That's Your Secret," probably the best single released by a Southern rock band last year, announced the addition of songwriter/vocalist Randall Bramblett and his longtime sidekick, guitarist Davis Causey, to what had been a tight rock quartet with fusion leanings. Before that single and its source LP, Cats on the Coast, Sea Level seemed a mildly interesting Allman Brothers spinoff. Now the group is one of the finest performing units in the South. While recordings haven't yet tapped the band's full potential, On the Edge, cut just after ex-Wings drummer Joe English joined, comes close.

There's a healthy tension between Bramblett's songs, which are basically in the Southern soul tradition (though their lyrics often reflect his studies in psychology and religion), and keyboard man Chuck Leavell's fusion instrumentals. But the picture's getting more complicated. The group's original guitarist, Jimmy Nalls, who now shares guitar chores with Causey, contributes a kind of funk/fusion piece, "Fifty-Four," to the new album. Spurred by English's fatback drumming and the solid bass work of Lamar Williams, the ensemble playing is exceptionally tasty and well integrated. Sea Level still has some conceptual problems—On the Edge is too much a pastiche—but the band appears to be marshaling its forces, and those forces could be awesome. (RS 285)

ROBERT PALMER