FORCE 10 - FORCE 10 (1981, WARNER BROS)
Griff Stevens - vocals, woodwinds, guitars; computer grunts
Tom Brighton - guitars, vocals
Rick White - keyboards, vocals
Larry Tuttle - bass, vocals
Jeff Swisstack - drums

Background
The Glory Daze site is a big fan of the American pomp band Russia. Better known in the Northwest Pacific area as the band Sorcerers Apprentice, the band changed names and moved down to Los Angeles. Their one-off album from 1980 is reviewed here, but sadly that incarnation only lasted the distance for that one album. Thankfully, the boys returned a year later under a new moniker Force 10. It appears also that singer Griff Stevens has diversified his musical array of skills from playing railroad springs (as noted on the credits on the Russia album) to supplying computer grunts for this one. Whatever the heck computer grunts means is probably best left for Griff to describe! lol. What was in the name change then? Hopefully the political climate of the day wasn't a precursor to change. I could understand it if the band had been operating in the climate of fear back in the day of Joe McCarthy. Heck, the boys could still be camping out at Guantanamo Bay for being so cheeky. No, the reason they changed names was to get the mentally challenged members of the American public off their back, who probably thought the Cold War was still in existence.

The Songs
Force 10 then, is as wacky for humor as The Tubes and J Geils Band were, though not exactly duplicating their musical style, this time around they're following a band like Air Raid instead. The album mixes it up, the offbeat 'Watanabe' commences things, complete with stabbing pianos, new-wave styled synth pieces and some stinging lead guitar from Tom Brighton. 'Hypnotized' offers more in the way of the familiar quirky Russia sound, the synth lead through the middle is both zany and cool! The dabbles you hear on 'I Feel So Amused' remind you of of their Pacific Northwest cousins Aviary. Even more charming is the change-a-minute pomp of 'Pictures Of My Favorite Things', again mixing quirky, offbeat, interesting and manic all in the space of 6 minutes. With 'Mountains Of Love' the track is punctuated with stops and starts, but the Styx like keyboard passage will invoke memories of their Dennis De Young days. Wurlitzer piano parts precedes 'Show Me Your Love', the overall song a regimented pomp workout. Another interesting track is 'Bastinado', taking its queue from all those aforementioned bands, the quirky pomp even has an element of sixties era melody threaded throughout, but the blazing guitar solo thankfully centers this back in the eighties. Hearing this you'll be singing 'its a cold world .. it's a cold world..' for days on end! Restrained power is the prevailing feature on 'My Future', musically akin to Saga on a good day, this one features an array of keyboard and percussion effects. The band finishes up with 'I'll See You'. The arrangement is quite a busy one. Instrumentation and effects are all over the place. Perhaps the musical equivalent of a busy street in New York?

In Summary
Despite the inventiveness of Force 10's music, the band could hardly expect to witness any form of commercial success with it because (for its time) it was so out there. The band failed to materialise any more output as a result. Still a great bit of pomp history for those who want to seek this band (along with Russia) out.

Track Listing:
01 Watanabe
02 Hypnotized
03 I Feel So Amused
04 Pictures Of My Favorite Things
05 Mountains Of Love
06 Show Me Your Love
07 Bastinado
08 My Future
09 I'll See You

Related Articles:
N/A

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