Album review : GADI CAPLAN – Look Back Step Forward

GADI CAPLAN – Look Back Step Forward

Musea Paralèlle [Release date 09.07.13]

Israeli born, Brooklyn domiciled and trained at the Berklee College of Music, Gadi Caplan is an electric/acoustic guitarist and composer who refuses to be restricted by one style of music. As a result, ‘Look back Step Forward’ is full of musical variety, light and shade and imaginative arrangements.

It’s an album full of fiery playing and spirited solos, tempered by more laid back pieces such as the acoustic melody of ‘Charlotte’ and the meditative groove of ‘A Latin Winter’. The album blends together beautifully, from the jazz-rock/fusion opening of ‘It’s All The Same’ to the exhilarating finish of ‘Tesha,’ which builds expansively into Duncan Wickel’s electric violin- led jammed out drone with a powerful ending.

The ten tracks are a personal musical journey full of intricate band interplay, rooted in fusion, but open to wider ranging explorations, including Jazz and prog rock, acoustic melodies, and eastern influenced pieces that stretch his abilities into new directions.

He aims to establish own voice over a number of genres that are already overpopulated by top line players. He just about manages to achieve his goal by making his solos an integral part of the composition as a whole, rather than an adjunct.  On ‘Brother’ for example, he doesn’t solo until after Oded Weinstock’s Jack Bruce influenced vocal, on a proggy piece influenced by Colosseum and early Genesis.

He’s adventurous on George Harrison’s ‘Within The Clouds’,  as he fuses the theme from ‘Within Without’ into his own Indo-American mould. His meandering guitar solo beautifully twists the melody into unforeseen places, over a fusion backdrop, with shades of Gong and Soft Machine, as drummer Moses Eder glues everything together.

‘Frostbite’ is the first of two tightly wrapped staccato instrumentals, with clipped notes, stop-start rhythms and shifting time signatures, in the mode of Man’s ‘H Samuel Jam’.  It’s a style he revisits on the fractured melody and spiky rhythms of ‘Monsoon Season’, before building the piece into to a space rock crescendo.

‘Look Back Step Forward’ could be interpreted as borrowing from the musical past to forge the future. The album doesn’t quite do that, but Gadi does have something to say and in doing so he’s managed update related musical genres in a way that makes this album worth revisiting on a regular basis.  ***½ 

Review by Pete Feenstra


Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

In 2023 he signed a recording deal with Sony in Canada and released a new single on 15 September.

Josh Taerk Sunday Sessions 2024

Latest session: Sunday 25 February
Next session: Sunday 14 April

Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio



David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 3 March 2024.


UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 5 March 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com


Power Plays w/c 18 March 2024

GYPSY’S KISS We’ve Come To Play
FM Out Of The Blue (Frontiers)
SHOTGUN MISTRESS Shot Down (indie)
ATTIC THEORY Violent Delight (indie)
FLOYA Yume (FiXT)
SAHAJI Tell Me All Your Feelings (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 18 March 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003-2023
12:00-13:00 LEAVES’ EYES Myths Of Fate (AFM Records)
14:00-16:00 HOLLY LERSKI Sweet Decline (indie)


To see our Tweets you need to be logged in to a Twitter account



Popular (last 10 days)


This entry was posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply