SECOND RUNNING - THE BASEMENT TAPES

Prosper are a Krautrock obscurity that have an interesting range of songs on Second Running The Basement Tapes, dominated by sax and fast drumming. Each track offers something special and it is based in jazz rock and AOR. The singing lets it down somewhat with a very haphazard approach similar to Joy Division. There are some excellent moments on this however.

Let Us Fill Our Empty Day has a nice brass section with jazzy nuances tempered by frenetic percussion. Turbulence is a sax domination with offbeat time sig and jazz tuning. The xylophone sound is particularly cleverly integrated. Melt Down is almost free form in places and unreservedly jazz. The bassline is wonderful on Out And Dry, one of my favourites on the album, though the vocals still feel like an afterthought. The keyboard solo is quite incredible, a real blaster.

So that sums it all up for me. Moments of excellence mixed with mediocrity, thus justifying a 3 star rating for this little treasure.