Secret Oyster - Straight to the Krankenhaus (1976)

Steve:

Secret Oyster was a Danish band that released four superb albums in the early-to-mid seventies, Straight to the Krankenhaus being the fourth and best of the bunch. Their work sits somewhere at the intersection of progressive rock and jazz fusion; the music is entirely instrumental, and sax and guitar solos occur frequently.

I first discovered Secret Oyster in my post-college years in the 1990s, around the time I became involved with a progressive rock newsletter named Exposé. My friend Rob and I regularly received tapes of bands we'd never dreamed existed from our overlords in California where the main guys in Exposé were based. Rob had received the tapes of Secret Oyster's Straight to the Krankenhaus and Astarte, and I made copies of those tapes during one of my visits to his apartment in Birmingham, Alabama. Despite the fact that these albums weren't extreme in any way (at the time, I was more attracted to dissonance and "difficult" music), I was very much drawn to them.

A typical track on Straight to the Krankenhaus establishes a main theme, often built around a descending chord progression played out in arpeggios. The theme provides an easily digestible base, upon which the soloists - Karsten Vogel on sax, Claus Bøhling on guitar, and Kenneth Knudsen on electric piano - both establish the main melody and play impeccably structured solos. At times, as in "Rubber Star", the theme and the written melody are sufficient without a need for improvised solos. Nothing is wasted in their compositions and solos; each player exhibits maximal efficiency and grace, and the entire performance is incredibly well executed.

Secret Oyster plays tuneful fusion/prog instrumentals, carried to completion by the extremely skilled soloists and composers. Without stealing the show, each band member does exactly what is needed for each piece. For example, listen to Claus Bøhling's solo in the middle of "My Second Hand Rose". After Karsten Vogel establishes the main melody of the piece using every means available to wring meaning from the written notes, Bøhling enters with a dark, overdriven solo that progresses logically over its 32 bars, gradually rising to its ecstatic climax before fading back to allow Vogel to take over. For another example, on "Traffic and Elephants", Vogel takes control of the entire piece, riding a gradually climbing chord progression over a fast tempo, executing a well-paced, extended sax solo with increasing intensity over six minutes. It's easy to take such efficiency of effort for granted, but when executed at its best, sometimes you can't help but be awed by it.

Given the relatively modest format the band chooses - instrumental fusion over repetitive patterns - it takes exceptional players to not only pull it off authoritatively, but also to make this one of the favorite albums in my collection.

Dan:

My discovery and appreciation of Straight to the Krankenhaus came in two steps. Steve loaned it to me a few years ago, but it didn't stick. Perhaps I was put off by the cover art, which provoked thoughts of fascist medical incarceration (krankenhaus in German translates as hospital in English). Since we began working on the blog together, I wanted to re-listen to it, and this time it stuck right in the sweet spot between my ears. I still don't get the title* or cover art. 

I completely agree with Steve's take on this album. Secret Oyster's methods are very close to jazz, particularly fusion which was the direction jazz headed in the mid 1970s. It sounds like superior fusion to me, unlike many of the funkier attempts to reach a larger audience in the U.S. at the time (e.g., late Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock). It's a bit like Weather Report and Pierre Moerlen's Gong with a smattering of Chick Corea and Al DiMeola. It's also reminiscent of the instrumental work of the prog band Happy the Man. Obviously, comparisons can be disputed and may underestimate the originality of Secret Oyster, which really doesn't sound like any of my comparable examples. In fact, I'd rather listen to Straight to the Krankenhaus than many other fusion albums of the time.

As I investigated the band, the name Mads Vinding caught my attention because he is listed as the bass player on Secret Oyster's self-titled debut album (1973). Vinding is one of the best of a long line of Danish jazz bassists. Not known especially for fusion, Vinding became a professional bass player in 1965 at age 16 and has played on hundreds of straight-ahead jazz albums in addition to 26 of his own. His association with Secret Oyster speaks well for the band's jazz credentials. 

*[Steve: I believe the title originated from a band in-joke, referencing how worn out they felt after extensive touring, when they would ask to be taken straight to the hospital (krankenhaus) to recover].