Phil Manzanera's pre-
Roxy Music group never got to release their first attempt at an album, but in a break from
Roxy in 1974,
Manzanera regrouped the band and put out this effort, recorded at the same time as his solo extravaganza
Diamond Head. Here,
Manzanera disappears into the art rock group dynamic; the album is a selection of progressive jams featuring some tasty guitar work, complex rhythmic structures, and the always reliable bass work of
Bill MacCormick. There is a certain dryness to the whole proceeding, a holding back, a lack of warmth, but perhaps this perception is derived from over half the tracks sounding so much better a year later as part of
801's
Live, including "Sol Caliente," "Mummy Was an Asteroid, Daddy Was a Small, Non-Stick Kitchen Utensil," and especially "Rongwrong." Here the
Charles Hayward song sounds like a university common-room joke, with its name-dropping of "reading
Schoenberg in the bath" and such. Compared to the lush arrangement and rewritten lyrics of the
Brian Eno-sung
801 version,
Quiet Sun sounds like one album away from brilliance.