Release Music Orchestra - 1976 - Get The Ball

Release Music Orchestra
1976
Get The Ball

01. Mestaloggo
02. Sundance
03. Get the ball
04. Black bird
05. Chambre séparée

Bass – Frank Fischer
Drums, Congas – "Zabba" Lindner
Keyboards – Manfred Rürup
Vocals, Percussion – Margit Haberland

By RMO's third album Get The Ball, the group was down to a quartet, having lost bassist Holger Dunkel (replaced by Frank Fisher) and wind player Norbert Jacobsen (not replaced) and recorded this one with Dieter Dierks (as opposed to Plank previously). With a fairly boring artwork and an uninspired title, it is clear that with a reduced line-up, the group would have to try really hard to match their previous efforts and keyboardist Rurup becoming the main composer, where the songwriting was collective.

And they almost succeeded as all three tracks on the A side are excellent cool fusion axed on Manfred Rurup's Fender Rhodes, as it had become the only permanent lead instrument (guest guitarist intervene in two tracks, a guest trumpeter on another). But musically we are not far from Herbie Hancock's Headhunters or Sextant, rather than Nucleus previously. The flipside seems to digress from that pattern slightly due to the opening Blackbird where vocals and trumpet break the monotony, but you shall not be surprised if it sounds Miles-ey. Atlantis (co-written by the huge Carsten Bohn) is built on a descending line that changes a little as well, but the closing Chambre Séparée resembles the first side. On the German side, RMO is closer to the earlier Doldinger's Passport than Thirsty Moon or Kraan.