IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON

After the release of Court, KC faced the problem of how to follow up their mammoth debut. In addition, the band was starting to come apart under the stress imposed by the disciplinarian Fripp. Their second album, In the Wake of Posidion, was created by a band in a state of flux. The jack-of-all-trades Ian MacDonald had left after Court while Greg Lake and the irreplacable drummer Michael Giles would hit the road shortly after Posidion was released. The void was filled by several session musicians some of whom would stay on (Haskell on vocals, Collins on reeds and Tippett on piano). This coming and going would be a constant feature of KC during it's lifetime and how it managed to survive is another story in itself.

Posidion is often disparagingly criticized as being 'too much like Court' which is just, given that KC's reputation is built on pushing the boundaries of rock. Indeed, musically, we're still listening to the same potent blend of jazz, rock and classical pretentions. Even the album names sound very similar. But, as others have pointed out, is that really a bad thing? The album may suffer in comparision to it's predecessor but objectively most of the music on Posidion holds up quite well. Pictures of a City has the same kind of frantic stop and go, light and heavy mentality as Schiziod Man; the lovely acoustic/flute combo on Cadance and Cascade makes it the ballad of choice on this album; while the mellotron drenched title track has the same kind of weighty ethos as Epitaph. As well, the delightfully strange Cat Food leans in a more jazzy direction with its lightening piano runs and 'cool' vocals.

There are flaws though. Posidion is interspersed with brief snippits of 'Peace' which are more annoying than charming and could have been left out as they ruin the album's structure. Also, the menacing instrumental Devil's Triangle, while interesting at times, is a little more sprawl than I care for.

Overall, Posidion holds up well with more good songs than bad. Really not a bad sophomore album compared with others out there. Unfortunately, it lacks the flow and overall punch of it's towering older sister. Interestingly, but not surprisingly, this mirrors the state of the band that created it at the time.