David Bedford, Instructions for Angels (side A)

The track titles of 1977's Instructions for the Angels introduce the album as a continuous suite.  It begins with an introduction of a theme, followed by a series of variations, and ending with a finale.  Side A follows this concept closely.  The opening theme is introduced with rich, trebly keyboard sounds accompanied by small percussion.  The variations that continue through side A maintain both the textural palette and the tonal center.  New melodies are introduced and the keyboard sounds vary, but the music follows a neat path without sharp turns.  Side B, however, adds several surprising turns that do not mesh neatly with the continuous suite concept.  Mike Ratledge's keybaord at the start of the side, while it sonically meshes with Bedford's underlying palette, plays far busier parts than the slowly-evolving music that preceded it.  It's then replaced by Mike Oldfield's guitar, which brings the only overt attack on the album, and also a more distorted timbre than any of the keyboards utilized.  Finally, a symphonic track builds slowly from silence, and has a much darker frequency balance than the electronic sounds that preceded it.  It has harmonic similarities with the rest of the album, but is both sonically and dynamically very incongruous, especially for a track listed as a finale — this title does not imply its wild departure.  The references to Kenneth Patchen in the liner notes are nice, but their relationship to the music is unclear.  The outer packaging looks like a generic new age record without any hint at Bedford's distinctive compositional style or accomplishments.