CHIMERA

Duncan and Gordon Mackay honed their skills playing covers of The Nice and Emerson Lake and Palmer, that much is obvious by the three tracks from the original release of this album. Each song is a wellspring of Emersonian impersonations, with Hammond organ volcanic eruptions, nimble mixtures of classical and jazz piano, and soaring synth lines.

The result, while not sounding exactly like Emerson's work, is quite good, but not up to par with the Master's output of the time. Mackay's fingers are just as fast as Keith's, but he lacked the sense of showmanship that Emerson could put into his music. And many times Mackay's imitation gets so close it could be called plagiarism. Where Emerson would playfully quote all sorts of other musicians and songs, Mackay quotes Emerson. There is an organ break on Morpheus that sounds like it was ripped from ELP's debut album (as well as a drum riff from Tank), the aforementioned organ swipes, and even some synth sounds. But while Emerson programmed most of his sounds himself, Mackay's all sound like preloaded patches on his Arp synthesizer.

Not that the Emersonian imitation makes this album less fun. It was about this time that ELP was just starting to lose their mojo, and someone taking up the mantle wasn't such a bad thing.

Later reissues have a bonus track, The Opening, a Tangerine Dream-like piece recorded in 1990.

I know I came down a bit hard on Mackay for the Emerson imitation, but this is really a good album. And later releases have Mackay becoming his own musician.