Personnel: Jean-Luc Ponty (violin, keyboards); Joaquin Lievano, Daryl Sturmer (guitar); Chris Rhyne (keyboards); Randy Jackson (bass); Mark Craney (drums).
Recorded at the Village Recorder, Los Angeles, California in June & July, 1980.
Personnel: Jean-Luc Ponty (vocals, violin, keyboards, bass synthesizer); Daryl Stuermer, Joaquin Lievano (guitar); Chris Rhyne, Allan Zavod, Chris Rhyme (keyboards); Mark Craney (drums).
Recording information: Village Recorder, Los Angeles, CA (06/1980-07/1980).
Photographer: Mark Hanauer.
Ponty kicked off the '80s with an anomalous jolt of electronicized jazz funk. Fusion had begun to recede into small, underground pockets, hiding its head in fear, overwhelmed by bad muzak and the rejuvenation of tepid traditionalism. Experimentalism was left to other genres, but Ponty plowed on, updating his sound to reflect the changing technological flavors of the time. On CIVILIZED EVIL, he let his obvious love for electronics and science fiction advance to the fore.
"Demagomania" is a bass-driven showcase for Chris Rhyne's wedges of prog synth and Ponty's intergalactic violin bursts. "Forms of Life" is Ponty lost in a forest of silicon gadgetry, a nearly five-minute fugue of majestic keyboard clusters, stuttering violins, and punchy synth bass. And "Happy Robots" sees Ponty and his band jammin' down at the Star Wars cantina, doing a disco-funk wigwam with Ponty soloing over the top. Never has such wicked evil sounded so intoxicatingly good.
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