PASSPORT - DOLDINGER

The first Passport album is a hidden gem of the early fusion scene, which deserves to be considered along with the debuts of the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report in considerations of the genre's evolution. Although at points the band do play loud, hard, and fast - as on Lemuria's Dance and Madhouse Jam, the former of which seems to me to show a bit of influence from the sound achieved by Frank Zappa on Hot Rats. But by and large, the music here is a touch more gentle than the competition, with a spacey atmosphere often attained by bandleader Klaus Doldinger through his embrace of modern synthesisers, an innovation which sets the album apart from most other fusion albums from the same year. A great start to an extremely prolific project.