DANGER MONEY

A supergroup made up of progressive stalwarts forms in the late 1970s and decides to play...progressive rock?! What chutzpah! While the band must be given credit for such a subversive if short-lived idea, it would have helped if they focused more on the electric violin and less on the Emersonian organs and Crimson vocals. Even there, Jobson had exploited the violin in Roxy music some years before. So there is nothing new here whatsoever, just retread utilizing the improved technology in a somewhat more accessible form.

The highlights are the opening two tracks, "Danger Money" and "Rendezvous 602", even if the latter is oddly similar to "99" by Toto in parts. "Nothing to Lose" is an excellent pop-prog tune with soaring Jobson violin. It hinted at a viable expression for prog as it entered the 1980s. But "Carrying no Cross" is the sort of track that prog would have best dispensed with during its heyday. Simply too derivative of ELP and some of the other dinosaurs. That wouldn't be so bad if Wetton didn't waste time trying to sound like Greg Lake, as he does on the frenetically mundane "Caesar's Palace Blues". Other groups that were carrying more of a synth oriented progressive torch as the decade ended, like Saga, are also reference points even if the development was contemporaneous rather than plagiaristic.

I can understand while this thrilled the die-hard prog heads given its timeline, but it is actually a fairly standard set which sacrifices listenability for technique a bit too often. For something along similar lines from the same period but more truly modern and less self indulgent, try "Black Noise" by FM. 2.5 stars, rounded down.