BRUFORD & BORSTLAP: IN TWO MINDS

Is it just me, or were Bruford and Borstlap treading water when they recorded this? Compared to their first album together, a miracle of instant composition, IN TWO MINDS lacks excitement. The general principle is the same as before: a drummer and a pianist/keyboardist take the stage without having the faintest idea what they're going to play. All their music evolves spontaneously. The problem is that little actually EVOLVES. I'll admit that I'm a dedicated Bruford fan, I admire most of his jazzy material (including almost all the Earthworks stuff), not to mention the rock bands BB once belonged to, for me there's no more enjoyable drummer in popular music... It pains me to admit it, but on IN TWO MINDS his music (and Borstlap's) comes dangerously close to that dreaded cliché: "aimless noodling". Especially during the first half, where virtually everything sounds like a bridge between two PROPER tracks, on some half-forgotten live album... (With the exception perhaps of "From the Source, We Tumble Headlong: a pastiche of Joseph Zawinul at his most frenetic.) In the second half (from "Duplicity" onwards) there's improvement. Tension increases and there are moments of magical interplay between percussionist and piano. Unfortunately, any excitement dies out all too soon, and there's nothing that equals Earthworks or King Crimson at their best. Of course Bruford completists can't afford to be without this. There'll never be another drummer like Bill, so in a sense every beat he lays down is sacred. (Except, perhaps, those horrible electronic drum rolls with which he ruined "Close to the Edge" on the ABHW live album...)