Started in 1972 by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman, Kayak were a fixture on the Netherlands\u2019 progressive scene until their first disbanding, 10 years later, having occasionally threatened to break into the US market. They reformed at the turn of the century, surviving Koopman\u2019s passing a few years later, until seemingly reaching an end with Cleopatra \u2013 The Crown Of Isis <\/i>in 2014.<\/p>\n
So it\u2019s an almost totally new band, still helmed by Ton and his keyboards but otherwise completely fresh, that\u2019s convened for the 17th Kayak album, with Scherpenzeel finding himself with a positive plethora of new songs tumbling out while waiting for the right musicians.<\/p>\n
Those are bold, often bombastic, songs, from the strident opening bars of Somebody onwards. New vocalist Bart Schwertmann has something of a Bowie tinge to his delivery at instances, but filtered out through 80s stadium AOR, arena-filling tunes with progressive signatures and heaps of melody.<\/p>\n
Chasing that melody is guitarist Marcel Signor, fluid, vibrant, spotting when to break free with his lines and when to be the undernotes to Scherpenzeel\u2019s keys. Even in its moments of self-important grandeur, and frankly Seventeen <\/i>has many of those, there\u2019s a hook and a warmth that really works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Started in 1972 by Ton Scherpenzeel and Pim Koopman, Kayak were a fixture on the Netherlands\u2019 progressive scene until their first disbanding, 10 years later, having occasionally threatened to break into the US market. They reformed at the turn of the century, surviving Koopman\u2019s passing a few years later, until seemingly reaching an end with Cl\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8023,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,16],"tags":[],"issue":[10093],"class_list":["post-193425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-album","category-reviews","issue-january-2018"],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\n