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Brand X: Unorthodox Behaviour

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s

Artist: Brand X
Title: Unorthodox Behaviour
Released: 1976
Label: Charisma Records
Time: 41:01
Producer(s): See Artists ...
Appears with: Phil Collins, Genesis
Category: Progressive Jazz-Rock
Rating: *********. (9/10)
Media type: CD
Purchase date:  2003.04.10
Price in €: 5,00
Web address: www.brandxmusic.org

 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Nuclear Burn (Collins/Goodsall/Jones/Lumley) - 6:23
[2] Euthanasia Waltz (Collins/Goodsall/Jones/Lumley) - 5:42
[3] Born Ugly (Collins/Goodsall/Jones/Lumley) - 8:15
[4] Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria (Collins/Goodsall/Jones/Lumley) - 4:30
[5] Unorthodox Behaviour (Collins/Goodsall/Jones/Lumley) - 8:29
[6] Running of Three (Collins/Goodsall/Jones/Lumley) - 4:38
[7] Touch Wood (Collins/Goodsall/Jones/Lumley) - 3:04

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


PHIL COLLINS - Percussion, Drums, Producer, Liner Notes
JOHN GOODSALL - Bass, Guitar, Producer
PERCY JONES - Bass, Producer
ROBIN LUMLEY - Keyboards, Producer, Liner Notes, Mixing

JACK LANCASTER - Wind

DENNIS MACKAY - Producer, Engineer, Mixing
GEOFF LEACH - Contributor
JULIAN "Rabbits" TAYLER - Contributor
STEVE TAYLOR - Contributor

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


1976 LP Charisma 1117
1989 CD Blue Plate CAROL-1387-2
1989 CD Virgin CASCD-1117

UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOR is a fitting description of the oeuvre of the British instrumental group Brand X. Featuring complextime signatures, adventurous arrangements, and experimentalsounds, the group was England's answer to the much-malignedAmerican fusion genre. This incarnation of the band is bestknown for featuring drummer Phil Collins of Genesis and later pop fame. The music of Brand X borrows more from prog rock than jazz, although there's plenty of room for improvisation within the group's extended arrangements. Collins drives the band mercilessly throughout tracks like the opening firestorm "Nuclear Burn" and the rocking "Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria". John Goodsall's guitar is the primary melodic element in most works, alternately snaking mesmerising solo lines and jumping around intricate off-kilter themes on the mysterious "Euthanasia Waltz" or the bizarre title track. Bassist Percy Jones and keyboard player Robin Lumley add the mostunusual colours; Lumley, with his myriad of now-vintage keyboard sounds, and Jones with his signature fretless burps and glissandos.



Phil Collins' seemingly endless well of energy afforded him two careers: one as the drummer/vocalist in Genesis, and a second as a prolific session musician. It was in this second scenario that Collins hooked up with Percy Jones, John Goodsall, and Robin Lumley during sessions for Brian Eno, Eddie Howell, and Jack Lancaster. The quartet soon formed Brand X, a fusion jazz band that matched the prodigious rhythms of Collins and fretless bassist Jones with the atmospheric melodies of Goodsall and Lumley. Unorthodox Behaviour sets the stage for what would follow: music that plies the same sonic territory as Weather Report, Mahavishnu Orchestra, and the like, punctuated by the distinctive styles of individual members. The songs, though credited to the band, reveal two factions at work, with Jones and Collins teaming for percussive sections and Goodsall and Lumley handling the lyrical passages. When Jones and Collins take the lead, as on the opening "Nuclear Burn" and sections of "Unorthodox Behaviour" (which begins with a reprise of Brian Eno's "Zawinul Lava") and "Running on Three," the music takes a frenetic, mathematical tack. Goodsall and Lumley generally provide the mood, the dominant trait on "Euthanasia Waltz" and "Touch Wood." Middle ground is found on the funky "Born Ugly" and "Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria," true fusions of rock and jazz. Unorthodox Behaviour samples a variety of styles: from melodic to energetic, ethereal to mathematical. Without a standout soloist like John McLaughlin or Wayne Shorter, Brand X does run the risk of sounding like a generic fusion jazz outfit, but their compositional skills pick up the slack nicely. Those interested in the band may do well to start with this album, although their next three records are just as good in terms of quality.

David Connolly - All-Music Guide, © 1992 - 2003 AEC One Stop Group, Inc.



This is the first and probably the most jazz-oriented Brand X album. Goodsall's bewildering fingerwork and spaced-out effects play off Percy Jones' equally agile and bizarre fretless acrobatics for a shameless display of dextrous virtuosity. Phil Collins demonstrates an alacrity and diversity on percussion that was certainly hinted at in his Genesis work, but only to the devoted, studied listener. This is where his full range of chops comes through, with no-holds-barred kit coverage right in the front of the mix, or at other times a delicate, complicated pitter-patter with no compromise of sheer agility for the subtlety. The most likely turn-off here for newcomers to the '70s fusion sound is Robin Lumley's other-worldly electric piano and synths, but he somehow manages to blend them so well to the other sounds that they sneak up out of nowhere, and in no other rock-driven excursion have such noises sounded so at home.

©1998-2002, Ambiguous Productions

  

One thing is for certain: Phil Collins sure had been waiting a long time for this moment. Whatever he might have been earlier (even sitting in that theater where they were filming the Beatles for A Hard Day's Night), or whatever he might have turned into later (even doing crappy Disney soundtracks), you can't deny that his playing on this album is any less than spectacular. But, in fact, when one comes to think of it, he had really been pretty much held back in Genesis: one thing the band never really had, due to lack of training and/or interest on the part of the others, was a jazzy/funky approach, and so Phil had to streamline his ambitions - it's only when you get to hear the first seconds of 'Nuclear Burn' that opens this record that you really understand the secret of some of Phil's trickiest drumming on songs like 'Dancing With The Moonlit Knight' and 'Firth Of Fifth' - which was actually jazz-inspired: the "paranoid" swingin' cymbal-tipping style that he so rarely displayed on Banks/Gabriel compositions is totally and unequivocally unleashed here.

It's no mean feat, actually, that Brand X's debut turns out to be so good I have considered giving it a 12 - and still haven't re-considered. The jazz-rock/fusion market had already pretty much been formed, with McLaughlin and Al Di Meola and Colosseum and numerous other guys of the jazzy stature, and it had already been explored by both rock newcomers like Jeff Beck and former avantgard-y weirdos like The Soft Machine. And in the midst of that come Brand X, a band with no well-known virtuosos at all, and pretend to establish their own instrumental style. How do they get by? How is it still possible to tread the uncharted and reap the unsown in 1976?

The All-Music Guide tends to emphasize the strengths of the compositions themselves, saying that the band mainly gets by on the quality of the melodies or something like that. This, to a certain extent, is true - but only to a certain extent. Many of the pieces have main themes that are quite memorable and obviously took some time to compose; the album is not fully improvised, and parts of it can be transplanted on sheetnotes without getting too much of a headache. But then, this is rather typical of fusion, isn't it? You always get your basics and then stretch out on 'em, much more so than in straightahead jazz. Whatever may be, Unorthodox Behaviour ain't the kind of record you'd take one listen to and be all like 'wow, these melodies kick butt! I'm SO gonna encode all of them on my cell phone right now, so that I can win friends and influence people!'. In the end, it still boils down to groove, skill, sound, and improv. Not really the kind of music I'd gladly be a-reviewin' every day and throw out inflated ratings to (I'll let Mark Prindle do the kinky thing to Miles Davis)...
...but you know what? These guys do actually try to effectuate a "fusion" of sorts, but it's not really a fusion of "rock" and jazz, rather a fusion of prog-rock and jazz. In other words, Unorthodox Behaviour is really unorthodox inasmuch as it takes the basic "jazz jam" and tries to actually make it atmospheric and evocative (okay, so I won't usually apply the word "evocative" to Miles Davis - maybe you would, but that's the kind of thing that's been happening ever since Adam had his first big fuck-up, you know). The means are simple - diverse, often unpredictable instrumentation; clever, moody production; and several kinds of melodic patterns that lie somewhere outside the funk'n'jazz area - in classical, ambient, even straightahead "pop-slop". The band members don't go for long, overextended, over-indulgent solos, mainly because they couldn't really master them in the first place (okay, so they could, but it would be worth nothing - who needs John Goodsall playing a many-miles solo when you can hear John McLaughlin doing the same much, much better?). Instead, they take short turns alternating brief "visionary" passages that occasionally do seem to be conveying a message; and they really use their members' skills well, giving the spotlight to the bass guitar for one minute, then switching to keyboards, then switching back to guitar and so on... there are no drum solos involved, fortunately, but Phil is the only member who's never in the shade, so that's only just. And hey, no saxes! Me, I like the idea of no saxes present on a jazz-tinged record. You?

The individual tracks, however, are pretty hard to discuss on here, because they all get kinda muddled together - and they have frequent tempo and tonality changes, which makes borders and boundaries useless and fictitional. Only the last one, 'Touch Wood', in the good tradition of relaxing album closers, is essentially dedicated to quiet acoustic strumming and bluesy piano runs, while Phil abuses his tom-toms somewhere very deep in the background (and there's a snug little sax there, too - hey, I don't know how it found its way there! Somebody help keep it out! Ah well, okay, a few seconds I can actually tolerate. I'll pretend it's an oddly-tuned harmonica).

The rest of the compositions are solid drum-based jams, some in the more traditional vein, some more influenced by avantgarde with totally whacked-out time changes, like in 'Smacks Of Euphoric Hysteria' which is more or less what it bills itself as. The reason I singled it out as best song, however, is more simple - it just happens to have a fantastically great guitar riff as the main theme, even if it only crops up like a couple times over four minutes. So juicy, poppy, vaguely threatening, and anthemic, I can easily overlook the fact that for the rest of the song they just keep dicking around. I mean, once you got yourself that kind of anchor, hack away - there is always a certain thrill in having to sit through two minutes of "nothing-particular" just so that you can eventually get the really cool stuff jumping out at ya from around the corner. Sure this isn't exactly the musical equivalent of Hitchcock, but you get the idea nevertheless.

My other favourites are the ones where the, let's say, "open emotional content" prevails, as in 'Nuclear Burn', where Phil's paranoid drumming, Goodsall's jerky guitar and Lumley's subdued, minimalistic electric piano immediately set a haunting - but powerful - scene, only to burst out a couple minutes later in explosive keyboard and guitar soloing that set a weird autumnal mood, not unlike the one you'd expect on a, say, Camel record, only in Camel you'd never have a rhythm section that good; it's mostly very static and, well, limpy, and here you have the same thing but with energy in the background. On 'Born Ugly' the band is trying to get the funk out, but, of course, they're not really pretending to be doing a funk jam or I'd have to kill them. These ridiculous four-note keyboard runs interfering with the rhythm section immediately set the dial to "joke" mood - it's a very lightweight composition, despite running for eight minutes, and the funk displayes is also "lite"; the thin, 'wimpy' guitar solos somehow predict early Prince, I'd say! Then, three and a half minutes into the song, they radically shift gear and switch onto something equally professional, but more boring.

Overall, I'd say this is the kind of record that's almost directly oriented towards people of my mindset - "fusion purists", if I might coin such a term, will probably find the stuff too "poppy" or too "amateurish" or they might just run away from the mere mention of Phil Collins, despite his desperate attempts to fit in. But I think it's interesting and involving, and a pretty successful try at, if not exactly "breathing life into something as dead as fusion" - that'd be my statement a few years ago, but I've learned since then that whenever you call something "dead" there's a fair chance of it suddenly springing up to its feet and whacking you in the nose - then at least "making the whole fusion genre come across as not too worthless". Sure it doesn't stand a chance against the best that Genesis had to offer, but then, you know, all genres are equal, but some are more equal than others.

George Starostin



UNORTHODOX BEHAVIOR is a fitting description of the oeuvre of the British instrumental group Brand X. Featuring complex time signatures, adventurous arrangements, and experimental sounds, the group was England's answer to the much-maligned American fusion genre. This incarnation of the band is best known for featuring drummer Phil Collins of Genesis and later pop fame. The music of Brand X borrows more from prog rock than jazz, although there's plenty of room for improvisation within the group's extended arrangements. Collins drives the band mercilessly throughout tracks like the opening firestorm "Nuclear Burn" and the rocking "Smacks of Euphoric Hysteria." John Goodsall's guitar is the primary melodic element in most works, alternately snaking mesmerizing solo lines and jumping around intricate off-kilter themes on the mysterious "Euthanasia Waltz" or the bizarre title track. Bassist Percy Jones and keyboard player Robin Lumley add the most unusual colors; Lumley, with his myriad of now-vintage keyboard sounds, and Jones with his signature fretless burps and glissandos.

CD Universe



In 1976  Brand X gather those tapes into an album and release Unorthodox Behaviour, a little fusion masterpiece. It starts with Nuclear Burn, characterized by drums and bass performing complex phrasings upon a tight rhythm. Robin Lumley's moog, heard again twenty years later, sounds maybe a bit ingenuous, but it is clear that progressive rock had some influence on the band, and, anyway, it was the state of the art at that time. Also in subsequent songs Collins and friends launch sometimes into cool virtuosities, but without being indulgent to themselves: music flows like a harmonious whole, that points out everybody's bravura without creating leading characters. It is immediately clear taht those fellows have class in excess and that... they enjoy themselves a lot: many track titles (Born Ugly; Smacks Of Euphoric Hysteria) and cover notes demonstrate it without a doubt; for example, in Touch Wood, Phil Collins plays acoustic percussions, acoustic vocals and "acoustic acoustics"... besides, the album is produced by  Brand X and Dennis Mackay, who, in turn, is produced by Mrs. Mackay. The main title track, Unorthodox Behaviour, features Phil Collins' drums again: continual rhythm variations, counter-times, short powerful rolls mixed with thick and articulated beats... the whole thing accompanied by Percy Jones' bass as an improvisation maker and by a number of very nice effects and noises (as stated by cover notes: cellophanes, old "Newsweek" copies and bird calls). The album ends with Touch Wood, a short and refined track, entirely and strictly acoustic, as stated before, and featuring Jack Lancaster's sax as guest. 

superEva
 

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