FUSION ORCHESTRA

This type of music is pretty far of the path I normally follow on my way into the sunset and a life with tenthousandonehundredandseventynine women in Eldorado. But I will give it a try anyway.

This band does a pretty standard British mix of blues, rock, folk and progressive rock. Their sound is pretty early 1970s where everybody were experimenting with music, drugs and politics. Fusion Orchestra spent most of that time on the road, playing in every bus shelter, pub and music hall from the Lerwick in the north to Land's End in the south. The result is an album like Skeleton In Armour where you can feel that their place is on the road and not in a sterile studio. And that is a very good thing about this album, which is anything but sterile.

I have my gripes with this album though. I am not that big fan of the vocals here. I feel that Jill Saward is perhaps a jazz vocalist and not a good rock vocalist. But I am not so sure if a male vocalist could had done the vocal lines on this album any better. This album does not really have any great tracks too.

The positives about this album is that the songs are overall good. Not great, but good. The songs are also full of small details well worth checking out. I am most happy when the flutes is coming in and the Jethro Tull vibes comes flying around like a cruise ship through a chimney.

And that is really what I can say about an album which for me is off the beaten track. It is a good album, but not a great one. Hence my stars.

3 stars

And now for the guts of the album my favourite track is the 2nd Sonata in Z which runs for just under 12 minutes and starts with that drummer belting that kit again with a fairly quick lead solo and then Jill Saward comes in with the vocals, who really is giving this a go and putting all into it as she does throughout the album. She also does the flute throughout the album when required and do not forget that harmonica on track 4 which she plays as well, electric piano,12 string guitar on one track. ( a real talent ). I will add as well that the band has that twin guitar attack vibe at times and throughout this track you get a flute solo, heaps of guitar solos and even harmonica towards the end. Great stuff.

Now as you all know I am a bit of a lazy bugger and I will say track 2 is just as good as is the whole album. As I keep mentioning heaps of great solos on various instruments. Skeleton in Armour, the title track gets moving along right from the start with a driving heavy rock tempo and then quitens down for 2 quick solos and then back to that driving rock that they play. Also the track , When my mommas not at home is basically a a rock number but like it I do as, yep as I said before delevered with that energetic feeling this band has.

Jill Saward released some jazz albums in the eighties and nineties. Why this band is not better known is a mystery when there are albums out there people say are rare classics and not half as good as this little job.

Though guitar-based and hard rockin' by nature, the band incorporated all sorts of things that were now available to the rock ensemble including classical structures, Baroque flirtations, smoky jazz fusion, street party fun, and metallic harmony. Best of all, they had a yearn for what a band could do within the standard rock format without becoming experimental, as on eleven minute 'Sonata in Z'. 'Have I Left the Gas On?' will remind of Tull but also of Babe Ruth sans the Spanish guitar, and the fabulous title cut is not to be missed. Out of place 'When My Momma's Not at Home' is an awful pop tune but 12-minute heavy symphonic blues opus 'Talk to the Man in the Sky' has great double-guitar lines, bedroom keyboards, and driving riff-rock that defies anything Rush would do in following years.

A rare find by an exceptional band that progressed and rocked equally well, and mandatory for fans of all those glorious second tier groups during this electrifying period.