Complete MANZANERA & MACKAY
Jason M. Carzon | bowie, maryland United States | 01/10/2004
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This double disc more or less collects the entire recorded material of The Explorers. For the uninitiated, Explorers were a band project featuring Phil Manzanera and Andy Mackay of Roxy Music which surfaced after the disbanding of Roxy Music in 1983. Think of it as a Bryan Ferry-less Roxy. The trademark sax assault and classy oboe playing of Andy Mackay and the economic but always tasteful guitar textures of Phil Manzanera are there, but the emphasis is on songs. The vocalist/third member is James Wraith, whose voice is a stylish cross between Ferry and Saga's Michael Sadler(somewhat). They did two albums, 'The Explorers' and 'Manzanera & Mackay'. Musically it continues in the post-Avalon Roxy direction, and if you liked 'Flesh + Blood', this is your ticket: soulful and well-crafted pop songs with atmosphere and professionalism. One problem for me is the track sequence. It's confusing if you know about the original albums. Back when these two albums came out it was 'The Explorers'(1983) and 'Manzanera & Mackay'(they dropped the 'group' name, forget what year). Those are out of print. In the late 80's they were re-released on Relativity records as 'Crack The Whip'(1988) and 'Up In Smoke'(1989) and not only were the songs out of sequence, they were mix-and-matched between the two albums. Some tracks were b-sides of original singles. Those two also went out of print. Now you can also buy the second album 'Manzanera & Mackay' but not the first one which is still out of print, although a couple songs from the first album are on 'Manzanera & Mackay', so perhaps it's not the second album, just CALLED 'Manzanera & Mackay', though it has the album cover of the second one and 'Up In Smoke', so maybe it's the second one after all. Are you confused? I sure was!! At this point, no-one knows what song went on what original album!! The whole recorded history of The Explorers/M&M is all jumbled up, hence on star being docked. It would have been nice to have disc one be the first album as it was with the bonus trax and the second disc to be the second album with its bonus trax to get the music as it was originally released. However, the music is the main thing, so ignore all this confusing track sequence jive and buy this! No Roxy Music enthusiast should be without the complete studio work of M&M's Explorers material. Good songs, good atmosphere, enjoyable and overlooked songs. Try it now and be rewarded."
Track Listings (15) - Disc #1