DIAMOND HEAD
QUIET SUN - MAINSTREAM
801 LIVE
VOZERO
BRIAN Eno aside, Manzanera's were easily the best solo projects to come out of Roxy Music - 1975's Diamond Head displayed a dazzling array of styles (Latin, psychedelia, epic art-pop), and guest stars (Eno, Robert Wyatt, plus all of Manzanera's pre-Roxy outfit, Quiet Sun); one of the best albums released that year.
Manzanera used the same sessions to finally record a Quiet Sun album. Heavily biased towards instrumentals, with only one vocal piece here (pity), it's still pretty impressive: quirky, jazzy, vaguely psychedelic, definitely a branch of the Canterbury family tree.
The outfit, 801, were formed in 1976 simply to play a few gigs for fun; fortunately, they recorded a great live album en route. Eno (at the peak of his "pop" mode) handles most of the vocals, and "Tomorrow Never Knows" is pure magic. This now includes two extra tracks: "Fat Lady Of Limbourg" and "Golden Hours".
And Vozero is well up to par with the earlier work. In recent years Manzanera has been heavily involved with producing Latin American artists, and, unsurprisingly, those influences are to the fore here, alongside touches of Africa and New Zealand (the result of his recent tour with The African Gypsies for WOMAD), But the songs are mostly in English, and still display a very English pop sensibility. The Audience's Nigel Butler adds sprinkles of techno-wizardry, Andy Mackay turns up with an oboe and Spanish singer Enrique Bunbury moodily raps it all up on the final track. Meanwhile, Manzanera's guitar work is as tasteful and delicate as ever, and his voice is a revelation, blending seamlessly with backing vocals from Robert Wyatt on songs that are touching, mature and deeply rewarding.
A grower.
Peter Hogan
Q, November 1999
VOZERO
Raised in, among other places, Colombia and Venezuela, Manzanera has spent the past ten years playing in Central and South America and producing Spanish speaking artists. Vozero touches base with the music that has pre-occupied him of late, stripping in brass fills and a Latin pulse alongside its creator's guitar. Never the most comfortable of vocalists, he enlists Robert Wyatt for backups, but copes well with the lead on the unusually poppy 'Tuesday'.
Overall, though, it's the widescreen instrumental passages woven into the likes of 'Art of Conversation' and the closing 'La Vida Moderna' that impinge on the senses, compensating for Vozero's vanity project tendencies and giving it some real bite.
Mark Blake
Classic Rock, Autum 1999
The first solo album from Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera in ten years, 'Vozero' draws on his South American roots to deliver a delightful album tinged with Colombian and Cuban influences. Boasting an impressive array of musical friends, including Robert Wyatt and Andy Mackay, Manzanera's unobtrusive vocals, tasteful arrangements and gentle songs make this record as refreshing as a cold beer on a humid afternoon.
Valerie Potter
Tip Sheet 16th September 1999
Phil Manzanera, best known as the guitarist in Roxy Music, is without doubt one of this country's most underrated musicians, and to prove this he's come up with a gem of an album - 'Vozero'. It is his first solo album for 10 years and it was well worth the wait. Phil also makes his singing debut and one wonders what might have been if this talent had surfaced a bit earlier - I'm sure a certain ex-colleague will be in for a surprise "God, he sings as well". Robert Wyatt is the main collaborator here. The songs, all written by Manzanera, are surprisingly moving. Check it out.
Teletext 7.9.99.
After 10 years AWOL when we can only assume he was tending the allotment, the one time Roxy Music guitarist is back with a slightly strange album that explores the Colombian/Cuban background to his upbringing. It's not bad, either, in an obscure and an iffy mood-music-with-mad-bits-and-nice-tunes sort of way. "Music of the heart rather than the head", says Phil. Robert Wyatt, Andy Mackay and Nigel Butler of The Audience join in the fun. One for rainy nights and Sundays.
Q, November 1999
DIAMOND HEAD
QUIET SUN - MAINSTREAM
801 LIVE
Phil Manzanera's '70s solo projects reflected less Roxy's retro-futuristic bent that the rock pedigree of his pals. Manzanera could write songs but he was a collaborator at heart. 1975's solo debut, 'Diamond Head', featured Eno, Robert Wyatt and various Roxy alumni alongside members of Manzanera's pre-Roxyband, Quiet Sun. The zig-zagging mood takes in Latin detail too, and overall the album is a fine period portrait of 70's eccentric eclecticism.
The 26-day 'Diamond Head' sessions also produced the largely instrumental 'Mainstream', a Quiet Sun reunion where electric piano took the secondary role behind the guitar. Some passages meander, others raise the roof, but it remains surprisingly listenable.
After Roxy's brief split in 1976, Manzanera formed 801 with Eno, and played just three shows, one at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall recorded as 801 Live. Tracks culled from solo Eno albums, 'Diamond Head', and 'Mainstream', plus the The Beatles's 'Tomorrow Never Knows' get re-upholstered, mutated and then lent Eno's vocal warbling that only a mother could truly love.
Martin Aston
