FunkFreak75 An album in which all of John McLaughlin's recent influences can be felt: Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana, Shakti/Indian music, the Classical Impressionists, even the raw Larry Coryell sound.

1. "Eternity's Breath Part 1" (3:10) taking a bit to get started, the band eventually establishes a Hendrix-like power motif over which some Indian scales are recited and repeated by the new soloists (Ponty and McLaughlin) and choral vocals perform. It's okay. Sounds a bit juvenile. (8.66667/10)

2. "Eternity's Breath Part 2" (4:48) more group chant vocals à la MAGMA over some complex but tightly performed group rock-jazz. McLaughlin takes the first solo--sounding very different from his "normal" self--more like Carlos Santana. He backs down into electric guitar power chords while Jean-Luc takes the next solo. Grand piano and strings and McLaughlin take the next motif before returning to the "love supreme" Hendrix group chant. Impressive play from everyone--nice composition. No wonder Jean-Luc took Ralphe Armstrong with him for his next three solo albums (Enigmatic Ocean, Cosmic Messenger, and A Taste for Passion). (9/10)

3. "Lila's Dance" (5:34) solo piano opens this one (and finishes it), leading into a nice little classical construct. At the end of the third minute the music takes a radical left into blues-rock in order for McLaughlin to take a wild Hendrix-like solo. Nice musicianship; I just don't really like the music. (8.875/10)

4. "Can't Stand Your Funk" (2:09) rhythm guitar, funk bass and drums, horns. Not much here, really; it's like an étude of a OHIO PLAYERS or early KOOL AND THE GANG song. (4.25/5)

5. "Pastoral" (3:41) birds introduce a piece that sounds Indian musicians taking on a Western classical composer (like Elgar or Delius)'s rendering of a traditional folk tune. Weird and, frankly, a little unexpected and out of place on a Mahavishnu Orchestra album. Yet well played! (9/10)

6. "Faith" (2:00) an unusual splicing of three different pieces, one that sounds like Larry CORYELL's abrasive guitar. (4.25/5)

7. "Cosmic Strut" (3:28) this one feels like a Jean-Luc Ponty composition: so funky and straightforward in the linear setup for a successive series of jazz solos. Confirmed by the presence of Jean-Luc himself in the "key" soloist's spot. I like the horn accents! And the clavinet and funk bass. Rudimentary for Jean-Luc, but it does all work. (9/10)

8. "If I Could See" (1:18) Gayle Moran's operatic voice over theatric strings, bass and horns. Like a big WHO rock opera kind of thing. Interesting. (4.5/5)

9. "Be Happy" (3:31) Bled into from the previous song (!!) we are off to the Jean-Luc Ponty races à la his great piece, "Egocentric Molecules," from Cosmic Messenger. The presence of John McLaughlin's pyroclastic guitar bolts makes it a bit different, though. Again, Jean-Luc takes the prime soloist's spot but he's challenged to a duel there by the Mahavishnu himself. It's pretty epic and awesome seeing these two go toe to toe. (I'm sure they both LOVED it!) Jean-Luc's song is simply the perfect vehicle for this. (9.5/10)

10. "Earth Ship" (3:42) a contrastingly gentle recovery song: very smooth and ambient with Fender Rhodes, gently walking bass, and soaring distant violin and flutes within which what sounds like Narada's voice singing as well as some bluesy McLaughlin guitar snippets. Nice! (9.25/10)

11. "Pegasus" (1:48) like instruments in a void: first fiery electric guitar strums followed by wafting violin swaths, ending with more of the percussive-like heavily-effected guitar strums. I find this one very interesting--worth further exploration. (4.75/5)

12. "Opus 1" (0:15) a quickly passing falcon is barely seen as it soars past.

13. "On the Way Home to Earth" (4:34) Narada Michael Walden puts together his best, most Lenny White-like drumming while John explores the sounds of his heavily-distorted guitar. A short break in the middle and then Michael is up and drumming again, this time with John's less-adulterated exploration of the upper-most frets of his electric guitar. It's very Hergest Ridge-like when the organ chords sneak up from underneath. I actually really like this one too despite it feeling, again, like an underdeveloped étude. (9.25/10)

Total Time 39:58

I couldn't agree with Ivan Melgar more: I always felt more engaged and satisfied by the second incarnation of the Mahavishnu Orchestra. The flash of the first incarnation never drew me back for reasons of pleasure, more for reasons of amazement and awe. And now, forty years later, I find Inner Mounting Flame and Birds of Fire hardly listenable, while Visions and Apocalypse have a warmth and friendliness that invite me in and keep me wanting to come back. Understand: Goodman, Cobham, Laird and Hammer are amazing and impressive instrumentalists but it was like they were all just waiting for their turn to flash--to solo--not really making music or songs; the second incarnation the MO seem more cohesive, playing memorable music, cohesive, repeatable songs. The first incarnation are jaw dropping amazing; the second incarnation produced music I want to listen to.

A-/4.5 stars; a very minor masterpiece of experimental jazz-rock fusion.

Warthur The first studio album from the second Mahavishnu lineup to feature the band exclusively, unaccompanied by an orchestra, is an entertaining and competent fusion album, the main drawback of which is that it isn't much more than that. Whilst the original Mahavishnu lineup created gripping and compelling music with their every album, and their debut was an essential cornerstone of fusion, this time around the group sound just like every other fusion band that followed on from them - complete with a lack of really compelling ideas beyond retreading the original group's tricks.

It's a good enough listen if you are a fan of fusion, though if you're just starting to explore the genre I'd say there's plenty of albums in the genre - including the original lineup's studio albums - which should take priority over this one. Still, at least this time the band isn't upstaged by the LSO.

Sean Trane Keeping the Apocalypse line-up intact (minus the orchestra, of course) and adding a brass section, which will be playing the whole of Apocalypse at the Festival of Montreux in 74 (now available on DVD); VotEB is more a return to the fiery force of the debut album, even if we could call this album jazz-funk, rather than jazz-rock. Indeed with Miles’ Big Fun, Weather Report’s Mysterious Traveller, the jazz rock thing had now shifted to jazz-funk, partly because of Vitous’ departure (replaced by Afro-American Alfonso Johnson) from WR and in MO’s case Laird’s replacement with another Afro-American Ralph Armstrong. Sooooo, keeping the Apocalypse quintet, plus the small string section also present on that album, Mc also hired a brass section, that had played in concerts previous to this album, among which the Montreux Festival of 74 (on DVD), where the full Apocalypse was played and the brass had to invent their own role. Graced with a superb artwork, reminiscent of BoF, this album returns to more sober form of jazz-rock, consisting of shorter tracks (except for the opener conveniently split in two), but does often fray into funk territory as well, which was not only keeping with the times but also suggesting the next album.

One of the most striking feature in this album is the presence of much singing, done by Gayle Moran, backed mostly by Narada (he would sing he Inner World) and to a lesser extent Armstrong and Mc himself. The opening 8-mins Eternity’s Breath certainly contains loads of signing (all things considered for MO), but retains the same great spirit of their previous works, the only negative remark I have is for Ponty’s too strident violin parts in the closing minutes. Lila’s Dance starts on an ascending riff, again reminiscent of MkI, but soon drifts into bizarre (at first) break where Ponty rules, then Mc takes over with a Hendrix passage before both take up the opening ascending riff in unison answered by the brass section, before slowly segueing into Can’t Stand Your Funk, where the brass section and strings make this track something grandiose, much like Papa Was A Rollin Stone. With evocative bird singing and Ponty’s violin, backed up by the string section (Hirsh’s cello works wonders in setting bass drones when needed), Pastoral is almost a rip off from Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring and Beethoven’s Sixth. The same birds lead us into the guitar arpeggios of Faith, before Armstrong and Narada take the debate up to Ponty’s violin and a weird ending.

The flipside, which is something I consider a side-long suite, not only because of the space-theme track titles, but songs melting into each other, the flipside starts on the funky Narada-penned Cosmic Strut, which directly shows the funk of its mood, with again a great brass section underlining and strings backing up, but I find nothing cosmic into it. The atrocious but thankfully short If I Could See (where Moran’s soprano vocals are cringey) leads into the 200 mph Be Happy where the group is obviously so through the many chord changes in the closing section. Earth Ship is a very calm track, sung by Gayle over her electric piano and accompanied by a lovely flute and Mc’s gentle guitar, shares a pure ethereal beauty and leading us into the short Pegasus and its almost Gong-like space whispers, complemented by the ultra short Strav-like Opus 1, before Mc’s mean guitar sends us light years away aboard his spaceship, shooting the hell out of interfering path-crossing asteroids, before landing us back into our seats, where Cosmic Strut had torn us from.

Partly because of the increase in vocal content, shorter tracks and the funk element, I had long seen this album as a lesser ingredient of MO’s oeuvre and the first signs of decrepitude, but this album is grower on me of late. While not of IMF, BoF, BNaE, LTS and Apocalypse’s calibre, VotEB remains a jewel in MO’s crown of king of progressive jazz-rock.