Esoteric Music [Release date : 26.09.25]

Nowadays, founder, guitarist, writer and driving force behind the band Be Bop Deluxe, Bill Nelson, is not for looking in the rear view mirror, so it’s good that Cherry Red offshoot, Esoteric is doing that for us.

This 3 CD retrospective comprises 3 remastered and expanded releases :
Modern Music (1976)
Live! In The Air Age (1977)
Drastic Plastic (1978)

Born in the heart of Yorkshire, Nelson had soaked up every influence that swirled around him.
Disco, punk, glam rock, hard rock, progressive rock, art rock, blues rock, and heavy metal all went toe to toe in the mid seventies, each one fighting for a piece of the action.

Those influences had been carefully filtered through the futuristic / progressive pop of the band’s first 3 albums, and distilled eventually into Modern Music, their fourth.

This was an arty, proggy, poppy, yet ultimately undefinable recording that carried its own unique magnetism.

Nelson had mixed and matched his influences – Pink Floyd, Todd Rundgren, Klaatu and others, stirring in some Top Forty immediacy – in the album’s creation.

Along with the title song’s country rock leanings, and the Rundgren-esque ‘Terminal Street’, Nelson has a finely honed instinct for a story telling lyric and a melody to match. He makes ‘Kiss Of Light’s rolling, graceful shuffle, and the soothing, majestic strains of ‘Gold At The End Of My Rainbow’ into album standouts.

He was always searching, never quite satisfied, and with Live! In The Air Age, he invented his own genre, delivering 11 dazzling versions of songs from BeBop Deluxe’s first 3 albums. He is clearly at one with his band – Charles Tumahai, Andy Clark and Simon Fox – here.

And it’s not just ability and skill. Blood and sweat, grit and gold go into making an album like this.

‘Blazing Apostles’ and ‘Shine’s improv intervals sit well next to the title track’s drama and intensity.

Classy artwork too. The cover is a still from Fritz Lang’s seminal, futuristic movie “Metropolis”.

It was the band’s best performing album, reaching no.20 in the UK charts.

The third and last album, Drastic Plastic came in 1978.

Tailored by Nelson’s expressive and constantly inventive arrangements, warm ballads and fiery axe workouts abound. There are storied journeys through the present and perceptive visions of the future, all pointing to the demise of Bebop Deluxe.

Key tracks, ‘Futurist Manifesto’, ‘Japan’ and the Bowie/Cars like ‘Panic In The World’ signposted the imminent birth of his new band, Red Noise. ****1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

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