ROBERT FRIPP & ANDY SUMMERS: BEWITCHED

Like "I Advance Masked", the first Summers/Fripp album (note the order), this is an all instrumental album. The duo expanded their sound here by adding more instruments and musicians. There is heavy use of drum machine on this one, and the guitar synthesizers are set to sound like keyboards. So this is a very synthetic sounding album.

"Parade" was released in video form as a single. It's got a simple pop melody to it, but is pleasant nonetheless. "What Kind of Man..." is a long repetitive song built around a drum machine and a funk / hip-hop rhythm (not the type of thing you'd expect from these chaps). "Begin the Day" continues the synthetic sound, but is also a bit heavier with a strong Fripp solo. "Train" is another memorable song, with a similar instrumentation approach to those songs previously mentioned.

Overall, the album isn't bad. It just seems a bit lightweight by modern standards. Maybe it's simply too much of a product of the plastic 80's...

Not very good album. It really sounds like the "product of the plastic 1980s". "What Kind of Man Reads Playboy" is actually the best track, a long drum machine rhythm with expanding synth sounds, it has some trippy feel. This kind of music is easily listened as a background, but if you try to concentrate it shows poor results.

Fripp and Summers have similarities, although they have noticeable differences: On this record, Summers is more spacy and atmospheric, while Fripp often plays bizarre & experimental patterns, as always. Fripp alone often leaves me indifferent, but paired with Summers, it becomes a winning formula, especially on side 2!

This instrumental record has one quite good side and one mediocre. The mediocre side (1) contains in a long funky track full of rhythmic guitars and repetitive beat, "What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?": the 2 guitarists seem to have pretty much fun to play this, but the listener may find it too repetitive and ridiculous: the irritating artificial beat avoid any progressive character to the tedious "What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?" track: there is a good part where one can listen to the more subtle guitar effects. The previous rhythmic "Parade" sounds a bit like a Synergy track. The ear candy keyboards on "Begin the Day", combined with Summers' metallic rhythmic guitar a la Police and Fripp's insisting solos, makes this track better than the previous epic one.

The other side is made of quite better short songs, full of smooth & enigmatic guitar patterns and dark & mysterious keyboards arrangements; there is something special and unique that is very attractive and addictive on each track of that side. The resemblance with the King Crimson of the 80's is real; some Police atmospheres (Synchronicity), due to Summers' subtle guitar, are added and it produces some refined and delicate textures that the listener should appreciate without any effort, due to a certain amount of hypnotic effect that occurs. The ethereal atmosphere reaches its peak with "Forgotten steps", a VERY addictive and hypnotic track full of delicate echoed sounds with a continuous stream of thick and viscous soundscape in the foreground. I give 3 stars to side 1 and 4 stars to side 2.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Bewitched is the second and final collaboration between Fripp and Summers, and finds the duo branching out into other styles not covered on their first outing. Their first record, I Advanced Masked, consisted of a lot of short unaccompanied guitar instrumentals that were heavily influenced by classical and folk music from Asia and Africa. The overall tone of that album was very somber and austere. Bewitched, on the other hand, features a full backing band on many of the cuts, and is often more light-hearted than Masked.

Side one of Bewitched opens with Parade, which is an upbeat Police influenced 80's techno instrumental that would have been a great opening theme for an 80's sports show. This is followed by What Kind of Man Reads Playboy, an overly long disco beat driven instrumental that features many pointless and silly solos and goes on for what seems like forever. Side one closes with Begin the Day, which sounds like a world beat cross between Santana and The Police and features great solos from both guitarists. This song is one of the better highlights on this otherwise inconsistent album.

Side two opens with Train. This is an excellent futuristic techno-lounge number that sounds a bit like Eno or Kraftwerk crossed with an early 60s exotic synth record. This is followed by the title track, Bewitched, which is a nice instrumental with a short repeating melody that recalls Eno's work on Another Green World. The following song Tribe, features classic King Crimson style tense chord progressions and buildups, but sounds more detailed and miniature than a Crimson song because it is played by the two guitarists, instead of a full band. The album closes with four very nice ambient instrumentals, each becoming a little more vague than the one before.

This is not one of Fripp's best records, but it still has some nice music, especially if you like artists like Bo Hanson, Phil Manzenera or Eno who sometimes create music that is a missing link between instrumental progressive rock and 60s synth-lounge exotica.

I don't know what Andy Summers & Robert Fripp were aiming for with this album, but I'm sure they must have missed. On their previous collaboration, I Advance Masked, Summers & Fripp created beautiful, textured songs with nice interplay between the guitars. On this, the two don't appear to be meshing well, with the songs much too sparse.

The best track is the eleven minute plus What Kind of Man Reads Playboy, with some very nice bass work adding to the otherwise plain song. Otherwise, nothing else really stands out here, unless your tastes happen to run toward uninteresting electronic drum sequences.

20th Century Schizophrenic Album

Obviously Summers' fascination f Fripp got him a second album collaboration, but this tilme he produced it himself, and the least we can say is that we indeed hear it right, with a New-Wavey/Police type of production. A vastly different album than its predecessor, Bewitched is very much a product of its time and has not aged well, even if there are traces of great guitar parts throughout the album. One would've hoped that the pop influences would've come from the Discipline-era Crimson, but this is definitely not a major factor in bewitched. Andy and Robert concentrate on guitars and synths on this album (even if Robert Fripp's brother Ertronics appears as well ;o))))), the bass and drums/percussions are handled by friends.

The opening Parade could be a police track, if it was sung by Sting, and comes with an atrocious 80's sounding drum, but it also comes back in the 11-mins What Kind Of Man Reads Playboy (Robert probably only read the articles ;o)))))), although as I said, there are some wild guitar parts, but the pleasure is ruined by the 80's production and drumming. Anyway, the A-side of the album is a little too 80's poppish for my liking and unfortunately makes this album almost dispensable. Fortunately there is better to come?.

If the first notes and rhythms of Train opening the flipside are just as discouraging as the A- side, the ambiance is much less pop and quite moody, and it is announcing a change of soundscape. The gentle and subtle title track is a bit of a return to the previous I advanced masked. Tribe is the would-be title track (the front cover artwork's name is Tribe) and is very atmospheric (but not like Fripp does it) and Forgotten Steps is very much in the same mould, even if it ends as a solo classical guitar piece. The two compadres hit it solid in Guide, a Spanish-sounding theme which borders Flamenco and it my fave track on the album. The album closes on the ambient and atmospheric Image And Likeness, where the Frippertronics make their usual appearance in a Fripp album, but the Spanish guitar work is again breathtaking. .

Too bad this album is marred by everything we hate about the 80's on the first side, but Bewitched compensates with a very pleasant flipside, making this album an interesting musical psychiatric case. Despite it's unevenness, Bewitched is probably slightly more interesting than Masked, which sounds too much like other Fripp albums, at least compared to this one.

Robert Fripp & Andy Summers 2nd collaboration 'Bewitched' is a more composed and structured album than what their first collaboration was. This album concentrates more on written compositions and less experimental and improvised music. The original intention, according to Summers, was to have an album with more of a variety, but it turned out to be one based on a softer jazz/rock fusion using 80's style drum loops and electronics with more carefully crafted instrumentals.

'Parade' starts out the album with what sounds like something recorded for a TV theme song or game show. It is penned solely by Summers and it doesn't really have much substance to it other than sounding like it was trying to be popular, but ends up sounding cheap.

'What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?' is the 2nd track, and again it uses automatic percussion, and a somewhat oriental sounding riff as the main melody, but at over 11 minutes, it is definitely more interesting. It does strive for the popular music sound, but there are some nice guitar and sax solos and later a nice bass line along with a funky vibe. What starts out as feeling canned, actually develops into a decent, yet accessible track.

After this track, the remainder are much shorter tracks, with only 1 going over the 4 minute mark. 'Begin the Day' has a dated sound, again it is upbeat, but the keyboards have the smooth jazz sound. Of course, the guitar is great with Fripp's signature sound, but everything else is annoyingly poppy. 'Train' at least has a more interesting vibe, but doesn't develop much outside of its theme. 'Bewitched' is something left over from 'The Police' with Summers' obvious sound. It is at first a decent enough track that lends itself to the typical Police instrumental with his atmospherics and it actually has some repeated vocals in the background. Again, there is no development and it gets too repetitive by the end, so it wears itself out.

'Tribe' is much better and features the sound you would expect to hear from this talented pair. The percussion is better and the music is more interesting. Taking sounds from both of their styles, the only drawback to the track is that it is too short. 'Maquillage' has a more experimental feel to it and could have fit on the 'I Advance Masked' album. It features a Spanish sounding guitar and a slow plucked acoustic accompaniment. No cheap electronic percussion, thank goodness. 'Guide' ventures into a spacey ambience which is very nice. 'Forgotten Steps' continues with the ambient feel, this time with more of Summers' atmospherics and Frippertronc-sounding sustained chords without the usual Fripp layering effects. 'Image and Likeness' ends the album with the shortest track. Plucked strings give that oriental vibe again, but with a shimmer that echoes behind each note.

This 2nd outing isn't near as interesting as the first as the first half of the album is too composed. The second half is more interesting after they lose the electronic 80's beats and get into more experimental territory. But, with the exception of one track, everything on here is too short. The length of the one long track works to its advantage even if it is on the weaker half of the album. I wish the better tracks could have been more developed. The stronger tracks tend to save this album from being a complete failure, but if you can suffer through those terrible 80s beats, its not too bad. At least it comes out of it with 3 stars, more for the guitar work of these 2 geniuses than the overall quality of the music.