Ruphus had a somewhat unfocused start of their career. Their debut was very much part of the Norwegian underground, and fit comfortably with Junipher Greene, Aunt Mary, Popol Vuh, etc.... Then they took a major diversion by attempting to emulate the UK megastars known as Yes. And finally they settled into a jazz rock groove that continued through the rest of their career, with mixed results.
That Yes album above would be Ranshart, our focus of today's post. The first side, strangely enough, predicts the American variation of copying Yes, in particular Starcastle comes to mind. It's a mix of radio friendly tunes blended with obvious progressive rock tones and meter shifts. Asle Nilsen's bass work recalls Chris Squire, and that can only be a good thing. The second side throws off the commercial ambition and goes all-in prog rock, with the lengthy instrumental 'Pictures of a Day' being a highlight. Nilsen also pulls out the flute, proving he may be the progger of the bunch. Keyboards are provided by Hakon Graf, he later to play on the jazz fusion Blow Out album. On Ranshart, he adds the requisite mellotron throughout the recording. For those that are allergic to classic 70s "UK big name prog" albums, you'll probably want to steer clear of Ranshart. Otherwise this is fastball-down-the middle proggy prog.
Ownership: LP: 1974 Polydor; LP: 1978 Brain (Germany). I couldn't quite remember when I obtained the Brain release, which remains my primary listening copy. I recall seeing it at a Dallas record store in the early 90s, but I think PPR Jeff snapped it up ahead of me (damn!). My database has the facts though - acquired from a mail order dealer in 1994. The Brain release is a reissue of course, and was released on the orange/multi-color label. The original Norwegian pressing was a gift from a great friend of UMR in 2017. It wasn't in the best shape (still worth plenty of $, so a very nice gesture). But I love the cover, so it allows me to hang it up high on my wall of albums, since I won't likely need to play it.
I picked up the CD dutifully upon release, but it doesn't offer anything but a very short history (preserved below), so I released it.
1994; 2009; 1/15/22 (new entry)
xxx
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