Thursday, January 17, 2008

Album of the Day

Unorthodox Behaviour, by Brand X (1976): Back in the day, when Phil Collins wanted a change of pace from his day job, he didn't run off to do some snoozing Disney musical. He did what he did best - just be a drummer - with lots of different folks. One of those was fusion group Brand X, which he formed with Percy Jones (bass, primarily fretless), John Goodsall (guitar), and Robin Lumley (keyboards). Their debut album was a solid slice of jazz influenced prog that would set the band (in various arrangements) down a long and winding path. Thanks to the interaction between Collins and Jones, Brand X had a distinctively liquid feel that set them apart from their contemporaries.

5 comments:

Paul said...

That looks amazing. I'd never heard of it before. I'll have to try to find it.

crystal dawn said...

Brand X is one of my all time favorite bands. And yes, Collins is a much better drummer than solo artist. Touchwood and Nuclear Burn are my favs off this album.

Other good albums from them is "Product" and "Livestock" although I've liked most of them.

I found out about them from an old Eddie Van Halen interview where the interviewer asked him what he was listening to at the moment. Brand X and Peter Gabriel were his answers. :)

Anonymous said...

I've got Product, but it's a little more disjointed, given the juggled lineups on each tune (almost). Still lots of good stuff on it.

Interesting note about EVH - never seemed to come out on any Van Halen albums!

crystal dawn said...

The closest he came to putting anything close to jazz fusion would maybe be some of the guitar solo work on albums like Fair Warning or their last one with that dude from Xtreme.

Anonymous said...

I'm a huge Genesis fan. I can't believe I've never heard of this.