Sometimes analogies fail. I spent a good 20 minutes staring at the screen, trying to conjure up some way to impart to you the whole “meh”-ness of Dutch jazz-rock outfit Crypto and their one-and-done, self-titled album Crypto. Not every hidden gem is indeed a gem, but that doesn’t mean it’s not shiny and maybe worth a few bits on the open market.

This was one of the Paisley Press reissues I picked up from LaserCD back when the owner, Ken, picked up an assortment of official and “grey” releases from the label. I grabbed a few more including the self-titled from Ablution which is really good – this, led by keyboardist Peter Schön, is perfectly fine for what it is, but I’d be lying to myself if I said it was anything spectacular. Everyone is competent, and guitarist Bert Devies lays out some great solos, particularly on opener “Ribatejo” but also knows when to lay back, as he does on the alliterative “Funk For Farmers” when Schön has the majority of the spotlight.

In other words, it’s all fine, if that’s what you want. Sometimes you hit that wall in collecting where you go off the beaten path more and more, hoping to find that one release that ties it all together and shows that, away from the shine and gloss of the hitmakers and standbys, there’s something special, something only your keen ears (and a few others based on the availability of some of these releases) were able to pick up, thus making you one of the few, the true silver-eared listener.

But that wasn’t the case here, and the fact that I can clearly hear record skips and other weird artifacts suggests this most likely was a rip from a relatively clean vinyl copy someone had. So buyer beware when you see the words “Digitally Remastered” on the back of the CD. I’m sure there was some remastering done, and overall Crypto actually sounds pretty good from a sonic and production perspective. And despite this not being the best restoration job, I’m glad we have labels like Paisley Press getting some of these lost albums out there for folks to discover. Maybe Crypto will do it for you – there’s nothing at all wrong with the album. It’s just by the numbers, competent if uninspired jazzy rock instrumentals, except inexplicably for the oddly tepid slower piece “Awakenings” which has some solemnly intoned vocals that really don’t work.

Stick to the more energetic numbers like the rough but fun “Gallfly/Melon Cactus” and you’ll be fine.

*This was literally the only picture I could find of the band online. Prog Archives didn’t even have a picture of the band on their listing.