BRAVE NEW WORLD

I'm such a massive fan of ZYMA's debut called "Thoughts" that it was a no-brainer to track this one down. "Thoughts" just hit all the right buttons for me plus it was pretty cool to hear some Canterbury and Zeuhl shadings over the mostly Jazz/ Fusion style. This one continues with the Fusion at times but there's a Canterbury flavour mainly through some of the humour on here. It's just not the same as the debut, in fact it's a huge step backwards in my opinion. Plenty of violin and viola on this one as well as some flute and trumpet. We also get something called a Solina String Ensemble and there's a guest adding percussion, congas and bongos. Yes this is called "Brave New World" and it's 1979.

"Brave New World" gets things off on the wrong foot in a major way(haha). Lots of percussion, bongos etc. after a very lame intro that sounds like an ad for a new condo development or something. It reminded me of a part of the MIRTHKON debut which is funny, this not so much. Male vocals join in followed by female vocals as that lame chorus is repeated a couple of more times. A violin solo after 2 minutes followed by humerous male vocal melodies. The violin is back leading then the female starts to scat. Not a fan of this one.

"Sundays" is much better as we get this Fusion track with some killer drumming and bass playing on it. Atmosphere to start before the drums and bass kick in then the trumpet and electric piano. This reminds me of Miles it's so good. Distorted keys after 3 minutes changes the feel here as they replace the vocals. Vocal melodies return before 5 minutes and it ends with church bells. "Lunch Time" is a short 2 minute track of piano melodies until the bass arrives late. It's okay.

"Sunday Fever" sounds great as we get another Fusion piece. The drumming is outstanding. We get plenty of synths as the Solina String Ensemble joins in. Bass and a change a minute in as keys, percussion, drums and more help out. Vocal melodies followed by drums, violin and electric piano. That earlier sound is back late. "Transit" reminds me a little of DFA except the violin is very prominent here at times. The bass, drums and electric piano also stand out. Distorted keys and vocal melodies 2 1/2 minutes in then the violin is back late. Good song.

"Colours" is also very good except for the female vocals that turn me off part way through. This is the longest track at 8 1/2 minutes. Like "Sundays" we get atmosphere to start as sounds come and go. Violin is the first constant as drums, bass and percussion join in. The female vocal melodies after 3 minutes aren't bad but the vocals that follow are. She stops after 4 minutes as the flute takes over with the drums and so on continuing. Violin leads after 6 minutes then the Solina String Ensemble joins in. "A Nice Way To Say Hello" ends this recording and we get drums, flute, female vocal melodies, electric piano and more. I'm just not into this though. Violin comes to the fore early on as well.

A disappointment for sure but the instrumental work I have no fault with, in fact I quite enjoyed it many times over a listening period of this album. Just not my thing overall I guess.

ZYMA was the odd German band out in the 1970s as it straddled down the progressive rock road. No psychedelic escapism or Krautrock freakery for this Heidelberg band but rather an odd blend of stylistic approaches including England's notorious Canterbury Scene jazz-rock sounds as well as elements of violin infused folk and good old fashioned progressive rock that added a touch of funky bass lines and flute. This band existed from 1972-81 and released two albums before succumbing to the economic turbulent 1980s (in prog terms). The band's first album "Thoughts" has been a minor hit for Canterbury fans with a strong sense of Hatfield & the North leanings along with the aforementioned idiosyncratic touches.

For the band's second release BRAVE NEW WORLD which emerged the following year in 1979, ZYMA offered another strong batch of proggy tunes only with a much different style than the debut. While clearly rooted in the Canterbury jazz-rock leanings of "Thoughts," BRAVE NEW WORLD adopted a different by adding some zeuhl groove that at times sounds a bit like Magma lite however lead singer Dorle Ferber also adopts some scat vocals which have been compared to any French zeuhl band - Zao. There was a slight lineup change on this one along with some new instruments added as well including a viola, trumpet and something called a zink which is just another word for the medieval instrument called the cornett. Add to that the Solina String Ensemble and what we have here is another strong example of late 70s prog in full steam.

While the debut has garnered a bit of interest and retrospective respect in the ensuing decades, BRAVE NEW WORLD has been mostly forgotten. While "Thoughts" has enjoyed a bonafide CD reissue complete with bonus tracks, BRAVE NEW WORLD has never seen a second pressing beyond its initial 1979 release and hasn't even been available on modern digital sources such as YouTube until recent years. Perhaps this album has finally earned a chance to woo a more appreciative world market for everything retro from the golden years of prog. Clearly relegated to the forgotten pile due to the immense volume of prog albums from the 1970s, BRAVE NEW WORLD does wane a little in quality in comparison to its more creative and dynamic predecessor but this sophomore release is hardly a throwaway album in the least.

Part of the problem with BRAVE NEW WORLD in relation to the debut is the fact that the tracks on this one just aren't as original or diverse. The general theme on album #2 is based on Canterbury jazz-rock jams with zeuhl-esque cyclical bass grooves along with the scatted vocals mostly focused on the female side of the equation. The call and response male and female vocals of the debut are absent on this one. Dare i say that this one is even a bit generic at least in terms of composition although the instrumentation is dead on perfect and the mixing job is gorgeous but in the end it does sound a bit like the leftover tracks from the debut with no single track reaching the quality of "Thoughts." Some tracks like "Colours" are almost downright dull actually. True that it delivers a beautiful mix of bass, Canterbury keys and violin but comes off as a very weak version of an early Mahavishnu Orchestra tune.

Yeah, make no mistake about it. BRAVE NEW WORLD is clearly a step down in quality from the thoughtful debut "Thoughts" in about every way. True the band tried to implement a few creative extras here and there but overall this entire album sounds more like a practice session than a fully realized album. It's true that prog didn't die in the latter half of the 1970s but it's also a fact that it wasn't nearly as popular and that the profit margin was practically nil therefore bands who swam upstream had to do so from pure determination and oft self-financing which meant a lot of bands had to put all their eggs in a single basket before calling it a day. I do not know the reason why ZYMA was successful in releasing a second album during those trying years but for whatever reason this band was not able to muster up a comparable followup to its excellent debut. Whatever the case, BRAVE NEW WORLD is definitely a competent and even pleasant album to experience but it is also obvious that it lacks that fiery passion of the debut and thus the end of one of Germany's extremely rare examples of the Canterbury Scene.