Tony Hymas - Flying Fortress

Splendid post-modern instrumentals on one side, stylish 1980’s experimental pop on the other, hands down one of the very best weirdo avant garde album from 1980’s France. Another Okonkole Y Trompa classic, and French label Nato’s genre-defying masterpiece.

Another record we posted about in the very early days of our former blog Okonkole Y Trompa. The original post misses the originality of the record, doesn't really develop on the music, but conveys the utter excitement of a fresh discovery instead. Written a few hours after I purchased the odd looking record in a now defunct Pigalle record shop, I can now tell how I used to feverishly skip through records to find that one track to upload on YouTube. In the case of Flying Fortress, it was "Picture of Departure", a jewel of minimal experimental pop, that eventually made it to Jamie Tiller & Raphael Top-Secret's seminal compilation on Music From Memory, Uneven Paths.

But the record is far more than just a one-hit container. It's a brilliant recreation from studio shark Tony Hymas, the arranger-composer-keyboards player of Jeff Beck, joined by other pop stars' collaborators - Hugh Burns, Frank Ricotti, Stan Sulzmann - and British jazz legends Tony Coe and Chris Laurence. The first side is a collection of various post-modern instrumental pieces - neo chamber music with "So English" or "Bleak Bleak" or the weirdly-club friendly jam "ICU" - while the second side dwells on the left field side of late 1980's pop, starting with the brilliant "Lullaby". Whoever is now in charge of Nato's catalogue almost got the Okonkole Y Trompa's YouTube channel closed for copyright infrigement issues, since we posted a few tunes from their catalogue - and I hate them for that... It means that you won't find any clip on YouTube, but trust me, it's one of the best of its kind ever. (VG+/VG+)

Tracklist

1. 6000 Miles Away
2. The Great Wheel 
3. So English
4. ICU
5. Bleak Bleak
6. Lunch Time Automatic Ballet
7. Lullaby
8. My Arabian Dream
9. Super Hero 2
10. Pictures of Departure
11. Flying Fortress