The Judge
RAVES!
Date: 15/04/17
Brand X - "April" (1979)
After posting yesterday's travelogue, I remembered that I wanted to append this track to it. No matter; it'll stand out more on its own.
I've mentioned the fusion band Brand X before, and this is a track from the same Product LP of 1979. April closes the album and - in sharp contrast to the pyrotechnics of ...And So To F... which precedes it (at least, on some of the releases), this is a simple, short piece composed by John Giblin - a virtuoso of the fretless electric bass, much in demand for session work by the likes of Kate Bush - which features a beautiful slow figure repeated over an understated accompaniment of keyboards and electric guitar and a soundtrack of birdsong and rain.
The whole creates a marvellous ambience and affirms that - in the right hands - the electric bass can be a great melodic force:
(A longer reworking of the piece appears on the last LP from the band's first incarnation, Is There Anything About? in 1982, featuring the late Rafael Ravenscroft on saxophone. I linked it here.)
