ANOTHER FINE TUNE YOU'VE GOT ME INTO

3,5 stars really!!!

Gilgamesh's second album is certainly more accessible than its debut. With a different rhythm section, one could not fear for the music's nature too much, certainly so as Hugh Hopper was now free of Soft Machine, but involved in the Soft Heap projects (see the Esoteric reissues). The music here can be best described as a typical example later-70's Canterbury music, as we are never far away from a cross of jazz-rock/fusion and more conventional ECM-type jazz but always remaining calm and determined. While the two frontmen have remained, the rhythm section sees the arrival of the adore-mentioned Hugh Hopper, but also the ex-Rendell-Car Quintett drummer Trevor Tomkins

However, this album is definitely Alan Gowan's vehicle especially with his electric piano on the 10 min+ Bobberty where he shows his full ability on KB, and that track is relatively representative of the album. Although the quartet might appear very aloof-sounding in its approach, they are a very tight unit, as shown on Play Time and Underwater Song. I can only recommend Gilgamesh's second album to confirmed Canterbury fans, but if you are one, this album although not essential, it is very worthy of your investigations. To others, I suggest you start with the debut or the posthumous release.

Very calm, soft and beautiful music from this excelent band. Short themes, all instrumental, with very good playing from all the band's members. If you like the canterbury scene, this album is a must.

The second work of GILGAMESH released in 1978 "Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into". The groove of the main stream fusion joined, and it became the album of the image refined more than the former work. It is a fine work of the Electric jazz. Especially, the performance of the synthesizer is distinguished.

This is my first taste of Gilgamesh, and to be honest, I'm not sure what to think. Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into remains a typical example of the Canterbury scene. This fully instrumental outfit plays similar music to National Health - to some extent at least. This is very jazzy stuff (no woodwinds, though), more so than most of the Canterbury albums I've heard, but the trademark sound of the genre is still present all the time - whatever that means. Very calm and peaceful music, with Alan Gowen's keyboards leading the way. The music is mostly complex, and yet it's fairly easy to listen to - it doesn't hurt your ears in any way. Perfect stuff to listen to late at night, when you're alone, and want to get your daily dosage of prog, but do not want anything too avant-garde. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, none of the compositions are that memorable or remarkable. Some of the tracks leave me a bit cold - lots of jamming, but the compositions do not seem to go anywhere. AFTYGMI lacks the 'oomph' aspect to make it anything but a fairly enjoyable example of the Canterbury scene. Theme From Something Else is the finest piece here, a nicely quirky keyboard-oriented track with many exciting moments. In conclusion, I'd like to say that this is pretty good stuff if you're a fan of the sub-genre, but if you're not, there are many more important bands and albums you need to go through before entering the world of Gilgamesh.

Can't understand the lack of support for this record....intelligent, well played compositions exploring gentle, yet expansive themes. There's a great mix of acoustic and electric arrangements that give the album a nice flow. The clarity in the single note approach of Phil Lee's guitar blends nicely with Alan Gowen's adventurous keyboard style. The rhythm section of Trevor Tomkins and Hugh Hopper adds the perfect undercurrent to the music. While there are no wild instrumental excursions and the Canterburian sense of humor remains low key, the music remains jazzy and upbeat despite its gentility. A very cerebral album that doesn't take itself too seriously. It's my favorite album from the group and my favorite record featuring Alan Gowen....a must for fans of the later Canterbury style.

I must say I much prefer their debut to this one. This one is light and pleasant and it doesn't vary much from that mood and sound. This is surprising considering Hugh Hopper has taken over for Jeff Clyne on bass, and Trevor Tomkins has taken Michael Travis' place behind the drum kit. This is very well played of course, and Gowen is so fluid and nimble on the keyboards. Interesting cover art for this style of music. It's actually a painting titled "The Ghost Of A Flea" by William Blake.Yikes !

"Darker Brighter" features light drums with liquid sounding keys as the bass comes and goes. Lee comes in on guitar with a tasteful melody that is as fluid as Gowen's keyboard play. "Bobberty-Theme From Something Else" has some nice guitar leads early as Gowen continues to impress. The bass of Hopper comes to the fore after a minute. Synths come and go in this one. It calms right down after 2 minutes as light drums and a mellow soundscape take over. The tempo picks up after 6 minutes but it's still light and jazzy. "Waiting" consists of gentle guitar throughout.

"Play Time" is a song I really like alot. I do prefer NATIONAL HEALTH's live version better from the same titled album. It's just so intricate and every note is in it's proper place. Oh yeah, it sounds great as well. "Underwater Song" has an excellent drum intro before keys and guitar arrive after a minute. Synths follow. "Foel'd Again" features bass and drums that beat slowly as keys play uneventfully in the background. "T.N.T.F.X." is the other song on this album that I really like. It opens with a nice guitar melody as drums play random patterns. Lee is the focus throughout and Tomkins is impressive as well.

So there you have it. Not that dynamic really or varied. Just some great playing that is restrained to say the least.

This album is an excellent jazz-rock fusion canterbury record! Alan Gowen left National Health in 1977 to expand his more jazzy, but not less progressive , approach of music than Dave Stewart.

The result is a pure bomb for the progaddict : an intelligent, extremely subtile combination between jazz (precursor of certain pat metheny stuff but with complexier melodies and harmonies) and canterbury.

All materials are complex and really written. Textures are all different. The end of the first piece is a must for complex prog lovers. Th sound of Gowen is incredibily dreamy and spacy. Phil Lee is precise and polyvalent (between mahavishnu's stuff and pat metheny). His accoustical interlude is wonderfull! Trevor Tomkins reveals is science of drums coloration. Hugh Hopper is never interfering with Gowen and Lee's predominance and stays on the second plane.

The most impressive with this album is that it could have been recorded now. It was futuristic music from the seventies, which will still be futuristic in 20 years. Proggers, this album is an ultimate classic!!

This, Gilgamesh's late 70s album, gets far more listens in my playlists than Gilgamesh's eponymous debut. Led by Alan Gowen of National Health fame, this is an exquisite collection of instrumental songs, characterized by lush chords on electric piano, nimble melodies on both synthesizer and jazz guitar, and subtly shifting rhythmic meters--yup, it's high Canterbury style all right! There's nary a rough edge on this album; the music croons and sways with grace, restraint, and--one might imagine--sunlight bottled from a lazy summer afternoon.

There are two songs in the collection that stand out for me as some of Gowen's very best work. The first is the opening track, "Darker Brighter," which is the second most vigorous song on the album (outdone only by the final track). It covers almost all the ground that the album will later explore, leaping about almost madly from brilliant idea to brilliant idea, the harmonies whirling along in hot pursuit. But rather than feeling jerky or mechanical, note the almost deceptive smoothness to the writing and performance. What should have been a riff-o-rama is thus transformed into an elegant, though almost completely unsingable, tune.

"Underwater Song" couldn't be more aptly named. A solid drum solo from Trevor Tomkins leads into a wash of harmony; the melody floats over nothing but a ride pattern and gorgeous, suspended chords from a carefully blended synthesizer and electric piano. I can't think of any other song that better captures a sense of floating underwater. It is utterly peaceful and serene, and one of my favorite chill-out songs.

Two other songs are worthy of particular attention as well IMO. "Waiting" is a sensitive acoustic guitar solo that's an interesting change of pace from the rest of the album. "Play Time" is a jam on two mysterious chords (G#m7sus4 and Emaj7#11 if you must know) that roll gently over a pedal point, resolving into something a bit more concrete and funky. I wouldn't say that the piece is particularly playful (unless their sense of humor is really really dry!) but the chords in this song will haunt you.

Power-proggers should steer clear, but Canterbury fans and fusion jazz aficionados will find plenty to love. And I envy the National Health fan who is approaching this album for the first time!

Another fine album from Gilgamesh.

This sadly ignored band included the likes of Hugh Hopper (released from Soft Machine) and Alan Gowen. Both was sadly taken away from us far too early. Alan Gowen's excellent contributions to this album just reminds me how much this world misses him. Check out his fabelous playing on Play Time and you will get my point. Alan Gowen was more or less the leader of Gilgamesh. He was also the leader of National Health. Those who knows National Health should really purchase all Gilgamesh album. The music here is pretty similar to National Health......... with a couple of differences. This album is much more keyboards focused and laid back than the first two National Health albums. Gilgamesh is much more jazz than jazz-rock. They are also much more jazz than National Health, Hatfield & The North and Soft Machine.

Play Time is an excellent track. So is Bobberty. The rest of the material here is good, but sadly a bit anonymous. This is not rock. This is silent contemplation. This is a good album, but nothing more than that. I still rate Gilgamesh very highly and will listen a lot to this album during the next decades.

3 stars

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)

Like Gilgamesh's first album, Another Fine Tune presents a version of Canterbury that is technically proficient and competently composed, but lacks sparkle, emotion or energy - it's very well-mannered music that doesn't really accomplish much beyond being pretty. Alan Gowen's keyboard work is probably the big draw, though National Health fans may find this somewhat tame compared to that band's debut. Hugh Hopper's presence sets the groundwork for his further collaboration with Gowen on Two Rainbows Daily, but the presence of him on bass here doesn't really change the band's sound that much compared to the previous album.

Apparently, Gilgamesh were only reassembled at this point in time as a rehearsals group rather than a band seriously intending to perform for audiences, and this rather joyless release kind of exemplifies that - this is music produced for the sake of producing music, rather than music produced for the enjoyment of listeners.

The tragic death of Alan Gowen at the age of just 33 would rob the progressive rock world of one of it's more refined talents and ultimately overshadow a career that both promised and delivered much. A highly-skilled keyboardist and composer, Gowen's career would start with brief stints in both Afro-rock outfit Assegai and his own, short-lived jazz group Sunship, before joining the blossoming Canterbury movement during the early part of the 1970's. Like many of his peers, Gowen's membership with groups such as National Health and Gilgamesh was fluid - he would move between both several times for both artistic and financial reasons - yet the best of him would be seen in Gilgamesh, a complex, instrumental jazz-prog outfit that released two excellent albums of delicately-wrought music that, although retrospectively popular with both fans and critics, failed to make any serious commercial headway. Featuring guitarist Phil Lee, Soft Machine alumni Hugh Hopper on bass and drummer Trevor Tomkins, this 1978 release would be the second-and-final Gilgamesh album - and undoubtedly their most impressive - yet in truth it probably arrived far too late in the day to make any real impact on the then rapidly-developing music scene. The light jazz touch prevalent here is beautifully- executed, streaking through a series of lushly-realised compositions, yet with punk barking away it seemed that Gilgamesh were fighting a losing battle that no-one was really watching. The complexity of the music and the poverty of the musicians involved also made touring unrealistic, and Gilgamesh would dissolve before really getting the chance to shine. It's a sad tale as this was a band who deserved so much more, particularly as they were just as good as any of their fellow Canterbury contemporaries, groups such asCaravan, Soft Machine, National Health & Hatfield & The North. However, despite the lack of success you shouldn't be put off. 'Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into' is a dazzling jazz odyssey, and an album that should definitely be investigated by all classic prog lovers. Here's to you Alan. You deserved so much more.

STEFAN TURNER, STOKE NEWINGTON, 2012

Gilgamesh was among those Canterbury bands that never really made the grade in terms of popularity. Considering the band history, it would have been a miracle if they had. Led by keyboardist Alan Gowen (who had played jazz piano since the 60's, and a participant in the history of NATIONAL HEALTH as well), a gifted keyboardist and composer but who clearly lacked both certain leadership and a will to succeed commercially, it seems. Three years after the forming of Gilgamesh appeared the self-titled debut (1975), produced by Dave Stewart (Hatfield and the North) but the line-up broke even before the album reached the shops. Together with e.g. Stewart, Gowen founded National Health - and left them before finishing the debut album (1977). Then he started to write music for the next Gilgamesh album before he had a band at all.

Only guitarist Phil Lee plays on both albums besides Gowen himself. Drummer Trevor Tomkins was a jazz veteran, and Hugh Hopper is known as a SOFT MACHINE bassist. Gowen tells in the foreword of Another Tune that he prefers to compose for certain musicians and that all the musicians had shaped the final results. Also he informs us that he tries to write music where one cannot really tell the difference between composed and improvised parts. OK, you have already figured out that the music is more jazz than rock, haven't you?

The music bears some complexity but the overall nature is light and airy. Gowen often plays Moog. His keyboards don't steal the show: the emphasis is in the well-crafted band play. 'Waiting', however, is a solo piece for acoustic guitar (written by Lee, naturally). The music is unmistakably Canterbury but surely on its jazziest and the least rocky side. It perhaps lacks the wit and good humour you get in Caravan or Hatfield, instead there's a slight amount of melancholy even with the lightness of it all. The whole album is pretty enjoyable if you like jazz7fusion, but from the prog's point of view it's nothing spectacular. Both Hatfield and National Health have more to offer. Anyway, there has never been too much good British instrumental fusion and this is one of the finest albums in that area. 3½ stars.

To fans of Canterbury Scene, as I myself am, a 5-star certified essential.

And within the scene, a latter day example of more Jazz Fusion inflected music. I was just thinking, as I'm showing this to my girlfriend, a very important album I discovered in my college days (and listened to frequently), stylistically similar perhaps to Pat Metheny, but unlike him (with all very due respect) ever more consistently interesting, holding the ears of the listener despite being soft and reflective. It's a magical sort of album to me in this way.

From the playful and light (and unmistakably Kentish) "Darker Brighter", "Play Time" and "T.N.T.F.X." to the epic and emotive "Bobberty: Theme from Something Else" to the acoustic Winter-welcome beauty of Lee's solo "Waiting": A great album of great music by exemplary and most worthy British master musicians.

This should appeal to those fans of (both inimitable and essential) contemporaries and collaborators Phil Miller (Machine Mole, Hatfield and the North, National Health) and Dave Stewart (Egg, Khan, Hatfield, National Health, Bruford), masters of feeling and masters of their respective instruments. Of a comparable deserved status are Gilgamesh's own Alan Gowen and Phil Lee. Masterful students of Bop and Jazz at large, they know their way around composition (and each other).

True Rate: 4.5/5.0

Its hard to imagine that something as obscure as Gilgamesh could produce a 5-star masterpiece. One would assume that if they had created such good music, they wouldn't be so obscure. However, clearly, Another Fine Tune You've Got Me Into is the exception that proves the rule. Yes, its weird. Yes, it is obscure. But when actually listening to the music itself, one can discover how truly incredible this album is. The album features the quiet but complicated "Darker Brighter," the brilliant "Bobberty / Theme For Something Else," the acoustic "Waiting," as well as many other gems. Definitely a surprising masterpiece of progressive rock, and essential to any collection.