FunkFreak75 The debut album from Britain's answer to Return To Forever.

Line-up / Musicians: - John Goodsall / electric, acoustic (7) & 12-string acoustic (2) guitars - Robin Lumley / piano, Fender Rhodes electric piano, Moog - Percy Jones / fretless bass, marimba (5), acoustic bass (7) - Phil Collins / drums, percussion, tambourine, vibes (2) With: Jack Lancaster - soprano saxophone (7)

1. "Nuclear Burn" (6:20) Percy Jones inimitable fretless bass couples up with Phil Collins' extraordinary jazz drumming and Robin Lumley's tempering Fender Rhodes to lay down the foundations for John Goodsall's explosive John McLaughlin-like guitar shredding. Yet it's Robin's Moog that takes the first official solo--two minutes into the song. Phil takes Robin's fiery solo as a challenge and ups his chops to "duel" Robin before the John returns to recapitulate the main theme. Then things get really crazy as everybody tries sledding down the mountain together, barely keeping their balance and unity. Another main theme repeats before the upper end instruments quiet down so that Percy and Phil can really show their stuff. Amazing! Yes, it's all a show of "We can do Return To Forever, too" machismo, but it works: they do not fail to match all of the fire and skill, top to bottom, and even manage to show a little of their own uniquity along the way. (9.5/10)

2. "Euthanasia Waltz" (5:39) great 12-string acoustic guitar chords open and modulate the song while the dynamics shift according to which instrumentalist they wish to showcase. Percy and Phil impress the most, up front, but underneath it all both John and Robin impress as well. (9.125/10)

3. "Born Ugly" (8:13) a journey into mega-funk with the amazing Percy Jones leading the charge. (We KNOW he can play the funk from his sessions with Brian Eno.) The other boys in the band may just have a touch too much white in them to keep up with the Joneses, but they do put together an impressive and fairly enjoyable song. Robin Lumley's keyboard work is particularly interesting. Also, the in the dreamy middle section is very cool for its latent potentialities--as well as for the awesome Larry Coryell-like guitar shredding that rises out of it. You can certainly get the feeling that the four musicians are definitely putting their all into the creation and performance of this music--and Phil does finally get into his full funkiness with the final third of the song. (13.375/15)

4. "Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria" (4:26) melodically and structurally this one might just be a little too close/imitative of Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White, and Al Di Meola's collaborations, but it stands up well side by side with the band that they are doppelganging. (9/10)

5. "Unorthodox Behaviour" (8:25) using band-mate Bill Bruford's snare sound can be advantageous, thinks Phil Collins, as he and Percy "Alphonso Pastorius" Jones play "straight men" to the quirky idiosyncratic play of the other two (as well as Phil's track on the vibes and Percy's on the marimba). A little too much playful experimentation might be good for practice, but for a studio album we like to have more meat and potatoes. (17.5/20)

6. "Running on Three" (4:37) fast paced with some solid rock forms and styllings (often reminding me of THIN LIZZY with the twin playing of John's guitar and Robin's keyboard). Phil is an animal on this one--making me totally think I'm listening to Lenny White--and Percy gets to run fast melodic à la Doug Rauch, while Robin settles into some excellent Chick Corea-like support work on the Fender as John's guitar plays some awesome Ray Gomez-Doug Rodrigues-like guitar leads. Wow! These guys can play! (9.33333/10)

7. "Touch Wood" (3:03) now for the acoustic side à la "Romantic Warrior": blazing acoustic guitar ceaselessly running, bowed acoustic bass and Danny Thompson-like stand-up with nimble piano riffing and acoustic guitar strumming with a little bit of Jack Lancaster's soprano saxophone before fading out. Interesting! I am most impressed by the instrumental sounds I hear that I rarely ever get to hear from these particular musicians. (8.75/10)

Total Time: 40:43

There is no place for fluff or tame/smooth jazz here as this band launches with every intention of proving themselves to belong in the same conversations with RTF, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Eleventh House, Nucleus, Tony Williams and Billy Cobham. Listening to this album makes one wonder how Percy Jones and Phils Collins aren't in the general discussions of the greatest jazz musicians of their respective instruments.

A-/4.5 stars; a minor masterpiece of imitative high-powered jazz rock fusion; definitely an album every prog lover should own.

siLLy puPPy BRAND X actually had strange beginnings. The musical entity was formed as a jam band by record execs at Island and A&R and used the name “BRAND X” to generically apply to their music calendar. They initiated the first lineup which consisted of only John Goodsall (Atomic Rooser, The Fire Merchants) appearing on this debut release UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOR. After a bunch of members being replaced only to be replaced again, the band finally ended up with the lineup of Goodsall, keyboardist Robin Lumley (Rod Argent, Anthony Phillips, David Bowie), bassist and marimbaist Percy Jones (Soft Machine, David Sylvian, Eno, Steve Hackett, Suzanne Vega etc) and of course Phil Collins who at this point was entertaining his long desire to play in a jazz-fusion band at the time when Gabriel had left Genesis. We also get occasional soprano sax help form Jack Lancaster of Blodwyn Pig fame.

This album displays some of Collins’ most distinguished and ferocious chops that he could dish out. In fact i never understood the hype behind his drumming skills until i finally heard this album. He also adds healthy doses of vibraphones to the mix as well bringing the jazz years of Lionel Hampton to mind. This is a splendid example of 70s jazz-fusion taking a little of the Mahavishnu Orchestra’s frenetic energy and mixing it with a Return To Forever type atmosphere and occasional Herbie Hancock funkiness.

All the musicians here are really at their best and the sum of their parts results in an extremely pleasant surprise. While not the most original jazz-fusion album of the 70s, it is nonetheless very consistent from beginning to end with pleasant melodies interspersed with frenetic drum rolls, layers of silence, funky bassm atmospheric synthesizers and rhythmic developments accompanied by proggy jazzed up time signature outbursts and even some sizzling solo trade off between the Moog synthesizers and guitars.

Due to the involvement of Phil Collins, this album actually made it on to the Billboard top 200 albums albeit peaking only at No. 191. Another aspect of this album i really dig is the production. There is great attention paid to details in how notes slide, in the volume control of the instruments in relation to each other and the overall atmospheric development of the album. Great musicianship and beautifully constructed instrumental workouts make this a pleasant listen that i don’t seem to tire of. Slightly more accessible than the influences on board but it also delivers on the jazz-fusion goods that even the most hardened fans can get into.

Cannonball With Hat Two moments in time.

Timeline is a 2 CD set from Brand X highlighting two different periods of the band's history. First, a show from 1977, featuring most of the "classic" Brand X lineup (only Phil Collins is missing) and then a show from 1992, with a smaller trio lineup that is certainly a different beast all together, showing the change in the Brand X form. While the 1992 is nice, the 1977 set is blistering, and shows what a well oiled machine early(ish) Brand X was.

The Chicago show is filled to the brim with well known pieces from the first three albums (plus Nightmare Patrol). The playing is absolutely superb. Kenwood Dennard does a fine job behind the kit, replacing Collins fairly convincingly in my opinion. The keys and guitar set wonderful atmospheres (at least when not soloing) and, of course, Percy's basslines are spot on and bubbly. However, the real star of the show is Morris Pert. Firstly, the percussion is mixed way up in the mix, allowing the listener to really hear the all subtle contributions from Pert that really make this music unique, something that is a bit lacking in the studio releases to my ears. However, there are multiple instances when subtlety is thrown out the window and his playing is akin to fire scorching the ragged and helpless Earth below. The recording really allows the listener to hear how busy Pert is, even in the calmer sections, and as a fan of percussions it really is a joy. As for standout songs, Nightmare Patrol surpasses the version found on Livestock with extra kick and possibly a bit more of a sinister atmosphere. Disco Suicide is also given a fine workout, with the percussions working overtime. Nuclear Burn would round out my top three (and as an extra bonus there is a small percussive feature near the end of Nuclear Burn). The only downside to disc one, is that for tracks 6-8 the sound quality drops off, fairly significantly. Its not unlistenable, but you do lose some of the subtly, as it sounds like it was being recorded from backstage (or across the room). Most everything is still hearable, but it is a bit muffled, and it is quite noticeable with the impeccable sound quality of the first five songs. But still, even with this, disc one is still worth a minimum of 4 stars.

Disc two is unfortunately less successful. The trio format certainly makes it sound more like Percy's band after Brand X (Tunnels), aside from the fact that the guitar is quite prominent and there is no midi vibes. My main issue with this one is that there is a certain bit of sameness that is cast over the latter half of the disc. While nothing is really bad, few things stand out, especially on repeated listens. I suppose there is a certain nostalgia (if you can call it that) factor dealing with the loss of the keys and extra percussion. These ingredients gave Brand X an edge over other jazz-rock groups of the time. But, Brand X sans these features makes it feel a little more ordinary. Granted, this isn't run of the mill stuff here...the bass in particular paints wonderful colors that are true to the time old Brand X canon. Another aspect that I'm less enthused about is the drumming style of Frank Katz. While it is certainly competent, it is more ordinary/straight forward than the "typical" drumming style that Brand X usually employs. Even the drum solo is fairly average, but worse fairly typical for the length it is given. I suppose it gives the music a more rock base for the music, which isn't a bad thing in itself. It just, doesn't particular work here for me. Having said all that, there is still some better tracks here. I do like the Introduction (which thankfully is mostly music rather than words) and A Duck Exploding is pretty nice, even though it wanders a bit near the middle/end. Thalidomide Squid and Strangeness also would be top tier tracks to my ears, but it is difficult to pick out outstanding aspects to these songs. Again, playing is quite skilled, it just sometimes misses the mark. But the sound quality is quite nice (though not as good as the first five tracks from disc one). Overall a 3 star rating for disc two.

All in all, the 1977 show from Chicago is a real winner and something fans of early Brand X need to hear. For me, it blows Livestock away no questions asked. The 1992 show would appeal more to fans of more "normal" sounding fusion or those who prefer a rock basis for your jazz/rock-fusion. (As a side note: the liner notes provide some specific detail about the history of Brand X that as a big fan of the group is nice to see laid out very simply.) Overall, I'll give this a four star rating, with a strong basis of this rating on disc 1. If you can find this somewhat cheap, don't hesitate. Recommended.

dreadpirateroberts While Brand X’s debut is highly derivative of the band's fusion heroes, that’s not necessarily an insurmountable problem. In fact, ‘Unorthodox Behaviour’ has some blisteringly good moments, even if from start to finish the compositions aren’t all as powerful as the opener or as effective as ‘Euthanasia Waltz.’ If nothing else, this album will remind you that Collins is a great drummer.

The fact that the record instantly brings the Mahavishnu Orchestra to mind puts the listener into familiar territory. It’s a fair comparison, as would be a mention of Billy Cobham or Weather Report’s work – both their early atmospheric output and slicker pieces. But that same aspect, that familiarity, also adds to the absence of discovery for the listener. There aren’t enough surprises here and many songs lack melodic muscle. ‘Born Ugly’ for instance, despite a nice Santana/McLaughlin-esque solo in from Goodsall, is indicative of such shortfalls. There are some quirks to the arrangement, yes, but no grit to the funk. ‘Smacks of Euphoric Hyst’ doesn’t really go anywhere and the title track doesn’t have a pay-off, it seems to do so little with its running time in a way that say, Miles Davis’ ‘In a Silent Way’ is never guilty of.

On the other hand, ‘Running on Three’ is another fantastic charge of energy, with Collins driving the band into high gear before they rein it in again for ‘Touch Wood’ where, in part thanks to the acoustic guitar, the track feels like one of the pieces least indebted to the past. It’s actually a toss-up for my favourite on the album (the other being ‘Nuclear Burn.’) This inclusion of acoustic guitar is one of the most distinctive aspects of ‘Unorthodox Behaviour’ and something I think is a really welcome aspect of their sound – especially in ‘Euthanasia Waltz.’

After finishing the album however, I’m often left feeling that I just heard something good, something that’s great at times, but not an album that floors me. Still, three stars overall, with a couple of five star moments throughout.

Warthur Prior to entering the studio for Genesis' first post-Peter Gabriel album, Phil Collins loosened up by taking the drummer's stool for this debut Brand X album. The group play a light and airy style of fusion reminiscent of a little bit of Return to Forever, the occasional hint of Mahavishnu Orchestra, and a generous helping of Billy Cobham's spectrum. All pleasant enough, though I don't think the album really stands out as a classic of the genre; it's good, but it doesn't blow me away. A few tracks were reworked for some pieces on Brian Eno's Another Green World and Before and After Science albums (which featured Brand X members in the backing groups), but comparing them makes it plain how much Eno's production and ambient manipulations added to those pieces.