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Isotope

Isotope were one of the major (and earliest) British jazz-rock bands of the 1970s, coming along chronologically only just behind Soft Machine and Nucleus, the two UK pioneer bands in the genre. Isotope was formed by guitarist Gary Boyle in 1972. After about a year, the band signed with a major U.K. management company who got the band signed to a independent label which was owned by a film company and things really took off. By the time of their second and best-known album, Illusion, the band consisted of Gary, ex-Soft Machine bassist Hugh Hopper keyboardist Laurence Scott and drummer Nigel Morris. This version of the band lasted nearly 2 years and played hundreds of shows. Golden Section is over 65' of all unreleased material, taken from 3 different dates, all from the period when Hugh was a part of the band and lent his strongly distinctive style to the group; from the opening notes of the album, it's readily apparent that Hugh is in the house! More than half the CD is a program recorded by Radio Bremen in Germany for broadcast. During this time, the band included a fifth member, percussionist Aureo de Souza, who played with the group for several months during spring/summer 1975 and added a definite Weather Report-inspired flair, but whose tenure with the group has never before been documented on record or heard! In addition to the music, Golden Section includes a 12 page booklet with exclusive interviews with the musicians, conducted by Aymeric Leroy, that gives an overview of the entire history of the band and tells the full story of the period covered by these recordings. Also included are never-before seen photographs of the group.

"We played a lot of gigs with Isotope, touring all the time in the UK and Europe and once in the States. The band had good sponsorship and backing, and jazz-rock was almost desirable for a few months in 1974-75! We were playing at least four or five times a week, all the time. Isotope certainly was good for me from the point of view of doing a lot of music. Since we were gigging so much, I was probably playing with more technical facility than when I was in Soft Machine." --Hugh Hopper

"Guitarist Gary Boyle leads the charge here, along with famed "Soft Machine" bassist Hugh Hopper; appearing on the Illusion album, and drummer Nigel Morris, serving as the standouts...keyboardist Laurence Scott render(s) flashy electric piano riffs to augment this band's upfront jazz-rock approach. Elements of John McLaughlin's "Mahavishnu Orchestra" are imminent here, as this group navigates tricky time signatures, spearheaded by Boyle's speedy, fuzz-toned licks and Morris' polyrhythmic timekeeping. In addition, Isotope's line of attack consisted of memorably melodic hooks and fierce soloing endeavors. These two recordings created a buzz during the early jazz-fusion days, although the ensemble didn't stay around long enough to reap the benefits of success. But these are strong efforts, characterized by the artists' synergistic interplay and their often-inspiring compositional frameworks." --Glenn Astarita (speaking about the reissue of the group's first two albums)

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333
Album Review

Isotope: Golden Section

Read "Golden Section" reviewed by Andrey Henkin


It is with great sadness that the recent passing of electric bassist Hugh Hopper (1945-2009), one of the most original stylists on his instrument, is mourned. Hopper is best known for his tenure in Soft Machine (part of the Canterbury scene, lumped in with progressive rockers like King Crimson and Frank Zappa, and part of the British jazz fusion world) from 1968-72, as well as later tributes such as Soft Bounds, Softworks and Soft Machine Legacy. But ...

248
Album Review

Isotope: Golden Section

Read "Golden Section" reviewed by Nic Jones


Cuneiform have done it again in terms of restoring one of the perhaps hidden corners of British fusion to a contemporary audience. The band's relatively conventional take on the genre is happily tempered by compositional variety and a level of interplay that went beyond what was the norm, making for music that holds the attention. Captured for posterity on two different live dates from 1975, this is also music that shows an independence of mind even while it stays within ...

443
Album Review

Isotope: Golden Section

Read "Golden Section" reviewed by John Kelman


While it's generally accepted that Miles Davis fired the first fusion shots with In a Silent Way (Columbia, 1969) and Bitches Brew (Columbia, 1969), plenty was going on, at the same time, to explore the fusion of jazz and rock. In England, Ian Carr's Nucleus and Soft Machine were finding their own nexus points. And as Miles spawned a second wave in North American groups like Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, England became fertile ground for Hatfield and the North ...

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220

Recording

Tortoise / Isotope 217 / Causa Sui : Special Release

Tortoise / Isotope 217 / Causa Sui : Special Release

Source: Michael Ricci

Adluna Records is announcing the release of the Chicago Odense Ensemble album as a subscription, offer a FREE track from the album, and talks about a special contest.

Chicago Odense Ensemble is a unique collaboration that came together in the winter 2008, the band is : Rob Mazurek, Dan Bitney, Jeff Parker, Matt Lux, Brian Keigher, Jonas Munk and Jakob Skott.

As Jonas Munk says: “The result is something quite unique: a musical blend that exists somewhere in between the ...

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Golden Section

Cuneiform Records
2009

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Golden Section

Cuneiform Records
2008

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Isotope / Ilusion

Line Records
1995

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Illusion

From: Golden Section
By Isotope

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