Monday 23 January 2017

Next Simon and Bard: Tear It Up with Ralph Towner from 1982





After Musaic I was quite eagerly anticipating the next installment but when I heard the first track my heart dropped.  Luckily, as in Doug Lofstrom's oddball Beatlesian choice of opener for his Music album, the remainder turned out to be totally of the same inimitable ilk as the first album.  It seems the opener merely shows some conciliatory gestures towards the elementary school fuzak that was such an unrelenting and incurable plague of the eighties, after which the musicians are given freedom to play sophisticated and elegantly intelligent music.  In fact, already by the second track the sweeter meditative side of the band is quite in evidence, on a little composition called Lazlo's Muse:





Notice the percussive ascending piano chord pattern from Fred Simon which was a big feature of the Musaic composition.  As on the previous album, a longer suite appears, this time at the start of the second side, this time called Octabloon.  Look forward to that very well composed sonata-structured piece with different tempo'd sections and again very Muffins-like, with a most dramatic finale.

My one perhaps critical comment, meek as it is, may be that ultravirtuoso Ralph is not put to the fore as we had hoped.  It's OK-- this is Simon and Bard's show.

Look forward again to more.


14 comments:

  1. http://www11.zippyshare.com/v/30jzLhWB/file.html

    actually, this might be better than the first album, which is surely a wondrous surprise, at least, it's not inferior

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Can you please, reupload it? Thanks.

      Delete
    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    3. new upload of tear it up, not sure why these disappear after a period of time:
      https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/71bagv

      Delete
  2. Many thanks!!! many-many-many)))

    ReplyDelete
  3. I only hear Ralph on the last tune although he does play piano,keyboards & synth. etc. Ralph & Larry seem to be used here to get your attention for the most part.
    Thanks Julian, btw what did you think of Atmospheres?

    ReplyDelete
  4. thanks, I had those albums by Clive from some time back, big favorites of course

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Julian, would it be possible to get a rip of
      Voyage to Uranus?

      Delete
  5. Julian, do you have this:
    Dørge, Becker & Carlsen Featuring Marilyn Mazur‎– Canoe

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Thank you Julian, really do appreciate your help!

      Delete
    3. Hi Julian is it possible to re-up Voyage to Uranus.
      ty

      Delete
    4. https://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/1ervgh
      atmospheres voyage to uranus

      Delete