Clear Air Turbulence (Ian Gillan Band, 1977)

As we saw yesterday, just because you were in a metal band (or even a band others would call "metal") doesn't mean everything you do has to be metal. Case in point: today's random selection, Clear Air Turbulence by the Ian Gillan Band (IGB for short).

Although open to debate, Ian Gillan has never considered himself to be "metal" or Deep Purple to be a heavy metal band. For a not-metal guy, he's managed to end up in some pretty hard-hitting combos, including a freakish stint in Black Sabbath and inadvertently linking himself to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the late 1970's. IGB was most definitely not metal. After quitting Deep Purple in 1973, Ian tried to leave music altogether and his return was reluctant, with thoughts of doing something totally different, like music for children and soft pop. The IGB era started with what seemed like a return to rock, but turn a hard left on this album, their second, which showed tendencies toward the burgeoning jazz/fusion scene of the mid-1970's.

The main problem with IGB is the huge disconnect between the vocals, which are unmistakably Ian Gillan's style, and the rest of the band. Guitarist Ray Fenwick and bass player John Gustafson both had careers stretching back into the early 1960's and I think they were getting tired to playing rock and roll. Meanwhile drummer Mark Nauseef, freshly booted out of Elf as it turned into Rainbow (see yesterday's post), was becoming increasing artsy in his drumming. Although he was right in the thick of it on this album, keyboard player Colin Towns would be keying in breaking the fusion era in Ian's career and getting him back into the hard rock (metal?) scene with the similar-sounding in name but totally-different in sound Gillan.

This album is a product of its time. It rubs most Purple/Sabbath classic rock fans the wrong way, with horns, quirky synthesizers, and long meandering musical passages. However, if one approaches it with an open mind and sees it as the start of a rebuilding process by a singer who was struggling to emerge from the shadows of his old band, it makes for an interesting listening experience.