WAVEMAKER

— First review of this album —

I never really felt New Atlantis was as strong as their debut Where Are We Captain, although I started with New Atlantis first as that was the album I found first. It was inspired by the works of Francis Bacon. It came with an insert on how he predicted, in the 17th Century, the synthesizer, it was pretty clear what he was getting at, with how he could describe such an instrument in a 17th Century context. Make no doubt about that: a poem that prophesizes the synthesizer inspires an electronic album by some BBC Radiophonic Workshop guys (Brian Hodgson, John Lewis). The album is electronic as always, and there's no doubt "Salomon's House" is the best thing on the album, with great synth melodies, but much of the album seems a bit sparse and twee and at times I wished they put a little more energy in the album and less off the insipid side. Where Are We Captain? is a rather solid album, sure it was cheesy, but it was also quite engaging. I wished I could say the same about New Atlantis. I'd recommend Where Are We Captain? or the Zygoat album from 1974 as they were certainly stronger sets. New Atlantis isn't one of the better Progressive Electronic albums I've heard.

Wavemaker was one of many projects created by people who worked at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, in this case Brian Hodgson and John Lewis. They created Electrophon Studios, so no surprise many albums recorded by these people were recorded there, including In a Covenant Garden by Electrophon (Hodgson and Dudley Simpson), and Zygoat (American Burt Alcantara with Hodgson and Simpson), and of course both Wavemaker's albums. Where Are We Captain is the first and to be honest his is more or less a continuation of the sound created by Zygoat. There is a strong reminder of Synergy here, so this sounds like the UK answer. If you enjoy Zygoat, there's no reason not to enjoy this album. "Double Helix" is some really great and adventurous piece of progressive electronic. "Lodestar" features some interesting synth sounds, while "Wavemaker" is more simply tripped out sounds. The music has that rather hi-tech futuristic sound overall. I'm glad to see these musicians working for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop did much more than create music and sound effects for Doctor Who, but went out of their way to record albums that were available to the public. Sure Wavemaker can get a little cheesy at times, but there's no denying great stuff making Where Are We Captain? a worthy addition to your collection. Unfortunately it's never been reissued, luckily original LPs can still be had for a reasonable price.