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Manfred Mann's Plains Music - Plains Music CD (album) cover

PLAINS MUSIC

Manfred Mann's Plains Music

 

Crossover Prog

2.77 | 21 ratings

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Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
3 stars Indian reservation

"Plain's Music" is actually by Manfred Mann's Plain Music, not by Manfred Mann's Earth Band. The difference is important, as this album bears no relation to MMEB. The "plains" in question are those of North America, the music being "the melodies of the North American plains Indians". The sleeve notes however also bear the disclaimer "we do not pretend that (the album) is in any way representative of the original ethnic music which was the source material".

So what do we have then? In fact "Plains music" is a sparse, jazz tinged album, of light melodies, and singing which sounds more African tribal than Indian. The nearest vocal comparison I can offer is Ladysmith Black Mambazo. The tracks are however largely instrumental with sax, flute, piano, and what I take to be acoustic guitar being the dominant sounds. I hesitate over the guitar, as no guitarist is actually credited, the nearest being either Mann's keyboards, or "African hunting bows". Manfred Mann had of course dabbled with tribal sounds some nine years or so before, on MMEB's "Somewhere in Afrika", but the results then were somewhat different.

The music throughout is soft, to the point of being understated, but the jazz influence sits reasonably well with the tribal sounds. The tracks are short, and tend to fade rather abruptly without concluding satisfactorily. It did occur to me that had they been joined together to form longer pieces, the overall effect may have been improved. The album as a whole is also very short, lasting around half an hour, if that.

A pleasant, but undemanding album. Fans of MMEB's powerful prog rock sound should however approach with considerable caution.

Easy Livin | 3/5 |

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