Eight Seconds - Almacantar

I always meant to pick this up, mainly because "Kiss You (When It's Dangerous)" was so good. For whatever reason, most likely budget, I never bought it. Oddly, none of the myriad of '80s anthologies I've collected over the years has the song on it. It sort of faded into obscurity as far as I was concerned.

Then, a while back, it popped into my mind. I likely heard it on the radio - I don't think it matters - but I jotted it down on my little pad of paper where I have my list of wants. Right next to Riggs, Alpha Band, and Randall Waller, I wrote down Eight Seconds, and what I thought was the album title: When Seconds Count. You'd think, carrying around the internet in my pocket, I'd have just looked it up. Nope. When Seconds Count was by Survivor, if you're wondering.

Eventually I did find it, and the album was titled Almacantar. This time I did use the internet in my pocket to figure out what the title meant. Well, to save you time, it's a staff instrument used to calculate the sunrise and sunset. I guess it's a little like a sextant, and the angle ranges from 15 to 30 degrees. So looking at all the gears and unidentified green head on the cover, which shows a range from 30 to 60 degrees, I must be missing something, but it's not going to keep me up at night.

The album opens with "Sincere," which bears more than a passing resemblance to Night Ranger's "Rumours in the Air" from 1983. The band then gets right to it with "Kiss You (When It's Dangerous)," and all is forgiven. This is a great song. It's got it all, except a shredding solo, but honestly, it would have distracted from the song. Besides, the keyboard riff by Frank Levin is perfect - he's so good throughout the whole record.

As the songs progressed, all of them quite enjoyable, I started to confuse what I was hearing with The Fixx. It's not like vocalist Andres del Castillo is a carbon copy of Cy Curnin, but boy howdy, there are certainly some pretty strong nods, from March Cesare's funky, articulated bass playing to the guitars played by Marc Parent and Andres. Scott Milks' drumming keeps everything moving without calling attention to itself, and that's probably part of why the whole thing hangs together as well as it does. They aren't in the same league as Jamie West-Oram, but they're quite good and are fitted exactly where they need to be.

I suspect this is due as much to producer Rupert Hine as anything. Mr. Hine had produced, among others, Reach the Beach, as well as the 1986 release Walkabout by The Fixx, so it's not like they were recording in a vacuum. However, it's unfair to call Eight Seconds mere clones of The Fixx. Sure, there are similarities here and there, but they were more a product of the mid-'80s than anything. After all, Rupert Hine also produced SAGA, Howard Jones, and even a couple of really good Chris de Burgh albums, and those albums didn't sound like The Fixx.

They were really good, and the album was a pleasant surprise. I expected one good song. Getting an entire album of mid-'80s goodness was just gravy. There really are quite a few hidden gems to be found here. Eight Seconds is a band that kind of makes you wonder, what if?

It didn't help that any momentum the band had with Almacantar was wiped out when their follow-up album, that was already coming two years after their initial brush with success, was delayed another two years. When Big Houses was finally released, there was really no one waiting for it. The band would break up shortly after. Timing is everything, and these guys deserved a better run than they got.

Oddly enough, when Myles Goodwin retired from touring with April Wine, it was Marc Parent - who didn't sing on Almacantar - who got the tap on the shoulder to step into his shoes.