BRAIN SALAD SURGERY

No wonder why punk rockers hate them, ELP's at thier best "Brain Salad Surgery" is a prove that pomposity at music can be achieve without any kind of guilt, why should they anyway? From the openning "Jerusalem" to the last movement of "Karn Evil 9" the album gives you the feeling that emotion and virtusism can go together. O.K. maybe "Jerusalem" is a little bit over the top, even for them, but the rest of the album is so well perform that - at least to me - it can be follow easily through a rank of moods that goes from dixieland jazz to mockery saloon music, without losing it's edge. I think Ginastera's "Tocatta" is the most confrontational because there is a sublime rhytm variation that twist the piece into a disconcerting sum of sound effects and incredibly dense atmosphere despite the tecnological limitations. In fact I honestly believe that, if the same piece were record today, it would sound like an Aphex Twin song. "Karn Evil 9" is just perfect, the 29 minute song is a compendium of their influences from Elgar to Gershwin, from early twentieth century jazz to pure and simple rock'n roll. What earns them the five stars is the feeling that all along this album every detail matters. Chapeau!!