Being a reviewer I'm continually amazed by the wonderful world of music, despite the fact that I've been going around in this world for years. For instance, I had never heard of a certain Billy James who under the alias Ant-Bee has been releasing records to the world since 1988. Apparently our friend Bee has acquired quite a lot of friends in that time because on his fourth effort Electronic Church Muzik, there is a pick of celebrities and semi-celebrities who lent him a hand like Michael Bruce (Alice Cooper Group), Daevid Allen en Gilli Smyth (Gong), Peter Banks (Yes /Flash), Jan Akkerman (Focus), Bunk Gardner, Don Preston en Jimmy Carl Black (Mothers of Invention), Zoot Horn Rollo en Rockette Morton (Captain Beefheart's Magic Band), Napoleon Murphy Brock (Zappa, George Duke) and Moogy Klingman (Utopia). So this CD has to be a topper, can't miss ... but unfortunately it can. Some of the guest musicians reveal why: Electronic Church Muzik mainly contains a mixture of Zappa's, Mothers of Invention's and Gong's twaddle and nonsense. Well, you know those intermezzos that might serve as periods of rest or to show off how intellectual the musicians are, but which always delay proceedings. Boring, very boring and that's my biggest beef about Bee: so much talent at hand and so little result. Even the nice effort of our own Jan Akkerman couldn't make my day. It's a real shame. *- André de Waal (edited by Peter Willemsen) Where to buy? |
