MOVING GELATINE PLATES

Their name and the artwork pretty much describe the music on this album. Pretty difficult to put in words. Style wise, they are somewhere between Gong, Soft Machine and Frank Zappa. A mix of RIO and the Canterbury scene. They have one and a half leg in Canterbury, I would say. But just to confuse us, some of their music (the last track) is Focus'esque. What a lovely stew.

This is their debut album, I have to add. Their music is based on much of the same instruments as Soft Machine used. Various saxophones, trumpet, flutes, keyboards, electric guitars, drums and bass. There is even some lunatic vocals here. With the exception from the final track and the pretty eccentric inclusion of a long drum solo at the end of the fifteen minutes long Last Song (yes, that's the name of the song), the songs are pretty bouncy avant-garde songs. They all sounds like a blend of Gong and Soft Machine's two first albums. I guess that is a good description. Most of the songs here sounds like jazzy improvisations over a theme, the Soft Machine way of doing things from Third to Seven.

I think the songs are pretty good. My only gripe, and this is my usual gripe, is the lack of any signature tunes or any excellent songs. If "blindtested" and asked which album from which band this is, I am not sure if I would answer the debut album from Moving Gelatine Plates. But as a debut album, this is a good effort. For fans of the Canterbury scene, both their first two albums is worthy an investment.

3 stars