Although
Nucleus made an acclaimed performance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1970, the U.K. proto-fusionists never became particularly popular in the States, with much of their recorded output only available as import releases. In fact, in certain quarters
Nucleus is known primarily as a source of musicians who joined the latter-day
Soft Machine, itself a group that never moved too far beyond cult status. Composer/keyboardist/reedman
Karl Jenkins, drummer
John Marshall, bassist
Roy Babbington, and guitarist
Allan Holdsworth all played with
Nucleus at one time or another, and all had moved over to the
Soft Machine lineup by the time
the Softs (with
Mike Ratledge the only original remaining member of the band) issued
Bundles in 1975.
Nucleus' second album, 1970's
We'll Talk About It Later, might be of particular interest to fans of
Bundles-era
Soft Machine given the presence of "Song for the Bearded Lady," a
Jenkins composition that later appeared in altered form on
Bundles as "Hazard Profile," a vehicle for one of
Holdsworth's most stunningly fleet-fingered solos on record. "Song for the Bearded Lady" kicks off
We'll Talk About It Later with a fanfare and funky unison and counterpoint riffing that segue into a spacious groove and
Ian Carr trumpet solo echoing the influence of electric
Miles from the same time period.
Chris Spedding was the band's guitarist here, and one shouldn't expect
Holdsworth-style pyrotechnics from him;
Spedding was a blues-rocker more than a jazzer and generally took a back seat to the soloing skills of
Carr,
Jenkins, and New Zealand saxophonist
Brian Smith (whose duet with drummer
Marshall at the conclusion of "Easter 1916" -- inspired by the
Yeats poem about the Irish nationalist uprising in Dublin -- approaches the wildness of some of the era's most incendiary free jazz).
The band is at its best when firing on all cylinders (the title track, for example), but the album's mood changes are for the most part effective; "Lullaby for a Lonely Child" is a lovely down-tempo ballad (who would've guessed from that title?) with an understated horn/sax line from
Carr and
Smith and atmospheric bouzouki from
Spedding imparting a Mediterranean flavor. New millennial listeners might wish for a time machine to go back and tell this band to lose the occasional vocals, however. The uncredited singing in "Ballad of Joe Pimp" might seem laughably polite during the age of gangsta rap; this Joe Pimp sounds about as streetwise as
Gilbert O'Sullivan of "Alone Again (Naturally)" fame. Still, the song seems prescient -- its tempo and instrumentation are akin to
Pink Floyd's "Money," which appeared on the scene several years later. Given
Carr's long trumpet and flügelhorn lines,
Jenkins' probing oboe and funk-filled electric keyboards,
Spedding's rockish wah-wah guitar,
Smith's freewheeling sax work, and the powerful rhythmic foundation of drummer
Marshall and bassist
Jeff Clyne, this version of
Nucleus should appeal to any fan of late-'60s/early-'70s fusion -- either the
Soft Machine-esque Brit variety or the stateside explorations of the
Miles Davis school. But
We'll Talk About It Later shouldn't be viewed merely through the prism of other artists;
Nucleus was an original band that deserves considerably more attention than it got for pioneering a form of jazz-rock that has, for the most part, aged quite well, and
We'll Talk About It Later is a noteworthy release from a strong
Nucleus incarnation. [In 1995, BGO Records re-released
We'll Talk About It Later in a two-CD package that also included
Nucleus' first album,
Elastic Rock.] ~ Dave Lynch