BRUFORD: GRADUALLY GOING TORNADO (1980)
1) Age Of Information; 2)
Gothic 17; 3) Joe Frazier; 4) Q.E.D.; 5) The Sliding Floor; 6) Palewell Park;
7) Plans For J.D.; 8) Land's End.
More like Gradually
Going Tormato, if you know what I mean. The current version of the Wikipedia
page states that "this album is considered among one of the best albums in
the progressive rock/fusion genre", with a reference to a review in the
All-Music Guide by a certain Leo Bloom, who probably knows his fusion from a
fuse and his prog from a frog, but as much as I'd like to agree that Bill
Bruford deserves more exposure and promotion, I'd also like to emphasize that
fusion is not always nearly as boring
as this record. Really, honestly, there are some truly exciting fusion albums
out there — this one just does not happen to be one of them.
If you take One Of A Kind as the band's typically generic fusion album, then Gradually Going Tornado differs from it
in three respects. First, it's got a less prominent guitarist than Alan Holdsworth
(John Clark, who did well enough reproducing Alan's parts live on stage, but
who certainly has problems coming up with similar parts on his own). Second, it
toys around with the pop scene, including a few cheerful, bouncy,
near-danceable fusion-pop hybrids like ʽAge Of Informationʼ. Third, they
probably thought that if they'd add vocals they'd be able to sell more copies,
and so their bass player Jeff Berlin begins singing — and he is every bit as
awful a vocalist as he is awesome as a bass player (and is it just me, or is
he unintentionally singing in the wrong key on some of these songs?).
So it's like... generic fusion, only worse.
Yes, the dated late 1970s synthesizer tones are still all over the place (and
pardon me for the hyperbole when I say that it is these synthesizer tones that
may have «killed» progressive rock far more efficiently than any amount of punk
attitude), the directionless jamming is still very much in action, and few, if
any, of the tunes are memorable or, in fact, meaningful. The «pop» songs are
either dreadful quasi-optimistic anthems with synthesized fanfares (ʽAge Of
Informationʼ, like the Buggles with more technique, but fewer hooks and no
sense of humor), or strange «angry rockers» like ʽGothic 17ʼ, where hard rock,
pop, and jazz are mixed in more or less equal dosage and you have no way of
understanding what sort of reaction the song is supposed to elicit in the
first place. The more «progressive» stuff is less embarrassing, but even less
memorable, so you don't have much of a choice.
The only thing about this album that I still
find cool is Berlin's bass playing — the man is totally killing it even on the
worst tracks, so every time I found the experience close to unbearable, I just
had to twist my ear channels so that they blocked out everything except the
basslines: fast and fluent like Jon Entwistle's, but also betraying
professional jazz training (Berklee College of Music, to be accurate). Could you,
please, delete everything else on the tracks and just leave that bass? I am not
even impressed by Bruford's drum tracks — next to that fabulous bass, they're
just... drums. But why did the guy have to ruin it all by singing over those
basslines?
In short, while it is probably possible to gradually convince yourself that the record
has its merits, I would suggest disspelling the illusion with a quick listen to
Bruford's very next project — the revamped King Crimson would release Discipline just one year later, and
show the world what a really inspired
and innovative progressive album could sound like in the early 1980s. Compared
to other run-of-the-mill fusion records, this one might be «okay», but compared
to the best of Yes and King Crimson — two bands, after all, which should be the
closest in kin spirit to Bruford — this is a thumbs down all the way.
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