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After a prodigious escalation starting from the Isle of Wight festival, the English trio embodies its most daring and controversial expressive peak, probably. Just like their colleagues led by Ian Anderson, who found both audience and critics divided in their judgment of "A Passion Play," Emerson and company, at the height of their career, after the excellent work "Trilogy," risk everything with the card of progressive infested with synthesizers and pseudo-cybernetic atmospheres. The result is a work that, at first glance, leaves one a bit cold, puzzled, and slightly dizzy due to the high speed.
It is, in fact, not a simple work, and even Pete Sinfield's lyrics, especially in the suite-concept "Karn-Evil 9," deal with these surreal atmospheres, horror theater-like, about the increasingly miserable condition of the human race. Keith Emerson opens with a solemn "Jerusalem," with lyrics by William Blake, and doesn’t lose his sarcastic Country & Western taste with "Benny The Bouncer"; Lake delivers his cold ballad ". . . Still You Turn Me on." It is with "Toccata," an authorized adaptation of a piece by contemporary Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera, that Emerson begins to cool things down, with the frantic convulsions of the Moog and Palmer’s driving rhythms, who, for the first time, “triggers” his drum kit by interfacing it with a synth module. In its unfolding, divided into three well-characterized parts, the trio with the aforementioned "Karn" unravels perhaps one of the highest points of their creativity.
Ideas, harmonic development, deep sense of structure, instantaneous findings, well-chosen lyrics, and a famous cover designed by biomechanic designer Hans Rudi Giger make this work one of the reference points of European rock of the early '70s. Unfortunately, it will coincide with the slow decline of both the English trio and, shortly thereafter, the so-called English progressive scene. At the time, terms like "decadent," "cold," "whirling machine," "ELP's lowest point," and similar pleasantries were used to define it. I suppose that after 33 years, a re-listening wouldn't hurt.
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Other reviews
By Domenico_Lotti
The suite represents the epitome of all the sound and splendor that this band has delivered since their early records.
It is a must-have for lovers of good music, but especially for lovers of a genre that in these years seems to be experiencing a second youth: the legendary progressive rock.
By Gabrielegilli
"Brain Salad Surgery is undoubtedly their most mature, most cerebral, most grotesque, most theatrical, and classical work."
"The colossal 30-minute suite 'Karn Evil Nine' is the real masterpiece of the album, and of the band."
By Hetzer
"Jerusalem almost moves me, because the macabre charm of a religious hymn mixes perfectly with a voice like Lake’s."
"Brain Salad Surgery... is actually as light as a wonderful silk brocade shroud. And it will be for, well, a long time… Until death & machine do us part."
