Focus, the resurrected Dutch band... thoughts?

70's Dutch Progressive Jazz-Rock group Focus, reformed in 2001 and has released three studio albums and is close to releasing their eleventh (re-recordings of early era Focus favorites).
I've been a fan of their early works and have been pleasantly pleased by this new version of the group.
Any thoughts on this incarnation of the band?

 

Sorry they're doing the re-recordings. The last two albums (New Skin and Focus X) have been quite good, certainly better than anything else after Hamburger Concerto. Getting Pierre Van der Linden back made a big difference.

 

Huge Focus fan here, but I have to say that I feel the three re-formation releases are patchy. All of them have some material which is quite good, in fact I'd say that some of the pieces on 9 / New Skin are almost as good as some of their best '70s material, but none of the three albums are consistently good. I think New Skin could have been a great album had several songs been left off. This album is just too long. For starters, we didn't need remakes of "Black Beauty" or "Eddy". Good songs, but the originals were fine.

I don't think any of the three guitarists are a good enough replacement for Jan Akkerman (I hate to make the comparison, but let's face it, it's an inevitability). But I think the guitarist on X, Menno Gootjes, comes really close. The drummer on 8 is sadly pedestrian and therefore adds little to the music, much of which sounds a bit too average to earn the Focus name. The return of Pierre van der Linden shows just how important he always was to the band. And I must say that, much as I've always loved Bert Ruiter's bass playing, Bobby Jacobs' musical contributions are indeed satisfying.

So, obviously I have a lot of mixed feelings.

I'm not at all interested in an album of re-makes. In fact, sad to say, I'm not interested in any further releases at all unless Akkerman returns. Which, of course, will probably never happen. Thijs van Leer is a great musician and writes some pretty amazing material even now, but he truly needs Akkerman to create that final magical spark and complete the picture. And vice versa, IMO. I truly feel these three reformation albums prove this.

 

Without Akkerman Thijs van Leer is a one trick pony! The original Focus Akkerman and Leer had a magic between them that is not there now.

 

Well, in 1985 Van Leer and Akkerman did do an album together... called the album Focus in order to satisfy some alleged record contract. The only track I liked was Beethoven's Revenge. Other than that 10 minute track, the rest is pretty pedestrian.

 

I liked that album so much, I actually wrote their management to ask them to consider reuniting more often. There is a compositional synergy to them that's really special.

(BTW, van Leer is certainly not a "one trick pony". Is your basis for that claim derived from you not listening to any of his solo albums, perhaps?)




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Al Stewart - On The Border

 

Speaking of solo albums of Focus members (I only know of one), I really love Jan Akkerman's self-titled album.

 

I agree wholeheartedly with this comment.

On the original question, the more recent albums have been playable, but not the ones you reach for when the 70's stuff is so good. Many prog bands from that era lost their creative juices as line-ups changed and time moved on. Focus too. I'll judge the re-recordings when I hear them. The live recordings from a decade ago weren't too bad, so I'm not as fearful as others. The problem is that if they sound too close to the originals, some will say "why bother?", and if they are too different, others will say "sacrilege!". There will be no 'win-win' with the re-recordings.

 

Yes, but there have been even further tensions between the two since then. As far as I can tell, Jan hates Thijs to this day and things have gotten past the point of no return. Sure, there's no telling if one day he might inexplicably feel differently, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

Part of my answer was going to be essentially this:

Absolutely agreed. It gets a lot of bad press among Focus fans, and I understand why. With lots of Fairlight, other digital synths and drum machines, it can come off as kinda soulless. And there's an unfortunate muzak sheen to a lot of the tracks which is not what many fans want. But the compositions? Focus all the way. This is not muzak under the surface. Many of these pieces are harmonically rich and have those unpredictable chord progressions in the best Focus tradition. And of course, van Leer's and Akkerman's playing are beyond reproach.

I can't fault anyone for not being able to get past the sounds on the surface, but for those who can, this one's a gem.

I go against common opinion on this one and think it's OK but not a great achievement. In particular, the strings feel horribly out of place to me.

I personally like Tabernakel much better (largely solo Renaissance lute pieces, ending with a fantastic rock mini-suite called "Lammy", with Tim Bogert on bass and Carmine Appice on drums). I also rate The Complete Guitarist pretty highly, which is a CD of It Could Happen To You with a couple of tracks tacked on from Can't Stand Noise. The pieces are long, immersive, and somewhat in a relaxed jazz-rock vein.



Thijs van Leer has a couple of flawed but not bad solo albums: Nice To Have Met You - spoiled by a couple of lame soul/funk-type songs, but it also sports a few songs which - again - could have been Focus pieces. Unfortunately, the smooth-jazz production doesn't do the material justice, and neither does the backup band which was made up of American session musicians.

And there's the earlier O My Love, also somewhat in a rock/funk/jazz vein, but without the smooth-jazz production of Nice. Underdeveloped but interesting.

Then there's his Introspection series of albums. These are van Leer playing flute with soft orchestral backing of classical and pop pieces (and the occasional Focus song). Not my thing, but the albums are highly regarded, and do further show his talent.

 

The CD version is a whopping 16 minutes (but nothing else really happens, it's all the same groove). The track "Who's Calling" is also expanded from six minutes to twelve.

 

Nice To Have Met You - CBS was really beating the ol' dead jazz/fusion horse in those days; seems like every session player in NYC put a jazz/fusion album out tight around then. Was Thijs even touring as anything other than a lite-classical artist at that time?

O My Love - underdeveloped is right...that was his only one for Phillips, yes?

Love the Introspection albums! Even lucked-into a SQ quad version of 2! But I think he really shines in his two Christmas albums with von Otterloo!




Now playing on Ariel Stream: Indigo Girls - Digging For Your Dream

 

4:40 to 4:51...

 

Yes, if the album didn't have several songs with the definitive Focus style of composition, it would probably be indistinguishable from countless other faceless CBS lite jazz albums of the time. Of course, the re-make of "Hocus Pocus" stands out, and it's not bad, but it's also kinda pointless, and it doesn't really rock. It feels neutered. Van Leer does his usual cracking job, but the drum breaks are lifeless and unimaginative, and the guitar solos - well, let's just say that Akkerman is REALLY missed. No feel for how to even APPROACH those guitar solos here.

Yes, it was.

 

I saw them live 2007 and they were stunning.

 

What's Focus best album ?

 

Moving Waves and Focus 3 are great. I would start there.

 

Regardless of what you think of their recent albums (I myself rather like them), if you've got a chance to see them live, just make sure you don't miss it - they're very entertaining!

 

Blowing back the cobwebs of time I remember them on the cover of England's 'Melody maker '.

 

Opinions are mixed, but they center on three titles: Moving Waves, Focus 3 (that's MY favorite), and Hamburger Concerto.

Bear in mind that roughly 3/4 of Focus 3 is jamming. It's GREAT jamming, but if you're not into that, it's going to come off as self-indulgent, especially the unaccompanied bass and drum solos! For me, it's Focus at their peak, and it's musical heaven.

Moving Waves, of course, has "Hocus Pocus", several more delicate but beautiful songs like "Focus II" & the acoustic guitar & mellotron sublimity of "Le Clochard", and finally a side-long all out progressive suite called "Eruption".

Hamburger Concerto was a conscious attempt to become more streamlined, but it's still a solid work of progressive rock. There are still classical touches like the opening piece for lute & flute, and there's a jazz influence on the magnificent "Le Cathedrale De Strasbourg". The title track is another side long work.

 

Focus 3 is my go-to Focus album. After that I would recommend Moving Waves and then At The Rainbow.

 

I have been a Focus fan since I first heard Hocus Pocus on the car radio while cruising around Pittsburgh enjoying some of nature's finest way back in the day with a buddy. We were so blown away by the song and the guitar solos that we had to find out who it was as we did not catch it. We were in the neighborhood of another friend and stopped to use his phone, this in the day before cell phones. Anyway it took a while but we finally got through, excitedly asking the DJ what was that crazy yodeling song and who or what is that band? His reply was, "That was Hocus Pocus by Focus." We were, "What????" and he repeated, "The song is Hocus Focus by the band Focus." We thanked him and I went out and bought Moving Waves with in a day or so. Still have it to this day.

A year or so later I saw them perform at Carnegie Mellon University's gymnasium and was treated to a marvelous show. It was the Focus III lineup which had just recently been released. They played for about 1 1/2 hours did Hocus Pocus for the encore and surprisingly most of the audience left with a few hundred faithful sticking around clapping and yelling for more. Multiple encores were fairly common for shows of the day so I was really surprised that so many had left. Maybe they were just familiar with Hocus Pocus and now that it was played the concert was over for them. Too bad, as the faithful were eventually rewarded by the band coming back on stage and I distinctly remember Jan walking up to a mike and telling those of who remained to come on down to the front of the stage and to sit down and that they were going to give us a treat. And that treat was a full 30-45 minute rendition of Anonymous from Focus III.

One of my all time favorite concert moments.

Back to the OP's question...whatever it was. LOL I recently bought a multi DVD retrospective of Focus with vintage clips as well as the early 2000 lineup. There are also the usual interviews and commentary, a pretty good place to learn about all phases of the band. As for their LP's my favorites are definitely Moving Waves, Focus III and Hamburger Concerto (Is that the coolest name for an album?) but there are gems on all of their CD's though admittedly I do not have any of the newest ones save that DVD collection.

Focus, definitely a band worth exploring!

Rick G

 

Correction, it was "Answers? Questions? Questions? Answers?"

Rick G

 

Agreed-I had both those albums in high school (1973) and played them all the time...also bought the Jan Akkerman solo LP
"Profile" in 1974.

 

Certainly more streamlined in the sense that there's less improvisation, but the production is so much richer and layered on that one (and it's my fave)-- first synths and mellotron on a Focus album. Despite the silly title, the title track has a really celestial, churchlike feel.

 

What's the deal with Thijs van Leer and Jan Akkerman? Is the origin of all the bad blood publicly known?

I agree that the reformed Focus albums are...alright, but not amazing. If they hadn't existed in the '70s, I'd consider these the work of a footnote band.

IMHO, the best overall Focus album is Moving Waves...But Focus III and Hamburger Concerto are, as others have noted, also quite worthy. I like most of the earlier Focus albums. Not much of a fan of the last two of the '70s, though, Mother Focus and Focus Con Proby.