CHANGING STATES

I'm something of a Keith Emerson fan so its very difficult for me to be totally objective. Keith Emerson is one of those forces of nature that emerged from the late sixties showing that a Hammond organ could be a lead instrument in the right hands. This was the instrument that he forged his reputation on until he was sidetracked by the seductive charms of the Moog synth. However throughout his ELP career there are still those great organ lead tracks such as Hoedown and Tarkus before it was pretty much dumped for the Yamaha GX1 , the much vaunted keyboard of choice for the likes of Stevie Wonder and John Paul Jones (Led Zep). I do feel something was lost and that sense of loss continued through to the very disappointing ELPowell album where Emerson seemed reluctant,So where is that full blown Hammond Organ album to get one excited? By 1989 Emerson had had his fill of doing film soundtracks and so was looking to get back to a more traditional sounding album. This is it. Very much a stripped down sound and the organ up front. The band is absolutely top notch with some very powerful versions of tracks that were too be later reproduced by ELP on Black Moon- Another Frontier and Romeo and Juliet. For my money these are so much more powerful than the ELP versions and its the drums that are the major difference. The drummer here (Mark Barsimanto) is more dynamic than Carl Palmer who by 1992 was suffering some problems with his hands (Carpal Tunnel syndrome I think). It also helps that the producer is the legendary Kevin Gilbert who also co writes 3 of the tracks and plays Tuba on the orchestral version of Abaddon's Bolero ( yes really!!) as well as drums on the 3 of the three tracks. Actually this highlights one issue with this album that the tracks are taken from two different sessions but the common denominators are Emerson and Gilbert. This could almost be viewed as a collaboration between two of the greatest talents of the prog scene and when you also consider that Marc Bonilla is present on 3 of the tracks then there are some real heavyweights involved.

Kevin Gilbert's sleeve notes are a worth partly reproducing: The music on this CD was conceived in the traditional fashion.Lots of grunting and groaning.Sweat,Much too quickly.Mr Emerson braved the stirrups whilst Mr Gilbert reached in and pulled.Marc Bonilla midfwifed and Big Nila provided lots of hot water and towels.

..it does go on much more and 'Kev' shows himself to be a talented writer.

This album is being reissued this year so if you want a dose of contemporary organ lead prog by one of the masters then this is for you.

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