MECCANO PELORUS

This album features Hugh Hopper with a very talented Dutch band of fusion musicians. The songs are taken from two different live performances. The first four come from a concert in 1989, the last two from a show in 1987. Unfortunately, while the performance of the band on all tracks is great, the sound quality on the first four tracks is just fair.

The liner notes describe the music as "a bizarre mix of Weather Report and Frank Zappa". I would say that's an apt comparison. While there is definitely a Soft Machine feel, there are also components reminiscent of the above mentioned artists.

The best song (and most Zappa like) is Spanish Knee with an off tempo melody that should make any Zappa fan smile. Also of note is some great guitar work on this track by Patrice Meyer. It's just too bad that the recording is so muddy. If the entire album was recorded with the same care as the last two songs, I'd give it 4 stars. But alas...