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..
It
has been quite a few years since the last GBS record but worth the weight. The
album features three main tracks between 8 and 15mins, as well as three short
tracks between 1 and 3mins in length. If
you are not familiar with the band, they play instrumental prog rock, with very
intense drumming and playing and a great sense of dynamics. Konstruktion starts
things off with a very King Crimson like track with intensity in all aspects.
The keyboards lead this one from Mellotron to Fender Rhodes piano. Great guitar
solo also. Sersophane starts with a keys but then the pace really picks up and
the drumming really intense as the layers of keyboards step aside for some
intense guitar. Great bass lines compliment the drive as well. A very epic track.
Fort Europa has some really cool lap steel guitar. I really dig this track.
Flip the record over for Dekonstruktion, a 3min synthesizer intro like piece to
the amazing Channeling the Sixth extinction, which is a 15mins masterwork. Lots
of cool dark themes and then light and back and forth. Some killer bass playing
as well. This track is a mind blower. Wow.. Naturum closes the record with a
very short 1min acoustic guitar piece. Awesome record guys.
The
Australian band, Datura 4, who released one of my fave records last year is
back with another killer record. Wow.. I just love the mix of heavy riffs, good
melodic stoney vocals and nice guitar breaks. A very classic 70s rock sound.
Fools Gold Rush starts the record off (see video below). Trolls has a heavy bass line
and I love the reverberating guitars. Uphill Climb features another catchy hard
rock riff and groove. The end of the track slows things down with a nice blues
solo. Mary Carroll Park picks up the pace and the lyrics talk about a Park,
perhaps a place they used to or do hang out but they don’t want to go back to??
Anyway, a slide driven R&R number a bit like Blackfoot! Hairy Mountain is a
slower heavy track with some nice melodies but then they really rock it out at
the end with a great wah solo. Great stuff.
Greedy World is a foot stomping feel good track about the rich of the
world. Confide in Me is a feel good rock and roll number. Too Much (or not
Enough) is simple feel good song but the chorus is repeated too many times
(more than 40 I guess) for me. Something to Hide once again features some slide
guitar. The end of the track reminds me a lot of Blues Jean Blues by ZZTOP.
Broken Path ends the CD with a fantastic acoustic guitar driven song. Datura4
have made another great record… I really
hope I can see them live one day. I wonder if the jam at all live???
BS
are a 5 piece band from Heidelberg, Germany. My band, ØSC, played a show with
them last year and they played a lot of new songs. Thanks to Christian for
sending me their latest release. The CD is about an 50mins long and features 7
songs. The band is getting more and more adventurous with each release. Jet
starts things off with a long guitar solo intro and a bit of a stoner riff.
Great drive and cool organ and space sounds mixed in but the wah guitar really
leads this track. Very cool and nicely drifting section at the end of this long
opener including some electric violin. Greek Ancestry starts with some violin played
in a plucked style as the track slowly builds up with the drums and then the
lead guitar. A lot of very beautiful melodies on this track as it goes from
light to dark and back and forth. Nice keyboard, guitar and violin solos. Kréèn
starts with some spoken word sample and a simple guitar line. This repeated guitar
is the basis for the start as the bass and drums come in. It has a sort of
Christmas feel to it.. Ha. Long 10mins song. Laika has another like commercial
in German before the drums lead the way with a very funky track with some
intense playing from everyone. This one really kicks it up a notch but they
still retain these epic and melodic parts as well.Cool song. Blood Rust has a more dark feeling and a slow
build and quite heavy but then it totally spaces out and drifts for a bit
before the band come back for organ driven attack til the end. The End is
coming (not actually the last song on the CD though) starts with a spoken word
sample and underneath a very spacey track is evolving before the band decides to
create a heavier more dark mood. We’ll take if from Here ends this very diverse
and excellent release.
My
band, Øresund Space Collective, contributed a track to this 6 CD box with
booklet. We are the 3rd track on CD1. This is a pretty amazing
collection of the original space rock bands from around the world and many of
the best from the current scene. Almost
all the tracks here have been previously released but I know the Earthly
Society track is unique to the box set, just for the collectors. Tangerine Dream,
Nik Turner (only person with 2 tracks), Hawkwind, GONG, CAN, Alice Cooper,
Ozric Tentacles, Faust, Steve Hillage, Chrome, and Guru Guru are the big
names. A lot of cool bands from the
modern scene as well like White Manna, Yuri Gagarin, ØSC, Maat Lander, Vespero,
Black Rainbows, Dark Buddha Rising, The Re-stoned, Oranssi Pazuzu, The Space
Lords, Pyramidal, Hidria Spacefolk, Secret Saucer, and many others. The booklet
has an intro by Dave Thompson and then each and every track and band has a nice
description and web links and a picture. Very nicely done and a great
introduction to space rock and psychedelic music, if you are not that familiar
with the scene. It is not all space rock music, at least by my definition but
plenty of amazing stuff and some really strange tracks like Bob Calvert telling
a story of how he and Lemmy took a lot of pills at after Hawkwind’s van was to
be stopped and searched by the police, Steve HIllage and William Shatner doing
Rocket Man by Elton John, and Gilli Symth (with Daevid Allen) spoken word
piece.. Fun though.
Does
the world need yet another book on Frank Zappa, that is the question?? I own
Frank in his own words and a smaller one as well but have not read any of the
others besides this new one. My first experience with Frank Zappa was when I
was about 12 when a kid from school, named David, whose older brother played in
a rock band, he played us Overnight Sensation. I was like what the hell is
this, songs about Eating Yellow snow, and other strange subjects. I was
intrigued. I was lucky to get to see Zappa on the Joe’s Garage tour in 1980
when I was 17.It was a pretty mind
blowing experience. I did not become a full blown zappahead until later when I
was hanging out with my friend Paul and my cousin Cliff, where I got deep into
Zappa and eventually recorded all of his records on tapes from Paul, Cliff and
my friend Jay. Wow… Anyway.. that is my story…This is John’s.
John
tries to take a fresh approach. The book is broken up into 33 small chapters as
well as a book recommendations and a complete discography, including the 30+
new releases since Frank’s death.I
learned the most in the sections about his early life as I had not read the
books by his siblings, which most of this info is drawn from. The Year Book
chapter, which lists nearly everyone that every played with Frank including
about 100 words and their birth and death dates is very interesting as well.
The cover band chapter also tells you about the most famous of the Frank Zappa
cover bands but is not an exhaustive list. One of the most unique and interesting chapters was interviews with women about their opinion of Zappa as there were quite a few songs that if you did not have a sense of humor like Crew Slut and Jewish Princess. Other chapters about Zappa's TV appearances, the PMRC, about humor and music, etc.. Even if you have read a lot of books on Zappa,
you can still learn some new stuff. If you have never read about Zappa, I would
recommend picking this one up and combine that with The Real Frank Zappa, which
is mostly written by Frank himself.
We
had a hell of a time getting to this part of London for the Beer Company and
the show. At the London Craft beer Co- We tried Liquid Mistress (Red IPA),
Green Hopped IPA, Extra Pale (Sussex Brewery) and I love you with my Stout (12%
Imperial Stout). I think we would have tried 2 more but we were running short
on time. We had a slice of pizza at a cool local place and then just made it to the first song of the
show.
The
Stray concert was super packed. We came in when Del Brahman was playing the
first number. He played 3 acoustic numbers.
Waiting
for the Big Break, Years, Around the world in 80 days.
We
could get past the stairs hardly. Sue stayed but I moved to the front
center.After Del played the three songs
the current lineup of Stray came out and played for 75mins or so with a great
line up of songs, especially the ones from the Suicide record sounded great. He
told a lot of good stories in between songs. The bass player, he has been
playing with Del since I think he said 1978. He was fantastic. The drummer was
also really solid and they both were having a great time.
Time
Machine, Only what you Make it, Son of the Father, Jericho, Suicide, Move a
Mountain, Free at Last, Harry Farr, I, Believe it.
For
the next set, the guitar player who joined the band in the 1975 to make them a
5 piece, Pete Dyer came out and they played a 5-song set. He looked pretty
nervous and a little stoned or drunk but he actually besides messing up a
couple of guitar harmony parts did great and even sang some lead vocals.
For
the People, Take it Easy, Houdini, Percy the Pimp, One Night in Texas
It
was pretty emotional when the original line up came out to play. They had no
rehearsals prior to them meeting and trying out the songs this afternoon and
this was the first and probably the last time, there were on a stage together
in 22 years!Steve Gadd (Vocals), Del
Bromham (guitar), Gary Giles (bass), Steve Crutchly (Drums).
The
audience really seems to know a lot of these songs and helped to sing along.
The band was clearly having a really good time. I love the drumming but he was
working hard and you could tell he was not used to doing this. The set was:
Come
on Over, Our Song, Pretty Thing, After the Storm, All in your Mind.
All
in your Mind was their only really big hit song and it was really cool. I
filmed it. See below…
They
did do a short encore with a jam on the song Cold Turkey. He mentioned
something about Leonard Cohen, not sure if he wrote it or if they dedicated it
to him. It
was a great night and about 2 and half hours and 23 songs of Stray, with more
or less all the classic line-ups. Wow.
