Mike Santiago / Entity, White Trees, USA 1977

Speaking of osurec, finally an upgrade on this magnificent American fusion album that at least for me was an old discovery from the mighty one himself.  This is a one-off from Mike, his only composition that I can see, his masterwork, and it's really truly brilliant, showing Chick Corea influences and some really advanced progressive composition wrapped up in some insanely fast and almost impossibly hyperactive guitar playing.  A terrible mono rip was circulating of course, which didn't do it justice.

I always confused this album and the similar sounding "Mike Warren and Survival Kit" which of course is just as good in addition to being quite similar, being electric-guitar based in sound like the great Tony Palkovic.  My one criticism here is that, having purchased a VG+ record, it's quite clear that the sound of the recording is not ideal, you will see what I mean because I'll let you get a go at the wav file I recorded just now.  I would go so far as to say that most of the instruments sound like they're recorded in mono.  Therefore on some of the really dexedrinic songs like "On the edge of forever" it's almost hard to follow the individual instruments, and the fusion gets sorely muddled.

Here is that track, which has some of the fastest unison fusion riffs I've ever heard, and will of course remind you of the famed band Return to Forever:






Gotta love that cover photograph too, almost like a nineteenth century British landscape.

And here are the credits:

All tracks arranged and composed by Mike Santiago except the Rue Veine track, written by Rick Montalbano.

Drums – Ronnie Glick 
Guitar – Mike Santiago 
Percussion, Congas, Vibraphone – Tom Baker
Piano – Richard Sussman
Producer – Hank O'Neal, Mike Santiago 
Recorded By – Bruce Gerstein 

Recorded 13-14 October, 1977 

"The music on this record is dedicated to Bonnie Santiago"