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Richard Wright - ZEE: Identity CD (album) cover

ZEE: IDENTITY

Richard Wright

 

Crossover Prog

2.41 | 87 ratings

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Guillermo
Prog Reviewer
2 stars Well. This album is not as bad as I expected it to be. This is a short- lived collaboration by Dave Harris, a singer and musician from a band called FASHION (a Neo-Romantic band which I have never listened to) who in 1983 recorded this album (which was released in 1984) under the band`s name ZEE with Richard Wright. I think that this album sounds more influenced by the Neo- Romantic musical style from the 80s than from Wright`s sound from PINK FLOYD. Sometimes it sounds more like an album from the early TEARS FOR FEARS band. In fact, the recording engineer and co- producer of this album (Tim Palmer) worked a lot with TEARS FOR FEARS during several years. I have to say that I liked TEARS FOR FEARS when they released their very good album titled "The Seeds of Love" in 1989 (and it was after I liked this album that I later "tolerated" to listen to their previous music and I even still liked some of it). But before that, I really didn`t like their music and much less their looks which reflected very well the fashions dictated by the Neo-Romantic and Synth -Pop musical styles which were very successful fads in those years (sorry, but it is the truth; I never liked the music , the looks and the fashions from some bands from the eighties). Anyway, by using the Fairlight CMI a lot in this album,this album reflects all the "ingredients" which made it a very typical album from the eighties, with now very dated synth sounds and programmed drums. Maybe the best moments in this album are the few ones on which one really can listen a bit from Wright`s musical influences (like in "Voices", which maybe is the best song in this album) and in other slow and "dark" songs like "Cuts Like a Diamond", a song which even includes a good lead guitar part played by Harris which sounds a bit like it was played by David Gilmour. "Voices" particularly sounds a bit inluenced by CAMEL, a band which at that time released their "Stationary Traveller" album, which, despite being a good album, also has some of the "ingredients" from a very typical 80s album, with similar keyboard sounds and programmed drums. I don`t know why Wright recorded this album. Maybe it was only to fill his previous recording contract with PINK FLOYD`s record label, or maybe because he needed the job for financial reasons. Anyway, Wright in later years considered this album as a "experimental mistake", and he even did not mention it in an interview done in 1994 by the now-defunct "Vox" magazine in the U.K. (done at the time PINK FLOYD was on their "The Division Bell" tour), when Wright was asked what he did before re-joining the band in 1986-87. This album is not as bad as I expected it to be...but it is more for collectors / fans only.So, it is more a "rarity" now which fortunately I could listen to thanks to someone who uploaded it in youtube. An album which sounds and looks (in some publicity photos by Harris and Wright) like Wright was very much "out of place" in a band and an album like this.

A last note: I found in the web that this album was released on CD in the Netherlands, and it seems that it never was released in the U.S. in any format.

Guillermo | 2/5 |

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