What does it sound like?:

Vanity project, supergroup or homage to fallen hell-raising friends? Maybe all of them. A drinking “club” that became a band in sobriety, founded by Alice Cooper in his drinking days in “the 1970s” (obviously no one can remember exact dates), meeting mostly at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in LA, where regulars included Keith Moon, John Belushi and Harry Nilsson.

The Vampires re-emerged in 2012 as a musical entity. By then Cooper had been sober for 29 years, playing off a golf handicap of 5 and appearing as himself in a film called “Dark Shadows” (35% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes). Here Cooper met Johnny Depp, whose early musical ambitions had long since taken second place to global movie stardom. Conversations about music lead, three years later, to gigs at the Roxy in LA with the current line-up of Cooper, Depp, and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. Tommy Henriksen from Cooper’s band is the guy that whips it all into shape. Curiously, getting promoters to book them wasn’t a problem – their 3rd gig was the Rock in Rio festival. Instead, scheduling was the biggest challenge. To date there have been two studio albums, plus » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It sounds completely new to me – I’d never heard this album despite being big fan of their earlier work, so i approached this review with trepidation. A bit of history. After Tull won the Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Grammy in 1989, to the understandable outrage of Metallica and surprise of the band who had been told they wouldn’t win and hadn’t bothered to attend, Ian Anderson’s writing took on a much more direct guitar rock feel. Great for Martin Barre but less so for those of us who liked the more epic, constantly shifting proggy tracks of their earlier work. In fact Ian had always experimented and shifted his focus, an attribute I find entirely admirable even if I don’t always like the result – the synthesiser and drum machine albums for example. “Rock Island”, Catfish Rising” and “Roots to Branches” are very much rock focussed with a real drummer but rarely trouble my CD player even though I bought them at the time. So when “J -Tull” landed I had pretty much lost interest in new material though the live album “A little night music” was great, a semi acoustic affair.

So how » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

“Gentle Giant” were one of the several progressive bands that “got away”; possibly as they were from outside the London bubble. Though GG worked very hard, and were big in Europe and Canada, they never hit the ELP/Yes/ Genesis big time. Maybe it’s because their music was clever and busy, but neither fey or flash; Frank Zappa name checked them as a progressive band he liked, and he was often acerbic about the early 70s invasion of British stadium fillers. GG really WERE progressive in bringing musics together, medieval chants, rock music, sublime melodies and harmonies (the brothers Shulman being part of “Simon Dupree and the Big Sound”, whose “Kites” is a beautiful bit of 1967 pop psychedelia), flash but to-the-point keyboards, horns, violins, xylophones, and generally putting more ideas in a song than many acts did in their careers. Nor were Gentle Giant ones for side-long epics, fairy tales and myths – though they DID have Roger Dean do the cover to “Octopus”.

1972 had led them to produce the aforementioned “Octopus”, another gem, but burnout and cognisant of the life of a rock musician sabotaged family life, Phil Shulman stepped back » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

In September 2014, the ‘seven headed beast’ line up of Crimson played four nights in New York City as part of their US tour. These have now been distilled into this excellent two cd set, which captures the power and the glory of the band in full flight. Old classics such as Larks Tongues and Starless (disappointingly no Fracture though) are treated not as musty museum exhibits but as living, constantly evolving pieces, and it’s great to also hear less performed pieces like A Scarcity of Miracles and The Letters. Throughout the whole show, there’s a delicate balance between the precision of the most intricate passages of Fripp’s guitar and the sheer brute sonic force of this three drummer iteration of the band in full flow on, for example, The Hell Hounds of Krim and Banshee Legs Bell Hassle, a real contrast in dynamics, which can be quite shocking to the unwary listener at times. This is a band that simply refused to become just another legacy act, intent instead on challenging not just the audience but themselves – just listen to and marvel at the playing on Level Five to hear just what » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

These grizzly old Stones are having a blast. It took nearly twenty years to come up with an album of new material, Hackney Diamonds, a Grammy winning, chart-topping triumph, but only three to produce this follow up. Four songs are leftovers and ten are fresh. With a sparky, young producer, Andrew Watt, galvanising them in the studio, the job was finished in just four weeks. Some people feel overwhelmed by his bright, polished style, no doubt yearning for the sordid murk of Exile, but he’s certainly re-energised these Stones. The cover art, “Mr Ugly” designed by Nathaniel Mary Quinn, is a hard-staring representation of their cussed defiance. It’s as though Charlie’s passing has made them realise the clock is ticking faster than they thought. The result is the most Stonesy album in half a century. Every element that makes up The Rolling Stones at their very best is here on Foreign Tongues, delivered with unrestrained glee.

The first two songs, already released as a double A side single, set the tone. Rough & Twisted is classic Blues Rock, with a raw, gritty riff and a road trip lyric. It wouldn’t have been out » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Tull’s 1984 effort is paired with the first Ian Anderson solo effort, (after A was rebranded as a band album), the previous year’s Walk Into Light. Both albums have been remixed twice, once featuring the original drum machine track and then with said track being replaced with ‘2026 drums’, which appear to be samples of acoustic drums. Both albums were quite a change from the traditional Tull sound of the era from Aqualung to Broadsword, and so met with a mixed reception at the time. The use of the aforementioned drum machines and synthesisers, both cutting edge technologies at the time, produced a rather cold, glacial sound, which in some ways rather suited Under Wraps themes of spy fiction and espionage behind the Iron Curtain in the era of the Cold War. The sound as a whole is definitely given a more accessible human feel with the new drums, although I would say Walk Into Light has a more traditional Tull feel to it. There are the usual bunch of ‘associated recordings’ on both albums, although not as plentiful or of the same quality as on the earlier releases in the series with four » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Purple’s most iconic phase came between 1970 and 1973, when they released “In Rock”, “Fireball” “Machine Head”, “Who Do We Think We Are” and “Made in Japan”. The Gillan / Glover / Paice triumvirate that featured on all of these can also be found on Splat!, their 24th studio release, along with Don Airey, with a mere 24 years’ service, and Belfast’s Simon McBride, who is the Purps’ fourth guitarist and arguably the one with the biggest shoes to fill — not to mention he joined nine years after their “Long Goodbye” farewell tour, which turned out not to be.

By the time lead guitarist McBride was born in 1979, Deep Purple had recorded ten studio albums and disbanded three years earlier after “Come Taste the Band”. That didn’t stop Purple becoming well known to him, as his guitar‑playing dad loved classic rock and encouraged him to play, winning “Young Guitarist of the Year” at Wembley aged just 15. When he replaced Steve Morse (Purple’s longest‑serving guitarist) in 2022, the appointment was described by some as something of a bolt out of the blue, which rather overlooked how McBride had known Airey for ten » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Daniel Lanois is not a name many civilians will recognise but he’s had a stellar career in the music business. He learnt the penny whistle when he was nine and then the pedal steel guitar, despite living in Hull, Ontario, about as far from the Deep South as it is possible to be in the Americas. He found his calling aged seventeen, recording local bands with his brother Robert in his mum’s basement. The particular acoustics attracted a lot of custom from gospel singers to country artists. Soon, they had earned enough to buy an old Victorian house and convert it into Grant Avenue Studios. One of his clients was Martha and The Muffins, who made an international splash, catching the ear of Brian Eno and Harold Budd. They were impressed by the unorthodox nature of the studio, its atmosphere and innovative layout.

Eno found a kindred spirit. Lanois has a production style that is all about ambience and atmosphere. He makes music sound beautiful. However, it isn’t ambient in the Eno sense. Lanois does not make records that are to passively play in a room, barely noticed. He wants people to pay » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Whoever is responsible for compiling Cream’s De Luxe sets deserves enormous credit. First we had Fresh Cream in 2017 – 3CDs containing Mono and stereo stereo mixes of the original album, singles, French EPs, alternates mixes, outtakes, BBC sessions, early versions and loads of unexpected goodies, plus a lovely book and Blu Ray of High Res audio. GoodBye Cream came along in 2019 containing 4 CDs of live concerts in October/November 1968 from their final tour, pleasingly boxed with a hardback book in the same way as the earlier set. Now we get another unexpected treat in a set exploring Wheels of Fire, again packaged in the same size format – 5CDs and another nice hardback book.

The big hook here is a new stereo remaster removing the CSG processing used in 1968, thus phase correcting the stereo image, and this is where I went straight away. The remaster is absolutely fabulous – my main impression is of much greater clarity, especially on the vocals which feel much more out front and the stereo soundstage is crisper and clearer. Ginger’s drums sound just fantastic, as if they are in the room. The original mix is » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The band’s eleventh studio album, originally released in 1999, gets the deluxe treatment in this 3 cd plus bluray box set, generously accompanied by a 52 page book to round off the package. I think it’s fair to say this is an album from the band’s wilderness years, where, as they sought to move forward with a new sound, their audience and commercial success declined markedly. This record therefore attempts to have the best of both worlds, partly looking back and recreating the sounds of the Fish era while continuing to push ahead in a more modern direction. Some of the material had been extensively demoed during the sessions for 1998’s Radiation album, but was held over as it didn’t fit the feel of that album, with the reworkings they ultimately came up with for this record being aided and abetted by Steven Wilson, who coproduced five of the nine tracks. The album takes a while to get into its stride, with the music not being quite what long-term fans expected, but it really comes into its own in the second half, particularly the closing trio of Tumble Down The Years, Interior Lulu (the » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

When Sony paid an eye watering sum for Pink Floyd’s back catalogue, it was obvious they would look to begin recouping that huge investment sooner rather than later, either in the form of deluxe editions of the classic albums aimed at die hard fans, such as last years Wish You Were Here 50 set, or through compilations such as this to hopefully introduce a whole new, younger, generation to the band’s music. So we have this set of, surprise surprise, eight tracks covering the period 1971 to 1979, linked by a soundscape created from the original master tapes by who else but Steven Wilson. Six of the eight songs are fairly obvious choices really, songs that a newcomer will perhaps be familiar with from the radio or from their parents record collection. There are two outliers though. The first is Wot’s…Uh The Deal, a pretty unremarkable piece from Obscured By Clouds – I’m not sure what warranted its inclusion here other than maybe a desire to have at least one song from each record in the chosen period. The other is the selling point for completists here, the ‘joined up’ version of Pigs on » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

You may not have noticed, but a new Paul McCartney album has been quietly released – The Boys of Dungeon Lane – his first for five years or so.

I am a big fan, but not an uncritical one. Recent releases have come and gone….Egypt Station sits on the shelf unvisited for years – McCartney 111 was apparently his last one and I can’t name a song on it without dusting it off – New…a good title but nothing else memorable about it. Is this any different? Well, I got it on Friday and I can’t stop playing it…something about it has wormed into my brain and won’t let go.

Sonically it is very varied – a touch of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard here, a nod to Flaming Pie there – and the sheer contrast between the various songs is refreshing in itself. One has to mention his voice of course – you will probably have heard Days We Left Behind where his voice is old and vulnerable, but the surprise is that that isn’t the voice you hear throughout the LP. As signalled by the title and the hype, a lot of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Who are currently a very professional eight piece band: Jody Linscott percussion, Simon Townshend guitar, vocals, mandolin, Loren Gold keyboards, backing vocals, Scott Devours drums, Jon Button bass, John Hogg backing vocals, percussion, plus, of course, octogenarians Pete Townshend guitar, vocals and Roger Daltrey vocals. The two original members are acutely aware of the passing of time and the diminution of their powers. Townshend’s energy is not what it was and his fingers are less dexterous over the guitar strings but the support of his younger brother, aged just 65, enables him to recreate the sound of a power trio. Daltrey’s vocal chords require a special care regime and with particular attention to pacing himself, he can hit the high notes. This is a polished and precise Who, very far from the wild excesses of the past, but it still plays songs of high emotion and inner turmoil that cannot be contained.

Townshend has been critical of The Rolling Stones failure to evolve since their heyday but it’s fifty years since The Who attempted anything innovative. Live, there is zero chance of them recapturing the stunning dynamism of their sixties singles but, here in Cornwall, » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Bon-yr-Aur Grump…

Sorry couldn’t resist that. Ed (from Radiohead) has been through a difficult few years. His first solo album, the excellent Earth was released right at the start of Covid. He put together a great band to play it, and then… well. You know. Also, he seems to have fallen into a trap of putting out his first solo album as a sort of time capsule, what he would have sounded like if he’d started as a solo artist in the mid-90s. He seems to have a huge downer on that record, which is a shame, as far as I can see the only problem is that he doesn’t sound confident in his own lyrics on that one. He also faced being an internet meme, the guy who only sings his own name on Radiohead songs.

Apparently, he sunk into a deep depression, but pulled himself out of it by reconnecting with nature. He spent some time living in Wales, close to where the Led Zep chaps had their stomping ground and produced the acoustic/earthy aspect that took that band into the all time greats. That same inspiration has seeped through the soil » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Short answer. Yes. No. Different.

The Yes First of all, I liked Yes as a teenager, and lived through the Drama wars. A lot of my exposure was through osmosis from friends with older brothers, but I got into it all until they were usurped by King Crimson’s Belew period. I have returned periodically to their work over the years, and seen them live in many incarnations, but it’s probably fair to say that the magic was mostly not present. I had a listen to Mirror to the Sky when it came out, for a laugh to be honest. However I liked it – and listened to it a lot. I think they gave up pretending to be Yes, and just got on with being Yes and doing their own thing. An alternative reality Yes. Now comes the second album without White or Squire – and it seems to have come with raised expectations and positive noises from the camp. The two pre-released tracks so far have been catchy as hell, but impossible to pin down. So I was happy when Bargey offered the chance to review it.

I have not done the ’six listens’ » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I’m not an expert on World Music by any means, being a fairly recent convert from the time of the Buena Vista Social Club album and film, and the compelling series of albums released on the World Circuit label in the 90s and 00s. Desert Blues is a genre that crept up on me slowly with its subtle woozy and loping guitar workouts and seductive vocal stylings. Tinariwen were, and remain, I guess the best known exponents of the Saharan / Malian / Tuareg traditional music heavily mixed with a Western rock’n’roll sensibility. It’s a heady and irresistible brew. Artists like the superlative Bombino, Terakaft, Tinariwen and any number of compilation albums feature heavily on my list of most played World Music records.

And then there is Tamikrest. The band’s first album Adagh was released in 2010 on the Glitterhouse label and produced by Chris Eckman, ex-Walkabouts frontman after they met his then band Dirtmusic at a festival near Timbuktu.(Dirtmusic’s albums are well worth a listen). 7 albums later and Tamikrest remain with the label, now renamed Glitterbeat, and for me the new one, Assikel, is their best yet. It’s a totally compelling » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Autobahn was Kraftwerk’s break through album, a top ten hit in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Germany but Radio-Activity was their proof of concept for a complete LP. It’s their first entirely electronic album and it brought together the Fab Four that would see them through their biggest successes. Klaus Röder, and his guitar and violin, was ditched and replaced by Karl Bartos on electronic percussion. Wolfgang Flür abandoned analogue percussion altogether for electronic. The original founders, Ralph Hütter and Florian Schneider, tackled the vocals and synthesisers and composed all of the tracks. Their friend and fellow conceptualist, Emil Schult, contributed lyrics and artwork. The most significant change was Hütter’s deployment of the Orchestron, an instrument he bought in America when they toured Autobahn. The Vako Orchestron is a keyboard that produces its sound through electronic amplification of sounds pre-recorded as an optical track on a disc. It was meant to be an alternative to the mellotron. There were only eight discs for the Orchestron: Violin, Hammond B3, Flute, Cello, Vocal Choir, Saxophone, Pipe organ, and French horn. Vocal Choir is all over Radio-Activity. It was lo-fidelity as scratches on the disc were audible on pressing the keys, » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

A look at two RSD releases, both double vinyl albums. If memory serves, this Crimson set was originally part of the huge Road To Red box set that appeared around ten years ago, but this marks its first standalone release. It captures the band on top form on their 1974 US tour, with highlights being a fiery take on Larks Tongues, a nice Exiles, and best of all the closing quite magnificent pairing of Fracture and Starless. Appended as a bonus is a fine performance of 21st Century Schizoid Man captured a couple of days later at a show in Central Park. Further good news for fans is that July will see the release of a 2LP/cd set capturing the highlights of the band’s four night run in New York in September 2014. This marks the start of a new series of releases for the ‘seven headed beast’ line up that existed from 2014-2021, and will be followed later this year by a two bluray set that comprises all 19 shows from that 2014 US tour. The XTC set is the first in a proposed series of live recordings. This one captures the band » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

To this seventeen year old at the time, 1975 was the year music grew up. Bob Marley Live, Blood On The Tracks, The Last Record Album, Another Green World, Young Americans, The Original Soundtrack, Katy Lied, Mothership Connection and There’s No Place Like America Today were all mature, detailed, complex works on heavy rotation in my house. The simple chords of Glam Rock lingered but lost its glitter for Down By Jetty and Rock ‘N’ Roll. Sadly, to my shame, there was no room for female voices, not even Joni nor Emmylou. One Of These Nights did not feature on my turntable either. It’s not that it wasn’t grown up music. Grown ups clearly loved it but my teenage self saw it as dull cotton wool for the ears. It wasn’t just middle-of-the-road, it was buried in the soft centre, sub CSN/Y slop. I didn’t think much of CSN/Y. The charms of Laurel Canyon passed me by in 1975. One Of These Nights is the fourth album by Eagles, each increasingly popular, as they progressed from Linda Ronstadt’s backing band to megastars. It was their first number one and sold 4 million copies in » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Sofia Kourtesis has been a fast-rising star of the last few years as a producer and DJ. Her album Madres was high on my top albums list for 2023, with its mix of beats and hazy warm melodies creating something elusive and fragile as well as rhythmically hypnotic.

Now, after a series of mixtapes for platforms like Resident Advisor comes her first big-series DJ mix release on – gasp – physical format. Overall it cleaves to the general mix arc – we start with a beatless intro track, here temple bells from Jon Hopkins, and gradually warm up with some relaxed and downtempo tracks from Aphex Twin and Daphi (aka Caribou). Kourtesis has, as is customary with DJ Kicks, a few self-penned tracks scattered throughout – first up is It’s You is in the relaxed warm-up section, leading to some house-flavoured tracks from Myd, Axel Bowman etc (no me neither). Her next self-penned track, Texas Changing, takes things up another gear. This is what I love about her work – rhythmic while never losing sight of a melody. Joy look Up Now introduces a seventies disco sample-based track with a wicked mid-track stuttery » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It sounds like what it is: Yes soundboard recordings transferred to vinyl. Let’s get that out of the way first, this is no audiophile release. But, it surprised me.

The energy is, at times, beyond anything I’ve heard from this version of the band. We’ve all heard the stories about Wakeman hating this album and tour, but in real life he plays like a man possessed, inserting new parts into the material from Topo and, the best I can think of saying it, playing seriously – no comedy car chase piano! Moogs and Mellotrons dominate. He inserts a whole new section into The Remembering.

Steve Howe is, as with Yessongs, flying forward at a million miles an hour, sometimes stumbling, but often adding flair and expressive, bluesy (or countryish) licks into some of the material that seemed a bit flat on the original album.

Chris Squire is Chris Squire.

Alan White is a powerhouse here, on the Ritual he raises the tempo and the band go flying, improvising sections and turning the worst track into a beast, Howe responds with some amazing steel guitar. It’s like a different song at times. Off the scale.

Jon » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Speaking with a similar nerdy friend, we hit upon discussion of UFO: “Strangers In The Night is indeed one of the best Live albums out there, but did they ever have such a complete studio album?” “Umm … maybe Phenomenon?”

UFO on stage and UFO in the studio were 2 different beasts, and I’m not convinced they ever managed a truly great studio album. But (other than Phenomenon mentioned above), this one comes very close. Buoyed by the critical and commercial response to Strangers In The Night, Chrysalis spotted an opportunity and paired UFO with George Martin for No Place To Run. Even with the Chrysalis marketing machine at full chat (including various coloured vinyl singles, alternative album covers), and George Martin’s AIR Studios at their disposal, the album felt a bit flat, and the rougher edges cleaned up. Coming into The Wild, The Willing and the Innocent, UFO dispensed with a producer and took the job on themselves. A blessing because they now had the freedom to create the sounds they wanted, and a curse (as Paul Chapman noted) as the quality control went out of the window, and they ended up with » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

To The 5 Boroughs is The Beastie Boys sixth studio album, released in 2004. Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D were all pushing forty years old. Two of them were responsible fathers, the other a peace-loving Buddhist. They were positively ancient in the world of Hip Hop, so, naturally, they go Old Skool in an attempt to get back to the party vibe of their debut. They go so far back, Triple Trouble doffs its cap to The Sugarhill Gang. However, financial constraints resulted in the closure of their record label, 9/11 had destroyed the Twin Towers and decimated their beloved New York City, and George Bush had begun the War On Terror. A gloom hangs over the album like the dust from the towers’ collapse. Nevertheless, it followed the previous two albums by debuting at number one in the Billboard chart and selling over a million copies in the States.

To The 5 Boroughs is self produced and the only credited additional musician is Mix Master Mike on turntables. The backing tracks are simplified, building strong, muscular beats, and eschewing frivolous samples. It is their most coherent album. With no real skits and » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Well, it’s Kris Drever. It’s tuneful, with a hiunt of melancholic, and thoughtful lyrics.

It’s not a long reviuew. I’m writing tjis though a vitreal hemaorrage which is kind m,essing with what I can see.

This is the latest Drever, and it’s….

Well, it’s a typical Kris Drever. Which means, to my ears, that it’s great. The musicianship, the lyrics, the overall sound is just wonderful. I’ve had it on repeat the whole day, alongside the Broken Chanter release.

He’s not breaking new ground. But he doesn’t need to.

What does it all *mean*?

Good music will out.

Goes well with…

Smoky whisky

Release Date:

April 10

Might suit people who like…

Lau. Kris Drever. Good music.

What does it sound like?:

It’s not as if I need reminding that I’m getting old (I sent off my bus pass application last Friday in anticipation of unlimited free use of the park and ride) but just in case I’d forgotten, here’s the 50th anniversary release of the first Trower album I ever purchased and played so often it started to skip.

This is the 4th Trower album to get a 50th buff up, and more a restoration than an enhanced re-release. Richard Whittaker has once again overseen a remix but the main event here is the resequencing of the tracks back to the order they were originally played and inclusion of the songs edited out of the original.

This bumps the track list from 7 to 12. “Gonna Be More Suspicious”, “Fine Day” and “Confessin’ Midnight” are added back, all played on the night ahead of their release on the “For Eart Below” album and (most likely) removed to give a bit more exposure to the older back catalogue. “Day Of The Eagle” is restored as the opener followed by “Bridge of Sighs” giving the album a totally new first half and returning “Rock Me Baby” » Continue Reading.