Review Summary: The definitive Dregs/Steve Morse record.
(For a brief history on the dregs and Steve Morse płease see my free fall review. Failing that, the Dregs are an instrumental jazz-fusion band, with strong elements of rock, funk, country and classical, this is their 2nd album and it was released in 1978.)
This is a beast of an album. For only 8 tracks the quality of the music is the equivalent to renting a high class hooker. You only get 30 minutes of pleasure, but every penny went to a good cause - fisting yourself in a schoolgirl outfit whilst drinking your own tears. And hey isn't that what music should be about?
The albums opener "take it off the top," is not just an opener, it's a statement. It may be the Dregs' most rocking-in-your-mothers-face song to date but it also oozes confidence and musicianship and the statement is this: "we can play, we're tight, but we're gonna go places we haven't explored much after this one, so come with us if you want, there's plenty of room in the back."
Which then brings us to "odyssey." A track that could well be the "bohemian rhapsody" of the Dregs' catalogue. In other words it's the Dregs' greatest and most progressive song to date. A definite highlight of this song is it starts of sounding like a runaway train is about to ruin someone's day, but then progresses into a Wild West movie style theme led by epic violin, and then changes to about 15 seconds of music which sounds like some kind of futuristic Japanese soap-box derby/nascar racing style music before journeying back to the Wild West theme again. And if that wasn't enough the last two minutes of the song go all runaway train on us again with a battle of instruments. Title track "what if" then brings us back down with its' slow pace and dreamy like feel, comprising of a lush chord progression and one of Steve Morse's finer solos.
The next two tracks "travel tunes" and "Ice cakes," bring on the funk, the latter being the stronger track and possibly the Dregs' second greatest composition, if not joint first with "odyssey." This could be the funkiest song to ever feature a violin as one of its' leading instruments.
"Little kids" then takes us a couple of hundred centuries back, with a very Celtic inspired acoustic guitar and violin combo. And just after you've finished riding your horse through a medieval carnival, you then journey on your horse to a ranch of classic Americana with "Gina Lola breakdown." This song should be the definitive hoe-down track, complete with ripping fiddle playing and a toe tapping, hand clapping rhythm that just begs for a chair to be launched across the room. If your ever going to start a bar fight, whap this badboy on the jukebox first.
Album closer "night meets light" bandages up the wounds and bruises of the previous track, with its' slow pace very reminiscent of title track "what if," but structurally more progressive. Morse's solo at the end of the song is one of the albums greatest moments and a fitting final farewell.
With not one weak track on here, a wide array of style, excellent musicianship and easy to digest songs, What if? Is the Dregs' moment of glory. Highly recommended to fans of, not just jazz-fusion, but of instrumental rock or prog of all shapes. 5/5.
Recommended tracks:
Ice cakes
Odyssey
What if?
