I Level - Shake! (1985)

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I Level - Shake! (1985)

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I Level was a short-term U.K. band consisting of Duncan Bridgeman, Jo Dworniak, and Sam Jones. Bridgeman and Dworniak -- both from Essex, England -- met through a classified ad in Melody Maker and first played together in Scrambled Egos and Shake Shake before evolving into I Level, with the addition of Sam Jones from Sierra Leone, Africa. With Jones, a former member of the reggae band Brimstone, I Level snagged a deal with Virgin Records in 1982. The year before, Bridgeman was a brief member of the Last Dance and recorded with the band. They scored out-the-box in the U.K. with "Give Me," which became a Top Five R&B single in the U.S. via Epic Records. The success inspired a whole album of songs. I Level dropped early in 1983 and two more not as successful singles, "Minefield" and "Teacher," bubbled out. 1985 saw the release of the trio's second and final LP, Shake, which contained the controversial track "In the Sand," an acclaimed U.K. rare groove. When the album didn't move, I Level disbanded. Dworniak became a sought after session man with credits too numerous to mention. He was a member of the duo Gardening by Moonlight with John Johnson and played keyboards for John Foxx. In 1989, Bridgeman and Dworniak remixed Paul McCartney's "Good Sign" track and they continue to work with a diversity of artists. The whereabouts of Sam Jones are unknown. Although this is considered a funk-disco album by many, for me it was the perfect example of late new wave music where funk and soul influences were more obvious than with earlier groups like, for instance, The Human League. My favourite track is still "In The River", despite the relative success of "In The Sand".