ONE DOWN

This is possibly the worst Material album although I haven't heard every one. Basically a duo of bassist Bill Laswell and keyboardist Michael Beinhorn with guest musicians. Both would go on to produce and collaborate with many artists. After this album, Beinhorn co-wrote Herbie Hancock's biggest hit "Rockit". The vast majority of the music here is post-disco early '80s R&B and synth-pop. Very dated. Most of the vocals are done by females.

Some of the more well known guests include Nile Rodgers of Chic and a 16-year old Whitney Houston(more on that later). The best thing about this album is Laswell's bass playing, but even it sounds very dated now. "Let Me Have It All" was written by Sylvester Stewart, otherwise known as Sly of the Family Stone. "Holding On" was co-written with Brian Eno. Neither song is anything special. The last three songs are the best. Before I get to the first of the three, I'll talk about the last two. "Don't Lose Control" has some good vocoder and a nice synth melody. Some talking in French near the end. "Busting Out" is a nifty club song. I think this was a single. Good bass playing and a decent guitar solo near the end.

The best song here and the least dated is "Memories". This is the song with Whitney Houston on vocals, two years before her debut album. Jazz legend Archie Shepp plays some great saxophone on this song. Whitney does the best vocals on the whole album. This song was written by Hugh Hopper(RIP) for The Wilde Flowers(who split into Caravan and Soft Machine). The version here is very good. Great lyrics("Get so you cannot stay, and yet cannot go"). Soft Machine, Daevid Allen and Robert Wyatt all recorded this song, but Wyatt's version from 1974 is the definative version. Dare I say the version here is the second best.

This album won't be of much interest to many people(whether they like prog or not). I would say you're better off getting the first album Memory Serves or the 1993 album Hallucination Engine for your first taste of Material. Material were very hit-or-miss, and this is a miss. 2 stars.