IVORIES (1984)

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Solo album recorded in 1972
UK: Strike Back Records SBR 1LP
Re-issued on CD in 2001, UK: Angel Air Records SJPCD072

1. All The Young Dudes 78
2. The Decisive Type
3. Cereal Music
4. Lydian Theme
5. Sleeper One
6. Sleeper Two
7. Good One Ralph
8. Sleeper Three
9. Sleeper Four
10. Reverie
11. Dithyramb
12. Symmetry
13. Ingrid
14. Danse
15. Kiss
16. The Wattnott
17. Roll Away The Stone

Morgan’s solo album for RCA Italy, recorded at the same time as the band’s second album. Again, the music was so avant-garde that it progressed right over their heads - they passed on the album. The original title “Morgan Fisher’s Hand Job” probably didn't help. This album gave Morgan a chance to work in the area somewhere between the Morgan band’s music and the musical influences he’d been passionately absorbing for years - modern classical music, film scores from France and Italy, and electronic music. By the time it was released (on Maurice Bacon’s label) Morgan had remixed it and added two extra tracks (Mott the Hoople hits in the style of a 1940’s light music orchestra, complete with 78rpm vinyl noise) and bizarre snippets of real-life dialogue recorded during his travels and studio sessions with Mott and British Lions. One of Morgan’s most cutting-edge albums, it offers a glimpse into his and creative musical imagination.

Here's a nice review of a track recorded soon after "Ivories", in a similar experimental-synth style:

Morgan Fisher - "Foreign Correspondent" - from the legendary compilation album "Perspectives and Distortions" (Cherry Red, 1981)

From the days when he provided Hammond Organ (at the age of 16) for the sixties hit "Everlasting Love" by Love Affair, to his dabblings in experimental netherworlds in the early seventies, then more chart success as part of Mott The Hoople, going on to his Residents-influenced Hybrid Kids project, and not forgetting the classic "Miniatures" album comprising 51 one minute tracks by all and sundry in the avant-garde, outsider and post-punk world, it can be said that this man has been there and done it - twice! This track is from 1973 and kicks off with a great start which sounds like like an outtake from Throbbing Gristle's "Journey Through A Body" album - even though this track was recorded a good eight years before. I just love that squish-pan synth sound. The track then kicks up a sprightly european feel, with keyboard crossings which sound like Canterbury cad Dave Stewart in his Egg / Hatfield days. Morgan now lives and records in Japan. A great track from a crackin' chap - snappy dresser too!

Reviewed by Jim Tones, 2003/8/27