THE 11TH HOUSE

The Eleventh House often seemed to follow the Mahavishnu Orchestra's lead. As the eighties unfolded Mahavishnu loaded up with cheezy synths and became as tepid as an hour-old cup of tea on a fall afternoon. In 1985 Coryell, Mandel, Lee, and Mouzon put The 11th House album together, full of Sonor Drums, vocorders, and other assorted electronic contrivances. Teramasu Hino is added on trumpet to fatten up the sound, but what you end up with is much more like Passport's disco recordings than it is Mike Lawrence's Level One sound. Mouzon's wicked thundering drumkit is gone, replaced by something much more in the soft-jazz catagory, not that that is an entirely bad thing. This album is assuredly more listenable than the previous year's Mahavishnu.

The music just seems to happy to me to be fusion. The intense cerebral component is missing, yet it is a pleasant enough listen all the way through. It is good to have Mike Mandel on board again, but even so his playing here seems too accessable and air-friendly too these ears. It does however make for relaxing background music on a lazy summer afternoon. It is inoffensive yet uninspiring. It is good to hear that Mouzon gave up the funky snakeskin, but somebody must have put valium on his cornflakes for this one. The redone version of Highlove from Back Together Again is quite good, and Larry's playing is up to his usual standard. It's just so hard to get good help these days isn't it?