MOROCCAN ROLL

Brand X merge a mellow brand of jazz with progressive rock tendencies and come up with a stunning and fresh as fresh album, I say fresh because at this stage of the game the majority of acts who tasted success under the fusion genre earlier in the decade were growing tired and lacking depth as the seventies ran quickly and rock music fragmented. Phil Collins act came relatively late in the day but the music is inspiring and captures a subtle dynamic as well as adding another facet to Collin's bow, and a good one at that. Brand X bridges the gap between Genesis and his solo career while it also closed the door on any creativity he would claim to have to that point. To any normal human being Collin's solo work, though starting with the odd bright spot, is drab to the point of horrific and the mainstream success he has had only punctuates this. But Brand X is hardly Collin' show, the band is well equipped with a talented bunch of artists who make a good job of creating a wide and spacious tone on [i]Moroccan Roll[/i]. John Godsall's blends his guitar as smooth as silk, the intro piece "Sun In The Night" seemed filler to me on first listen but the guitar adds a sweet and uplifting tone to the Eastern (or Moroccan?) promise of the piece before the album starts proper with "Why Should I Lend You Mine (When You've Broken Yours Already)" followed by its sister track and the wonderful fusion muzak fuzak breeze of "...Maybe I'll Lend You Mine After All" before launching through more smooth fusion and even getting funky with "Hate Zone". Keyboard player Robin Lumley gives Brand X extra room with his lines and adds a haunting nuance to the short piece "Collapsar" while the excellently titled "Disco Suicide" also contains some nice piano lines as well as some throbbing bass courtesy of Percy Jones. [i]Moroccan Roll[/i] is a very enjoyable album, released slap bang in the middle of the year broke and became mainstream it would be interesting to hear how it went down. But unlike much from the punk scene, as well as many from the fusion era, the album has aged well and lasted the pace. An album to be played at any time, but specifically winter... or even a Moroccan summer.