THE INNER MOUNTING FLAME

And here is another, and the last (or last but one) Mahavishnu Orchestra album that I have recently purged from my active collection.

The complaint is the same as with the Birds of Fire: way too much noise. A neurotic guitar dueling with a psychotic violin, accompanied by chaotic drums. An overwhelmingly oppressive, jagged soundscape. This kind of music might have felt (to some) like a revolution in the 1970s, but now, 40 years later, the Inner Mounting Flame simply doesn't cut it any more. A riot, tops.

It's interesting to note that Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and some other best-loved virtuosi of fusion, who played very inventive and vigorous, yet perfectly normal (as in "not crazy") music in the 70s, and who still come up with great records, for some reason have not made it into the Progarchives' Top 100.