Nick Mason - Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports
#177
May 3 1981
Nick Mason
Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports
Genre: WTF is this?
4 out of 5
Highlights:
Can’t Get My Motor to Start
I Was Wrong
Do Ya?
First off, let’s talk about the percussion. And production. Stellar.
But, caveat emptor. This is only a Nick Mason project inasmuch as he produced it and plays percussion. The songs are ALL written by Carla Bley, who is an American Jazz composer. And Robert Wyatt of Soft Machine is the lead singer.
So, this is a…project. I have little more to say about this except, if you were a Pink Floyd fan and that’s what brought you to an experimental Henry Cow/Captain Beefheart Jazz exercise, you might have said, “WTF is this?”
And then, after that realization that this is not what you expected, you can settle in. I did. And, while I wouldn’t classify this as “rock”, cuz it isn’t, I was rewarded throughout the experience.
Some of the songs wash over you while demanding your full attention at the exact same time. “Siam” is a great example. Punctuated with what I think are birds caterwauling, Wyatt’s vocals are intended to be lush harmonies that are also abrasive in a Peter Gabriel way. And, for me, that dichotomy works.
The weakest moments are when the album reaches for Floydian rock and that’s just too easy to compare to the original, paling in comparison.
This is a challenging record and while it appears pretentious, it really is. And it isn’t. As far as Pink Floyd offshoot projects go, this might be my favorite.
https://music.apple.com/us/album/nick-masons-fictitious-sports/1393133766
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