ARTIST: Fusician ALBUM: Half Off (EP) LABEL: Fusetone Records SERIAL: - YEAR: 1981 COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: LINEUP: Patti Giacalone - vocals * Doug Gillespie - guitars, vocals * Craig Otte - keyboards * Joe McGowan - bass * Jim Sage - drums, bells TRACK LISTING: 01 One People * 02 Distant Star * 03 Future Fear * 04 Company Man

---

Background
From Van Nuys, Los Angeles, come this short-lived female fronted hard rock semi-pomp outfit called Fusician. With Patti Giacalone up front, I'm sure most of you will be making comparisons to the likes of Tantrum, Jet and Groundstar. However, the material cannot be fully assessed against those great outfits, mainly because there are only four tracks on offer here. It's a single sided 4 track EP with varying quality. If I was to put money on it, the band that compares most favourably to Fusician would be a rockier version of Quarterflash, who also appeared on the US Charts the same year as this was released.

---

The Songs
At just fifteen minutes, you won't get too much on quantity. 'One People' has an anthemic quality about it. The multi-part vocal harmonies fattens out the sound, with Otte's keyboards doing the rest to make it sound interesting. 'Distant Star' aims for that 'epic' type of sound, the band deliver an excellent guitar/keyboard solo interplay thing which gives the track a rock edge, though the track plods mainly. 'Future Fear' has a lot of Styx elements contained within, again due to the Craig Otte influence. The last track 'Company Man' is full of stabbing pianos, and saxophone. Yes, the ever present sax solo blaring throughout. Not a great track unfortunately.

---

In Summary
Would've been good to see some more material from this lot, so as to get a better gauge of their potential. The astronomical prices for this rarity are completely overblown. Anyone willing to pay over $100 for this 4-track needs to have their head read! Keyboardist Craig Otte later turned up in another rare band - Day One.

---

Related Articles
N/A

---

All written content on this website is copyrighted.
Copying of material without permission is not permitted.

Posted by gdazegod on June 09, 2007 · 1 Comment · 1192 Reads ·