BRUFORD: THE BRUFORD TAPES

The Bruford Tapes was a radio broadcast performance by the band on the U.S. leg of their tour. Allan Holdsworth was by that time already missing from the line-up since he quit following the band's first British tour in order to pursue his own solo career. This recording features material from the first two Bruford albums and John Clark was chosen to fill in the guitar duties.

There are two main problems with this release that could probably have been distinguished from my introduction. The sound of the radio broadcast of the late '70s leaves a lot to be desired of. I don't have a problem of distinguishing the individual performances but everyone who wants to hear a well recorded performance by this band is bound to find this recording lacking in the sound department. The second flaw is much less substantial and concerns the inclusion of John Clark who does an excellent job of handling Holdsworth's duties but I think that it would have been nice to have a live recording where Allan Holdsworth had performed his guitar parts.

This new line-up of Bruford/Berlin/Clark/Stewart would go on to record another studio album entitled Gradually Going Tornado before disbanding so this gig is by no means a one time deal. The encore number is Five G, here shortened to 5G, and it once again manages to do a great job although the sound quality does lower the performance down a notch for me.

Overall The Bruford Tapes serves as a nice companion to the first two Bruford albums. Still I can only recommend this recording to people who are already familiar with these compositions.

**** star songs: Hell's Bells (4:35) Sample And Hold (6:36) Beelzebub (3:53) The Sahara Of Snow, Pt.1 (5:05) The Sahara Of Snow, Pt.2 (3:32) 5G (2:39)

*** star songs: Fainting In Coils (7:25) Travels With Myself - And Someone Else (4:39) One Of A Kind, Pt.2 (8:45)