Francis Monkman/Paul Hart — Energism/Futurism

This cd release offers up two albums worth of prog bound & often lined bass  synth  music from the late 1970’s & early 1980’s. On offer here are two rare albums from the Bruton music group- a  British music library company who released some of the more creative & varied works of the music library genre in the 70’s & 80’s.

The two album offered up here have a distinctly sci-fi, science, or futuristic learning’s/ themes, and they come in the shape of  1978’s Energism & 1981’s Futurism. Both albums originally appeared in a vinyl pressing on their original release dates, and this CD sees the first time these albums have been available  since they originally appeared back in the day.

So first up on the disc we have the eleven tracks from Energism- this album was composed by respected English rock, classical, and soundtrack composer Francis Monkman- who was connected with projects such as brit prog rock band Curved Air, and classical/rock fusion band Sky.  For this album he’s playing synthesizers & keyboards, and is supported by the follow: Mo Foster on bass guitar, Barry De Souza on drums, and Tristan Flowers( who was also in Sky) on percussion.  The eleven track featured here are often dramatic & urgent slices of  multi layered synth craft, which is weaved with up-front & often funk bound bass guitar licks.  Sound wise it’s a mixes together chopping & weaving futuristic synth craft, with prog & neo classical hints, and of course the seemingly always present & period distinctive bass guitar lines.  The album covers  just a few different themes through-out it’s eleven tracks, and while  it’s an enjoyable enough slice of retro instrumental music-    it’s hardly the most varied of releases.

So second up we have Futurism. This album was composed British multi-instrumentalist Paul hart, who also played in Sky- but appeared in the line-up between 1984 & 1995, playing keyboards, guitars, mandolin & cello. Sadly there is seemingly no information on who played what on this release- but I’m guessing it must be Hart handling all the synth work.  This album offers up ten tracks, and to my ears is the better & more rewarding of the two albums offered up here- firstly the tracks are more memorable, and dramatically layered with different synth sounds/ textures. Secondly the tracks are more varied in pace. And lastly the track running times are a bit longer too, meaning Hart really mangers to create more solid & rewarding moods.  Sonically it’s once again very synthesizers & keyboards based, and I’d say more so than the first album. Once again the bass & drums/ percussion make an appearance, but they are pared back a little more here, so there are not so many up-front funky yet slightly cheesy bass moments.

It’s great to see long lost albums like these two been reissued, and if you enjoy dramatic late 70’s/ early 80’s instrumental synth music this is well worth hunting down. In summing up Energism is an enjoyable through not very varied release, while Futurism is both varied & rather replay-able  making this the main reason to pick this up.