BRAND X

Thick with percussion, due to the mostly reprehensible Phil Collins - who for once, pulls out all the stops on this pretty spectacular little album that I held no hopes for whatsoever.

Quite similar in many respects to 'Weather Report' with that brilliant fretless bass pioneered by Jaco Pastorius and later by Mick Karn. An easy listening album that can well be listened to late at night. Collins does get a bit carried away with himself at some points, but in general this is a nice laid back affair with nothing too intrusive which holds a nice fusion ambience throughout.

There's plenty of Electric Piano, fingered guitar and 'slappy brushed drums' which all add up to an excellent album.

A good safe intro point for anyone interested in Fusion Jazz.

"The Poke" is uptempo and intricate. Impressive stuff really. I like when it settles some before 2 minutes. It kicks back in before 3 1/2 minutes and the drumming here is great. "Masques" is pastoral with piano early. Then different sounds start coming and going but it's still minimalistic.

"Black Moon" is a catchy mid-paced tune. "Deadly Nightshade" is a top three. I like when it changes 1 1/2 minutes in with deep bass and drums leading the way.Guitar too then the tempo picks up before 2 1/2 minutes.The guitar and drums lead 5 minutes in then Goodsall starts to shred after 6 minutes. It settles back late but it's still powerful.

"Earth Dance" turns intricate with percussion a minute in. It fades out to end it. "Access To Data" is a top three. Much better than the last tune, much more dynamic. A nice bass / drum section 2 minutes in.The guitar joins in sounding great.This continues to the end.Killer stuff.

"The Ghost Of Mayfield Lodge" is my final top three.The sound builds. Piano before 2 1/2 minutes with crisp drumming.The guitar leads before 3 1/2 minutes, nice bass too.Then drums come to the fore. A calm follows with intricate sounds. It starts to pick up after 5 1/2 minutes then turns powerful before 6 1/2 minutes.It's lighter again a minute later then a calm ends it.

A low 4 stars but impressive enough to recommend.

Perhaps Brand X was trying to be as successful as Genesis, maybe they were trying to become the first jazz fusion big band, maybe they were wanting to disband, and maybe they were wanting to do all of this at once.

Product is, basically, goodbye Brand X the quirky British jazz-rock band and hello Brand X the derivative fusion outfit. Percy recalls this as an ambiguous and divided time for the band, which was in fact two groups with only Goodsall in common, and he's right, one band (Collins/Lumley/Goodsall/Giblin) playing one type of music and another (Clarke/Robinson/Goodsall/Jones/Pert) playing a different type of music altogether, leading to an unovercomable feeling of lack of focus and emotion just because this is what the real case is. Legend has it that there was a lot of arguing about what would be the next direction, but whatever it was, it seems neither worked simply because Brand X became a mess.

Sure, the musicians involved are still top-notch, but all of it just seems to be virtuosity for the sake of it and more weaknesses than anything else, and most of the time they just don't seem where to go: one time bland pop ("Don't Make Waves", "Soho"), the other time badly-written fusion ("Not Good Enough/See Me", "Rhesus Perplexus") and then directionless experimentation ("Wal To Wal", "April"). That said, what prevents Product from becoming just what the title implies (souless and boring) are the diamonds in the sulphur mine, "Dance Of The Illegal Aliens", "Algon", "...And So To F...", not really Brand X's masterpieces but very nice stuff if put in the context of the album, where they shine and save it from oblivion.

After the release of this record it became clear that Brand X wouldn't last longer, and indeed, their next records of this phase are just releases of leftovers.

Masques is also the first album without Phil Collins since he was busy with Genesis at the time, and yet, it doesn't really matter because drummer extraordinaire Chuck Burghi was brought in to fill his shoes, and because of his jazzier approach, the material sounds more like 'normal' fusion rather than their very own characteristic brand (no pun intended) of jazz-rock, even if there are enough quirks to maintain some of the personality.

Another average jazz fusion trademark is used here: lighting-speed guitar solos. Not a lot of Brand X tunes had guitar solos in the past ("Running On Three" from Unorthodox Behaviour; "Sun In The Night" with a sitar; "Why Should I Lend You Mine (When You Have Broken Off Already...)?" and "Macrocosm" from Morrocan Roll), but it would become ever more frequent (not bad but not very good either, either). Here, "The Poke" contains a muffled guitar alongside a subtle synthesizer pattern, "Deadly Nightshade" includes not only one, but three guitar solos, with two being slightly improvised over a written part and the third being created entirely out of thin air; "The Ghost Of Mayfield Lodge" also has a short guitar solo, and "Access To Data" is an appreciation of Goodsall's speed with a full-fledged guitar solo, and three very fast parts that manage to resemble a machine gun.

Out of it's seven tunes, the only one that strikes as a filler is "Masques", but only in parts since it has some tasteful, atmospheric fretless bass set to a mysterious off-beat rhythm, the rest is a collection of pieces written with utmost care and lots of imagination.

A big surprise here is the prolific writing of Morris Pert who fleshes out not one but actually three songs: the bipolar "Deadly Nightshade", the delicate "Black Moon" and the groovy "Earth Dance", arguably the best songs on here. Goodsall's "The Poke" is not very good as an opener and could have benefited from some editing, but the quirky "Access To Data" is a joy to hear; Jones's "The Ghost Of Mayfield Lodge" is as bipolar as "Deadly Nightshade" but more radical in it's moods, also, it has a main riff and a beautiful one at that.

Worthy of note is the fact that Robin Lumley is only credited as producer, having relinquished the position of keyboardist to J. Peter Robinson, previously from Quatermass.

This is a radically different line-up from the previous three records, but soon the old members would reunite without the exit of the new ones, leading to a mess called Product.

It is essentially the same band, but there is enough change here to differentiate it from it's older brother: first of all, percussionist Morris Pert is added to enrich the sonic picture; secondly, while Collins's drums were the center of the soundscape on Unorthodox Behaviour, now they're put in the background, serving more as a support for the other instruments; and last but not least, the music is more diverse and better written.

Morrocan Roll may have all of the attributes from above, but, for me, what really puts Unorthodox Behaviour over it is the fillerish quality of some passages: stuff like "Orbits" is simply tedious and the repetitive sections of "Why Should I Lend You Mine (When You Have Broken Yours Off Already)?" leave me cold, and yet, I quite like "Collapsar", and "Maybe I'll Lend You Mine After All..." is elegant enough even if the riff is ripped-off "The Cinema Show".

As for the other songs: "Sun In The Night" begins the list of Collins-sung-songs-on-Brand-X-records, but differently from the awful "Soho" and the bland "Don't Make Waves", this is a brilliant track, with the singable sanskrit lyrics and a lightspeed sitar solo; the drum solo opening "Hatezone" is very nice and the tune itself is a heavy metal funky gem if such thing is possible; "Disco Suicide" is Zappa-like in the early stages, but the main riff in the middle and it's grand finale reprise in the end comes from a different place altogether; "Malaga Virgen" is typical Percy, something which means mindblowing in my book, that said, after it's shimmering freak out beginning and energetic sections afterwards it can't help but drag during the unaccompanied atmospheric bass solo in the middle, but it thankfully returns to form if only to end all of the sudden; and then there's "Macrocosm", the jewel of the album for me, menacing and playful at the same time, made even more surprising because of Goodsall's solo on the acoustic guitar, Lumley's atmospherics and the 'f**k it all' ending.

Brand X was growing to something bigger than their debut pointed at, but one thing they didn't knew very well was how to take away the filler, and that would become more and more common in their future works.

Before Collins joined Brand X by the end of 1975, they were just an average group of relatively unknown session musicians playing simple pop music, but as their former drummer and singer left, they would transform themselves into a powerful fusion band.

Morrocan Roll is better-known, but Unorthodox Behaviour is their debut and my personal favourite. It may be less varied and ecletic than it's successor, but the sound is meaner, heavier and the material is very well-crafted and rarely borders on filler, perhaps it's because they're just a quartet here (not counting guest Jack Lancaster) and perhaps it's because they just wanted a record featuring the essential elements only.

"Nuclear Burn" is a fun track featuring some superb fretless bass by Percy Jones and a sweet synth solo by Robin Lumley; "Euthanasia Waltz" is a charming number embellished by Collins's exquisite vibraphones and John Goodsall's strumming; "Born Ugly" contains one of the best and most effective musical jokes I've ever heard and a pretty good improv as it's ending; "Smacks Of Euphoric Hysteria" (my favourite tune of the album) is not very talked about, but it's catchy riff is well worth the attention, also worthy of note is the sudden twist leading to a scary coda; "Unorthodox Behaviour" is another musical joke but longer and more subtle, repetitive but never boring, there's just so much stuff going on you'll never even feel time has passed; "Running On Three" is the closest Brand X ever got to a powerful rocker, and Goodsall's guitar solo (his only in the whole record) pressages the near-lightning speed finger movements that will dominate, and some would ever say plague, their next releases; the last tune, "Touch Wood" is a sorta divided into two parts: the first is a relaxing improv featuring processed sax by Jack Lancaster, the second is a groovy jam including heavy brushing courtesy of Collins, ending a heavy album in a surprising, if not strangely, soft manner.

And while the future of Genesis seemed a bit unsure, Phil still worked as an independent musician, appearing not only with Brand X, but also on Steve Hackett's "Voyage Of The Acolyte" and Anthony Phillips's "The Geese And The Ghost" during the same timespan. All of it would be enough to put him as one of the most famous proggers of all time if it wasn't for the stuff he did later. But it is really enough to place as one of prog's most hard-working artists and best drummers.

As for Brand X, it was the real start of my favourite jazz fusion band, and from now on, they would begin to release some great stuff and some fairly predictable things, but enough to allow much more recognition than they actually have.