SUPERSISTER — Present from Nancy (aka Supersister)

Jazz music community with discographies, reviews and forums

SUPERSISTER - Present from Nancy (aka Supersister) cover
3.97 | 9 ratings | 2 reviews
Buy this album from MMA partners

Album · 1970

Tracklist

Present From Nancy (8:02)
A1a Introductions 2:53
A1b Present From Nancy 5:09
Memories Are New (Boomchick) (9:49)
A2a Memories Are New 3:45
A2b 11/8 3:17
A2c Dreaming Wheelwhile 2:47
B1 Corporation Combo Boys 1:22
Metamorphosis (8:03)
B2a Mexico 3:03
B2b Metamorphosis 4:40
B2c Eight Miles High 0:20
B3 Dona Nobis Pacem 8:36

Total Time 36:10

Line-up/Musicians

- Robert Jan Stips / keyboards, lead vocals, vibes
- Ron van Eck / (bass) guitar, fuzzbass
- Sacha van Geest / flutes, vocals
- Marco Vrolijk / drums, percussion, vocals

About this release

Polydor – 2441 016 (Netherlands)

Recorded At Phonogram Studios Hilversum

Released in US same year as "Supersister"( Dwarf Records – PDLP 2001)

Thanks to Abraxas for the addition and snobb for the updates



Buy SUPERSISTER - PRESENT FROM NANCY (AKA SUPERSISTER) music

SUPERSISTER PRESENT FROM NANCY (AKA SUPERSISTER) reviews

Specialists/collaborators reviews

No SUPERSISTERPRESENT FROM NANCY (AKA SUPERSISTER) reviews posted by specialists/experts yet.

Members reviews

FunkFreak75
Present from Nancy is one of the most upbeat, happy-happy, joy-joy albums of the Canterbury subgenre of progressive rock music. From it's opening notes of Latin-sounding drum rhythms played on the toms to the rocket speed piano and breathy staccato flutes and rolling bass lines, the first two songs, "Introductions" (2:58) and the title song "Present from Nancy" (5:15) flow one into the other while maintaining the happy jazzy breakneck speed until the final 15 seconds. (10/10)

3. "Memories Are New (Boomchick)" (3:48) is another fast-paced piece, this time organ-driven and supporting a very Canterbury-sounding vocal. At 1:35 the music shifts into scary-weird land with some odd organ/keyboard noises being supported by a steady rapid-fire cymbal play on the hi-hat. At 3:20 we return to the opening section with vocals as if nothing had happened there. Weird but great! (9/10)

4. "11/8" (3:17) sounds like one of Robert FRIPP's guitar and tempo exercises. Screeching dissonance! I love it! (8/10) You can really see how much THE SOFT MACHINE influenced these guys.

5. "Dreaming Weelwhile" (2:53) is a floating meditative play on Ravel's "Bolero" flute melody using flanged bass, cymbal crescendos and soft organ to support the distant-seeming solo flute. (10/10)

6. "Corporation Combo Boys" (1:22) opens as an a cappela exercise with several male voices singing "Do-do-do-do-do" in harmony before a humorous play on a Bond theme with lyrics takes over. (9/10)

7. "Mexico" (4:22) opens with "buzz-saw" organ and tribal drumming pattern before everything quiets down in a soft movie soundtrack-like organ instrumental. The song proceeds with opening "tribal" Section and second "movie soundtrack" themes alternating equally until at 2:35 it turns into a BACH-like organ and flute duet with light tongue-twisting Canterbury lyric sung over and with. This C "waiting" Section plays out to the song's end. (8/10)

8. "Metamorphosis" (3:28) is a very metronomic drum, bass and left hand of the organ play while the "buzz-saw" playing the jazzy, improvisational lead on the right. At the start of the third minute the left channel organ takes over the lead--at times two-hands mirroring one another. (8/10)

9. "Eight Miles High" (0:23) is a funny 23 seconds of the final measure of the classic BYRDS song blending into the famous "and the living is easy" lyric of GERSHWIN's "Summertime." Funny!

10. "Dona Nobis Pacem" (8:36) is a slow tempo solo organ exercise for its first three minutes. Then the flute enters giving the song truly a Porgy and Bess feel to it. Some of the incidental and background melody ditties around the five minute mark and thereafter have YES "Awaken" and "Nights in White Satin" sounds. At 6:30 the tempo picks up as the song transforms into a carnival-like/Nutcracker-like sound with ever-increasing tempo. Interesting--and humorous--but not my favorite. (8/10)

An album that starts off so strongly and melodically, but then begins to falter and slide after the sixth song, still rates as one of the best Canterbury albums--and one of my favorites--ever.
Sean Trane
Going as far back as 66 in a group called The Bulbs (oh the humour in Tulipland, probably in homage to Zappa's Mothers) then Q-Provocation, this The Hague group became a sextet when mentor Rob Douw joined them on trumpet, inspiration and vocals and started experimenting and exploring underground avenues, which was just fine with the young Dutch hippies. Poets, dancers and body painters shared the stage with the group and a lightshow was put in works a few months after the Swinging London scene had started. This forced the musicians to improvise and their music naturally veered towards early Soft Machine and Barrett's Floyd, particularly through Stip's organ playing. The band took on its final name from their aborted hippie musical called Sweet Okay Supersister, and when two members left (including their Douw mentor) and let the group secure a contract with the Dutch national Phillips label through Polydor, while establishing their own cultural club in The Hague called "Provadia?", performing at the Woodstock Dutch-equivalent festival and recorded two singles prior to the release of their Present From Nancy, a non-existing English Girl. Black forest-y artwork and an un-mistakenly innerfold filled with Opening with the title-track suite on a demented drumbeat, forcing a bare piano to keep up and later a flute, this upbeat track is an instrumental that gets you to think of a better-sounding Egg and has some of that neat Hatfield features to come. The three-part Memories Are Few starts quickly as well, and then veers to a nightmarish space rock, somewhere between Floys and some insane guitar-driven Hawkwind. Its aptly-titled middle section 11/8 tells you what it's about with a fuzz organ solo, while Wheelwhile has a quiet flute heading the bass and cymbals.

On the flipside, after the weird & short (but good) Corporation Combo Boys, the three-part Metamorphosis is full of sombre riff and breaks in its opening movement, while the second eponymous is reminiscent of Gentle Giant at times and insane binary drums and fuzzed-out organ and ends in a spoof Eight Miles High (a wink and a nod to countrymen Golden Earring who had made this Byrds song their bravado in concert and in the studio a few months before). The closing Dona Nobis Pacem is easily the album's best track, a quiet almost eerie dronal organ, sometimes over-ruled by synth lines or delicate percussions, and in the middle, the track suddenly speeds up in a classical music ritournelle, only to die out in its original drone and a loud crash

The remastered version comes with four bonus tracks, two non-album singles that preceded the PFN album and reflect the group's full lunacy and wide-spectrumed influences: the hypnotic She Was Naked (actually a rework of the album's Dona Nobis Pacem) is a calm Floyd-like track with Van Geest's flute the featured instrument until a sold guitar intervenes, while it's B-side Spiral Staircase is a silly ditty with mostly-spoken narration and silly repetitive binary piano. The other single is a spoof-boogie Fancy Nancy is almost a doo-wop track over Jerry Lee Lewis piano extravaganza, backed a just-as-weird Gonna Take Easy track that zooms towards Zappa; this second single is a little too painstakingly different and actually sound hollow. So with these four tracks added on, PFN now makes a fairly normal release length, but no matter how short, Supersister's debut is definitely worth hearing, despite its sometimes rough edges and over-silly humour, although we're still faraway from Pudding En Gisteren's madness

Ratings only

  • Mssr_Renard
  • stefanbedna
  • Jack Revelino
  • Phrank
  • Lynx33
  • Warthur
  • toitoi2

Write/edit review

You must be logged in to write or edit review

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Fellow Creatures : We Must Fight 21st Century Modern
JASPER HØIBY
Buy this album from MMA partners
Lost Session, Paris 1979 Avant-Garde Jazz
DAVE BURRELL
Buy this album from MMA partners
Rivbea Live! Series Volume 3 Recorded 1974 Avant-Garde Jazz
JIMMY LYONS
Buy this album from MMA partners
Live at PS1 Avant-Garde Jazz
TRIO VOLTAÏCITY (AYUMI ISHITO - YUKO TOGAMI - STAN ZENKOV)
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Yene Felagote
UKANDANZ
snobb· 3 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us