Hans Spitzen- About Time- Progressive Voyages Review PV067
Hans Spitzen – about Time – Progressive Voyages Review PV067
Hans Spitzen is the guitar player for Netherlands based Progressive Rock Group Flamborough Head and this album About time us his second solo album his first Fingerprints was released in 2015 just prior to his joining Flamborough Head, It truly is a solo album as Hans performs and play everything except for a vocal from Hans Kuypers on The Curse and Rosalie Vrihof who played the flute on Jumping The Milestone.
The album also features extracts of a speech made by Greta Thunberg made at The United Nations Climate Change (Cop 25) in Madrid Spain on the 11th December 2019
The albums consists of just 5 tracks, although of these 5 tracks 2 are over 12 minutes in length 2 are over 8 minutes and the other, the albums shortest track is still over 5 minutes in duration.
Also noticeable here is the re-recording of the title track of the last Flamborough Head album Jumping The Milestone, which Hans decided he wanted to do his own recreation of, admittedly he did use a different flautist for this track!
The album has a theme of time.
So let’s dig in an see what it is all about shall we?
The album begins with The Curse , a song that is about religious fanatics who use their ”faith” to commit violent acts, a situation that Hans does not approve of in any manner, I think it is the fact that they use their beliefs as a weapon that upsets him here along with the lack of any tolerance for any other view apart from their own twisted one that is that really rankles with Hans, the words here are strong and hard hitting unsurprisingly the music that accompanies it neither Brutal or Angry, rather it is multi layered beginning with Arabic sounds before a lifting synthesiser line take flight, then an organ and finally a liquid guitar line before falling back to a gentle piano motif after which the vocals commence.
it is actually rather sparse in sound. The synthesiser line returns and makes an impressive statement of intent, I have to add that I do like this track it has atmosphere and in its view of religion and of fanaticism has some interesting comments to make about those matters, mostly it is an intelligent song one that looks beyond the headlines and the commonly held misconceptions and for that we should all be thankful.
Next track is a recreation and remake of the title track of the last Flamborough Head album Jumping The Milestone from 2022, Hans had made his debut with Flamborough Head on this album and he liked the song so much that he wanted to craft a new version of it to his own standard. Han’s version actually take the song at a slightly faster pace than the original and of course the vocals are different being sung by Hans as opposed to Margret Broomsa so they track sounds significantly different from the original album recording. The song explores the human ageing process. It was a standout of that Flamborough Head album and it is a standout track here as well, it is a wonderfully crafted piece of progressive rock music. Listening to it again you can’t help but marvel at the strong sentiments it’s talks about so warmly and with affectionate also with intelligent observations, the track is a masterclass in developing a song and maximising the emotional impact that it has on the listener, it is neither smaltzy or twee instead it is a well composed, well written track of beauty and depth. This is supported by some truly fantastic guitar playing, that is very fluid and imaginative, the final section of the track has a lengthy synthesiser line that lifts the song even more than before, as well as a strong organ part and a further synth break that is also very impressive, I think it’s fair to say that I really like this track, the flute towards the end is also very fine and melodic.
Out Of Here is next, this is a far shorter track and is generally rather gentle musically even if its words are harder in tone, as it speaks of retreating from the modern world so as to avoid a lot of the bad things that are currently affecting the world. And about maintaining one’s own mental health in all this, a shirt but poignant song nonetheless.
Penultimate track is The Little Prince, This is the albums longest track at 12:32 in length I have to add it to not understanding what this song is actually about as its meaning evades me, but what is apparent is the skill in the various sections of the track from the gentle opening piano motif and the strong upfront fretless bass lines and the liquid guitar lines that are woven throughout the entire track, this is all very impressive music. There is a very fine guitar section with wah wah effects at the 2:42 point that sounds great
The final track of the album is Before it’s too late, this is an instrumental track that also features extracts of Greta Thunberg’s speech at the Cop26 conference in Madrid in December in 2019 in which she calls for the G20 countries to do more than they are currently committed to.
This is a very hard-hitting speech and one that we should give room to clearly hear in these days in which we are living. There are some great key cards and guitar parts in this track and it concludes the album in style
I would heartily recommend this fine album you can find it on bandcamp
Info here: About Time | Hans Spitzen https://share.google/zboVujF5Rd1JzxXWp
Author John Wenlock-Smith