Review Summary: One of the albums that mark the beginning of the continental progressive rock.
“Present From Nancy” is the debut studio album of Supersister that was released in 1970. The line up on the album is Robert Jan Stips, Sacha van Geest, Ron van Eck and Marco Vrolijk. It had also the participation of Gehard Smid.
Supersister was a Dutch progressive rock band that was founded in The Hague, Netherlands in 1967. When it comes to Dutch prog rock, many people think of, Finch, Kayak, Trace, Earth And Fire and Golden Earring. However, there’s another super group in the Netherlands that has gained international fame, Supersister. They became known as one of the best Canterbury bands, which is very ironic because they weren’t from Canterbury not even British. Supersister melted strongly the influences of the Canterbury style with jazz and some typical Dutch progressive rock trademarks.
There are few bands who have managed to record such a strong, fully developed first album after only two years of existence. Supersister’s debut effort remains as one of the Netherland’s best progressive rock albums and a classic of the genre worldwide, even though the group garnered only fringe interest outside of Europe. All the elements of the band’s sound are already firmly in place on this album. It presents tracks that fuse the Dutch rock with the experimental jazz rock of Canterbury, where occasionally classical melodies appear. It received high praise from many critics and was relatively successful commercially. You can feel the Canterbury’s elements in almost all of the tracks with their unique sense of humour. “Present From Nancy” is one of the finest debuts from a Dutch progressive rock band, really.
"Present From Nancy" is one of their best efforts. Keyboardist and singer Stips was the man in the band who more than anyone else was responsible for the band’s resemblance to the Canterbury style. His singing reminded a lot of Richard Sinclair of Caravan, while his very fuzzed and distorted organ tone was reminiscent of Dave Stewart a well known musician of several Canterbury bands. “Present From Nancy” has strong classical flavours and garnished with a dollop of Zappa style humour. With no guitarist and an incredibly strong and inventive rhythm section, the main focus here is on multiple keyboards and predominant flute. The music here abounds with tricky time signatures, delicious melodies, and long instrumental sections punctuated with delicate, wistful and occasionally melancholic vocals and enlivened.
“Present From Nancy” has ten tracks. The album consists of three suites divided into several tracks and two separated tracks. The three suites are “Present From Nancy”, “Memories Are New (Boomchick)” and “Metamorphosis” and the two isolated tracks are “Corporation Combo Boys” and “Dona Nobis Pacem”. “Present From Nancy” suite has two tracks, “Introduction” and “Present From Nancy”. “Introduction” is a great jazz/rock piece with great flute and piano over an energetic drum work. “Present From Nancy” is an up tempo piece with some jazzy complexity and with a prominent piano. It’s light and breezy with the flute taking a prominent role. “Memories Are New” suite has three tracks, “Memories Are New”, “11/8” and “Dreaming Wheelwhile”. “Memories Are New” has an experimental and eerie sounding and vocals in Richard Sinclair’s style. It has complex and interesting moments a fine melody and nice instrumental passages. “11/8” is frenetic and sounds like the early sound of The Soft Machine. Here you can see how much The Soft Machine influenced Supersister. “Dreaming Wheelwhile” has a very relaxed and dreamy ambience with its quiet flute heading bass and cymbals. It’s a nice floating meditative piece. “Corporation Combo Boys” is a brief parody with silly ensemble chanting and a final applause. It has references to Frank Zappa. “Metamorphosis” suite has also three tracks, “Mexico”, “Metamorphosis” and “Eight Miles High”. “Mexico” is an aggressive number with a Soft Machine influence. It fuses well the jazz patterns with the fun soft rock with some slightly psychedelic attitude. “Metamorphosis” is a typical Supersister number with denses passages. It’s an experimental and odd piece. “Eight Miles High” is brief with The Byrds’ song combined with George Gershwin’s “Summertime”. It leads us to the contemplative final track. “Dona Nobis Pacem” is different from the rest on the album. It has an experimental and improvised mood closing the album well.
Conclusion: As I mentioned above, one of the best Canterbury’s bands was ironically enough not from Canterbury or even British at all. The excellent debut album of these young lads brings to us partly a very energetic and frenetic Canterbury sound but also touches classical music. The closest connection would be The Soft Machine around 1969 but Supersister had slightly less jazz feeling were more accessible, less academic and had classical elements. But, unfortunately, “Present From Nancy” was a successful debut album by a band that has rightly been almost forgotten today, despite the high quality of their works in the 70’s. However, anyone who appreciates Soft Machine and Caravan or the Canterbury sound in general shouldn’t have any problems with it. This is an album that must be recommended.
Music was my first love.
John Miles (Rebel)
