Patrick... you've done better.
Mike Ogle | Costa Mesa, CA USA | 08/14/2008
(1 out of 5 stars)
"I have 95% of the Patrick Moraz solo albums' so I think I can honestly give him a negative critique when deserved. This was the last album of his I purchased. I was anticipating loving half of it, and skipping over the tracks that weren't as interesting to me. However, this entire album was so bad... that I got mad at him. It wasn't because I spent the money on it. It was just so embarrassing coming from him. Here's how I'll describe it: Every year, synthesizer companies' roll-out their new models. They usually have several demo songs recorded using it' to show off the synthesizer's abilities. Patrick Moraz' Timecode, is like one of those built-in demo-sequences but much...much blander, and sappy' too. It also suffers from Wakeman's Disease. (the chronic tendency to employ one's beer-drinking buddies' to sing on top of instrumental music, instead of hiring someone for more money) i.e. Rick Wakeman's King Arthur album, song title' The Last Battle, to which the singer sings': Gone... are the days... of the kniiiiiightttttts... He extends out & wavers the word (knights) intending to convey (seriousness and emotion) in song, with the net result of being pretentiously-presumptuous' with an audience member's (quality-time-spent') allowance. It was as if' a producer forced him (Moraz) to write and record all eleven songs' of Timecode' in one day. As a composer of music myself, I have some rough musical ideas that I'm embarrassed about at certain stages of their development, but I know I'm not releasing those to the general public anytime soon. Moraz' however, thought these drum-bass-synth' sequences with singing on top' were just as good as other stuff he's done in the past. So, he puts a title on it, Timecode' and says here ya' go everybody. People in the prog-rock' community have an expression. When discussing (less than stellar-quality) music done by progressive bands, they ask: Is it as bad as ELP's Love Beach' ? I can honestly say that I've never (purchased) Love Beach', because of that. The venom in musician circles was so deep, concerning that album, that it became a lesson in (what not to do) if you're a respected prog-rock band. More devastating than Bob Dylan going electric' ever was. As Timecode's fourth song got underway called' Life in the Underworld, I thought: Ok... Bill Bruford is on this track - he'll knock Patrick into-gear'. Bill probably had as much interest in playing on this track, as he did the Yes' Union CD, which he crucified later in interviews. However, the 1985 Moraz/Bruford album entitled Flags' was good. A song on that disc titled, Karu' was done by a guy also named Patrick Moraz. How could it be... One disc sounds like a bad modern-disco repeat version of his Out In The Sun' record, (another album suffering from Wakeman's Disease), and the other (Flags) is enjoyable. With all the expensive musical gear he had the use of; I'm led to believe he was pressured into pumping out another album, to fulfill a contractual obligation to a record company, because this coming from Moraz' makes Madonna appear to have musical qualities. I'd pay Amazon.com five dollars if I could give Timecode' (0) gold stars, however, one star is the lowest allowed."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1