AOR – THE COLOURS OF LA

AOR BOULEVARD RECORDS 2012

Its a real statement of intent, and possibly a foolhardy one, when you call your band after your chosen genre of music. However French guitarist and songwriter Frederic Slama has called on his contacts from ten years in California to make a series of well received albums, of which I must admit this is the first to cross my radar.

His networking skills match his musical talent with an array of the cream of West Coast session players with Steve Lukather, David foster, Michael Landau, Michael Thompson and Bill Champlin among the guests. But his main musical collaborator is Tommy Denander, who has the Midas touch when it comes to great sounding melodic rock, and who successfully ploughed a similar furrow with his Radioactive projects. The ten tracks- plus two instrumentals- feature no less than six lead singers including Brighton’s own Steve Newman whose Kimberly loses little by comparison with his stateside colleagues.

The instrumentation is lush, with guitar and keyboards and piano clearly coming out of the mix, and super smooth, precise vocals throughout. The openers Jenny at Midnight and Benedict Canyon (surely the only song to reference reading both Keats and Emerson!) are some of the best songs of their type this side of prime time 1980’s Toto or Chicago. The fare eventually gets a bit samey, with many of the singers interchangeable, but Philip Bardowell can lift even the most humdrum material and his Lou Gramm-esque delivery on Just One Kiss on Your Heart and You’re My Obsession are other highlights.

With music this quality, Slama’s future is as bright as the garish rainbow colours on the sleeve of this album.

****

Andy Nathan

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Power Plays w/c 7 April 2025

SEVEN BLOOD To The Unknown (indie)
FROM FALL TO SPRING Incomplete (Arising Empire)
POP EVIL Side Effects (MNRK Heavy)
ERJA LYYTINEN Abyss (Tuohi Records)
SKY VALLEY MISTRESS Too Many Ghosts (New Heavy Sounds)
RED GIANT Free Me (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 7 April 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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