Brian Eno is MORE DARK THAN SHARK

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Mojo OCTOBER 2019 - by Mike Barnes

PHIL MANZANERA: DIAMOND HEAD

Roxy Music guitarist's solo debut, with illustrious guests.

By 1975, many members of high-profile bands had gone along the solo album route, to varying degrees of success. Diamond Head stands out as one of the better releases of that year. There are instrumentals, like the brief, brooding Lagrima, on which Manzanera's processed acoustic guitar duets with Andy Mackay's oboe, and East Of Echo, which transplants his riff from Roxy Music's Mother Of Pearl into an art rock extravaganza, while Robert Wyatt sings in fluent Spanish on Frontera and John Wetton engages in some erotically charged sparring with Doreen Chanter on Same Time Next Week. Miss Shapiro is the standout - it's arch and witty, with Manzanera's angular guitars overlapping and dovetailing beautifully. With Paul Thompson on drums and Brian Eno on vocals, one can have a bit of fun imaging Roxy if the other Bryan had left.