FunkFreak75 After bursting onto the scene with in the previous year with their exciting Unorthodox Behaviour album, expectations were high for the future of this band of RETURN TO FOREVER-like British Jazz-Rock Fusion wannabes. The big question would be: How long would Genesis drummer extraordinaire, Phil Collins stay involved? So far, he seemed pretty committed. And, how long would the band remain so obsessed with the American fusion masters to the exclusion of their own creative ideas?

1. "Sun in the Night" (4:25) with John Goodsall's sitar and an overall Indian feel (including melodic chant vocals from Phil, John, and Robin), the band start off with quite a BEATLES-like tribute. I actually like this song quite a bit. (8.875/10)

2. "Why Should I Lend You Mine" (11:16) the BEATLES-like sound palette is somehow continued despite the more-African Jújù guitar and Percy's free-floating fretless bass. Allan Holdsworth-like guitar in the center lead is cool but then it is followed by a pretty cool NOVA Vimana-like "jungle mystique" passage in which everybody's sound contributions are very quite and subdued: more mood-influencing than virtuosic or flashy-demonstrative. (They're trying to replicate the awesome harp & percussion interlude in the middle of YES' "Awaken.") At 8:30 the individuals begin to ramp up their volumes and with John making some AL DI MEOLA/CORRADO RUSTICI-like runs before the song starts to decay and rest again. Despite it's Vimana-"Awaken" references, I absolutely love this song! (Probably cuz I love Vimana and "Awaken.") (19/20)

3. "...Maybe I'll Lend You Mine After All" (2:10) this seems like a continuation of the quiet "jungle mystique" passage that finished the second half of the previous song--even picking up one of the melodies from "Awaken" on the keyboards. (4.375/5)

4. "Hate Zone" (4:41) on this somewhat funky tune John and Percy try their best to replicate the funky sounds that JAN AKKERMAN created on his two 1976 releases. (9.125/10)

5. "Collapsar" (1:35) I love this little interlude: it reminds me of a mix of MIKE OLDFIELD's Tubular Bells main theme with some spacey Prog Electronic synth work--maybe even the second Alan Parsons Project album, I Robot. (5/5)

6. "Disco Suicide" (7:55) a suite that contains interlaced but consecutive motifs that each emulate something from RETURN TO FOREVER's Romantic Warrior from the previous year (especially the bass, guitar lines, keyboard soloing (Moog whistles) and PHIL's pure-LENNY WHITE imitative drumming). They certainly did a great job of imitating Chick, Al, Stanley, and Lenny--even editing and packaging it all into one song! (13.5/15)

7. "Orbits" (1:38) a Percy solo. Cute and very Stanley Clarke-like. I like the dramatic engineering effects. (4.5/5)

8. "Malaga Virgin" (8:28) the full band goes out for a "Duel of the Jester and the Tyrant"-like cruise: everybody pumping at full speed as John and Robin take turns trying to establish melodies when it's Percy's bass line that really holds everything down. Phil's drumming is incredible. Percy and Morris Pert get to play off one another in the third minute while John tries some Al Di Meola acoustic guitar riffing alongside them and fill supports with his lite drum and cymbal play from beneath. Robin jumps in with a MiniMoog in the fourth minute as John recedes into Al Di "Race with the Devil" rhythm guitar work. Then, at 4:25, everyone stops and resets into another pensive, cautious slow and perspicacious walk through a mine field. Robin's piano and John's laser-fast Al Di runs on the acoustic guitar play off of Percy's fretless and Morris and Phil's delicate flanged cymbal play--until 7:32 when a pluck bass chord signals the run to the finish line: Fender, electric guitar, machine gun bass lines, and incredible speed drumming. Again, a near-perfect play on the RTF suite from the end of Romantic Warrior. I might even like this one more than the original: it's a little more cohesive/unified. (18.5/20)

9. "Macrocosm" (7:24) yet another song that opens just like a "classic" J-R Fusion power tune: like Mahavishnu Orchestra's "Meeting of Spirits"--but the sound is so good! All the gents are super impressive here but Robin Lumley's Jan Hammer imitation is incredible--his best work on the album! And I mustn't leave out acknowledging John Goodsall's amazing, near-Al Di Meola guitar work. If the Mahavishnu Orchestra had had the technology to make their instruments make these sounds I probably would have liked The Inner Mounting Flame better. (14.75/15)

Total Time 49:32

I have several takeaways from listening to this album: 1) these guys are really good at imitation; 2) they make far more sophisticated music than I ever gave them credit for (I've owned this album since the late 70s but never really returned to it very often); 3) Phil Collins is an amazing drummer; 4) Percy Jones IS one of my favorite bass players of all-time (I prefer his work much more to that of Jaco Pastorius); and, 5) John Goodsall is a top tier guitarist. Why he doesn't get more notice or credit I'm not sure cuz he is every bit as deserving to be talked about in the same conversations with the other J-R F giants.

A/five stars; despite its imitative nature, this is definitely a masterpiece of Third Wave Jazz-Rock Fusion; Moroccan Roll is a far-better album than I ever gave it credit! It just took two years of submersion into the world of "classic era" Jazz-Rock Fusion for me to be better able to appreciate it!

Sean Trane Second opus from this now-quintet, with the addition of percussionist Morris Pert, Moroccan Roll is born on an almost Canterburian pun, with an exotic Saharian artwork that has been retouched by high technology. The group is joined by Morris Pert, a percussionist that will beef up the sound of the group, but Pert will also become an important "songwriter" for the group. One of the originality of this album is that it is Brand X's only with vocals (and even then mostly choirs) on the opening and closing tracks, but unfortunately it wasn't that good an idea. It doesn't help giving World Music credibility to the opening Sun In The Night, despite Goodsall's dabblings on a sitar. The Collins-penned double-shot "Lend" tracks (the lengthy titles might come from some Public Schoolboys friends of his that haven't fully grown up), but unlike what we'd expect, both tracks remains slow with the occasional Goodsall's McL-ian guitar bursts. A manic drum burst opens fire on the Hate zone, a full-funk piece where the group's five cylinders give it their best shot.

On the flipside, Collapsar (not to be confused with National Health's Collapso) is a short synth filler penned by Lumley and it doesn't even serve as an intro for his following Disco Suicide, an electric piano-led funky track, but certainly not my fave BX track, the synth sounds being cringe-y and the cheesy choirs and tubular bells are not helping either. Orbits is a bit Percy Jones' answer to Collapsar and just as useless, since it's no intro to his Malaga Virgen , an up-tempo track at the start where Jones tries to outdo Pastorius in the middle section, but is not helping his own composition in doing so. But Virgen's second half returns to the opening theme, before going bass-happy a second time. This writer doesn't understand all the hoopla on this track and much prefers the following monster-jam Macrocosm, the one BX track to rival with Nuclear Burn, with an overheating Goodsall guitar and an incredible end, as if the 5 cylinders of this group had problem stopping and misfired back on the track.

MR was for decades my fave BX, but once the millennium arrived, UB took over and has stayed ahead, because tMR one is too uneven, especially on the fillers. But don't get me wrong, MR is still the second best BX album and should please most fusionheads.

MarkFusion93 This is Brand X's most famous album but in my opinion not nearly as strong as the previous release. This album is much more experimental than Unorthodox Behaviour with songs like the opener which is a middle eastern themed track featuring experimental vocals provided by Phil Collins. Another experimental moment is Orbits, a Percy Jones Bass workout featuring just the Bass guitar and some percussion sounds in the background. Percy Jones and Phil Collins feature prominently in all the music on this album more than Unorthodox Behaviour and Lumley and Goodsall are less the centre pieces of each song with Jones offering further developed incredible bass playing all through which is very prominent in all the songs, particularly Malaga Virgen which is one of the highlights of this album.

Why Should I Lend You Mine shows the more mellow side of Brand X's music with a song that progresses from slow mellow acoustic jazz to energetic Fusion in the course of it's 11 minutes. More is put into song arrangements on this record which is very much demonstrated in this and Disco Suicide which is another lengthier track featuring incredible playing from all musicians.

For those who want to hear developed music with more emotion this record definitely offers this perfectly, but if you want the true spirit of Brand X and Jazz Fusion Unorthodox Behaviour is definitely the record to get. This effort deserves 4 Stars for it's very well arranged and executed jazz fusion but it is not a masterpiece.