Label: Esoteric Recordings (Europe), ECLEC2126
Style: Instrumental, Progressive Rock, Jazz Rock
Country: United Kingdom
Time: 37:51
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 214 Mb
British
bass guitarist Hugh Hopper's recent death in the summer of 2009 throws
this reissue into some sad relief. Recorded and originally released some
31 years ago, the fare is fusion of an order made rare by the fact that
it's played with a measure of diffidence and an absence of empty
technical fireworks. In short the music, all of it written by band
members, gets the chance to breathe, yet its airy, listener-friendly
surface resounds at deeper, more profound levels.
The relatively
quaint sounds of analog synthesizers are here too. On "Bobberty / Theme
For Something Else" they are an integral part of proceedings even in
solo, which is down as much as anything else to keyboard player Alan
Gowen's deft handling of them. Phil Lee's guitar work is shot through
with the same quality, and there's an unassuming air about his playing,
even in the trickiest of time signatures. There is, as well, a lack of
fuss about the group's collective efforts that doesn't disguise how
demanding its music is.
Drummer Trevor Tompkins was something of a
stalwart on the British jazz scene even then, having served time in the
groundbreaking quintet co-headed by reeds player Don Rendell and
trumpeter Ian Carr—the latter of whom went on to lead Nucleus, one of
the most accomplished British fusion bands—and here he brings his wealth
of experience to bear in the most positive way. His solo which opens
"Underwater Song" is a model of subtlety and restraint, its power
manifesting through deft stick work and acting as the preliminary to the
set's most lyrical piece. Color is also applied through subtle use of
the venerable mellotron. It's always a treat to hear that keyboard used
as something other than a tool for symphonic pretensions. Here its
melancholy tones lend the proceedings a profound but beguilingly
melancholy air.
Hopper's penchant for quirks and strangeness is
manifested here on "Foel'd Again," where he coaxes unlikely sounds from
his instrument, with Gowen joining him in the all too brief reverie. The
closing "T.N.T.F.X" is happily explosive for all the right reasons,
although even when this band cuts loose they do so with a disarming lack
of rhetorical gestures. Liberties with time again disrupt the music's
linear flow, although these guys know far too much about dynamics to
fall foul of the usual traps. In a music purged of empty gestures theirs
was all too briefly a persuasive collective identity.
(allaboutjazz.com/another-fine-tune-youve-got-me-into-gilgamesh-esoteric-recordings-review-by-nic-jones)
01. Darker Brighter (05:40)
02. Bobberty - Theme From Something Else (10:41)
03. Waiting (02:25)
04. Play Time (07:14)
05. Underwater Song (07:04)
06. Foel'd Again (01:50)
07. T.N.T.F.X. (02:54)
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