(jazz, zeuhl) Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann - Fusion (1981/2006) | Magma family - 1981, FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Do the names Lockwood, Top, Vander & Widemann sound familiar? All four of these men were members of Magma at one time or another. On this album the four of them got together to indulge their desires to play jazz fusion outside the setting of Magma, and the result is pretty good. Of course, anyone familiar with Christian Vander knows anything he does is automatically going to be at least a little unorthodox, so most of the music on this album is not your standard fusion. This album actually leans more to a more commercial '80s style of fusion than the usually more interesting '70s fusion, but gives it an interesting kick in the pants. This is where fusion should have gone in the '80s.

The first track, "GHK Go To Miles" (whatever that means) is 24 minutes long and is the weirdest and most Magma-like track on the album. It starts funky with Janick Top's percussive bass and Christian Vander's impeccable drumming stopping and starting in some rather unusual rhythms. The track gets more melodic and includes interesting violin and keyboard solos by Didier Lockwood and Benoit Widemann. "Overdrive" is a nice melodic track that vaguely reminds me of Xaal's more melodic moments on their first album. The third track, "767 ZX" teeters perilously on the edge of cheesy smooth jazz before it veers into a fast, swinging theme complete with walking bass lines and jazzy violin and keyboard solos. This is the most overtly jazzy part of the album, and it is quite nice (even for someone who doesn't like "real" jazz) once it gets going.

"Reliefs" is the fourth and last song. It has a heavy, funky riff that is reminiscent of Birds of Fire-era Mahavishnu Orchestra. This is an unusual album that should appeal to anyone who likes fusion and Magma. It is an interesting study in how these four very left-field musicians approached the already stagnating genre of jazz fusion. - Scott Hamrick [May 1997]
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Superb playing, musicianship and composition. A beautiful progressive jazz rock album with emphasis on the progressive side. Extensive and well composed soloing from Vander, Lockwood & Top. A true hidden gem.

LOG=Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007

EAC extraction logfile from 1. March 2008, 1:44

Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann / Fusion

Used drive : ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P Adapter: 0 ID: 3

Read mode : Secure

Utilize accurate stream : Yes

Defeat audio cache : Yes

Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6

Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes

Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No

Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes

Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines

Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector

---------------------------------------------------------

1 | 0:00.30 | 23:59.10 | 30 | 107964

2 | 23:59.40 | 5:00.15 | 107965 | 130479

3 | 28:59.55 | 6:50.20 | 130480 | 161249

4 | 35:50.00 | 8:12.55 | 161250 | 198204

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann - Fusion.wav

Peak level 93.0 %

Range quality 100.0 %

Copy CRC C1DCF9D5

Copy OK

No errors occurred

End of status report

LOG=Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 3 from 28. July 2007

Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann / Fusion

Used drive : ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P Adapter: 0 ID: 3

Read mode : Secure

Utilize accurate stream : Yes

Defeat audio cache : Yes

Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 6

Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No

Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes

Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No

Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes

Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000

Used output format : Internal WAV Routines

Sample format : 44.100 Hz; 16 Bit; Stereo

TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector

---------------------------------------------------------

1 | 0:00.30 | 23:59.10 | 30 | 107964

2 | 23:59.40 | 5:00.15 | 107965 | 130479

3 | 28:59.55 | 6:50.20 | 130480 | 161249

4 | 35:50.00 | 8:12.55 | 161250 | 198204

Range status and errors

Selected range

Filename D:\Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann - Fusion.wav

Peak level 93.0 %

Range quality 100.0 %

Copy CRC C1DCF9D5

Copy OK

No errors occurred

End of status report

REM DISCID 230A5204
REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v0.99pb3"
PERFORMER "Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann"
TITLE "Fusion"
FILE "Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann - Fusion (CUE, LOG, scans embedded) - Kassian.wav" WAVE
TRACK 01 AUDIO
TITLE "GHK go to Miles"
PERFORMER "Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann"
INDEX 00 00:00:00
INDEX 01 00:00:30
TRACK 02 AUDIO
TITLE "Overdrive"
PERFORMER "Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann"
INDEX 00 23:56:67
INDEX 01 23:59:40
TRACK 03 AUDIO
TITLE "767 ZX"
PERFORMER "Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann"
INDEX 00 28:58:00
INDEX 01 28:59:55
TRACK 04 AUDIO
TITLE "Reliefs"
PERFORMER "Lockwood, Top, Vander, Widemann"
INDEX 00 35:47:17
INDEX 01 35:50:00