Search - Brand X :: X-Files: A Twenty Year Retrospective

BRAND X is, no doubt about it one of the most original and well-known group of the British Seventies jazz-rock fusion. Made of musicians that are technicians at their respective instruments and that are also as inspired as talented, this group was founded by... Phil COLLINS ! The nice pop singer (At some point drummer and vocalist of GENESIS, a very long time ago...) shows here his modest talents at the drums and percussion. We can affirm that he is among the best drummers in the world !!! Another of their assets was a simply extraordinary bassist: Percy JONES. Beginning his carrer with LIVERPOOL SCENE, this virtuoso has a unique way of playing and afforded the most extreme experiments. The guitar player can be situated between a very nervous John McLAUGHLIN and an very annoyed Carlos SANTANA... To be equally noticed, the participations, either from time to time or full time of percussionist Morris PERT, drummer Bill BRUFORD and keyboard player John ROBINSON. The band's discography starts in 1976 with "Unorthodox Behaviour" and goes on one year later with "Moroccan Roll", probably one of their best. "Product" is the most famous, whereas "Do They Hurt ?" is the first true album of the line-up, recorded in 1980. After almost ten years of absence during the Eighties, BRAND X got together again under the lead of its founding members Percy JONES and John GOODSALL, accompanied by drummer Frank KATZ, keyboard player Franz PUSCH and French percussionist Pierre MOERLEN. The result, on the albums "X-Communication" in 1992 and "Manifest Destiny" three years later, is faithful to the talent and craziness they had at the beginning, and gain at the same time a funky modern touch... "Trilogy" is a triple-album containing the two aforementioned CD, as well as a never-released before opus, recorded live in 1979. In order to illustrate this vitality, Musea proposes here a quite essential double-CD compilation. "The X-Files" evidently gathers the best of BRAND X compositions, but also includes some previously unreleased studio sessions, stage shows, surprising guest-appearances (Bill BRUFORD, Chester THOMPSON, Pierre MOERLEN, Malcolm BRUCE...), parallel projects (THE FIREMERCHANTS, TUNNELS, FLOOR PROJECT...) as well as various testimonies taken from the discographies of Percy JONES and John GOODSALL. What else can be said, apart from the fact that it is an indispensable collector's item ?...