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It is perhaps a little unfair that Brand X are best known, outwith jazz/fusion circles at least, as a side project for Phil Collins. However, whether they would have known the relative success they achieved without his name appearing as one of the band members is highly questionable. I for one do not list this sort of music as being among my favourites, and only investigated the band because of the admittedly tenuous Genesis connection. It has to be remembered of course that Collins is just the drummer here, there are no vocals and his input to the song writing is limited.

Phil is actually absent altogether from the first and last tracks, his place being filled by Kenwood Dennard. These presumably are therefore the tracks recorded in August 1977 at a couple of London venues, the remainder being recorded almost a year earlier at Ronnie Scott's in London.

The music here is jazz fusion, pure and simple. Right from the start we are into lengthy improvisations built around the guitar playing of ex Atomic Rooster member John Goodall and the keyboards of Robin Lumley. The musicianship is uniformly superb, to the extent that much of this live album sounds like it is a studio recording. For me though, the music wanders rather aimlessly at times. All but two of the tracks are new to album, "Euthanasia waltz" and "Malaga Virgen" being the only ones to have been heard previously in studio format.

While "Nightmare patrol" steers towards the rock side of fusion, "-ish" delves into Santana territory, the up-front percussion and jazz piano leaving me completely cold. "Euthanasia waltz" reminds me of some of the drawn out passages of "Focus 3", the track inexplicably fading before it ends.

Side two is split evenly between the two part "Isis Mourning" and Percy Jones's "Malaga virgen". "Isis mourning" is a slow blues piece, the atmospheric noodling being pleasantly undemanding. "Malaga Virgen" is a spirited race through the "Morrocan Roll" number, with a striking mood change midway through.

Brand X were clearly a highly gifted unit who could recreate their sound well in a live environment. I have no issue at all here with the competency of the musicianship on show. Unfortunately, for me this is where talent and tedium meet head on, and there is only one winner.

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