Customer Reviews

Timeline

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

 

 

"Timeline" is two discs that capture Brand X live at two different points in their career. The first disc was recorded back in 1977 and is the full fledged Brand X lineup. The band is progressive rock fusion at its finest. The tunes revolve around a solid groove that Percy Jones lays down and is backed up by drumming and percussion. The soloists are the keyboardist(Lumley) and Guitarist(Goodsall). Neither of these men are mind boggling in their technique but they are very good. The best part of Brand X is that the sum of the parts is greater than any one member by himself. I think that Percy Jones is a possible exception to this and he does carry the band to great heights on songs like "Nuclear Burn" and "Malaga Virgen". Jones' bass playing is fretless and does carry on the Jaco tradition of harmonics and groove orientated runs. If you like Jaco then you will love Percy. The disc is solid throughout and fans of fusion bands should like Brand X. The second disc finds Brand X in a trio format recorded live on their "X-communication" tour in 1992. Goodsall, and Jones are joined by drummer Frank Katz. In this incarnation Brand X takes on a more rock/fusion personae. Each member is given a solo spot. Katz in the "Drum Solo", Goodsall in "Healing Dream" and Jones on "Strangeness". Jones takes his bass playing to another level on "Strangeness". Percy isn't about how many notes he can generate but about how to do variations around a groove. Not many people can do it better than he can. Tracks like "A Duck Exploding" and "Church of Hype" reveal the power of this trio. Once again the trio doesn't break any new ground but the playing is very enjoyable. Goodsall and Jones deserve to get more attention than they have. Buy it and then turn a friend on to this Brand of fusion.

Timeline is a long awaited authorized release of live recordings that are not the horrible sounding, bad quality bootleggs that were released in Japan and other countries from app. 1985 to 1996. Disk one, is a fantastic sounding collection of tunes from a 1977 tour date that show off the extreme talent of Morris Pert, (percussion). This guy always seemed to be overshadowed by other members of the band on the studio recordings. It is everthing the bootleggs were incapable of producing. It's even in stereo! Disc Two, is a concert from the East coast U.S. tour started app. at the begining of 1993 and has the incredible drum work of Frank Kats. Percy and John are in there too and have their incredible talants as well at improvisation. No matter what could be paid for this two disk set it most definitely delivers the goods! It's not perfect but, I'm Satisfied. The waiting is over!

An excellent choice for those hungry for live Brand X. Disc 1 covers the late 70's period with the complete lineup (Kenwood Dennard, not Phil Collins). Disc 2 contains a more sparse trio 90's workout with Frank Katz on drums. Though i'm thrilled with both discs, I prefer Disc 2, particularly for the drumming and Percy Jones wonderful fretless bass inventiveness. Though there are some occasional sloppy tendencies, particularly at the end of Disc 1, this is some complicated, hard to play stuff and overall is extremely well done. Unfortunately Brand X didn't receive the recognition it deserved in the US but I for one would have loved to have attended both of these shows.

I was pretty proud of myself back in the mid-70's when I stumbled upon a couple of records ("Moroccan Roll" and "Livestock") by a British jazz fusion outfit called Brand X that had one of my new-found prog heroes Phil Collins showing his jazz chops at the drum stool. Looking back, though, I have to admit that I was probably more enamored of the IDEA of this generically-named band with the awesome bass player (Percy Jones) than I was of the actual progressive fusion that they played. Times and tastes have changed over the decades, and I've grown to fully appreciate the unique sound of this band, bought almost all of their cd's (especially the earlier stuff), and now wish that there were many more bands that had Brand X's courage, chops and compositional skills to populate my cd collection.

"Timeline" is a fantastic double live cd. Disc 1 showcases the late-70's line-up (without Collins) and includes unique versions of many of their best compositions. I must admit to a little disappointment at the slight decline in tape quality on the last couple of songs on this disc, but everything else sounds pretty good. And I find that I was never more aware of Morris Pert's omnipresent percussion touches than on this live performance.

Disc 2 hails from the early-90's trio line-up, with more straight-ahead rock fusion. Goodsall's guitar tone is beautiful here, and he somehow manages to simultaneously play some string synths (part of his Midi guitar?) in many places on this disc. He also has a great 4:00 acoustic electric guitar solo ("Healing Dream") reminiscent of the McLaughlin school of composition, and based roughly on the riff he plays in "Macrocosm". Frank Katz has a good (if not entirely unique) 7:00 drum solo, and plays a great accompaniment to Jones' Pastorius-like bass solo ("Strangeness"). Disc 2 is all great stuff folks.

I also love the timeline history of the band (and its roots and branches) that covers the inside liner notes.
(Where oh where is that 1974 master tape of Peter Gabriel recording with Collins, Goodsall, Rutherford and Ant Phillips?!)

"Timeline" will round out your Brand X collection nicely. Recommended.

I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on:
Music quality = 9/10; Performance = 9.5/10; Production = 8/10; CD length = 10/10.
Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 9.2 ("4-1/2 stars")