STEREOTOMY

Stereotomy pretty much signaled the end for the Project. They would release Gaudi a couple years later, but that album was pretty much buried in the wash of grunge sweeping across record store shelves and is largely forgettable.

Too bad, because for the first time in several years Parsons manages to reinvigorate the band’s sound with more punch than anything since Turn of a Friendly Card. Though largely digital, the drums are quite prominent on most of the album. Andrew Powell reappears with his orchestral arrangements after a brief hiatus too, but again there is too much digitized music here and what little orchestral work there is gets buried by the myriad of keyboards.

The title track is punchy and rather aggressive for a Project tune, but the saxophone and percussion date this song badly, and it doesn’t stand the test of time well.

Same goes for “Beaujolais”, which is further tainted by some weird kind of massaging being done to Chris Rainbow’s vocals. He has one of those voices that reminds you of a whole generation of seventies singer-songwriters, so the poppy treatment he gets here is both unnecessary and a bit odd. The sound effects are just annoying, and the whole thing is just slightly improved by Ian Bairnson’s pretty decent guitar work.

Parsons manages to include three instrumentals on this album, the first being “Urbania”. Except for the Kenny G-like brass solo in the middle this kind of reminds me of some of the Group 87 stuff from earlier in the decade – sort of jazzy but very calculated and driven with a purpose by the guitar work. Other than “Where’s the Walrus?”, this is the best instrumental the band recorded since “Sirius”.

“Limelight” is a mellow number with a pleasantly surprising appearance by Procol Harum vocalist Gary Brooker. This has a bit of a throwback feel thanks to Brooker’s vocals and some solid drum work, but is slightly tainted by the cheesy eighties digital sound effects at times. Nevertheless, this is a solid tune and helps to mark the album as a definite improvement over the previous two.

I can’t remember if “In the Real World” was a single, but it sure sounds like it was meant to be one. The digital drums are tinny and faint here, and former Roxy Music drummer John Miles sings, but he is a bit flat and seems uninspired. I think this might have been a stronger number with real drums and perhaps with Eric Woolfson on vocals. Who knows…

“Where’s the Walrus?” refers to a comment made by friend of the band Abrams, who made the comment in reference to what he felt was a missing ‘punch’ to the band’s music. This is a very strong track, with a spacey and aggressive sound that hearkens very much back to the I Robot days of the band. I believe this is also the longest instrumental the band ever recorded, and one of the few times Parsons actually took the time to flesh out the composition with a decent variety of sounds and varied progressions. This track would form the centerpiece of the band’s retrospective Instrumental Works compilation just a few years later.

“Light of the World” starts out with promise, delicate piano and Graham Dye’s (from the short-lived throwback band Scarlet Party) heavily accented vocals giving this a classical pop feel to it. The song wanders along but never really makes an impression, but it’s a decent enough piece of music and is much more interesting than anything on the previous two or three albums.

The last two tracks (“Chinese Whispers” and “Stereotomy 2”) are one-minute long little musical vignettes that don’t seem to serve much purpose except to warn the listener that the album is about to end.

This isn’t anywhere near as memorable as any of the Project’s first three albums, but it is definitely more interesting and varied than most of the other stuff they did in the eighties. This is just slightly better than a collectors-only piece, but mostly just for the first two instrumentals and for “Limelight”. So we’ll give this three stars and go back to missing the band’s early works.

peace