VISIONS OF THE EMERALD BEYOND

It is certainly arguable that John McLaughlin should have abandoned the Mahavishnu Orchestra name after the original band broken up in 1973. For they were without a doubt were an original, unique and intense unit that anything released under the Mahavishnu Orchestra name afterwards could never match the powerful Inner Mounting Flame and Birds Of Fire albums. McLaughlin tried an alternative with the George Martin produced orchestration of Apocalypse, and then again a more conventional line up with this effort and though not bad as an album it does not reach the scale of the original band. Yet McLaughlin claimed the unit responsible for this album, including violinist Jon Luc Ponty, was real deal, and somewhat naively I would feel. McLaughlin is a fine musician and perhaps the finest guitarist of his generation as well as a capable composer but the Visions Of The Emerald Beyond is a pale imitation of what came before it under the banner of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. Even the cover looks like a tired imitation of the Birds Of Fire album cover artwork. Some cool funk on "Can't Stand Your Funk" freshens things up nicely and there must be a loose concept to this album, I'm not sure. I have it on vinyl and it contains zero information beside the song titles and composers, which again are mainly McLaughlin works but drummer Michael Walden gets a credit for "Cosmic Strut" and a few of the songs have space influenced titles. Unusually though this album has a very rough production and a very muddy mix. Overall Visions Of The Emerald Beyond is a very tame, almost safely constructed album missing the fireworks that were the trade mark of the early Mahavishnu Orchestra yet it still good enough to warrant a purchase.