CD Details

BAKER GURVITZ ARMY

BAKER GURVITZ ARMY
1974 , UK , EAN CODE 5013929734722 - EURO 13.00

Label: ESOTERIC RECORDINGS

ALBUM REVIEW
Following the split of the Cream in the late 60s, both Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce struggled to find anything like the same success - BGA was one such vain attempt by the former. In reality, the BGA were a foolish bid to re-incarnate Cream but are a pale shadow that leave you mourning the originals. As you would expect their sound is heavy on the drums, too much so, almost as if Baker knew his co-members would be compared to Clapton and Baker and would inevitably fail so, to cover up their inadequacies, he would take the lead. The sad thing is that, even with Baker's undisputed ability as a tub-thumper, there is only so much anyone can do and the inclusion of seemingly interminable drum solos becomes repetitive and boring. Plus, he needn't have worried as both Adrian and Paul Gurvitz prove themselves extremely capable. In fact they concentrate on their prowess as musicians rather than the structure of the songs themselves so a number of the tracks suffer from inappropriate chord changes which have the effect of disorientating the listener, in particular "Memory Lane". The only time the whole band come together is during the jazz instrumental "4 Phil" which shows what might have been. Not a good record by any stretch of the imagination and the fact they seem to have used Neil from The Young Ones on vocals for "Mad Jack" doesn't help. (Grampus - Rate Your Music)