SHAMAL

Left stunned and reeling by the departures of Daevid Allen and Steve Hillage (though Steve hung around long enough to participate in two songs here), the band fumbles around to try to reconfirm or redefine their identity.

1. "Wingful of Eyes" (6:20) bassist Mike Howlett tries to be the band's new Daevid Allen with his vocals and lyrics while the musicians beneath seem to be inextricably drawn to the Jazz-Rock Fusion that so many Canterbury bands and adventurous jazz performers were trying out. (8.875/10) 2. "Chandra" (7:18) man! Pierre Moerlen sounds like a A1 jazz fusion drummer! The quirk is still present in the sax, electric violin, and synths, but the rest of the the instrumentalists are definitely grooving in a J-R F way. Quite like how Brand X will sound when they debut next year. At 4:23 Mike Howlett suddenly enters singing in the band's usual style of lyrics based upon double-entendres and plays on words. I don't really like how the song just gradually deconstructs and then fades out, otherwise this is a J-R F winner. (13.5/15)

3. "Bambooji" (5:13) music that is fully-intended to present as some kind of quasi-Asian--at least for the first two minutes as bamboo flute (bansuri), xylophone, marimba, plucked violin, and other Asian-sounding percussion instruments blend together to present some semi-Asian-sounding melodies entrapped within the quasi-Asian sounds of a strings and percussion ensemble. A fair to middling representation. (8.6667/10)

4. "Cat in Clark's Shoes" (7:43) a syncopated circle weave of jazz-rock music which goes stop 'n' go ZAPPA-klezmer in the fourth minute, bluegrass jamboree for the fifth, then a weird kind of blend of these and other New Orleans-type stuff for the sixth and old-time Roaring Twenties for the seventh before returning to a horn-supported funk for the final 30 seconds. Weird and unattractive despite the admirably flexible instrumental performances. (13/15)

5. "Mandrake" (5:04) this one opens with a slow but steady exercise in mathematical teamwork before finally spreading out and hitting a third gear forward speed at 2:17. Multiple tuned percussion instruments are the main conveyors of both of the song's two motifs with Didier Malherbe's weirdly-processed (muted?) soprano saxophone pepping things up in the middle. (8.75/10)

6. "Shamal" (9:00) again Mike's bass, Pierre's drumming, and Patrice Lemoine's bumpin' Fender Rhodes provide the foundations for some excellent J-R F funk over which Didier Malherbe's reverbed tenor sax plays some appropriately soul-ful melodies. Singing that previews 1980s Talking Heads, Human League, and Tom Tom Club enter with Mireille Bauer's vibraphone. Sax returns to the lead in the funky sixth minute as Mireille switches to tubular bells and vibes. Jorge Pichevsky's heavily-wah- and -flanged electric violin joins in with the next round of choir chant vocals. I have to say that everybody really clicks and steps up for this one; it's easily the best song on the album. (18.5/20)

Total Time: 40:01

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of jazz-fusion heading hippy music. Recommended to all lovers of the jazzy direction taken by most of the 1970s Canterbury bands.