js Throughout much of the 60s and early 70s, saxophonist Stanley Turrentine participated in some of the finest RnB flavored jazz records out there. Fast forward to 1977 and the jazz world is going through some serious growing pains as artists forget about the music and concentrate on the money with watered down fusion and disco ruling the day. Turpentine’s “Flipped-Flipped Out” came out in 77 and carries a lot of the commercial baggage of that time period. The first side is the worse with very simplistic arrangements of Motown classics done up with bland strings and uninspired lead lines form Stanley. All of these old Motown chestnuts were gems in their original formats, but these instrumental readings on “Flipped” drain all the fun and life out of the originals. As I was listening to Turrentine’s tired reading of “My Cherie Amour”, I couldn’t help comparing it to Rahsan Roland Kirk’s vibrant and lively version of the same song.

On the second side things improve a bit as the arrangers mostly leave out the simple string arrangements and go for a more RnBish rhythm section and some backing horns. Gone also are the tired Motown covers, replaced with somewhat generic RnB tunes by arranger Monk Higgins and cohort Dee Ervin. Fans of Turrentine and RnB/jazz in general may want to get this album for the tunes on the second side, they’re ok, but Stanley has done better. The first side is mostly ignorable, there’s no rule that says that pop-jazz has to be this bland.

snobb Reeds player Jimmy Giuffre is well known for his unique (drumless) cool jazz trio of the late 50s (with guitarist Jim Hall and bassist Ralph Pena)and also for his even more unusual relaxed and meditative avant-garde jazz trio of the early 60s (with pianist Paul Bley and bassist Steve Swallow). After a decade of silence, Jimmy returned in the mid 70s with a few albums, and then disappeared again.

His second return in the early 80s is less known (he recorded three albums for Italian Soul Note label) and would surprise almost every fan of his earlier recordings. On all three albums ("Dragonfly", "Quasar" and "Liquid Dancers") Giuffre's new quartet plays ... fusion! Featuring keyboardist Pete Levin (Rhoads, Moog, Oberheim, etc), bassist Bob Nieske and drummer Randy Kaye, besides Giuffre himself (on clarinet, tenor and soprano saxes, flute and bass flute), this quartet plays quite electric music and even energetic in moments. At the same time, as it was with Giuffre's cool jazz and avant-garde music, his fusion is different from what was typical: his hard-bop/cool jazz roots and aesthetics are still in effect, and his compositions vary from airy minimalist electric cool ballads, to almost new age meditative electronic aerial songs. All three albums weren't popular at the time of their release and are now almost forgotten rarities. So the CAM label did a great job here reissuing them all as one set. Even if Giuffre's fusion is far from sensational, I believe believe these three albums are pleasant and an interesting surprise for his fans.

There is a fourth album in this set - and even if it contains more predictable music, it is obviously the best part of the compilation. Reunited in the early 90s, Guiffre's avant-garde trio recorded "Conversations With A Goose" after a few years of regular concerts, so their communication here is telepathic. Different from the early 60s, Swallow plays electric bass here and Bley's piano is softer and more liquid than usual. But, even with some citations from their past, this music is free-cool jazz, Guiffre's style (no distortion, no overload), more mature than 35 years ago, but still fresh and not nostalgic at all! The only reason this fourth album is a part of the same set is that it was released on Italian Soul Note as well, but nearly a decade later.

All in all, this set is not Giuffre's best music, and not the most interesting of his releases, but if you already know and like his cool jazz and avant-garde works from the late 50s-early 60s, and are not familiar with his later (lesser known) music, probably you will be pleasantly surprised with what you'll find here.

Amilisom When it was released back in 1978, "Siembra" became the best selling salsa album in history and would stay that way for over twenty years (only to be topped by "Cuenta Conmigo" by Jerry Rivera in 1992). According to Wikipedia, almost all of its songs would eventually become hits in different Latin American countries.

I'm not sure exactly why the album cover has pictures of babies suspended over brightly drawn flowers, but I should say it makes for a pretty unique design.

Overall I think this is a fantastic album. Not only does it contain a variety of songs that are unique in themselves, but they each work together to give the album a sense of completion. The songs themselves are not only catchy, but have well-written arrangements for an accompanying piano, brass, and percussion that extend the lengths of the songs to a point that none of them become too repetitive.

First-time listeners will be thrown off by the introduction to the first song, "Plastico", where a string arrangement with a strong electric bass riff clearly indicate a disco feel. The song quickly transitions to salsa and fortunately stays for the rest of the album. The strong disco electric bass sound returns, however, later in the track "Plastico" as well as in "Maria Lionza", the sound bringing an excellent addition to the brass arrangements. The strings return as well in tracks such as the title track "Siembra". The powerhouse track of the album is "Pedro Navaja" which, inspired by the famous tune "Mack the Knife", is about a murderer. It became such a hit that a movie was made in Mexico in 1984 based on it.

Overall I greatly recommend this album for any fans of Latin America. However, I wouldn't approach this album with expectations of many jazz influences. The amount of improvisation here is minimal, if any.

Sean Trane LMcN’s third album, Washington Suite is also known (AKA) as Asha 3 (a reference to his debut album), but we’re dealing more with a gentle JR/F album than before, despite featuring same quintet, mainly due to Gene Rush’s use of the Fender Rhodes. A bunch of extra wind players (oboe, bassoon, French horn, etc..) were added, but it’s not like they are a determinant aural factor.

Much to my enjoyment, many of the modal/psychedelic ambiances of the Asha debut are still to be found on WS, but the extended presence of Rhodes gives it an edge over its predecessor. At times, it gets “fusionny” enough to be slightly reminiscent of Mwandishi, but don’t let that scare you, because it is more the exception than the rule. If the A-side has three separate tracks that hover between JR/F (Home Rule and 71%) and standardier jazz (Cliffbourne Place), the flipside features a sidelong suite that features a classical interlude (Fountain In The Circle) as an intro than the full body 3-movement splendid City Triptych follows (Rush’s Rhodes rules) that is definitely McNeil’s apex. The closing Fountain In The Circle) outro is indeed much jazzier than the intro, but is it “classical” anymore? Not IMHO.

I take it that the album’s only “classical” composition is the reason why the album is often tagged as Third Stream, but to these ears, there is no fusion between the two genres LmN is dealing with. As a matter of fact, that “Fountain” intro piece sounds more like it’s a track from a different artiste that got lost on this one… Totally out of context to my ears, though I’m sure McN would beg to differ. As far as I can see/hear from this album, the Third Stream label/category would be much better suited to Deodato or Alice Coltrane than McNeill, because the mix of jazz and classical is effective, while here, they simply co-exist.

Somewhat like LmN’s Asha debut, the CD reissue Washington Suite comes in a bizarre digipak format, which will make it difficult to store it normally in your shelves, but unlike its predecssor, it doesn’t features any booklet and extra liner notes. Outside that UFO track, I tend to prefer Asha 3 to Asha, because Lloyd dropped the somewhat annoying piccolo to concentrate on the “normal” flute. For what it’s worth and what I’m aware of McNeil’s work, this is IMHO his better effort.

Sean Trane Lloyd McNeil’s solo project music are multi-dimensional and presented live painting during his performance. Indeed, his high degrees of educations in the art fields and his slight involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and the counterculture of the late 60’s, as well as his contacts in other artistic realms (including Picasso) lead his performances reach unusual levels of originality. Most likely the artwork of Asha is the result of one of them.

Although the leader is a flutist, LMcN’s quintet is piano-oriented with Gravatt’s (future Weather Report) percussions adding dimension, bringing energy levels that are often found in the then-nascent JR/F adventures of the times. McNeil’s flute styles is fairly different to his other jazz colleagues (Herbie Mann, Jeremy Steig, Rashaan, etc…), because he also diddles with the piccolo, thus giving a special sonic to his albums. Gene Rush’s piano has a certain Tyner-esque feel at times, thus giving a modal ambiance that can remind Coltrane.

Opening on the almost 9-mins title track (whose name hints at psychedelic and oriental dimensions), we’re directly transported in soundscapes that are more reminiscent of the 70’s, induced by Gravatt’s powerful drumming (reminiscent Elvin Jones). Don’t get me wrong, these Coltrane references that I’m giving you are just indicative, and while somehow that mythic quartet’s shadow is indeed hovering over the album, there is no way you’d ever mistake Asha for anything else than a McNeil oeuvre. The same “Asha” ambiances are to be heard in a few other tracks (namely Dig Where Dats At), but some compositions (like Matter Of Fact, Effervescence or 2/3’s Pleasure) are more conventional and 60’s-ish. The closing spellbinding Sunny Day is very descriptive of its title, and ends in total serenity. Note that Lloyd uses more piccolo (slightly annoying throughout the total duration of the album) on Asha than necessary.

An unusually long album for the times and the genre (well over 20 minutes per side), Asha is a fantastic testimony of the artistic creativity of the counterculture, then at its apex in the late 60’s. Sadly enough McNeil’s discography is limited to the wider-70’s (from 69 to 80), but his early contributions are absolutely essential. I’m not exactly sure how he got tagged as “third stream”, since in the few works of his that I’m familiar with, his music rarely veers towards classical music, and when it does, it’s purely classical, with no jazz in the mix. But that is simply not applicable to this Asha album, where we’re dealing more with a pre-JR/F jazz and not at all with "Third Stream", one a very solid effort, at that.

BTW, the CD reissue comes in a weird “reduced-to-CD-size” DVD package (the first and only time I encountered this presentation), but a specially-formatted booklet with extensive liner notes, but unfortunately the back cover didn’t get adapted, and the legibility is very average.

EntertheLemming - When Rustic Hinges need Lubrication (Iron Man reads Keith Emerson Comics) -

Although I could be wrong (it wouldn't be the first time) I think this CD is only available from the official Keith Emerson website as I have to date, never seen a copy in any retail stores.

If the sleeve notes are to be believed, this project was forged at a meeting in 1994 between Marvel Comics illustrator supremo Stan Lee and probably the worst knife and flame throwing musician in history, Keith Emerson. At its conclusion both parties agreed that the music traditionally used for children's comic book animations was banal in the extreme and what better opportunity was there to give the kids a subliminal musical appreciation primer than get Mr E to levitate the soundtrack to film score extravaganza proportions ? What finer candidate could there be than the man who lit the bomb in 'bombastic?'

A marriage made in heaven it would seem, but as King Henry VIII whispered quietly to one of Anne Boleyn's linen handmaidens:

- No, don't bother with two pillows, we won't need that many tomorrow trust me -

'Iron Man Main Title Theme' - Keith gets us off to a lively start with a swaggering and nagging march tune stated on heroic signature synth brass underpinned by a punning groove exploiting some resonating metallic percussion. I can even see the screen credits scrolling in front of my minds eye. The old biker's sabbatical in the film industry during the 80's is reaping rich dividends here.

'And the Sea Shall Give Up It's Dead' - Starts with a very eerie high pitched dissonant cluster chord (Yep this must be the leitmotif of the 'baddie' - Wagner goes digital). However the momentum of this intriguing opening is soon lost as the piece lapses into a rather half-hearted but knowingly twee 'cheese lounge' tangent before Emerson, for reasons best known to himself, quotes 'Street War' fleetingly from 'In the Hot Seat'. Things do perk up thereafter with some sporadic and delightful orchestral writing and several disguised and modulated allusions to the opening track's sublime theme. There is also a hint of both 'Glorietta' and 'Romeo & Juliet' in places here and the whole construction although certainly ever changing and atmospheric does betray a rather haphazard arrangement. Keith also completely overdoes the punning metallic clanging percussion arsenal to wearying effect. This type of short episodic writing is certainly appropriate for animation work but I fear it would take until 'Godzilla Wars' in 2004 before Emerson would perfect this particular discipline fully. (Which reminds me, I need to add that album to his discography)

'I Am Ultimo, Thy Deliverer' - Some brooding and restive string synth writing opens this track and at least half this section has a more satisfying development and structure than the one before. The percussion is much more restrained and carries more weight as a result. The rapidity and insistence of the staccato passages are cleverly balanced against the legato pad and string sounds with the overall effect being that of a fully realised dynamic orchestral score. At 6 min 50ish however, we deviate into a straight rock groove but like all the many ideas that proliferate on this record, nothing sticks around for long or even prefaces its arrival. Circa 9 mins in we meet some martial snare and a jazzy interlude but again this is never sustained into a lasting theme. At 11 minutes we bump into a flustered Bela Bartok, bamboozled by his pungent Hungarian modes being employed for a fantasy cartoon. Yep, things really do DRAG from here on in and I cannot help but get the impression that this has degenerated into technician Will Alexander with stopwatch in hand, dialling up a new preset and challenging the maestro to:

- Play something that fits that sound then smarty leather pants! -

Just prior to the quarter hour elapsing we get a very clumsy lurch into Chick Corea jazz rock territory, and as brilliant as the solo and groove are, they just do not stem naturally from what came before. The fact that the drum sounds employed are via sequenced samples or a hardware unit does not help the creation of a credible percussion performance throughout the album alas.

'Data In Chaos Out' - Quotes cheekily from Holst at least twice on the intro I think? and seemingly emboldened by his subterfuge going undetected risks a snatch of both 'God Save the Queen' and 'Mars the Bringer of War' further in. You are a very naughty man Mr Emerson. Segues into an unusual, for Keith at any rate, pastoral and folky medieval plainsong a la Gryphon before appearing to quote his own left hand ostinato on 'Piano Concerto 3rd Movement'. (We'll let the last one pass certainly) Significantly there is a synth patch Keith uses liberally which mimics moving 'around the dial' on an old fashioned wireless and this may give some rationale as to the truncated brevity of the writing employed here to imitate the effect of stumbling upon short excerpts of random broadcasts? Keith however is plainly guilty on 'Data In Chaos Out' of that cardinal sin of many keyboard players who have distorted guitar sounds under their fingers via a sampler/synth i.e. if you don't think and play like a guitarist you're gonna sound like the Venus de Milo holding a Strat (pretty unconvincing)

'Silence My Companion, Death My Destination' - Play the first 20 seconds of this to your annoying and stubbornly white urban bro' next door and watch his acne encrusted features fall when you exclaim with indecent and crowing glee:

- 'Gotcha.... it's old prog fart numero uno!!' -

Piano appears for the first time here and despite the wonderful and tantalizing glimpses of Emerson's playing we again never get a chance for the underlying ideas to present themselves properly due to the disjointed nature of the arrangement which resembles a cut-up narrative that would have made even William Burroughs proud. Once again the main theme provides some sort of respite and it certainly has a strength and resilience that so much of this messy album does not. Emerson dallies with dance techniques at various junctures with mostly unconvincing results i.e. he layers house beats under urban sax motifs and bleepy analogue percussion and just manages to lose whatever skin tone he may have possessed before he started. Yep, unfortunately after about 15 minutes, as if on cue, Keith has run out of ideas and merely goes round his favourite synth presets again giving us a wretched home demo appropriation of 'Tank' for our pains of forbearance. Uncannily, 'Street Wars' makes yet another appearance and like a wasp in the middle of winter, proves to be a particularly unwelcome guest.

'Iron Man, Theme Alternate' - Very strong musical ideas relegated to just 1 minute in duration. So much of the quality on this recording is in inverse proportion to its running time.

So there you have it, a very disappointing pot pourri of soundtrack related sketches and preset digital synth cul de sacs I'm afraid. Perhaps if I had seen the visuals that are to accompany this music I may feel differently but if you are going to release a stand alone CD of music, it really should measure up of its own accord. Those proggers who are HEAVILY into synth sounds for their own sake might be in hog heaven with this album but as for the remainder, only the terminally obsessed (like moi) should indulge.

Amilisom Although released in 1971, The Bill Evans Trio "Live" was originally recorded in 1964 at the Trident Club in Sausalito, California. It is the first Bill Evans album recorded with drummer Larry Bunker on the Verve label, having played with him before on the Milestone live albums "Time Remembered" and "At Shelly's Manne Hole" a year earlier in 1963. Bassist Chuck Israels at this point has been playing quite consistently since the tragic death of Scott LaFaro in '61 after the famous Village Vanguard recordings and will continue doing so until 1966. He imitates the free style of LaFaro well enough but approaches his solos with more lyrical lines than LaFaro's more frantic approach.

At this stage in Bill Evans' career I believe I hear a notable change in his playing style. Although Evans' improvisations have always contained rhythmic interest as well as influences from the Bebop era, here I hear a slight increase in complexity. There is a possibly that at this point he is beginning to be influenced by the rise of Post-Bop.

So I give this album 6.5/10, perhaps being generous. Overall there's not necessarily anything entirely wrong with this album other than the fact that the groove and feel slightly miss the mark. The trio plays some good tunes (specifically "How My Heart Sings") but rarely do I find myself returning to this by desire rather than out of necessity.

dreadpirateroberts On their third album this trio from the sunny state of Brisbane, Australia, continue to play a contemporary jazz that might please fans of classical piano, along with listeners interested in an at-times free-wheeling, often emotive strand of jazz drawing from a range of traditions. There are hints of the great impressionist pianists in the ballads, little moments of avant-leaning jazz and snaky rhythmic passages where the drums, bass and piano lock together and are intercut with optimistic passages that turn a piece around midstream.

Elsewhere you get the feeling that the music wouldn’t sound out of place in a road trip movie or a film of some dramatic substance – ‘Start’ comes to mind, where the trio are assisted by a guest string section in evoking a sense of panic.

The fusion of styles on 'Variations' is held together by pianist Sean Foran’s classical influences, he has a manner of playing that doesn’t exactly evoke the Third Stream genre but more perhaps, as I’ve suggested earlier, an impressionist classical pianist who can also play jazz. This feel is supported by often minimalist instrumentation from Parker and Marchisella (on drums and bass respectively), who in a piece like ‘Please’ keep their contributions subtle, never crowding the piano.

Things get much snappier at times, like in ‘Variations on a Bad Day’ where the group build and release tension quickly, in a kind of madcap dance of a piece – where Marchisella turns on the distortion and Foran jabs at the keys – though the pianist does so again with yet more abandon on ‘Chunk.’ For the quieter side to the band, there are the equally representative pieces like the sombre ‘At the Right Moment’ or my favourite ‘Ascent’ which at times brings Keith Jarrett’s ‘Koln Concert’ to mind, only in a more composed manner and enhanced by Peter Knight’s muted trumpet. Knight, a top Australian jazz artist in his own right, does just enough here to add that extra mournful element, as does a whisper of electronics.

Running over an hour, the album is often exploratory, and while not every piece is as memorable as say ‘Branching Out’ or ‘Ascent’, this is certainly a great album of modern jazz that’s worth a listen for fans of the piano in particular. Released on quality Australian label Jazzhead, ‘Variations’ is a high point for the trio, who followed it up with the similar but slightly less enjoyable ‘The Gentle War.’ As I type the band are in the studio working on their next release, under new name ‘Trichotomy.’

DamoXt7942 Contrary to beautiful phrases, drenched in dangerous flavour with risky shots. The first breaking shot (ah suitable to call as a breaking one) "Et Cetera" is the navigator of Zeuhlish avantgarde mission for us listeners. Superior piano theatre can make this short story finer and more gracious. Anyway, this is only a prologue for a complete madness of life.

The following part "Balle De Fusil Pt. 1 / Hymenoptere" notifies us that the curtain of a trippy fantasia opens, along with aggressive and crazy string dances. As though we would get upon a pink Cadillac, sticky female voices and indescribable beautiful shout (or meaningless original language?) show us scape of psychedelic harmony. Sounds like her voices would get dressed with many pieces of instrumental soundscape ... no scatter nor distortion can be found, amazingly. We should be blown down just upon this moment at first. The next "Trolley Gresilleur" is another wall of sound, flooded with deep horns, an active xylophone, and freaky killa voices. Wonder why we get crazy so easily but no difficulty here. Yes because they get crazy completely, that's the reason, simply. On the other hand, enthusiasm we can get definitely via this craziness ... oh fascinating.

"La Guepe Et Le Fruit", a real avantgarde jazz dreamland, is percussive and funky tribal ceremony. The light-touched percussion is not deep nor rhythmical, but obscure power in it can push us into another dimension. Enough is enough, for colourful experiments in a magical stuff "Toujour Fourree Dans La Nectarotheque", regardless of their simple formation and musical construction. In the last "Balle De Fusil Pt. 2", our freakout spiritual uplift has got higher and higher. Let me say this "La Guepe" is an authentic collection and splendid pioneer of experimental jazz. Surely they drive us mad, through their enthusiasm. Recommended.

js Henry Mancini was one of the most talented composers and orchestral arrangers during the 60s, and his soundtrack work often gave him much more of a chance to show off his creativity than his pop and easy listening albums. His soundtrack to “Experiment in Terror” is no exception as it is loaded with little gems that have that “Mancini touch”. The title cut set a standard for spooky theme songs with its lonely slow ride cymbal backed by a muted guitar riff and topped with a noire melody painstakingly plucked by hand on the piano strings. Halfway through the song a mass of dizzyingly high strings swoop in sounding like something from Hitchcock, this cut has been used as the theme for many of those ‘midnight movie’ type shows.

The twist dance craze had swept the world in the early 60s, so elsewhere on “Experiment” you get several swingin twists done up in more of an exotica style than real rock-n-roll, plus swanky lounge tunes, some interesting incidental music and unfortunately, a couple of unbearably corny tracks including one called “Good Old Days”. Of the incidental music, “Nancy” is an excellent track featuring soft atonal piano passages that sound like a lounge version of Boulez’ serial music. All of the twists and other tunes on here are extra groovy and all are special enough to have shown up on various ‘swingin bachelor pad’ type compilations over the years. If you like Mancicni or 60s exotica in general, you will want to get this. The one major drawback to this record is its brevity, the music is high quality, but you don’t get a lot of it.

Argonaught I personally think it's sad that my very first review on JMA should be a one-star one, but equally I find it hard to keep quiet :) ... so here it goes:

For one thing, Baboon lacks true improvisation, which IMO is one of the greatest treasures of modern jazz. Which is especially disappointing in an album that is supposed to be based on a jam session. Instead of free flow of music what I am hearing is a series of notes, strummed on a guitar in a disjointed sequence. With some accompaniment. The music is knocking about drowsily, without any visible direction or purpose, like a Roomba in slo-mo.

Something else of importance that I sought and didn't find was the little thing called grove. It's hard to describe what grove is .. but it's easy to tell if it's there or not.

Finally, I'd describe the musicianship as crude (for jazz) and unremarkable (on this album - don't want to generalize about Hunter's band). Besides, rhythm-wise I'd say most of the album is riding on the slow rock beat, sorely missing the beauty of jazz rhythms.

All in all, this is a complete disaster and it's heading back to Amazon even as we speak --

EntertheLemming - A Chomp at Canterbury -

Historians speculate that Gilgamesh may have been a Sumerian king who reigned circa 2700 BC and entered the realm of legend by virtue of erecting a huge city wall to protect his subjects from external threats. I like to think that the citizens of Nippur would have been eternally grateful to their prescient monarch for being fortified against invading armies, pestilence, Jehovah's Witnesses, insurance salesmen and wandering gangs of Canterbury minstrels with long hair, synthesizers, a fondness for pipe tobacco and interminable jazzy noodling.

(Bring out yer deaf)

Were Progressive Rock to be brought to account for some of the earshot wounds inflicted on a listening public, the cells would surely be bulging under the intake of those criminals from the soft white underbelly of Fusion. For every upstanding and law abiding Gong, National Health, Billy Cobham, Mahavishnu, Fermata and Colosseum there are legions of their sinister darker brethren still at large and wanted for a litany of war crimes against aesthetic sensibility e.g. Chick Corea, Return to Forever, Pat Metheney, the Crusaders, Al Di Meola, Santana and Herbie Hancock (the latter's 80's 'rap' sheet would even bring a blush to Snoop's canine cheeks)

It goes without saying that you cannot bluff your way through a genre as demanding as the fusion critter as the only entry qualifications I can detect are a shed-load of chops and a thimble full of memorable hooks. Which brings us to the 2nd album by Gilgamesh from 1978 (or if you prefer m'lud, Exhibit A) The nod to the delightful Laurel and Hardy as evidenced by the title is particularly ironic, as there is scarcely a prat-fall, chuckle or fine tune to be had throughout the entire po-faced and grievously earnest 39 minutes. I have to say this must be some of the blandest and most anodyne music I have heard in a long, long while and makes the likes of Kenso and Passport seem positively visceral and borderline industrial in comparison. It's entirely one paced and seamlessly uniform from start to finish e.g. practically every track doggedly conforms to the same design: a couple of minutes of tastefully understated noodling at circa 85 bpm followed by a unison passage disguised as a completely tangential theme (of sorts) before the lads continue on their unwavering and unhurried way. The playing is faultless but why does 'tasteful' often result in the paradox of no discernible flavour? Give me 'tasteless' any day of the week, I might even remember that, as I cannot for the life of me recall a single melodic fragment from this entire piece of 'off-white' wallpaper muzak.

Some of the textures are attractive with Alan Gowen's airy Fender Rhodes, Hugh Hopper's sumptuous bass and a beautifully recorded kit sound from Trevor Tomkins, but Phil Lee's 'faux' jazz guitar tone is bereft of even a smidgen of personality or warmth. Similarly, the synth sounds employed by Gowen are strictly Camembert Electric.

By way of mitigation, it is probably Lee who provides the best track on the album, in the guise of his delicate solo acoustic guitar vehicle 'Waiting'. 'Underwater Song' does feature a dazzlingly inventive drum intro from Tomkins but his cohorts reward this fleeting gap in the clouds with yet another gentle rinsing of Canterbury drizzle. 'Foel'd Again' is redolent of some of the eastern european folk modes employed in the music of Bartok and Janacek but at under two minutes it never gets the chance to be anything other than merely tantalising.

Although I love Hatfield and the North, early Soft(er) Machine, Khan and Kevin Ayers, I really couldn't recommend 'Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into' to anyone apart from a far right of centre, hard-line, hard-nosed Fusion/Canterbury completist. (or an insomniac)

EntertheLemming - And Then There Were Four -

So, if this instrumental four-piece had hired a singer, would they have been called Pentagon? Whatever, I was gob-smacked to unearth this obscurity in my local Brisbane store as Australian retailers tend to view Prog with the same reluctance as basic hygiene and grammar:

'Can I hear a bit of this?'

'No yeah, sweet...it's all good dude' (gestures for me to don headphones that appear to have been dipped in a bowl of elephant's earwax and betray a thick blanket of leprous dandruff)

'What's this track called again?'

'Erm....like..Snowstorm or summat...' (Proceeds to indulge in an impromptu snack from the contents of his nostril larder)

'You're kidding!'

'Ya wannit or not mate?'

Not wishing to prolong this dubious hi-fidelity experience any longer than was necessary, I only got to hear half the first track, and so impressed was I by this critter, splashed my filthy Lemming lucre on the even filthier counter. Done deal (bro)

Tetragon's previous release 'Nature' was a good but rather unfocused amalgam of alternately classically inspired prog and jazzy noodles. According to the sleeve notes that Garden of Delights have compiled for 'Stretch', this appears to be the unreleased follow up which for reasons best known to the band's erstwhile label Soma, never saw the light of day until 38 years later.

Snowstorm - Probably the most fully developed composition on the album as evidenced by the tightly bound unison playing that prefaces a robust main theme. Yep, some fiendish chops are browning nicely hereabouts but I get the nagging feeling that the melodic outline carries more than an aroma of something Beggars Opera served up on their first album? Regardless, the instrumental textures and disciplined dialogue between organ, guitar, bass and drums might conjure up reference points like the Nice, Collegium Musicum, Finch, Beggars Opera and Colosseum. Significantly there is very little horizontal activity here that could be construed as jazz related, (despite the vertical harmonic flavours and scale choices, this has the unyielding grunt and forward motion of unadulterated 'rawk'.

Listen Here - One of the most accurate homages to Brian Auger that I've heard in a long while. Schaper dials up an uncannily Augerish tone on the Hammond on a tune written by Eddie Harris. Unfortunately it ain't no 'Freedom Jazz Dance' but a rather cramped two chord jam which Tetragon to their credit, do disguise sufficiently and with ingenious cunning to carry off as being imbued with more substance than it really merits. Entertaining certainly by virtue of the playing and wealth of ideas culled from such a meagre source but only twice as much fun as a one chord jam all said and done.

The Light - Probably Jaehner's most enduring performance on the record. Up to now his guitar had been a wearyingly thin fuzzy compendium of rock postures but after presumably seeing 'The Light', he spices up his tone with creative use of wah-wah, octave soloing and explores a more lyrical aspect to his playing to telling effect. Notice the same wah-wah effect harnessed for Schaeper's organ which appropriates a swelling string pad and just goes to show that with sufficient imagination you don't really need every single Moog gizmo at your fingertips to create arresting new sounds. Perhaps one of the biggest hurdles to innovation is innovation itself. There are a lot of very strong ideas on this track and considerable detail to be enjoyed in the careful development and building of excitement as the number unfolds.

Hovering Stones - The angular and rapid-fire unison riff is redolent of 'Tarkus' (but then to be fair to the lads, pluck some notes at random and repeat same in a circular fashion at a high tempo and it's 'not' gonna sound like ELP's epic?) Despite this enticing opening it soon lapses into another distinctly ordinary two chord jam before (rather self-consciously I suspect) they dive into a completely unrelated idea at a quicker tempo. My Uncle Bill who worked in the used car business always told me: Never buy a vehicle that has been compiled from two separate wrecks.

Dragon Song - The album closes on a very distinct high courtesy of a swaggering romp through a John McLaughlin tune (of which I have never heard the original) It could be deemed rather repetitive in places but given the sheer irresistible license of the groovy riff employed, those nay-sayers in our midst are cordially invited to imbibe toxins of their own choosing. Brian Auger's Oblivion Express come readily to mind here as Dragon Song inhabits a similar territory to the latter's more inspired work.

'Stretch' will appeal to those who enjoyed the previous 'Nature' (but is rationed of the jazzier candy of the former) plus the bands I alluded to above. Well worth hunting down for lovers of the Hammond everywhere, irrespective of what genre of music butters your corn 'baby'.

PS Note to self: Buy Prog albums on-line in future and pass off using 'groovy' in a review as ironic.

EntertheLemming - Californian Double-Garage Band -

Perhaps 'Emerson, Hughes & Bonilla' was never gonna set consumer pulses racing but 'Boy's Club?' The latter sounds like a failed teen group that even those credulous denizens of the mall dismiss as 'booey wack' The cover art captures the lads in 'sunglasses after dark mode' with Emerson in particular looking about as threatening as a disgruntled monastery auditor.

Mr Hughes vocal stylings certainly polarise the Lemming household, as Mrs L coos girlishly about how cute he is and swoons over what she hears as 'soulful macho swagger' whereas I deem his tonsilry as technically flawless but hopelessly mannered and affected.(As someone who cannot sing a note and resembles the produce of a live fish bait store, my jealously will be pitifully transparent) Just to compound my own prejudices I note that vocalists whose singing I loathe such as LaBrie and Hughes have American accents while Paul Rodgers, Chris Farlowe and Ian Gillan whose rawk affectations I like have discernible British accents. I'll let you do the FLAMING maths.

Afterburner - Verbatim 'Baba O'Riley' synth intro albeit via Bonilla's palm muted picking which leads into an unpromising pub chugalong over which is stated a theme which might feel more at home in a fusion context. The central section smacks of arbitrary chords played in unison as if the difficulty of the undertaking was an end in itself.(Counting is not a spectator sport) That Bonilla is a very accomplished guitarist is a complete no-brainer but here he dives headlong into the murky waters of Widdley Creek oblivious to the paddle lying abandoned on the bank. This type of plank spanking communicates precisely zero, it's speed typing of memos that the recipients are clearly too lazy to read. Three Hundred notes a second? awesome dude! Two words a minute: This sucks.

Long Journey Home - A very spacey and atmospheric instrumental with Emerson's pensive and droning synth pads lending sympathetic support to Bonilla's eastern inflected bowed guitar put through the 'Ravi Shankar Yodelling in the Grand Canyon' reverb fx preset on his digital rack. As an intro to 'Hoedown' it does work but as a composition in it's own right? Nah.

Hoedown - Another very spirited romp through the ol' ELP staple and although the unison playing from Emo and Bonilla is undoubtedly skilful it doesn't lend anything new to what is becoming a rather dottery and absent minded standard. The 'hand on belt buckle' bluegrass breakdown in the middle is good fun and Bonilla displays a wit and humour to his playing that was conspicuous by its absence up to now. The wah wah transition back to the main theme could have been exploited more methinks, but all things considered, this ain't too shabby at all.(and Hughes hasn't even cleared his throat yet. Was he stuck in a cab en route to the gig?)

A Whiter Shade of Pale - No alas, but to be fair Glen does display uncharacteristic restraint on this Procul Harum classic by his reading of the tune faithfully to the spirit of the original. Perhaps my worst fears are groundless? Interestingly, the band adopt a fresh approach here, and resist the temptation to revisit the liturgical feel of the original via the organ. Instead, the Bach quote is carried by Bonilla's plangent guitar and Emerson restricts himself to subdued and understated synth pads and some sparing piano flourishes as the song builds.There are scores of wretched covers of this song but this is one of the best (listen to wee Annie Lennox version for an instance of rigor mortis 'prior' to death)

White Noise - Possibly one of the only instances of a tune that actually manages to advance the boogie genre into uncharted territory. Bonillas's imaginative composition displays everything in abundance that his playing on 'Afterburner' lacked i.e. subtlety, wit, irony and innovation. Emerson actually decided to hook up with Marc after hearing the latter perform this number in a Californian watering hole. Keith's knuckle busting piano solo is a veritable eargasm for this listener (but then I'm a shameless Emo fanboy)

Cover Me - Utterly pedestrian US rawk grunt which with hideous irony, serves as a vehicle for Hughes to rev up his 'Mustang Sally' soul holler thang y'all. His overuse of melisma is grievously irritating when he stretches a single word or phrase so that it practically encompasses a whole scale. This device can be very effective if used to enhance or improvise on a given melody,(soul singers do this effortlessly) but like Bonilla on 'Afterburner', this is a lack of original ideas cloaked by technique. Imagine a pale Wilson Pickett auditioning for Dream Theater (sic) and try to get a good night's sleep thereafter.

Nutrocker - Quotes delightfully from 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies' on the intro but the pungent harmonies chosen by Emo and Bonilla lend this quaint piece an unexpected mordant edge. Thereafter we are treated to a damn nifty classical knees up round the ol' joanna and the whole band radiate fun, fun, fun in spades. Keith's solo is again a belter and the entire arrangement displays a healthy irreverence for both the original source and the player's own egos. As your correspondent is too short sighted/drunk to read the sleeve notes properly, I suspect the second guitar solo is that of Mike Wallace and the electric piano/clavinet excursion belongs to Ed Roth? It's 'Nutrocker' Jim, but not as we know it.

Tarkus - Emerson is on record as stating this the definitive version of his famous composition. As much as I like this rendition, I don't share completely his unqualified endorsement, but who am I to argue with the original composer's intentions? Although a vastly evolved creature from ELP's feisty puppy from 1971, it shares a similar feel and scope to that of the version on the live 'Vivacitas' album. Hughes however, completely undermines the song sections with an unwitting comedic effect not dissimilar to an 'Emerson, Gaye & Palmer' parody. Can white men sing the blues? Who cares?, Can white men who sing like black men sing prog? (Nah) Shame really as the arrangement and playing is excellent and Bonilla's sinuous aggressive lead gives the piece an even more sinister feel than before. A quick word in praise of Joe Travers drumming, which is 'in the pocket' no fancy dan malarkey when the material dictates such and interactively supportive when far greater complexity is called for. He is clearly an extremely versatile and musical drummer with a sense of humour (i.e. he hits his cowbell occasionally)

Dreams - This can't be an original?, I mean it's just too damn loose limbed and languid for these chop meisters but wait, hold up... must be an Allman Brothers cover? Regardless, it features a rip snorting Emerson solo on organ and some electric piano tinkling from Roth (I think?) After 6 minutes of this delightful devilment we degenerate soon thereafter into a very long and numbing 'Dirge for Stuck Rock Band and Fish Salesman with Elephantiasis of the Larynx'. Even if Glen Hughes sang through a drinking straw he would suck all the air out of the room. Truly a soul singer for the soulless.

Middle of a Dream - A studio track featuring some unadorned poignant piano from Emerson that carries a whiff of Satie's 'Gymnopedies' before retreating to reveal a groove redolent of 'The Way It Is' by Bruce Hornsby. Nothing there to run to the nuclear bunker for just yet and even Hughes behaves himself on a catchy rock/pop tune that at the very least displays this unlikely ensemble of musicians may have carved themselves a lucrative niche in such a market had the collaboration endured.

I was dreading reviewing this to be honest as it pains me to have to bash anything that contains the work of my idol Emerson but I am glad to report it's way, way better than I envisaged.This is a very entertaining live album that is worth some of your time regardless of what particular flavour of rock tickles your palette. Therein however lies the dilemma that 'Boys Club' would face had their association lasted: Lovers of prog metal and guitar shredding in general will adore and hate some of this in equal measure. Similarly, symphonic/classical rock enthusiasts and jazzers will alternatively drool then spit at the contents. Yep, they are forever trapped between two stools (is that what 'lounge metal' means?)

EntertheLemming - Play that funky music white boy -

During a time which Emerson later described as that of 'zero pressure' in the aftermath of ELP's burial on 'Love Beach', our keyboard hero stayed on in the Bahamas to top up his tan, hide from Lester Bangs and 'soak up' some of the local hospitality. Inside those precious few little windows he had in his already busy itinerary, Keith also found time to dash off a solo album at a local recording studio to which he had unlimited access in return for helping the owners modernise the facility.

The mood here is understandably relaxed, as there was no hot breath on the back of the Emerson neck from inquisitive and anxious record companies to cramp his style and the result is a collection of 'hobbyist' tunes which pay homage to his earliest inspiration i.e boogie-woogie, jazz, classical and blues.

Hello Sailor Intro - The limitations of the recording studio are evident here immediately and the sound quality is only on a par with a semi-pro establishment. Despite that, the album has a very pleasing lo-fi grunt about it which seems to suit the aged choice of materials covered. Considering the sterility of so many 80's recordings, the grainy earthiness of 'Honky' is a pleasure avalanche in comparison. The plaintive and stately guitar on this short mood setter is provided by the session engineer Mott who segues us into the next track with a very effective pattern of guitar harmonics a la Rush's Lifeson.

Bach Before the Mast - If Jacques Loussier was ever in the habit of going to fancy dress parties dressed as a pirate, getting hammered on rum and being asked to "give us a tune on the old joanna matey" then this is just what might have resulted. There are some sadistic contrapuntal demands in this George Malcolm piano fugue that beggars belief but Emerson rises to the challenge and puts in a magnificent performance by choosing (wisely) to postpone the introduction of any jazz or blues licks until the resultant finale.

Hello Sailor Finale - This one will certainly be picked up on any auditing proghead's radar and is perhaps the most overtly progressive track on the album. The aforementioned Mott contributes some tasteful and economic lead guitar on a jazz fusion treatment of the earlier Malcolm baroque material. This is a very busy and skilled arrangement which never sits idle for long but the rhythm section of Kendall Stubbs bass and Frank Scully's drums never allow the infectious groove to get lost for a second. Have sea shanties ever sounded this cool? In less astute hands this could have degenerated into the 'Pirates of Penzance' as envisaged by Chick Corea.

Salt Cay - I think this was the theme music written by Keith for an Italian TV show. The Korg beasties that he was using at around this time are well to the fore together with some greasy organ that lends the piece a bluesy Jimmy Smith feel. The ending theme stated on chirpy synth over an irresistible start/stop groove will stick resolutely inside your head for months to come. We meet here the local Junkanoo percussion indigenous to the Bahamas which permeates the mix subtly and unobtrusively, giving Emerson's music a hitherto unprecedented funky edge.

Green Ice - This was part of the rejected score that Emerson submitted for the movie of the same name, and considering that Bill Wyman's offering won the day, this track made the decision by the film producers an even easier one. It just sounds plain contrived from start to finish, with a cramped groove that never gets airborne and wheezes under a flimsy and disjointed structure. Did Keith receive the wrong script in the mail and write the cheesy chanted jungle vocals befitting a production starring Carmen Miranda in the role of a cross-dressing Tarzan?. Shame really, as his piano soloing is excellent on the jazz fusion sections while his collaborators continue to lend robust support despite the weakness of the underlying ideas.

Intro-juicing - Some people only sing when they're drunk, and others drink because we've heard them.

Big Horn Breakdown - Not sure who wrote the original but it might possibly have been Billy Taylor? The renowned Dick Morrisey (If, Alexis Corner etc) contributes a playful and jesting sax solo here and it is obvious that the whole ensemble are having loads of fun in the process. Once again the Junkanoo percussion arsenal lends this familiar style an interesting and innovative texture. Very few of the prog keyboard giants apart from Keith have ever tackled boogie-woogie convincingly and it should be evident by now that the required feel and phrasing are subtly elusive and take considerable dedication to master. Many other celebrated technicians make it sound like 'Status Quo for piano'.

Yancey Special - An instalment of Keith's acknowledged debt to the early masters of 'primitive piano' is repaid here on a joyous romp through a Meade Lux Lewis construction sourced from one of Jimmy Yancey's left hand boogie patterns. Yep, Emo could probably play this sort of thing in his sleep but nevertheless, his consummate feel and the infectious energy that radiates from all the players on this number is exactly what you hear from your speakers.

Rum a Ting - The Junkanoo percussion is featured prominently on a rhythm section intro before we head off into some more delightful jazz fusion territory boasting a memorable main theme and some eloquent dialogue between Emerson's percussive electric piano and the sinewy hired muscle that is Stubbs and Scully. The 'whooping' synth exclamation marks towards the end are a real goose bump raiser.

Chickcharnie - The bottom of the barrel would have represented the ceiling for Emerson on this 'disco' piano abomination utilising a melodic seed from the 'Nighthawks' soundtrack. Like having your ears syringed ('with' wax).

Jesus Loves Me - Oh lordy...has Emerson gone and done a Dylan on us? Relax, this is just a misguided but sincere attempt at transferring the joyous abandon of a Caribbean gospel church service to the recording studio. Aided and abetted by what sounds like the Bahamas Ladies (Male) Voice Choir, Keith makes a decent stab at it ('scuse the pun) but as spirited and energetic as all this is, his self consciousness at being in such unfamiliar territory is betrayed by an uncharacteristically aimless and ragged solo that drags on too long. A failed experiment but one I am glad he attempted as it shows an adventurous spirit still burns even on such a relatively conservative album as this one.

As 'JMA' have gone to the trouble of placing Keith's solo output quite appropriately in the 'Jazz Related Rock' category, I am always puzzled at the dismissive tenor of so many of the reviews of these albums. I do admit that his career outside ELP has been very patchy but we seem to be falling into the trap of appraising this music by what is 'does not' contain instead of what it does. Yes, there are no twenty minute bombastic, technical and conceptual pieces on this record. Would any of us throw the same barb at Peter Gabriel, Supertramp, Talk Talk, Procul Harum, the Moody Blues or (gulp) Radiohead ?

Thought not.

My Dad likes this album, and he hates everything (Nuff said)

EntertheLemming - Whiney Women and Sacred Songs -

During my formative years at secondary school we coined an expression to denote all that we as 16 year olds considered really 'out there' in terms of incomprehensible and ripe for the 'too hard' basket.

'That's a bit Frippin Eno mate' we used to exclaim.

I think Robert Fripp was domiciled in New York at this time during a lengthy Crimson hiatus, and would have certainly had cause to meet and collaborate with many illustrious musicians from both the 'old' and 'new' waves. There are numerous instances of session work he undertook with, amongst others, the Roches, Blondie, the Stranglers, Darryl Hall, Peter Gabriel and David Bowie.

We must take care to remember that the musical landscape in 1979 was unrecognisable from what it is now and the influence of 'punk' in America was very different to that in the UK.

In the latter, it was principally a social and political phenomenon while in the former it was principally an artistic and aesthetic phenomenon.

'You Burn Me Up I'm a Cigarette' - I heard this on the radio before I bought the album and thought it was just another punk song from 1979. Give the lads some kudos here, this IS a real shock and the lyrics are Fripp's.

'Musical elation is my only consolation'

'Breathless' - Jazz rock garnished with a pungent Frippian seasoning which lends this otherwise rather perfunctory chop fest in weird time signatures its Crimsonesque flavour

'Disengage' - features the golden tonsils of one Peter Hamill who hollers with his usual gusto over a bludgeoning metallic dirge of no appreciable merit

'North Star' - This is more like it...Deceptively simple song beautifully sung by (Darryl Hall?) and featuring a variant of the 'chiming bell' guitar sound on the strummed chords - (see 'Lament' by King Crimson)

'Chicago' - Peter Hamill once more steps unto the breach to save the day, by transforming this relatively mundane blues plodder into something infinitely more surreal and sinister. Chilling. It ain't what you do etc

'Mary' - Decent enough tune but rather undermined by the very laboured 'faux naive' performance of (Terre Roche?) Whoever it is, I particularly loathe US female 'artists' who are this 'method school' precious about everything that comes out their mouths (Spleen anyone?)

'Exposure' - Fripp completely forgets his 'playful bunny' act for the first time here and seems to think it clever to spell out the name of the song beneath the irritating screeching of some deranged wench in the foreground who presumably must be 'exorcising her inner demons' (Buy them a bike love and give us peace)

'NY3' - This COULD have been very good indeed, as the idea of splicing some real life dialogue of a family arguing with their pregnant daughter onto the hypnotic and angular guitar provided by Robert SHOULD have resulted in an unsettling and unnerving poignancy. However, we are left with something that comes across as manipulative, exploitative and voyeuristic. I am sure this was not Fripp's intent but the track represents something of a missed opportunity. Shame.

I May Not have Had Enough of Me etc - Once more, Hamill shines but the chick he duets with sucks. (No, I am not misogynistic...its just that none of the females featured here contribute anything worthwhile to this record in my humble opinion)

'Here Comes the Flood' - Probably the highlight of the album for me. Peter Gabriel summons forth a very plaintive and achingly vulnerable performance of one of his most beautiful songs. The Frippertronics loop that Robert conjures up on this is particularly apt and gives the piece a haunting backdrop upon which Gabriel's lament is perfectly framed.

Fretmeister Fripp's debut solo outing tries just a little bit too hard to sneak itself into the 'too hard' basket for its own good. There is much to admire here but less to enjoy. The personnel employed are all very highly regarded in their own fields (even the 'precious' chicks) and the playing is faultless throughout.

But as we all know, great technique and reputations do not a great record make....

The bespectacled one fancies that his unremitting intellectualism will still hold firm even in the pursuit of 'fun' and 'play' which he asks us to consider as the ultimate aim of the more commercial approach adopted here on 'Exposure'.

He protests too much.

Much of the unevenness of this record must have been caused by Fripp's failure to record his planned trilogy with Darryl Hall (an odd choice of collaborator to be sure) so it was probably inevitable that the truncated version we now have takes on the qualities of a rather disjointed compilation album.

Although my mind is not necessarily closed to the mystical teachings of Bennett and Gurdjieff, I find Fripp's patronage of a now redundant apocalyptic world view both smug and increasingly tiresome. He cannot resist splicing various snippets of supposedly profound dialogue from supposedly wise men throughout the album, and the effect is that of a headmaster joining with the kids in laughing at the monkeys in the zoo (but all the while reciting the species Latin name and population statistics)

With the 20-20 hindsight of having listened to most (but not all) of Robert's subsequent solo excursions, I have to say that in spite of Exposure's many faults, it does represent his most stimulating and satisfying work in this field to date.

Frankly I find the 'soundscapes' less appealing than listening to someone vacuum their lounge and the work recorded with David Sylvian is pretentious in the extreme.

One day, real soon, Bob will unleash on us the solo album we know that he is more than capable of delivering.

Just don't bet on it involving carbon based lifeforms.

EntertheLemming - Synchronised Drowning Becomes an Olympic Event -

Although this suffers from the stigma of 'contractual obligation' album notoriety in most quarters, there is plenty on 'Works Live' that is unjustly overlooked by many ELP afficiandos and perhaps deserving of some re-appraisal. The album started life as a single only release called 'In Concert' but was later expanded by the inclusion of more material from the Montreal Olympic Stadium concert with the hand picked (and ruinously expensive) ELP Orchestra. Keith Emerson has stated that the band did not consider this additional material to be of a sufficiently high sound quality to be included on the original record. He even just mailed the finished album to the record company on completion of his production duties, and this will give you some idea what sort of ebb ELP had sunk to at this time.

Their paymasters at the time, Atlantic Records, had no such qualms about these shortcomings and cobbled together this 'bigger/faster/brighter/louder/more expensive' version with which to empty our threadbare pockets and swell their already bulging coffers.

'Introductory Fanfare' - Rather a stilted and cheesy little curtain raiser penned by Palmer and Emerson to get us on our way which is pleasant enough until an MC who makes Ashley Holt seem comparatively 'urban' intones the 'ladies & gentlemen' tagline. Reach for the bucket....

'Peter Gunn' - ELP do a great job with Henry Mancini's 60's spy music which is all the more remarkable without the obligatory twangy electric guitar of the original. Keith's brass sounds are suitably tacky via the Yamaha GX1 and although hardly a grand musical opus, it is great fun and played with just the right amount of tongue in cheek bravura. For those of you with sufficiently strong stomachs, there is a 'dance/house' version of this track by someone/thing called Bassment Jaxx which proves if nothing else, that even God has a slops tray.

'Tiger in a Spotlight' - A much leaner and earthier version of this tune which I much prefer to the rather boggy studio version that continually crops up on 'best of(s)' and compilations (Dunno?) Keith dials up a hybrid organ/piano timbre here on the GX1 which I have always loved to bits and the bass and drum dialogue between Lake and Palmer has a sinewy tautness that lends this simple shuffle blues a real excitement and energy. Both of Emerson's solos are a thrilling treat and display his continuing ability to assimilate the vocabulary and techniques of boogie piano into the electronic realm of rock.

'C'est la Vie' - I have never been a keen advocate of this gushingly wet Lake song but can report that this live rendition is at least a damn sight more robust that its studio equivalent on Works Volume 1. Keith displays his impressive versatility by playing a note perfect version of the session player's accordion solo (but No, he does not stab the squeezebox with knives in case you're wondering, or the author alas)

'Watching Over You' - This really should have been included on Greg's side of Works Vol 1 and although it's a very lightweight solo lullaby it still completely dwarfs most of the songs he did include on that record. Mr L was always at his most enjoyable when tackling simple acoustic songs like this.

'Maple Leaf Rag' - apart from the purpose of ingratiating themselves to a Canadian audience (Pourquoi?)

'The Enemy God Dances With The Black Spirits' - This is a sparkling little jewel in a rather sombre tiara, a band only version of the Orchestral adaptation of Prokofiev's music that appeared on Carl's slice of Works Vol 1. I certainly loved the latter but this is possibly even better and Emerson has done a fantastic job of arranging the very complex orchestral parts for just his two hands on Hammond and synth. There is some great playing by all the trio here on what is a fiendishly difficult piece to replicate. The organ sound throughout this album is mouth wateringly yummy and combines a real ballsy grunt with some crystalline detail.

'Fanfare for the Common Man' - This reeks of some clumsy tape splicing methinks, as there appears to be a very discernible tuning 'lurch' where one version mutates very clumsily into another? Given that the GX1 synth was an analogue creature prone to 'tuning drift' from temperature and humidity, there may have been instances when it suffered some 'excitable temperament' effects and you can hear evidence of this on this track. The playing as ever, is top notch and the inclusion of Freddie King's 'Hideaway' during the lengthy synth improvisation is a nice touch. There are however, far superior versions of this live ELP staple available elsewhere.

'Knife Edge' - ELP's perennial warhorse pulls up lame here due in no small measure to Greg's impossibly tinny and twangy bass line on this track. Why you would embark on a tune that relies on a deep and guttural bass tone by instead employing the timbre of an eight string soprano ukulele is beyond me. What was Lake thinking about? Shame really as the remainder is very good and the inclusion of the orchestra on the Bach Italian Concerto quotation towards the end is very powerful and effective.

'Show Me The Way to Go Home' - Certainly a fitting standard to cover on ELP's swansong, this is again good fun and the live version is considerably more gutsy and rockier that that on Works Volume 2. As you would expect, they usually closed the shows with this one which makes the next track's running order all the more galling.....

'Abaddon's Bolero' - I think they usually opened with this on the concerts with the orchestra during that ill fated tour. Can't say that either of the orchestrated versions from Keith or ELP even come close to matching the brio and excitement of the 'Trilogy' incarnation. Despite the multitude of gradually building layers of counterpoint (which Keith couldn't hope to replicate on his own), maybe this wasn't ever meant to be played by an orchestra in the first place? Keith listen, I know you're a stubborn bugger, but enough already. It ain't never gonna work....

'Pictures at an Exhibition' - Or 'Polaroids of Hemorrhoids' Comes across as a 7 course meal we are supposed to gulp down as it it were a microwaved TV dinner. Indigestion and/or diarrhoea invariably result from such fast foods and there is audible and pungent evidence of this to suggest band and orchestra were embroiled in an indecent scramble to see who would get to the toilet first during this sprint through 'Pictures'. Once again we encounter Lake's wretched 6 string bass tone which makes his parts sound like they are being performed by George Formby via a small transistor radio. Imagine Shakespear's 'Hamlet' played by Sylvester Stallone and condensed down to 'To be or what...?'

'Closer to Believing' - Similarly to 'C'est la Vie' this is a much better version than that heard on Works Volume 1 and we do get to hear what is a very good song once the overwrought arrangement has been suitably deflated to illuminate some of the finer detail. I just wish that Lake had given us a band only version of this tune, as it certainly has a melodic strength to warrant a much more sympathetic and robust accompaniment without the sentimental treacle.

'Piano Concerto #1 3rd Movement' - A real highlight of the set where Emerson's piano and the orchestra lock horns in an unflinching battle to see who is the last man standing. Although all the orchestral players are amplified, it was done by fixing a specially designed pickup to the acoustic instruments that would preserve the rich sonic palette and subtle nuances of timbre obtained from these sources at the much higher volumes they needed to be heard along with the electronic band. The results here are very authentic indeed and this is perhaps one of the few instances where orchestral sources sound 'untarnished' by amplification. It's just a pity that they didn't include the 1st and 2nd movements also and dispensed with some of the weaker material on 'Works Live' instead.

'Tank' - I know a lot of ELP fans who wax lyrical about this version of 'Tank' but I can't say I share their unreserved passion for this rather perfunctory lope through an overripe chestnut. Again, this might be another instance of an Emerson composition that is insufficiently malleable to withstand being shoehorned into these jazzy slippers. (You shall NOT go to the ball)

Yep, it's very patchy with some really brilliant moments followed by large swathes of mediocrity and the odd lurking pile of poo. The track listing might lure some ELP newbies into buying this first, but they would be better to purchase either one of the many fine compilations that are around or start at the 1970 debut, reach Brain Salad Surgery then STOP. GO BACK. DETOUR AHEAD. GIVE WAY TO INFIRM DINOSAURS.

EntertheLemming - Unravelling the Old Castle in Newcastle -

Live albums as good as this one have something of a 'fluky' element to them i.e. Many of the early 70's concerts given by ELP were at the mercy of the mercurial Moog and it's tuning mood swings. You can hear examples of this on the disappointing video version of this piece (recorded at the Lyceum in London) where there are unscheduled 'atonal' moments which spoil the otherwise magnificent music. Similarly, the 'Mar Y Sol' performance captured finally on the 'From the Beginning' boxed set, is somewhat sullied by Dr Robert's pet beast wilting in the Caribbean humidity.

No such niggles here though, as the band are captured on a great night, mercifully free of the aforementioned technical gremlins (Newcastle can be many things, but certainly not humid in November).

The sound is simply stunning, you are placed right there in the front row (c.f 'Welcome Back', where we appear to be seated in the car park) Emerson's Hammond has never sounded this feral on a live recording, being neither too distorted (the Nice live) or too squeaky clean (Royal Albert Hall) It's just a perfect balance and lets his playing illuminate a detail and depth all too often obscured by prodigious technique funnelled through a fuzzbox.

I read somewhere that the intro to Mussorgsky's work was played on a real pipe organ (did they have one at Newcastle City Hall?)

As we have come to expect, the contributions of both Emerson and Palmer are damn near flawless but perhaps the greatest surprise here is just how much of the creative workload is taken up by Lake, whose contributions over the passing years became less and less significant in the band's output. Perhaps the only real timekeeper in the group, his bass underpins beautifully the technical maelstrom whipped up by E & P, with distortion and wah-wah effects used judiciously to spice up the timbres in this heavily organ dominated piece. Lake's solo spot 'The Sage' is beautiful, and apart from being a lovely Spanish tinged ballad brilliantly sung, displays his highly skilled classical guitar technique. From this point on, there is no similar example of this type of virtuosity from fatboy in ELP's catalogue.

There is a very liberal quote from a Bill Evans tune during the exhilarating 'Blues Variation' but I cannot remember what the song is called ('Interplay' perhaps?) If there is a greater example of jazz/blues organ over a swinging shuffle beat in the history of rock, then I have yet to hear it.

'The Curse of Baba Yaga' represents something almost encroaching heavy metal (without the requisite guitars) and has an intensity and edge that slowly left their subsequent work. Some ELP fans relegate this track to filler and, although I recognise their trepidation about the 'head banging' aspect of it, am puzzled at their dismissal of a ferociously driven heavy rocker containing a spine cracking tritone in the main riff and some real visceral gusto from Lake.

(Ya want jam on it lads?)

Lake's vocal on the climactic ending of 'The Great Gate of Kiev' must be a highpoint in the band's career, a sweening and soaring full stop to a magnificent part of ELP's recorded history.

I have heard other rock artists attempt portions of this work and have to conclude that it is ELP's unfailing grasp of the techniques of symphonic arrangement and interactive counterpoint that gives their version such a huge sound. You can layer 30 synth patches together if you like via MIDI and make the bass and drums sound like they are played in the Taj Mahal, but it will still come nowhere near the sort of power and weight realised here with considerably more modest equipment.

(The whole is greater than the sum of its parts).

If there is a negative aspect to this wonderful record it may be interpretive i.e.

Emerson has often bemoaned the disrespectful nature of pop music's bowdlerization of the classical repertoire and saw himself as respectful to the original composer's intentions. Why then encore with B Bumble and the Stinger's 'Nutrocker?' - unless you want to shoot yourself squarely in the foot?

Notwithstanding the foregoing, ELP's version cooks up a storm and is yet another example of this supposedly cold and po-faced band having a huge amount of fun.

Although they did not deliberately set out to sell classical music to a rock audience, ELP are certainly responsible for millions of people, who would otherwise have baulked at the idea, listening to such works and having their musical horizons widened. Perhaps we really should give them credit for that didactic aspect of their very influential presence in music.

EntertheLemming - Vacating the Throne in the Smallest Room in the House -

Most of the tales that surround the making of this grubby and tatty little album carry an uncanny resemblance to the sorts of excuses trotted out by beleaguered soccer franchise owners when their team is on a 10 match losing streak:

'Injuries to key players'

(Emerson had not long undergone arm surgery for nerve entrapment and his pliancy in agreeing to press ahead and overdub his parts individually with his one remaining good hand beggars belief)

'Confidence and morale have taken a dent, the fans need to get behind us and encourage the team'

(Hiring Disney composers and Sony hit writers to contribute to a document featuring three of the most indelible talents to ever grace rock music might just contribute to the faithful streaming towards the exits)

'The coach has my complete trust and he can and will turn this around'

(Producer Keith Olsen forbade any conceptual pieces or classical adaptations and therefore conspired to abort a version of the 'Karelia Suite' by Sibelius with Allan Holdsworth on guitar appearing on the album, although by way of self-serving recompense, we do get to hear his own daughter speaking on one track)

We can't blame Olsen entirely for this debacle, but he has become tantamount to the midwife of choice for the soulless, having delivered to the expectant world the air-brushed platinum blonde diaper burritos of Fleetwood Mac, Whitesnake, the Scorpions, Saga, Starship, Rick Springfield, Pat Benetar and Emmanuel (Who? a Mexican hair-gel counterfeiter, that Interpol are probably still looking for)

Hand of Truth - In contrast to the horrors that lie in wait this is as good as it gets. Even a compound proggy meter is involved for the opening piano motif plus a subsequent tempo change into an impressive slower section but compared to an unimpeachable past, it is distinctly humdrum for ELP. Keith perks things up with some signature squealing Moog and Greg's vocal is at least a damn sight more robust than his prose:

'I hear the cry of freedom, We have the power to change the world'

I doubt if Olsen would have even let the trio change their socks unsupervised.

Daddy - a very attractive chiming guitar arpeggio certainly, but it just never goes anywhere. The treatment of a serious subject (child abduction) just comes across as mawkishly trite due to Greg's bathetic delivery and despite some tasteful piano textures from Emerson, 'Daddy' smacks of an effective intro being stretched into a pseudo song. The aforementioned Olsen 'fille' gabbles the title and I have to confess, such shallow manipulation and emotional bankruptcy means I've never yet made it through to the end of this shameful tear-jerker (pun intended) I could swear Palmer's entire drum part consists of just a sole thwack of the snare on the 4th beat of every bar.

One By One - Don't be deceived by the contrapuntal and fugue like intro as it just degenerates thereafter into stolid US 'rawk' keech*. (*The latter being a Scottish pejorative which the rest of you should not find hard to orient to your own vernacular. Tip: use your sense of smell) Keith presumably was the last person in the navigable universe to be told that orchestral stabs were considered passée at least 10 years prior. The chorus is memorable in the sense that inoculation shots leave an indelible mark on their recipients but Emerson's descent into sub Asia cliche sus 4th chord resolutions on a polysynth patch reeks of desperation.Greg's lyrics alas, just reek:

'Out of the cocoon reaching for the moon'

There 'is' a lovely cathedral organ segment but it's over far too soon and similarly the instrumental section to the fade is entertaining but gets buried beneath those wince inducing orchestral stabs. Enough already.

Every time I listen to this album I cannot help but imagine the beetle-browed Olsen sat in the producer's chair peering through the control room window with that reproachful look on his face that says:

'If just one of you guys tries any of that fancy dan progressive flashy shit with me, I'm nuking the critter'

Heart on Ice - Imagine a collaboration between Elgar and the Scorpions on a '3am in the morning' ballad written specially for those forbidden from staying up beyond 7pm. Lake once again double underlines his credentials to be the undisputed James Joyce of prog:

'We just flicker like a candle in the cathedral of our dreams'

Thin Line - Palmer's shuffle is about as stiff as the inhabitants of a Mosh pit at a Brahms recital while Keith does at least get to contribute some guttural Hammond but the 'faux' jazzy Steely Dan harmonies and female backing vocals in the chorus are but a gentle slap on the bottie off deserving of a firm kick in the backside for all concerned.

Man in the Long Black Coat - Possibly the best/least wretched track on the album and there is finally some mood building atmosphere invoked on this Dylan song. Carl Palmer has claimed that this was the centrepiece of a 20 minute Emerson conceptual piece ditched by producer Olsen, although it's hard to see how even Keith could have expanded such a modest musical seed as this to epic status. If nothing else, it was capable of getting me to seek out the original and all things considered, Dylan has served Emerson well over the years. (see 'My Back Pages, Country Pie, She Belongs to Me')

Change - Borderline endearing but it just doesn't suit an Englishman like Lake's voice. Vaguely redolent of something that might have popped up of the 'To The Power of Three' album with Robert Berry. One of those 'unfinished' songs that most people leave unreleased because they couldn't come up with even a mediocre verse melody for the rather ordinary chorus.

Give Me a Reason To Stay - A royalties cheque? Joking aside, this is decent MOR penned by the aforementioned Disney and Sony hacks Steve Diamond and Sam Lorber respectively (sic). Nice chord progression and a well crafted development but it ain't even remotely an ELP song. Someone like Neil Diamond or (gulp) Tom Jones could make this very good indeed. (Hey I'm trying to accentuate the positives here OK?)

Gone Too Soon - Depending on whose version of events you believe, Emerson and Palmer don't even play on this critter. Yes, there's audible clockwork synth and metronomic drums but these were allegedly provided by session-men. Both certainly sound like stock 'off the shelf' parts without a vestige of personality to betray their origins. Pat Benatar astride a Jefferson Skateboard and never was a track so inappropriately named.

Street War - Like Euro synth pop from the mean streets of Hampshire as if parodied by an English REO Speedwagon tribute band, but possibly even less gritty than that. Keith's inspired chromatic descending organ lick is kinda cool but once again this just ain't right for Greg's limey tonsils and he sounds about as credible as my Dad tackling an Ice-T medley.

It saddened everyone who wasted their ill-gotten gains buying this album that our favourite prog band of all had been reduced to the malleable puppets of their corporate paymasters. There was no tour and precious little marketing that I can recall after its release and in hindsight such a diplomatic withdrawal was probably a blessing. I do however still hold out a strand of hope that the aborted 'Crossing the Rubycon' project will one day be completed and released. By all accounts this shelved album was a fully fledged progressive beastie that even if it were the final 'hurrah', would prove a much more elegant exit than this ignominious whimper.

BTW You can get the utterly fab and groovy bonus Dolby Surround version of 'Pictures At an Exhibition' via other ELP reissues. I'll let you do the maths.

EntertheLemming - Emerson v Emerson with Victory Records as the Loser -

I was really surprised at how low people rate this album given that it is probably the strongest ELP studio release since 'Brian Salad Surgery' appeared in 1973.

Given that a reunion was completely unexpected and that our three heroes now found themselves aboard a sinking ship adrift on the choppy high seas of corporate 'rawk'(HMS Victory Records, who went under) they deserve great credit for producing a record as good as this one. Stories abound that Victory originally approached Emerson to compose a soundtrack for a movie and 'suggested' that he get Lake and Palmer on board. The fact that no-one involved can even name the film in question begs some questions. There are many others who view this version of events as apocryphal and would consider more plausible, Emerson's urgent need of huge amounts of cash after a vicious divorce had 'cleaned him out'

Go figure....

Short pieces are the order of the day here, with no extended suites as in days of yore. Some reviewers are convinced that the band were 'under instructions' to write concise, sharp and snappy radio fodder for this but Emerson's version of events is quite different. He has stated that he had 'carte blanche' from the record label to write and record whatever he wanted, irrespective of genre or track length.

OK, this AIN'T 'Trilogy' or 'Tarkus' but neither is it 'Love Beach' or 'In the Hot Seat' either. There is not a bad track on the album and although rather bereft of any obvious ELP instant classics, we have a very fine collection of symphonic prog tunes where a welcome 'modern' economy is evident.

The only real niggles I have are that Carl Palmer appears to have decided that in 1992 there is no place for 'interactive' drumming anymore, so his contributions are no more than a very elaborate 'click track' for Lake and Emerson to keep time. Although this adds considerable weight and power to the rhythm, and is consistent with a desired contemporary feel, much of the previous subtlety and interplay between the trio is lost as a result.

Also, Greg's voice has understandably lost much of its range and tone down the years, but I do miss that unique 'tenor sings rock' texture that only he and say, John Wetton seemed to possess.

BLACK MOON - A real 'grower' this one, as on first hearing I relegated it to 'stadium grunt' due to its use of the 'We Will Rock You' drum beat (are you squirming yet Carl?) but after repeated listens, the overall structure and complexity reveals itself, layer by layer. Check out the closing organ solo over the very inspired 'folky' bridge chord progression. True killer. Why, even fatboy has honed a social conscience for this one with his depiction of the planet ravaged by eco unfriendly nations etc

PAPER BLOOD - a simple 'rocker' but damn fine for all that. Greasy organ open fifths from Emo hammer out the deceptively simple riff over which Lake intones a tale of the futility of the acquisition of wealth (Right on sister! Greg's tits appear to have been firmly in the wringer when they booked the studio?) Rather refreshing 'solo' from Mr E, which consists of some incredible stabbing of an ambiguous 'cluster' chord over the incessant rhythm (You have to hear it)

AFFAIRS OF THE HEART - Greg's first contribution to the album, and a very fine acoustic ballad it is too with Emerson playing a very minimalistic (by his standards) and beautiful accompaniment on ethereal piano and synths. Like so much of his 'background' work on this record, the textures and timbres are exquisite. From memory, a version of this song was recorded by Lake and Geoff Downes?

ROMEO AND JULIET - Prokofiev gets thrust into the ELP blender and comes out screaming. The beat has a real 'Hendrix' vibe and the synth sound used for the main melody is spine-tingling. Emerson has stated in an interview that before arranging this piece for the band he played the original piano score over and over again until he got it down perfectly...then threw the manuscript paper away (Prokofiev might have thrown it back, but who cares?) This track was a particular standout on the subsequent world tour.

FAREWELL TO ARMS - Perhaps the first 'baby clanger' on the album. Quite a decent tune but spoiled by Lake's rather mannered vocal (you know those really irritating instances when he 'speaks' the tagline of a song?) and the feel is not dissimilar to a rather sluggish adaptation of 'Elgar' The closing synth solo almost saves the day however, and there is more than a passing nod in the direction of 'Lucky Man Moog' here.

CHANGING STATES - this is an ELP version of a tune that Emo composed for a solo album (where it was called 'Another Frontier') Not really that different until the slowed down bridge section appears that precedes the ending. I actually prefer the solo album version but the superior organ, bass and drum sounds here make this a real treat. 'Bach' is the obvious inspiration here and Emerson whips up a real storm with his own inimitable appropriation of what the 'fugue' form should sound like.

BURNING BRIDGES - Surprisingly, this was a song written with ELP in mind, by the album's producer Mark Mancina and very fine it is too, replete with a strong melody and memorable chorus to boot. The organ sound and melodic shape employed throughout is redolent of 'Procul Harum' and never fails to summon the hairs on the back of my neck to attention. Exhilarating. (Mr Mancina is now a very successful and prolific composer of movie soundtracks).

CLOSE TO HOME - Emerson's solo piano piece and unfortunately not one of his best. Not a stinker by any stretch of the imagination, but this tune has always struck me as having 'odd' phrasing in the main hook and fails to satisfy despite some masterful playing and an interesting developmental section in the middle. Perhaps 'A Blade of Grass' would have made a better choice. (I think this alternative solo piano track was included as a bonus track on subsequent reissues of the CD?)

BETTER DAYS - Mercy! this is almost funky?, with staccato clavinet and as close as Carl will ever get to approaching an 'urban' vibe on his kit. This type of modernity had been attempted before by ELP, but compared to other (atrocious) efforts on 'In the Hot Seat' and 'Love Beach' it proves they COULD assimilate contemporary developments within the broader context of a progressive style. I am advised that the storyline was inspired by an incident in Emerson's life where he (anonymously) gave a considerable amount of cash to a homeless person in the street.(NOT his ex wife presumably) The ending section to the fade out is magnificent. No pyrotechnics or 200 notes a minute here, just fantastic use of timbre, texture and dynamics to get the job done. Breathtaking (and simple)

FOOT PRINTS IN THE SNOW - Emerson must have loosened the reins to give Greg TWO solo pieces on the one record? Anyway, this is another fine acoustic song with a particularly memorable hook and although very understated, rather surprisingly provides the album with a satisfactory conclusion. (ELP usually started with a hurricane and built up to a climax)

So in summation: This album is NOT even remotely AOR or POP and I am puzzled by the charges of same levelled against it from previous appraisals. Certainly, the tracks are shorter than we have come to expect and there is no overriding 'concept' piece upon which to focus our attention. So what?

I just wish that those anodyne and soulless charlatans like Marillion, IQ, Pallas et al get the chance to hear what their own mutant baby christened 'Neo Progressive' COULD have been if put in the hands of the masters.

EntertheLemming - Heather Arsonists Foiled by Mid Atlantic Storm Clouds -

There is a story attached to this album that posits the original master tape recorded in England was destroyed in a fire/accident and forced the band to reconvene in the USA to start all over again at the behest of Polydor. Whether there is even a grain of truth in this is debatable, but I must admit to being more than sorry that a more 'anglicised' version of the album is not in existence. It might also help to explain why we are left with a document that loses much in the botched transatlantic translation of 'ELP' into 'AOR'.

What does seem abundantly clear however, are the internal tensions at work between the three protagonists and their anxious record label i.e Emerson and Lake were never exactly prog's 'Ken & Barbie' and we have the late Cozy Powell's testimony to their relationship at that time as being somewhat closer to 'Itchy & Scratchy'.

All the ingredients were now in place for an album that would make 'Love Beach' sound heavier than a tone row poem by Schoenberg, but surprise surprise, the results are considerably better than we had even dared to hope. Apart from the engineered lapses into corporate 'rawk' territory to appease their paymasters, most of these tracks sound just fine and dandy to me.

Powell's proven abilities as a heavy rock drummer are well documented, but he is very much an 'in the pocket' player in contrast to say, a 70's Carl Palmer or the late Brian Davison, and this approach does have a commensurate effect on the music from Keith and Greg. Therefore it should not surprise you to find a stripped down backbeat beneath many of these songs. Keith has stated in interviews that he found this 'liberating' in his playing, knowing that Powell was always there, never allowing the pulse to get lost.

'The Score' - Keith often uses brass fanfares in his work and these are what drives this piece along so dramatically. There is a lengthy instrumental section before the vocals enter and we notice immediately he uses synth chording more frequently than the organ of previous years. (Remember this was 1985 and polyphonic synthesizers were commonplace) Greg's voice is ushered in bathed in a swimming pool of reverb, and like all the elements of this heavily processed recording, sounds artificially ENORMOUS. (he subsequently became 'genuinely' enormous in his latter years) I suspect the track was originally intended to be entirely instrumental as apart from the reprised 'You're welcome back my friends' tagline, the remaining vocals appear utterly superfluous.

If you like your prog both pompous AND bombastic (with a hint of Camembert) then you will require at least one change of clothing long before the end of this.

'Learning to Fly' - With one foot in the stadium and the other in the cinema, Emerson straddles quite admirably two competing disciplines here and the result is a deceptively simple but dynamic song of which his own parts carry the melodic interest considerably better than Lake's. (After running repairs to another instrumental?)

The pace changes abruptly at the end and Keith's exposure to the soundtrack industry is evidenced by a quite magnificent piece of orchestral writing realised on unaccompanied synths that segues into....

'The Miracle' - OK I admit it, the lyrics here would probably even embarrass Fish when he was but a tadpole in short pants, but the music is thrillingly cinematic and for once, carries a truly spellbinding chorus. We get a rare glimpse of the Hammond from the front of the mix in an inspired solo that entails a visit to 'Goosebumps R Us' for me every time.

'Touch and Go' - Perhaps one of the only post 80's tracks by any permutation of ELP deserving of classic status. The harmonic structure is as basic as any simple folk tune, but the periodic injection of 'that' stupendous fanfare stated by Emerson, clever use of a choir pad and Powell's industrial percussion effects, transcend the humble foundations of this piece. For what it's worth, I think the fanfare 'hook' bears more than a passing resemblance to something I have heard before by composer Vaughan Williams? Whatever, just when you think Keith has run out of harmonic variations to put under this motif, he comes up with yet more to bring us to a giddy and swaggering conclusion.

'Loveblind' - Oh dear....why is there never a power failure when you could really use one? Apart from a decent synth pitch wheel excursion on the fade out, this is all the reason a man needs to throw some of his fellow creatures off a bridge. It sounds like a bad Asia song covered by an REO Speedwagon tribute band after their guitars had been stolen from the equipment truck. (If you play this song backwards you will NOT hear any Satanic messages, just Polydor purring)

'Step Aside' - This is one of those little hidden gems that seems to have fallen beneath the ELP radar. A very atmospheric and brilliantly composed jazz setting of a memorable tune featuring Keith's patented Oscar Peterson impersonation and some tangy harmonies on the classic intro. Although this is hardly Cozy's forte, he sensibly plays well within himself and contributes a tasteful if somewhat rudimentary swung groove. What little jazz the drummer may have had in his soul, it completely dwarfs that possessed by Lake, who just sounds ill at ease with this material.

'Lay Down Your Guns' - Keith and Greg have an unfailing knack of coming up with twee sub Elgar whenever they attempt 'majestic' paeans to pacifism. A similar, if slightly better attempt is represented by 'Farewell to Arms' from the 'Black Moon' album. Do they have to write a pro war song before they eventually nail this sucker?

Whoops, that was clumsy as it's now time for......

'Mars, the Bringer of War' - Emerson has stated that he hesitated before embarking on an adaptation of this Holst piece as he felt it was 'just a bit too obvious' for a band like ELP to tackle. Regardless of his misgivings, I am glad he went ahead and, although I do share some of the reservations expressed by other commentators, do feel that this is a largely successful attempt.

As with all arrangements of music composed for scores of performers, much is going to be lost in transposing said parts for just three players. Keith has therefore learned to his cost, that he will we judged not only on what he does play, but also on what he chooses to omit and is forever trapped in a classic 'no win' situation. I believe he has to his credit, identified all the appropriate 'obbligato' parts on 'Mars' and does a damn fine job of capturing the relentless fury and incendiary aspects of Holst's composition.

My only criticism would be that the palette of sound colours he chooses are predominantly synth heavy and without recourse to the more 'organic' elements like Hammond, piano, and clavinet with which to provide contrasting relief, the 8 minutes or so of unremitting synthetic textures can be something of a strain on the listener.

This is a very robust and often underrated album and, although it was transparent that this line-up would never endure, we should instead just enjoy a record that still manages to fan some progressive flames despite Polydor's strenuous attempts to douse the fire.

EntertheLemming - Young, Gifted and Red-faced (In Their Pyjamas in the Bahamas) -

'Tanning lotion (check)'

'Silly hat (check)'

'medallion (check)'

'sunglasses (check)'

'Miss Spain (check..hey baby)'

'Compositions you will ever want to hear more than once'

'Erm...Keith? about that holiday at Compass Point man .......'

When punk declared it open season on the prog dinosaurs, they afforded ELP special status as a delicacy to be best enjoyed eaten alive after roasting over a viciously hot spit and marinaded for several years before being washed down with a bottle of finest German Schadenfreude.

In 1978 Emerson, Lake and Palmer really only had two options: they could lie low for a while (or as low as a dinosaur could be expected to lie) until the eternally cyclic tides of fashion had turned once more back in their favor or: take on the new wave at its own game and under its rules.

As commendable as their decision to opt for the latter was, there is but a very fine line between the brave and the foolhardy and given that their most potent weapon in this campaign rested entirely on the ability of one from their number being able to write short radio friendly pop hits (Greg Lake), they had about as much chance of success as that of David's infant niece against a Goliath who has already purloined the slingshot beforehand.

'All I Want Is You' - Now I know I'll be swimming against the tide here but, I rather enjoy this and, apart from the excruciating middle eight where you might be forgiven for hoping that 'flight 112' loses power in both its engines, think this is a really neat little pop song with a catchy chorus to boot. Just the shimmering guitar and Greg's voice makes for a very effective entrance.

'Love Beach' - Contains the immortal couplet:

'Where pirate moons, throw silver spoons across the waves to you'

Do potential tourists in the Bahamas run the risk of injury from being harpooned by cutlery from bum baring buccaneers? I really think we should be told.

'Taste of My Love' - If music be the food of love Greg, you really need to stop snacking between meals. As an advert for the author's Olympian stamina during some high altitude training in the boudoir, this strays perilously close to 'Spinal Tap' territory.

'The Gambler' - This ain't too shabby at all and at least it's got a bit of grunt in the shuffle boogie chorus plus a decent hook courtesy of Greg's guitar. A work of labyrinthine conceptual genius in the light of what preceded it.

'For You' - Still can't believe this made 'The Return of the Manticore' boxed set as despite some 'pretty' piano from Emerson and Greg's patented Julio Iglesias impersonation, there really isn't sufficient cause to reach for the tissue box just yet. The guitar synthesizer that Lake packed for his hols is put to good use here but as attractive a timbre as it is, he's like a kid with a new toy: you just can't seem to get the damn thing off him. Enough already!

'Canario' - The 'token' classical adaptation is well played, energetic and pretty good fun but they sound inhibited, either by the hovering specter of Ahmet Ertegun who booked the studio time, or someone has discovered the source of that funny smell at Compass Point (It's Franck Pourcel's missing cheese from 1969.)

'Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman'

'Prologue/The Education of a Gentleman' - Very understated opening with just simple piano chords and Lake's sepia tinged lamentation for the lost generation. Carl's restrained but salutary fill kicks us into a much meatier groove thereafter with drums, bass and synths supporting a melodic transition that goes in turns from noble through triumphant to defiant with increasing urgency. Emerson keeps things very simple and does not have a conventional 'solo' but contents himself with unfailingly inspired and appropriate synth brass fanfare motifs that capture perfectly the waning sunset over a once mighty British Empire. This is more like it lads.....Damn! the 'Baby Clanger Early Warning Alarm System' has just been tripped by:

'When I finally marched from Sandhurst, I'd learned to put my fellow man first'

Towards the end alas, the harmonic colors dissolve somewhat into an ambiguous 'pale blues' palette, and ELP seem either undecided or hesitant as to whether following this detour will bring the song to a satisfying conclusion. (It doesn't)

'Love at First Sight' - As far as I can tell this is built entirely from a Chopin piano etude that Emerson plays unaltered on the intro before moving into his own uncharacteristically florid and romantic extension of same joined by Lake's vocal. Being a staple of the classical repertoire the tune is hardly deserving of any flak and Greg's 'Edwardian drawing room' inflected delivery on this section sounds authentic and sincere. Unfortunately this same delightful material stubbornly refuses to 'kick ass' as ELP attempt to cajole it to do so on the second part of the track. Lake's vocal just sounds wearyingly shrill and the pathos of the first half degenerates into bathos on the second. Nice little Spanish guitar solo from Greg and supporting vibes from Carl do soften the blow a little.

'Words From the Front' - Palmer's sparing but lively groove approaches 'the Meters' but ultimately shies away from 'da funk' (It was, after all, only a tan) and the band join him in a jazzy and by ELP standards, minimalistic passage featuring some biting Fender Rhodes electric piano from Keith. There is much to enjoy here as the room afforded by the sparsity of the arrangement allows us to hear at close quarters some vintage interplay between the trio. Once again Emerson practices admirable restraint and avoids the temptation to fill up all that free air with dazzling but cluttering virtuosity, and the track benefits from this new found discipline and....Whoops! the 'Baby Clanger Early Warning Alarm System' is flashing red again:

'Yes it's great now you're a full time nurse but do be careful with the air raids getting worse' (need to increase the threshold setting I think)

The quiet section in the middle where Second Lieutenant Lake receives the news that Sister Lake has met an untimely end at the hands of those filthy Bosch hun, borders on the trite and despite a truly haunting and chilling atmosphere created by Emerson's skeletal chiming Rhodes and Palmer's chattering cymbals, nothing is going to save Lake's melodrama heavy 'gravitas' from being consigned to the 'out' tray for eternity. (and perhaps just a bit longer, it really sucks)

The thrilling and inspired ending to the song therefore takes on the mantle of a musical apology for what came before with Lake's snarling and indignant vocal mirrored sympathetically by some glorious brass 'distress signals' via Keith's synths. (Yummy, you are forgiven boys)

'Honourable Company (A March)' - Anyone in the flight path of the orbiting Planet Emerson would normally batten down the hatches and secure the ornaments if they see the word 'March' looming on the horizon as history dictates that a merciless trampling underfoot will be meted out otherwise. This is therefore rather disappointing and smacks of 'Abaddon's Bolero the sequel', as performed by the massed Pipes and Drums of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. Cute, but that is hardly an epithet worthy of ELP.

Sometimes 'Officer and a Gentleman' is brilliant, at other times ordinary and very often downright atrocious and we are forced to view this piece as a lavishly expensive demo included here on 'Love Beach' as a snapshot of a promising but underdeveloped work in progress.

Peter Sinfield was flown in to contribute to the lyrics on this record and he brought along with him his erstwhile girlfriend, the reigning Miss Spain. Some of the lyrics are in places so bad that it begs the question, did the dusky beauty queen actually write them? (or was it that hotel waiter who was studying english?)

Exiled in the late 70's from their own country for tax purposes and probably their own personal safety too, there is a temptation to read too much into ELP's tale of a triumphant and expansive empire being torn asunder by the barbarians at the gates (punk rock) for the fit to reek of anything other than Chateau de Sarsons.

EntertheLemming - Ouch! Artists hit the canvas and get counted out... -

Had this been a boxing match, I hope they would have thrown in the towel to spare the victim suffering any more potentially irreparable damage. I've felt for some time that this album got it's 'damn good hiding' as a reaction to the perceived excesses of 'Works Volume One' by a majority of ELP fans, and the alienation they felt at having it confirmed by instalments, that the trio had largely abandoned their previous electronic style.

Be that as it may, Atlantic were left to mop up the remnants of that four-sided mismatch, and provided us with this two-sided mishmash as a means to stem the flow of losses suffered by a band who were haemorrhaging huge amounts of cash during a crippling orchestral tour.

What we have here is less than 'A Saucerful of Secrets' and more of 'A Doggie Bag of Tidbits'. A decent, if rather undistinguished collection of singles, B sides, outtakes, oatcakes and fruitcakes.

'Tiger in a Spotlight' - A leftover from the 'Brain Salad Surgery' sessions and although just a bog standard boogie, a filling snack with some understated lead guitar flourishes from Lake, a scintillating barroom piano solo from Emerson and held together by a very tautly swung shuffle from Palmer. Keith makes good use here of those signature brass sounds he coaxes from the Moog to garnish an otherwise cheesey dish with some alien 'other worldly' seasoning. This studio version of 'Tiger' however, always seems muddy and unfocused to my ears, and pales in comparison to that of the superior live version on 'In Concert'

'When the Apple Blossoms Bloom etc' - Appears to be a jazz inflected jam over an infectious fusion groove laid down at the outset by bass and drums. Emerson may have utilised this track to explore some of the possibilities afforded by the prototype polyphonic Moog he was auditioning during the same 'Brain Salad Surgery' sessions. Nothing to hyper ventilate about but it does have some nifty 'bubbling' and delayed synth effects at the end. Some unscrupulous techno act is bound to hunt this down and loop same to appalling effect before long.

'Bullfrog' - Carl Palmer's association with the jazz rock trio 'Back Door' is a longstanding one dating from when he produced their 'Activate' album. Together with Ron Aspery on sax and Colin Hodgkinson on bass they embark on some incredibly accurate unison playing at very high tempo before moving into an african styled 'jungle' beat precipitating what can only be described as 'analogue sub aquatic frog farts' from which I am sure the piece was named. This is a great track and perhaps should have been included at the expense of one of the weaker offerings on Carl's portion of 'Works Volume One'

'Brain Salad Surgery' - notable if only for the trio's continuing vendetta against 'girly' sounding waltz grooves, (see 'Bitches Crystal') this one kicks seven shades of fecal matter out of 3/4 but sounds unfinished and underdeveloped after a lively jazzfusion start and a memorable tagline from a snarling Lake. The truncated feel of this song may be a result of the limited time format available on the promotional flexidisc it was recorded for. Apart from this and Queen's 'Sheer Heart Attack' there can't be many other title tracks that never made the album can there ?

'Barrelhouse Shakedown' - The B side of 'Honky Tonk Train Blues' and an Emerson original that shares with Freddie King's 'Hideaway' that rare feat of being a memorable tune over a set of standard blues changes. The clarinet solo on this is particularly good and well worth waiting for.

'Watching Over You' - This was written by Lake as a lullaby for his infant daughter, but before you reach for the sick bag, please be advised that this is a very beautiful and sincere song brilliantly sung by the chunky troubadour who in turns tackles some delightful harmonica and what sounds like an upright jazz bass with consummate ease.

'So Far to Fall' - There is no copyright law applicable to 'spirit' but this is a pure unadulterated and joyous 'lift' from the late Jimmy Smith featuring a jazzy big band arrangement and Lake's cautionary tale of a bedroom Olympian who, to put it euphemistically, suffers a career threatening injury at the hands of his female fitness coach. Like 'Bullfrog' this was deserving of a place on the 'Works Volume One' record and would have improved Greg's very disappointing side greatly.

'Maple Leaf Rag' - Joplin's famous tune gets beneath Emerson's fingers and is rewarded by being played at the correct metronome setting for a change. Admirable but rather pointless even with the comic intro.

'I Believe in Father Christmas' - a considerably stripped down version of Lake's yuletide smash and all the better for it. The overblown orchestral arrangement on the original was even by ELP standards, just too rich a dish to be healthy.

'Close But Not Touching' - I am trying very hard to resist Carl's unwitting invitation to play into the hands of his most virulent critics here but oh what the hell...never was a track more aptly named. The music here betrays its creator as being that of a percussionist due to an unwavering linear design that becomes wearying very quickly. Things do pick up in the jazz funk/big band developmental section however, but does not save this effort entirely.

'Honky-Tonk Train Blues' - Erm, the A side of 'Honky Tonk-Train Blues'

'Show Me the Way to Go Home' - I was dreading this but my fears of 'Chas and Dave round the old joanna' proved to be unfounded. Emerson staggers delightfully over the piano during the '3am after a night on the turps' intro before the vocals enter and Greg delivers this rather thread worn standard incredibly well. Thereafter we build up to a gospel choir and horn backed boogie shuffle over which Lake, to my unreserved surprise, proves he has more than a vestige of the blues in his soul after all. Great fun all round.

EntertheLemming - Now that's what I call patchy! (Volume One) -

Aside from the non-sequiter contained in the title (by this stage ELP patently did NOT Work) this has all the tell-tale signs of a patched up reconciliation, with Atlantic Records as mediators in a matrimonial battle to see who ultimately would get custody of the kids. Like most parents who undergo a messy, drawn out and acrimonious divorce, it is their creations that suffer the most, with low grades, truancy, and withdrawal into fantasy worlds very often an inevitable consequence of this trauma.

ELP's offspring, as represented by the tracks on this double album, certainly adopted many of these classic behavioural traits, but eventually came to be once again on speaking terms with their parents.

BUT IT TOOK UNTIL BLOODY SIDE FOUR !!!. (Sorry for yelling)

- Keith Emerson -

'Keith's baby grand gets expelled from Rock School'

'Piano Concerto # 1' - It took me a long, long time and countless plays to get a handle on any of this, but if you stick with it and persevere you will be rewarded by what is undoubtedly one of the most substantial compositions by a rock musician to date. What strikes the listener immediately is how conservative much of the writing is and a casual ear would be hard pressed to identify its creator as being that of Keith Emerson. With this in mind, I conducted a blindfold test on a budget (i.e by hiding the cover) on some house guests recently and they offered Copland, Gershwin, Delius ,Tchaikovsky and, somewhat unhelpfully, Glen Miller (from Stevie), as possible contenders for the composer. However, once the Concerto's author was revealed, all my guests without demur claimed that:

'Yeah ?... but you can tell though really..that it's by a rock muso I mean'

'Glen Miller ain't a rock muso'

'Shut up Stevie'

This reaction is probably one of the main hurdles that Emerson constantly faces in his quest to be taken seriously as a composer and I suspect the conciliatory and traditional aspects of the piece were a deliberate ploy to attract endorsement from within the larger classical community. The jury still appears to be out as to whether this has been successful or not, but there are a few distinguished concert pianists who have included the work in their repertoire, and it does appear from time to time on the playlists of classical music radio stations. Should Emo ever get a foot inside that forbidding door, I hope that he will employ both his ample size twelves to kick said barrier firmly down for the benefit of all who follow. We can but wait.

The first movement, although unequivocally diatonic in character, is actually based on a tone row as employed by the 2nd Viennese school of serialist composers eg Berg, Webern and Schoenberg. By all accounts the latter were not exactly hell raising party animals and their output is marked by a paucity of toe-tappers and a surfeit of very dry, academic and cerebral sterility. Emerson has pulled off quite a coup therefore, by illustrating that memorable and melodic themes can be realized by the use of a compositional technique that is traditionally seen as begetting cold or austere results.

The second movement is an unabashedly nostalgic wink in the direction of the baroque period and as much as Keith imparts his own strong personality into this brief homage, the effect is a rather self-consciously quaint daydream of Gershwin as the guest soloist at a Bach recital. As pleasant and diverting as this is, it reeks of the intermission music during the screening of the main feature.

The third movement is unrelentingly percussive and full of dramatic brio culminating in a very moving and effective main theme that lives long in the memory afterwards. Conductor John Maher bullies a very committed and aggressive performance from the London Philharmonic and Emerson's cadenza exhibits some startling and daring treatments of the motivic ideas used in the work. At times there is enacted an unflinching battle between the massed forces of orchestra and solo pianist with no quarter asked or given in a breathless and exciting 'slug fest' to see who's still standing at the end.

But you are reading this from a jazz music website, so how can we possibly rate the fish when it ain't even on the menu? (More on this later)

- Greg Lake -

'Macca junk food from Dad fails to appease the Lake brood after a 1 out of 5 report card'

'Lend Your Love to Me Tonight' - No Greg, I will not. Unless you provide a written receipt testifying that no more of this sub McCartney Hippy MOR will emanate from your esteemed orifice(s) ever again.

'C'est La Vie' - Apart from that redeeming fragment in the arrangement where the choir and orchestra brilliantly mimic the 'out of tune and out of time' refrain from the vocal, the sugar tanker that jettisoned its cargo into this Lake Inferior, makes immersion a distinctly dubious pleasure (Wet and in incredibly sickly sweet)

'Hallowed Be Thy Name' - Easily the best song on offer here with a clever and caustic lyric:

'The optimist asked for a taste of the pessimist's wine' - (Optimists need to drown their sorrows sometimes too, and a pithy metaphor for nihilism)

The arrangement is outstanding on this clumping piano driven and curmudgeonly snarl of a song that casts the habitual romantic lead in an unaccustomed role of that as the disaffected naysayer looking on at the chaos all around him caused by the stupidity of his fellow men:

'this planet of ours is a mess I bet heaven's the same'

Great use is made here of glissando strings to give the song a suitably neurotic and disquieting atmosphere. Unfailingly brilliant and a real diamond in the mire. Greg, welcome back my friend to the show that never....(Doh!)

'Nobody Loves You Like I Do' - Answers on a postcard to the author please. I must have listened to this song at least 50 times now and cannot for the life of me, recall a single note or phrase from it. Greg Lake's 4.00 answer to John Cage's '4.33'.

'Closer to Believing' - This suffers from the same malaise as Lake's orchestral version of 'I Believe in Father Christmas' in that what is a very fine song with eloquent and thought provoking lyrics, is suffocated under a huge fleecy pillow of an arrangement. Once more alas, Greg lapses into that irritating habit he is prone to of 'speaking' the tagline in some of his songs (eg 'we want....US') This latest example being capable of emptying a rhino's tummy back out through the in door.

- Carl Palmer -

'Absent fathers never get the chance to deliver six of the best to their offspring'

'The Enemy God Dances with the Black Spirits' - A very boisterous romp through Prokofiev's piece with Palmer's kit and Orchestra in perfect empathy with neither overpowering the other. Stirring.

'LA Nights' - The sort of west coast 'rawk' thumper that could perhaps have been put to better use in the advertising of sportscars. Very solid performances by all concerned with Joe Walsh wrapping his lips round some 'voicebox' guitar and his hands round some sterling 'Jack Daniels' bottleneck lead. They even drag Keith along on this 'cruise down Hollywood Boulevard in an open top Maserati' number where the latter thumps out some authentic 'rawk' piano.

'New Orleans' - Rather spartan and rudimentary funk tinged blues rock which seems to hang in the air like an unfinished chore.

'Two Part Invention in D Minor' - Carl's pedigree as a fully qualified orchestral percussionist has never been in doubt, but this smacks of an indecent haste in sourcing any old vehicle to illustrate his advanced driving skills.

'Food For Your Soul' - More than a nod (in fact a bow) in the direction of Palmer's drum heroes Krupa, Rich, Cobham et al in this exhilarating big band workout that is considerably more accomplished a composition than being merely a platform from which Carl can deliver a stunning and economically constructed solo. Almost visceral in its intensity. I'm full up.

'Tank' - ELP's rusting old warhorse is saved from the scrapyard with a jazzy lick of paint and some completely new bodywork from expert panel beater Carl on a skilfully arranged adaptation of this tune for Jazz Orchestra. Emerson revisits his famous Moog solo towards the end, and in this setting is revealed 'Tank's' jazz roots and vocabulary which certainly caused me to reappraise Keith's original creation in a whole new light.

- Emerson, Lake and Palmer -

'Atlantic Records get custody of the twins' (but they get to stay up really late)

'Fanfare for the Common Man' - Copland has already endorsed the band's version of his famous short piece and it is really not hard to see why. Apart from the sheer inflated scale of their interpretation, the trio remain pretty faithful to the composer's original intentions by ensuring that the lengthy improvisation at it's centre is framed by reproductions of the indelible main theme at either end. Emerson's new 'toy' at around this time was the triple manual Yamaha GX1 keyboard (an analogue synthesizer with elephantitis) and its very distinctive character was fundamental to the realization of this piece. Rather punningly, Keith employs that technology's replication of a very humble harmonica sound with which to embark on his brilliant improvisation. Greg and Carl have never sounded this 'tight' and buttress the track with one of the slinkiest of all wicked shuffle grooves in rock. The tonal palette becomes more and more sulphurous as the piece develops and at its peak there is an 'underpant filling' blare of resonating synthetic brass from Emerson that still startles 30 years later. (But that might just be me)

'Pirates' - If ELP had stayed together then this track may be indicative of where their future direction may have led. The fusion of rock instrumentation and orchestral resources was a long term project for Keith and he has voiced dissatisfaction with the results obtained previously on 'Ars Longa Vita Brevis' and 'Five Bridges' with the Nice.

There has always been a tendency for an electric band to overpower the orchestral players but the remedy of simply amplifying the latter has invariably led to a diminishing or loss of the rich and unique palette of tonal colours available from this source. In the controlled environment of the recording studio however, this elusive balance may be somewhat less hazardous to accomplish and on 'Pirates' ELP can be heard happily supping from the 'holy grail' that this piece embodies.

The lyrics first of all, which are something of a blindspot in prog's rear-view mirror, are superb and both Lake and the much maligned Sinfield deserve great praise for constructing what is no less than a fully plotted narrative poem which conjures up perfectly the appropriate atmosphere and accurate historical detail befitting Emerson's magnificent music. In addition, Greg does does not just 'sing' the notes with his habitual aplomb but interprets the lyrical content as though he were an actor in this most theatrical of creations ever attempted by ELP. This must be very close to the finest vocal performance of his life.

The allegorical aspects of a Pirate story are very apt. It's all here. The looting and pillaging, the riches beyond your wildest dreams, a license to act with impunity, debauchery without the consequences and roaming the world like an outlaw above and beyond the reach of the law. It's only rock'n'roll.

Therein lies the problem with this sprawling, schizophrenic and bloated train wreck of a record. For the vast legions of the band's followers, 'Works Volume 1'was simply a 'step too far' and expecting a fanbase drawn from a predominantly white rock demographic to embrace willingly some avant garde classical music was doomed to failure from the outset. We are even denied the opportunity to evaluate this document as a bona fide ELP album, as it is after all tantamount to three mini solo albums with a big wet group hug at the end.

EntertheLemming - Get Me a Ladder, The Only Way Is Down -

I tried, I really did, honestly (to find a weevil in these martian fireflowers) but have to confess that this is probably the closest you will find to the unattainable perfection we all search so futilely for.

ELP had learned the lessons from its predecessor 'Trilogy', i.e don't write anything that you can't reproduce on stage and end up touring just half an album of new material. No weak tracks here, and I can say that every one of them has been my favourite at any one given time.

Interestingly, the band was not allowed to perform 'Jerusalem' in the UK, presumably on the reactionary advice of the censor who hesitated at the idea of some dirty long-hairs butchering a national hymn. Shame really, as this version is completely respectful to the original and Lake's vocal is one of his best ever. Palmer's drumming is sublime, and manages to be incredibly busy AND utterly supportive despite the plethora of spectacular rolls throughout the track's short duration. Not sure if fatboy actually plays bass on this as the bottom end, to my ears at least, sounds as though it comes from Emerson's Minimoog bass ?.

Tocatta - Ginastera's music is something of an acquired taste and certainly not for the feint-hearted so Emerson has done a remarkable job at transforming the 3rd movement of the Argentinian's 1st piano concerto into a format that displays the band to best effect.

This is probably the closest ELP came to abandoning tonality altogether and certainly a close run thing with 'The Barbarian' as being the heaviest piece they ever recorded. For years I thought the electronic 'freakout' that comes near the end was contributed mainly by Emerson's modular moog system, but I have been advised that most of the sounds here come via Palmer's electronic percussion.

Yep, we need a soothing ballad now after that onslaught, and they deliver in style with Lake's 'Still You Turn Me On' being a contender for the best song he ever wrote. This would have been the perfect single from the album but rather pedantically, the performing rights 'bean counters' deemed that as Palmer does not play anything on this track, it could not therefore be released under the name ELP.

The intro to 'Benny the Bouncer' contains one of the first instances of a polyphonic synth being used in recording history, and on reflection, this hilarious vaudeville parody seems an odd choice on which to debut such innovative technology. The track gets some flak from ELP fans, but I love it to death and the piano solo is one of the most exhilarating sections in popular music EVER. Very funny and witty lyrics from Lake and Peter Sinfield which serve to lessen the charges against the latter of being a pretentious dilettante and ELP as humourless.

'Karn Evil 9' on its own must be deserving of prog's claim to its equivalent of pop's 'Sgt Pepper'. In it's 30 minute span it encompasses everything that visitors to this site value above all else. Fantastic playing, innovative technology that ENHANCES the music as opposed to DISGUISING same. The writing is credibly 'symphonic' in the formal classical sense as all the motivic and thematic ideas undergo the same stringent development and treatments as that afforded to musical materials in the hands of Sibelius, Mussorgsky, Bartok, Copeland et al.

Economical solos and breathtaking exploitation of dramatics and accents?. (Check)

Key changes, tempo changes and timbral changes? (Check).

There is no noodling over a riff for 10 minutes here and the music is meticulously composed right down to the last high-hat stroke to be executed faithfully within the live environment. If proof were needed, the resultant tour and triple live album 'Welcome Back My Friends' is testimony to this compositional discipline.

The lyrics in Prog are normally one of its weak points but Lake and Sinfield really make a great effort here to explore the ramifications of the dawn of a dystopian technological age where our inventions ultimately come to destroy us and our human values. Some may now consider the corrupt 'circus' analogy as somewhat clichéd but in 1973 this was thought provoking and extremely prescient, so full marks to ELP for that.

It is strange however, that the acoustic '2nd Impression' is based on themes contained in the following '3rd Impression' which has led me to believe it was composed AFTER the 3rd part of the suite?

SUMMATION: At least 30 years ahead of its time as evidenced by polyphonic synths, electronic percussion and sequencing (the classic swept filter effect that segues side one and two of the original vinyl)

From this point on, there was nowhere else for ELP to go, (electronically at least) as they had taken analogue technology to beyond the limits dreamed of in 1973. It would be another 8 years before MIDI appeared and thereafter the digital revolution of sampling.

Best album by the best band in the best genre with the best cover. (A Full House)

EntertheLemming - The Venus de Milo attempts the music of Emerson, Lake and Palmer -

'The Endless Enigma' - Of all the large scale pieces produced by ELP, this Dali inspired triumvirate is perhaps the least satisfying. The bass drum as 'heartbeat' metaphor steals a march on Floyd and there are some eerie Moog atmospheres shattered violently with 'hamster steeplechase over the piano keys' glissandos so beloved of Emerson. After some strident pedal point bass and a few (much sampled) bongo rolls, the engine finally fires up and kicks into a wicked shuffle groove over which the Hammond spits out a suitably aggressive statement of intent. Regrettably all this tantalising foreplay is in anticipation of a main sung theme that when it appears, renders the foregoing as a bit of a 'kiss on the porch tease'.

The melody is decent enough but the stilted and halting feel of the verses is nowhere near close to that of 'majestically' as instructed on the published manuscript.

The piano interlude is a very accomplished (and finger blisteringly difficult) piece of writing by Keith, which displays to full effect his commanding grasp of a variety of compositional forms, moving through a gentle and wistful opening towards a complex fugue with some mind boggling counterpoint under which Lake adds some inspired and memorable 'singing' bass.

ELP appear to be double parked in a cul de sac with an expired license at this point so adopt some clever 'call and response' dialogue between Palmer's tubular bells and Emerson's Moog as a preface to reprising the opening sung section albeit at a slower tempo. I'm not entirely convinced that the song either warrants such repetition or that the fugue section belongs at its centre.

The individual sections are certainly effective but the overarching structure is somewhat strained.

'From the Beginning' - Another generous helping of a considerably slimmer Greg Lake on this fatalistically inclined paean to the vagaries of love. He deploys 9th chords here quite unusually and buttresses his tightly wound creation with a memorable bass line and tasteful electric guitar solo. Emerson's Moog solo on the outro is an unbridled joy.

'The Sheriff' - Palmer's commitment of the drummer's cardinal sin (banging your sticks together by mistake) is captured for posterity on the intro before we gallop off into the sunset on a very enjoyable and light hearted cowboy pastiche featuring some clippety-clop organ. The instrumental section is rather unusual in contrast to what frames it, by being almost akin to jazz rock in places. The final verse is ended by a hilarious gunshot ricochet and a brilliant piece of saloon bar piano from Emerson.

Who says ELP are miserable bastards?

'Hoedown' - Became something of a live staple for many years to come and Copland's jaunty rodeo music is for the most part preserved in Emerson's adaptation save the classic whooping synthesizer glides that introduce the piece. You can have great fun trying to identify all the north american folk tunes he manages to quote from. (or don't and take up knitting instead, the choice is yours)

'Trilogy' - A rare instance in ELP of a large scale work being seeded from just a single theme as stated by the unadorned Moog 'violin' on the intro. Thereafter we move into a very beautiful and haunting piano setting of this motif sung dreamily by Lake to what is presumably a jilted lover ? Emerson, obviously heedless to the risks of a dotage crippled by arthritis, regales us with yet more knuckle busting flourishes at the piano before the tempo changes to 5/4 for a bombastic transposition of the phrase to the Moog. The lead sound used is definitively 'heroic' and would have brought a flush of pleasure to even Dr Robert I am sure.

Next up, a slightly 'swung' 6/4 groove which betrays a jazzier and more chromatic feel than what went before. I can't help but detect the influence of Miles Davis on this section, particularly the extended solo passage that centres around a B7#9 chord. The band really kick some proverbial backside here with Palmer laying down one of the 'funkiest' beats in his locker and Lake anchoring this maelstrom with an infectious ostinato. Numerous leads are layered and overdubbed as the improvisation develops before culminating in the squealing protestations of the synths subject to this unbridled fury. (Blimey Guv'nor)

To round things off there is another sung section featuring Lake with what sounds like his tongue firmly in the region of his cheek:

- You'll love again I don't know when but if you do I know that you'll be happy in the end -

The original melody does seem rather 'forced' in this rhythmic setting and I suspect that Greg's delivery betrays as much. ELP close the track with an ironic blues tagline that was even considered passée in the bronze age, but our three heroes may possibly have reversed themselves momentarily into that same cul de sac as on 'Enigma'

The many transitions that this track goes through are very skilfully and seamlessly negotiated and 'Trilogy' certainly represents one of ELP's finest recorded moments.

'Living Sin' - A relatively simple heavy rocker but Emerson's inspired synth brass work and a striking and sinister 'baritone' vocal from Lake transcends the meagre harmonic material on offer. The main riff is deceptively simple but the band exploit its quasi 'eastern' qualities to achieve an exotic feel. Perhaps the best song that Deep Purple never wrote.

Abaddon's Bolero' - If one track on this record can be a microcosm of the problems 'Trilogy' presented for ELP then it must be this one.

Yes, it's a thrilling and innovative arrangement of a climactic composition that reaches a magnificent 'orgasmic' ending. (Not 'af you saucy devil)

No, it cannot possibly be replicated on stage armed with but the mere two that Keith has.

Much of the 'Trilogy' material suffered the same fate as 'Bolero' and as far as I am aware, the title track was seldom performed live in concert. It must have been frustrating for a musician as accomplished and ambitious as Keith Emerson to realize, that as unlimited a playground as the studio was, he had to leave behind many of his favourite toys when stepping out in front of an audience.

EntertheLemming - Tarka the metallic otter (sent for an early bath) 0 - A very badly drawn mythical beast 1 -

'Tarkus' - The title 'suite' has now quite rightly entered into history as a hitherto unprecedented measure of how we now appraise those occupied in the creation of progressive rock music of any conceivable style, and is perhaps this records greatest and enduring legacy. It served almost as a 'blueprint' for much of the Italian symphonic prog movement and has been a source of inspiration for musicians and composers ever since.

I do think it significant that Emerson's compositional style has been an acknowledged influence on other instrumentalists apart from just keyboard players, in contrast to Rick Wakeman, Patrick Moraz, Tony Banks, Dave Greenslade & Rod Argent etc.

There are palpable traces of Bartok, Ginastera and perhaps Zappa throughout Emerson's creation and he chose wisely in allowing for the danger of the whole 20 minutes alienating his audience, to contrast the 'Eruption - Iconoclast - Manticore - Aquatarkus' instrumental sections with some more conventional song based material utilising Greg Lake's vocals. This technique served ELP well throughout their career and the overwhelming success achieved by 'Tarkus' simply endorsed its repeated use on subsequent albums.

The material that comprises the remainder of the album is often either overlooked or dismissed as inferior to the 'Tarkus' composition, but I feel that this is unduly harsh and think it long overdue for reappraisal.

'Jeremy Bender' - Where Floyd Cramer meets a defrocked cross dresser and after a boisterous night on the turps, duet on this whimsical number at 3am before being led away to the cells in preparation for the trial. Often dismissed as ' filler' but good fun and Emerson's piano is always worth some of your time.

'Bitches Crystal' - The waltz rhythm's stubborn refusal to 'kick ass' has been a constant source of frustration to many a rock muso, and it took Palmer and his two buddies to teach them how to make this normally 'effete' pulse decimate hindquarters. All manner of stylistic bases are covered from jazz piano, blues rock, classical and even that tinkling 'ice cream van' music alluded to in the title. I also love the way ELP achieve a satisfying blend of the acoustic instruments and the Moog. Judging by some of their contemporaries efforts at around the same time, this is not as easy as they make it sound here.

'The Only Way' - The lengthy Bach quote is used I suspect, not for any musical purpose but to set up the right 'pious' atmosphere for Greg Lake to subvert with his attack on religious hypocrisy and self serving belief systems. It's not very often that ELP ever strayed anywhere near political, religious or social controversy as they do here, and whether they got their fingers burned or not, I do wish they had been as forthright with their views as they are on this very moving atheist rallying call. Compared to Greg's usual preoccupation with mythical beasts, love affairs that dwarf entire solar systems and fantasy literature, this is 'gritty realism' by comparison.

'Infinite Space' - A criminally ignored track in their repertoire, probably because of its pungent Bartok harmonies and incessant bludgeoning 7/4 meter. I love this unreservedly for its sheer immovable force and the way Emerson harnesses some startling (Hungarian?) modes and scales in the creation of what seems at the outset, an extremely unlikely melodic denouement.

'A Time and a Place' - Starts off rather unpromisingly as a simple syncopated hard rocker but improves significantly once we reach the solo and the glorious ending. The former contains what must be the most visceral and 'bowel emptying' organ sound since records began while the latter is a classically hued feast of Moog synth that you just wish would never end. Stunning. The cake ain't too hot but Emerson's icing makes up for it.

'Are You Ready Eddy? - If only the answer had been 'No'...... we would at least have been spared this sub Pythonesque 'dicking about' that has become the ultimate ELP stocking filler. File under 'hammy' AND 'cheesy'

If memory serves me correctly, I think this was the unholy trinity's sole Number One album in the UK, and on the evidence of what is presented here, seems slightly ironic that such widespread endorsement was granted to what is perhaps the weakest of ELP's first five. That it not to say it was undeserving of such sales figures, but of all their early 70's records this is the one that has aged the least gracefully.

I would guess that the reasons are mainly down to the use of some rather dated studio techniques and effects which although de rigeur for the time, stamp '1971' indelibly onto the production to its detriment. Lake's multi-tracked harmony vocals and Palmer's phased drum kit rolls are two such instances, together with some rather kitsch and self-parodying 'freakout' rock guitar. From what little documented evidence I can gather, there was apparently considerable pressure brought to bear on the band by their record company to get the album out and into the shops as quickly as possible to appease fan demand, so this may have engendered some production 'short cuts' being used.

However, what has always been abundantly clear, is that we are not going to pull down the Taj Mahal just because it does not conform with our idea of modern architecture.

PS 'Tarkus' really IS named after Tarka the Otter (check Emo's autobiography if you don't believe me)

EntertheLemming - Exclusive: Doves Cause Baldness? -

It should be self evident that reviews of such pivotal progressive rock albums as this one one must be tempered by the heights/depths a band subsequently reached after it's release. Had I heard this for the 1st time in 1970, I would have been quite simply 'blown away' as they say, as there had been nothing quite like it hitherto.

Preamble over, on with the music.

'The Barbarian' - although rather cheekily not credited to Bartok on the initial pressings, this remains perhaps my favourite ELP track ever. Venomous and sinewy Lake bass, snarling and attacking Hammond plus a kit assault from Palmer that stills leaves me speechless. The piano/brushes interlude in the middle comes as a welcome respite from the unremitting carnage that comes before and after. When the track ends, you are changed forever....

'Take a Pebble' - Emerson's musical designs dwarf what is at best, a pleasant enough but rather insubstantial Lake ballad which completely outstays it's welcome. The piano playing is as ever, masterful, but given the paucity of melodic material available here with which to improvise on, Emerson runs out of ideas well before half way. The rudimentary guitar solo in the middle, replete with the atmospheric cave sounds, is mixed far too low and served only to become an area on the original vinyl record that proliferated scratches in glorious stereo.

'Knife Edge' - Notwithstanding another little copyright 'oversight' re the disgruntled Janacek estate, this is a belter of the first order with a fantastic organ solo that still exhilarates 37 years on. Great singing from Mr Greg but collaborating with a roadie is going to give you terrible lyrics (Fraser) The band always had a terrific knack for adapting just the right classical piece to suit their own musical designs and Bach's Italian Concerto quoted here is no exception. Like most people in 1970 I too thought my record player had melted during the 'slow down' section at the end.

'Three Fates' - Wonderful playing from Emerson throughout his 'solo' contribution after a rather boggy and sludgy intro on the pipe organ (which became de riguer) for all his subsequent imitators/wannabees thereafter. Can't help but feeling that the whole is less than the sum of it's parts on this one. Lots of great ideas follow on from each other sequentially but the overall architecture creaks a bit.

'Tank' - Probably the closest ELP got to playing jazz rock in their careers. Brilliant harpsichord and clavinet from Emerson, and fat boy turns in a tour de force on bass. Being the early 70's, this sprawling epic could not be complete without recourse to a lengthy drum solo. I have heard and been entertained by many of Carl's solos over the years but must say that this is the worst one he ever committed to tape. When the hopelessly dated phased drumming enters, it's such a relief to hear the swung ending section after the tedium that preceded it. Emerson's ominous Moog makes it's first appearance here and at the time, was an alien timbre that we were all completely bowled over by. Ground breaking stuff indeed.

'Lucky Man' - the band's only stateside hit probably gave the yanks the impression that ELP was the UK's answer to CSNY. Lake's pretty but inconsequential acoustic song certainly milks undeserving resources from Emerson and Palmer which would have been better utilised on more group material. Similarly with 'Take a Pebble' the arrangement is far superior to the underlying musical ideas. Much has been written about Emo's famous outro moog solo, so I won't labour the point, but according to his autobiography he states

- 'I thought it was shit, I still do...' -

Personally, I love it and it seduced me thereafter into a lifelong love affair with the synthesizer and prog rock in general.

To sum up:

The problems of satisfying such a disparate trio as ELP were manifest as early as this 1970 album with the inclusion of 'solo' tracks to appease their creators. Coming full circle at the demise of their career on the 1977 'Works' album, the symmetry is complete, with each member getting a side each of a double album.

ELP made progressive rock possible with both their viability in terms of sales wedded to their brilliant musicianship. The history of popular music dictates that up till that point, the two were considered mutually exclusive.

EntertheLemming - Bladder Control in North London -

According to Mrs L, the last time I was this excited was prior to my first and only visit to Highbury to see Arsenal play against West Ham circa 1988. By way of contrast to waiting for this lost prog gem to finally land in my hot furry lap however, I didn't on this occasion wet the bed. Much to my delight and surprise, (apart from the dry mattress) none of the performances contained herein are duplicated on any other previous releases, which confirms the world's leading Nice expert Martyn Hanson's claim that they were recorded at an earlier concert than the one excerpts appeared from on both 'the Nice' and 'Elegy'

The trio are captured in (mostly) pristine detail at the peak of their powers on a set-list that finally does justice to the breadth of stylistic bases this incredibly versatile band could negotiate without ever reaching for the RETURN key.

Practically the entire 'Ars Longa Vita Brevis' suite is included, which I have never heard in the live environment before, plus 'Little Arabella', a 'band only' version of 'Five Bridges' and holy guacamole!, even the rollicking blues of 'War and Peace' from the début is dusted down for that final push over the top of the trenches.

It is frustrating that Davison and Jackson hardly merit a breath as one of the great rhythm sections in prog, but even a casual listen to this or the magnificent 'Refugee' album with Patrick Moraz provides ample evidence that they could more than cut it when unharnessed from the Emerson bandwagon. Blinky's avowed inspiration came from jazz and his playing betrays that lineage even on straight eighth note 'rawk' patterns as he brings a subtle but still perceptible swing to such habitually rigid fare. Brian played with an interactive feel and intuition for the nuances of musical dynamics that for all his technical spin doctoring pyrotechnics, Carl Palmer could never muster.

Lee Jackson's abilities are somewhat more modest in scope, but even within his fairly narrow orbit, his personality, humility and cackling bonhomie shine like a beacon. He's one of the very few singers whose inaccuracies of pitch are just so damn loveable. You hire Lee for your band and no-one is ever gonna disappear up their exit holes on the solos. (The citizens of Newcastle deliver their nest eggs hard boiled but sunny side up)

Keith would have been just 25 years old when this gig was recorded and we are witness to a musician very firmly in that elusive 'zone' as described by the greatest athletes in their respective fields. In terms of designing a template that could be subsequently overlaid onto all 'Prog' as a measure of its credentials thereafter, you have the first proof read draft in your hands readers. Every performance of a Nice number was a completely unique critter and so finely honed were Keith's improvising skills at this point, I suspect he had very little firm idea what he would play on the solo sections on any given date. (So if you think you've heard all these tracks before, think again)

'Rondo, Intermezzo from Karelia Suite, America' and 'War and Peace' are all quite faithful to existing versions already available, so I'll dispense with describing same (but do pay heed to my caveat that Keith's solos on the foregoing certainly make them new and worthy additions to any Nice fan's collection)

Little Arabella - This withering put-down of yer archetypal 60's flower child is delivered with a finger snapping jazz wink that conjures up a paler Jimmy Smith vamping beneath Jackson's mordant teasing. Keith always had stubborn fantasies of being a vocalist and he sings the bridge section here decently enough but like I mentioned before, just getting the notes right emotes precisely squat in my neck of the woods. The central improvised section is much harder edged than the studio version and what was playful pastiche gradually mutates into urgent jazz fuelled rock as Emerson racks the intensity higher and higher on a sulphurous extemporisation.

She Belongs to Me - This is a good example of one of the soloing techniques Emerson has exploited to enduring effect over the years. In an interview from the early 80's he described a ploy of attempting to get from one famous musical quotation to the next as a guiding route for his improvisations (and the more unrelated the landmarks were, the better) In this case he treads an unlikely musical pathway from The Big Country via some Bach and finally what can only be described as spy music written by Bartok after some suspicious mushrooms appeared in the latter's goulash. Who needs synths when you have electrifying spring reverb explosions or can pluck the innards of the organ to recreate the timbre of baritone Brontosaurus dyspepsia that dominates the ghostly atonal ambient section ?. Apart from the sung portions of this Dylan song the remainder was entirely improvised every night and vouches for Emerson's faith in the abilities of his colleagues to guess correctly where on earth (or beyond) the number would end up.

Country Pie - I ain't knocking Dylan here but as on 'She Belongs to Me', this is what 'progressive' really means (notwithstanding the latter's textual complexity) i.e. a rather gauche folk nursery rhyme is melded seamlessly to one of Bach's Brandenburgers over a visceral and elastic rock groove with the result being a 'Prog on a Bun Triple Whopper' without a trace of excess fat or cheese to be seen anywhere.

Five Bridges - Shorn of the introductory orchestral 'Fantasia' the opening Piano sounds like it was played from the dressing room under a sheet of tarpaulin so muddy and boggy are its strains. These audible piano artefacts suggest there was a 'Houston we have a problem' scenario in their FOH midst, hence it's exclusion from most of this album. 'Chorale' is one of the most beautiful pieces Keith ever penned and like much of this band's output illustrates a grudging respect for the past wedded to a daring irreverence for dragging the former by the 'ruff' of its neck into alien contemporary apparel. Keith plays the high level fugue a la Jacques Loussier but much of the fiendishly demanding counterpoint requiring of complete independence between hands is gobbled up by the aforementioned voracious ivory gremlins alas. The rousing finale does not have the delightful jazzy brass of the original but Emerson more than makes up for this omission with a coruscating organ solo to end a very energetic and endearing adaptation of this orchestral suite.

Hang on to a Dream - played entirely on organ, Emerson dials up a lovely liturgical tone for the verses but the song suffers when denuded of the exquisite waltzing piano of the original.

Ars Longa Vita Brevis - A tricky piece to do justice to considering that it was built from departed guitarist O'List's searing eastern inflected riff. However they make a very high spirited attempt and Keith accentuates the oriental flavour of the main theme on the organ by adding some extra spicy dissonance. Many of you will probably be bored rigid by Davison's drum solo but as I've confessed previously, I like drum solos (so kill me, I probably forfeit consciousness for such perverse crimes)

Due to the unfortunate piano hitches that rendered the beastie inoperable plus the fact that over 90 minutes of barbecued Hammond organ might be a dish too rich for even a Nice fanboy like me, I've shaved a star off in recognition of these shortcomings. Apart from that it's a live belter of the first order that no-one should be without if you want to trace the lineage of a genre we all profess to love dearly.

Although Jimi Hendrix, King Crimson and the Nice seem like strange bedfellows, they were in my estimation kindred spirits. All three understood that music was an indivisible 'whole' and that attempts to draw artificial boundaries between its league of nations was the antithesis of the trailblazing pioneering ethos. Once the nascent marketplace realised the leverage to be gained by a demarcation process kicking in, it foisted an engineered 'brand patriotism' on its consumers which would lead to the 'phony' wars that are still being waged from within the forums of music websites the world over.

'Who won the game then?'

(It turned out a boring nil -nil draw)

EntertheLemming - Glass Jaw in Glasgow Foils Comeback Bout -

Scene One - the offices of Sanctuary Records late 2003

CEO: 'Right boys, how about we release a live album from the last tour?'

LEE JACKSON: 'Right on bonny lad!'

BRIAN DAVISON: 'Great idea! make it a double with us and Keith's band as well'

KEITH EMERSON:(looking round at his bandmates) 'Ok, what show should we use?'

LEE JACKSON: 'Well, ya know bonny lads, it takes a few performances for everyone to get the numbers 'played in' ya know, so one of the later gigs right, when we was loosened up proper an' all?'

BRIAN DAVISON: 'Fab and groovy! Why not throw in that interview we did with Chris Welch too?'

KEITH EMERSON: 'Yeah nice one Blinky, there were a few FOH mixing issues early on but these were fixed on subsequent shows, and I had gotten a few 'baby clangers' out of my fingers by then...'

BRIAN DAVISON: 'Right on!, I was shitting bricks on the first one cos I hadn't played a rock gig for years, and we was all a but stiff on that opening night man!'

CEO:'Thank you gentlemen, we are all agreed then? We will use the very first show recorded in Glasgow.'

LEE JACKSON: 'Am I facing the right way here?'

And so it came to pass that the reformed Nice plus Emerson's hand-picked touring band were captured in all their nerve wracked glory on the opening gig of a British tour.

God knows why Sanctuary went ahead and decided to release this performance to the waiting world, as it suffers from some glaring deficiencies that would have been ironed out further along the scheduled itinerary.

Emerson's playing is particularly sloppy on great portions of this, with rushed timing, late entries and 'baby clangers' spoiling the performances. The organ, piano and synth sounds are all spot on, but he must now, looking back, have wished his record company had let the band get warmed up properly before going anywhere near the 'record' button.

Even under perfect conditions, Jackson's vocals would be described as 'gritty' but are reduced here on 'Hang on to a Dream' to something approaching 'sandpaper on the soul' and despite Lee's passionate and sincere delivery of this great song, Hardin's lyrics sound like they are delivered via the digestive tract of a small furry mammal.

The riff to Van Halen's 'Jump' is shoehorned into 'She Belongs to Me' and not surprisingly, sticks out like a sore thumb in a Simpsons episode.

Why?

Similarly, there is a completely inappropriate synth dance loop triggered during the (shambolic) intro to 'Karelia Suite' where to add insult to injury, Keith misses his entry cue entirely.

Why?

The inclusion of 'The Cry of Eugene' is a real treasure, as it has always been one of my favourite tracks from the 1st album, and receives a full and sympathetic arrangement befitting the original. Dave Kilmister really shines here, and he displays a real insight and empathy with what is required to replicate the original spirit of the Nice for a modern audience.

This guitarist appears to be one of the very few (along with Marc Bonilla) that Emerson deems worthy of sharing time with. During the course of the concert, Kilmister turns his hand to blues, jazz, rock and classical with seamless ease and it is no wonder that Roger Waters plucked him for his touring band from Emerson recently.

'Little Arabella' also gets a new lick of paint here and the band sound like they are having loads of fun on this enduring pastiche of tongue in cheek jazz. The organ sound here is spine tinglingly good and despite not replicating the intentionally cheesy 'Errol Garner' strains of the original, showcases one of Emo's better contributions.

Rather incongruous 'flanging' effect is applied on the vocal though....

'America' has long outstayed its welcome in the Nice/ELP repertoire but to their credit, they have at least attempted to veer away from a previously predictable live formula with the inclusion of the original pipe organ intro and an extended jazzy piano middle section.

Like so much of this record, the music is really good once they get going, (and the 'butterflies in the tummy' are safely ensnared in the net.)

There are also some mix related anomalies encountered, with Kilmister's inspired 'Sabre Dance' being practically inaudible and various other instances when instruments either disappear entirely in 'mid lick' or blare out at inopportune moments when refinement is what is desired etc

As I noted in my review of 'Five Bridges' the song 'Country Pie' still remains a firm fave in my Nice pantheon of greats and Lee, Blinky and Keith still exude plenty of excitement and fire more than 30 years hence.

(At sufficient volume you can't hear creaking bones)

It should be noted that these concerts started off as a promotional exercise for Emerson's solo piano album 'Emerson plays Emerson' and the inclusion of Davison and Jackson was Keith's solution to the problem of replicating the 'bass and drums' pieces on that particular record.

From that point on, the entourage just seemed to snowball to include his young hand picked charges now called 'the Keith Emerson band'

Williams and Riley are both very accomplished young players who have studied their chosen discipline at various educational establishments in the UK. However, despite their flawless credentials and having 'ticked all the right boxes' strike me as being 'proggers by numbers' i.e. they can play the notes perfectly as they appear in front of them, but cannot even begin to guess 'how' they got there.

The band rendition of 'Tarkus' is very well played but does not veer much from the album version and just like 'America' I personally could live without ever hearing another version of this creaking classic again. Full marks for the energy and enthusiasm though, on what is, even 30 years on, a fiendishly difficult piece to play.

The remaining tracks are all enjoyable, but certainly don't constitute anything you have heard before played any better.

'Hoedown' gets dusted down again and like a pensioner after one facelift too many is starting to resemble the 'Burt Reynolds' of classical adaptations.

'Fanfare for the Common Man' - see 'Burt Reynolds'

'Honky Tonk' - Featuring 'Dick Emery' on harmonica. Keith, you are a bona fide rock star, you know damn fine from backstage debauches what a 'mouth organ' should be used for.

'Blade of Grass/A Cajun Ally' - beautifully played solo piano performances from Keith showcasing his aforementioned piano album. Even if you have the studio versions these are worth hearing as Emo live always provides a few delightful twists and turns to his original conceptions.

The interview with music journalist Chris Welch is good fun and Emerson, Jackson and Davison all sound relaxed and in high spirits but once you have heard this once it is unlikely you will wish to repeat the experience.

I think if you are wanting to 'get into' the Nice for the first time this is not the best place to start.

You would be better getting hold of one of the plethora of compilations that are around containing their most accessible work as a starting point.

I was so looking forward to this album and the fact that the venue was Glasgow (my home town) just added to the anticipation.

Therefore this is a great disappointment, not an unequivocal turkey to be sure, but I can only repeat my wish that the 'great and the good' at Sanctuary visit a gun shop in their local mall and do the decent thing.

Ars Longa Vita Brevis

RIP Brian Davison

EntertheLemming - Burning Bridges -

For me this album represents a pivotal moment in the rise of Keith Emerson as a serious composer and the inevitable demise of the Nice as a band.

This is perfectly exemplified by the (mostly) successful and highly ambitious suite that comprises the whole of side one. The 'rockier' and shorter band-only material that make up the remainder illustrate some of the technical limitations of his buddies that Emerson was labouring under at that time.

Given the keyboard player's vaunted ambition, it was very unlikely that either Jackson or Davison would have the requisite 'chops' to cope with the subsequent ELP adventure.

'The Five Bridges Suite' probably succeeds because Emerson correctly identified the group and orchestra as mutually antagonistic, and consequently used this to his advantage i.e orchestra and group play the sections sequentially and seldom in unison. Conductor Josef Eger manages to coax a spirited performance from the London Sinfonia and Emerson's music runs adroitly the whole gamut of rock, blues, jazz and classical. There is also, rest assured, his usual helping of Hammond inflicted torture with which to infuriate the 'penguins' from behind their music stands and at one deafening point in the proceedings we can only surmise that Keith had declared a 'fatwa' on stubborn earwax.

The piano fugue is particularly good and the same harmonic material is used to exquisite effect on a 'chorale' section featuring a heart-felt vocal from Lee Jackson about his formative years in Newcastle. The lyrics are often bitter-sweet and we cannot help but conclude that Jackson's relationship with his home-town is a complex affair:

'It's no good shouting about dirty air when there's nothing much else to breathe, it's no good shouting from 9 to 5 if don't have the guts to leave'

Two classical adaptations open up side two (remember vinyl?) being Sibelius 'Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite', which is so much better than the insipid studio version, and a rather perfunctory sprint through Tchaikovsky's 'Pathetique'. There is a tendency for the band and Orchestra to cancel each other out during the unison sections here but otherwise they are enjoyable and ground breaking attempts to merge what was hitherto considered an area where 'never the twain shall meet' .

'Country Pie/Brandenburger' is one of my all time favourite Nice tracks which illustrates that uncanny knack Emerson has for marrying disparate elements that in isolation, are less than mouth-watering. Here he welds an inconsequential little Dylan tune to Bach's stately 6th Brandenburger and the whole is way, way more than the sum of its parts. Jackson's rather limited range is not compromised by this tune and the bass and drum interplay, together with Emerson's incendiary organ performance is unrivalled in the band's output.

The last track 'One of Those People' is often dismissed as throwaway filler, but I think it vastly underrated and brings the (original) album to a very satisfying and upbeat conclusion. We also meet here, and not for the last time, Emerson's enduring wish to have his voice electronically manipulated to resemble a Klingon livestock auctioneer. (see the 'computer/robot' voice from 'Brain Salad Surgery')

The resistance Emerson (and his buddy Jon Lord) met when trying to merge rock and classical was reactionary in the extreme, and we cannot help but conclude with some irony, that those denizens of the 'rawk' world who pay lip service to libertarianism, experimentation and anti-establishment values can be, without fear of contradiction, some of the most conservative people on the planet.

EntertheLemming - Free to a good and loving home, please adopt these abandoned Spacehoppers in the Sahara -

Although admittedly a posthumous release, I was very surprised at the rather dismissive tenor of most of the reviews of this album to date. Hopefully this record will be reappraised soon as being a release worthy of anyone's consideration as I feel it does enhance an already rich legacy left behind by this very fine and innovative band. (So what if Charisma wanted to ride the slipstream of the lucrative ELP juggernaut?)

'Hang On To a Dream' - I may be wrong, but I think the two live cuts featured on 'Elegy' were from the same Fillmore East concert recorded by the Nice for their self titled 3rd album? Here we get Tim Hardin's melancholic waltz tune expanded and inflated beyond anything the original composer would have ever dreamed of (or perhaps feared) The trio set forth on a very arresting and lengthy jazz jam at it's centre that contains some wonderful piano from Keith and tasteful support from Lee and Brian on bass and percussion respectively. We also meet here the technique of plucking the piano strings with a guitar plectrum from inside the soundboard which Emerson later exploited on 'Take a Pebble' with ELP. In the live environment the effect is that of a rather splendid psychedelic 'cimbalom/zither' which provides some startling contrast to the eloquent piano jazz so effortlessly realized beneath Keith's nimble digits. He also employs some Celeste with which to further broaden the tonal palette of textures and all things considered, this is perhaps one of my favourite acoustic dominated pieces by Emo ever.

'My Back Pages' - By all accounts Jackson was a certifiable Dylan 'nut' and persuaded Emerson to cover some of Mr Zimmerman's tunes during their brief but glorious career together. Other examples would include the sublime adaptations of 'Country Pie' and 'She Belongs to Me' of which only live renditions are available unfortunately. Given the meager harmonic materials afforded by Dylan's music, Keith must have approached these entreaties with some skepticism but he was able to embellish very simple chord progressions with a dizzying array of modulations and stylistic departures that surmounted the modest scope of the originals. The piano introduction is particularly inventive and showcases that Keith could get from A to Z by every conceivable route in the musical roadmap. Lee's vocal on this tune is one of his most assured, and he obviously relished the relative simplicity and modest range that the melody encompassed, in comparison to many of the more arduous vocal tasks Emerson had set him previously. I am normally a fan of Dylan's lyrics but on this particular song 'Big Nose' is guilty of burying same in a trough of knowingly cryptic and impenetrable conceit that communicates precisely zilch:

'Crimson flames tied through my ears Rollin' high and mighty traps Pounced with fire on flaming roads Using ideas as my maps We'll meet on edges, soon, said I, Proud 'neath heated brow'

The transition from piano to organ on the heavier improvisational section of the tune is enervating and the interplay between the three is 'Goosebumps R Us' thrilling as they sprint into the distance leaving Dylan's tune quite appropriately as a tiny speck on the distant horizon. There follows a very haunting passage of achingly poignant sustained organ chords before the Nice reprise the opening verse section of the song to a very inventive and satisfying bluesy tag-line ending:

' Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now.'

A very underrated adaptation of a very overrated song which probably is deserving of a compositional credit in it's own right. This track was originally going to be included on the 'Five Bridges' album but was left off at the last minute.

'Third Movement, Pathetique' - As good as the orchestral version of this Tchaikovsky piece on 'Five Bridges' is, I actually prefer this trio only rendition, as it illustrates the massive leap in skills the Nice had developed in tackling classical works compared to their first rather tentative steps as heard on 'Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite' on the 2nd album. Towards the end Brian Davison punctuates the underlying groove with a delicious ride bell cymbal pattern that still sends a shiver of delight down my spine every time. Blinky was a very fine player and his performance on this track is all the evidence anyone should ever need as to his credentials of being one of the greatest jazz influenced rock drummers on a par with the more widely celebrated Ginger Baker et al.

'America' - Perhaps the 'mother' of all live versions of this Nice signature tune which contains some Hammond organ playing against which all others must surely shrink in yielding supplication. There is a ferocity and primal energy throughout this that will have the listener feeling quite drained at the conclusion. As a vehicle for improvisation, I suspect that Keith was attracted to the possibilities afforded by the hybrid 6/8 and 3/4 meter more than the melody itself and the band nail this relentless groove for all its worth during this incendiary performance. Employees of the Hammond Organ Co really should be escorted from the room before this starts as their flagship product is subject to the sort of sadistic torture that no diligent craftsman should ever witness. Emerson impales the creature, strips it of it's teeth and treats the umbilical innards as a sort of visceral banjo in places. At one comical moment Keith's perverse sense of humour is evidenced by his coaxing the vocabulary of 'Baby Clanger' from the kiddies TV show from the organ (which must be where I got the expression from in some my reviews?)

Those rather wince inducing comparisons at around this time of Emerson being the 'Hendrix of the organ' do have some foundation here but perhaps 'Hammond Taxidermist' may have been a more fitting analogy.

Don't let this guy anywhere near ANY of your furniture.

EntertheLemming - As Nice As Mother Makes It -

After two very robust but patchy albums the Nice adopted a slightly different approach to their third by exploiting a half live/half studio hybrid. They felt that this (on the advice of their new manger Tony Stratton Smith) would showcase the 'best of both worlds' as the studio precedents were not felt to do justice to their live performances.

'Azrael Revisited' - This was one of the first songs that Emerson and Jackson collaborated on and interestingly, their exists an early version with Davy O'List playing the infectious riff on guitar which is well worth tracking down. This memorable two bar phrase is in 5/4 time but such is it's ingenuity you really don't notice the odd meter at all. Although the riff is shorn of some of its visceral power without the guitar, Keith's detuned honky tonk piano sound gives it a suitably haunted and 'aged' feel which fits the atmosphere on this much longer version perfectly. Lee Jackson is in fine irreverent form on an unusual verse melody which he delivers with a cackling and leering gusto. Emerson quotes quite liberally from Rachmaninov's prelude in C# minor on this track and it is worth pointing out that the composer wrote this piano piece after reading one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories about an unfortunate soul who is buried alive. (Truly a bedtime story suitable for insomniacs) The backing vocals become increasingly anguished and ragged as the song nears its conclusion after an extended and quite brilliant piano solo from Keith driven along by some Latin percussion from Brian Davison, before ending with a reverberant funeral motif on piano cut unnervingly short by a loud snare crack from the drummer (the banging down of the coffin lid?).

'Hang On To a Dream' - Tim Hardin's brief and beautiful song about a love lost is expanded considerably by the Nice with the addition of a choir and a jazzy piano interlude in the middle. This is a very stately and touching waltz that features one of Jackson's most heartfelt and sincere vocals. Lee's singing abilities certainly polarize opinion about the group but on particular material like this, his shortcomings lend a vulnerability and emotion to the music that the finest technical singers often cannot even approach.

'Diary of an Empty Day' - Based almost entirely on Lalo's Symphony Espagnole, this is one of the bands finest moments. Keith switches to his signature organ for the first time on this track and conjures a performance on a par with any of his greatest. The whole thing gallops along with an irresistible verve and Lee even adds some tongue in cheek Spanish guitar strummed chords towards the end. If there is a definitive lyric about being unable to write a lyric then this must be it. Jackson rather cleverly solves his writer's block by singing solely about how he cannot 'find words for this music' Taken to its logical extremes he posits what this approach might ultimately enable him to accomplish:

- I could write a book this way -

'For Example' - I am always struck by this track as being a defiant statement by the Nice about their insistence that all styles and forms of music should belong together and that separation is an evil engineered by marketing gurus/snobs/critics ? Here we run through a slideshow of blues, rock, jazz, baroque, Gregorian chant and Hendrix all seamlessly integrated to the point where you cannot even begin to see the join. The title further gives me the impression that such were Emerson's abilities at the time he could have chosen another 6 differing musical flavors and blended same to equal effect. Rather cheekily they get the horn players employed to inject quotations from 'Norwegian Wood' and 'America.' The Nice cover in 9 minutes what other bands take 9 years to even dream about.

'Rondo 69' - The second half of the album is taken up by performances recorded at the famous Fillmore East venue in the USA and as the band have testified on numerous occasions over the years, it is perhaps only in the live environment that we get even a hint of the breadth and scope that this remarkable trio could exhibit. Both Lee Jackson and the late Brian Davison have stated that they felt the studio recordings by the Nice only 'scratched the surface' of the possibilities afforded by the band. The playing and energy are electrifying and the faithful recording captures all the subtle detail and power on display. Tempos were considerably quicker live than that of the studio versions (which caused Davison to protest to the keyboard player at around this time) and Emerson prefaces the Brubeck tune with a lengthy quote from one of Bach's Italian concertos.

'She Belongs to Me' - Where a very flaccid tune from Dylan is supercharged with an injection of Nice Viagra to bring it up to the level of a 'one take' porn star. (Check out the original, yes the lyrics are great but the melody is secondary) The entire arrangement illustrates exemplary exploitation of pace, dynamics and timbre throughout and there are examples of one of Keith's favorite improvisation techniques, that of quotation, in this case 'The Big Country' and some Bach? Anyone who underestimates the versatility and potency of Jackson and Davison as a rhythm unit really need to listen to this number and think again. The ending section is exhilarating and captures a band at the very peak of their creative powers.

- You're just a walking antique etc -

Which serves as an accurate and damning evaluation of most of the musical artists that were revered as innovative and progressive by the masses at the time (including the lyrics author Dylan)

This is certainly my favorite Nice album by some considerable distance and we can only guess at what further heights they may have reached had they stayed together longer. It seems clear that Emerson became irreconcilably estranged from Lee and Brian not long after this but as to the overriding reasons being purely musical/technical or personal, we may never really know the answer.

As much as I loved the the subsequent ELP adventure, there is a softer and humbler part of Emerson's musical personality that never made the transition from one group to the other and it is perhaps for this that the Nice will be missed most.

EntertheLemming - The Life Expectancy of Fat Bottomed Girls -

'Daddy Where Did I Come From ?' - Rather an ordinary rock riff that stretches in protest at being the load bearing wall in this humorous construction sung by Emerson about the facts of life. The spoken voice of the uncomfortable 'parent' attempting to impart this knowledge to his inquisitive offspring is that of the band's manager Tony Stratton-Smith (and subsequent founder of Charisma records) The damning indictment hurled from the bridge section is really just a bit 'rich' from a band of hellraisers like the Nice could be:

'Your back teeth rotting in a gallon of booze, you can't even work out how to fasten your shoes, you get yourself into such a state, it's no small wonder that you can't even answer questions'

Similar musical materials were put to better use on 'Azrael Revisited' on the next album. The vinyl pressing of the record I originally purchased had some guitar on this track which beefs things up considerably, but the CD reissue I own does not?

'Little Arabella' - Emerson dials up an authentically cheesy 'Errol Garner' organ sound for this knowingly louche swing pastiche that Lee Jackson delivers with insouciant charm throughout. I think all of us have met at some time or another exactly the sort of dippy hippy chick that they cruelly lampoon here.

'Talks in riddles talks in rhymes, she is a problem of the times, I'm rather glad she isn't mine'

The very impressive trumpet was contributed by a session player.

'Happy Freuds' - the obsession with the theories of Sigmund Freud was rampant during the late 60's and the Nice have clearly decided they've had quite enough of listening to the sort of psycho-babble that was endemic amongst the so called 'beat' intelligentsia. Even on this second album the band prove to be more than capable of crafting a memorable pop song. Keith's voice however, was never suited to the sort of material he composed and as spirited an effort as he makes here, it just don't cut it.

'Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite' - as a first hesitant step into the adaptation of a classical work this ain't bad, but my enthusiasm is always going to be tempered by the wonderful heights they reached on later attempts. Brilliantly played as always but suffers from a rather haphazard and sloppy arrangement which casts Sibelius in a rather insipid light. Nice use of occasional bowed bass from Jackson to authenticate and acknowledge the origins of the work. Roy Harper claims to have inspired the band to tackle this piece.

'Don Edito El Gruva' - The problem with all practical jokes is that they lose much if restricted to just the audio realm. Orchestra tunes up and someone blows a very loud whistle. Much giggling ensues. Guess you had to be there. (or had sampled the whistle beforehand) 'Don' being engineer Don Brewer.

'Ars Longa Vita Brevis' - ('Art is long, Life is short'- Lee Jackson's art school's motto)

This 20 minute 'suite' indicates a massive leap in ambition for the band and although it suffers from the lack of direction exhibited by all those swimming in uncharted waters, represents a pivotal moment in rock that ushered in a whole new climate of experimentation and adventurous risk taking. (Yippee!)

It was seeded by a riff that departing guitarist Davy O'List contributed and the rest seems to have snowballed from there. Much debate ensues about who actually plays the guitar parts on 'Ars Longa', but the prevailing view is that it is Malcolm Langstaff, a contemporary of Jackson and fellow Novocastrian who learned the parts by listening to a BBC session of an earlier version.

Brian Davison was well known to be reluctant to perform drum solos on stage, so it is something of a surprise to see one on this album during the 'Awakening' section. 'Blinky's' speed, feel and touch are all well to the fore and it's refreshing to get to hear the subtle detail available on CD that was muddied on the original vinyl.

O'List's original riff appears in the 'Realisation' Movement and it's 'eastern' tonality is exploited by the Nice in an incense filled song section sung with suitably oriental inflections by Jackson. His lyrics alas, remain as stubbornly cryptic as always:

'Life's too short to paint a kiss, so sing a picture, paint a song, take it home and bang your gong'(!?)

Keith then moves onto piano and embarks on a Latin percussion backed tour de force which runs the gamut of most of his avowed influences at the time i.e Charlie Parker, Bach and Jacques Loussier.

'Acceptance - Brandenburger' - Emerson's choice of vehicle here is Bach's 3rd Brandenburger Concerto (a series that has served the Nice well, see - 'Country Pie') with which to extemporize on and contains some of his greatest organ playing to date. The opening statement of the theme on Hammond never fails to raise the hairs on the back of your humble correspondent's neck. The Nice even manage to tease a performance out of the orchestra that borders on 'swinging' a rare feat from classical players.

'Denial' - It's a relief to be able to hear this finally resurfacing from the murk that cloaked it on the vinyl version. Alludes in places to phrases and motifs that would appear on 'Hoedown' by ELP and reprises O'List's original riff in a very satisfying symmetrical conclusion to the whole suite.

This record probably captures the Nice 'halfway up the stairs to the observation bay' that they were able to look out from on it's successor, and although it could be described as very patchy, it is an incredibly far sighted work that blazed a trail where no others had dared to set a Beatle boot.

EntertheLemming - The Great Leap Forward by the Gang of Four -

Whether intentional or not, the Maoist connotations of the appalling title wedded to some groundbreakingly inventive music captures some of that heady whiff of revolution that was in the air on this precocious 1967 debut by the Nice. If that were not sufficient grist to undermine the prevailing genteel mill, then the sight of four reprobates cavorting in cellophane on the cover just might have tipped the balance.

The 'who made the 1st prog album?' debate argued with increasingly shrill protestations of certitude is now a game that we should all be heartily tired of. Judging by the adolescent imbecility of some of the propositions on offer, we would just as well conclude that Progressive Rock originated in some primordial soup of an acquired taste, and get on with enjoying music that we care about.

That said, the prevailing reference points surrounding 'Thoughts' have to be acknowledged or else we end up pretending that art is independent of history. (Art is a product of history, and NOT vice versa)

Blah blah blah

So, a balanced history primer might include (but is not restricted to) Floyd's 'Piper at the Gates of Dawn' - Family's 'Music In a Doll's House' - Hendrix 'Axis Bold as Love'and Van der Graaf Generator's 'Aerosol Grey Machine' as products of the sort of influences that were at play around this time. I'm sure you will agree, as varied a bag as are assembled here, they represent some rip-snortingly fine music.

'Flower King of Flies' - not sure if this is really inspired by William Goldings novel 'Lord of the Flies' but it clearly hardly matters to the band in a very enjoyable slice of poppy psychedelia featuring some knowingly over the top backing vocals and a very fine tune. A distant relative of the similarly acid drenched 'Diamond Hard Blue Apples of the Moon'

'Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack' - This was a single and I could be wrong, but this is Davy O'List singing right? Whoever it is, it's a damn fine reading of a very accomplished and classically tinged pop tune. The faintly silly 'bah bah BAH baaah bah Baaah' refrain on the chorus will be an unwelcome guest in your head for months to come after hearing this. Subtle and restrained use of mood building harpsichord by Keith and trumpet by O'List.

'Bonnie K' - the Nice's recent past as jobbing RnB musicians is brought to the fore here in a raucous blues rock number. Plenty of energy and ferocity but I fear this substitutes for lack of substance in the composition which is really tantamount to a mediocre riff masquerading as a song. Emerson's 'Hammond on Amphetamines' sound is captured faithfully however and his playing is always worth some of your time even on weaker material.

'Rondo' - Where Emerson tosses a Brubeck 9/8 salad into the air and surgically enhances the pieces that land into a galloping 4/4 with the rest being history. On this much lengthier track we get perhaps our first 'peek' at the sort of improvised magic the Nice would subsequently cast with astonishing frequency when allowed the room to breathe and explore as they are here.

O'List's guitar solo deserves special mention as he displays a very finely honed ability to pace his musical ideas and ensure they have a beginning, development and satisfying conclusion, in stark contrast to many of the 'throw enough fuzzed up freakiness at the wall and some it's bound to stick' school of 60's guitar methodology.

Digital technology was good to both Davison and Jackson, as the CD reissues of much of this early material by the Nice at last does some justice to their vastly underrated and innovative supporting work behind the twin barrelled assault of the group's two competing soloists Emerson and O'List.

'War and Peace' - Mercifully shorter than the work it alludes to but rather a perfunctory instrumental blues, albeit one that is framed in gaudy psychedelic colors. The energy and abrasive textures employed are of more interest than the composition.

'Tantalising Maggie' - This COULD have been something right up there on a par with 'See Emily Play' calibre Syd Barrett, but unfortunately the many sublime individual fragments of the song are presented haphazardly as if the band were unsure as to how best to show them off to full effect. Something of a missed opportunity.

'Dawn' - Despite some inspired atmospheric effects and Emerson's injection of classical baroque elements, this is a rather ponderous and plodding number not helped in the least by Lee Jackson's whispered narrative which appropriates 'laryngitis' rather better than the intended 'menacing'

'The Cry of Eugene' - Truly wonderful and as good as anything accomplished at around the same time by Floyd, Beatles, Crimson, Family and the rest. The cream of their admittedly weak vocal melodies rises straight to the top and the song is a (completely impenetrable) haunting and yearning slice of melancholia as touching and sensitive as 'Hang on to a Dream' but with the economy of learned pop and the energy of their innate rock. Here lies in embryonic form, one of the seeds that was to flower into what we might recognise as the bouquet of progressive rock.

Andrew Loog Oldham and his Immediate label's 'groovier than thou' manifesto must be culpable in the failure of the Nice to make a significant mainstream breakthrough earlier than they did. Up until they switched to Tony Stratton-Smith's Charisma imprint in 1970, they had still not received a single penny in royalties from Immediate and the band's sole source of income was from incessant gigging.

Tip: Best to avoid any contractual obligation to a Svengali with double barreled name

By the time 'Five Bridges' had been released the band had already gone their separate ways at the behest of Emerson to free the latter in his besotted pursuit of King Crimson's handmaiden Lake for a planned musical menage a trois with an ex-Rooster.

(relax, I meant Palmer)

EntertheLemming - The Destruction of Light and Shade -

I've never been much of an audiophile as the production on a record very rarely impacts to any great degree on my enjoyment of any given release. However, the 'Construkction of Light' might just be the one instance where my vandalised ears are less than well disposed to forgive such disruptive building work. This critter is wearying and exhausting to listen to in one sitting. Whether this is a case of over zealous compression or what sounds like the drummer chiselling his beats via Pro-Tools on a concrete kit is open to debate. A shame really, as the majority of material on this Crimson millennium issue is exemplary. We've all I'm sure been an unwilling party to those fidelity discussions with hirsute plankton who exclaim:

'Yeah, but the 30th anniversary edition is 24 bit remastered in Dolby at double speed plus FIVE bonus tracks so you wont recognise it as the same album dude'

You mean to the extent that the notes and the order they are played in changes?(and 'Caveat Emptor' with 'previously unreleased' status folks, these freebies didn't see the light of day for good reason i.e. their creators usually thought they weren't worthy of release)

Prozakc Blues - The 'k' 'k'onceit indulged in at around this time ir'K's this 'K'orrespondent to distra'k'tion. Enough already. As the title indicates, we have a blues capsule, but one piloted by the crew of the red fiery brigade. As on 'Pictures of a City', Crimson manage to invest some primordial harmonic gravity with some unnerving weightlessness when they step outside the pressurised (wood) cabin of the idiom. Belew's vocal is pitch shifted downwards to authentic effect in imitation of a 21st Century Schizoid 'Leadbelly' on a visit to his long suffering Doctor:

'Well I woke up this morning in a cloud of despair, I ran my hand across my head Pulled out a pile of worried hair.I went to my physician who was buried in his thoughts He said son, you've been reading too much Elephant Talk'

There is more than a trace of genre parody and caustic bile in Adrian's delivery here and his swipe at a Crimson internet discussion forum, although seemingly churlish, is well founded (even a casual visit will confirm said appreciation society as a nest of infertile W.A.S.P.s with Conan the Librarian as moderator which makes even 'PA' look like a sanctuary of reasoned calm) The aforementioned 'concrete' percussion does not mercifully spoil this track, as the rather unfocused pounding sludge of the pulse is consistent with the blues effect intended. A great and funny song that should be played to blues purists everywhere as an example of why so much of their music is tantamount to a dusty museum piece roped off from the threat of innovation.

The Construkction of Light - Although ostensibly split into two parts the demarcation is frankly spurious as the whole she-boodle segues seamlessly into one whole. The accuracy demanded from the twin guitars of Fripp and Belew on this piece must be harrowing to negotiate as the compositional device of harmonised parts that appear to mimic a shifting temporal delay as the piece develops allow precisely zero margin for error. A similar albeit inferior effect could be conjured up via a digital delay set for the appropriate time division, but performing such feats 'manually' as they do so expertly here simply beggars belief. As dry and academic as that might sound, rest assured that like all Crimson's most challenging music, there is a hard-nosed beauty here that somehow conspires to be neither sentimental or cerebrally sterile. Belew's memorable and brilliantly executed lyrical section helps greatly in this regard by alleviating the daunting complexity with a more accessible hook:

'And if a bird can speak, who once was a dinosaur and a dog can dream, should it be implausible that a man might supervise the construction of light?'

(I said more accessible, not catchy all right?)

Into the Frying Pan - Can't seem to shake off the conviction that this startling song is inspired by the Beatles (as risible as that might first appear) as it strikes me as closely akin to one of the Fab Four's early pop ditties but with Crimson as the backing band and William Burroughs permitted to sit in the cut-up producer's chair? Beguiling and intriguing for sure as it threatens to collapse into incoherence at any given moment but miraculously still delivers its melodic bounty despite the insistent chaos clamouring at the gates.

FraKctured - There is a marked tendency in some previous reviews to propose that the Crims are vainly revisiting past glories on their adaptations of prior works ? I think this judgement completely facile as evidenced by the verdant new pastures that such sacred cows are led to willingly or otherwise. For the most part the 'moto perpetuo' of the original is preserved here but this fragile and feisty creature is mutated and burnished into a new shiny metallic biomechanoid as befitting a shape shifting replicant. (with big sharp pointy teeth to gobble you up with my dear)

The World's My Oyster Soup Kitchen Floor Wax Museum - A playful lyrical device yes, but we all dallied with our own crayoned version of the Surrealists 'Exquisite Corpse' as kids. Perhaps the weakest of the conventional songs on 'Construkction of Light', but certainly not remotely shoddy or slapdash (despite the band's futile efforts in any failed realisation of a rehearsed spontaneity)

Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part IV - Once again, Fripp and Co still display an endearing affection for demarcation as testimony to conceptual rigour. The discrete partitioning of the three sections is more a hindrance to clarity than an aid but we have in our now hot little lap 8 minutes of implacable, neurotic and downright cussing Crimson that for the most part, is on a par with any of their instrumental pieces of the past. It does drag a tad towards the end though and you are always grateful for the appearance of the album's tail-ender when it finally uncloaks itself from the retreating carnage overhead.

Coda: I Have A Dream - A very powerful and sincere song penned by Belew which catalogues some of the worst tragedies that have afflicted the modern age. I think the author has chosen wisely to avoid imparting his own conclusions here, as the nature of the destructive losses he itemises should relegate any whining liberal angst as superfluous to help the medicine go down. Kudos to Adrian for that restraint. There was an interesting acoustic version of this number available for free download from Belew's website. (Not sure if you can still get it?)

Heaven and Earth - The token bonus track that most of us would not move same for to ever hear again. My hopelessly prejudiced view relegates anything remotely 'ambient' as suitable only for the purposes of providing a soundtrack for a flotation tank. Like so much of the Projekcts output, we are expected to allow ourself to drift away to wherever this music takes us. Me ?, I much prefer to surrender to the inevitable that gravity holds all the aces in this hole.

Under normal circumstances the 'Construkction of Light' would warrant an unhesitating 4 sparklies from this habitually grudging rodent but for the reasons I alluded to in the introduction, cannot give anything other than three and a half dwarf stars. Mastellotto is a very fine drummer with a portfolio that others who man the traps would kill for, but his kit sounds bear an uncanny semblance to those that would emanate from industrial strength Tupperware being bludgeoned into submission with iron bars. Similarly, the slinky and sinuous bass of Gunn and the guitars are smothered in a quick drying glue that robs the playing of what dynamic elasticity it may have possessed at the outset. However despite such provisos, please don't confuse the medium with the message as there is much fine music on this album that should be coaxed out of its dark hidey hole on a Fripp remastering job.

How about it Bob?

EntertheLemming - Crimson Tertiary College of Highly Strung Arts 3 v Conformity High 2 -

Perhaps one of the most focused of all the Crimson releases post 74's 'Red' this certainly sheds some of the adipose tissue that caused the 80's cadets to stumble their way over three particularly sadistic obstacle courses designed by Sergeant Fripp. His and our reward is an elite corps of troops who have passed muster on what must be one of the most harrowing initiations in popular music. The 'fat wheezy boys with a note from matron' have been consigned to the sidelines to watch the first team strut their stuff against their abhorred local rivals 'Conformity High.'

Let's hurry along now as we are nearing kick off time....

'Vrooom' - The precocious younger brother of 'Red' and 'Larks Tongues' displays some fearsomely angular chops and a marked preference for heavier metallic tinged textures over the improvised constructions of yore. Thankfully however, the Crims never degenerate into bludgeoning metal riffery at any point. I think there are two main reasons for this:

The harmonic territory they inhabit is not conducive to thickly distorted guitar sounds i.e. if you play an E7#9 chord using someone like Tony Iommi's guitar rig, it just sounds like a modulated fart in a wind tunnel and:

The traditional 'metal' guitar sounds can only reliably appropriate Major, 5ths and (at a pinch) 7ths intervals before the chords start to break up into a sludgy and muddy mess. King Crimson very cleverly exploit this phenomenon on the intro, where some atonal 'squawking' chords are overlaid against a sinuous bass driven groove to great effect i.e the frisson caused by the disintegration of the chords is used for precisely that end, and it is used sparingly.

Belew's playing is particularly interesting on this record, as his command of more mainstream 'rawk' artifices and techniques is a very effective counterweight against the more avant garde leanings of Robert Fripp. Adrian appears to take on the role of a 6 string equivalent to the previous 'rocker' in the band, John Wetton and this lends the music a very accessible surface with which to perhaps entice new fans from the heavier end of the rock spectrum?

'Coda: marine 475' - an ever descending journey into some infernal region the directions to which have long been monopolized by Fripp & Co in their self published 'A to Z of the forbidden zone'.

'Dinosaur' - self depreciating humor is a quality all too rare in the prog world and similarly to 'Ladies of the Road' they display a healthy disregard for both their own lofty place in the hierarchy of rock and the mainstream's perception of them as irredeemably passe.

- standing in the sun, idiot savant, something like a monument, I'm a dinosaur, somebody is digging my bones -

This really is two fingers in the face of vacuous modernity and I love them dearly for it. Apart from the foregoing we have in 'Dinosaur' as good a song as they have ever written. The 'Tron gets dusted down for an appearance on the intro and together with an incredibly inventive arrangement and a classic chorus, we catch a glimpse of what the Beatles contribution to prog could ultimately result in. Quite brilliant.

'Walking on Air' - Not a million miles away from the languid feel of 'Matte Kudasai', this is a very beautiful ballad sung with a Lennonish sharpness from Belew. The 'backwards' lead guitar sound conjured for the short solos is wonderful (how DO they do that?, I have heard 60's reversed guitar loads of times, but it ain't as good as this)

'Bboom' - Bruford and Mastelotto cook up a twin chef percussion stew of their own recipe and somehow succeed in lending a drum duet solo the same exhilarating rush as that of a classic three minute pop song. (Now that is quite an undertaking yes?)

'Thrak' - Another entry for the Crimson lexicon of freshly minted words (see 'Groon' and 'the Crukster') When the music lurches in it sounds like an uninvited gatecrasher who turns out to be the life and soul of the party. (but ends up trashing the stereo) There is considerable detail in the background to much of this album that only reveals itself after repeated listens and the source of these alien utterances is always ambiguous as Crimson manage to mutate bass, guitar, keys and vocals into all manner of haggard and twisted parodies of their original sources.

'Inner Garden 1' - Spooky and rattling skeletal song with a trace of Belew's former mentor David Byrne. Seems to exit 'hanging in the air' as if smothering an unspoken thought. Very eerie and affecting.

'People' - Infectious lop sided funk that only Crimson could bring off with any credibility in the prog domain. Truly inspired rippling guitar arpeggios on a brilliant chorus and unusually for this band, backing vocals. Yet more of that forward thinking 'backwards' guitar that I love to bits and this track above all else represents for me, a real manifestation of where prog could sit quite happily with the appellation of 'modern rock' without any hint of self consciousness.

'Radio 1' - Disorienting electronic glissandos as though we had tuned in accidentally to the premiere of Norman Bates first piece of musique concrete. Like an axe wielding leprechaun (Short and scary)

'One Time' - Beautiful plangent guitar on a deceptively simple ballad (the meter and rhythm are very elusive, try tapping out the beat, like me, you will probably get lost) Very memorable tune brilliantly sung as always by Belew. Don't want to sound like 'Mr Picky' but it may be a tad overlong?

'Radio 2' - rather pointless little ambient 'choccy drop' that only serves to illustrate what an air conditioning system on Neptune might conceivably sound like ? However we will forgive them this aberration as at 1 min 3 seconds it doesn't stick around long enough to qualify as 'ambient' i.e any old shit through a big reverb

'Inner Garden 2' - Erm, call it a wild stab in the dark if you like, but as this is the same harmonic material as employed on Inner Garden 1, why not JOIN THEM TOGETHER LADS INTO ONE SONG?

'Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream' - (If you exclude the 3rd, you get the life of Kate Moss) Had John Lennon survived into 1995 he may in all likelihood have come up with something like this. There is a hint of the Beatles throughout Belew's work and although I would deem it as merely an avowed influence it is not, despite claims to the contrary by his many detractors, derivative. Let's face it, if you are even tenuously employed within the realm of popular music and are NOT influenced by the Beatles, it really is time for a career change don't ya think?

'Vrooom, Vroooom' - I feel this is tantamount to a remix of the opening track and although it deviates sufficiently to be entertaining it seems to rather 'over egg the pudding' somewhat. (Another slice?, no really I'm fit to burst thanks) The ascending motif is very similar to that employed on 'Red'.

'Vrooom, Vrooom, Coda' - Again, this reeks of an 'outtake' culled from an earlier version of some of the themes heard previously and yes, it is certainly bracing, but hardly constitutes a separate composition.

This is a very fine Crimson album that certainly breaks new ground for a band who have always stubbornly refused to sit still for any length of time. I do think that the charge of 'neo-metal' attached to some of their later work is rather an exaggerated one as there is considerably more variety and subtlety displayed here than on most of the other so-called prog metal outpourings I have heard.

Despite a rather leg weary finish on 'Thrak' the Crimson College first eleven managed to hold out in the end to vanquish their hated opponents in the Conformity Eleven. (Hooray! let's celebrate with lashings of pop and a midnight snack in the dorm chums)

EntertheLemming - Rage, rage against the dying of the light - (Dylan Thomas)

According to Eric Tamm's book 'Robert Fripp: From King Crimson to Guitar Craft' the majority of this album was recorded live and subsequently overdubbed to bring it to it's present form. If that is indeed the case, they have done a wonderful job of both removing the audience noise completely and disguising the origins of the performances. It seems that Fripp has an ongoing reservation about the studio being a valid medium as representative of a performance, and this half live/half studio hybrid possibly offered for him, an acceptable compromise between the two competing disciplines.

'The Great Deceiver' - After being accustomed to quiet mood building intros on previous albums, it's something of a shock to hit the ground running here with an explosive salvo of sixteenth note riffing from the violin and guitar over Bruford's manic kit groove. A truly spellbinding display of controlled power and dynamics from a band who sound leaner and hungrier than ever before. I particularly love John Wetton's voice as his faintly adenoidal tenor serves as the 'eye of the storm' at the center of the Crim tornado. The chorus here is so good that it would have served a more mainstream pop classic well. In lesser hands this type of unconventional structure can sound disjointed and unbalanced but King Crimson make the difficult sound monstrously easy (and vice versa - see Prelude: Song of the Gulls)

I think the lyrics are (unusually) Fripp's, and he casts a jaundiced eye over the commercialization of spirituality that pervades the modern age:

- Cigarettes, ice cream, figurines of the virgin mary -

'Lament' - Beautiful 'chiming bell' guitar sound enhances another fine vocal performance by Wetton in a song that betrays a jaded cynicism with the machinations of the rock world in general. A feature of Cross's violin playing throughout this record is how sparing it is and his contributions carry more weight as a result. Those duetted lead moments he shares with Fripp's fuzzy black liquorice tone are exquisite. Again, sublime use of dynamics in the separate parts and boasting a melody that even Lennon would have been proud.

'We'll Let You Know' - The dramatic style change that was initiated by 'Larks Tongues in Aspic' is emphasized on the improvisatory tracks like this one. More than any other band whose origins are from a predominantly rock tradition, Crimson demonstrate an ability to improvise using the vocabulary of rock as fluently as that employed in the jazz of say, Miles Davis various groups over the years. When Bruford and Wetton kick into the main groove after teasing us for several delightful minutes, the effect is that of an entirely credible white funk. Accept no imitations, these guys can make the Meters sound like pale Russian bank clerks. The title may be an overspill of the caustic from 'Lament' i.e don't call us etc ?

'The Night Watch' - The rapid trilling of the guitar on the intro appropriates a venetian mandolin, but there the comparison ends, as all conventional techniques in Fripp's erudite hands tend to. A very plaintive and haunting tune sung admirably as ever by Wetton. Even on something as harmonically conventional (by Crimson standards) as this is refreshingly free of the sort of 'ear candy' coating employed by so many of their contemporaries. Unadorned, humble and beautiful.

'Trio' - So named presumably because Bruford does not play on it ? This has a capricious celtic/middle eastern tinge and features some fantastic dynamic interplay between Fripp, Wetton and Cross. How unusual is this, a rock band where the individual members actually listen to what each other are playing?

'The Mincer' - After a very atmospheric build up we get a multi tracked psychedelia hued vocal from Wetton that portrays some harrowing and disturbing imagery.

- Fingers reaching, Fingers reeking. Jump for the scream, Good night, honey -

Your very expensively assembled 'Hi-Fi system falling through a black hole' effect at the conclusion is where the first reel of tape ran out half way through the original live recording.

'Starless and Bible Black' - Takes over from where 'We'll Let You Know' left off. Like most inspired phenomena, this is resistant to causal analysis and appears to inhabit the realm of 'happy accidents' that Fripp and co guessed could not be arrived at in any other fashion. Perhaps Robert was justified, and that the recording studio was not conducive to the realization of beautifully crafted moments like this? These types of tracks need LOTS of listens before they can seep into your affections, but on arrival, they remain there steadfast and true.

'Fracture' - For an album that contains no weak troughs at all, this is the certifiable highpoint of the set.

(If EVERYTHING is just peaks, why does the resulting landscape NOT look like a high altitude Holland? - .....Dunno)

In its 11 minute duration we hear a culmination of everything that Robert Fripp had learned up to that point in his driven quest for perfection throughout an inconsistent but adventurous career. The building blocks for this piece are almost without exception, very short phrases and motifs that are treated with a bewildering array of transpositions and modulations as the track progresses. All the elements that made this scarlet red animal so unique and thus an endangered species, are well in evidence throughout: Wetton's guttural bass provides the rock hook and generous heart, Cross supplies an ethereal mystic spirit, Bruford contributes a playful polyrythmic funk and Fripp mans the controls at Brain Central. A cerebral creature yes, but one that has learned to kick and scratch for both love and sustenance.

This is not a particularly accessible album, but one that will provide enduring rewards on repeated listens, so don't be discouraged by the paucity of conventionally 'pretty' music as what is here is damningly beautiful forever.

EntertheLemming - Sang Froid Reptile With Overlapping Scales -

After the very lackluster 'In the Wake of Poseidon', this offering from the Crims was something of a return to form.

Given Fripp's penchant for a revolving door recruitment policy at this time, it is remarkable that any of these early recordings possess as much coherence as they do. Lake's absence is not particularly glaring, as Haskell serves up some very inventive and perhaps 'earthier' grooves on the bass and his singing is a real highlight of the album. A childhood buddy of Fripp, we have anecdotal evidence that he found the material here daunting and did not relish the whole undertaking one bit. Regardless of Gordon's misgivings, his vocals lend an interesting texture and counter balance to some of Fripp's epic designs.

I fear the sedentary axe hero overreached himself here with an unwieldy idea for a very ornate but ultimately unsuccessful concept album i.e the side-long 'Lizard' totally outstays its welcome and seems to take an inordinate length of time to explore then squeeze the life out of the musical materials presented.

The playing throughout is quite brilliant and the attention to detail is exemplary, but Fripp has never been shy of squarebashing his very illustrious troops into line, so why does he let Collins, Miller, Charig, Evans and Tippett noodle away just filling up space?

This is a great pity as the lyrical opening section with Jon Anderson's vocal is quite brilliant, managing to encompass groundbreaking structural and key change elements topped off by an exquisite and unforgettable chorus. Thereafter things degenerate into a lengthy and painstaking transition from straight to swung time with the music becoming progressively jazzier but increasingly ragged.

Fripp seems hell-bent on showing off this house to would be investors, but I for one, would keep my money in my pocket if all I am shown is the basement and a meticulous plan of the foundations.

Towards the end we do get some respite courtesy of a gorgeous bagpipe drone sound from Fripp's elegiac and wailing solitary guitar before..... Whoops...they've done it again. We end on a rather predictable note with some speeded up fairground music, a device they should have got out of their systems long after its deployment on previous releases.

Side one of 'Lizard' is much, much better as the shorter song based formats force Fripp and Co into an economy of style woefully absent on most of side two.

'Cirkus' - Haskell's voice lends this a spooky air and the dynamic development is beautifully executed with a sublime police siren riff at the climactic moments. Listen to Fripp's bizarre broken arpeggios on acoustic guitar during the verses and just marvel at how he makes such angular accompaniment work so well. One of Crimson's most underrated songs.

'Indoor Games' - A tune that extra terrestrial female infants practice skipping to in the playgrounds of Pluto? The quiet section in the middle is sublime but what sort of lollies were these guys sucking on?:

'Each afternoon you train baboons to sing on perspex coloured waterwings'

Wonderful acoustic guitar strumming from Fripp on the chorus and fantastic horn arrangement lending the piece a jazzy improvised feel (although its composed down to the very last detail - that's the trick)

'Happy Family' - almost like a nursery rhyme sung by Darth Vader with Haskell's voice twisted beyond all human recognition into a gleeful robotic snarl. Very beguiling little melody that is at once innocent and sinister, framed in a very inventive arrangement with suitably languid flourishes from Robert.

Someone told me once that this song might be about the Beatles but I can't discern any obvious reference to the fab four ?.

'Lady of the Dancing Water' - pretty, as in 'I Talk to the Wind' (slight return), but saved by some beautiful flute and that caramel texture that Haskell's voice lends to proceedings. In contrast with what comes before and after, this song seems like an afterthought. Not strictly filler, but out of context with the thematic feel of the album.

This record does have significant depth and detail so it rewards repeated listens but I fear that the following analogy may help summarize its flaws:

'They were arguing over which brand of camera to use to take pictures of the crash site, all the while oblivious to what caused the accident in the first place'

EntertheLemming - And there was a beautiful view, but nobody could see, Cause everybody on the island was saying Look at me ! Look at me ! (Laurie Anderson) -

'Formentera Lady' - Is what happens when you stretch a good tune so far that the elastic snaps, leaving just a construction that conspires to be both stiff and flaccid simultaneously. It seems astonishing that the normally vigilant Fripp had fallen through the huge and creaky trapdoor of 'Moonchild' a second time. Not as aimless as the latter but one of the very few Crimson tracks that I am at pains to concede to the bands detractors, is nothing more than stoned hippy nonsense.

'Sailors Tale' - Shiver me timbers ! this is the proverbial bee's reinforced kneepads to be sure. The late Ian Wallace cooks up a molten percussion broth that is guaranteed to 'stick to yer ribs' while Bluebeard Bob sets sail on a fiery reign of fretboard terror plundering and laying waste to all that musical convention can put in his way. Breathtaking. The sound of conformity being forced to walk the plank.

Very few bands use the Mellotron as imaginatively as Crimson have done, and these 'icy shafts of sunlight' that uncloak the sulpherous interior of Sailor's Tale' contributes a glacial diffidence that is both unsentimental and beautiful.

The 'solo' guitar section is quite probably one of Robert Fripp's finest recorded moments, and I am still unsure if the effect he conjures here is achieved by some inspired 'detuning' of his guitar to facilitate these huge and gorgeous resonating chords. The source of the ominous subterranean bass drone at the end I cannot identify, but there is surely no finer equivalent even 37 years later ?

'The Letters' - Sinfield's habitually arcane and portentous lyrics may have been the midwife in the tortuous birth of rock's 'Gothic Ballad' as sung here by a clearly uncomfortable Burrell. If Lord Byron had penned a rock opera it may not have been even as overblown as this. Frustratingly, both the melody and accompaniment are very good but this verbiage should really give the Crimson King an even redder face.

'Ladies of the Road' - This is great fun and breathes some new life into that flagging old 'promiscuity' warhorse as perceived by denizens of the backstage debauch. The band seem only too keen to take the mickey out of themselves and even if the marvelous chorus is 'Chim Chim Cheree' lifted straight from 'Mary Poppins' it hardly really matters. Boz Burrell sounds suitably lecherous on the verses and the music mimics very well the dissolution it is attempting to illustrate.

'Prelude - Song of the Gulls' - Comes across as a rather short-handed attempt by the Lower School Fiddle Ensemble to premiere their first composition on Parents Night during a particularly virulent strain of flu. Pleasant enough but incongruously bland and 'safe' for a Crimson experience.

'Islands' - It seems to take a hell of a long time for this song to finally make its point and although sung beautifully and arranged well with careful use of dynamics, timbre and pace, it really should have been at least 5 minutes shorter. As betrayed later on his debut solo album 'Exposure', Fripp appears unable to resist the overriding temptation to remind us what an incredibly erudite chap he is by including some pointless banter he has with the orchestral players at the end.

I don't want to hear about the cutlery Robert, when you recommend a restaurant to eat.

Like many of the King Crimson albums up until the stylistic leap initiated by Larks Tongues', this record suffers from a maddening inconsistency. Boz Burrell escapes any blame however, as his bass and vocals certainly lend a bit of bluesy grunt to some of Fripp's otherwise dry and cerebral creations. Mel Collins also gets a clean bill of health and let's face it, the man has never emitted a spurious or tasteless note in his life.

Therefore I think the increasing frisson between Fripp and Sinfield may have been the source of some of the shortcomings that manifest themselves on 'Islands' and they were to part company forever soon after.

If only Robert had recruited Jerry Seinfeld instead...

EntertheLemming The King is dead...long live the king

Quite possibly the worst Crimson album ever released (so 'Earthbound' and 'Islands' sucked too, but at least they had some energy and balls) representing a particularly barren and fractious period in the band's history.

Lake and MacDonald appeared to jump ship in the middle of this and given the horrors on offer, probably chose wisely. Michael Giles was to follow soon thereafter and it seems clear from published records of this exodus that the Crims were not a happy bunch of campers.

THE GOOD:

'Pictures of a City' strays perilously close to '21st Century Schizoid Man' in its compositional structure but is still a belter in the Crims catalogue and easily the best track here by a country mile or two. The music before the singing starts appears to be a conventional minor blues but they manage somehow to coax an angular jarring effect out of these traditional changes ? I have always loved Michael Giles drumming and his unique style on their 1st two albums lends a rhythmic subtlety and anchor to the music.

'Cadence and Cascade' debuts the toffee coated larynx of Mr Gordon Haskell to beautiful effect as the song fits his soporific style perfectly. Interestingly, another version of this melody appears on the 'MacDonald and Giles' album under a different name. The writs must have been flying....

'Catfood' is rather silly but utilises the infectious bass riff in the Beatles 'Come Together' to great effect and, even though commercially orientated enough to be released as a single, manages to contain some truly freaky and avant garde piano from Tippett (the 'Top of the Pops' audience look bemused on the footage)

'In the Wake of Poseidon' ain't too shabby a song but its form and structure relegates it to being a pale imitation of 'Epitaph' from the debut album. Like an ornate and lavishly assembled marble archway to a mud hut.

THE BAD:

'Peace' in its three guises is just plain drippy and wetter than a dolphin's wedding tackle. The melody is neither memorable in its unadorned or arranged settings and just seems like a waste of time all round. Lake's vocal is quite plaintive yes, but as for unforgettable hooks, you don't hang your coat on a spear do you ?

THE UGLY:

'The Devil's Triangle' or more appropriately, 'Satan's Chocolate Fireplace' is an incoherent welter of half-baked and unfinished ideas ladled over a sludgey bolero beat lifted straight from Holst's 'Planets Suite' Lovers of the Mellotron (of which I am more than partial) would even turn their noses up at this concoction. It just never goes anywhere or has a transitional development to speak of and seems to last for days. Intense yes, but so is a jackhammer.

King Crimson regrouped after this debacle and went on to record some of the most innovative music in the 70's bar none, and for their fortitude alone, we should be thankful.

Unfortunately this record suffers from the inevitable comparisons with its ground breaking predecessor, and Robert and his ever changing stalwarts of the Red Guard are guilty of applying 'In the Court's' template onto much weaker material which simply disintegrates under the strain.

EntertheLemming Crown of Thorns

Time for a little revisionism here methinks... Reviewers of this album are often at a loss to reconcile the disparity between its indisputable influence and its musical merit. In the case of the former, it made Prog fleetingly 'hip' and served to convince the money men that this type of artistic expression could shift shed loads of units. In the case of the latter, we are left with an endearing work that left its inimitable mark on all those who fell within its magical slipstream. Yes, this is one of the most important prog records EVER No, this is NOT the flawless masterpiece touted as a 5 star effort by most of the genre's myopic curators

Therefore, at the risk of appearing bludgeoning, there are only three tracks on this record that you really couldn't live without: 21st Century Schizoid Man - Epitaph - In the Court of the Crimson King

The remainder are pleasant enough but do inevitably betray the origins of the band in its gestation period of hippy 60's pop through freeform freakout wankery. ie. Giles + Giles + Fripp = Flanders + Swann + flares + chemicals

What is also interesting about this record is that it subsequently shaped everyone's perceptions of what King Crimson were about, irrespective of how much they grew and developed over time. To wit, mention the name to anyone over 40 and you will get that lazy response - 'Groovy, peace man, far out, let's all make love etc' - Anyone who has heard the band live circa 69-70 will testify that 'In the Court' only hints at the sort of ferocity and confrontational power that were integral to the Crimson experience. The irony of their 'hippy drippy' label is one that probably hindered Crimson's material success in later incarnations. If you seek further evidence, check out the numerous collectors club releases lovingly remastered by Robert Fripp himself to see the sort of feral jazz intensity they exuded live.

So for me at any rate, this album is not even representative of our fave red critter at the time of its release and it could be argued that 'Court' was culpable in creating a level of expectation amongst it's subjects that the Crimson King was never really in a position to satisfy. Much of this music has aged far less gracefully that that of it's contemporaries (the Nice, Procul Harum, Arthur Brown) and notwithstanding the three indispensable tracks, the earnest apologists for 'Moonchild' must be guilty of intuiting the 'Music of the Spheres' from the sound of their engines idling at a red light.

EntertheLemming The Sinking of the Tritonic - Captain Scuttles the Ship

As far as I can tell, this was the last 70's King Crimson album released before Fripp disbanded the entity to allow him more time for 'head shopping' at Mystical Apocalyptic Visions R'Us (G. I. Gurdjieff - prop).

'Red' - The tritone (augmented 4th) interval has been exploited by many rock musicians over the years and is particularly beloved of the cartoon subversives who currently inhabit the metal domain. However, when used with originality, there are great examples of it's disorienting frisson on 'Symptom of the Universe' by Black Sabbath, 'YYZ' by Rush, 'Purple Haze' by Hendrix & 'Black Sabbath' by erm...Black Sabbath.

Unlike Tony Iommi however, Fripp & Co are not remotely stirred by the boyish blasphemies of those utilizing the 'diabolus in musica' as outlawed by the church music authorities in medieval times. There is a leanness and acuity in 'Red' that seems to be borne of a new found economy in much of Fripp's writing. Everything is very concisely structured and the innate extemporizing instincts are tightly reined in, which gives this track a brooding malevolent power that you feel if completely unleashed, would probably vaporise pets anywhere within the vicinity of a home entertainment system. The first hint of the metallic slant that would be further explored on their later output eg 'Thrak' - 'Power to Believe' etc

'Fallen Angel' - Not more references to the horny goateed one lads ? (tsk...) Another moving vocal performance from the infallible Wetton in a song that exploits more traditional harmonic structures to marvelous effect. It's amazing how Crimson can inhabit territory that is not a million miles away from say, Rush, and make the latter sound like field mice still stinging from their first shave. The middle section where Fripp and Wetton duet on a tightly woven instrumental passage is unnervingly beautiful with exemplary balance between the electric band and the various horns that weave their way throughout the song. In many ways perhaps this is what 'Lizard' side two was SUPPOSED to sound like ?

- Switchblade stings in one tenth of a moment, Better get back to the car -

PS Note to Peter Gabriel - When writing from the perspective of a Puerto Rican street punk from New York, it is not mandatory to affect a laughable American accent to approach authenticity. (see The Lamb Gives Up the Ghost on Broadway)

'One More Red Nightmare' - I am always struck by Bruford's percussion arsenal on this track as it seems he has taken a leaf (or in this case, a very heavy piece of sheet metal) out of Jamie Muir's book and employed same to mesmerizing effect. The drumming on this record is incredible and if any proof were needed as to how innovative and 'musical' a player Bill is, just point the doubters towards any track on this album. Like many Crim numbers from around this period, it veers off after the song section into what on first listen, appears a completely unrelated area, but somehow they conspire to make these devious tangents all reach a satisfying destination in the end. Uncanny. Trivia Fans - the only brilliant song I can think of that features handclaps.

'Providence' - Oh lordy...having recently lauded the lads to the heavens for their inspired improvs on 'Starless & Bible Black' it is with a heavy heart that I have to say this is the one wet eggy fart in the lovely shiny red space suit. There MUST have been scores of alternative improvisations they could have used surely ? As ever the playing and dynamics are faultless but it's an unstructured mess. The furious filling of air pockets by oxygen thieves. Like 'Moonchild' I am sure if you had been there, you would have exhaled softly and muttered 'incredible' with a far away look in your eye, (before promptly exiting the studio via an upstairs window on hearing the playback).

'Starless' - Given that it's a mighty crowded area, this is shoving its way to the front of the queue as best Crimson track EVER. Fripp's fondant guitar lead on the opening is so beautiful it audibly aches. The 'song' section is the finest melodic construction in the Crim catalogue and manifests a finely honed refinement of what 'Epitaph' and 'In the Wake of Poseidon' etc only hinted at.

- Sundown dazzling day, Gold through my eyes, But my eyes turned within, Only see, Starless and bible black -

The slow building crescendo section that follows features our old buddy the tritone in Wetton's pensive bassline over which Fripp contents himself with a skeletal 'one note ostinato' that is transposed accordingly to suit the harmonic progression in an edgy an increasingly spooky transition. As far as controlled dynamics, pace, texture and suspense are concerned, this should be compulsory listening to the prog/math metal wannabes who fashion light and shade out of 'fast very loud' and 'faster louder still.' What follows is a passage in what sounds like double time using the same (or very similar) musical material with the addition of jazzy flourishes from sax, trumpet and flute. This culminates in the denouement of the piece where the whole band embark on a majestic reprise of the main theme to a very satisfying conclusion. The band delay slightly their rejoinder to telling effect here, and the resultant weight and 'oomph' of the result is a climax of indefatigable beauty. (oooh you naughty man)

Were it not for the freeform widdley chops wank lapse represented by 'Providence' this would have been a 5 star effort. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a very fine album by a band at one of their many creative peaks during a 40 year roller coaster career.

EntertheLemming Red Jelly Babies escape from the box and finally reach maturity

The quantum leap represented by this album in the Crim catalogue cannot be overstated. Everything that followed should have cast an unflattering light on the unfocused and misguided promise of Crimson's prior juvenilia. But no, for reasons of perhaps lazy journalism or plain ignorant stereotyping, the red critter will be forever depicted as a bloated 'dainty' wheezing in the slipstream of a crushed velvet underground it had long outpaced and left miles behind. (The guys behind you sometimes turn out to be a lap ahead of you)

So much of the music presented here flies in the face of the prevailing prog zeitgeist of 1973 that were it not so facile a contention, we could be forgiven for stating that King Crimson were the first punk band. Gone are the stupefied noodlings of Islands - the twee gothic romance of 'In the Court' - the self conscious cleverness of 'Lizard' and the wet stoned nonsense of 'Poseidon' (Yep, this is a U-turn incorporating six wheelies and the smell of burning rubber)

Instead, we are confronted with an unflinching and unforgiving discipline that somehow manages to harness jazz, classical, blues, pop, musique concrète, gamelan, african, raga, rock, metal and all points inbetween (and unknown) during this record's duration. The 30th anniversary edition, which I'm reviewing here, has been lovingly remastered to salvage many hitherto sunken treasures from the original vinyl mix. Bruford's polyrhythmic kit work and the percussion salvo delivered by Jamie Muir are noticeably enhanced here to mesmerising effect.

It's a long time since I listened to Bartok's string quartets, but there are discernible quotations from these via the violin of Cross and the guitar of Fripp throughout 'Larks Tongues'. I know that Bob has expressed a fondness for Bartok's chamber music in the past and of all the albums in Crimson's discography, the influence is at its most palpable here.

Our old buddy the tritone (augmented fourth) makes its presence felt in thrilling fashion on the corruscating 'Talking Drum' which builds in ominous brooding fashion until the screaming and visceral climax is reached leaving the listener drained but delirious (like sex for the ears but without the mopping up and the cigarettes) PS Why then is it that every live version I have heard since butchers the original by playing it just way too darn fast? (Someone should tell the lads about foreplay methinks)

The spoken dialogue that uncloaks itself from the background on 'Larks Tongues in Aspic Part 1' just prior to the eastern tinged conclusion I think must belong to that of Jamie Muir (being the owner of a suitably thick Scottish brogue) but as to its significance re:

'and hung by the neck until you are dead'

still remains completely unfathomable?. It takes a lot of listens for the underlying structure of this track to reveal itself, but you will be rewarded for your patience, with music that lives long in the memory afterwards, so stick with it.

From the plaintive balladry of 'Exiles' through the unadorned and exquisite brevity of 'Book of Saturday' to the guttural funky rock of 'Easy Money' there is not a single damp patch on the red mattress anywhere. The strident rock riffing, 'whisper to a scream' dynamics and instrumental interplay as evidenced on 'Larks Tongues Part 2' are worth the admission price alone, so just buy the damn thing and congratulate yourself on the gift of impeccable taste.

This is perhaps one of the most significant rock records of all time and one that completely dwarfs 'In the Court of the Crimson King' in terms of innovation, daring and influence. If ever a band were deserving of the epithet 'eclectic' it is surely King Crimson, who have perhaps unwittingly, given many sympathetic musicians entire genres within which to extract their lucrative careers. The irony of the Crims parlous financial plight at around the time of this album will not be lost on you I am sure gentle readers.

It might be best to let Jamie Muir have the final say. After all who's going to argue with a man who played a musical saw on stage, left one of the greatest prog rock bands ever to join a remote Monastry in Scotland then finally became a painter ?

'The way to discover the undiscovered in performing terms is to immediately reject all situations as you identify them (the cloud of unknowing) - which is to give music a future' - (Jamie Muir)

js I’ve always known Paul Winter as one of the first jazz artists to cross over into “new age” territory, as well as one of the first to use straight rhythms and simple harmonies in a jazz context, a tendency that consequently caught on with a lot more artists over the years. He always seemed like a nice guy, so I won’t get hysterical and say he ‘ruined jazz’, but he has always been highly suspect, ha. That’s why it was a surprise to hear this compilation of his earlier material, turns out Paul used to play real jazz, and it was really good jazz too. “Count Me In” is a compilation of 32 tracks recorded in the early 60s that shows Winter working with a very imaginative sextet that blends complex ensemble arrangements with short solos for a modern quasi-big band approach somewhat similar to some things Miles Davis and Art Farmer had been doing. The style is hard bop with a west coast cool approach, a style that was very popular with early 60s college kids who also dug Dave Brubek and Chet Baker. This was an excellent time period for jazz, sandwiched between the excesses of the past bop era and the greater excesses of the coming fusion era, early 60s jazz was smart, compact and eternally hip.

The first ten tracks on this compilation are the best. They feature Winter’s original sextet; six young college kids who won the 1961 Intercollegiate Jazz Festival, which won them a recording contract with Columbia and a US state department backed tour of Latin America. Their youthful enthusiasm and fresh new ideas really come through. Many of these guys would leave pro music after this sextet broke up, including the very talented baritone player Les Rout. Tracks 11 through 17 feature this same sextet playing the first ever jazz concert at the White House. These tracks are nice as history, but the recordings don’t sound great, and the band sounds uptight, nervous and a even a little off sometimes. The final tracks, 18 - 32, feature the last version of Winter’s sextet, which by now had picked up more familiar names such as Ben Riley and Chuck Israels. The music is still good, but I miss the more ‘modernist’ sound of the younger naïve group, plus these recordings are live and are of less than best quality. Mostly I would recommend this CD for the first ten tracks, excellent hipster jazz for young college kids in the years right before post hippie-lemming mentality would trample all over this more subtle culture.

dreadpirateroberts Bill Evans has more than a few fantastic live albums so if you’re looking for a place to begin, this is it. Released with perhaps his most complimentary sidemen, at a definite peak in his popularity, ‘Waltz for Debby’ is among the finest Cool Jazz releases.

Evans plays relaxed, as might be expected, but never dull. He is not known as a busy player and often seems content to let other musicians to utilize space that his notes move around, remaining gentle, emotive and effective (bassist Lafaro is an obvious example of this.) It’s a very together-sounding album, which is both a redundant thing to say about good music, and a thrilling thing to say about the trio – on their final album together, Evans, Motian and Lafaro sound whole.

While he never flies into lengthy solos here, Evans still draws out a set of standards and two compositions which later became standards, Davis’ Milestones and Evans’ own classic Waltz for Debby, which is a clear highlight. Equally pleasing is the almost ocean-like wash and shimmer of My Foolish Heart and the more upbeat moments toward the end of the album. (Evans’ fans will also enjoy familiar phrasings in Some Other Time.)

For me, more so than his more adventurous, more famous ‘Sunday at the Village Vanguard’ this is his best live outing. Not to be overlooked.

js Any good review of an Anthony Braxton album should begin with a diatribe about how under appreciated and under-rated he is, and this review will be no different. After the passing of the Coltrane/Dolphy generation, Braxton should have been next in line for “jazz legend” due to his abilities as both a composer and performer, but people were put off by his preppy collegiate appearance, and his oblique song titles and presentations that didn’t fit the mainstream or the ‘in crowd’ of the avant-garde either. Unfairly, Braxton was labeled as overly intellectual, and his music was considered cold and academic. Certainly there is a very intellectual side to Braxton’s music, and he can easily work in contemporary concert hall mediums, but there can also be a lot of humor in his music, as well as deep down to earth blues roots. From crazy bar room gig to Stockhausen, its all here.

“New York/Fall 1974” was a fairly high profile album for Anthony in that he would be given bigger distribution than usual for an avant-garde jazzist. His career was on a bit of a roll at this time and he was releasing very creative albums that baffled everyone with their song titles that featured odd geometric diagrams, hence all the tracks on here are referred to by their track numbers. Side one consists of three very bizarre hard bop numbers, with the first being the best with its crazy repetitive melody and high energy free middle section. All of these tunes sound like nobody else, with latter period Eric Dolphy being one possible reference.

Side two gets more into Braxton’s ‘concert hall’ approach. The first track is an excellent duet with Richard Teitelbaum who plays an old analog synthesizer. Before synthesizers became commercially viable and tunable, they were magical bundles of barely controllable oscillators and filters that were used for some very creative sounds by certain experimental composers. This track captures a rare period in experimental music that is hard to re-create anymore. The following track presents one of the first avant-garde saxophone quartets, an idea that would grow in popularity until there would be many successful modern saxophone quartets all over the globe. This track gets into repetitive notes that recall Xennakis’ stochastic music.

The variety of music on here would be hard for anyone else to duplicate. On the first side Braxtion plays feirce alto sax like the second coming of Eric Dolphy, and on the second side we get successful concert hall electronics and a saxophone quartet with a lasting influence on the history of jazz. The members of the quartet that Anthony assembled on here; Hemphill, Lake and Bluiett, would all go on to play in other high profile quartets formed after the release of this album.

Sean Trane Just like Mode For Joe is considered by many Joe’s best work in the 60’s, many think the same for Multiple for the next decade. Not much in common between the two (outside Joe himself, of course), but the latter was released in early 73 on the great Orin Keepnews-run label Milestones. Of course, like many others 60’s icons, by this time Henderson had also veered towards fusion, and this is a very convincing shot in that particular genre. Of course names like Larry Wallis or James Ulmer are instrumental (sort of speak, because some tracks are not)

Opening on the 10-mins+ magnum opus Tress-Cun-Deo-La, the fusion modal tone is set right from the first notes, and Joe’s dubbed vocals are surprisingly good. Wallis’ Rhodes is a major ingredient for the melting pot fusion, but Holland and DeJohnette’s contributions are definitely spicing the stew as well, though the much-quieter 11-mins sensual but too-lengthy Bwaata (JDJ’s composition) is giving it a sweet aftertaste as well.

On the flipside, Joe sings again (well he “chants”, really) in Song For Sinners, and just like in the Tress track, he invites a guitarist (this time John Thomas) and we find the modal trance once again. Holland’s Turned Around has a hard time living up to its predecessor’s spellbinding powers, but its much funkier nature compensates easily in energy what it lacks in finesse. The closing Among Others is offering a fairly dissonant soundscape over a pedestrian bass, but Wallis’ Rhodes smokes and soars in the stratosphere.

A magnificent album with no flaws (except the occasional length) where Henderson shows everyone that he’s still a force to be reckoned with in the 70’s. Obviously, his brief encounter with Blood Sweat & Tears left an indelible mark on him, while Wallis would join that very same combo after this album. You won’t find much better a JR/F album recorded during that decade.

Sean Trane Don’t ask me how my library system ended up with this kind of unknown album in their catalogue! I will tell you I learned about it on some progressive rock music forum, and it’s hardly surprising, because this album is at least partially a steaming hot JR/F album that the planet shamefully ignores. Recorded in 73 with what I suppose is Warsaw’s who’s who at the time, Winobranie shows us that Poland’s jazz scene was certainly very much with the times, hardly late on the later developments in the “free world”. What certainly differentiates Namyslowski from most other jazzers is his use of cellos (courtesy of himself), but he uses Cieslak’s trombone growls to stupendous bass effects. Apparently this was Namy’s first album in over 7 years, so maybe other non-musical things were not as easy as the soundscapes might indicate on the disc. Most likely jazz musicians didn’t have it much easier than rock musicians behind the Iron Curtain in the 70’s.

The opening 10-mins Wine Feast title track is an intense introduction is Zbignew’s sonic world, and it’s quite an enchanting and energetic trip. The following 5% is using the cello to beef up the bowed contrabass or complement the un-bowed one; while the slow trombone and piano give a melancholic mood, but the middle section rise up the ante and energy levels unmatched later on. The Klezmer/Gypsy inspired Gogoszary is a bit hors-de-propos (IMHO) compared with the rest of the album, but it is thankfully the shortest track of the album, though still clocking close to 5 minutes.

Over the flipside (well I‘ve reviewed the CD version), the lengthy suite First/Roost/Teddy starts very calmly with Zbignew’s piano and Cieslak’s trombone, before veering dissonant. By the second Roost movement, the energy returns while the dissonance do not completely disappear. The closing Taj Mahal piece returns to the A-side’s soundscapes and provide a fitting exit to the album.

Btw, this outstanding Winobranie album was released in the CD format in the Polsih Jazz series and it’s the Volume 33, along with at least three of Namyslowski other albums, but I haven’t recognized any of the present album’s other names in the series’ catalogue. Forgive my relative lack of experience of jazzy things Polish, but Winobranie is probably at the top of of mu list with some SBB albums that I’ve explored within the last decade.

snobb In the mid 60s to early 70s, West Coast reeds player Sonny Simmons was a significant figure in the free jazz movement, mostly as a collaborator ("Conversations" and "Iron Man" with Eric Dolphy, "The Cry!" and "Firebirds!" with Prince Lasha), but he also released some successful solo albums as well. Influenced by Eric Dolphy's freeish bop, his music was an attractive mix of composed blues, bop roots and free improvisational elements. After the mid 70s he disappeared from the jazz world for two decades (playing just on the street by some sources).

After his return in the mid 90s, he became even more active with lots of gigs and recordings, plus what is more important - searching for new ways in music.

In 2001 Sonny founded a new project, The Cosmosamatics, with his old collaborator, reeds player Michael Marcus. On their project's first album, recorded for US Boxholder, besides those two, the line-up includeded such stars as bass sax player James Carter, bassist William Parker and drummer Jay Rosen. Supported on one composition by Karen Borca on bassoon and Samir Chatterjee on tablas, the band plays high energy and very modern sounding complex but accessible free jazz mixed with world music elements. It's really impressive how Sonny, in his late 60s, fearlessly steps on a new track. Five solid compositions are less bop-rooted than his music from the early 70s, but are more full-bodied, heavy-energy and well balanced.

This is a great example of the missing link between Eric Dolphy and the new millenium's free jazz, The Cosmosamatics became a long lasting project (with the only two constant members being Simmons and Marcus, plus some high level collaborators such as drummer Andrew Cyrille),which after three albums on Boxholder, made a successful move to the European market with lots of concerts and a series of albums on Central and Southern European labels (Italian Soul Note, French Bleu Regard and Polish Not Two). It's interesting that later project releases in Europe are tagged as "The Cosmosamatics", without any mention of the band members on the album covers and cover art, usually looking like a modern indie or art-pop band release.