All Heaven Broke Loose

All Heaven Broke Loose

ASIN: B0008G2EYQ

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
This recording of All Heaven Broke Loose has been re-mastered and includes two bonus tracks 'Libreville' & 'Pilgrim's Way'. The album comes re-packaged with a bonus CD containing 'Introduction To Winterfold' and an exclusive interview with Bill Bruford. Summerfold. 2005.

Tracks:

Hotel Splendour
Forget-Me-Not
Candles Still Flicker In Romania's Dark
Pigalle
Temple Of The Winds
Nerve
Splashing Out
All Heaven Broke Loose: Psalm/Old Song
Libreville
Pilgrim's Way

Product Description

tracks include the Houseinspired“Splashing Out”, and the North-African infl uenced “Pigalle”. Remasteredand including two bonus tracks: “Libreville” and “Pilgrim’s Way”, the album alsofeatures a bonus disc containing music from the contrasting Winterfold catalogue andan exclusive interview with Bill Bruford.

Format: CD

Customer Reviews:

All Mott Broke Loose.......2006-05-26

The oldest joke in music is: "Question: Who do you often see hanging around with musicians? Answer: Drummers!" Well, the leader of Bill Bruford's Earthworks has certainly gone a long way to disproving this old joke. Mr. Bill Bruford cut his teeth playing in many British blues boom band's in the mid Sixties including for one gig Savoy Brown, although his primal influences were the great jazz drummers of the time like Art Blakey. But finding that most bands expectations of a drummer were simply to count them in and keep time, Bill Bruford took a look around to find something a little more ambitious. This desire was fulfilled when he joined the formative `Yes' in 1968 with Peter Banks on lead guitar, Chris Squire on bass, Jon (then known as John) Anderson, and Tony Kaye on keyboards. Bill Bruford stayed with `Yes' through various line-up changes, and five albums, quitting for the first time during the recording of Yes's triple live album `Yessongs' to be replaced by Alan White.
Bill Bruford had been enticed away from the secure and lucrative drum stool of `Yes' to throw his lot in with Robert Fripp who had a desire to kick start `King Crimson' again. This was to prove to be the first of a trend where Bill Bruford would follow musical challenge, instead of financial security. During his time with Yes the great Buddy Rich had become an admirer of Bill Bruford's drum technique, there being no higher accolade in the drumming world.
The new King Crimson was a powerful and unique outfit, featuring Robert Fripp on lead guitar, John Wetton on bass and vocals (who came in from Family, and when King Crimson fell apart went onto put the bass in Uriah Heep before joining up with Bill Bruford again, and then hitting pay dirt with Asia), the completely unknown, but extraordinarily talented David Cross (who was a multi instrumentalist), for the first album the avant-garde percussionist Jamie Muir and for the final album Ian Macdonald. This version of King Crimson released three seminal studio albums Larks Tongue in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and a live album U.S.A. (1975). But to hear Bill Bruford in all his glory in this era, get the 4 CD the Great Deceiver, a selection of cuts from concerts from an American tour with the whole band at the height of their powers.
When King Crimson fell apart Bill Bruford quickly found a place in the line-up of National Health, a group formed out of the ashes of Canterbury sound band Hatfield and the North. In their ranks were Phil Miller on lead guitar, Richard Sinclair on keyboards and later Neil Murry on bass, Bill Bruford also moonlighted with teapot rockers Gong during this time, but not before he had recorded two albums with Roy Harper, HQ and When a Cricketer Leaves The Crease, both recorded in 1975. Bill Bruford also went out on the road with Roy Harper's Band which included Chris Spedding on lead guitar. Over the years Bill Bruford has appeared on too many album sessions to mention in this review.
At this time Peter Gabriel had just left Genesis after their Lamb Lies Down On Broadway tour. Instead of finding a new singer they simply moved the young drummer Phil Collins from behind his drum kit to front of stage to sing the songs. The trouble was, who was going to hit the skins? Phil Collins (no mean drummer himself) announced that the only drummer in the world he would feel happy with deputizing for him was Bill Bruford, so from March to November of 1976 Bill Bruford found himself as part of the tour band for Genesis. His contribution to Genesis can be heard on the live double album Seconds Out, not for the last time Bill Bruford found himself in a band with two drummers, when Bruford and Collins found themselves behind their separate drum kits at the same time, it was a mighty sound.
But this was not a permanent arrangement, so when the suggestion was made to form a new super group with like minded old pals Allan Holdsworth on guitar, John Wetton on bass, and multi instrumentalist Eddie Jobson, fresh from his stints with Frank Zappa and Roxy Music, the idea was put into motion and U.K. was formed. But after one great self titled album, divisions formed; Allan Holdsworth and Bill Bruford went off and formed Bruford for a couple of years, whilst the other two carried on with U.K. replacing Bill Bruford with another ex Zappa man Terry Bozio.
Then in 1980 the mighty King Crimson raised its mighty head again and Bill Bruford joined the ranks for another four year successful journey. Then to add another branch between the two supergroups Yes and King Crimson, Patrick Moraz, the new Yes keyboard player left, and Bill Bruford left King Crimson to form Moraz / Bruford from 1984 -1986. After this Bill Bruford formed the first version of Earthworks with Django Bates and Iain Bellamy, allowing Bill Bruford to get back to his jazz roots.
In 1986 Bill Bruford was asked to come back to the Yes camp (well sort of) to record an album with Jon Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe and himself. This was fine but they were not allowed to use the Yes name, so the album was released under their own names Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, and Howe (1988). Supplemented by auxiliary members Tony Levin (the bassist from Bruford's King Crimson Days!), Milton MacDonald on rhythm guitar and Julian Colberg on additional keyboards for the supporting tour. They could not use the Yes name as there was still a band called Yes led by original Yes bass player Chris Squire. Then in a moment of sheer madness the management of all the members of both bands decided it would be a good idea to combine both bands and record another album Union (1990) and go back out on tour with all the musicians. That means the aforementioned musicians and Chris Squire, Alan White, Trevor Rabin, and Tony Kaye. (That's right, eleven musicians on one stage!) This meant that Yes went out with every member of the band there had ever been except for poor old Peter Banks. This was obviously an unmitigated disaster and Bill Bruford fulfilled his contractual obligations and fled.
Bill Bruford quickly got Earthworks back on the road and regained his sanity. Then for the third time, Robert Fripp and his King Crimson came an asking. Bill Bruford found King Crimson in its double trio format of two drummers, two bassists and two guitarists on the same stage. This time it worked and from 1994 to 1997 King Crimson toured the Earth and neighbouring planets to great critical acclaim, releasing live albums and DVDs.
But then the call of Earthworks became too much again, and Bill Bruford for the last time left King Crimson to put together a new Earthworks in 1998. There have been a few comings and goings in the line up as the band found their feet, but they have now settled on a comfortable stable line up of Tim Garland on sax and flute, an incredibly talented player and composer who has become Bill Bruford's partner in the band and is best known before for his association with Chick Corea.
Mott the Dog.

Average customer rating:

Esoteric Music
More "Jazz" for the Progressive Philistine
Maybe the Best of the Three Earthworks Albums

All Heaven Broke Loose
Bill Bruford's Earthworks
Manufacturer: Editions Eg Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000003S40
Release Date: 1991-09-27

Tracks:

Hotel Splendour
Forget-Me-Not
Candles Still Flicker In Romania's Dark
Pigalle
Temple Of The Winds
Nerve
Splashing Out
All Heaven Broke Loose/l. Psalm/ll. Old Song

Customer Reviews:

Esoteric Music.......2004-02-04

The musicians are more into balladry on this release than they had been in prior years, and the album might suffer a little for this as the band is stronger when they play as a unit. Their own idiosynchratic sound is present, but seems a bit less "spikey" than they had previously. Still, in the end, an interesting album by an interesting band.

More "Jazz" for the Progressive Philistine.......2003-11-28

As I've already attempted for Earthwork's later "A Part and Yet Apart", this review is intended to help the fan of Bruford's progressive music to decide if it'd be interesting to them.

"Hotel Splendour" kicks the disc off on a bit of an up-tempo swing, keyboard vamp and chugging horns singing out melodies over the top. After a couple minutes of this, a slap-bass introduces something of a reorchestration of the opening, but in a much more effective, groovy vein--bass and wind flourishes fill out the accompaniment in playful and harmonically rich ways. This is followed by a return to the opening section to close things out on a somewhat banal note that leaves anything but an impression of hotel splendour.

"Forget-Me-Not", at over 8 minutes, is an extended and effective exploration piece. Opening on a very "jazzy" slow passage, it segues to chordal drums and a harmonically rich interplay for winds. The harmonies and harmonic richness here are reminiscent of producer David Torn's work (without all the guitar effects, of course). Halfway through the song, glassy electronic piano ushers in an even freer improvisational section that devolves into a low-key chaos of piano horn bass and drums. A brief reprise of the opening melody rounds the piece out nicely. Despite the subdued ambit of the song, it avoids lounge-jazz clichés and has enough of a progressive sensibility to be engaging. [This song reminds me of Discipline's "The Sheltering Sky" but acoustic and much slower.]

"Candles Still Flicker in Romania's Dark" is even more down-tempo still, the disc so far gradually carrying us into more and more languid territory. At only 4 minutes, there's not a lot of this song, yet it moves through several short passages, each quite lovely (including a particularly fine dialogue for winds followed by a sparse piano and sax interplay). Toward the end, the bass reprises an earlier horn line, and lends the piece a beautiful cohesiveness to go along with its melodic beauty. A bit solemn and dreamy, this is one of the best pieces on the disc. [If Bruford had played on King Crimson's "Islands", this would have been the most brilliant passage in the title song.]

"Pigalle" not only dispels the mood, but completely resets the album with Cajun accordion and "tribalish" drums making a backbone for an angular horn-accordion line that gradually becomes more and more and more frantic, to the point of (intentional) comedy. Bruford's drumming is prominent here (because of the straightforwardness of the accordion and soloing horns). The piece becomes especially lively and wry around the fourth minute when the accordion, bass and drums all go off on a literal tear, chugging up to locomotive pace (occasionally interrupted by a loungey cadence that is absurdly charming) then back to the chaos. Were it not for the sheer verve of this piece, the novelty of it would probably wear off quickly.

"Temple of the Winds" begins with a breathy wash of keyboards (sustained for the entire duration of the song) and a vaguely Irish horn line with bass accents that is abruptly broadsided by a sharp fill from Bruford to usher in drums and percussion much more up-tempo and driving than the music itself. Building for a while, there is then an unexpectedly harsh, but effective bridge-fill that segues to a wonderful mélange of bass, horns, drums and timpani accents--all flourishes with no melody that gradually tapers off again to just the keyboard wash. A very pleasant and interesting five minute trip.

"Nerve" once again completely resets the mood, with sharp bass-driven drums, racing angular horn line-flourishes, electronic noise washes and slightly mad-sounding Hammond-like organ blocks. At around two and a half minutes into the song it crashes and splinters into a fading pool of electronic afterblips, then picks up again, with the bass playing Bruford's opening rhythm as metallic noisiness and confusion swirl in the background. The most energetic and experimental of the pieces on the disc, it's reminiscent of a sparser version of "Repercussions of Angelic Behavior" (years before that disc though).

"Splashing Out" begins horribly, as some kind of low-tech disco-cheese, but thankfully this lasts only a few seconds before sax and bass bury that basic impulse under their amelodic lines. The whole thing becomes a happy chaos (as if no one is in the same key) and finally breaking down in complete mayhem by minute 4. The cringe-worthy disco-cheese whiffs by again, and the band reprises the whole arc of the song in the last 90 seconds.

"All Heaven Broke Loose" closes the disc with chordal drums and a soulful sax lead that gradually builds, or decays, to another chaos of instruments, though in a less frantic register than the previous song. One can assume that this is the heaven breaking loose, but it's not quite as heavenly as one could hope. As this finally calms down, the song somewhat "drunkenly" leans into a very "Auld Lang Syne" melody that begs to become a pub sing-along. At seven and a half minutes, the opening chordal drums and sax return in an unexpected reprise to wrap the disc up.

Typically regarded as the best of the original Earthworks' line-up, I find myself listening to it the least often. If it had stayed in the "Candles Still Flicker" or "Forget-Me-Not" territory throughout, it would seem less erratic, while the novelty of "Pigalle" and "Nerve" just wear thin too quickly. Tones and textures abound here and, like other Bruford "jazz" projects, his progressive background tends to insert itself, more or less subtly, to keep the proceedings from swerving too deeply into that kind of lounge-jazz that I can't stand. Even so, I can't rate this amongst his most compelling disks. Unlike other Earthworks disks, Bruford's drumming is the most consistently interesting element here.

Maybe the Best of the Three Earthworks Albums.......1998-11-24

A logical third (and final studio) installment of the original Earthworks. Much better sound than the first album. The tunes are longer with great improvisation on Forget-Me-Not and wonderful composed harmonies from Bates and Ballamy on the last track. Walter Quintus and David Torn did a great job mixing the electronic drums and the acoustic horns. Splashing Out takes house music and turns it sideways in a deliciously twisted jaunt.

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