Recorded in London on June 25, 1973, these sessions for a planned third
Mahavishnu Orchestra album were shelved when the band decided to put out the live
Between Nothingness and Eternity instead. Bootlegged in the past, two-track mixes of the missing album were discovered in the vaults in the late '90s, paving the way for its official release in 1999. It's thus the last of the three studio albums done by the original
Mahavishnu lineup (with
Cobham on drums,
Goodman on violin,
Hammer on keyboards, and
Laird on bass). Although
McLaughlin had been the only composer on the first two
Mahavishnu albums, he penned only three of the six tracks here, with
Hammer writing two and
Laird pitching in one. It's fiery, if perhaps over-busy at times, fusion,
McLaughlin reaching his most feverish pitches in the frenetic concluding passage of the ten-minute "Trilogy." The numbers written by other members than
McLaughlin tend to be a little more subdued, and perhaps unsurprisingly less inclined toward burning guitar solos. ~ Richie Unterberger