Geoffrey Downes & New Dance Orchestra - Vox Humana (1992) {Japan 1st Press}

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Geoffrey Downes & New Dance Orchestra - Vox Humana (1992) {Japan 1st Press}

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Vox Humana is the second solo album by Geoffrey Downes, the former member of The Buggles, Asia & Yes. Many of the songs on this fine album were later reworked by Asia on their Archiva albums.

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The synth maestro shows his vulnerable underbelly: what a fabulous sight! It’s always been hard to make out the enigma that is Geoff Downes: there’s always been someone else chanelling the keyboard master thoughts which run beyond the ivory tinkling. So on his second album Downes set to prove he can be all over a song. And that’s exactly what he does on the perennial “Video Killed The Radio Star”, the pure, delicate piano and Glenn Hughes warm vocals turning The Buggles’ dance ditty into a lush soulful ballad. As for Geoff contributions to the bands he’s been in, Max Bacon-sung opener, “Tears”, sounds like an Asia out-take, while “White Car” emerges as a pale cover of the YES’ composition. Elsewhere, “All Of The Time” comes off as a little delight in its own right, and in “Moon Under The Water” Steve Overland powerfully pulls the heart-strings. Alongside these, electronic buzzers such as “Plastic Age” feel primitive and dated, even the updates of Bach’s “Ave Maria” and Albinoni’s “Adagio” not saving matters much. The classicism is covered here with “Concerto”, whose acoustic guitar leads the way here remaining a secret, while “England” is a wonderful take on a folk theme, showing Downes as an all-round musician. He can use a vocoder, yet his is an undoubtedly human voice.

~ dmme.net

Geoffrey "Geoff" Downes is an English rock songwriter, record producer, keyboardist, icon. Downes created The Buggles with Trevor Horn in 1977. After three years of songwriting and recording process, their first album, The Age of Plastic, was released in 1980. Now recognized as a highly influent album and a landmark of the electropop era, it also spawned the single "Video Killed the Radio Star", that was No. 1 on the singles charts of sixteen countries. The same year, both Horn and Downes joined Yes and recorded the album Drama as a part of the band. The following year however, Yes disbanded.

After the end of Yes, Downes and Horn resumed working on a second Buggles album, Adventures in Modern Recording, released in 1981. The same year, Downes founded Asia with fellow former Yes member Steve Howe, former King Crimson member John Wetton, and former Emerson, Lake & Palmer drummer Carl Palmer. The weak commercial performance of Adventures in Modern Recording, associated with Downes being busy with Asia and Horn wanting to be focusing on being a record producer, led to the disbanding of The Buggles. Yes subsequently reformed in 1983, without them, but with Horn producing.

Since 1981, Downes performed in Asia and released fourteen albums with them (the band disbanded in 1986, but he re-joined it in 1990 one year after its reformation), while also releasing solo albums (including several with Wetton), and acting as record producer for various artists including Mike Oldfield and Thompson Twins. While he was the only remaining original member of since 1993, Downes reunited the original Asia lineup in 2006, including Howe who had since re-joined Yes. In 2011, Downes returned to Yes 30 years after his last tenure in the band, and released his second album with them, Fly from Here. The album, produced by Horn, featured material the duo had originally composed for The Buggles. Downes is currently a member of both Asia and Yes; in addition, he frequently reunites on special occasions with Horn to perform Buggles music since 1998. Downes has also been entered in the Guinness Book of Records for performing with the most keyboards on stage in one single performance, with a record of twenty-eight.

~ Wiki

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Geoffrey Downes & New Dance Orchestra - Vox Humana (1992) {Japan 1st Press}

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Geoffrey Downes & New Dance Orchestra - Vox Humana (1992) {Japan 1st Press}

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Geoffrey Downes & New Dance Orchestra - Vox Humana (1992) {Japan 1st Press}

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