This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..
This is a new Heavy blues rock quartet from Aschaffenburg,
Germany and a side project of Orcus Chylde vocalist Tobias Ritter. Shaking
Bones starts off the A side with two short tracks (it plays on 33rpm). Shaking
Bones has a really catchy guitar riff and a slow grooving bass line and
passionate singing which is the main focus. The lead guitar section is about 15
seconds long. Adam’s Owe is next and features some organ. The band reminds me a
bit of Wolfmother at times. Flip the record over for I can’t Stand Myself. This is a more heavy track with a very early
70s feel but without the lead guitar work. Raw powerful vocals. Overall, I
really liked the songs but missed the rock guitar solos that are always present
on 70s hard and blues rock stuff. Not sure why the young bands find them so
unimportant?
This is a pretty limited 7” made in only 250 copies (50
gold, 100 white, 100 black).
Wo Fat is
back with a new studio album and a new bass player as well. Last year they
released the Live at Freak Valley record and this was one of my faves, which I
heard a lot. I was excited to hear what they might do next for this studio
album and man I was not disappointed. Their recent show was so killer and
featured 3 songs from the record. The LP opens with the killer There is
something sinister in the Wind. A great
heavy opening riff and then a really great groove kicks and then Mr.Stump lets
it rip before the vocals kick in. I like the extra drums on this one and then
the long solo.. Michael and Kono (replacing Tim) have the killer groove down
leaving lots of freedom for Ken. Great stuff. Of Smoke and Fog starts with just
Ken spacing out with some nice delays on the guitar and later cool delays on
the vocals making this one of the most psychedelic tracks that band has made. Side B starts off with Le Dilemme du Detenu,
which has a really hard riff and a bit doomy at times but then when you think
they will kick into the Wo Fat groove, they go out into space instead and then
the groove! Really cool lyrics on this track (by Michael!). Three minutes to Midnight comes out the gates
fast with some ripping guitar and another great set of lyrics on this track,
which is one of the bands faster tracks but this one slows down with some cool
solos and nice added percussion parts. Amazing track. Nightcomer is a more slow
and stoney, doomy track to start and then some great soloing. The whole band
just kills it on this release.. Amazing record..
Space Mushroom Fuzz was a really cool band. This is the
bands last release and one of the few on real CDs.. It contains several of the
short albums they released on bandcamp (28 releases!) including the albums
Future Family, Until Next Time, Retrieving the Almanac, Until Next Time and
also the new single 'The Once and Future Car. There are 29 tracks in all and
quite a diverse range of rock music from psychedelic, pop, heavy space rock,
weirdness… This was a really cool and clever band at their best. There are some
tracks on here that I did not like at all but most of it is pretty cool and
good introduction to the band. It is great to know that the creative core will
continue but now be called Mushroom Fuzz for future releases.. Check out their
bandcamp site…
Zhaoze is a Chinese instrumental four piece rock band
playing dreamy post rock style music. Very western inspired but with some
unique twists here and there. This is their first release outside of China. The
CD features 9 tracks in just over 60mins. Most are new but a few are bonus
tracks from older releases. The opening song, the Worthless reminds me of the
Japanese band Mono. Hoyliang plays Gugin (ancient string instrument), Xiao and
dreamy keyboards, Littledream on guitar, Roy on bass and Seasean plays drums
and glockenspiel. See you in the Dusk starts with a droney dreamy bowed sound
and a cool lead bass line. Really nice playing and band interaction on this
track. Falling Leaves is a slow track with one of the Chinese instruments
taking the lead. Around 2mins the drums kick in and the energy level changes a
bit and just before 4mins heaviest guitar on the whole CD kicks in and goes
into Pelican like territory. 1911 3rd Movement sounds like a traditional
classical music track but it is not. It has this dream drone synth mixed way in
the background and the Gugin taking the lead, I think. The Youngstar fishing
for the Stars (Great title!) is another mellow floating dreamy piece until that
quickly strummed post rock lead guitar like line kicks in.. not real rock lead
guitar but way to overused by western bands. Lonely Shadow would Dance (another
great song title!) starts off with flute (Xiao??) and then a sort of trade off
between the guitar and Gugin. Beautiful track. Sleepy Child Sweet Smile has a
more spacey vibe to it and some cool effects and another beautiful melodic
thread and nice use of the Glockenspiel and later Xiao (flute?). Into your
Dream features some really cool bass playing. The title track is last and the
longest one at over 12mins and one of the best songs on the CD. If you are fan
of the post rock music genre and love these sort of sweet dreamy movie soundtrack theme type music but done in
a very elegant way, please check this band out.
The Swedish
band, Spiritual Beggars recently released a new studio album and it appears
they had a bit of extra time and energy to record two cool cover songs (they do
appear on the deluxe Mediabook version of the new records Sunrise to Sundown).
Thumbsucker (Felix Pappalardi- Mountain) kicks things off and is more organ
driven than the Mountain version. Great guitar solos as you must have if you
cover Mountain! They could have jammed it out a bit more but it is a 7”
record… Stoned Woman by Alvin Lee (Ten
Years After) is next for the B-side. I really love the groove on this one and
nicely sang as well. Great single.. There are 450 copies on Brown (80), 150 on
green and 220 on black vinyl. Quite simple artwork.. very old school..
