Artist.......: Alan Morse
Album........: Four O'Clock And Hysteria
Label........: Inside Out
Genre........: Rock
Catnr........: n/a
source.......: CDDA
rip.date.....: Mar-11-2007
str.date.....: 000-00-0000
quality......: VBR/44.1Hz/Joint-Stereo
Url..........: n/a
track title time
01. Cold Fusion 05:14
02. Return To Whatever 05:48
03. Drive In Shuffle 04:21
04. R Bluz 06:54
05. First Funk 05:31
06. Dschungel Cruz 04:59
07. The Rite Of Left 04:31
08. Chroma 05:23
09. Spanish Steppes 05:46
10. Track 3 04:23
11. Major Buzz 06:08
12. Home 04:59
Runtime 63:57 min
Size 95,5 MB
Release Notes:
Since the departure of his brother Neal, Alan Morse
has shaped the guitar sound of progressive rock
band SpockÆs Beard and in the process delivered
three impressive albums since then. With his first
solo album he realised a long harboured ambition to
do something as a solo artist and to express
himself passionately. Supporting Morse on his debut
solo outing are his Beard band mates, brother Neal,
a line up of brilliant studio musicians and
violinist Jerry Goodman who has performed with
(amongst others) Mahavishnu Orchestra.
ôUsually SpockÆs Beard songs are quite structured
and there is very little room for improvisations,
thatÆs why I thought I deserved much more on my own
recordö, says Alan Morse. ôSo I was able to play
more extended solos wherever I wanted. Naturally, I
love the SpockÆs stuff but itÆs nice when you can
stretch yourself out without getting in the way of
someone elseö.
Although these improvisations occur throughout the
album, some of which have come directly from the
demos, the pieces on ô4 oÆclock & Hysteriaö are
essentially pure songs. Apart from a few tracks
where Neal Morse helped out (he also co-produced
the album), Alan Morse wrote the material himself
and in doing so allowed plenty of room for his
guest musicians to enjoy themselves. Everything
flows extremely well and despite the instrumental
direction the music always has something to say.
The opener ôCold Fusionö is a good example of this
û a crunchy jamband piece with wonderfully phrased
riffs, catchy melodies and interchanging guitar and
keyboard solos. ôReturn To Foreverö showcases the
guitar as the main driving melody taking over from
where a vocal line would normally be. This flows
very naturally until the bass delivers a killer
riff as an opening for Jerry Goodman, who dashes
off with his electric violin and carries the piece
away. Morse was obviously thrilled to have Goodman
appear on his album as he elaborates, ôSince the
times of Mahavishnu, Jerry has been one of my
heroes. It was great fun to record his parts. They
were just so perfect that I sometimes had to burst
out laughing. Jerry did exactly what I wanted; he
just pulled it out of a hatö.
Apart from the æBeardsÆ, ô4 OÆclock & Hysteriaö
also featured a number of studio musicians so that
Morse in fact worked with two bands. ôAs great as
SpockÆs Beard are, I still wanted to have different
people playing on some of the songs. In some sense,
I didnÆt want the record to become another Beard
album, and using other people allowed me to work on
the record at times when the other Beard guys
didnÆt have time for it. As such, the studio freaks
were really perfect and they did a great job.
Nevertheless I didnÆt completely want to do without
the Beard guys as we just work so well together.
For example æThe Rite Of LeftÆ was recorded with
them because we had already played this song
together and it just worked so wellö.
ôThe Rite Of Leftö is perhaps the wildest track on
the album, a real hard rock, riff oriented piece
with a guitar solo that is quite literally wild,
and is celebrated without any accompaniment. The
album is balanced out with variety of styles such
as the country shuffle (ôDrive In Shuffleö),
relaxed blues rock with jazzy organ (ôR Bluzö),
buoyant funk (ôFirst Funkö and ôJungle Cruzö), a
siesta with mandolin under almond trees (ôSpanish
Steppesö), a fine acoustic based AOR track (ôMajor
Buzzö) and the country piano guitar ballad ôHomeö.
ItÆs quite possible that some of these numbers may
see the light of day on the forthcoming SpockÆs
Beard tour in May, which is also another reason to
look forward to it.