X-COMMUNICATION

Brand X will, for me, forever and always be one of the preeminent Fusion bands. Certainly one of the most important Fusion bands to grace Britain in the '70s! And certainly the band itself was graced with such a unique and powerful leader in John GOODSALL (1953-2021). Now that I am writing, I'm thinking too how integral John was to the development of "Guitar Fusion" to follow them and their peers.

I am definitely writing this review, a week or so following his untimely death, in honor of him and his great legacy. I'm terribly sorry I never got to see them/him perform in person. And what's most unbelievable about it all, is that he (I assume he) fell ill and they were then looking to postpone the show in my hometown just a month ago... Pretty surreal. Rest in Peace, sir. Rest in Peace, as Robin LUMLEY put it, to BRAND X.

X-Communication was released ten years after their last effort (and effort is a good enough descriptor of it, in my opinion), Is There Anything About? (1982). Interesting to think that there was a whole decade between it and this release. Then again, we are yet to see anything following their final studio album in 1997 today.

To a point above, I think this is the strongest effort the band has had since 1979's Product, a personal favorite of mine. It's relatively consistent, in feeling and, for the most part, in compositional knack. There's some really very interesting tracks on this, ranging from brooding to "Eastern" and exotic. My personal favorites are "Xanax Taxi", "Liquid Time", "Mental Floss" and "Kluzinski Reprise". To keep this shorter, I'll end this here.

True Rate: 3.5/5.0