Author Archives: GRTR! HQ

Album review: MANDOKI SOULMATES – A Memory Of Our Future

MANDOKI SOULMATES - A Memory Of Our Future

Red Rock Music/Inside Out Music [Release date 10.05.24] I think it fair to say that Leslie Mandoki doesn’t do things half-arsed. Several years ago a couple of reissues were accompanied by an expansive press kit, a real thick tome that … Continue reading

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Album review: THESE WICKED RIVERS – Force Of Nature

THESE WICKED RIVERS - Force Of Nature

Fat Earth Records [Released date 01.03.24] This is a perfectly formed second album from Derby’s finest. Formed in 2014, the band combine elements of southern, classic and heavy rock. The title track is a great calling card and guaranteed to … Continue reading

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Album review: MARISA AND THE MOTHS – What Doesn’t Kill You

MARISA AND THE MOTHS - What Doesn't Kill You

Tonesick Records [Release date 03.05.24] I first became aware of Marisa And The Moths during Lockdown and they ultimately produced some excellent stripped back versions of their songs, not least a truly wonderful version of ‘Choke’. At that time they … Continue reading

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Album review: ATTIC THEORY – What We Fear The Most

ATTIC THEORY - What We Fear The Most

ThunderGun Records [Release date 26.04.24] It shows an album’s strength when four tracks are pre-released as “singles”. There could have been more. The debut album from this Liverpool band is a great example of burgeoning home grown talent in 2024. … Continue reading

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Book review: On track…OASIS, NEIL YOUNG, AC/DC, PROCOL HARUM (every album, every song)

On track...Oasis by Andrew Rooney

Sonicbond Publishing www.sonicbondpublishing.com [Publication dates 26.01.24*, 29.02.24**, 05.04.24***, 10.05.24****] The wide spread of the On Track… series is confirmed by Paul Tornbohm’s dissection of Carpenters*. Surveying the pop duo’s output from 1969, Tornbohm approaches his task from the viewpoint of a … Continue reading

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News: Albums Of The Month (January – March 2024)

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  MYRATH Karma (earMUSIC) They have big songs and even bigger ideas on how to present them live and are not short on confidence in their collective abilities, and rightly so. ‘Karma’ will only serve to further the Myrath cause … Continue reading

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Album review: SHADES OF PLATO – Blackout

SHADES OF PLATO - Blackout

Platonic Arrangements [Release date 20.06.24] shadesofplato1.bandcamp.com/ Any album with a song title ‘Bacteria With Shoes’ demands attention. And you’ll find it on the third album from gothic rockers Shades Of Plato. By their own admission this album predicts a post-pandemic apocalypse … Continue reading

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Album review: VARIOUS – Reimagining The Court Of The Crimson King

VARIOUS - Reimagining The Court Of The Crimson King

Purple Pyramid Records [Release date 19.04.24] King Crimson’s 1969 album is one of the most significant and influential prog albums and here gets a fresh coat of paint courtesy of a stellar gathering of prog and fusion A listers. And, … Continue reading

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Book review: On track…MAGNUM – every album, every song – by Matthew Taylor

On track...MAGNUM - every album, every song - by Matthew Taylor

Sonicbond Publishing [Publication date 26.04.24] The merits of these “On track…” books lie in the authors’ comprehensive trawling of sources as much as subjective opinion. Matthew Taylor’s expose of Magnum drives a balance between the two. He has used a … Continue reading

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Album review: LEE AARON – Tattoo Me

LEE AARON - Tattoo Me

Metalville [Release date 26.04.24] Lee Aaron is probably at that stage of life where she doesn’t have to please anyone. She still makes relevant albums and if her previous ‘Elevate’ was not quite up to ‘Radio On!’ (in 2021) they … Continue reading

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Feature: Rock: Rewired – STEVE MARRIOTT Part 2 (Peter Frampton interview)

Peter Frampton and Steve Marriott, January 1991

In the second part of our Steve Marriott feature, Iain McGonigal chatted to Peter Frampton in 2017 about their relationship, Humble Pie, and beyond… Sadly, Steve Marriott only lived for three and a half months of 1991. During this time, … Continue reading

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Feature: Rock: Rewired – STEVE MARRIOTT (Part 1)

Steve Marriott

In his show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio on Sunday 21 April David Randall played a selection of tracks celebrating Steve Marriott. It’s 33 years since the sad passing of Steve Marriott (20 April 1991).  Here Iain McGonigal recalls … Continue reading

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Album review: 25 YARD SCREAMER – The Memory Cheats (The Pictures Within 2023)

25 Yard Screamer - The Memory Cheats (The Pictures Within 2023)

White Knight Records [Release date 24.01.24] 25yardscreamer.bandcamp.com/music 25 Yard Screamer, who we first reviewed back in 2005, are now typical of those solid bands who feed the gnarly backbone of prog rock without being touched by wider success or recognition. … Continue reading

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EP review: ASHEN REACH, DEADAUDIOSAINTS, GEOFF CARNE

ASHEN REACH - The Fear EP

ASHEN REACH The Fear EP [Release date: 22.03.24] www.ashenreach.co.uk Liverpool-based Ashen Reach released their debut ‘Homecoming’ in late 2020 and since that time have appeared at numerous festivals in the UK including Steelhouse and Planet Rockstock. The EP is characterised … Continue reading

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Album review: A TREEHOUSE WAIT – Kaleidoscope

A TREEHOUSE WAIT - Kaleidoscope

Volkoren [Release date 25.05.24] Singer songwriter Jenny Gajicki and producer Emil Sydhage have come together again for this latest piece of Scandi Noir (their debut ‘Interlude’ was in 2016). Jenny has a vocal delivery not dissimilar to the late Dolores … Continue reading

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Album review: EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL – Complete Collection

EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL - Complete Collection

Spirit of Unicorn Music [Release date 12.04.24] Emerson Lake & Palmer had imploded by the mid-eighties and the age of prog and pomp ceremony was seemingly over. In the late seventies there had been a last flourish of excess with … Continue reading

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Album review: THUNDER – The Magnificent Seventh, Robert Johnson’s Tombstone, Bang! (reissues)

thunder_bang1a

BMG [Release date 04.04.24] The latest batch of Thunder reissues span the years 2005-2008. All are available on vinyl for the first time. In 2005 the band released their seventh studio album called, appropriately enough, ‘The Magnificent Seventh’. It was … Continue reading

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Album review: PROG COLLECTIVE – Dark Encounters

PROG COLLECTIVE - Dark Encounters

Purple Pyramid/Cleopatra Records [Release date 29.03.24] If this is “dark prog” then dark prog sounds to me like jazz/rock fusion. Once you are past the descriptors, a look at the cast list suggests this might be a rather tasty fusion … Continue reading

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Gig review: 10cc – Bristol Beacon, 7 March 2024

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David Randall chatted to Graham Gouldman about his career.  First broadcast on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, 12 August 2018. I worked out it’s nearly fifty years since I last saw 10cc live, and this was at the height of … Continue reading

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Album review: SAMI YAFFA – Satan’s Helpers War Lazer Eyes And The Money Pig Circus

SAMI YAFFA - Satan’s Helpers War Lazer Eyes & The Money Pig Circus

Livewire/Cargo [Release date 08.03.24] Friends will tell you that I am a huge fan of the Stones, Guns N’ Roses, Motley Crue or Def Leppard, and they are right, but for me there is one band that will always remain … Continue reading

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Gig review: FRASER ANDERSON/EMILY FRASER – Junction 3, Cambridge, 24 February 2024

Fraser

Continuing my February foray to Cambridge’s acoustic gig offerings, the intimate club surroundings of Junction 3 – where the popular New Routes event has its home – hosts some of the very best acoustic and electric talent in the folk … Continue reading

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Gig review: CONSTANT FOLLOWER – Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 22 February 2024

CONSTANT FOLLOWER - Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, 22 February 2024

For those seeking refuge from a harsh world outside, there was no better place than Cambridge, its gleaming spires, ancient waterway, historic places of learning and the constant ring of bicycle bells in the town centre suddenly the epicentre of … Continue reading

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Album review: RAFAEL RIQUENI – Versatae

RAFAEL RIQUENI - Versatae

Cleopatra Records [Release date 16.02.24] ‘Versatae’ marks something of a departure for the master flamenco guitar player who is held in the same esteem as players like Paco Pena and Paco de Lucia. Rafael Riqueni has lent his skills to … Continue reading

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Album review: BENJAMIN CROFT – We Are Here To Help

BENJAMIN CROFT - We Are Here To Help

Galactic Receiver [Release date 03.05.24] www.benjamincroftmusic.com You could be forgiven thinking that Benjamin Croft is the latest U.S. fusion export. But Benjamin is British and this is his third solo album. He has worked in the States but relocated to … Continue reading

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Gig review: SOUTH OF SALEM – The Tivoli, Buckley, North Wales, 9 February 2024

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South Of Salem could be construed as “old school” in 2024. Admittedly there’s nothing cutting edge in their Goth-inspired metal delivery but – by goodness – they deliver. We’ve been exposed to a series of singles from the band in … Continue reading

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