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Tell me about the band 'Nucleus'

kasperhauser

kasperhauser

pfm Member
Just discovered them through a YouTube random walk, which pulled up their 1975 album Alleycat as a suggestion. I love it.

However, their list of members on wikipedia reads like a who's who of serious British/Canadian/New Zealander/Australian talent through the 70s and 80s. Sometimes bands like this with revolving door lineups can be a bit hit or miss.

Knowing I like this one, can anyone point me toward others to explore/avoid?

 
Not my taste at all, but you may like Milk - a current UK band, who I do like.

That apart, have you searched YouTube for any of their other albums? Here are the previous and following albums (which seem quite different to each other, the later more jazz orientated, based on my minimal listening) -


 
Ian Carr formed Nucleus as a UK fusion band in 1970 to take forward the ideas started by electric-era Miles. The band has featured many players such as Chris Spedding, Geoff Castle, Karl Jenkins, John Marshall etc etc. I always thought of them as a funkier version of Soft Machine (seeing a couple of members played in both).

All of the early albums are essential - We'll Talk About It Later is their finest with Song for the Bearded Lady as the outstanding track. Start with that and then go back to Elastic Rock and then forward to Solar Plexus, Labyrinth and Roots. The Ian Carr solo album Belladonna is also worth checking out as it's very close to a Nucleus album.

Spot the difference:

and

:)
 
Nothing more to add here. All Nucleus albums can be found on youtube or Spotify, none of them are duff and Ian Carr's Belladonna is splendid too. And John Marshall is the best drummer I have ever heard or seen. He's the drummer on both clips linked by Seeker upthread.

I actually have an album by a band called the emcee5, which is Mike and Ian Carr and John Mclaughlin playing jazz in Newcastle in the mid 60's.
 
Very big echo from me here. The first three records are the best but the later ones well worth a spin.

Elastic Rock from 1970 is my favourite and I do believe it was recorded before Miles Bitches Brew. It stands on its own as a cutting edge record from the time. Mostly its a wonderful listen.

We’ll Talk About It Later is also from 1970 and a banger as MichaelC and Seeker_UK say.

Solar Plexus is gorgeous also. Do play the track Snakehips Dream - at once!! I will try to put a link up here but may well fail the test of age/technology.......

Those first three Nucleus LPs are essential.

Good listening!
 
One of my favourite bands. The last band I saw when I left London in'74, and the first I saw in the early '80s when I resumed my interest in live music.
"Roots" is my favourite, followed by "Out of the Long Dark". Among other stuff, Ian played on Neil Ardley's "Kaleidoscope of Rainbows" and "Harmony of the Spheres" (an album which, IMO, is made by John Martyn's guitar playing).
 
mrclick said:
Elastic Rock from 1970 is my favourite and I do believe it was recorded before Miles Bitches Brew.
Click to expand...

If that's the case, it explains the shift from the electric but firmly in the jazz idiom of 'Elastic Rock', which owes more to 'Miles in the Sky' and 'Speak Like a Child'...

...to the less smooth, angular funk of 'Well Talk About it Later'.

Both of which sound like they should have been used in a soundtrack for a 70s gangster crime flick set in London's Soho.
 
I'm a fan of the Elastic Rock end of Nucleus - very fine band.

Ian Carr also wrote a fine biography of Miles Davis :
images
 
Thanks gents – I'm excited about this journey. I really don't know how I missed them all these years.

I just ordered the box set linked above. I'll see where that takes me, then start exploring some of the other suggestions and side projects.
 
When I first heard Miles’ Complete Jack Johnson Sessions I was shocked to hear how similar the full versions of ‘Go Ahead John’ were to Nucleus’ ‘Sun Child’. McLaughlin and DeJohnette on one sound almost exactly like Spedding and Marshall on the other, and they must have been recorded at almost the same time.

I also remember my mother asking me (as all good mothers do) who was making that god-awful chukka-chukka-chukka racket. I told her it was Chris Spedding. ‘What sort of nutcase would call himself Crisp Bedding?’ she asked.
 
Slightly OT but another good Jack Johnson 'tribute' is 'Tough Enough', the last track on Terje Rypdal's first CD for ECM (in fact, the whole album is electric Miles-influenced awesomeness). Due to licensing issues, ECM stuff is only available on YT for premium members but this live version gives a bit of a feel.

 
It would have been rude not too, so spinning We'll Talk About it Later now.

Still sounds as good.

And another thing, this comes from the era of great album covers. Gatefold sleeve with the cut out on the front cover so you can see the inner cover picture. Simple, but effective. You don't get that from cds let alone this new fangled thing called streaming.
 
Heard them on John Peel, they did sessions. Very good jazz-rock to my ears
 
I had never heard of Nucleus until this thread happened. Did some listening via Qobuz and discover it is very much up my street - early Jazz-Rock really. Fascinating to read/see from the Roon bios that the multi-talent that is Karl Jenkins passed through too.

In passing...
I wish someone would set to and produce a new version of Rock Family Trees - marvelous book. Now where is my copy.?...not sure where it is!
 
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