Focus - Hocus Pocus: Best of

Our price:	$22.99
Media:	Audio CD
Record label:	Import [Generic]
Release date:	12 February, 2001

Average user rating: Average user rating: 4

At their best, Focus was a solid prog-rock band

Focus was a Dutch progressive-rock band of the '70s, centered around Jan Akkerman's guitar and Thijs van Leer's flute and keyboards. This best-of album won't make you forget Yes or Genesis, but provides a good summary of a band that is largely forgotten today. There are few vocals and no lyrics. The earliest tracks are reminiscent of early Jethro Tull, with Akkerman playing a blues-rock style and van Leer's breathy flute playing a near-exact duplicate of Ian Anderson's. "House of the King" sounds like a long-lost Tull track, while "Anonymus" provides a jam session. The best and most original tracks are the cuts from the "Moving Waves" album ("Hocus Pocus", "Janis", "Focus II", and "Tommy", which is a guitar-solo excerpt from the long piece "Eruption") and "Sylvia", a catchy single from the following "Focus 3" album. "Hocus Pocus" is probably the best novelty single prog-rock ever produced, with a blazing metallic guitar chorus combined with yodeled verses, a Popeye-on-uppers scat-singing break, and flute solo. It's the only Focus song that every got significant radio play in the US ("Sylvia" went to No. 4 in the UK). "Janis" is a lovely ballad with van Leer playing three flute parts. The later pieces on this album are enjoyable, but I probably wouldn't buy an LP on which they were the best cuts. Akkerman has a metal style on "Anonymus" and "Hocus Pocus"; on later cuts, his sound reminds me of Camel's Andy Latimer. In fact, tracks like "Bennie Helder" and "Red Sky at Night" would fit right in on a Camel album.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)

One of Holland's Finest Progressive Rock Bands!

"Hocus Pocus: The Best Of Focus" is an excellent reptrospective of this underrated progressive rock band. Focus was a number of "Best New Band" awards form music magazines in 1972. The lynch pins of the band were guitarist Jan Akkerman and keyboardist/flutist Thijs Van Leer. The muscianship is excellent and the songs are predominantly instrumental. Their best known song "Hocus Pocus" appears twice in full-length lp version and single version. The song contains a mixture of heavy riffing guitar via Akkerman and some unexpected yodeling interludes. "House Of The King" sounds a little like an early period Jethro Tull outtake as Van Leer plays his flute in the same style as Ian Anderson on the track. Songs like "Anonymous" and "Harem Scarem" feature some great playing by Akkerman as his style varies from metallic riffing to more of a jazz fusion style. He was also adept at more low key playing such as on the tracks like "Janis". Other catchy tracks include "Tommy" and "Sylvia". The combination of guitar, keyboards and flute is both interesting and effective. The music mixes rock, jazz and classical to form a great symphonic progressive rock hybrid. Highly recommended for progressive rock fans!

Don't need anything else.

If you know of Focus, and are just a casual fan, then this is all you need. They definitely have more depth than just "Hocus Pocus" but in reality this is a good overview of their career.