| Track: | Rating: | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. No Sleep Tonight | | | | ||
| 2. I Want U | | | |||
| 3. Beyond The Pleasure | | | |||
| 4. Life In The Underworld | | | |||
| 5. Overload | | | |||
| 6. Black Brains Of Positronic Africa | | | | ||
| 7. Elastic Freedom | | | |||
| 8. Shakin' With A Passion | | | |||
| 9. You Are The Vision Of My Dream | | | |||
Produced by Patrick Moraz and Barry Radman
There are some things that I should make clear from the beginning:
(i) I respect Patrick Moraz as a musician. (ii) I own most of his solo albums, and enjoy most of those that I do own. Sure, there's some repetition and overlap, but there's also enough variation to make them entertaining. (iii) I think that Moraz has had many extremely creative moments, and that -- contrary to his reputation -- he's capable of creating tasteful piano compositions as well (see "Black Silk" on Future Memories if you don't believe me).
Unfortunately, none of the above applies to this album.
If you want to hear Moraz's virtuosity, his creativity, and his charm, check out The Story Of i, Patrick Moraz, Music For Piano And Drums (with Bill Bruford), Future Memories, or PM In Princeton. Don't buy Timecode. Please, whatever you do, don't buy Timecode.
Timecode is a commercial pop album, released at a time when Moraz was more "the current (ie. 1980s) Moody Blues keyboardist" than "the former Yes keyboardist". And it shows, sadly ...
Not a single track on the album is worthy of a three-star rating, and almost half of the album falls below the two-star level. That's sad.
The best track on the album, basically by default, is the instrumental/ electronic "Black Brains Of Positronic Africa". Fans shouldn't get too excited, though, as the track is basically just a re-shaping of various samples from "Cachaca", a track from Moraz's first solo album. As proto- electronica, it's historically interesting; sadly, though, it falls short of the source material.
The two-and-a-half-star rating for "No Sleep Tonight" is generous, and is primarily for the sound effects that Moraz incorporates into the work. The song has a certain degree of catchiness, but this is probably because of its similarity to "Gemini Dream", a Moody Blues hit from a few years earlier.
The other tracks are barely worthy of mention. "Beyond The Pleasure" is a slipshod composition given a slipshod performance. "Life In The Underwood" is a slightly better tune, but doesn't come off terribly well in practice (it would rate slightly higher if John McBurnie's vocals were erased). "Elastic Freedom" is a weak composition, only partially mitigated by a decent vocal showing by Kitty Bruce.
Although sub-par, the aforementioned three tracks aren't completely irritating. That honour falls to the remaining four tracks. "I Want U" has a few tolerable Tony Banks-esque synth bits, and not much else of interest -- "Overload", "Shakin' With A Passion" and "You Are The Vision Of My Dream" are all equally bad. Moraz shows his basic competence as a musician throughout the tracks, preventing them from reaching the dreaded "one-star" rating ... but this isn't enough to explain why anyone would want to listen to them for pleasure.
The album is tragi-comic lite prog-pop of the mid-'80s, constructed by someone who quite obviously didn't have a clue as to what he was doing (though it's not clear that the album would have been much better if he had). It might have been somewhat less dismal if a better vocalist than John McBurnie (formerly of Jackson Heights, if anyone cares) had been used, although the weakness of the basic material doesn't leave many possibilities for improvement.
Coming so shortly after the excellent Moraz/Bruford album, Music For Piano And Drums, Timecode is a particular tragedy. And heaven only knows how Bill Bruford was persuaded to make a guest appearance ...
For completists only.
(review originally posted to alt.music.yes on 8 Apr 1997; revised 26 Mar 2000)