TOTO BLANKE — Tales Of Tomorrow (review)

TOTO BLANKE — Tales Of Tomorrow album cover

Album · 1978 · Jazz Related Improv/Composition

3.5/5 · 2025-02-16
FunkFreak75

This 1978 release is a real late-comer to the First, Second, and Third Waves of the Jazz-Rock Fusion movement. Tales of Tomorrow contains more of the German guitar virtuoso's sound experimentations captured for publication. And to make things weirder: other than a guest string quartet, the entire album's music and sounds are created by Toto tout seul! At least some of the weirdness has been worked into fairly competent song structures.

1. "Overture" (0:42) string quartet opener. Nothing Earth-shatteringly innovative or expressive. (But quite a contrast to that which is following!) (4.375/5)

2. "I'm A Stranger Here Myself" (4:22) sound 40 years ahead of its time with its computer-sounding early drum machine rhythms at the song's foundation. Then all the layers of affected guitar sounds woven above! If this is Jazz-Rock Fusion then Kraftwerk and Bill Nelson are members, too! (8.75/10)

3. "Aliso Samba" (4:06) opens with string quartet before Toto's bass and acoustic guitar join in and, eventually, take over. The solo acoustic guitar (with bass, rhythm guitar, and bandoneon support) is awesome. Strings rejoin and swell in the final minute as Toto wraps things up. A very pleasant, upbeat song! (9/10)

4. "Roland The Giant" (5:02) I love how adventurous Toto was: always exploring the furthest edges that new technologies could allow the music (and musician) to travel. Here he's preparing us for "Music for Vacuuming," Jon Hassell, and Adrian Belew as well as Annette Peacock's Sky-skating. (8.75/10)

5. "Ostfriesisches Festtagsbegrabnis" (1:05) bandoneon and bouzouki. (4.25/5)

6. "Casablanca" (6:32) ring modulator and PPG sequencer open this one before Toto's George Harrison-toned electric guitar enters and begins his soloing. He's such a gifted, creative guitarist! It's too bad he got all obsessed with sound modification cuz he can really play! Weird manipulations of volume (performed, obviously, in the recording engineer's booth) make for an unfortunate cheap-sounding production. Too bad! Not even the Rodrigo-like Spanish guitar finish can save this one. (8.75/10)

7. "Rush Hour" (1:50) high-speed PPG sequencing with effects and volume modification while Toto's distorted electric guitar wails in the background (and through some other effects modifiers). (4.25/5)

8. "Pork Pie" (3:43) string quartet sounding very dire and serious open this one before turning George Martin/BEATLES-like. Synths and layers of electric guitars join in while Roland guitar synths and ring modulator provide the leads. Interesting ideas. (8.75/10)

9. "New Years Eve" (3:17) multiple layers of acoustic guitars playing some Spanish-themes and -styles give this a very AL DI MEOLA- and JOHN McLAUGHLIN-like feel and quality. Beautiful little song. In the second half, multiple layers of acoustic guitars: most of them strumming in a fast Latin/Spanish style while a steel-string acoustic provides the lead melody in fast time. (9/10)

10. "Flat Top And The U.S. Sad Cats" (9:11) mysterious bass line, volume-controlled bandoneon chords, over which two very different guitars solo: one wah-wahed that presents a very horn-like sound (though muted); the other more distorted and slightly compressed at the high-end that provides intermittent flourishes and machine gun blasts of runs while the cat-like sounding horn-guitar continues playing steadfastly over the fretboard. Again, very interesting but nothing I really want to hear repeatedly. (17.5/20)

11. "Sunday Morning The 26th Of February" (3:31) bandoneon cords and wonderful acoustic guitar soloing that sounds just like John McLaughlin playing with Zakir Hussain and the Shakti gang. Stunningly beautiful. Just like the Mahavishnu. (9.666667/10)

Total Time 43:21

Though this is quite experimental, there is little to no fusion of jazz and rock going on here. As a matter of fact, with the collaboration of any other jazz or rock musicians, I'd be hard pressed to have much hope for such. I should have known better.

B/four stars; an album of mixed energy and results: some are absurdly experimental--absolute frozen examples of what people were trying at the time (only, Toto chose to publish all of his experiments instead of learning from them for more mature future compositions), others are stunningly beautiful samples of Toto's guitar genius and skill.