Irish Coffee - Irish Coffee

Year of Release: 2004
Label: Fuzzy Records
Catalog Number: 5411499 04702
Format: CD
Total Time: 36:14:00

When the band's manager took the song "Masterpiece" to the Midem in Cannes, France way back in 1971, an American label was so impressed that they demanded a full album as soon as possible. Recorded in only four days, the self titled debut album would become one of the most valuable Belgian records of all time. Very much rooted in the hard rock style reminiscent of Deep Purple at the time, bandleader William Souffreau had found the ideal formula by blending rousing guitars with fabulous organ playing. Around the time of its release, give or take three thousand copies of the album were sold, which was an unexpected success for a Belgian underground release at that time. We had to wait until 1992, when the band decided to release a CD-version of their collectable album. Augmented with seven bonus tracks the CD finally saw the light of day on the Voodoo Records label as a limited run of 1,500 numbered copies. A while later a bootleg version of this CD emerged. The latest edition of this legendary album comes in both a vinyl re-edition as well as a CD version in miniature sleeve both issued by the Italian label Akarma.

After his stint with Irish Coffee, William Souffreau played with local bands before pursuing a solo career. Due to the sudden interest in older material and the resurrection of several original bands, Irish Coffee was given a second life. That new life now also sports a brand new album. Also called Irish Coffee (I would have called the album Second Helping myself), the duration for this CD is rather short at only a little over 36 minutes, but then again this was the way all albums sounded in the vinyl age: a good honest eighteen minutes a side. The spirit is still there, the vibe is still all over the place and the music is as good as it ever was. This new album contains clean cut powerful rock music with a decent role reserved for the unique organ. So although the album has been recorded with the latest technical high-tech equipment, the soul of the seventies is still very much present as if it was recorded way back then. Timeless!

Tracklisting:
Coloured Land (3:21) / Brand New Day (3:39) / Apocalypse (4:32) / Bright Lights (4:53) / Ain't Takin' No More (3:58) / Lovely Lisa (3:25) / Your Love (4:32) / Dark Clouds (4:02) / I'm Lost (5:08)

Musicians:
William Souffreau - vocals, guitar
Luc De Clus - lead guitar
Stanny Van Veer - organ, piano
Frank Cooreman - bass
Hugo Verhoye - drums

Discography:
'Masterpiece' / 'The Show' (1971) 'Carry On' / 'Child' (1971) 'Down Down Down' (1972) Irish Coffee (1972) 'Witchy Lady' / 'I'm Hers' (1973) Irish Coffee (2004)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin BE

Added: January 31st 2005
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: www.irish-coffee.be
Hits: 4681
Language: english