The nicest thing about these two records, really the only thing that justifies lumping them together, is the interplay between guitarist John McLaughlin and organist Larry Young that characterizes them both. The fact that the young Englishman out of Graham Bond's group and the young American out of the Newark black music scene get on so well together, have learned since the first Tony Williams album to complement each other, lets us know that something is happening.

Jack Bruce, as everyone knows, is playing bass with Tony, and play the bass is all that he does. He proves himself adequate to the music, but he is down there providing the underpinning, overshadowed most of the time by Tony's monster drumming, which is first-rate as always. The music on Turn It Over is more focused than the first Lifetime album. Emergency. Still, there are Tony's vocals. He would be the first to admit that he is learning, and he is certainly getting better, much better, but all this searching is sometimes at the listener's expense. So we get an album with a lot of good music, but an album whose overall effect is lessened by some less-than-good vocal efforts. On the plus side there is much more Larry Young, a fine and original musician who is often overlooked in the furor over McLaughlin. Young's solo outings on Coltrane's "Big Nick" and his own "Allah Be Praised" are very nice and recommended listening for all rock organists.

John's album is very fine, and not a vocal to be found. He and Young, who supports him well, are abetted by the Band of Gypsies rhythm section of Billy Rich and Buddy Miles. John apparently was after a very heavy-rock sound, and it is to his credit that he has managed to make an album as Heavy as the most fanatical Led Zeppelin devotee could wish, while maintaining a high musical level. It's about time somebody showed new musical possibilities in this much-abused medium.

The much-maligned Miles gives the music a hip ponderousness that really works quite well except in one instance when he tries to do an Elvin and misses. McLaughlin sounds better than on his records with Tony and Miles, playing long, flowing lines, with real content, and much more lyricism than before. He is aided by some fine engineering, and the result is the most musical Heavy Music in some time. (RS 66)

BOB PALMER