Love Unlimited Orchestra Discography Torrent
Irineo Kortig
I must forewarn readers that I am a devoted jazz rock fusion fan and an avid proponentfor a rebirth and revitalization of the genre. The Mahavishnu Orchestra's music is 98%responsible for my adoration of such a maligned and misunderstood sub-genre of music. HearingJohn McLaughlin's guitar volcanics and his leading others in his band to heights of unparalleledimprovisation forever changed how I approached my own guitar playing and just plain rewired myneural net beyond recovery. Herein follows some bias. Between Nothingness & Eternity had its many wonderful moments but I always feltthe live recording left much to be desired in many places throughout the concert. Quiet momentswere lost in noise and crowd buzz. Loud attacks and dynamic change-ups in the band's supersonicdelivery seemed over-saturated and of course instrument separation was deplorably nigh untomusic mush. Only at certain times when the sound/recording engineer(s) seemed to know whatwas going on and get the dials and knobs right did things seem acceptable. Only one magicalmoment is superior on BN&E's live recording. And that is John McLaughlin's super-nova,lead break on Hammer's "Sister Andrea". Lost Trident Sessions' version of this song has amuch, much better synth solo by Hammer even though McLaughlin's LTS lead is lessappealing. Overall, I find LTS far superior to BN&E. As a bonus on this release is bassist Rick Laird's eerie "Stepping Tones" progression andviolinist Jerry Goodman's mournful "I Wonder". McLaughlin seems to obligingly riff, patientlypentatonic on "I Wonder", and does almost invisible backing guitar structures on "SteppingTones" whereas when these two songs made it to the Nemperor label's Like Childrenrelease featuring Jan Hammer and Jerry Goodman, Goodman subsequently handled all guitars tooand pulled off nearly an exact copy of all McLaughlin's lackluster LTS guitar efforts. It isseems evident his heart wasn't into Laird or Goodman's pieces or perhaps he had been "writtenout" of the songs' limelight moments. I can't say for sure. Lastly we gain a listen to the never-heard-before, 5:53 "John's Song". It is a sombre,ominously mutating, fusion excursion. Wandering initially in a free form fusion intro, it builds intoa jazz rockin' explosion of Billy Cobham's drums, Hammer's synth textures and manic unisonleads with McLaughlin blasting the outskirts of infinity. To top off the climax of this song JerryGoodman erupts in some of the finer fusion fiddling I have ever heard. It reminded of a mini-versionof "One Word" from Birds of Fire. Great cut! If this song and the rest of The Lost Trident Sessions indicates where TheMahavishnu Orchestra was possibly heading in their long-past future musical growth -- thenindeed it is a tragic thing that the individual band members could no longer function together asfriends or associates. Who can say what other majesties they held in store? All such things nowpassed -- we can but all the more deeply cherish this rare glimpse into the final days of TheMahavishnu Orchestra. Cool liner notes and pictures included, this release is stronglyrecommended. Throw out that "bootleg" tape! social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Wednesday, July 28, 2021 Review this album Report (Review #2581927)
This has got to be one of, if not the most influential albums ever released. Jazz rock fusionsuccessfully exploded onto the scene in 1971 with this singular vision of guitar legend JohnMcLaughlin. McLaughlin collected the arsenal of Jerry Goodman on violin, Jan Hammer on keys,Rick Laird on bass, and Billy Cobham on drums.The musicianship, the spirit, the conversationalsoloing, the unique compositions, the intensity, and the overall effect this release holds is far toosuperb for this reviewer to dare confine in mere words. Whether it's "The Dance of Maya" or"You Know, You Know", to this day you hear echoes of The Inner Mounting Flame. Considerthis. I sat many of my other albums aside to forever collect dust when I discovered TheMahavishnu Orchestra and I remain a jazz rock fusionist to this day. social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Wednesday, July 28, 2021 Review this album Report (Review #2581926)
"WOW!, WOW! and WOW! Superb redo of this classic! This sounds as good as I hadhoped it would. Grab it as soon as it is ready for release. Levels are way up, greatseparation of each instrument, no more muddy mix in the "squashed mid-range glut".This sucker kicks! Mean rich, full bass, up-front drums, violin presence good, keys great,and guitar tracks perfectly awesome!! I was absolutely enthralled to hear Cobham so"right" and "immediately huge" on "One Word". My head popped during the fiery unisonoutro! Get yer money ready fusionheads -- this be a goody!!" And have I changed my mind after several months more of listening to an actualofficial release version? Of course not. This album's original LP release forever changedme - my listening tastes?, my guitar playing?, my views on jazz?, my rock-n-rolladdiction? - oh baby, much more than those mere mortal items, Birds of Firemade me view life in a new way. Why? How? It's a simple answer really.John McLaughlin's music went beyond mere music, beyond jazz, beyond rock -it housed a soul, it reached into spirit and the visions within all became new. Sureenough, McLaughlin knew jazz, rock, Eastern Indian music, and melded it all into apowerhouse of jams that blew most everyone away in the jazz and rock worlds. But TheMahavishnu Orchestra forged more than music - they delivered a religiousexperience. Things McLaughlin needed to say, were expressed through sound, wordswere spoken beyond hearing, echoes of a vital transformation filled each composition.Birds of Fire was one of my first experiences in hearing the "fire of the soul"coming through the medium of music. Of course I heard it in other music, here and there,in brief swooning movements but this album was non-stop explosions of energies thatcame from deep within all that the soul of man could experience. I heard bliss,frustration, anger, anticipation, elation, fury, ecstasy, euphoria, sorrow, joy, power,imagination, dreams, hope, stress, release, passion, and so much more. It's all there - andif you cannot feel it when you listen - you have missed the rawest power of TheMahavishnu Orchestra and you're therefore yet to really "feel the tingle" up your spine, thestrange rush of winds down the "halls of your soul". Now back down to earth, back from my epiphany . . . In comparing the oldBOF CD to new CD the volume levels are up a "+3" on my Denon 3-Head's dBmonitor level read-outs, noise is down a great deal, overall tones are warm, highs crisp,low-end okay and yeah, you get a ton of CD liner notes and pix, (heavy card stock vs.glossy 'zine feel). social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Wednesday, July 28, 2021 Review this album Report (Review #2581924)
Graced by five extremely dexterous musicians, the first lineup of MAHAVISHNU ORCHSTRA featured JohnMcLaughlin on guitar god duty, newbie keyboardist Jan Hammer, violinist Jerry Goodman, bassist RickLaird and drummer Billy Cobham, all musical gods in their own right, who together crafted one of themost spectacular chemistries in the rock lexicon unleashing fiery energetic performances withblitzkrieg technical precision that immediately caught the world's attention and has become foreverthe standards for excellence in the world of progressive rock and jazz-fusion. However well theseguys gelled on stage though, egos and personalities clashed behind the scenes and after a mere twostudio albums and a live album being dropped in lieu of a third, the band's three year existenceended on December 31, 1973 with a final performance at the Sport Arena in Toledo, Ohio. While John McLaughlin would reinvent his project by hiring a whole new cast of players, nothing thatcame after could match the jaw dropping musical majesty performed by the first lineup so it was acrying shame that a third album never emerged due to the petty disagreements about the minutia suchas proper overdubs and other recoding trivialities. Fast forward 25 years when producer Bob Beldenwent looking for the original tapes of "Birds Of Fire" for a much needed remastering but in theprocess struck gold by discovering a group of unlabeled tapes that only indicated they were recordedin June 1973 at Trident Studios in London. It turned out that this lucky find was indeed thecompositions intended to be the MAHAVISHNU's original third album that found the inferior liverelease "Between Nothingness and Eternity" taking its place. Jackpot!After a 26 year delay THE LOST TRIDENT SESSIONS finally emerged from the vaults on 21 September 1999just squeaking in before the hilarious Y2K scare! Despite the mystery around these delayedcompositions, almost all of the material had been released in different forms with the onlyexception being "John's Song." The three tracks "Dream," "Trilogy" and "Sister Andrea" all appearedon the 1973 live album "Between Nothingness and Eternity" and the two tracks "I Wonder" and"Stepping Tones" were included on Jerry Goodman & Jan Hammer's collaborative album "Like Children"which came out the year after their departure. Despite most of these tracks having been released inone form or another, the fact was that THE LOST TRIDENT SESSIONS was and is superior in almost everyregard as the compositions display a fully oiled machine from a group of seasoned veterans who hadreached a musical perfection due to their incessant live performances for almost two years straight. The material on THE LOST TRIDENT SESSIONS also displays a turning point for the MAHAVISHNUs in thatMcLaughlin eased his tyrannical rule over the creative content and allowed band members tocontribute in the writing process. Jan Hammer wrote "Sister Andrea" and "Stepping Stones" was bycrafted by Rick Laird. Jerry Goodman contributed "I Wonder" which left only Billy Cobham as the oddman out who took the sensible approach and released his material as a solo artist where he found avery successful run of albums after the demise of the original band lineup. His debut "Spectrum" isas revered as the the first two MAHAVISHNU albums in many circles.While 26 years behind schedule, THE LOST TRIDENT SESSIONS is every bit as essential as the first twoinstallments of the MAHAVISHNU canon and showcases a band that was hitting a new peak in creativecontent with an uncanny tight-knit cohesiveness of jagged jazz fueled hyper rock that featured thoseclassic soloing tradeoffs as well as atonal angularities run amok. The six tracks on these LOSTSESSIONS were in every way a step up from the two antecedents that launched the band into thelimelight. Added to the excellent dexterity present on this blistering masterpieces ofjazz-rock-fusion was a welcome upgraded production with a warm organic remastering that majorlyimproved the tracks off the tinny badly produced live album. While the Goodman and Laird tracks mayhave been criticized for being too "catchy" they actually add a nice respite from the turbulentvirtuosity otherwise ubiquitous on this collection of buried treasures.In the end, THE LOST TRIDENT SESSIONS offered a sense of resolution to the missing chapter in theMAHAVISHNU's tumultuous first rendition and offered the prog revival that was taking place in the90s a new treasure trove of lost classics for those who hadn't quite done their homework of all the70s had to offer. This album serves as a reminder of how easily such maestrohood masterpieces canliterally become lost in the annals of time and of how the MAHAVISNUs were upping their gameexponentially from the brutal touring schedule which only served to bolster the Promethean firewhich fueled their visionary inner journeys through the sounds of jazz, rock and myriad worldgenres. It's a true shame when petty human egos that jive so well together otherwise implode whentogether we are all so much stronger than alone but in the case of the MAHAVISHNUs, just like thefate of Icarus, perhaps they raced oo close and too quickly near the sun thus melting their wingsand resulting in the ultimate implosion of one of rock music's greatest lineups. In the end we canonly be thankful for the two albums that were released in the 70s and this long overdue masterpiecethat was excavated from dark dusty bowels of forgotten record label storage rooms. social review comments Review Permalink
Posted Sunday, December 20, 2020 Review this album Report (Review #2486466)