of it. The sliding upright double-bass notes of James Hughart practically chop the tips of your ears off in "...The Heart Of Saturday Night". The same applies to Tom Scott's clarinet on "Fumblin' With The Blues" - Mike Melvoin's electric piano notes too. "Please Call Me, Baby" has an orchestra arranged and conducted by MIke Melvoin and suddenly their melodic contribution is beautiful - Tom singing about being too cold for his baby to wander the streets after a heated row - not wanting her to catch her death of a cold. The 'one, two, three, four..." count in to "Semi Suite" is amazingly clear - there is that hiss but it's not been cleaned away or dampened - just feels natural as Oscar Brashear and Tom Scott flit off each other on Trumpet and Tenor Sax. "Drunk On The Moon" and the swaying street shuffle of "The Ghosts Of Saturday Night..." both have huge presence and are the best I’ve ever heard them.

So - great audio and musically the album is a stone five-star singer-songwriter winner but naught a lot else.

Fans will have to own them for sure given the sonic upgrade – buts it’s just such a shame that Anti Records haven’t provided something here actually worth getting giddy about - especially when it comes to an artist that so many have adored for so long...

TOM WAITS - March 2018 

Reissue Series of CDs, LPs and Downloads on Anti Records

All CDs are in Card Digipaks, come with Booklets and Pic CDs but No Extras

"Closing Time" and "The Heart Of Saturday Night" released Friday, 9 March 2018 
The others all released Friday, 23 March 2018

1. "Closing Time" (1973) - Anti 7565-2 (Barcode 8714092756524) - CD/LP is Anti 7565-1 (Barcode 8714092756517)

2. "The Heart Of Saturday Night" (1974) - Anti 7566-2 (Barcode 8714092756623)/LP due May 2018

3. "Nighthawks At The Diner" (1975 Live Double onto 1CD) - Anti 7567-2 (Barcode 8714092756722)/LP due May 2018

4. "Small Change" (1976) - Anti 7568-2 (Barcode 8714092756821)/LP due May 2018

5. "Foreign Affairs" (1977) - Anti 7569-2 (Barcode 8714092756920)

6. "Blue Valentine" (1978) - Anti 7570-2 (Barcode 8714092757026)

7. "Heartattack And Vine"(1980) - Anti 7571-2 (Barcode 8714092757125)

"Red Queen To Gryphon Three" by GRYPHON (May 2007 and January 2016 Sanctuary/Talking Elephant CD Reissue and Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On

Blues Rock, Prog Rock, Psych, Avant Garde and Underground 

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"...Board Game In The Cotswolds..."

What you've got here is a reissue of a reissue.

I first saw the CD variant of Gryphon's third studio album "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" (a 1974 four-piece instrumental work loosely based on the game of chess) on one of those fab and natty Japanese Mini LP 'Paper Sleeve' Reissues in November 2003 - a Remaster on Archangelo ARC-7031 (Barcode 4988044370319). It was an expensive little import sucker but a beautiful looking AND sounding release nonetheless - complete with Obi and White Booklet rammed with Japanese wording you can't read.

Next up was Sanctuary's Talking Elephant Label in May 2007 - a UK release in a standard jewel case with a picture CD and a gatefold inlay (Talking Elephant TECD112 - Barcode 5028479011223).

What you've got here is a January 2016 reissue of that 2007 CD "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" by GRYPHON with a new catalogue number - Sanctuary/Talking Elephant TECD313 (Barcode 5028479031320). None of the three reissues list the Remaster Engineer - but all have truly gorgeous and vibrant audio reflecting Gryphon/Dave Grinstead's fantastic Production values back when they recorded the album at Chipping Norton Studios in the Cotswolds back in August of 1974.

Coming on like a giddy child of Amazing Blondel, Greenslade and Genesis circa 1971 to 1973 – Gryphon Music consists of English Medieval Folk Instruments like the woodwind Krumhorn combined with Prog Rock and a little keyboard Symphonia thrown in. The November 1974 album had in fact followed only months after their second platter – the equally-praised "Midnight Mushrumps" from May 1974 on Transatlantic TRA 282 and is the only one of their five studio sets to be issued in the USA and Canada (their self-titled debut "Gryphon" appeared June 1973 on Transatlantic TRA 262). LP No. 3 breaks down as follows (38:47 minutes):

1. Opening Move (9:48 minutes) [Side 1]

2. Second Spasm (8:21 minutes)

3. Lament (10:50 minutes) [Side 2]

4. Checkmate (9:48 minutes)

Tracks 1 to 4 are their 3rd studio album "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" - released November 1974 in the UK on Transatlantic Records TRA 287 and December 1974 in the USA on Bell Records BELL 1316. Produced by GRYPHON and DAVE GRINSTEAD - it didn't chart in either country.

GRYPHON was:

RICHARD HARVEY - Keyboards, Recorders and Krumhorn

BRIAN GULLAND - Bassoon and Krumhorn

GRAEME TAYLOR - Guitars

PHILIP NESTOR - Bass

DAVID OBERLE - Drums, Percussion and Tympanies

The gatefold slip of paper that acts as an inlay has simply had the words 'April 2007' edited out of Graeme Taylor's liner notes for this 2016 reissue. The picture CD is the same and the rear inlay tells you precious little. The Black Border variant of the original US and Canadian Bell Records album is pictured on Page 3 and there's a credit to DAN PEARCE who did the beautiful cover design and illustration. And as I said earlier - there is no Mastering Credits of any kind but the Audio is superb throughout. Let's get to the music...

As recently as August 2017 - Esoteric Recordings (part of Cherry Red) used Gryphon's Track 1 gambit here "Opening Move" as a representative song on their superb 3CD Box Set "Let The Electric Children Play: The Underground Story Of Transatlantic Records 1968-1976" (see separate review). And it's easy to hear why. Accomplished, polished and musically adventurous in a nuts-way that only British Prog Rock can be - "Opening Moves" harbours all their trademark sounds - long tracks filled with ye-olde rhythms mashed up with new Prog Rock Jazz Fusion flourishes on a Yamaha DX7 keyboard - all of it sounding like Elizabeth I has dropped acid and suddenly wants to expressive herself via the Clavinet, Bassoon, Recorder and Krumhorn (a bent Renaissance woodwind instrument). Nice you say - and it is my merry minstrel traveller.

Sounding not unlike a bad egg-and-spoon-race injury – the 8-minute "Second Spasm" begins in just such a jolly mood – all hop-skippity-hop before a Bass Guitar that means business bursts in and really speeds things up. The soothing acoustic guitars of "Lament" follow – pretty Prog Rock as lovely chunky chords and deep Bassoon notes slip in like a warm breeze on Kent's Walpole Bay (probably my fave track on the LP). Ten minutes of "Checkmate" is very Greenslade in its keyboard rhythms - brilliant playing surrounded by crashing high-hats, dense structures and a drummer-boy musical jaunt that brings the piece romping home. It won't be for everyone for sure - but I love it.

Gryphon would go on to release two further studio sets - "Raindance" in September 1975 on Transatlantic TRA 302 and "Treason" in April 1977 on Harvest SHSP 4063 - neither of which were particularly well-received and given Punk and New Wave's dominance of the mid to late Seventies - wildly out of place on a musical map changed forever. Founder member Richard Harvey popped out a solo set called "Divisions On A Ground" in 1975 (Transatlantic TRA 292) and would later pen music for TV and Cinema including Alan Bleasdale's much-loved "G.B.H." from 1991, along with "Animal Farm" and "Arabian Nights" in 1999 and 2000 respectively. Supporting Prog-Rock Supergroup YES on their US Tour of 1975 - Guitarist Steve Howe was so impressed with the band's instrumental dexterity that three Gryphonites - Graeme Taylor, David Oberle and Malcolm Bennett (he’d played on "Raindance") turned up on Howe’s debut solo LP "Beginnings" released November 1975 in the UK on Atlantic K 50151.

But even by Taylor’s own admission in the liner notes he penned in 2007 - "Red Queen To Gryphon Three" remains probably their best work – an album that grows on you and continues to impress 44 years after the frumpy-frocks event.

And I’m sure that’s Gentle Giant’s older brother Nigel Giant playing Russia's Boris Spassky on the front cover at a particularly gruelling chess match. Prepare for defeat Boris - because I know who my money's on...

"Hocus Pocus Box: Complete Album Collection + Bonus CD" by FOCUS (July 2017 Red Bullet 13CD Box Set of Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

This Review Along With 300+ Others Is Available In My

SOUNDS GOOD E-Book on all Amazon sites

1960s and 1970s MUSIC ON CD - Volume 1 of 3 - Exceptional CD Remasters

As well as 1960s and 1970s Rock and Pop - It Also Focuses On

Blues Rock, Prog Rock, Psych, Avant Garde and Underground 

Just Click Below To Purchase for £3.95

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"...Yaddy Ya, Yaddy Ya, Yadda Ya... Bom! Bom!"

Bit of a Dutch Prog Rock beast this. Tons of info to get through – so once more my hairy friends unto the yaddy-ya, yaddy-ya, yaddy-ya, bom, bom! And that’s just your Hocus Pocus my giddy young son...

UK released Friday, 14 July 2017 - "Hocus Pocus Box: Complete Album Collection + Bonus CD" by FOCUS on Red Bullet RB 66.307 (Barcode 8712944663075) is a 13CD Clamshell Box Set containing 12 albums (11 studio, one a double and one live album) and a Bonus Thirteenth CD called "Best Of Focus". 

CDs 1 to 8 and CD13 are Remasters done by IAN GILLESPIE at Tape One in London in 2001 (old Red Bullet reissues) – CDs 9 to 12 are later dates (1985 to 2012) and are the masters of the time. There is a mention in the liner notes of 'Peter Brussee Remasters' done at Q Point Studios in Holland - but it doesn’t specify what has been upgraded or why. As is - the box set plays out as follows:

CD1 - "In And Out Of Focus" from 1970 and 1971 (36:04 minutes):

1. Focus (Vocal) [Side 1]

2. Black Beauty

3. Sugar Island

4. Anonymus

5. House Of The King

6. Happy Nightmare (Mescaline) [Side 2]

7. Why Dream

8. Focus – Instrumental

The Dutch band's debut LP was originally released mid 1970 in Holland as "Focus Plays Focus" on Imperial Records 5C 054-24192 with a seven-track line-up (CD Tracks 1, 7, 6 and 4 made up Side 1 with Tracks 2, 3 and 8 making up Side 2). However, Polydor UK and USA decided to relaunch the debut as "In And Out Of Focus" in both countries with a rejiggered track line-up and the Dutch non-album single "House Of The King" tagged onto the end of Side 1 thereby making an 8-track LP. This variant initially had a gatefold 'dotted blue' sleeve (Polydor 2344 003 in the UK and Sire SAS 7404 in the USA) – but confusingly this was also replaced at some time in late 1971 with a single ‘picture of the band photo’ sleeve in the UK and the same 8-track line-up (same catalogue numbers too, the US artwork differed yet again). It is this late 1971 British variant that is used in this CD box set (artwork and track list as above). This is the 2001 Remaster done by Red Bullet.

CD2 - "Moving Waves" from 1971 and 1973 [aka "Focus II" in Europe] (41:40 minutes):

1. Hocus Pocus [Side 1] (Album Version at 6:42 minutes)

2. Le Clochard

3. Janis

4. Moving Waves

5. Focus II

6. Eruption [Side 2]

Tracks 1 to 6 are their second studio album "Moving Waves" - released October 1971 in the UK on Blue Horizon 2931 002 and January 1973 in the USA on Sire SAS 7401. It was re-launched on Polydor 2931 002 in the UK November 1972 and this version peaked on the UK charts at No. 2 (peaked at No. 6 in the US charts in January 1973). The CD remaster is 2001 by Red Bullet.

CD3 - "Focus III" from 1972, 2LP set (67:08 minutes – see NOTE):

1. Round Goes The Gossip [Side 1]

2. Love Remembered

3. Sylvia

4. Carnival Fugue

5. Focus III [Side 2]

6. Answers? Questions! Questions? Answers!

7. Elspeth Of Nottingham

8. Anonymus II [see NOTE re Sides 3 and 4 and playing times]

Tracks 1 to 6, 8, 7 and Track 5 on CD1 (in that order) make up the original double-album "Focus III" [aka "Focus 3"] - released November 1972 in the UK on Polydor 2659 016 and April 1973 in the USA on Sire SAS 3901 (in different artwork). It peaked at No. 6 in the UK and No. 35 in the States.

NOTE: on the original double-album "Anonymus II" was broken into two parts "Anonymus II (Part 1)" and Anonymus II (Conclusion)" and in fact spread across Side 3 and 4 of the 2LP set - Part 1 on Side 3 and the Conclusion at the beginning of Side 4. Here the 19:28 and 7:30 parts have been combined into one song at 26:24 minutes. Also the last song on Side 4 was "House Of The King" (sequenced 'after' "Elspeth Of Nottingham" on the original double) - but as it is featured on "In And Out Of Focus" CD - it's not included here. The remaster here is 2001 by Red Bullet.

CD4 - "Focus At The Rainbow" (1973 Live Album) (42:34 minutes):

1. Focus III [Side 1]

2. Answers" Questions! Questions? Answers!

3. Focus II

4. Eruption (Excerpt) [Side 2]

5. Hocus Pocus

6. Sylvia

7. Hocus Pocus (Reprise)

Tracks 1 to 7 are the live LP "Focus At The Rainbow" - released October 1973 in the UK on Polydor 2442 118 and November 1973 in the USA on Sire SAs 7408. It peaked at No. 23 in the UK and No. 132 in the USA.

CD5 - "Hamburger Concerto" from 1974 (43:07 minutes):

1. Delitiae Musicae [Side 1]

2. Harem Scarem

3. La Cathedrale De Strasbourg

4. Birth

5. Hamburger Concerto [Side 2]

6. Early Birth

Tracks 1 to 6 are their fourth studio album "Hamburger Concerto" - released August 1974 in the UK on Polydor 2442 124 and in the USA on Atco Records SD 36-100 (same month). It peaked at No. 20 in the UK and No. 66 in the USA.

CD6 - "Mother Focus" from 1975 (37:14 minutes):

1. Mother Focus [Side 1]

2. I Need A Bothroom

3. Bennie Helder

4. Soft Vanilla

5. Hard Vanilla

6. Tropic Bird

7. Focus IV [Side 2]

8. Someone's Crying...What!

9. All Together...Oh That!

10. No Hang Ups

11. Father Bach

Tracks 1 to 11 are their fifth studio album "Mother Focus" - released October 1975 in the UK on Polydor 2302 036 and September 1975 in the USA on Atco Records SD 36-117. It didn't chart in the UK, peaked at No. 152 in the USA. 

CD7 - "Ship Of Memories" from 1977 [unused 1973 material] (40:03 minutes):

1. P's March [Side 1]

2. Can't Believe My Eyes

3. Focus V

4. Out Of Vesuvius

5. Glider [Side 2]

6. Red Sky At Night

7. Spoke The Lord Creator

8. Crackers

9. Ship Of Memories

10. Hocus Pocus (U.S. Single Version)

Tracks 1 to 10 are a compilation album of older material "Ship Of Memories" recorded in England and Holland (mostly 1973, some 1970) - released June 1977 in the USA on Sire Records SAS 7531 and September 1977 in the UK on Harvest Records SHSP 4068. It didn't chart in the UK and peaked at No. 163 in the USA. It was released 1976 in their native Holland hence the copyright date of 1976 on the labels.

CD8 - "Focus Con Proby" from 1978 (48:11 minutes):

1. Wingless [Side 1]

2. Orion

3. Night Flight

4. Eddy

5. Sneezing Bull

6. Brother [Side 2]

7. Tokyo Rose

8. Maximum

9. How Long

Tracks 1 to 9 are the album "Focus Con Proby" - released January 1978 in the UK on Harvest Records SHSP 11721 and February 1978 in the USA on Harvest ST-11721 (didn't chart in either country). Five of the nine tracks feature English Vocalist PJ PROBY (Tracks 1, 4, 6, 7 and 9) and the band has PHILIP CATHERINE as its principal guitarist instead of Jan Akkerman. The album was released first in the Netherlands in 1977.

CD9 - "Jan Akkerman and Thijs Van Leer - Focus" from 1985 (59:34 minutes):

1. Russian Roulette [Side 1]

2. King Kong

3. Le Tango

4. Indian Summer

5. Beethoven's Revenge (Bach-One-Turbo-Overdrive) [Side 2]

6. Ole Judy

7. Who's Calling

Tracks 1 to 7 are the album "Jan Akkerman & Thijs Van Leer - Focus" - released August 1985 in the UK on LP and CD on Vertigo 824 524-1 and -2

CD10 - "Focus 8" from 2002 (59:12 minutes):

1. Rock & Rio

2. Tamara's Move (Allegro-Adagio-Allegro)

3. Fretless Love

4. Hurkey Turkey

5. De Ti O De Mi

6. Focus 8

7. Sto Ces Raditi Ostatac Zivota?

8. Neurotika - Rehearsal Take

9. Brother

10. Blizu Tebe

11. Flower Shower

Tracks 1 to 11 are recorded with Thijs Van Leer and a Focus tribute band who become the 'new' Focus - it was released as a 500-only signed private pressed LP in Holland in 2002 and reissued on CD by Red Bullet in 2006 (Red Bullet 66.252)

CD11 - "Focus 9 – New Skin" from 2006 (79:54 minutes):

1. Black Beauty

2. Focus 7

3. Hurkey Turkey

4. Sylvia's Stepson - Ubatuba

5. Niel's Skin

6. Just Like Eddy

7. Aya-Yuppie-Hippie-Yee

8. Focus 9

9. Curtain Call

10. Ode To Venus

11. European Rap(sody)

12. Pim

13. It Takes 2 2 Tango

14. Brazil Love

Tracks 1 to 14 are the album "Focus 9 - New Skin" - released September 2006 in the Netherlands on CD on Red Bullet RB 66.253

CD12 - "Focus X" from 2012 (49:39 minutes):

1. Father Bacchus

2. Focus 10

3. Victoria

4. Amok In Kindergarten

5. All Hens On Deck

6. Birds Come Fly Over (Le Tango)

7. Hoeratio

8. Talk Of The Clown

9. Message Magique

10. Crossroads

Tracks 1 to 10 are the album "Focus X" - released November 2012 in the Netherlands on CD on 4Worlds Media EW0123CD

CD13 - "The Best Of Focus" from 2001 (76:31 minutes):

1. Hocus Pocus [6:42 minutes Full Album Version]

2. Anonymus

3. House Of The King

4. Focus - Instrumental

5. Janis

6. Focus II

7. Tommy

8. Sylvia

9. Focus III

10. Harem Scarem

11. Mother Focus

12. Focus IV

13. Bennie Helder

14. Glider

15. Red Sky At Night

16. Hocus Pocus (U.S. Single Version)

Tracks 1 to 16 are the CD compilation "The Best Of Focus" - originally released June 1993 in the UK as "Hocus Pocus - The Best Of" on EMI CDP 8281622 (Barcode 724382816225) and reissued 2001 in the Netherlands as "The Best Of Focus - Hocus Pocus" on Red Bullet RB 66.194 (Barcode   8712944661941).

Once you get into the clamshell box - you notice with some irritation that "Focus 3" (their most successful and pivotal album) is a single card sleeve and not a gatefold, "Anonymus" is in the wrong place and suddenly one-track instead of two parts and the "Houses Of The King" song at the end of Side 4 is missing entirely from the CD (see NOTE above). Sure it's on both "In And Out Of Focus" and "The Best of" discs - but it wouldn't have taken a lot to sort this out - and playing time is not an issue here. The card sleeves for "At The Rainbow" is a single when it could have been a fold-over like the original and "In And Out Of Focus" takes a similarly lazy route - using the single-sleeve band-shot photo artwork for the reissue instead of the gatefold 'blue dots' original (see my separate review for the Japanese SHM-CD reissue of this - use Barcode 4988002565375 to locate the issue).

The Remasters are mostly the Red Bullet variants done in 2001 by IAN GILLESPIE at Tape One Studios in London (CDs 1 to 8 and CD13) - but there is an extra mention of PETER BRUSSEE at Q Point Studios in Hilversum in Holland for 'Remasters' without explaining what has done to what. Having said that they do sound good and at times - like on "Moving Waves", "Focus III" and "Mother Focus" - they sound spectacular. The stuff after 1985 is all recorded professionally anyway - so no problems audio wise there. And although that 13th disc does seem a tad superfluous to requirements when you've got CD 1 to 12 - it's handy to have it as a play-alone. The 40-page booklet features detailed Liner Notes by T J LAMMERS giving a breakdown of all albums - line-ups, track-by-track annotation and so on - all nestled amidst photos of the LPs and CDs, period Tour posters and photos, trade adverts, press clippings and so on. All you would need to know is here.

I'll admit that 1975's "Mother Focus" - I lost interest and don't know much of the later material. But then Focus were always about the mighty "Moving Waves", "Focus III" and "Hamburger Concerto" - all fabulous Prog Rock albums. That's not to say that the debut or the live set are slouchers - they're not. It's also odd for to hear "Anonymus" as one 26:24 minute track and not reach for that "Conclusion" on Side 4! Something like "Elspeth Of Nottingham" is hissy with the lute and birdsong - but still beautiful. And the 14-minute "Answers? Questions!..." is fantastic Prog Rock with Funky licks thrown in. As is that cool Akkerman guitar break 9-minutes into "Hamburger Concerto" that lasts for nearly eight more minutes – all of it sounding suitably chunky and awesome (his solos on both tracks justify his Best Guitarist award in the 1974 Melody Maker over other axe-Gods such as Jeff Beck, Rory Gallagher and Jimmy Page).

The Chipping Norton studios material recorded by Blue Horizon's label boss and producer Mike Vernon for the "Hamburger Concerto" album was shelved at the time as it was deemed not good enough (40 minutes of it) only to resurface as "Ship Of Memories" on Harvest Records along with outtakes that stretched as far back as the first LP from 1970. But I'd say that the 6-track issued LP is one of the great forgotten 'instrumental music' albums of the mid-70ts - a record made under serious duress with Akkerman and Van Leer having to be recorded in separate rooms lest they actually talk to each other. The funky Rock of Hamburger Concerto's "Harem Scarem" is an obvious ape of "Hocus Pocus" but still works on its own terms - Akkerman and Van Leer playing off each other like gooduns - replacement drummer Colin Allen coming up with the song title. "La Cathedrale De Strasbourg" has nice counter-point vocals that play off against sweet piano chords. Thijs gets to go all clavinet mad on the seven-minute "Birth" (a Funky-Rock gem in my book) - but the LP belongs to another "Anonymus" side-long type monster - the twenty-minute six-part title track "Hamburger Concerto". All ELP in its scope, you get Classical influences, Baroque and slinky Funky Rock - guitarist Akkerman and keyboardist Thijs Van Leer sharing the writing credits on this showstopper. After the slightly odd Pop album "Mother Focus" - we get the equally odd but quite wonderful collaboration album with singer PJ Proby where the little blighter sings his guts out on songs like "Wingless" and "Brother". Of the later stuff - I'd truly surprised at how good "Focus 8" is - Thijs Van Leer working with a Focus covers band whom he liked and ended up employing as - well Focus! "Fretless Love" and "Focus 8" show that old magic. And on it goes...

For sure there is way more Focus here than any average punter needs and you can't help feeling that with a bit better thought and presentation - this could have been a solid 5-star release. For the moment - I'm digging re-visits to old friends and discovering that they made some ones I should acquaint myself with in the later years too.

Yaddy ya, yaddy ya, bom, bom! Both Tommy and Sylvia would approve...