Customer Reviews

Whose Side Are You On

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A true classic which sounds great almost twenty years after its first release. Full of the humour and fun of the earlier Matt Bianco work but much deeper and more textured, as well as more lyrically sophisticated. The title track is breezy pop, but it is the Latin inflections in "No No Never," "Half a Minute," and "Sneaking Out the Back Door" which make this album so intriguing and unique. I resist the term "fusion" in that it is a classification used to market and sell music, but I don't know how else to describe the synthesis of pop, jazz, salsa, samba, and electronic music which characterizes this work. Basia's voice is in fine form (we Matt Bianco fans always KNEW she was going to be huge), and Mark Reilly sounds young, playful, and exuberant. His performance on "More Than I Can Bear" is particularly poignant--the piece must be one of the saddest songs ever written about a lost love. Great music for blasting in the car on a hot summer day, windows open all the way and nowhere you really have to be in a hurry.

This was the group Matt Bianco's first album and many of its tracks feature the initial work of the great Polish diva, Basia. The songs range from samba/Bossa Nova based rythyms to 80's techno-pop and are performed flawlessly. My favorite songs on the album are the ones sung by Basia (especially Half A Minute) but they are all great. Do yourself a favor and give this wonderful album a listen!

Best CD I've bought in years!!! My wife and I are big Basia fans and have anxiously awaited new music from her only to be disappointed. I came across this CD on Amazon ("People who bought Basia also bought..."). Thank you, Amazon!!!

This is NOT just Basia. It is everything she brings - jazzy, penetrating vocals - plus much more. This is the first time I've heard Matt Bianco and I'm hooked - just bought two more CDs.

"Whose Side Are You On" has a great Latin / jazz beat with some restrained techo-influences. Mark Reilly's vocals and Basia's really complement each other. The musical composition and execution are great. If you like Basia's "Time and Tide" & "London Warsaw New York", you'll love this.

Basia is the lead singer on a few cuts (one of the best is "Half a Minute") and backup on most of the others ("Get Out of Your Lazy Bed" uses her jazz vocal talents to great effect). The blend is great.

The only reason I give this (the first & best Matt Bianco album to date) four instead of five stars is probably purely the record companys fault...

Firstly, when I first heard the album back in the early eighties it was on a tape that included things that are not on the CD I just bought.

1) Track 2,the version of 'More Than I Can Bear' is not the one with Basia's soothingly brilliant backing vocals on it (there is a version featuring Basia which is better)

2) Track 4, 'Half A Minute' is not the 12" version as I'm sure it was on the tape

3) & of course as has been mentioned, no 'Big Rosie' which I think was track 10 on the tape before 'Matts Mood II'

Mark Reilly, Basia, Danny White & not forgetting Ronnie Ross' sax playing and all the other musicians made an album that was way ahead of its time and still sounds fresh today.

This album, including 'Basia' on vocals, will make you want to dance and jump. My five year-old can't get enough of this music! Matt Bianco's jazz/pop mix will never go out of style... and it's so original. Whenever I need a musical pick-me-up, this is the album.

Blessed he or she who escaped a life of misery and went far, far away from where repression and hatred lies. Brave and lucky whoever had the courage to go west, beyond the Iron Courtain and managed to reach freedom. It was risky, like being rocketed to the moon. And it took tasks that are described in this record.

For some reason I believe Whose Side Are You On? is about escaping the cold of communism for the warmth of the Western freedom. It is an encounter of an eastern girl with two U.K. guys who created a unique concept for its time. Unfortunately the first line-up didn't last too long.
Matt Bianco is not a person and definetly not a band, being this line-up disbanded completely after a one and only tour, but their story is pretty unique and I'm sure after you hear this album, you'll be impressed. But hey, you have to have open ears and let your emotions flow.
What we have here is one of those records that hook you and won't let go. This if you have a thing for the eighties' synth-pop sound and you once thought they were just a one hit wonder, fun to dance to but with additional flavors needed. Matt Bianco brings that spicyness and makes this one of the best debut albums ever.
It was formed after a jazz project named Blue Rondo A La Turk, and the idea of naming a band with a guy's name wasn't exactly creative (Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd were names already taken.) At the beginning there was Kito Poncioni on bass (who left after 15 minutes, probably), Mark Reilly on vocals and Danny White on keyboards. A polish girl named Basia Trzetrzelewska (omit the last name and you have a household name of soft pop) gets called to work with them, they get a pre-WWII fashion look (very elegant for Basia, hey... she never looked so gorgeous) and the band was more than ready.
However, Bianco seemed to be doomed from the beginning. England wasn't ready yet for caribbean-latin pop sounds yet and they didn't make it at all in the U.S. But this didn't avoid them reaching a cult status and becoming a guilty pleasure for whoever ran into this record and the subsequent ones.
They were misunderstood, as most of the innovative things coming out of the eighties. They even got insulted on public TV:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEkB25V_ow8


Before the inevitable disbanding, they produced amazing pieces of work that somehow reach our emotional strings: "Whose Side Are You On?" is a funky synth pop tune with a walking bass setting up a spy movie in the twilight of the Cold War. Somebody is delivering important information to be delivered to western european intelligence but gets poisoned in an Italian Cafe. The East payed more money to the counter-spy. This incident seems isolated but thanks to Basia's distinctive background vocal work, haunts the entire record with paranoia, romance and longing for freedom.
"More Than I Can Bear" may be about a man longing for the departed lover, but in the album's context it's about a man with no past, maybe a spy, who fell in love with the wrong woman at the wrong time. The CD version of this tune features Mark Reilly by himself wailing about lost love; but in the LP version Basia helps him coping with the pain, creating literally one of the best pop performances of the eighties.
After "More," the beginning of the Cha-cha in "No No Never" will make you think the rest of the album will suck big time and the first two tracks were just lucky strikes. But no, the song starts growing on you and all of a sudden we get the sensation of having a Caribbean story told by Europeans in a very elegant way. Crossover big time.
"Half A Minute" features Basia's high pitched perfect lead vocals in an amazing, fast paced samba that would make Astrud Gilberto tremble. Samba becomes pop in "It's Getting Late" when Basia plays an innocent girl trying to leave a bachelor's pad while he insists she can spend the night in it. She might be looking for protection but she is still scared to ask for it; therefore, the only way is out. "Get Out Your Lazy Bed," another tune about rushing into freedom by embracing capitalism, was maybe the biggest dance tune of the album, and it's there when we fall in love with Trzetrzelewska's angelical voice, being an emotional counterpart to Mark Reilly's baritone-a-la-Elvis sound.


Whose Side Are You On? is about ex-patriates trying to make it in the West and songwriters Reilly and Fisher play with the idea well: Matt Bianco is supposed to be the name of a spy a-la-James Bond who might be dealing with cold war issues of the time, including romantic affairs with complicated women who don't know what they want. If it's not an album about trespassing, then what is "Sneaking Out the Back Door" about? Matt Bianco releases himself of all responsabilities of a relationship and just... walks away singing a catchy dancing tune with a steady synth-bass riff all over a rocking jazz-chord progression. "Riding With The Wind" is the low point of the record but it's a necessary one, as it embeds the entire idea of moving from point A to point B; an idea present during the entire record, even in the two cohesive, cinematic instrumental tracks that close each side of the LP: "Matt's Mood" and "Matt's Mood II."

Shazam! A concept album of high caliber: Whose Side Are You On? is a collection of songs about freedom and how to reach it, for sure. It's more related to the iron courtain than anything else. It's a shame that the CD doesn't feature the Basia/Reilly version of "More Than I Can Bear," we get the Mark Reilly-only version. Also, the CD doesn't include the bonus tracks featured in the cassette: "Big Rosie" and "The Other Side."

The disbandment caused Reilly to look for partners to reboot the Bianco Server and he found it in former Wham! keyboard player Mark Fisher. They released a series of albums throught the nineties (each one full of nice surprises) and circa 2000, Fisher took a leave of absence. Reilly then called back Trzetrzelewska and White who'd been working together since the break-up and recorded a reunion album, Matt's Mood, which is a pleasure to listen to, but way less innocent and intense than Whose Side Are You On?. They went on tour in Europe and the audiences went nuts. Currently, Basia and White are working on a Basia solo project but no news of Reilly's involvment.

Whose Side Are You On? is a masterpiece, period, and the kick-off of one of the most underrated acts in pop history. Too bad Matt Bianco is just known for their 1988 hit "Don't Blame It On That Girl" (from the album Indigo, which is a very good record and we can talk about this later.) After finishing listening to it, we realize there's so much to discover out there...

Bonus:

I bought this album on vinyl a couple of weeks ago out of a bargain bin in San Francisco. I paid a dollar for that record and it's one of the best values I ever had for a george. All songs are perfect crafts of latin-pop-synth material full of beautiful vocal arrangements and pianos. Basia totally steals the show on this record. If you like the eighties, this album is a must have. One of the best examples of pop music production and vocal work.

Important detail: On the LP record, the song "More Than I Can Bear" features Basia's vocals. On the CD, her vocals are removed and Mark Reilly sings the song by himself. I guess this mix was done at last minute to create a sensation of loneliness, since Basia's haunting voice makes you think she's also longin' for a long lost love.

Which version of "Bear" I prefer? The one with Basia. She is the long lost love. Get the LP besides the CD. I wonder if the LP version can be found in any other compilations like The Best of Matt Bianco: 1983-1990

Heard that Basia was affiliated with a little group known as Matt Bianco in Europe in the early eighties. I had to hear for myself just how good they were. Let me tell you,now I know for sure there was nothing like this out there in the pop and MTV world of the 80's. What an incredible group to use such wonderful influences like Astrud Gilberto, Sergio Mendes, and other early Latin-samba-salsa based artists.There is an almost retro feel or throwback to the days of these Brazilian artists of the 60's and 70's with a contemporary feel highlighted with light jazz.Whose Side Are You On ? is truly a remarkable import that seems to grow in cult status among import collectors of European pop...Add this one to your list !

Great album,with 4 tracks standing out Half a Minute,Get out of
your lazy bed,Who's side are you on,and sadly not on the cd but
on tape Big Rosie.I've loved this album for years,and still play
it on a regular basis,I can only say 'buy it now!'

I've been trying to find this since the 80's. Some of my favorite songs are on this CD. Basia is great. Peter White's brother, Danny (if I heard right, possibly Peter also) Truly a gem. 5 stars aren't enough.

Matt Bianco's first album is no doubt their very best ever. The music is simply dance music with light jazz all over them. Songwriting and arrangement are absolutely perfect. Each song differs and still you can feel the same spirit in each of them. Mark and Basia were in their highest performance. Unfortunately another song, Big Rosie, was not included in the album (I found it in their tape version). That's one of my favourite song. After this album Basia and another member left the group.