A collection of amazing, rare, odd, out-of-print, out-of-the-ordinary, hard to find or simply interesting great music of many styles which appeal to any music lover.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Colosseum ΙΙ - Strange New Flesh

After the dissolution of the rock supergroup Colosseum, founding member drummer Jon Hiseman decided to reform the group and call it Colosseum II, this time with the help of guitarist Gary Moore (coming out of Thin Lizzy), Don Airey on synthesizers and keyboards, Neil Murray on bass and Mike Starrs on vocals. In this eclectic debut “Strange New Flesh” the rock influenced by jazz and blues, which had characterized the original line-up, was replaced with a hard-hitting jazz fusion outing, which shows impressive musical abilities. The compositions "Dark Side of the Moog", the second half ofJoni Mitchell's "Down to You” and “Winds” are very much inflected by the major fusion bands of the time, Chick Corea’s Return To Forever, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Brand X and Weather Report with an emphasis on Moore's soulful guitar leads, while the funky "Gemini and Leo" and “Secret Places” retain the original flavor of the first Colosseum. This combination of both genres is a bit awkward as far as a concept album is concerned. Nonetheless, the result confronted the players with a challenge that has endured the test of time as it has left testament of the legacy of this super group. Castle Music Ltd. released an expanded version of this debut album in October of 2005, now available at iTunes and Amazon downloads, and there was a One