Quiet Sun - Mainstream (1975)

Artista: Quiet Sun

Álbum: Mainstream
Año: 1975
Género: Electrónica / Escena Canterbury
Duración: 39:23
Nacionalidad: Inglaterra

Lista de Temas:
1. Sol Caliente
2. Trumpets with Motherhood
3. Bargain Classics
4. R.F.D.
5. Mummy Was An Asteroid Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil
6. Trot
7. Rongwrong

Alineación:
- Phil Manzanera / Guitarra.
- Bill MacCormick / Bajo.
- Dave Jarrett / Teclados.
- Charles Hayward / Batería.

Tremendo discazo!!! E inconseguible!
Miren la joyita perdida que les trae el Mago Alberto!! Este viernes hay poco por mi falta de tiempo para postear pero lo que hay es buenísimo y muy raro de conseguir (en este caso es extremadamente difícil). Aquí tienen un discazo total. Pero el comentario es de Alberto:

Anteayer leyendo unos comentarios posteados por el Vampiro, lei sobre este material que hoy presentamos. Quiet Sun, banda liderada por los integrantes que luego se transformarian en 801, fue un proyecto que se inicio en los 70 de la mano de Phil Manzanera y Bill MacCormick, quienes se separaron en 1972 y tomaron rumbos diferentes, Manzanera fundó Roxy Music, y MacCormick se fue a Matching Mole, pero en 1975 deciden reunirse y grabar las canciones que habían quedado deambulando por el eter, de allí surge "Mainstream" un disco que contó con la colaboración de Brian Eno y que se transformó en otra de esas joyas perdidas que salieron a la luz luego de muchísimos años, si cabezones, éste es un señor disco, aquí pueden escuchar dos canciones incluidas en ese álbum increíble que fue "801 Live" y que oportunamente presentáramos en el blog. Así que a sacarse el sombrero, gorro, gorrita o pasomontañas y habran sus oidos a Quiet Sun, un proyecto que cierra el nacimiento de la extensa obra que vino despues de Phil Manzanera, y nombro únicamente a Manzanera por cuanto todo el disco es una muestra excelente del protagonismo de Phil, aunque MacCormick y Dave Jarrett (teclado) y Charles Hayward (batería) tienen lo suyo también.
Se nota muchísimo la mano de Brian Eno en todo el disco, los planos sonoros y los recursos que maneja cada vez que mete la manito le da su sello particular, no sólo a este disco, sino también a cada producción que vino después y que convirtiera en éxitos asegurados.
Cada canción tiene un formato diferente y a medida que el disco avanza se va transformando en una pesada carga sonora que te pide más y más, y al final te queda ese gusto a poco que sólo te dejan los buenos discos.
Por momentos todo es intrincado y siempre hay un microcosmos de guitarras entrelazadas y hasta fragmentos muy avant impensados para los años 70, como también hay aportes sonoros inesperados casi violentos, y esas voces con la cadencia tipica del progresivo, le van dando forma a un trabajo que sin dudas no podía quedar en la sala de ensayo. Enhorabuena que estos músicos tuvieran la oportunidad de dejarnos estas bellezas para que hoy las podamos disfrutar.
Una obra hermosa de principio a fin y que gracias a la tecnología hoy llega a nuestros oídos, en su momento tuve el vinilo en mis manos y pasó por una bandeja Barret de aquella época y sonaba horrendo, y volverlo a escuchar de nuevo en estos días es como revivir un gran amor.

Alberto

Phil Manzanera's pre-Roxy Music group never got to release their first attempt at an album, but in a break from Roxy in 1974, Manzanera regrouped the band and put out this effort, recorded at the same time as his solo extravaganza Diamond Head. Here, Manzanera disappears into the art rock group dynamic; the album is a selection of progressive jams featuring some tasty guitar work, complex rhythmic structures, and the always reliable bass work of Bill MacCormick. There is a certain dryness to the whole proceeding, a holding back, a lack of warmth, but perhaps this perception is derived from over half the tracks sounding so much better a year later as part of 801's Live, including "Sol Caliente," "Mummy Was an Asteroid, Daddy Was a Small, Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil," and especially "Rongwrong." Here the Charles Hayward song sounds like a university common-room joke, with its name-dropping of "reading Schoenberg in the bath" and such. Compared to the lush arrangement and rewritten lyrics of the Brian Eno-sung 801 version, Quiet Sun sounds like one album away from brilliance.

Ted Mills

When Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera entered the studio to lay down his solo debut album Diamond Head, he simultaneously re-formed his pre-Roxy band Quiet Storm to quickly cut Mainstream. Despite the two albums being recorded on top of one another, Quiet Sun definitely feels like a full band effort that leans heavily towards the group's Canterbury school origins (Bill MacCormick being an ex-Matching Mole bassist) with their jazzy, insistent grooves and an off-the-cuff, improvised feel. The result of these hectic recording sessions features some fantastic high energy prog in the form of "Sol Caliente," the uneasy chromatic pianos of "Bargain Classics," blistering "Mummy Was an Asteroid, Daddy Was a Small Non-stick Kitchen Utensil" and spacey Floydian sounds of "Trot," all tracks featuring healthy doses of Manzanzera's metallic howl. Eno-philes will want to take note that he's also credited with keyboards and "oblique strategies" on the album, and his presence is most felt on the meditative keyboard layers of "R.F.D.," while a much extended version of "Rongwrong," a track later featured on 801's live album, closes Mainstream on a quirky note. A seemingly overlooked corner of the Manzanera/Roxy Music world that's easily recommended to fans of the guitarist, or progheads in general.

bpnicast

A series of Canterbury prog instrumentals, and one Canterbury prog pseudoinstrumental ("Rongwrong") with two verses hidden in it. Nothing more to say. No, wait, "R.F.D." is worth a look; it sounds like an early Eno ambient composition, and "Rongwrong"'s song verses are alright. The rest, though...

wrt

The other RYM reviews are good; I'll just temper them a little by saying that it's a solid/respectable but not mind blowing prog album that does the respectable thing by waiting until the end to bust out the singing (especially considering one of the lyrics is something like, "And I'll just listen to Shoenburg in the bath.") I'd say get this album if it's not too much money.

radiofoot

So strange that this album is so overlooked. Yet the formation is upstanding: Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera on guitar, Matching Mole's Bill McCormick on Bass, This Heat's Charles Haywardon drums and good jazzy keyboard player Dave Jarrett.
The album is greatly accomplished, with a unique sound fusing Canterbury, Space Rock and Hard Rock in a very personal psychedelic sound. Amazing rhythm section, uplifting guitar and bass "warm" sound à la "Here Come the Warm Jets" reminding of Matching Mole and very good electric piano work. The tracks are all instrumental, with a jazzy feeling, and the album is a complete standout which should be in every music collection, especially if you love progressive rock.

wago

I just recently purchased this album and I can honestly say that this is among the top twelve greatest albums that I've ever heard.....period. This eponymous debut is also their only offering however Phil Manzanera, Bill MacCormick, and Eno went on to form 801 a year later and released a live album featuring several cuts from this masterpiece. "Mainstream" is a sublime sonic experience that got me at the very first listen and also features what I feel is Manzanera's most riveting and incendiary guitar work he has ever recorded, which is saying a lot, due to the fact that everything this guitar maestro has ever recorded is remarkable. Bill MacCormick is a virtuoso as well and brings the bass guitar to the forefront of all seven compositions. Charles Hayward is an incredible drummer (obviously steeped in jazz) who incorporates a myriad of percussion instruments and tripped out noise gizmos that truly enhance the proceedings. Dave Jarrett is a fabulous keyboardist and Eno is Eno as usual who throws in the spacy synths and "treats" everything in pure Eno fashion (Genesis refers to this as "Enossification" on the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway). All seven pieces are quintessential progressive rock with jazz-fusion overtones and are perfect in every respect. My personal favourites are "Sol Caliente" (a Manzanera composition brimming with ferocious axe work), "Bargain Classics" (a tripped out percussion driven Jarrett composition that sealed the deal for me as far as my ranking of this record is concerned) , and "Mummy Was an Asteroid and Daddy Was a Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil" (a MacCormick piece that conforms more to prog-metal and well....the song title speaks for itself). If you're interested in acquiring this monster of an album you'll most likely have to order it. Trust me, it's well worth it.

ralphcat

Where the hell was I in 1975? I'd never heard this album until last night (29 years late is better than never...). I've now listened to it twice and will be listening to it again tonight.
Magnificent.

dempsey

This sole album is one one those UFDisc that make the proghead so happy in his ever-ending search for 70's gems. Phil Manzanera reformed Quiet Sun as a way of letting off steam from the Keyboard-dominated Roxy Music. Although the album has divided credits and all Quiet Sun members shine , clearly the star here is Manzanera : his searing fuzzy guitars soars above the rest of the album.
Sol Caliente is a real classy track and augurs most of the rest of the album , excellent Canterbury fusion but with a definite rock edge. Bargain Classics has typical Canterbury keyboard with spacey guitars: a must hear. The Mummy track is the highlight with a flying guitar solo followed by a superb Jarrett KB solo that is leaning towards his more famous jazz namesake. The only down remark is the last track (unfortunately also the longest) : it is the only sung track (and not really well either, IMHO) but also is rather tedious and over- long.
Too bad because this last track is the sole reason for not getting that fifth star. To some extent , this is the most accomplished album that Manzanera ever played on , and certainly the one where he shows most his abilities at guitar histrionics. His 801 venture is not quite up to par with this gem. A real must for for everyone.

Sean Trane

During a lull in the Roxy Music circus troupe's lengthy 70s run, guitarist Phil Manzanera took the unusual step of revisiting an old previously un-recorded group. Reconstituting Quiet Sun with a line-up that included keyboardist Dave Jarrett, bassist Bill MacCormick and drummer Charles Hayward, he scored a most unlikely triumph (well in a musical sense, not a commercial one!). Quiet Sun's only album is as far away from Roxy Music's standard fare as you can get, being a more overtly progressive set of barn-storming jazz-rock that is not dissimiliar to the efforts of say Hatfield And The North. In fact, this ironically titled album is nothing short of a lost Canterbury classic.
The opener Sol Caliente is a particular highlight, a triumphant spacey jazz-rock exploration ... driving yet unpredictable, quirky yet focussed, it is full of visceral playing from Manzanera and Jarrett. Trumpet With Motherhood is no more than a slight detour ... a brief electric piano/guitar feedback ride, before the band slowly builds into the back-breaking, eternally writhing Bargain Classics, on which Dave Jarrett turns in a momumental keyboard performance that ranks him momentarily alongside those other Canterbury keyboardist Daves ... Stewart and Sinclair.
R.F.D. is another stunner, all atmospheric swirling organ and jazz-inflected electric piano (actually in addition to Jarrett, both Manzanera and Hayward are also credited with playing keyboards, so I can't be sure who's doing what) to create that otherworld feeling we all know and love. Perhaps my favourite track of all is Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil (there's a title for you!) which brings agression back to the table, with Manzanera's impressive guitar work and a blistering classical keyboard solo (presumably from Jarrett) really stealing the show. A nod too to Hayward's exciting work on the drums.
Trot starts off as a doozy of a psychedelic ride with Manzanera's acidic guitar lines (more than once I was reminded of Robbie Krieger of the Doors) teasing life out of a repeated keyboard figure before a delightful lyrical piano solo unfolds. The raucous guitar that closes out the piece only underlines the unpredictablity of this great album. The curtain closes with Rongwrong, which is certainly an atypical finish, as it is a somewhat lighter piece (despite being the album's longest). It is a strange variety of piano dominated progressive pop (imagine a more adventurous Supertramp trying to make Syd Barrett-like melodies) with rather poor vocals ... courtesy of MacCormick, I believe. He may not do the job as a vocalist, but he definitely stars with an enormous, well-supported bass solo. Despite not quite fitting in with the mood of the rest of the album, I see it as more proof of the impressive array of skills that Quiet Sun possessed.
A true lost classic, I think this album is much better than any single album Manzanera cut with Roxy Music. If anything, despite belonging firmly in the Canterbury camp, Mainstream is a little more spacey and a little more symphonic, than yer "average" Canterbury masterpiece. A real treat awaits you here, folks! ... 78% on the MPV scale

Martin Vengadesan

Quiet Sun's Mainstream is a complex, succulent, abstract-adverted and classic creative album, released with little reference to anything but its own character and to the astonishing or great five artists that face up the ensemble, with different forms of supreme talent, cool groove, transient expansion and even some hot-art independent hard tone. At least by pure feeling, everything he is generous and preciously simple, but tirelessly trademarked and pressed as a vintage, special and pretentious composition. The album has a horizon of music and mottoes so enlarged, that it spreads genuine affection for uncustomary, converted or styled (deeply) interesting qualities. The notes come perfect, the classic off-spread seems frivolous compared to music, plus the band really assudes on highly distractive and double-side expressed full manners and rich humbles - for Mainstream to essentially be the greatest even they worked on (it's the only one, but I'm just saying that a lot of work, under a lot of time, did wonders). After all this, it becomes a bit of unmentionably special rock, music, fusion, space taste and abstraction eclectic development. It's fun but also deadly serious and hard-listened, it sounds round and complete, it is progressive-seeded or concept-art awakened. Where it breathtakes and where it fails really comes to sound as secondary and bit too deeply preferential.
Dave Jarrett works on the complex and feisty keyboard session in Mainstream, but Hayward and Manzanera also join it, the keyboard stuff is huge, addictive and pretty much taken out of normal shapes. Hayward anyhow works on drums and percussion aesthetics, with Manzanera is the crazy, artistic guitarist. MacCormick's bass will, on the other hand, strike that rhythm and that essential vibe in every moment you pretty much get with him. Brian Eno is invited with a lot of synths and...strategies, nothing spectacular, but indeed the closest thing you can associate him to rock. This album gets way too many small hints to Roxy Music and the bands the artists flew in or out in their career, without meaning at all a musical connection.
Following up (all the way) is the album's matter of music and steaming style, finding, in short time, many moments of overwhelming pleasure and quality, reasonable abstract and full hustles of craft, a lot of fusion feed, some purely technical and nerve-plural lines, and deep or distanced (by the success achieved) high mentions of a music's pallet of elements, all of these complementing or contrasting, avoiding or looming each other into Mainstream's various art.
Sol Caliente brings the suspense of Mainstream's greatest writing and playing, having quite all it takes to produce a fever of an art and a high tide of risky motions: a tiny abstract sound-fight introduction, getting more scratching by decomposing & independent guitar riffs, finally reaching a dark-gray main theme, of a small catchy line, but which evolves under a mainly sensational improvisation of poly-fusion; the guitar's insanity, the drums' soft spill and the various key-moods reflect best what hard gulp it all is. The second part is even better, the word of playing it being "excruciating" but meaning "mindblowing". This piece (having taken a whoop of half a paragraph to shallowly get interpreted) is undoubtedly a masterful thing. It is only after this one that good standards continue or stop to appear. The movement, for sure, changes. Trumpets with Motherhood actually is the finale of the previous climax, having hallucinative short lines of guitar and keyboard atmosphere and tangled scratches.
Bargain Classics is bright and interesting, experimental and indescribable at first, then roasted in a tilting furious and ambitioned rock and fusion impact. It's a pulsating and heartbeat-stopping fine massive piece, but it also shares insensitive losses of perspective. The art haunts every pouring spice, the music's idea of saved up expression doesn't even exist, plus the emotion stabs an abstract smash.
R.F.D. gets into a dream of hazes and stormy harmonies, by powerful synth-morphs and keyboard fusion. It's a first contrast in the album, showing the dependent glamor and thirsty rocket science within moody and frightening sounds and clouds.
With Mummy Was An Asteroid, the album starts slipping, this one being a humongous dazzle and mad-wave of all the crashing instruments playing rock and avant-melodiousness, plus sharing a flavoring radical ambition of sound and arrangement, discouragingly psyching up the austerity of art and poly-rock. Great guitar melody and bossy grooves, but that's all.
The album ends soon, with Trot as another abstract fusion fruity loop, rich but imperfect and with Rongwrong as the highest eclectic composition, following a heartless but consistent art of harmony, soft string, dapple explosions and tough to follow juice-beats, plus a more kind and passive instrumental fantasy.
Mainstream can knock down a lot of elementary music and quality, mainly being the work of special artists and properly efficient art-abstract orientations. This is a three-three point five stars album for me, going however on excellent chords, as it tends to be a shot-fix album of rare progressive improvisation. And a geniality strangely spoiled by the music emotion.

Victor

This album stands apart from a lot of the other jazz-rock records released in the early to mid 70s in that instead of leaning on short gratuitous melodies that lead to long improvisational sections, this album features well composed melodic development combined with organically shifting sound textures to create one of the most unique fusions of jazz-rock rhythms and progressive rock composition released during this time.
Most of the instrumentals on this album share some common references and influences. The dissonant diminished scale melodies driven by odd-metered rhythms sound similar to mid-70s King Crimson. The freer jazzy sections sound a bit like Soft Machine on their 3rd or 4th album, other sections reflect early fusion artists such as Chick Corea or Brian Auger. The big difference is that this album is driven by sonic texture changes that help push the music forward thanks to the pioneering production work of Brian Eno.
Eno is the most valuable player on this recording. His production skills were ahead of the game at this point making the music a constant shifting kaleidoscope of sound, his "treatments" help the strong melodic developments of Manzanera shift smoothly from one idea to the next.
Two songs stand apart from the others. One of those is R.F.D. by keyboardist Dave Jarrett. This is a beautiful piece of impressionism in the style of Ravel with understated electronic keyboards more similar to 60s lounge interpretations of classical music rather than rock. The other is Rongwrong that features drummer Charles Hayward in a Robert Wyatt style wandering avant-pop song, unfortunately Hayward doesn't have Wyatt's cool jazzy voice. Too bad this is the only release by this amazing band, it would have been nice to hear more.

JS

These guys had apparently recorded some demos together in 1970 but it just didn't go any further as Bill MacCormick would leave to join MATCHING MOLE, and Phil Manzanera left to join ROXY MUSIC. In 1975 Phil took a month off to record a solo album(Diamond Head) and during that time, and in the same recording studio he got all the guys back to finally make a record. He also gets some help from ROXY MUSIC member Brian Eno. It's also really cool to see actual photo-copies of letters that were sent to Manzanera from record companies that he had sent tapes to in hoping they would release their music. There are replies from CBS Records, Island Records, Liberty/UA Records and Warner Brothers Records.Then as if to counter these negative responses, we get some positive reviews underneath from some magazines back in that day. What I love about this record is the fuzzed out, dissonant, distorted and angular guitar playing of Manzanera. He really does steal the show at times. We also get some fuzzed out bass. The organ, piano, keys and farfisa play from Dave Jarrett is worthy of much applause as well.
"Sol Caliente" is a Manzanera composition that opens with piano and distorted guitar that grinds out some sounds as Eno does his thing. We get a melody of drums and fuzz bass before keys and more fuzz arrives. It settles down to a cool sound of guitar, bass, liquid keys and light drums.This is great ! The sound seems to build before we get some ripping guitar 5 1/2 minutes in that turns angular on us as it goes on and on. Amazing track. It blends into "Trumpets With Motherhood" a short 1 1/2 minute tune with keys, light drums and tons of fuzz all playing at a slower pace than they did on the first track. "Bargain Classics" is a Jarrett tune that opens with odd-metered drumming and other intricate sounds coming and going with no real melody. I'm reminded of HENRY COW. Drums come to the fore 1 1/2 minutes in with keys. Some ripping farfisa organ follows as the tempo picks up. Nice.The tempo continues to shift back and forth. Eno's back at it. Angular guitar comes in. Love this tune. "R.F.D." is a mellow, drifting song with liquid keys and synths. Now for a classic Canterbury title if there ever was one : "Mummy Was An Asteroid, Daddy Was A Small Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil". This is Bill MacCormick's lone composition, but it's a powerful track. It opens with some aggressive guitar and drums before some strange noises from Eno come in. The tempo picks up, more Eno, and the drums are very active 3 minutes in. The guitar sounds incredible 4 minutes in. These last 2 minutes are just a joy.
"Trot" is another Manzanera tune. It opens softly as keys and drums lead the way. Some fuzzed out guitar comes and goes.The bass sounds great. Piano after 2 minutes changes the mood completely. More great bass from McCormick and then 4 minutes in Manzanera starts to make some noise. "RongWrong" is the longest track and also my least favourite.This is the only song with vocals courtesy of drummer Charles Hayward. He may sing in the style of Wyatt but believe me when I say he really takes away from this tune. It starts out uptempo with keys and fuzz as drums pound. It settles down quickly as piano and bass take over. Hammond 1 1/2 minutes in before vocals come in. Lots of hammond and piano. Vocals and a brighter mood after 7 minutes.
I highly recommend this recording.

John Davie

The stories behind this Phil Manzanera-led set are numerous including an all night recording session wherein all the primaries were cut, the simultaneous release of his solo 'Diamond Head' which mirrors part of the material here, and a slew of record company rejection letters that rivals the best of 'em, complete with the furiously scribbled notes of a determined artist. It reminds us that even in 1975, perhaps the zenith of progressive music's popular appeal, material like this was a hard sell. But Manzanera had seen some success with Roxie Music, 'Diamond Head' was bound for the charts, and RM bandmate Brian Eno was along for the ride on this one for synth treatments. In musical hindsight, the result was one of the great rock expressions of its time. A truly whole and unique event that seems to happen spontaneously, and though a mere two rehearsals were had it is a fully-realized basement symphony, a dream one afternoon, a young man's triumph and a rare gift.
Eight-minute 'Sol Caliente' could not be better named and achieves a mingling of black fire rhythm and minimalist wave theory, jazz drone and molecular exploration that ends all too soon on the near-perfect (and trumpet-less) 'Trumpets With Motherhood'. Drummer Charles Hayward is alive, his traps mixed in front, partnered by bassist Bill MacCormack's needlepoint thunk and Dave Jarrett's light touch on the Fender Rhodes. A kazoo free-for-all opens 'Bargain Classics' but it's as if the first cut never ended, just got more deeply into an already astounding moment of clarity and madness at once, the players braving the hot soot and sparks given off, pushing deeper with no thought to outcome... the experience of a living, blood-pumping creature, startling in appearance and not a little threatening. Manzanera's classic hard-fuzz guitar tone grounds us to realty when necessary Canterbury style, like a comforting friend during a long mescaline trip. But his leadership is entirely generous and he allows all members to shine, creating the special conditions that made this session what it is. 'Mummy Was an Asteroid' is miraculous, huge, inspired... layered guitar and key lines meeting on the street for some bold infighting, Phil's wailing solos, what Soft Machine could have been. 'Trot' provides a short rest but is equally compelling, Jarrett's soft jazz and Eno's childlike background colors. The infamous 'Rongwrong' finishes and though endless, turns itself into a sweet and not unsingable love song featuring Charles Hayward's slightly off whine and stiff tongue in cheek performance from the band.
Surely a masterwork of its kind though best viewed against the backdrop of prog history, and I suspect the record will please those most who have heard a tremendous amount of music, good and bad.

David

Y podría copiar miles de comentarios más pero no tengo tiempo, a todo el mundo le gusta igual así que no pierdan tiempo y llévense esta joyita imperdible!