A. ANIMAL was my initial project, right out of High School. My original idea was to blend the Fusion energy of groups like Mahavishnu with the Avant Garde as played by Ornette Coleman. The Band was comprised of myself, Conrad De La Cruz on Bass, and Louis Magliente on drums.
A. Animal Circa 1990. L to R; Neil Alexander, Conrad De La Cruz, Lou Magliente
We originally played from 1978 – 1981. After a break we reformed in 1986, and continued to perform until 1994 I finally disbanded the project for good. Over the course of our run we evolved into a hard hitting “Punk Fusion” band, playing covers by Mahavishnu, King Crimson, Billy Cobham and others in addition to our many originals.
Although we could never actually tour (for reasons I won’t go into here), we had played locally in and around NYC for such a long time we caught the attention of Bill Laswell engineer Robert Musso, who agreed to produce our first record “Overhaul”, in 1990. It was to be released on MuWorks records in the summer of 1990, but as we were actually in the Lawyer’s office going over contracts the first Gulf War was breaking out, and “all bets were off” – all the overseas companies which were supposed to carry and distribute the record pulled out of the deal. The record was never released.
In the early 2000’s I was able to get the 24 track masters and the final 2 track master transferred to digital, and was able to release it on Pdog Records. I was making them as one-off’s out of my basement; the advent of Bandcamp allowed me to finally get the CD out to a larger audience.
2015 will mark the 25th anniversary of this recording. Stay tuned for news about any events which may or may not happen.
Surprise! We now have a Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/A.Animalband
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