from DURP (e-zine from the progressive ocean)
by Renald Mienert
Some years ago Alan Case released an record called "Wide Awake" in Japan only. It's a shame that it took so long to make it available also in Europe, but finally it happened. The record is titled now "Dark Matter" and features all the trax from "Wide Awake" - remastered and with additional songs. Actually "Dark Matter" is no more than only an pop album with a lot of symphonic and partly progressive elements - but the songs are simply beautiful. As references I would prefer Alan Parsons or Jim Steinman, but I think the spectrum of this record is much wider. "Fast Asleep" is an typical neo prog song with an Arena - Feeling and the bonus track is done in Dutch language. Well done.
8 (out of 10) points
from THE DUTCH PROGRESSIVE ROCK PAGE (The Netherlands)
by Ed Sander
It doesn't happen often that we review a CD twice. This is probably the first time, and there's two reasons why we do it. First, it's not exactly the same album. Second, this is enough of a personal victory for the artist to be worthy of attention.
In 1997 Dutch songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alan Case (real name Ernst van de Kerkhof) released his first CD Wide Awake. Cynically enough Alan's CD was only available in Japan. As a result he was completely unknown in his own country, where the album could not be found in any shop. In a recent interview on Dutch TV Alan jokingly told the press that 'at least ten people' would own a copy in Holland. One of them was yours sincerely. Back in 1998 DPRP received a copy of Wide Awake and reviewed it for our CD Review column.
When Alan's Japanese contract ended in July 1999 the Bee & Bee label from The Hague offered Alan a worldwide deal. The result was the re-release of the album under the name Dark Matter. Kayak/Camel keyboard player Ton Scherpenzeel seemingly congratulated Alan with his 'fantastic release'. Alan himself described the CD on TV as 'pop in a symphonic outfit', meant for a broader audience than just the sympho fans.
Besides the new artwork, this new version of Alan's album also includes three new tracks, being the poppy I Wonder Why (complete with female backing vocals), Nighteye (which features some folky violin!) and Het Nieuwe Land, a Dutch lyrics version of The Borderline that therefore feels slightly out of place.
Some of the songs are quite poppy and I could easily imagine them being on albums by George Michael (The Borderline) or Freddie Mercury/Queen (Mistake of a Lifetime) and Christopher Cross (Crawl Out of the Mountains), partially because of the similarity in vocals (Alan uses several session singers).
Other tunes could easily have been on an album by The Alan Parsons Project (Dark Nights, Crawl Out of These Mountains). Other tunes are more rock oriented and there's a couple of more prog-oriented tracks (the long Fast Asleep, which sounds a bit like Valensia) on the disc as well. Oh, and there's the jazzy cabaret-like tune All About You.
Other highlights are the rocking and diverse I Don't Need a Lover, the gentle Mindless, the catchy Celebrate Your Life and the blistering synth rock instrumental Wide Awake.
Besides the dry and flat drums the CD sounds very nice and is a great mixture of pop/sympho cross-over tunes. A fine collection that isn't half as 'dark' as the title would make you suspect !
Recommended for fans of The Alan Parsons Project and people who don't mind their prog a little more commercial, as well as (according to the record company) lovers of Kayak, Kansas and Valensia. For some samples, check out the Alan Case Page.
Conclusion: 8 out of 10.
from STRUTTER (The Site for Underground AOR & Melodic Rock)
Dutch multi-instrumentalist Alan Case has finally been able to release his debut CD in Europe after the album originally was released years ago in Japan. The album that was released in Japan was called ‘Wide awake’ while the European release has been titled ‘Dark matter’ and contains a couple more songs. There are 16 songs on the CD which has a playing time of more than 73 minutes. I can see why this CD has been released first in Japan, because over there they love Symphonic AOR rock in the style of ROBBY VALENTINE and VALENSIA. And ALAN CASE is another Dutch man playing this style.
Besides these comparisons I can also hear clear similarities to ASIA. Alan uses several lead vocalists for his project. One of them is the vocalist Raymond Hallatu who has a similar voice as Gary Hughes from TEN. the first song on the CD is titled “I wonder why” and also proves this comparison, because this song is good midtempo AOR with lead vocals of Raymond that sound like GARY HUGHES meets MARK FREE while the song has some pompous KANSAS influences. This is definitely one of the best songs on the CD.
Next song “Mindless” is a 70s based Progressive Popsong. “I don’t need a lover” features some wonderful cheerful 80s typed AOR keyboards and the song itself is a great uptempo AOR rocker like ZINATRA, ROBBY VALENTINE and ASIA. “The borderline” follows in a much calmer progressive Popsound. One of the best songs on the CD is “Dark nights:. This song starts slow, but when the chorus kicks in, we get to hear great uptempo Sympho-AOR with a pure ASIA chorus.
After this song, the CD gets a little more Progressive and Pop oriented and there are no uptempo rockers to be heard on the rest of the CD. That doesn’t mean the rest of the CD isn’t interesting, because Alan can really play well. Songs like “Crawl out of these mountains” (midtempo AOR), “Make it happen” (progressive melodic rocker), “Innocent eyes” (sympho AOR ballad) and “Celebrate your life” (ROBBY VALENTINE styled Pompous Sympho AOR) are really worth listening. Nice record of Alan, for more info check his site at: http://geocities.datacellar.net/alan-case
Rating: 8/10
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