Group 87

Category: Discography

Group 87 was my very first adventure into the world of big-time record making. It was a band that I formed with my two best friends – Peter Maunu and Patrick O’Hearn – in the beginning of my exploration of instrumental fusion music. We made two records, both of which tried to explore our version of what that genre was about – influenced heavily by Weather Report and Brian Eno. The first one, Group 87, featured Terry Bozzio and Peter Wolf as guests, and the second, entitled A Career in Dada Processing, featured Peter Van Hooke.

3 thoughts on “Group 87

  1. Hi,
    Have heard and own the second album, and Postcard from the Volcano is my favorite. I also like the next 3 tracks – Pleasure in Progress, The Mask Maker and The Apple Bites Back. The rest are listenable, but the first four are the album’s highlights.

  2. No-one has commented on this entry? NO ONE? What the heck.

    It was early 1981. I was sick to death of “standard” music. If you tried to play Stairway to Heaven, Freebird or any fucking thing by BTO, I would have gladly ripped your arm off and beaten you to death with it. MTV hadn’t even hit the airwaves yet.

    One lazy Sunday while trolling the swap meet, I saw an album on the front of a stack of vinyl, this album, with the gold “promo” stamp on it that I looked for. Liked the cover photo, didn’t know any of the players, was struck by the interesting song names. Paid a quarter for the record. Took it home, put it on the turntable, and my **entire. world. changed.**

    I had already been leaning in this direction with fave bands like Yes, Pink Floyd and Kansas (plus many other more obscure art bands like Tangerine Dream, Can and the like), but Group 87 changed everything. In that one Sunday afternoon, my view on music came into sharp focus, and I’ve never looked back. Only later did I begin to appreciate the true majesty and impact of this work as I followed Mark & Patrick (saw both of them a couple of times, sublime evenings), and of course Terry as he formed Missing Persons, not even knowing of his association with Frank Z until much later.

    To this day, my musical preference leans toward cerebral instrumental works, and for this, I offer my deepest thanks to Group 87.

  3. Back in 1980 I discovered the music of Mark Isham starting with Group 87 (first). Picked up the vinyl back in days of record stores. Main reason for buying the album was the album cover… had seen it in a Communication Arts magazine a few months earlier. Loved the first album (and the second) and oddly enough casually mentioned it to my audio producer. I was working in advertising in Eugene, Oregon at the time. Turns out that audio guy was Steve Diamond who actually knew Mark Isham and was one of the few people I’d met who had heard of Group 87. Years later I found both Group 87 albums on CD as well. Great tunes. Of course I also began to notice the name Mark Isham in the credits for many of my favorite movies along the way. Now I ask Alexa (or Siri) to play music by Mark Isham and I get to hear those beautiful compositions.

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