KRAAN - WINTRUP - 1973

4.5 stars.As it says in the liner notes "The liberated jazz improvisations of the debut had given way to a more direct brand of rock." The music on "Wintrup" is more compact and polished with definite themes.The album cover is hilarious of the four band members.I must say i fell for this album after one listen.Just a bunch of great tracks really. "Silver Wings" has some really good vocals throughout,and the bass and sax are outstanding.There is an ethnic flavour during the instrumental interlude(guitar,flute and drums) 2 minutes in.Great sound.Fantastic drumming late. "Mind Quake" opens with flute and gentle guitar in a mellow soundscape.It starts to pick up a little then vocals come in.Love this section.Sax joins in as well.Again the vocals are excellent.The contrast of the mellow intro with the more passionate sound with vocals continues throughout. "Backs" opens with a cool guitar melody.Sax replaces it quickly though as drums and an uptempo melody take over.They just seem to jam.Vocals come in.Lyrically this is about a dream the sax player had.It ends with someone walking away and whistling. "Gut Und Richtig" has such a good intro of bass,guitar and drums.I could listen to this for hours.Vocals a minute in followed by sax.Sax solo before 2 minutes.Some nice guitar work 3 minutes in.Some far out percussion late. "Wintrup" is my favourite.It's named after the estate they lived on called Wintrup,and lyrically it describes some things that happened in their daily lives while living there.It's so simple yet it has such meaning and emotion.It's slower paced although the tempo does pick up with acoustic guitar,vocal melodies and percussion 2 minutes in.Back to the original melody 3 1/2 minutes in. "Jack Steam" features some raw guitar to open as percussion,bass then a full sound comes in with drums and sax.Vocals before a minute.Love this song too.Nice guitar 2 1/2 minutes in. Darn close to being 5 stars for me.I just thoroughly enjoy this collection of songs. In "Wintrup" they have succeeded in translating to music what this place must have mean't for them back then.
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