Frontiers Music [Release date : 20.02.26]

Swedish émigré and fully fledged Angeleno since the nineties, bass playing Victor Broden is a Grammy winning musician and producer.
He moved to LA on a wing and prayer, with the echoes of the AOR Eighties still ringing in his ears.

All these years later, he’s in a position to pursue his AOR dream. He’s put together a supergroup of musicians’ musicians, and called it Transatlantic Radio. Then he wrote and recorded a bunch of songs, and called the collection Midnight Transmission.
And now he’s signed up with Frontiers’ Music. Easy peasy.

The band members are not especially well known outside of the music industry. On the inside, Chris Reeve, Fred Kron and RJ Ronquillo are the lifeblood of the entertainment business, backing up artists like Ricky Martin, Santana, Filter and Avril Lavigne, in the studio, on TV and on stage.

With singer Mattias Osback, they do a persuasive job of matching substance with style – Guitarist Ronquillo’s restraint on the bouncy opener, ‘That’s What You Get For Falling Love’- sets this up. It’s a template they use throughout the album.

Inescapable shades of Van Halen’s ‘Why Can’t This Be Love’ come through on ‘City Of Angels’ opening riff, then it becomes TR’s own song, and it sounds like summer, using top-down, wind-in-their-hair call and response vocals to raise the temperature.

The stylistic pendulum swings, and they ride off tangentially on ‘Wide Awake’, a much harder, heavier beast, mixing a variety of influences, while still sounding cohesive and totally fresh.

‘Fever Dream’ drags us into the swampy ground of syrupy soft rock, somewhere right of Lionel Richie in his most, err… romantic moments.

‘Good Times’, propelled by another of Ronquillo’s spicy riffs, and the pop inflected ‘First To Be Last’ get us back on solid ground.

None of these songs are likely to convert the unconvinced, but that’s not the point. TR’s music plays to the past without sounding cliched or derivative. Midnight Transmission proves they have the blueprint firmly in their hands. ***1/2

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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February 15
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Josh Taerk - Sunday Session - 11 January 2026

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Power Plays w/c 9 February 2026

EVA UNDER FIRE Murder Scene (Better Noise Music)
ARGOVIA Ebb & Flow (Presagio Records)
TELENOVA In The Name Of Your Love ()
TAILGUNNER War In Heaven (Napalm Records)
FROM ASHES TO NEW Villain (Fiction Records)
WITHIN TEMPTATION & SMASH INTO PIECES Somebody Like You (indie)
EVA UNDER FIRE Murder Scene (Better Noise Music)
ARGOVIA Ebb & Flow (Presagio Records)
TELENOVA In The Name Of Your Love ()
TAILGUNNER War In Heaven (Napalm Records)
FROM ASHES TO NEW Villain (Fiction Records)
WITHIN TEMPTATION & SMASH INTO PIECES Somebody Like You (indie)
XO SOUNDTRACK Talk About Me (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 9 February 2026

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2025 (Singer Songwriter)

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