If you only think of Nick Mason as Pink Floyd‘s former timekeeper — and current keeper of their legacy — you need to rethink. And here’s the place to begin your research: With Unattended Luggage, a new box set collecting three of his long-lost extracurricular efforts from the ’80s. First up is the iconoclastic Nick Mason’s Fictitious Sports, an energetic set of colourfully quirky jazz-rock ditties (sample title: Boo to You Too) penned by avant-garde pianist Carla Bley, laced with skronking horns and twangy guitars, and sung by eccentric Soft Machine frontman Robert Wyatt. Then comes Profiles, a mostly instrumental batch of fast-paced ’80s prog-pop with 10CC guitarist Rick Fenn that hews somewhat closer to his day job (and includes a vocal cameo from David Gilmour). Last but not least, there’s Mason and Fenn’s White of the Eye, a suitably moody, episodic and occasionally claustrophobic soundtrack to an obscure serial killer movie. If these discs don’t leave you scratching your head, nothing will.
