Fifth album by London jazzpop pioneers Matt Bianco. Done without a record contract, and very possibly without a clue.
This was Matt Bianco's first album after splitting from Warner Brothers. Eager to take on the world without the constraints of a marketing department, Mark Fisher and Mark Reilly recorded this in the Fishbowl, Fisher's own studio on the outskirts of London. This record saw a new group of session musicians participating in the production, although Robin Jones was still around to record the beautiful percussive layers that support the songs rhythm stucture. Unfortunately Ronnie Ross had passed away, so the brass section had to be reorganised as well, which is quite clearly audible: the record has a different sound from the first chords of "Our Love".
Fortunately for them they found distributors in Germany, France, Spain, Latin America and Asia, but only JVC-Victor in Japan really made some headway in promoting them to the local audience, and it was no wonder that the album went Gold over there, but failed to have any major impact in the rest of the world. That was not due to bad material, as songs like "You and I" and the uplifting "Head over Heels" certainly have a place in MB parthenon, but for the first album as independents this effort wasn't good enough to crack the world without a major label in ther backs. Soundwise they couldn't really decide wether to go for their classic latino - afro/cuban traditional production values or experiment with more contemporary styles, so the whole thing was a bit of a mixture.
Tracklisting:
- Our Love
- The world is a ghetto
- You and I
- Buddy Love
- Can you feel it
- I need you know
- Head over heels
- Your destiny
- Another time another place
Fortunately, this album was followed by Gran Via, which made a much bigger impact. As for "Another time another place" :
Close, but no banana.