UNDER THE SUN

While singing from the same book as the previous two albums, the Under The Sun album is still a few streets ahead in sheer titanic groove. Carr, seemingly, is less aware of what his idol Miles Davis is doing and getting more in tune with his act and what they can do, sure enough though there are influence aplenty on the album, but the music is the most urgent to have come out under the Nucleus name in a long time. Yes, the mood is pimparama agogo and the whole act are striking a deadly dirty swing. New comer Bob Bertles, who replaced Brian Smith, shines throughout the album adding a fresh impetus to Carr's act while Gordon Beck adds some sweet electric piano to the mood but, unfortunately, it is the flat production which is the albums Achilles heel on more than a few occasions, no more so that the pedestrian drumming which kicks in alongside the horns at the start of the intro track "In Procession", it just lacks that killer punch that would truly have driven the album, but it would have been especially essential here on the first track. Though the second side suite "Sarsaparilla" (including "Theme 1: Sarsaparilla", "Theme 2: Feast Alfresco" and "Theme 3: Rites of Man") seems to have worked out smoothly due to the strength of the music and musicianship rather than being aided by the production, but a cohesive expressive production has never been the strong point of any Nucleus album which in turn has muted a dynamic response that should be audible when combining such eclectic instruments with an act of this calibre. Though I find Under The Sun to be one of the better Nucleus albums, their brand of fusion was certainly getting somewhat predictable in some areas, yet that fails to quench my enjoyment. It is certainly a better album that the previous Roots and with another new line up (Clive Thacker was replaced by Bryan Spring, Dave MacRae left to be replaced by Geoff Castle) has much going for it.