Return To Chick

Carrying on from the last post. I did for sure ! Chick Corea's been ruling my waves this entire time. The Elektric Band was his 80's project. Another all-wow cast. Esp. John Patitucchi on Bass and Scott Henderson and then Frank Gambale on Guitars. Three of the finest players ever across any genre. The EB had a more 80's New Wave electro/techno sound , drum programming and stuff.

Their first album (1986) The Chick Corea Elektric Band was also the first Chick Corea album i ever heard. I'd got that sometime around '91-92 from this place in Palika Bazar,New Delhi,India. It was quite a place this little shop. This was back in the day in India when CD's were an exotic rarity your more loaded friends owned and you gathered en masse at their place to trip along to after a bit of green or black , LP's had gone irrevocably off the market and Magnasound was Revolution packed inside a plastic box.

So anyway the deal was , this shop stocked imported CD's - big library by any standards- and they'd record music for you on cassette tape for a price. Stuff you couldn't get at your music store , mostly unreleased in India. Good business model for the day - but its death was always certain you'd guess even back then. (Aside : though taxes , that other alleged certainty in life,must have been very distant. Palika's that kinda place ;)) It was great. You'd browse through the catalogue - a photo album filed with CD album covers -and go bonkers trying to decide which of the million magnificent options you'd shell out your precious 100 bucks on.

Funnily enough i've never found the album CD anywhere though i did finally manage to get the first Return To Forever album - another priceless gem i'd got at the Palika place- at Virgin Megastore here in Dubai. All salutes to You Tube - That Which Has Erased The Word 'Elusive'.

This track Elektric City is my favourite one from that album. I was thrilled when i heard it then in 1991 , i'm thrilled when i hear it now in 2011. The video is a whole other place too. The clothes , the hair , the colours , the look , the dancers , the semi-graininess. It's the 1980's in all its decade-that-fashion-forgot glory. The music's bright , upbeat , light . The sort of light that keeps the underlying brilliance of the music afloat through its the entire length.

So if you've read this far , check it out without a second t. Satisfaction guaranteed !