WHOSE DREAM?

London, 1984: the three young and self-confident musicians Colin Tench (guitar, synthesizers and vocals), Gary Derrick (bass) and Cliff Deighton (drums) decided to leave their band Odin, they were fed up with not getting gigs, which simply meant a life without audiences. They founded a new band named BunChakeze. According to Gary this is why. 'The name came from the instrumental at the start of the album. We could not come up with a name for it. I said "what key is it in" Maybe we could put the chord sequence to make a name. Colin said it's a" whole bunch of keys" so I don't know what we can make of it. In the 1970s an English band called Slade, used to misspell their song titles so that is what we did. Bunch of keys, became Bunchakeeze.'

In 1985 Bunchakeze recorded the tracks for a vinyl record, eventually with a singer from LA who was on a trip to the UK. Despite their strong musical ideas and the huge time and energy the band had put into the recordings, no record company was interested. In those mid-Eighties known prog bands their sound had often turned into more accessible and song-oriented, like Rush, Marillion, Genesis, BJH and Camel, a kind of 'Prog Light'. Perhaps BunChakeze their varied progressive music was too hard to pigeonhole for the record companies, or perhaps even too progressive? Anyway, unfortunately the 1985 tracks remain in the vaults. Until in 2010 the band members decided to release that 1985 material, as an own production CD. So how about BunChakeze their progressive sound on the CD Whose Dream?, how wrong were all those negative reacting record companies?

Very wrong! Because listening to BunChakeze is a very pleasant musical experience, their music is loaded with variety and strong musical ideas. I notice elements of Rush, Wishbone Ash and Pink Floyd, but the band have succeeded to keep an own musical identity. Singer Joey Lugassy (later he earned two Emmy nominations for best sonsg in drama series) his voice is pretty distinctive and matches with the music. The nine songs all contain their own atmosphere, the level of the compositions and the musicians is on a good and constant level. I am very glad for the band that they finally got their album release, they fully deserved it! Some personal favourites on this album.

Inventive and varied guitar work in the opener Bun Chakeze.

A fat sequencer sound (like Star Cycle by Jeff Beck) with expressive vocals and beautiful interplay between guitar and piano in Walk In Paradise.

Warm acoustic twanging guitar (with overdubs) in Flight Of The Phoenix.

Moving electric guitar runs in Midnight Skies.

And a tribute to 1973-1979 Pink Floyd in the atmospheric The Deal.

Thanks to the medium CD we progheads can enjoy BunChakeze their interesting and adventurous progressive music, after it remained 25 years in the vaults.

This review is dedicated to the memory of prime mover and prolific musician Colin Tench, who sadly passed away in December 2017.

Share this BUNCHAKEZE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to TenYearsAfter
• Report this review (#1947835)
• Buy BUNCHAKEZE music online with PA partners
• Show all BUNCHAKEZE MP3/Stream
• Go to BUNCHAKEZE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Whose Dream? page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for BUNCHAKEZE related discussions