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Writer's pictureShark

Unorthodox Behaviour by Brand X: frenetic drum rolls, layers of silence, funky bass, atmospheric synthesizers, and rhythmic developments accompanied by proggy jazzed up time signature outbursts

Updated: Jul 6



With Understanding Comes Appreciation


Although latecomers, who boarded the Fusion train when it was already on cruise mode and some of its wagons already showed signs of fatal erosion, Brand X were more than a foot note on the genre’s history namely because of their illustrious member Phil Collins —who was probably and lucidly starting to question himself about the purpose of keeping his main band rolling (a mental soundness that wouldn’t last long as we all know…); I also belong to that group who believes that Collins reached his pinnacle as a drummer in this band and that this was his best career move after Peter Gabriel left Genesis; but although his future would mostly fill me with delusions instead of joys, he had both the merit of co-signing some very worthy moments for the genre’s catalogue —at least as far as this effort is concerned and which even if mostly derivative, intermittently evoking Return to Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra or the George Duke/Billy Cobham Band among others, is mostly and basically an honest work— as he also provided John Goodsall (Atomic Rooster, The Fire Merchants) a visibility he’d never had and clearly deserved and was a launching pad for bassist extraordinaire Percy Jones, who’d soon be praised and lengthy featured on the pages of Guitar Player Magazine (there was no exclusively bass dedicated mags at the time so that was the best endorsement 6 and 4 stringed instruments’ players could get)

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