Scarabus + Clear Air Turbulence

Ah the classics. I will always make time to take these for a spin.

fantastic double cd

Very interesting.

Fantastic value 2 cd set of the Ian Gillan Band's two albums from 1977,'Clear Air Turbulence' & 'Scarabus',back in the day i picked up the former,the latter slipped by me.What we have here are two excellent examples of Ian Gillan pursuing Jazz/Rock as opposed to heavy rock.Disc 1 - 'Clear Air Turbulence' is the better of the two,the title track bounds out of the speakers propelled along on a superb bass line(from Gustafson) and delightful keyboards from Towns.Other highlights would be 'Money Lender',love the horns, while 'Over The Hill is the perfect example of this new venture(at the time),superb jazz/rock ,indeed the likes of 'Good Hand Liza' could have been a 'Steely Dan' composition. A superb late night listening album.Disc 2 'Scarabus' while not quite hitting the same level of consistency,in my humble opinion,still manages a few excellent moments,namely the title track with typical manic gillan lyrics,the rather excellent 'Twin Exhausted',which could have been a precurser for early 'Gillan' material.Mercury High is another convincing jazz/rock performance. The rest all ok ,nothing immediately standing out,all competent rather than praise worthy.As with the other Edsel reissues,this edition boasts great sound quality,informative booklet with liner notes and slip case.

If you like Ian Gillans voice, and you also like a bit of Jazz Rock, then this is the album for you.Great musicians, complex arrangements, and not too heavy.I enjoy these albums but those expecting the simplar harder hitting albums by Gillan will be disappointed.Look on these albums as a musical journey and you will be rewarded.

Great