Cheap Earthworks (Music) (Bill Bruford's Earthworks) Price

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Customer Reviews of Earthworks

The album is slightly tentative as compared to what this band became in concert. And it uses overdubs and processed sound more than later efforts - which undercuts the band's whole raison d'ete I think. They're at their best when they play live music on the spot. It's a good if not great listen but I prefer their subsequent albums which are a bit more idiosynchratic. The only track here that sounds as if it were recorded for maximum artistic effect is "Bridge of Inhibition".

HEY OLD WAR HORSES!!!! LISTEN TO THIS
If the established players of today listened to this, Jazz would be in better shape. This disc is spectacular. There is no other way to describe this. First of all, Bruford. The name of the first song, "Thud", describes his drumming on this disc. Hard driving and deep, but in the background, and not alot of use of cymbals. Not fancy. Sturdy, rock drumming in a Jazz context. Django Bates, Iain Ballamay, and Mick Hutton are tremendous Jazz players. Tremendous. These songs are a the following: Rock, Mainstream, Avant-Garde, Hard, and Soft all in the same song. "Making A Song And Dance", is the highlight of this disc, and could be of any disc it were on. Moving along Mainstream quietly, blasts into a synth driven Rock trance that is truly unsettling, and then turns on a dime to a quiet Free Jazz little tirade that ends with a quiet Mainstream trance again. This music goes on this way, stops on a dime, goes to another school, stops on a dime, goes to another school. The improvisers are first rate, tops. I've listened to alot of Jazz. This stuff is better than everyone else. Oh, by the way. These guys are Rockers. Rockers putting out a better Jazz disc than the Jazzers. You know why? They have no preconceived notions and are experimenting; and they are good. The solos are perfect. Every note on this is perfect. Where is Bruford. Driving the whole thing, but you don't know it. Remarkable. His drumming is very heavy, and you don't know it. The sonics on this disc are also perfect for Jazz. Dull, meaning there isn't also of treble, which makes the music sit still. Really good Jazz is profuced this way. If the Jazz guys listen to this, it has to make them think. I wish the state of Jazz was all like this. The Jazz tradition is experimentation and improvisation. Oh, by the way, the ballads are absolutely gorgeous. "It Needn't End In Tears" brought me to them. This is real Jazz in a Rock context and a Mainstream context, and a Free context. Remarkable.

Great Music.
I first heard this album 12 or so years ago. It was thrilling then, the ensemble playing is beautifully thought out and executed,and the solo playing is of the highest order. It remains as impressive now;the textural quality of the music is quite unlike any other at that time or since,and the flow of harmonic and rhythmic ideas is fascinatingly explored and resolved by some of the most gifted musicians on the planet.However , it is music first and last, and messrs Bruford,Ballamy and Bates would themselves not be keen on comparisons with, and reference to, rock, jazz, trad{are you sure?]etc by other reviewers.This great music stands up all by itself.