LEVEL ONE - Larry Coryell (& Eleventh House)
by DiamondDog on Thursday 15 December 2005

Larry Coryell - guitar; Mike Mandel - keyboards; Alphonse Mouzon - drums; John Lee - bass; Michael Lawrence - trumpet, flugelhorn; Steve Khan - guitar, 12 string guitar



Tracks

01 Level One
02 Other Side
03 Diedra
04 Some Greasy Stuff
05 Nyctaphobia
06 Suite: Entrance/Repose/Exit
07 Eyes of Love
08 Struttin' with Sunshine
09 That's the Joint


LEVEL ONE is just ordinary Eleventh House album. It sounds harsh, but it it a fact. INTRODUCING ELEVENTH HOUSE was a highpoint and blows many minds with fantastic play and complicated rhythms. LEVEL ONE isn't bad, but not very original anymore.

The first track, Level One, is build-up-tune with great solo of Larry Coryell. It sounds very right and you will recognize great guitarplay and the right sound of a good Eleventh House.
The Other Side is just funky. Mike Lawrence gives his trademark. He is a good trumpetblower, but he doesn't give the right and risky play you would expect. Randy Brecker is really missed here.
Diedra is a slow ballad song with the proper Fender Rhodes sound. Beautiful and simple. Mike Mandel is busy with his controls here, but it sounds just right. Larry Coryell is playing well, but it isn't really 'his' sound. There is no weird wah wah/phaser guitar sound here, but just simple light disstorted.
One of the weakest songs on LEVEL ONE is Some Greasy Stuff. If you hear this song you will think you are in a bad Burt Reynolds chasing movie. Some Greasy Stuff is a mix of fast country riff and with some bad taste disco beat. Skip this track.
Nyctaphobia is a hell of a track. A good exciting funky song. Good ol' Alphonse Mouzon gives his trademark here. A fast difficult drumbeat here, Mike Mandel with a strange tempo on keys and Larry Coryell with a wonderful solo. How he starts is very cool and the way he continues... just perfect. This is a typical Eleventh House song; strange, fast, funk, daring, difficult and hard.
Suite:Entrance/Repose/Exit start as an intro from classical Louis the XIV/French clavier song. Very beautiful funky waltz rhythm and Larry Coryell gives a quick solo here. You can hear Mike Lawrence through the whole album, but he has a smaller part than Randy Brecker in the older days. The second part of the song is for Mike Lawrence. The band eases down and Mike Lawrence gives his solo a la Miles Runs The Voodoo Down. The Exit starts off with a crazy beat from Alphonse. The band follows him with a little but DIFFICULT riff. It reminds me of Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Eyes of Love has already been mentioned in my other review of PLANET END. This is an acoustic song with only Larry Coryell on guitars.
Struttin' with Sunshine is another bad song on this album. It's a real rock 'n roll song with a rock n roll beat/boogie woogie. Great distortion solo by larry though. Not interesting at all, unfortunately.
That's the Joint kicks off with a great break by Alphonse Mouzon. This song is crazy and hard. Larry Coryell is on fire here. It has a crazy beat but it fits the song. It has Larry and Alphonse all over it. Funky, jazzy, rock all over it, man!


LEVEL ONE is not one of my favorite albums. It isn't a bad album at all, but you just can help to compare this to the album INTRODUCING THE ELEVENTH HOUSE. LEVEL ONE comes too short to be a great fusionalbum. Michael Lawrence is a weak point here, but also some of the songs. The album starts off good, but because of the bad rock n roll songs you'll get disappointed with the total album sound. One can almost say that the songs on PLANET END are much better than the songs on LEVEL ONE. This isn't the Eleventh House at their highest peak. It becomes a little bit of a drag to listen to this album from the beginning till the end.


Rating:

40%