World Music Before There Was World Music

In the heady days of guitar heroes in the late sixties and early seventies, there was one hero for whom the term unsung might have been invented and that was Mick Hutchinson. Who knows why superstardom did not materialise. It may have been luck, temperament, discipline, contacts, the right setting. It certainly wasn't lack of talent; together with multi-instrumentalist Andy Clark the duo Clark-Hutchinson boasted superb musicianship and imagination. We can be grateful though that there is still the phenomenal album A=MH2 to appreciate. A unique album that is impossible to pigeon hole. Not quite jazz, not quite prog rock, not exactly psychedelic and yet containing elements of all these and more. The "more" including classical, and various world musics particularly from India and the Middle East. The track Acapulco Gold even ventures into flamenco territory laced with Tudor English lute styles. Hutchinson's remarkable guitar playing is drenched in a blues feel but goes so much further into all the above mentioned influences and it is a masterclass in how to produce so many varied tones and effects from an electric guitar in a way that would even make Hendrix think twice. But all in service of the music. The contributions from Andy Clark on sax, piano, organ, bass and percussion should not be overlooked either, his piano and sax work producing telling solos and the rest providing a perfect foil for the flights of Hutchinson's guitar. The five lengthy instrumental improvisations that make up the album induce an hypnotic and ecstatic feel but by its' very nature this was destined to be very much a one off. Attempts to expand Clark-Hutchinson into a conventional band never really worked as witnessed by the bonus disc here of fairly routine blues workouts, albeit still with some fine guitar. But they never found a strong enough vocalist or front man to stand up to and complement their own strong musical personalities. Let's just be glad to hear this album.