NUCLEUS — Direct Hits (review)

NUCLEUS — Direct Hits album cover Boxset / Compilation · 1976 · Fusion Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
snobb
Nucleus is mostly known as a source for musicians who eventually joined Soft Machine and the band never was as popular as the leading Canterbury scene bands of the early 70s. On the other hand, they are possibly one of best known British non-Canterbury jazz rock bands from that time.

'Direct Hits' is the band's only compilation of hits till now. Ian Carr is the founder of the band. Besides him, Nucleus survived many line-up changes, so the list of artists who collaborated on this release is really impressive. First of all, (besides Carr himself) such known names are Alan Holdsworth, Roy Babbington and Karl Jenkins (all of whom were part of the Soft Machine team at different times and are strongly responsible for Soft Machine's switch from an improvisation based psychedelic jazz-rock band to a straight-ahead fusion collective). The music on this compilation illustrates quite well the early period in Nucleus' activity (as with any compilation though, a lot of important compositions are left off).

The best way to imagine what Nucleus' music is like is to just imagine an even more straight-forward fusion than on the Softs' 'Bundles', energetic and melodic, but without any memorable compositions. The tempos tend to vary from medium to fast and the ensemble playing is based around Ian Carr's trumpet. This music does not have traces of the depth or complexity of Soft Machine's "Third", but concentrates more on easy accessible moments.

This is music for fans of Karl Jenkins' Soft Machine (in many cases his work in Soft Machine is even better).
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Jazz Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

JMA TOP 5 Jazz ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
A Love Supreme Post Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
Kind of Blue Cool Jazz
MILES DAVIS
Buy this album from our partners
The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady Progressive Big Band
CHARLES MINGUS
Buy this album from our partners
Blue Train Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners
My Favorite Things Hard Bop
JOHN COLTRANE
Buy this album from our partners

New Jazz Artists

New Jazz Releases

Taylor Ho Bynum, Jacqueline Kerrod : Simple Ways Such Self Jazz Related Improv/Composition
TAYLOR HO BYNUM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Sanyas Hard Bop
STEVE TURRE
Buy this album from MMA partners
Pianohooligan : Critique of Swing in Two Parts, Pts. 1 & 2 Third Stream
PIOTR ORZECHOWSKI (PIANOHOOLIGAN)
Buy this album from MMA partners
Jason Stein, Marilyn Crispell, Damon Smith, Adam Shead : Spi​-​raling Horn Avant-Garde Jazz
JASON STEIN
Buy this album from MMA partners
Utopia Jazz Related Improv/Composition
OLIVER LUTZ
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Jazz Online Videos

Stablemates
RON BLAKE
js· 1 day ago
Critique of Swing in Two Parts, Pt. 1
PIOTR ORZECHOWSKI (PIANOHOOLIGAN)
js· 1 day ago
FULL ALBUM - Oliver Lutz - Utopia w/ Leif Berger, Constantin Krahmer
OLIVER LUTZ
js· 2 days ago
Lift
DAVE WILSON (US/NZ)
js· 4 days ago
Nature is a Mother
CHARLIE PYNE
js· 4 days ago
More videos

New JMA Jazz Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Jazz News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed