Track Listing

1. The Essential
2. Clocks Go Forward
3. I Feel Free
4. Pictures On The Wall
5. There Is A Dog

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32042 in Music
• Released on: 2004-02-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 40 minutes

Customer Reviews

Pure talent
This is the Level 42 bass master's solo album, a lively mixture of styles which, as the title suggests, reflects the music that has inspired him. So we get 'The Essential', an 18-minute track bringing to mind Chick Corea's Spanish excursions, early '70s Miles, the rock/fusions of Jeff Beck and Jan Hammer and the solo bass innovations of Stanley Clarke. I Feel Free is an unashamed tribute to Cream, and There Is A Dog could easily have graced the first album by Return to Forever, with its breezy flute playing, tasty Fender Rhodes and fluid finger-style bass reminiscent of Stanley Clarke's upright playing. Clocks Go Forward and Picture On The Wall are in a Level 42 style and could easily have graced True Colours or Standing In The Light.

But Mark's own voice pops through now and again, particularly on The Essential. He plays superb (very Billy Cobhamish) drums and all the guitars on this album, and, quite simply, you have to buy it to dig a little deeper into the man's huge talent. To date, he has not returned to making challenging Jazz/Rock music, and shows little sign of wanting to now, so this may be our only chance to hear what he's truly capable of.

if you think you're a good bass player then listen to this.
An album King supposedly recorded because he needed a new house this certainly doesn't feel like a rush job. Taking time out from his level 42 chums influences demonstrates King's slap style and also some startlingly melodic and beautiful lines. The first track is the biggy, 'the essential' is a sprawling prog/fusion/funk monster with trademark industrial slap which moves through several phases until it reaches the pinnacles of it's latin finale,it is exhausting and rewarding.If you think King is a one trick pony then think again. Other highlights include 'the clocks go forward' with drums by, er, drummie from Aswad and 'there is a dog', another latin groove meltdown. if you're a muso who loves music, then I can highly recommend this 1984 britfunk classic.

A bass lesson and a damn great album to boot
For fans of great musicianship, this album is enjoyable. For fans of jaw-dropping bass playing this album is a MUST and gives some indication why Jools Holland chose to describe Mark King's style as "virtuosity gone mad".

Mark was originally, and at heart still is, a drummer and came to the bass relatively late by happy accident. Along the way he has managed to become sickeningly proficient on just about every other instrument and, as with his more recent solo efforts like One Man or Trash, on 'Influences' he plays them all.

This is really a 'concept' album (dread phrase) in which Mark gets out of his system the ideas which have been buzzing around in his head since he was young. Though Mark is playing virtually all of what you hear, each instrument is recorded in a single take for a 'live' feel. The first track, 'The Essential', took up an entire side of the vinly version of the album. It's a magical (not particularly self-indulgent) mystery tour of styles and textures, incorporating great grooves, beautiful harmonic harmonies and, inevitably, ending up with some trademark frenzied slapping pyrotechnics.

The other tracks are OK, There is a Dog being a particularly smooth Latin number showing, as a previous reviewer has said, Mark isn't all thumbs. Fans of [Brit]funk will like this, fans of jazz/fusion greats like Spyro Gyra, Stanley Clarke, Jaco and the like will and should rank Mark up there with them. And for fans of stellar bass playing, this is one long lesson.