WORTH A LISTEN

Rating:


Lord knows John McLaughlin has been responsible for any number of classic recordings, but Electric Dreams is not one of them, despite the wonderful cover art by Hypgnosis.

It sure isn’t the fault of the band: Stu Goldberg on keys, Fernando Saunders on bass, Alyrio Lima on percussion, Tony Smith on drums, and L. Shankar on violin. All of these guys are more than competent on their instruments. The hard truth of the matter is that most of the compositions on Electric Dreams are just not very compelling.

One of the exceptions is the lovely, ethereal opener, Guardian Angels. It’s an all too short duet between McLaughlin’s acoustic guitar and L. Shankar’s violin. McLaughlin fingerpicks the arpeggiated chords for the most part with a tonic, fifth, and major or minor 3rd on top of the triad. The chords initially descend in a rhythmically jagged pattern before ascending to rest on a major chord that resolves the cycle. The melody winds around the rhythmic pattern of the guitar arpeggios. Guardian Angel is gorgeous, by far the prettiest tune on the album.

The trouble begins on the second tune, Miles. It’s a funk tune that spends a good deal of it’s time vamping on one chord while McLaughlin stabs out melodic lines that outline various harmonic schemes. There’s no real melody as such, just the groove and eventually a cadence of dark chords fashioned from the notes of the altered scale. In and of itself, none of this is a problem. The problem is that the groove isn’t rocking enough, and the improvisations just aren’t all that impressive.

For some reason, on Electric Dreams, John McLaughlin seems determined to play funk and R&B music. Perhaps it’s a reaction to his previous three albums, all with Shakti, his Indian fusion group. The trouble is, the R&B and Funk on Electric Dreams registers as weak and watered down. And, for my money, L. Shankar’s Indian influenced improvisations on top just sound wrong.

The same thing can be said for John McLaughlin’s banjo solo on Electric Dreams, Electric Sighs. My guess is that he saw a dusty banjo propped up in the corner of the studio and was inspired to play it. It’s downright weird to hear McLaughlin’s trademark staccato runs stuttering out of a banjo over a soul groove. The first time I heard it, I laughed. At least it’s entertaining.

If these criticisms sound weak, that’s because they are. It’s a matter of taste. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with most of what the band does, but for me, the grooves just aren’t powerful. I find that most of McLaughlin’s melodies this time around are weak.

One track I feel more comfortable about insulting is Love and Understanding. It’s an embarrassment. Fernando Saunder’s vocals aren’t as bad as the usual jazz vocals in the 70s, but in terms of the vocal talent available in soul music from the period, they’re laughable. And McLaughlin doesn’t help him with the naive, goofy lyrics and jejune melody either.

Fortunately, there is one more standout tune on Electric Dreams — The Dark Prince. The melody is built on one phrase, transposed into the various chords of a sequence. It’s simple, but effective and memorable. It’s a swing tune, but played at a very fast tempo. This is where the band shines. Even though Fernando Saunders is playing a walking bass line, he doesn’t sound like a traditional jazz bassist because he isn’t. Some purists might object to this, but for me, it gives The Dark Prince an odd and disturbing feel that serves the tune well. Percussionist Alyrio Lima goes wild, adding all sorts of psychedelic flourishes. Stu Goldberg comps like a master, shooting out stabs of perfectly timed chord clusters that drive John McLaughlin to hysteria in what amounts to a sheets of sound performance. When it’s Goldberg’s turn to solo on Moog, his runs are tasty and he comes up with some innovate sound textures that evoke the horned one quite nicely.

Basically, the Dark Prince kicks ass. If all of the tunes on Electric Dreams were executed on a similar level, the album would be a classic, no question. As it is, my advice, unless you’re a John McLaughlin fanatic like me, is to download an mp3 of The Dark Prince and Guardian Angel, and leave the rest.

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