Clay Greens Polysorbate Masquerade Band in 3, By Request (2005 to 2017) RECOMMENDED

Here's a wonderful find / suggestion, very Zappalike but all-instrumental, classical and furious fusion, setting aside the silly titles, artist name, and album names.  Sparse information here, also missing the later 2 releases.  At times it reminds me of my old US Egg-imitation favorite, Radio Piece III, with the hammond organ being upfront a lot of the time, even a bit of ELP influence.  A lot of dissonance, rhythmic changes, and abrupt transitions, furiously aggressive riffs-- though I'm not too crazy about the silly astronomy / physics references in the song titles (e.g. 'Antimatter of Fact') which detracts a little from the whole.

Consider the first track from the first album which is the discogs-listed Bubbledroid one, Saturn's Orbit:

Surprisingly for this kind of late-version fusion, there are acoustic guitar tracks in there as well, though not many of course.

Equally shocking to me was the imitation Hatfield track called New Sheen, starting completely appropriately with a tritone, but notice how in the midpart of this (2-minute) song, there is a gorgeous transition with backwards chords that is followed by a very typical Dave Stewart-type keyboard pattern--what a shock:

Note the level of complex composition, with definitely some Bartok / Strav influence plus fuguelike patterns, on Avant Particle Piece from their 3rd:

So what exactly is the story of this (20 years old already) band?  At least its moniker is unique enough it's easy to locate some more information.

Progarchives says, 

Clay Green's Polysorbate Masquerade Band are an instrumental band consisting of Green on acoustic and electric guitars, who also organises digital transmission, and drum machine, affectionately known by the band as the Bubbledroid. He is joined by Edward Richard who plays bass, organ and other keyboards. The band have produced 2 albums with similar material, "Chronicles of Bubbledroid" and a collector's edition of this album is also available with extra songs. Green explains, "We had the original two-track masters redone and we've added a whole bunch of bonus tracks. The entire collection is just under eighty minutes, and it's really been an enriching experience to put it all together."

The band describe themselves on their websites as instrumental Progressive Rock presented in the style of the Early 1970's, with gritty organs, wah-wah guitar, intricate arrangements, and differing time signatures. The band pride themselves on not taking themselves seriously, and at first glance at their website, that features Italian for no reason, and the third member known as Bubbledroid, actually a synthesized drum machine, the band seem to be a parody. In an interview Green makes some cynical comments such as, "I'd describe our sound as a blend of Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come and Van der Graaf, maybe some PFM? but just the music parts, no singing of course" and "We like to think that we have something to contribute to our global society, and we've been experimenting with putting low-volume secret messages in our music, to boost sales of course."

Despite all these quirky touches, the music speaks for itself which is well performed and will appeal to those who like Camel, Focus, or other keyboard dominated instrumental music.

When you listen you'll realize they are way off the mark, it's not at all like Camel, Focus, PFM, VDG.  On the other hand, ELP is definitely an influence, but I think also Canterbury bands like Egg.

I was also shocked that the basement denizens of rym didn't give it higher ratings, since I thought it was really good, deserving a 4 or 5 rating, from me.  Good thing I'm not a part of that odd conglomeration.

A more appropriate, to the point review:

This is another one of those CDs where I had no idea what to expect. A weird title from an even weirder band name and one I had never heard of before. The band consists of two musicians; Clay Green (acoustic and electric guitars), Edward Richard (bass, electric guitar, organ, keyboards) and Bubbledroid (DNA sequencing, arrangements, drums and percussion). In case you were wondering, Bubbledroid is the name of the duo's drum machine.

If you dig instrumental progressive rock ala the '70s, with a dash of bands like Van Der Graaf Generator, King Crimson and Gentle Giant, sprinkled with a dusting of jazz fusion, you will probably want to hear Chronicles Of Bubbledroid. It may not be an instant classic but the musicianship is there in spades and the songs are well executed. Both guitar and keyboards get equal billing with some excellent lead and rhythms throughout the disc. I did find it somewhat amusing when Green states in the liner notes "And keep in mind, the best part of the Polysorbate Masquerade Band is that It's completely instrumental!" Yes, progressive rock does have its share of iffy vocalists!

The tracks vary in length from less than a minute to over eight with many being of the shorter variety. Some of the shorter tunes, like the intriguing "Sixty-Eight" with its pulsating bass line I wish were developed a bit more musically. In other words, some of these tracks end too quickly.

The album begins with "Saturn's Orbit", a nice slice of jazzy flavoured retro prog. Included are some biting guitar lines and pretty cool bass as well. The guitar work is very good, as it is on the entire album. The album also has some pretty good melodies such as "Dry Suites 94" featuring a sweet keyboard motif and excellent organ work. Another highlight is "Time Sun" with its delicate acoustic guitar, exceptional organ play and off kilter electric guitar patterns.

At over seventy-nine minutes long and eleven bonus tracks, the album may be a bit long in the tooth, but for the most part Chronicles Of Bubbledroid is a fine listen and am glad to have made its acquaintance. Recommended for fans of instrumental progressive rock with a heavy '70s flavour.

I'm thankful they did have the courage and heart to make these albums.  For us on this blog of course this is manna from heaven in a godsend all in one package or rather 3.  Would be nice if we could hear some more output now more recently.  Here's the 68 track referenced above, which features some really odd chord changes, it reminds me a lot of the US keyboard classics as I said like Radio Piece III or maybe Happy The Man, or the recent (and fantastic) Earthrise release I put back here:

Opa, from Uruguay in 3 albums: Back Home the Lost Sessions 1975, Goldenwings (1976) and Magic Time (1977)

 

Randomly found this thanks to the 'suggestions' (also random) on discogs of similar albums.  From there:

Fusion band from Uruguay. They mix a lot of South American cultural elements, sometimes adding funky and samba type grooves. The band name is sometimes spelled OPA but it's not an abbreviaton or acronym, making Opa a correct spelling ; the sleeve of OPA - Magic Time and other sources confirm this. "Opa is a Uruguayan slang greeting, a sort of "Hello" it says in Angel Atienza's liner notes for OPA - Back Home: The Lost 1975 Sessions.

For those curious, the band comprises 3 founding Fattoruso brothers (visible on this release page), two are on drums and keyboards. These 2 are responsible for most of the compositional credits, I think.  Note the involvement too of the great Hermeto Pascoal (flute, percussion) on the first.  Also note the drummer, Jorge Fattoruso, played in the later 1970s with Flora Purim.

Their music is so similar to other 1970s smooth, warm, tropical and perky latin fusion outfits, eg. Crucis, Tantra, Nuevas Aires, Sacba from this blog, or to hark back to one of the classics I still love and enjoy and return to periodically, Caldera which hailed from NYC.  Very similar to the latter, with some US influence I believe.

Pieces / Goodbye is so heartful it really pulls you in:

And the second album, a little less interesting, closes out with a nice longer track called Malisimo which reminds me just a little of the glorious and incomparable Argentinian Alas band:

Surprisingly there were unreleased tracks from 1975 that were subsequently dug up, and despite the not ideal sound, these turned out to be quite enjoyable, tragically left off any legit LP release, but here we are so many years later able to listen and appreciate today.  The early rendition of Goldenwings, title track of their first of course, is even better than the official version, being more raw, an unusual thing to see generally speaking. They do a cover version of the Jacksons' Never can say goodbye which is a little annoying, but really the sole annoyance to put up with.

The (unreleased) track called Casa Forte is so good, it's surprising it got left out:

Really nice, randomly found stuff. Another surprise!

World Music Meeting, 1986

Similar to other ethnic fusion albums posted here before, the genre should be familiar to you.  Unfortunately it's a bit infiltrated by free jazz or too much improvising in my view, but the playing is wonderful. Information here.  Note the shocking lineup, with Hozan (Houzan) Yamamoto, Charlie Mariano, Trilok Gurtu, etc. musicians definitely from all over the world, East and West.

Again and Again as a sample track, this was composed by Colin Walcott and is in memoriam to him as well (he passed away at the tragically young age of 39 from an accident):

Swiss fusion band Intergalactic Maiden Ballet in 3 albums [1987 to 1994]

The first album had a black cover at first, which was changed to the one with the colored figures falling, perhaps an improvement, while the square crate with chickens inside cover was reduced in quality and dimensions I believe for later, while the third features a purely generic image which looks like it could have been AI in the days before it even existed.

The music is very typical late funky fusion, all instrumental, with a kind of chaotic riffery on saxes and guitars.  A bit like a more wild and unrestrained version of my usual touchpoint the Brecker Bros and Step Ahead, who were so good at writing compelling and original, one-of-a-kind  funky fusion compositions in my opinion.

One track that does sound like them a lot, is Trap Dance, from the second album with John Zorn:

For the third album, which is perhaps the best of the 3, Blow:

Astonishing American Jazz Arranger/Composer George Russell in Events Part 2, more albums of note [1972 Living Time, 1982 Live in an American Time Spiral]

 

Living Time, with ultra-famous jazz pianist Bill Evans, is not quite as amazing as Vertical Forms.  I think if you know and are familiar with Claus Ogerman's collaboration with him called Symbiosis (1974), this definitely suffers in comparison.

Nonetheless it does have some moments of great beauty, but quite a bit of filler, surprisingly.

Living Time, Event VIII begins with solo Evans playing quite complex modern music, when suddenly the whole orchestra jumps in with a chaotic Alban-Bergian mess that sounds almost improvised:

On the other hand the live album Live in an American Time Spiral, in my opinion, has some stunning composition again very effectively melding big band and electric instruments, and very intricate at that. And a wonderful cover pencil drawing to boot (by Roy Smith).

There are only 3 tracks, so they're a bit too long to sample here.  But here's the 10 minute long D.C. Divertimento, which was "composed for the John F. Kennedy Jazz Festival held in Washington D.C., in 1962."  It starts off slowly but really gets into a crazy sound later on, like a bizarre radioactive mutation of a jazz chart:

The stunner on this one though is the 20 minute first track, called Time Spiral.  It has such an original oddness to its melding of electric piano plus acoustic piano, and later abrupt electric chord dissonances with furious percussion welded to the standard horn section, that it really made my jaw drop and everything else too.  Outstandingly appreciated too is the fact every 5 minutes it completely changes directions, rather than just throwing in a bunch of random jazz solos to fill 'er up like an empty gas tank.

Imagine if Miles Davis and Stravinsky had collaborated together to write out a concerto for electric piano / flute / sax...

I'm reminded too of my old favourite unknown work, Don Sebesky's Bela Bartok homage, here, and in some places, this other past Melodiya favorite of mine.

Incidentally, for those curious, the electronic keyboard albums I found, because they're entirely improvised, quite meandering.