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U.K. (U.K.) | Extended Play Lounge Ep. 62 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-02-20 23:24:23
Edited:
2024-06-04 21:56:13
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

This was a wild album, y'all! Unbelievable amounts of musical color...great riffs...smart chord changes...I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. It was like hearing a King Crimson Jazz Fusion album.

Come along for a most enjoyable ride!

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U.K. (U.K.) | Extended Play Lounge Ep. 62

Comments

Peter Tutak

One of the best albums of the genre. Period.

Darrin Snider

What KILLS me is that Jobson was only 22 when he did this, and his resume was already enviable.

Christopher Arters (relative timeworx - Mr.A)

When disco was all the rage, and punk aficionados were proclaiming anything progressive to be "dinosaur rock", UK struck like a lightening bolt. I was lucky enough to catch one of their first concerts, opening for no less than Al DiMeola at Philly's legendary Tower Theatre; a follow up Philly outdoor free concert with about 100,000 of my closest friends (none of which were involved in the subsequent riot, I swear); then in the 1st row for their headlining tour at the Spectrum (supported by Horslips). UK were the final 'new' band of the original wave of progressive rock and they never disappointed. Two top notch studio albums. Of course, this unit couldn't stay together as the early 80s ushered in the prog-to-pop movement... Asia (shudder), Terry Bozzio forming Missing Persons (seriously?), GTR (c'mon now), and of course Genesis' blatant cash-in. YesWest barely rose above with superior production. King Crimson redux was rather interesting in the same period - I don't even know how to classify those releases. UK truly marked an end of an era.

George Davis-Stewart

An exciting intersection of musical ambitions: Wetton and Bruford having failed to persuade Fripp to reform King Crimson, they each nominated a new band member, Jobson and Holdsworth respectively. The resulting band was an outstanding combination of talents but it imploded after one album, with Wetton and Jobson retaining the brand name whilst the other two reappeared in a band simply named Bruford, something which belied the talents of its three other members. It was the Bruford band that signified for me, whilst the UK band took a path that I did not care to follow to the record store. On this first U.K. album the music is so absorbing to me that I have never really troubled myself with the merits or meaning of the lyrics. I generally enjoy the choral contribution, but what they are emoting about...? No interest really.

Arrow2theACL

Loved this. I have heard the bits of this album. Never sat down to listen to the whole thing. Great stuff. Thanks Doug.

Ford H. Cotton III

One of the best albums ever!!!! IMHO, the best prog album ever. One fun fact: before playing guitar, Alan played saxophone. If you think about it, It really informs his playing. Really, what else can be said? Absolutely incredible. Glad you loved it!!!

Bill Coonley

A band well ahead of its time, for sure!

Rhesus Perplexus

This album was a savior of seventies progressive! Really not a lot of good stuff was coming out around this time. A lot of changes were taking place. We were hungry for something good, but afraid we would never get it again. Then this album came out and just blew us away!

Jean-Michel LaFontaine

I used to don't care much about this album when I was younger and into Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd. But when I started to get into fusion, I really got it. Great album.

Wolverale12

Alaska/Time to Kill would be my favorite song on the album tbh.

Wolverale12

Also Danger Money's my favorite album from these guys btw. ;)

ax o'lotl

as a composer you clearly latched onto Holdsworth's voicings, mostly on the 2nd side. "Nevermore"'s the track that does it for me. follow-up album I don't dig as much but the last track, "Carrying No Cross", is epic. kinda their "Starless". I'd be interested in keeping the Holdsworth conversation going. I think there's a lot there. it's not just a guitar nerd thing. :-)

Frits van Voorst

One of the big prog albums, great to hear your take on it. About Alan: as I’ve understood he didn’t like to play the same solos again and again: he needed more freedom when playing. When you’re improvising, it should be new every time, was his approach. That didn’t fit the vision of Eddie and John. Hence the break.

REPay

The best progressive album from the second half of the 1970s! Bruford and Wetton were NOT let go by Robert Fripp, he simply folded Crimson in 1974. Wetton joined Roxy Music on tour with Eddie Jobson on keyboards...

Jeff Norman

I suspect the "Soho" in question is the London rather than the New York one... I wonder about the darkness of the lyrics on this album. Wetton, in later years at least, struggled with alcoholism (he was quite open about this, and apparently was sober for the last decade or so of his life)—and it's easy to read many of these lyrics as perhaps coming from the perspective of a man who knows he's in trouble but hasn't figured out how to deal with it. It's interesting, too, to trace Wetton's songwriting from the songs he contributed to Crimson, to UK, then to Asia. He has a distinctive flair for melancholy melodicism, I think.

REPay

This is definitely Soho in London - then a seedy place with drinking and strip clubs.

Hetfield Ninno Davide

What a masterpiece of an album. They all shine in this one , I love John Wetton's voice so much in this , very evocative. The whole atmosphere of the album is amazing 'cause it gives off some real nocturnal/new wave vibes while being the perfect hybrid of Prog and Jazz Rock (the fluid acoustic playing on the intro of Nevermore made me interested in Allan's music and the polyrhytmic section of Mental Medication is just nuts) embedded in melancholy and city night-life tropes (the recurring "daybreak" metaphor being prescient of a new age for music). It is both easy listening and challenging because of the ear-candies they throw in at any moment (Nevermore's soundscape during the verses being an example of that). Was waiting for this reaction quite a while and it was definitely a great one! Thanks for it Doug as always :) .

Martin Broten

Nice discussion of a great album. A couple of notes - Bruford was using rototoms during this period. Rototoms are shell-less drums that are able to change pitch by rotating its drumhead around a threaded metal ring. They have a very distinctive sound. Also, the "creative differences" that led to Holdsworth leaving the band were mostly due to Wetton wanting him to play the same thing every night, which was the last thing Allan wanted to do. He found a much more inviting environment in Bruford's band.

Bill Brinkmoeller

As Martin points out above, the reason you like the sound of Bill's drums so much is that during this period he was using a rack of RotoToms in his kit instead of conventional toms. I have some Rotos (6", 8", 10") in my kit, and they're a blast! And if you thought "Alaska" sounded like ELP, wait till you hear Danger Money! It was like they said, "ELP has broken up. We must fill that void!" When they speak of Soho, they're speaking of the one in London. Which is what you might expect from a band calling itself U.K. I saw this band, in a medium-sized club here in Cincinnati. It was a phenomenal night. We were right in the front. And when I say "right in front" I mean that we could have reached out and touched the guys in the band. My friend Steve had a Leica camera, and he'd just acquired a 6" tabletop tripod which he brought along. Steve was taking a few pictures (it hadn't been forbidden to bring cameras to concerts yet (this was before cell phones made outlawing cameras largely impossible)), when he got an idea. He put his camera on the little tripod, got on his knees, set the tripod on the stage (which was only about one foot high anyway) right in front of John Wetton's pedals, and tilted the camera up to get a low-angle shot of John. It still makes me crack up to remember the look on John Wetton's face as he scowled down at my photo-happy friend. The only downside of this one for me was that the YouTuber who posted this broke up the "In the Dead of Night" suite. It really should be heard continuously. There were a lot of good "Doug Moments" in this one. The expressions on your face for some of the strange chords had me laughing a lot. As always, monumental air-drumming. Maybe my favorite on, though was: Big grin on your face, you enthuse "It's all in 3, but it's so syncopated and rhythmic and COOL!" Thanks, Doug. You're the best!

Dave Brockis

I've not heard this album before. Probably won't listen to it again because, though pleasant, it didn't grip me.

Adie

Best prog album discovery for me this century, a revelation! I ignored UK in their time, but now I shall definitely buy this album. A word about the CS80 synth. The commercial offering from Yamaha derived from their non-retail GX1 synth used by Keith Emerson on Works 1 (Fanfare for the Common Man etc). The CS80 is legendary as probably the pinnacle of the analogue synth period. Rich thick sounds, with immense play-ability (the only synth allowing change of sound on each note by pressing into the keyboard!). Vangelis said it was the best synth he ever played, and his iconic Bladerunner soundtrack showcases the CS80's charisma. Not many CS80s left, so rare to see for sale and mega- expensive - there was a worn out one for sale at my local gear shop for a mere £40K - I demurred, but I did play a couple of keys 😀. Eddie Jobson is superb on it here. Sounds like a King Crimson/ELP combination with a little bit of Yes and Gentle Giant thrown in. What an incredible thought! PS the 14 CD collector's edition looks like a cornucopia of exquisite musical moments, so could be worth the purchase! Just letting you know 🙂

James Hyzy

You definitely need to give their follow up Danger Money a listen. A slightly different lineup, but an excellent prog album with virtuosic instrumentals.

Einaras Sipavičius

It's a masterpiece. Because of my young age, I discover all prog retrospectively. And I've heard of UK, but I really discovered them much later than many classic prog bands. And it was a really groundbreaking discovery, because I really thought I know all the most important and perfect prog albums from 70s. It wasn't immediate, but I knew I need to spend more time with their greatly complex music and UK's debut slowly became one of my all time favourites. I would say UK's debut is in my top20 all time albums. And I'm glad that Doug appreciated the richness of UK sound. Yeah, Allan is a unique guitarist, but for me the biggest hero of the album, if it's even legal to choose one of these four world-class professionals, is Eddie Jobson. There is not a single album that has analog synth capabilities exploited like that. I can't think of an album on which the synth sound is more compelling to me than this one. Maybe some ELP is in the competition, but it's for the different reasons – Keith Emerson fascinates with his technical abilities, but Eddie fascinates me with how he finds exactly what sound fits the atmosphere and structure of the composition. My favorite song probably remains Nevermore, but if we rate songs on the scale from 0 to 10, it's like comparing 9,9 with 9,8. There's not a single song in this album I would rate below 9, they're all excellent. Now we can wait for the reaction to Danger Money, another great album by this band.

Andrew Mellor

I struggled to get hold of this album as was deleted fairly quickly after it was releases, and had to tape a friend's copy. I now have in several formats, and a system to cope with the wide variation in frequency and loudness. That bass.......... And Danger Money is just as good.

Brian Collins

Thanks for this review. I knew all the artists in other contexts but had never heard this album before. It will certainly go on my playlist! A slight clarification about Nevermore. I would think that "Soho" is almost certainly not "SoHo" (NY) but the one in London - well known (more so in the 70s) for jazz and neon and all night entertainment.

Steven Charlton

Although I have heard of the band members from other bands, I however had never heard of UK before, so this was a first for me. I think it's a really interesting listen, and works well as a chill to record that I really enjoyed a lot!!! It is a shame this line up (like so many other bands I could mention, such as Airlord from New Zealand for example) didn't get round to doing a second album...

Mats Lange

I became a Patreon for this, and was not disappointed. Good one, thanks a lot!

Paul Ehney

Phenomenal album, one of my favorites. They brodcasta live performance from the Paradise in Boston on The King Biscuit Flour Hour in 1979. Amazing.

Bryan Sheehan

I remember asking you about this one a while back. So glad you've decided to check it out in it's entirety. A fabulous album and what a lineup! Allan was a major influence on Eddie Van Halen. Eddie also helped Allan to finally get some of the proper recognition that he deserved. Thanks as always, Doug!

Robert Thornton

I recently rediscovered this album. Never knew how great it was. New ears, I guess.