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Album review : GENERATION RADIO – Take 2
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Album review: JENNY COLQUITT – Pockets Full Of Rain
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Album review: SOMETHING FOR THE LONGING – Scottish Independent Pop 1985-1999 (3 CDs)
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Album review : CREYE – IV Aftermath
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Album review : JACK BRUCE – Halfway To The Stars – The Recordings 2001-2003 (5 CD Boxset)
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Album review: ELEGANT WEAPONS – Evolution
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Category Archives: ALBUM REVIEWS
Album review: MARK PONTIN GROUP – Days Of Destiny
Moochee Records [Release date 08.05.13] Mark Pontin Band’s liner notes on ‘Days Of Destiny, makes clear the essential connection between his struggles to get this recording made and the thematic title track of a power trio album with real substance. … Continue reading
Album review: JOHNNY DOWD – Do The Gargon
Mother Jinx Records [Release date 05.08.13] ‘The record took two weeks to make, which is plenty if you know what you’re doing’, says New York based Texan exile Johnny Dowd. He seems to know what he’s doing, as he … Continue reading
Album review: TOMMY BOLIN – Whirlwind
Cleopatra Records [Release date: 26.08.13] Guitarist Tommy Bolin has an interesting pre-Purple history and this 2-CD set is an excellent chronicle of the band he formed in 1972 after Zephyr and before James Gang. Energy, with a mix of rock … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Reissues
Tagged album, Billy Cobham, Deep Purple, Energy, guitar, guitarist, James Gang, jazz fusion, review, rock, Tommy Bolin, Whirlwind
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Album review: SOIL – Whole
AFM Records [Release date 19.08.13] Soil – or should that be SOiL – have been with us for a while now as their major label debut album Scars was released back in 2001. The band hail from Texas and are … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged AFM Records, album, grunge, metal, post grunge, review, Soil, Whole
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Album review: ANTOINE FAFARD – Occultus Tramitis
Unicorn Digital [Release date 01.06.13] Fusion music often throws an unexpected curve ball at the humble listener, and prog fusion such as this with its musical density, ever changing time signatures and challenging improvisation sometimes pushes the envelope beyond the … Continue reading
Album review: THE PROOF – 100% The Proof
Note Records [Release date 31.05.13] Paul Cox has always been a singer in search of the perfect song and when the two meet head on, sparks tend to fly. And so it is with ‘100% The Proof’, an album that … Continue reading
Album review: WILLIE NILE – American Ride
Blue Rose Records [Release date 24.06.13] Willie Nile is a true blue collar troubadour with a poet’s eye for colourful analytical prose. He’s worked every bar, club and theatre in town, world-wide and he’s excited audiences big and small with … Continue reading
Album review: DICKEY BETTS – Pattern Disruptive
Retroworld [Release date 29.07.13] Listening to this kick ass record, it’s hard to imagine that the Allman Brothers Band legend Dickey Betts was without a record contract and hadn’t recorded for the best part of 7 years. He came back … Continue reading
Album review: JOHN KLINE – Different Drummers
Wet Present Records [Release date 23.11.12] With the exception of the title track which features drummer Michael Arata, ‘Different Drummers’ is a completely self penned, engineered and produced album by multi instrumentalist John Kline. He leads on guitar, but plays … Continue reading
Album Review: FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH – The Wrong Side Of Heaven and The Righteous Side Of Hell – Volume 1
Eleven Seven ( Release date – Out now) This is the snappily titled new album from FFDP and is the first of two releases planned for this year. Anyone who witnessed the band at Download this year will … Continue reading
Album review: JONNY LANG – Fight For My Soul
Provogue [Release date 02.09.13] It’s a measure of Jonny Lang’s maturity that he’s slowly but surely repositioned himself in the music scene as a dance friendly, contemporary white boy soul singer at the ripe old age of 32. I say … Continue reading
Album review: KINVER – The Stone House
Eye-Pea [Release date 19.03.13] The doomed romanticism and fragility of Nick Drake has a lot to answer for in term of contemporary folk music. His biographer Trevor Dann pointed to a foreboding and fatalism at the heart of his work … Continue reading
Album review: EAST TOWN PIRATES – Seven Seas Of Sin
The look of this band, and the album cover, may not initially excite. Skulls and cross bones. Piratical tales. What’s new? Well nothing really but there is a certain infectious charm to this second album from East Anglia’s bunch of … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Adam Art, album, East Town Pirates, folk, punk, review, rock, Seven Seas Of Sin, Tenpole Tudor, The Pogues
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Album review: STEVE CICHON – Meltdown
Stephen Andrew Cichon [Release date 03.06.13] Florida’s prog/fusion guitarist Steve Cichon’s last instrumental album ‘Cranial Feedback’ was notable for its inventive guitar playing, shifting tone colours and vacillating twists and turns. ‘Meltdown’ extends his penchant for relentless guitar pyrotechnics with … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Frank Zappa, fusion, guitar, Jethro Tull, Joe Satriani, metal, prog, review, space rock, Steve Cichon, Steve Hillage, Steve Vai
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Album review: EVILYN STRANGE – Mourning Phoebe
www.evilynstrange.co.uk [Release date 13.07.13] There is evidently some humour in this band and their publicity, describing themselves as part Beatles part Black Label Society. Philip and Al Strange (I assume brothers but let’s take nothing for granted here) are joined … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Evilyn Strange, Mourning Phoebe, review, rock
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Album Reviews: DODSON & FOGG – Dodson & Fogg,Derring Do,Sounds Of Day And Night
Wisdom Twins Records [Released 2012/2013] wisdomtwinsbooks.weebly.com/dodson-and-fogg.html Despite having a name that sounds like an engineering firm making flanges for the automotive industry, Dodson & Fogg are essentially one person. His name is Chris Wade – a multi-instrumentalist par excellence who … Continue reading
Album review: BUDDY GUY – Rhythm & Blues
RCA Silvertone [Release date 29.07.13] The cornerstone to Buddy Guy’s first ever double album is the relatively late definition of the term blues. The music he first started playing was R&B – CD1 provides the rhythm and CD2 the blues … Continue reading
Album review: PETE THOMAS & THE HORNS APLENTY – Big
Mermaid Records [Release date 22.07.13] To say that the opening track on Pete Thomas & The Horns A Plenty’s ‘Big’ has swagger, is to underestimate the title of the album that is big in tone, intent and performance. ‘Big’ brims … Continue reading
Album review: STEVE COCHRANE – La La La: Variations On A Happy Song
Spirit Compass Music [Release date 02.07.12] ‘La La La: Variations On a Happy Song’ is Canadian prog rock artist Steve Cochrane’s metaphorical meditations on the human condition. It’s a thematically linked suite spread over 9 tracks on which sharply contrasting … Continue reading
Album review: ROOMFUL OF BLUES – 45 Live
Alligator [Release date 29.07.13] If Roomful of Blues are the kind of band who are labelled as Heritage Music, then their historical take on American music is one dominated by horn led blues and swing. They consistently have one eye … Continue reading
Album Review – EARTHEN GRAVE – Earthen Grave
Ripple Records ( Release date – out now) Formed back in 2008 and led by former Trouble bassist Ron Holzner, Earthen Grave have honed their sound over the last 5 years. This is the band’s first album and … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, CD, Doom, Earthen Grave, metal, review, Ripple Records, Trouble
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Album review: BRANDY ZDAN – Lone Hunter
Cavalier Recordings [Release date 09.09.13] The Canadian folk scene that is a hotbed of talent that will launch an ‘ABC of Canadian Music’ tour in October featuring Brandy Zdan (as in Zinedine), Po’ Girl Awna Teixeira, and Cara Luft … Continue reading
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Quick plays: FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, THE CUSTODIAN, HEAVENS FIRE
FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY – Echogenetic Dependent (released 19th August) Front Line Assembly are a Canadian electro-industrial band who have been going for over 25 years now. This new album had the band stating they would return to their more electronic … Continue reading
Album review: LAWLESS – Rock Savage
Escape Music www.escape-music.com Lawless feature two current Demon members, guitarist Paul Hume (who also sings on the album) and drummer Neil Ogden, who are joined by Persian Risk guitarist Howie G and bassist Josh ‘Tabbie’ Williams from Stoke based hard … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album review, DEMON, LAWLESS, Persian Risk, Rock Savage
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Album review: STEVE HUNTER – The Manhattan Blues Project
Deacon Records [Release date 30.04.13] ‘I wanted to look at New York in a slightly different way – I wanted to look at it in a soulful, bluesy way’. Steve Hunter’s mission statement for this album is the guitarist musical … Continue reading
