BRAND X — Moroccan Roll (review)

Album · 1977 · Fusion

4.5/5 · 2025-02-16
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!