Customer Reviews

Strange New Flesh

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Colosseum seem to be on the cusp of being forgotten. The band merits just over a column in 'The Penguin Encyclopeadia of Popular Music', but don't get a mention in 'The Rough Guide to Rock'. But they were a hub in many important personnel transfers of the period:

Dave Greenslade and Tony Reeves played for the original Colosseum and left to form Greenslade. Clem Clempson also left to join Humble Pie, replacing Peter Frampton. Gary Moore was a member of Colosseum II in between bouts with Thin Lizzy. Don Airey left CII to join Blackmore's Rainbow. Leader Jon Hiseman married saxophonist Barbara Thompson and played in her fusion band Paraphernalia.

The line-up on this CD is Hiseman, Airey, Moore, Murray and Starrs, in case your sleevenotes are, like mine, non-existent. The music is the usual partly convoluted fodder served up at the time by the likes of the Mahavishnus, Jeff Beck, Eleventh House and Return to Forever. At times the keyboards sound a bit Genesissy, and occasionally the sound is a bit Camelly. Goodness knows why they needed a vocalist -- maybe it helped at concerts to focus audience attention.

The standard of the musicianship is, as usual for the period, higher than most of today's. Dump the singer, improve the quality of the compositions slightly, and Colosseum could have been a jazz-rock supergroup. If you like this, you'll love Return to Forever's 'No Mystery' and 'Romantic Warrior'.

Am I the first one to review this masterpiece? I can't believe it. I am a great fan of UK. There are so many great bands but only a few can be compared to UK(at least for me). CII is one of them. Great musicians' greatest playing and quite pretty melodies, what can I say more? Jon Hiseman's druming is amazing, Gary Moore and Don Airey showed their best shining moments in their carriers. Bass playing was fluent, too. And finally, why was Mike Starrs fired after 1st album? They would release 2 more excellent albums but I think this first one is the best! Strongly recommended! GO and Get it!

I bought this album sometime in the late 70's. I had heard something from this band late one night on the radio.. back when radio was a place where you could hear new and different types of music without the station being concerned if liked every tune they played.. anyway, I got around to buying one of their albums although not the one I heard that night. The album has some decent stuff.. but it's masterpiece is an absolutely stunning rendition of Joni Mitchels "Stange New Flesh". The band is very tight and the lead vocals have a soulful and gritty feel. The price is worth just having that one tune.

I also bought the vinyl cutting of this album in the early eighties and played it so often it wore out. This was everything you'd hoped Colosseum 1 would metamorphose into. Two other albums followed Wardance and Savage all contained sublime tracks

I also bought the vinyl cutting of this album in the early eighties and played it so often it wore out. This was everything you'd hoped Colosseum 1 would metamorphose into. Two other albums followed Wardance and Savage all contained sublime tracks

This 1976 album blends searing leads on the electric guitar, fine ensemble playing that would not have been out of place on a Mahavishnu Orchestra or Return to Forever album and a bluesy/soulful vocal style reminiscent of Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow or perhaps even Bob Tench (of the Jeff Beck Group). Trust me, although I like Rainbow, Jeff Beck and the Mahavishnu Orchestra, the mixture is as confusing as it sounds and I still have not gotten completely used to it, although Colosseum II did become a more straightforward jazz rock group by the time of War Dance (1977). Come to think of it, I generally liked War Dance.

The lineup on Strange New Flesh, which was the debut by the newly re-grouped version of Colosseum, includes bandleader and virtuoso Jon Hiseman (drums and percussion), Gary Moore (electric and acoustic guitars, vocal), Don Airey (Fender Rhodes, acoustic piano, ARP Odyssey, ARP Solina string synthesizer, mini-moog, Hammond organ and clavinet), Mike Starrs (lead vocal) and Neil Murray (bass guitar). To emphasize the hard rock connections, the liner notes indicate that Neil Murray went on to jam with both Whitesnake and Black Sabbath, while Don Airey eventually joined Rainbow. Listening to the music on this album, this all makes perfect sense.

These guys are simply fantastic players, with Jon Hiseman being exceptional - I have been a fan of his drumming ever since I first listened to "Valentyne Suite" (Colosseum, 1969). Gary is a very good player and although he favors a distorted tone on the electric, also uses clean tones and works the textures of a classical guitar in. Don Airey contributed significantly to the more complex moments on the album and his use of loads of synthesizers lends the music a fairly prog-rock feel - standout moments include his blistering Hammond organ playing and the Tony Banks-esque solo on the acoustic piano. His use of the Solina string synth (with a bit of phasing) is also quite nice. Unfortunately, I did not like the vocals too much. They are a bit too bluesy for my liking and although not bad in the least, seem at odds with some of the tunes. Indeed, I wish this had been a purely instrumental album (many of the tracks feature vocals).

Musically, this album straddles the realms of prog rock, jazz rock and bluesy hard rock. Unfortunately, while there is some phenomenal virtuoso ensemble work, there is a lot more in the way of "rocking" tunes that feature what sounds today like a very dated vocal style. Admittedly, while the vocal style and the hard rock/blues aspects of the music did not work for me, I can not deny the high level of musicianship throughout. Lastly, while an emphasis is placed on rapid-fire riffs played at breakneck tempos, the group breaks things up with the use of dynamic contrasts (acoustic guitar and piano), vocal sections and nice synthesizer tone colors.

This reissue by Castle Music (1999) is pretty skimpy and the booklet features editorial comments on the band by Paul Lester (Uncut Magazine) and the personnel listing. The sound quality is exceptional.

All in all, I would have enjoyed this album more if it had been instrumental and the blues/hard rock influences had been pared back a bit. Regardless, I am a hard core prog-rock freak and naturally found something to like here.

Well, of course it was not equal to the best works by a small bunch of very interesting fusion bands in the seventies (Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever or- once again the immortal Weather Report, for instance, just to mention a few ones), but this "Strange new..." is quite worth checking out nowadays!
First of all the style regarding the electric guitar often inspired some important guitarists, such as J. Beck for example; but also the melodic lines were quite important for a few British hard rock bands in the vein of Rainbow and R. Blackmore in general, talking about their vocalism.

Even though the present album was not defined at all, as it was a kind of "hybrid work", being a little bit distant from their jazz rock work entitled "War Dance"; and after all the "progressive blues" within the small jewel by Colosseum I ("Valentine suite") couldn't be emulated by Colosseum II. Nevertheless this debut new line-up, including Jon Hiseman, Gary Moore and Don Airey, was able to give the British Hard Rock a major importance or, if you prefer, a kind of improvement (an attempt, I mean...cause the album was not always inspiring) and that's enough to evaluate their effort as an interesting number to be remembered!

I don't think of their predominant blues/hard rock influences, sometimes resembling the common places of the seventies, but above all of their intelligent use concerning the Solina string synth and the solos at the acoustic piano as well, a sort of gift to Tony Banks, connected to a few classical textures, sometimes replaced by distorted tones, which became a "trademark" by Gary Moore, along with a certain emotional feeling in the vocal parts.
After all, the features described above are so important when you evaluate a rock album, as it's quite "hybrid" in comparison to the "70's stereotype of music", but often interesting anyway (note: even though a fan of prog music could turn up his nose)...Make your own choice, as usual!

You would never guess this is a derivative of Coliseum, the Vertigo band that began making blues jazz albums in 1969, such as Valentyne Suite and Those Who Are About to Die Salute You.

Mach II of this great band worked in the 1970s, and if you think in terms of jazz rock of the 1960s leading into fusion next decade, the difference is not that surprising. At first Charles LLoyd was covering Beatle songs, Miles used long and open spaces on Bitches Brew. But by the early 1970s, the music was far more complex

So it goes in the Coliseum. Strange New flesh is full of complex timings, riffs that would give the frights to even Wes Montgomery or Joe Pas.

But this is not your side long suite 1970s bathing myself in 17/4 whipped cream album. These songs are tight, and the complications condensed to provide texture.

Listen to this a few times: it is far more about density and texture than flash and length. And the songs work as songs. You just have to absorb the complexity--then you can truly dig on the tunes.

Well........go.........do it.

This is an brillent cd, and gary moore guitar playing is also brillant, and i,ll recommend anybody to buy the cd and deal with the seller.

This is probably the best of the limited titles by Colosseum II. The songs are inventive and well played.