Brand X were formed by drummer Phil Collins
of Genesis with John Goodsall (former Atomic Rooster) on guitar, Robin Lumley
(a David Bowie collaborator) on keyboards
and Percy Jones (former Liverpool Scene and Brian Eno collaborator) on bass.
Unorthodox Behaviour (Passport, 1976) was an album of
smooth, elegant, soulful and all-instrumental jazz-rock, totally different from the kind of
brainy jazz-rock that was being offered by the Canterbury school of
progressive-rock.
Nuclear Burn, Euthanasia Waltz, Born Ugly
and the eight-minute Unorthadox Behaviour
displayed amazing group improvisation and counterpoint. The pillars of
Brand X's sound were, oddly enough for rock music, the two members of the
rhythm section: both the bass and the drums are the most distinctive sounds
on the album.
This was jazz-rock for the age of hard-rock, and jazz-rock for the age of
the Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Morris Pert, a veteran of Stomu Yamashta's ensembles,
joined part-time on Moroccan Roll (1977).
The middle-eastern sounding Sun In The Night
(the first Brand X vocal track),
Hate Zone, Macrocosm,
and Malaga Virgen
are charming themes that boast masterful playing.
Lumley's Disco Suicide is Brand X at its most majestic.
Collins' 11-minute Why Should I Lend You Mine is the most convoluted
track, like early Genesis spliced and recombined.
Their quiet, intense, "relaxed" style had found a classical form.
Morris Pert took over Collins during the concerts documented on Livestock (1977),
a live album that includes two new classics:
Nightmare Patrol and Isis Mourning.
Masques (Charisma, 1978) added keyboardist Peter Robinson
(also from Stomu Yamashta's Suntreader) and drummer
Chuck Bergi to the trio of Goodsall, Jones and Pert, while Lumley stepped behind
the scenes as producer.
Goodsall's The Poke and Access to Data are the friendliest
"songs", but Pert, too, steps up as a composer with
Black Moon and the 11-minute Deadly Nightshade,
and Jones pens the 10-minute melodic fantasy The Ghost of Mayfield Lodge,
a highlight of the group's entire career.
Product (1979) was, instead, a commercial detour (Soho), although
occasionally above the average (Jones' Dance of the Illegal Aliens
and Rhesus Perplexus).
Pert left and Brand X regrouped as a quartet of
Goodsall, Jones, Robinson and drummer Michael Clarke.
Unfortunately, Do They Hurt (Charisma, 1980) contained inferior leftovers
from the previous album, despite a charming song (Cambodia) and two
competent suites (Triumphant Limp and DMZ).
Is There Anything About (1982) collected more leftovers.
X-Trax (Passport, 1986),
The Plot Thins (Virgin, 1992) and
A History 1976-1980 (1997) are anthologies.
Brand X was then reduced to the trio of
John Goodsall, Percy Jones, and drummer Frank Katz (all USA citizens) for
X-Communication (Ozone, 1992), but the technical skills were even
more prominent than on previous releases.
Jones (Kluzinski Period, Church of Hype, Strangeness)
and Goodsall (Healing Dream, A Duck Exploding) sounded
sounded revitalized and the sound was at times hard-rock.
The same trio,
with the key addition of Mark Wagnon on samples,
was no less virtuoso on Manifest Destiny (Outer Music, 1997), although
most songs sounded like leftovers from the previous
(True to the Clik, Virus).
The X Files
is not a career retrospective (as advertised) but a disc of live recordings
and a disc of unreleased material.
Timeline collects two live performances.
Virtuoso bassist Percy Jones (one of the greatest of his generation)
released three solo albums,
Propeller Music (1990), recorded in 1984,
Cape Catastrophe (1989)
and Tunnels (1993),
which rank with Brand X's best material.
John Goodsall formed Fire Merchants (Enigma, 1989), an all-instrumental
power-trio. After a five-year hiatus, the Fire Menchants released the follow-up,
Landlords Of Atlantis (Renaissance, 1994), moving even closer to
heavy-metal.
Trilogy (2003) is a three-CD set that compiles Manifest Destiny and X Communication and unreleased live recordings.
Brand X reformed with
John Goodsall on guitar,
Mick Stevens on bass,
Dean De Benedictis on keyboards,
Brock Avery on drums.
John Goodsall died in November 2021 at the age of 68.