Jon Hassell, Earthquake Island (side A)

Jon Hassell is usually associated with his sparse, ambient records — he has made countless albums in this style, including high-profile collaborations with Brian Eno.  It's thus easy to forget that his second album,  1978's Earthquake Island, featured a large ensemble, playing more energetic and grooving music.  It employs bass guitar, layers of percussion, and even vocals (but not overt lyrics) to create a series of underlying rhythmic beds — each piece is then built on top of an underlying framework, which repeats for its duration.  Hassell's trumpet still floats above the grooves, along with floaty electronic textures.  While some of the players, like Badal Roy and Miroslav Vitous, have fusion-leaning backgrounds, Hassell's personality pulls them firmly into his more drone-centered approach.  Earthquake Island sounds a bit like an instrumental version of the Talking Heads' Fear of Music, with rhythms that hint at African influences coupled with rock and electronic ideas — while the two albums are roughly contemporaries, Fear of Music obviously received a lot more attention.  Unlike Fear of Music, which uses exaggerated studio techniques to draw attention to its modernity, Earthquake Island's mixes organically draw the listener into the performance.  The front cover painting employs Middle Eastern referents, and it's placed in a then-modern design framework — the combination serves the music nicely.