Brand X – Reissues
Gonzo Multimedia
http://www.gonzomultimedia.com/

Rating: B

Brand X are one of those snooty for musician’s only bands that the casual rock fan has either forgotten about, or never paid much attention to in the first place.

Okay, so they are not really a rock band so much as they are a Prog-Fusion band…if that is even really a genre.  Let’s just go with jazzy stuff with some guitar solos thrown in for good measure.  Oh yeah, the band had a pretty famous drummer named Phil Collins as well…which makes these releases even more interesting.

Joining Collins were Percy Jones (bass), John Goodsall (guitar) Robin Lumley (keyboards), and Morris Pert (percussion), with sometimes Mike Clark, Kenward Dennard (drums), and John Giblin (bass).   The band were kinda-sort Phil’s side band so he could get his jazz thang going on outside of his day gig with Genesis.  But, they were good musicians…actually they were great musicians and these albums are worth checking out if you’re into the whole ‘damn these guys are good’ jazz proggy kind of stuff.

Gonzo Media done good digging up these gems.  The three Brand X releases unleashed here are Live at the Roxy 1979,  Is There Anything About? and Missing Period, which features unreleased music from Brand X’s infancy. For good measure, Gonzo Media are also releasing bassist Percy Jones' hard to find solo offering from 1989 Cape Catastrophe.

The live disc and the newly discovered ‘lost’ music are the best of the bunch but all of the releases are worth the price of admission.  After one listen you will be impressed with the band’s overall musical virtuosity.

Jeb Wright