4.5 stars really!!!!
After the last throes of Trinity, Brian decided to form a new band from scratch and allow for more
instrumental space in his music. And what a departure this was from the Trinity days. Here the music
took a more severe turn away from his previous sound while remaining accessible, but being much
more energetic as well and combined jazz and rock even further. With Dean and McIntosh as a solid
rhythm section, Brian had to look for a guitarist that wouldnt be tempted to overdo his own antics on
the keyboards and eventually he chose Jim Mullen. With the artwork depicting our favourite Ogre
unleashing his Oblivion Express out of his chest and straight into your face and ears, its easy to see
that Brian is the boss with the majority of the compositions to his name. It wouldnt be the case every
time as the following Better Land (but much poorer album) is mostly penned by Mullen.
Opening on the fantastic McLaughlins Dragon Song, Brians crew is out for your throat and eardrums
tight from the starting blocks, with Brian unleashing all hell from his Hammond, while Mullen backs him
up quite complementarily. On the 11-mins+ Total Eclipse, however, I find that they over-stretched a bit
too much the track duration: the rhythm section finds the groove almost instantly and go on to maintain
for the full duration, allowing lengthy solos from Mullen and Auger. At the start of the track, Auger
changes from piano to organ to electric piano, but later seem unfortunately to get his finger stuck on
his Hammond. The hard-driving jazz-rock The Light gives us a chance to hear Brians voice, which is
apt, but hes strongly helped out by Dean and Mullen in the chorus. The track strolls on 100 MPH on the
Hammond Express before fading out electronically a bit too early only to come back and add further
electronics death throes.
On the flipside, Brian shows his vocal limits (and lyrical ideas all the same) with the up-tempoed On The
Road, Mullens guitar sizzling in its middle section with our Ogres organ covering him from all sides.
Another up-tempoed Sword has some Purple accents, especially coming from Lords many chord
changes rather than Blackmores metallic riffs, Mullens play remaining less chunky (thankfully) than
Ritchies. This leaves us with the anthemic eponymous track, where Brian shows that, vocals excepted,
he feared nothing from crunchier guitar-lead groups. Again very much in the line of what Jon Lord
would do, Brian changes chords constantly, allowing Mullen boulevards to expand and exploding his
organ into saturation and leaving you the fan to lift the needle back onto that slice of wax.
Certainly one of the better hard Hammond-driven rock albums coming out of the early 70s from
England, BAs OE is a 100 MPH album that gives no rest, bar in the longer groove of Total Eclipse.
Indeed Brians train is one jazzier than Jon Lords Purple tram, but than again the tram would show
more regularity in the long run and gather much more success. Definitely very close to a five star, but
not quite partly because of their main weakness, the vocals.
After the last throes of Trinity, Brian decided to form a new band from scratch and allow for more
instrumental space in his music. And what a departure this was from the Trinity days. Here the music
took a more severe turn away from his previous sound while remaining accessible, but being much
more energetic as well and combined jazz and rock even further. With Dean and McIntosh as a solid
rhythm section, Brian had to look for a guitarist that wouldnt be tempted to overdo his own antics on
the keyboards and eventually he chose Jim Mullen. With the artwork depicting our favourite Ogre
unleashing his Oblivion Express out of his chest and straight into your face and ears, its easy to see
that Brian is the boss with the majority of the compositions to his name. It wouldnt be the case every
time as the following Better Land (but much poorer album) is mostly penned by Mullen.
Opening on the fantastic McLaughlins Dragon Song, Brians crew is out for your throat and eardrums
tight from the starting blocks, with Brian unleashing all hell from his Hammond, while Mullen backs him
up quite complementarily. On the 11-mins+ Total Eclipse, however, I find that they over-stretched a bit
too much the track duration: the rhythm section finds the groove almost instantly and go on to maintain
for the full duration, allowing lengthy solos from Mullen and Auger. At the start of the track, Auger
changes from piano to organ to electric piano, but later seem unfortunately to get his finger stuck on
his Hammond. The hard-driving jazz-rock The Light gives us a chance to hear Brians voice, which is
apt, but hes strongly helped out by Dean and Mullen in the chorus. The track strolls on 100 MPH on the
Hammond Express before fading out electronically a bit too early only to come back and add further
electronics death throes.
On the flipside, Brian shows his vocal limits (and lyrical ideas all the same) with the up-tempoed On The
Road, Mullens guitar sizzling in its middle section with our Ogres organ covering him from all sides.
Another up-tempoed Sword has some Purple accents, especially coming from Lords many chord
changes rather than Blackmores metallic riffs, Mullens play remaining less chunky (thankfully) than
Ritchies. This leaves us with the anthemic eponymous track, where Brian shows that, vocals excepted,
he feared nothing from crunchier guitar-lead groups. Again very much in the line of what Jon Lord
would do, Brian changes chords constantly, allowing Mullen boulevards to expand and exploding his
organ into saturation and leaving you the fan to lift the needle back onto that slice of wax.
Certainly one of the better hard Hammond-driven rock albums coming out of the early 70s from
England, BAs OE is a 100 MPH album that gives no rest, bar in the longer groove of Total Eclipse.
Indeed Brians train is one jazzier than Jon Lords Purple tram, but than again the tram would show
more regularity in the long run and gather much more success. Definitely very close to a five star, but
not quite partly because of their main weakness, the vocals.
