BRUFORD: ONE OF A KIND

This album is very special for me personally. First, this was my first album that I purchased from BILL BRUFORD solo work. Second, this was my first time I knew ALLAN HOLDSWORTH the great guitarist and JEFF BERLIN the powerful bassist. My first impression of listening to this album the first time (end of 79, I think), I was kind of listening to the drumming style of YES "Fragile" but with totally different kind of music, a blend of jazz and rock, I would say. I think "jazz" is probably what BILL wants as his music aspiration as I understand from the story of YES that one of the reasons he joined YES was that he thought that YES would play jazz.

This kind of BRUFORD music has then inspired (I think) FINNEUS GAUGE (Echolyn's transition band) through their only two albums "More Once More" and "One Inch of the Fall".

"Hell's Bells" is an uplifting track that opens the album. Its melody is dominated by DAVE STEWART's keyboard. It's a nice track. Unfortunately it ends up with a "fade out" style that I don't favor very much. The title track "One of a Kind Part One - Part Two" is a very energetic track with heavy and unique drumming of Bruford. I think these two tracks should be positioned as opening tracks. Wonderful composition.

"Travels With Myself - And Someone Else" is a very nice slow track with great keyboard and guitar sounds. DAVE STEWART's style is similar (or in the vein of) WEATHER REPORT keyboard play. JEFF BERLIN's bass is also nice here.

If I have to choose one best track of this album or any other BRUFORD's solo, I definitely would vote for FAINTING IN COILS (the fifth track of this album). Oh boy .. this is really a beautifully crafted composition!!! Brilliant. It opened with soft keyboard sound followed by short and "funny" narration by SAM ALDER, ALICE ANTHEA, NORMAN TAYLOR and THE MOCK TURTLE BILL BRUFORD. Even the dialogue at the narration is really the key to set the overall tone of the track. The solo keyboard sound and guitar fills are backed by dazzling bass playing and drumming to accentuate the melody. At the intro, after the narrator said "Fainting in Coils" the music that follows is a kind of the four instruments do not blend in harmony but it still produce wonderful sound. I like it! Every musical segment of this track creates an orgasmic and memorable melody, especially the tagline melody which is played repeatedly. If you never heard BRUFORD, I would suggest you to play this track first. It's amazing!!!

"Five G" is a typical jazz rock fusion music with dynamic bass at intro part. Well, I don't want to review all tracks but overall all tracks have the same musical quality. "Forever Until Sundary", "The Sahara of Snow, Pt. 1 and 2" are all great tracks. One interesting observation about this album is on musicianship. All musicians contribute in their right balance to create wonderful blend of instrumentations in the composition. No single instrument or group of instruments played dominantly. Even, sometime bass is used as melody, for example in "The Abingdon Chasp". On ALLAN HOLDSWORTH, this was my first time knowing his kind of gutar playing style. It's unique and it has inspired other guitarists as well.

Overall, I recommend you to purchase this album, especially if you like RETURN TO FOREVER, WEATHER REPORT, BRAND X, JACO PASTORIUS. They are not alike, composition-wise, but it might be categorized under the same umbrella. It's your call. But I am pretty damn sure that I'm not naïve to give this album FIVE STAR (songwriting, musicianship, sonic production of CD, and overall performance). You must try FAINTING IN COILS! It will blow your mind, definitely! - Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.