STARS & STIPS-NEVERGREENS, LP, 1976, NETTHERLANDS

Recorded after the disbandment of Supersister (merely one of the greatest bands of the 20th Century) and his brief time in Golden Earring, keyboardist Robert Jan Stips' one-off Star & Stips project may not have had the breathtaking Canterbury-like depth of Supersister (little does), but it's nevertheless frequently quite a fun ride, if a somewhat more sweet tempered and unven one. Things start off with a bang with the giddily percolating "It Takes A Lot Of Time To Let All People Know" (equal parts Pyrolator, Hajime Tachibana and War). Elsewhere, Stips' proceeds to flirt with funk on "Carry On" and it gives off the same enjoyably ludicrous frisson that Gentle Giant's brief fling with reggae did on "Interview", though for many I expect the real meat here will be the 10+ minute title track, a final grandiose and glorious prog hurrah before his decampment for the land of new wave thats expressly in the style of Supersister's "Pudding & Gisteren". The zany genre promiscuity and overarching air of unfettered whimsy (not to mention the occasional dubious foray into flat out cheezy eheese territory) make Wigwam vocalist Jim Pembroke's curio recorded under the moniker Hot Thumbs O'Reilly that nearest antecedent for whats going on here. Whatever it's context or pedigree though, this is a real charmer and one with a slow burn that takes a few spins to fully reveal itself.

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