RED ROCKERS — Good As Gold (415/Columbia):: The general tone of this, the second album by the politically-oriented Red Rockers of San Francisco (by the way of New Orleans), is aptly struck by the inscrutable jaun-" tiness of the delightful “China,” a song whose lilting sound can best be described as “implied' Byrds.” Meaning that, although there’s certainly an underlying consciousness in there somewhere, it’s neither the point nor the effect of the track overall. The softer, less obsessive cuts here are the ones that work best and help separate Good As Gold from the band’s correct-but-cold debut LP, cuts like the charged “Change The World Around,” and “Fanfare For Metropolis,” with its fine, melancholy-laced piano. Remember, guys, the medium is the message, and the next album should be even better than this promising one. B.A.

TONY WILLIAMS LIFETIME—Once In A Lifetime (Verve):: Lifetime was there at the birth of fusion, when the music was a squalling infant, thrashing about wildly in search of new ways to organize sound, not the timeclockpunching sessionman most of it is today. Williams had been Miles Davis’ Hmesmasher for years; here, he proved himself as heavy as Bonham with twice the technique. Larry Young was the only organist to play with Hendrix on an equal footing and before he became stylized, guitarist John McLaughlin was a mother like no other. Since most of this album is improvised, there may be spots you’ll wanna skip over—like the ones where Tony opens his mouth—but at their many peaks, Lifetime paradoxically defined what fusion could be—and would never be again. M.D.