Unfairly derided for supposedly watering down both jazz and funk, Level 42 were quickly saddled with a reputation for mainstream naffness. Journalists who had probably never heard an entire album made them the butt of jokes, but the band almost always took it in their stride, bassist Mark King constantly making selfmocking references to his own oversized thumb.
The eponymous debut from 1981 initially garnered positive reviews, however, and the band were occasionally mentioned in the same breath as fusion big players Stanley Clarke. The following year’s Early Tapes was arguably even more ‘pure’ in its intentions to introduce jazz improv to a wider audience. The Pursuit Of Accidents veered more towards soul and R&B, resulting in their first hit single, The Chinese Way.
By 1985, World Machine had made them a global prospect, albeit at the expense of early fans who accused them of selling out. Bolstered to a double disc here, it’s nonetheless the quintessential Levs album, mixing chart smashes such as Leaving Me Now and Something About You with more idiosyncratic flights of fancy as Coup D’Etat. On this evidence, anyone who dismissed them as little more than wine bar background noise was wide of the mark.
