Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: World Trade
Label: Frontiers Records
Release date: 2017
Rating: 3.5/5
The history of World Trade reaches back to the second half of the eighties. After a long 22 years since the release of the band’s second studio album »Euphoria« (1995), the time and the will finally lined up for a third one, which the original lineup, Billy Sherwood (Yes), Bruce Gowdy (Unruly Child), Guy Allison (Unruly Child) and Mark T. Williams (brother of Toto singer Joseph and son of famed Hollywood director John Williams), has titled »Unify«. The album cover, which fleetingly and at first glance recalls the cover of Dream Theater’s »Octavarium« (2005), feels cathartic and post-apocalyptic given the chosen title. The giant spheres hanging on strings, lined up one after another in an endless straight row, are actually uniformed people, without »color, smell or taste,« without personality, stripped of all emotion and spirituality, which means the eternally conspiratorial Big Brother has finally managed to establish complete control over the masses. The balance of ecosystems has been wrecked, there are no free-living creatures or plants left, no seasons either, or rather we get just one kind of weather. The sky is stormy all the time, packed with gray-black clouds that somehow never manage to rain, while the surface of planet Earth has completely dried out and turned into boundless stretches of scorched dunes. That’s exactly where we’re headed. At least if this system we live in keeps sustaining itself, including by triggering every possible absurdity we’re already witnessing today. Right up to our own destruction. The planet, of course, survives happily and later recovers. Luckily, without humans. But that’s another story.
Since the job of reviews like this is first and foremost to judge the music, let’s move over there instead. On their 1989 debut, World Trade served up an exceptionally interesting and distinctive style, a happy marriage of the infectious musicality of AOR and prog-rock impulses, while also offering production that was hugely eye-catching for its time, drawing inspiration from the sound of Yes albums of the day such as »Big Generator« and the cult »90125«. Everything on it sounded remarkably inventive and detailed, rolling along its own peculiar art pop rock tracks. The second album, »Euphoria«, tipped the scales toward flirting with progressive rock, so it’s no surprise that the late Yes bassist Chris Squire guested on two tracks. Soon after, the Conspiracy project was born, which Sherwood put together with Squire and which was effectively a continuation of the World Trade story, just with a dash of Yes aura from the »Open Your Eyes« (1997) era added on top.
»Unify« is, in every respect, a credible successor to World Trade’s 1989–1995 era, as well as to the band’s gradual musical transition into the Conspiracy project. The compositional style set by both World Trade albums and the two Conspiracy albums also left its stamp on Sherwood’s side projects, which, in their artistry, often sounded alike. I’m thinking, for instance, of Sherwood’s collaboration with some other Yes members in the Circa project, as well as his work with former Toto singer Bobby Kimball in YoSo.
It’s worth mentioning that Bruce Gowdy and Guy Allison, on the other hand, later channeled some of that World Trade agenda into their work in Unruly Child, which in the early days didn’t yet come across with the same expressiveness as later on, and especially today, now that the band has put out its still-current studio album »Can’t Go Home«, released at the start of this year.
For anyone familiar with Sherwood’s earlier endeavors, led by his solo studio albums, »Unify« won’t be a surprise in the least, but it will be interesting to anyone who doesn’t know this music yet. The new album holds on to the individuality and distinctiveness of its predecessors. You know right away that Sherwood is behind it, still serving as the mastermind and chief captain of arranging, composing and sound design. The quartet works extremely well together and really feels in sync. The compositions make no secret of their complexity and mosaic-like structure, with the band stringing together multiple motifs and multiple time signatures, slyly glued together with inventive transitions, while at the same time staying remarkably musically accessible and listenable throughout. The atmosphere and moods captured on this record are also distinctive, and so thoroughly gripping in how they build drama. The album has no shortage of moments flirting with that ever-bubbling Yes optimism, though this time Sherwood has a noticeably harder time patching the »hole« when it comes to building multi-part vocal harmonies against the lead vocal, since the remarkable vocal stamp his former partner Chris Squire left with his voice is, frankly, irreplaceable. However you look at it, it’s an exceptionally lovely and polished successor to the previous two albums, embodying the superb chemistry and instrumental interplay of the band members. They certainly don’t skimp on their juicy tricks of astute virtuosity, but as said, within limits that don’t exceed the framework of a clearly defined motif-driven format, which remains the generator of this album’s high musical character.
World Trade – Unify (official lyric video):
Lineup
Billy Sherwood – vocals, bass guitar
Bruce Gowdy – guitar
Guy Allison – keyboards
Mark T. Williams – drums
Production
Billy Sherwood & Bruce Gowdy
Tracklist
1. The New Norm
2. Where We’re Going
3. Pandora’s Box
4. On Target On Time
5. Gone All The Way
6. Unify
7. For The Fallen
8. Lifeforce
9. Same Old Song
10. Again
