Is There Anything About?

Is There Anything About?
Studio album by Brand X
Released	September 1982
Recorded	Startling Studios, Ascot, UK, April 1979, except track 5, "Is There Anything About", recorded mid 1970s
Genre	Jazz fusion
Length	33:37
Label	Passport (US) CBS (original UK release) Vertigo (Europe, Scandinavia and South America) Epic (Japan) Columbia (1996 UK reissue)
Producer	Robin Lumley, Brand X
Brand X chronology
Do They Hurt? (1980) Is There Anything About? (1982) Xcommunication (1992)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]

Is There Anything About? is the sixth studio album by British jazz fusion group Brand X. It is the last album to feature longstanding members Robin Lumley and Phil Collins. It was assembled from outtakes from the 1979 Product sessions. Bassist Percy Jones first heard about the album after it was released, and was unsatisfied with the results. ^[2] These sessions produced around twenty tracks which also comprised the Do They Hurt? album (1980). "Modern, Noisy and Effective" is actually the backing track to "Soho" with a new keyboard line overdubbed on it. "A Longer April" is an extended version of "April" from Product, with a bit of synth noise added in the middle. "TMIU-ATGA" is taken from an old cassette tape running in the studio while the band were improvising; the title is an acronym for 'They Make It Up- As They Go Along'. ^[3]

Track listing

Side one

1. "Ipanaemia" (Goodsall) – 4:30
2. "A Longer April" (Giblin) – 7:00
3. "Modern, Noisy and Effective" (Goodsall, Lumley, Short) – 3:56

Side two

1. "Swan Song" (Collins, Giblin, Lumley, Short) – 5:37
2. "Is There Anything About?" (Collins, Goodsall, Jones) – 7:53
3. "TMIU-ATGA" (Giblin, Lumley, Robinson) – 5:09

Reissue on CD

1. "Ipanemia" (Goodsall) – 4:13
2. "A Longer April" (Giblin) – 7:23
3. "TMIU-ATGA" (Giblin, Lumley, Robinson) – 5:09
4. "Swan Song" (Collins, Giblin, Lumley, Short) – 5:37
5. "Is There Anything About?" (Collins, Goodsall, Jones) – 7:53
6. "Modern, Noisy and Effective" (Goodsall, Lumley, Short) – 3:58

Personnel

Brand X

• Robin Lumley – keyboards (1-5), vocals (4)
• J. Peter Robinson – keyboards (6)
• John Goodsall – guitars
• John Giblin – bass (1-4, 6), vocals (4)
• Percy Jones – bass (5)
• Phil Collins – drums, percussion

Additional personnel

• Raphael Ravenscroft – saxophone (2)
• Steve Short – Syndrums (4), vocals (4)
• Ed Carson – handclaps (3)

Production

• Robin Lumley – producer, remixing
• Steve Short – producer, engineer, remixing
• Colin Green – engineer
• Neil Kernon – engineer
• Craig Milliner – engineer
• Ray Staff – mastering
• Bill Smith – sleeve design
• Andrew Douglas – photography

Charts

Year	Chart	Position
1982	UK Album Chart	93 [4]

Notes

• This album is outtakes from the Product (1979) sessions.
• "A Longer April" is a re-engineered version of "April" from the Product (1979) sessions.
• "Modern, Noisy, and Effective" is a recycling of the backing track of "Soho" from the Product (1979) album; that track had been engineered by Collins, who was described as "modern, noisy, and effective". This phrase, in fact, first appears in the film Three Dates with Genesis (1978); the narrator describes the scene in which the stage has been torn down and all the equipment loaded into trucks thus: "Like the rock band they service, the trucks are noisy, modern, and effective; at 2:30 on a Friday morning, they leave Mannheim to drive halfway across Europe to the Dutch border."

References

1. "AllMusic ((( Brand X - Is There Anything About (1982) > Overview )))". www.AllMusic.com. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
2. "Percy Jones (Brand X, PAKT) Interview December 30, 2022".
3. "Brand X > is There Anything About?".
4. "The Official Charts Company: Brand X - Is There Anything About (1982)". Official Charts Company . Retrieved 2010-01-09.

External links

• "Discogs.com: Brand X - Is There Anything About? (1982) album releases & credits". www.Discogs.com. 1982. Retrieved 2010-01-08.
• "ProgArchives.com: Brand X - Is There Anything About? (1982) album credits & user reviews". www.ProgArchives.com. Retrieved 2016-07-23.