"It's difficult to tell which one of the tracks on this album was improvised spontaneously": Focus veer from grandiose to sombre on expansive 12th album

Focus 12 cover art.

There’s a magnificent YouTube clip of Focus on BBC TV’s The Old Grey Whistle Test from December 1972 launching into what was fast becoming their calling card: Hocus Pocus, a glorious piece of musical madness that jerks between frantic heavy metal riffs, a yodelling and warbling wordless falsetto voice that rises higher and higher until it turns into a scream, and a series of insane drum breaks. 

You could dismiss it as a slice of novelty nonsense, except that it’s obvious that behind the frippery is a complex arrangement that requires considerable skill to perform live. To cap it all, singer and keyboard player Thijs van Leer suddenly departs from his wordless script to wish us all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, en route to another high-pitched scream.