D.S. AL CODA

The first opening notes of Dave Stewart's synthesizer tells you this album is going to be different from the other two. One of the founding members, Alan Gowen, had died in May of 1981 from Leukemia. So the members got back together in October to begin recording this final tribute album to him. It consists only of Gowen's compositions. Since Gowen was primarily a synthesizer player, with the occasional electric piano, Dave Stewart dropped the organ he usually played and concentrated on the synth. The results are pretty amazing.

Like some people who first heard this, I was taken aback at first. I enjoyed "National Health" and "Of Queues and Cures" but this seemed at first to be too straightforward. But that opinion quickly changed the more I heard it.

Dave can pull some real piercing sounds out of the synthesizer the same way he did earlier with the organ as he had done with "Dreams Wide Awake" on the previous album. This is most notable on "I Feel A Night Coming On" and "Flanagan's People." Phil Miller has a much harsher sound on his guitar this time. The smoother sounds of his fuzz-tone guitar are gone but it still fits the music very well. John Greaves does not use fuzz-tone on his bass this time and Pip Pyle is using electronic drums at times. Of course, this could be expected in 1981 and 1982.

Amanda Parsons, Barbara Gaskin, and Ann Rosenthal (all of Northettes fame) appear on the very short "Tales of a Damson Knight." For the track to be under two minutes, I guess that Knight didn't have much of a life! It's still good though. Richard Sinclair does a vocalise on "Black Hat" and Jimmy Hastings appears on flute for "Shining Water." Elton Dean (of Soft Machine fame) appears with his saxello on this album too.

The credits above list Dave Stewart as playing organ, pianos, and tone generator. That's incorrect--as all he uses here are synthesizers and electric piano.

Although this album sounds dated now, the LAST thing it sounds like is a pop album. This is still a very progressive album and I love it as much as the others. That must say something for me, because heavy synth usage and any appearance of electronic drums usually turns me off. Not here though. They didn't do the late 70's/early 80's pop sellout like several other prog bands did. Check it out.