K-SCOPE

I happen to love this album. Sure, it's not truly prog, but it is adventurous, in the same way as a 10cc album might be. The album is extremely well produced, and extremely well written. I really find the whole thing quite infectuous.

The proggiest tracks are the instrumentals, K-Scope, N-Shift and You are here. But I enjoy the vocal tracks even more. The lyrics are tongue in cheeck, again like 10cc. Who can resist Hot Spot, with lyrics about dying of radiation poisoning (among other things) while dancing away at a disco? And the "number" puns sung by John Wetton in Numbers are a delight.

It's while listening to this that I realized that one of the main reasons I have been disappointed by later Manzanera albums is the lack of Bill MacCormick's bass. His bass lines add much to Manzanera's albums, and were essential to their sound.