UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOUR

The mastermind behind jazz rock fusion was for sure Miles Davis with his highly influential albums and his incredible line up. The genre degree of technicality is very high, the skills of the musicians is incredible. This album is the first one from Brand X and has all the ingredients which could make a great JR/F album. Powerful tunes with catchy melodies, dreamy and emotional moments, very good rhythmic side. In '76 some very important JR/F albums were already released and for sure one could feel the influences of classic artits/bands like: Billy Cobham(drumming style), Mahavishnu Orchestra(compozitional approach), Return to forever(keyboards).

We have 7 songs with 2 having more than eight minutes. The total length is a little over 40 minutes. It's not a long record but a very dense one especially on the first three songs. The first one, "Nuclear Burn", is representative for Brand X. Phil Collins behind drums and Percy Jones on bass are doing a pretty good job. The rhythmic section is very fast. If on the first song the rhythmic section takes the front, on the second song "Euthanasia Waltz ", John Goodsall on guitar and Robin Lumley on keyboard are doing a really good job. Through the end all instruments are jamming and they seem to complete very good one each other.

My favorite song is "Born ugly" with his slow intro and very inspired middle/final part. I found the next two songs("Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria" and "Unorthadox Behaviour ") a bit uninspired taking the first three songs into consideration. Somehow the high degree of technicality and inspiration from the first songs disappears. Definitely not bad but it seems that all the good ingredients were lost somewhere during the start-up.

The good times are back with the sixth song. With the same approach from the first three songs everything runs this time pretty fast but more rocky. The rhythmic section is fantastic on this song.

The last song is also the shortest one with easy and mellow parts being very similar to a movie soundtrack in a "Brian Eno" style. In fact, Percy Jones, played with Brian Eno in those times on records like "Another green world" and "Before and after science". This is for sure recommended for everyone as we have very good moments. Not the best fusion record I know but not a bad one either.