THE NEW WORLDS FAIR

English writer Michael Moorcock have for most of his career had a close relationship with various musicians, especially Hawkwind, and this release is his one and only attempt as a rock musician himself.

It's a concept album, where Moorcock's spoken lyrics and crowd noises is the red thread binding together a story about "Dude" going to the fair. It's a rather unique experience in many ways, the psychedelic tinged tunes with a distinct 60's flavor to them mixed in with dark and eerie lyrics - and a high level of theatrics in songs as well as the passages read out by Moorcock. Not all the tunes work out here, in fact it's a fairly mixed release overall, but this is also very much a one of a kind release; worth checking out for the good bits.

Fans of retro psychedelic rock should find this one interesting, as well as fans of Hawkwind.

MICHAEL MOORCOCK's fantasy fiction stories have always been a bit "out there" for me, far flung, fetched and set tales of other worlds in contrast to his more sci fi oriented material shared with the likes of HAWKWIND and BLUE OYSTER CULT. I expected that perhaps his sole (for many years) musical offering under the auspices of DEEP FIX would help us understand how those two mildly disparate qualities can intersect. Instead we have a third MOORCOCK in the form of a gritty and vaguely sinister tale of a world's fair of the newish variety. It's like RENAISSANCE's "Trip to the Fair' until the needle hits the groove, ok it isn't, mostly.

Setting aside the already passe aspects of narrated intros and hippy cliches aside for a moment, I hear more conventional rock and roll than I would have expected in the related tracks that follow those intros. Nonetheless, "Fair Dealer" is a melodically sly inexplicably terrifying number that I heard on college radio back in 1979 and filed away for many years. OK I was a deer in the headlights at my first real job but it still moves me today. Several other tracks attempt to eclipse it, including the BOWIE like "Hero", the English folk rock of "Come to the Fair", and the infectious rocker "Starcruiser". These more than offset the uninspired "16 Year Old Doom" and "Ferris Wheel".

Flaws aplenty and aside, this fair is just off kilter enough to augment Moorcock's legacy, which is appropriate for someone who has contributed so much to several bands we love before and since.