What does it sound like?:

David Coverdale has one hell of a voice. His time with Deep Purple (and indeed with the early ‘UK’ version of Whitesnake) produced some great rock music. This album, reissued to mark the fiftieth anniversary of his debut with the band, selects material from the three Purple studio albums he sang on – Burn, Stormbringer and Come Taste The Band – and reinterprets them with the then current line up of Whitesnake, who prove more than capable of recapturing the original magic. There’s certainly some superb songs to cherry pick from this era – the title tracks of the first two albums stand out as of course do Soldier of Fortune and the epic Mistreated. However there are a number of maybe less well known pieces too, the likes of Sail Away, You Fool No One, Lay Down Stay Down and Holy Man. The original 2015 album has now been expanded into a two cd plus bluray set, augmented with live recordings (and videos) from the ensuing tour plus half a dozen alternate mixes. There are also several demos of ideas for the Stormbringer sessions, but the most intriguing part of this extra content » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

For his second release of 2023 Joe returns with an album (mostly) of cover versions billed as the sequel to Volume I, which was released back in 2003. He also releases a remastered of Volume I at the same time.

Joe explains “On Blues Deluxe Vol. 2, I asked my great friend Josh Smith to produce a record to be a companion to the anniversary edition of the first album, and hopefully demonstrate a bit of how I have progressed over the last 20 years,” Bonamassa adds. “The contrast between a cocky 26-year-old and an established 46-year-old is considerable. Does the fire still burn like it did? Am I still playing hungry? Am I even good enough to pay tribute to my heroes all over again? The answer lies somewhere in this album.”

Well …..

Both albums feature some fairly deep cuts as well as a few originals. Volume I covers some slightly more familiar ground – BB King’s “You Upset Me Baby”, Jeff Beck’s “Blues Deluxe”, T Bone Walker’s “Long Distance Blues”. This time round there’s Pee Wee Crayton’s “Win-O”, Bobby Parker’s “It’s Hard But It’s Fair” and Albert King’s “You » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I can’t really comment on the sound quality as I’ve been living with this as a 192k stream for the last couple of weeks but I’ve got the Blu-ray coming soon and I can’t wait to hear it in full quality and especially the Atmos mix which should be fantastic.

What does it all *mean*?

Or…Steven Wilson in return to form shocker Which would be an unfair sub-headline as he never really lost “form” but if, like me you were hankering after a return to the spirit, musically if nothing else of “The Raven…” and “Hand. Cannot. Erase” then you are not going to be disappointed by this album.

Any artist who specifically wants to push his own boundaries isn’t going to please all the people all of the time and there’s nothing wrong with the last two albums per se but I don’t go back to “To The Bone” ever and after an initial flurry, I think “The Future Bites” is patchy. Wilson himself has said that TTB was an homage to ’80s art pop and TFB was his streamlined electronic pop record. Wilson is proud of every album being different in style » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It’s the turn of this 1972 effort, the band’s fourth album, to be given the deluxe reissue treatment, in this case an all encompassing four cds plus a bluray. To be honest, this isn’t an album I listen to very much, and it wouldn’t make my top five from their catalogue. Nonetheless, what we get is a remaster of the original album, including the bonus tracks from the 2002 reissue, plus a new stereo mix that adds an early demo of Moonwater plus one further previously unreleased song. For me, this is the sound of a band still very much finding its feet and looking for a clear direction in which to move forward, and so producing such an extensive set for what is really quite a nondescript album is perhaps rather stretching things a bit. Many of the songs are quite bland and haven’t aged that well on the whole, although a couple – the orchestral epic Moonwater and Delph Town Morn – stand out from the crowd and are head and shoulders above the rest, as are the non album singles Child of Man and Medicine Man. Discs 3 and 4 comprise » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

If you don’t know “Space Ritual” and you like rock music, you really should. It’s definitive in so many ways; of Hawkwind; of British-style psychedelia of the early 70s; of the intense loud music that would, in different later evolutions, become heavy metal, punk, post-punk, electro, and krautrock; and of a music that can unite Hell’s Angels, hippies, ravers, science nerds, and basically anyone who likes (or liked) to dissolve their egos into music and light. “Space Ritual” is a concept album of the concept performance which drew together many strands of psychedelic-informed thought on this side of the Atlantic. It conveys what happened when some heads in Notting Hill who were into science fiction and Marvel comics merged tripping off one’s nut while watching the Apollo missions and attending a re-run of “2001: A Space Odyssey” in a fleapit cinema into a song series and performance. The 50th Anniversary re-release comprises a remaster of the original album, live recordings of the show in Liverpool, Sunderland, and London (from where the original recordings derived), and a stereo remix by another Stephen; Stephen W Tayler (not Wilson, as can seem inevitable for these things); the » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

This mighty power trio came and went in the blink of an eye, producing just one studio album and a live record that was only available in Japan at the time. Before his death last January, Beck and the other surviving member Carmine Appice had mixed these shows from the original multitracks, and to be honest both far surpass the studio album that had been released just a few weeks prior to the concerts in Japan. Surprisingly perhaps, there isn’t that much duplication between the two shows on offer here, which were recorded only about eight months apart. The Japanese set, culled from two shows in May 1973, has versions of all the tracks from the debut album which, as already mentioned, work far better than their studio counterparts, together with songs from the catalogue of both The Yardbirds and The Jeff Beck Group, The previously unreleased London show, recorded at The Rainbow in January 1974 not long before the trio disintegrated, has the band on top form in the midst of their British tour, and includes several numbers intended for the never completed second album. Both sets are well worth investigating and capture » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Is this the greatest Rock Album of All Time? Well, it’s definitely up there. Starting with “Baba O’Riley”, ending on “Won’t Get Fooled Again”. And the stuff in between is not too shabby either. But it wasn’t supposed to be that way. Following incessant touring of Tommy, The Who returned to the studio. The time in the studio produced “The Seeker” single, but it was Live At Leeds album that gave them new energy and moved them further away from Tommy (even though the bulk of the set was Tommy). Back in the studio, 4 more tracks were recorded for an EP, but never released, and the band started work on a new Pete Townshend concept idea. The basic plot came from an interview Townshend gave to Disc and Music Echo in late 1970: Lifehouse is set in the near future in a society in which music is banned and most of the population live indoors in government-controlled “experience suits”. A rebel, Bobby, broadcasts rock music into the suits, allowing people to remove them and become more enlightened. Townshend worked alone constructing demos of the songs to present to the band. However, as the » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Beastie Boys began life as a bunch of frat boys indulging in a juvenile party, playing in an Indie band. Privileged sons of an architect, a playwrite and an art dealer, they knew nothing of life in a ghetto but they soon discovered the joy in larking about and shouting daft rhymes over the top of Led Zeppelin beats. Their eager-puppy charm took their debut, Licensed To Ill, to number one, the first Hip Hop album to do so. They then got serious about making records. Paul’s Boutique is a remarkably skilful collage of samples, largely thanks to The Dust Brothers. It flopped on release but was soon regarded as a landmark Rap album. Both Check Your Head and Ill Communication feature the Boys playing their original instruments as lo-fi indie-skateboarders, Ad-Rock guitar, MCA bass and Mike D drums, plus frequent collaborator Money Mark on keys. They are loud, dense, multilayered and full of raucous energy. Ill Communication got them back to number one in the US. By 1998, they were well respected, loved even, making plenty of money and over thirty years old.

Hello Nasty is a huge sprawl spread over almost the » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I’ve spent the last six weeks immersing myself in this long awaited five cd / three dvd 40th anniversary set, and such is the treasure trove of goodies on offer it’s hard to know where to even begin, other than to say it’s been a long wait but it’s proved worth it. The original album, surely the last great Tull record, has of course been sympathetically remixed by Steven Wilson, but the real diamonds are to be found in the extras that have been unearthed, of which there is an absolute profusion and which for the most part are previously unreleased. It’s hard to pick out individual pieces from this fertile part of the band’s history, but the highlight for me is on the third cd where we find a forty odd minute demo from December 1981 of what would have been a very different record to that which was to eventually emerge. Overall though, I found trawling through these outtakes and demos fascinating, and it gives a flavour of just how prolific Anderson was in this period, in particular hearing how now familiar songs developed over the lengthy recording process. A few of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

I first saw Emma Rawicz at my local jazz club in September 2021 in that fleeting moment where lockdown seemed to be easing and seeing live music was such a treat. She had been shortlisted for Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year by Jazz FM and the breathless news was that she had only been playing tenor sax (or any sax for that matter) since she was 15 and we were watching her at the advanced age of 19… Whatever, she was really good, and I saw her a year later and she was even better.

After a period of intensive study at Chetham’s school in Manchester she went to the Royal Academy (where she still is…) then spent lockdown with her head down practicing and investigating the classic jazz repertoire to fill in her knowledge – growing up in North Devon she’d never really heard jazz until a touring big band visited and she was hooked. Needless to say, all that wood shedding paid off and she sounds like a veteran with high multiples of years under her belt.

I bought her first album, “Incantation”, off Bandcamp where she announced she had 100 CDs » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

What’s this? You ask. Dave Ross reviewing a new album? If the world wasn’t crazy enough already in 2023 this is too much. Let me explain. It’s no secret that as a hobbyist music writer Pete Paphides is the writer I wish I could have been. Fair to say I’m a bit of a fanboy. I mean I’m not about to turn up at his house or turn my living room into a shrine like the guy from Alan Partridge but I love his writing style. His love of ABBA, encyclopaedic music knowledge (he once referenced King’s Taste Of Your Tears as a good thing. I know!) and his general niceness is all the more reason to love him. Broken Greek is the book I wish I could write weaving as it does personal stories with the music of the time. However, full disclosure here. On Twitter he’s been bloody relentless and not a little annoying about Iraina Mancini and her debut album on his Needle Mythology label. Anyway, out of interest as it clearly means a huge amount to Pete I gave it a listen. I mean it must be good if it’s » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The Lexicon Of Love, released in June 1982, confirmed that eighties Pop music had grown up. It followed The Human League’s Dare, Japan’s Tin Drum and Roxy Music’s Avalon over a period of eight months, shifting the UK musical landscape from Punk, New Wave, Agit-Funk to beautifully produced, gorgeous sounding, hopelessly romantic magnets to the dance floor. Martin Rushent worked his alchemy on Dare, Steve Nye, who refined his craft on Siren, did the same for Tin Drum and Rhett Davies’s deft skills grace Avalon. On The Lexicon Of Love, Trevor Horn, ably assisted by Gary Langan engineer, J.J. Jeczalik programner and Anne Dudley arranger, surpasses them all. He is known for his excesses but even though The Lexicon Of Love includes his trademark kitchen sink and a glockenspiel, it’s his best, most coherent work, successfully stitching together a breathtaking variety of different elements. He and the musicians take Computer World’s multi-layered synthesisers, Fear Of Music’s spiky guitars, Earth, Wind & Fire’s horns, Chic’s strings, Mark King’s bass flourishes, and Gang Of Four’s Rock solid drums to create a panoramic spectacle. Martin Fry takes his cue from Bryan Ferry both sartorially and in his » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The 50th anniversary of Robin Trower’s solo debut after quitting Procol Harum inevitably these days is marked by a deluxe reissue, albeit in a fairly modest two cd set. The original album has of course been remastered for the occasion, while the second cd has unreleased alternate early versions of three of the album tracks, four songs from Peel sessions plus a non album B side from the Man of the World single. Trower’s swirling melodic bluesy guitar licks combine very effectively with the soulful vocals of bassist James Dewar, who was to become a permanent and indeed key member of Trower’s band over the following years. Not all the songs have aged that well to be fair, but others like the title track, Sinner’s Song and Man of the World still hold their own. Trower’s Hendrix style playing isn’t to everyone’s taste these days for sure, but as a debut set this is a very creditable effort, although their best work still lay ahead of them with Bridge of Sighs and For Earth Below. Many years have passed since the last tine I listened to this album and although it is a bit » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Joni Mitchell is a popular music icon who completely redefined the singer songwriter role with her multi-octave vocal range, unusual chords and disarmingly frank lyrics. She steadfastly challenged the male-dominant music business and coaxed her listeners to think differently. A true innovator, she bent the normal rules of songwriting and performing to create something gloriously new. She is also a human being approaching the age of eighty whose life has been long and colourful but tempered by adverse life events. Those unusual chords were often a pragmatic solution to a left hand weakened by childhood polio. Her voice has been losing upper registers steadily over a couple of decades, getting closer to the rasp of her hero, the British jazz singer and actress Annie Ross. She has endured a very distressing medical condition called Morgellons and, in 2015, an aneurysm ruptured in her brain. Her rehabilitation involved monthly musical ‘jam’ sessions. Close friends and supporters would attend regularly but the list of famous guests dropping in to participate is stellar including Elton John, Paul McCartney, Bonnie Raitt, Harry Styles, Chaka Khan, Marcus Mumford and Herbie Hancock.

This live recording of her unexpected appearance at Newport last year is a celebration, a » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

A somewhat left field choice for a Steven Wilson remix as this solo album was very much overlooked on its original release in 1978. At that time, between Animals and The Wall, the band members of Pink Floyd were all spending a year out of the UK for tax reasons, and what better use to put the time to than to produce a solo record. The album demonstrates what an integral part of the Floyd sound Wright was, a fact that is somewhat under appreciated in the light of the dominance of Waters and Gilmour. The music is mostly gentle yet inventive, featuring nice guitar work by Floyd cohort Snowy White on some pieces, and its laid back feel perfectly captures the lazy atmosphere of the sunny Greek Islands where the music was mostly composed and where Wright loved to sail his yacht. A couple of the pieces have been extended slightly by incorporating passages that were edited from the original album, but there are no other extras and unusually the original mix itself isn’t included with this release. Things are rounded off with new artwork commissioned by Rick’s children, which nicely echoes the » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Shakti is collaboration between primarily John McLaughlin and Zakir Hussain. The last studio album was released way back in 1977, although there have been sporadic spurts of live and studio activity since, the most recent being the remotely recorded Is That So set released in 2020, albeit that appeared under the McLaughlin Hussain name. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the band’s inception, the original name has been reactivated for this new album, the current line up being something of a hybrid of the two longest running versions of the band. Soundwise, as you’d perhaps anticipate, it’s an inventive combination of jazz fusion and world music with McLaughlin’s fluid joyous playing varying from fiery bursts reminiscent of his seventies heyday to more introspective lyrical passages – age certainly hasn’t dimmed his virtuoso talent – with the visceral percussion adding an intriguing counterpoint, ably supported by the other multi-talented players. This is an album of contrasting textures and styles created by the melding of European and Asian influences and traditions as East meets West – check out pieces such as Karuna, the best piece here for me, and the hypnotic Changay Naino, where the band » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

“Funky Nothingness” is a largely instrumental triple-CD package recorded in the period around which Frank Zappa released “Chunga’s Revenge” and “Hot Rats” (i.e., 1969 to 70). As always the case with Frank Zappa, there was an awful lot going on in the background, with touring, many production jobs (e.g., Captain Beefheart’s classic date-night album, “Trout Mask Replica”, and the even-more “Hot Rats”-like jazz rock album, “King Kong: Jean-Luc Ponty Plays the Music of Frank Zappa”), and, and, and …. Zapparians will know he never bloody stopped, and he generally recorded it all as he went along. Zappa saw the emergence of the violin in rock, and Don “SugarCane” Harris regularly obliges here. Zappa also saw blues-rock taking dominance for teenage rockin’ combos, and rightly wanted to mark his tree there. In a time when listening audiences were often mildly intoxicated and amenable to long-form bits of music which eventually showed a pattern, “jamming” was also a thing; again, if anyone could make this happen, Frank Zappa, with his musical bones, could.

This is both the glory and the tragedy of “Funky Nothingness”. As a single album, it is great. As a double, it’s good. » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Let’s take a moment to praise the anonymous people who trawl through tape libraries in studios and record companies, looking for gold. For one of these ‘tape moles’ has unearthed some solid gold bars, here.

Rory Gallagher’s eleventh studio album, Fresh Evidence, came out on 1st May 1990. Recorded over six months – a lifetime, in Rory Gallagher terms – in four studios across London – Redan Recorders, Maison Rouge, Music Station and Audio One – it was an album which Rory was very proud of. His failing health, due to problems with his liver, contributed to delaying the release but a lot of care and attention was taken over getting the right sound for each song. The album used his band; Gerry McAvoy on bass, Brendan O’Neill on drums and John Cooke on keyboards, but had the added input of some wonderful players like Geraint Watkins, Mark Feltham and Lou Martin.

Rory gigged in support of the album, starting on 10th June in Douglas, Isle of Man, but the gigs were more spread out than in years gone by, to help him to recover from the rigours of his stage exertions – two » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The current iteration of Soft Machine is a very different beast to the Robert Wyatt era band of the Canterbury scene in the late 60s. – and yet there are still so many similarities in the brand of music they create, a hybrid fusion of prog and jazz. This is the first new studio recording since 2018’s Hidden Details set, and it marks the departure of drummer John Marshall and bassist Roy Babbington. There are a dozen new compositions here, plus reimaginings of two very different older pieces, Joy of a Toy and Penny Hitch. For me, the longer songs work better – Crooked Usage, Fell To Earth and Back in Season all give the band time to stretch out and breathe, with Theo Travis playing a fine hand in all three, ably assisted throughout by the improvisational guitar work of John Etheridge. Despite being around for 55 years now, the band still press forward, constantly seeking new frontiers to explore, and this album is accomplished and impressive while still retaining the defining essence and heady mix of influences and styles that is quintessentially Soft Machine.

What does it all *mean*?

There’s life in » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The new release from Big Big Train brings together four of their songs about technology and adds a new orchestral piece which links two of them – East Coast Racer and Brooklands.

Recorded at Abbey Road in 2019, The Book of Ingenious Devices itself is a beautiful short orchestral introduction to Brooklands. The 17-piece string section combine perfectly with the band to give the track more presence, more power than the original version on their Folklore Album. Nick D’Virgilio has added new drums and Greg Spawton has recorded new bass guitar and bass pedals to the original track. This version certainly sets the story in a brighter light and raises the impact of the speed and passion which John Cobb felt as he roared around the banks of the old track. The strings really come into their own on the middle instrumental section, beneath Dave Gregory’s blistering guitar and driven by NDV’s incredible drums.

Voyager was always one of my favourite BBT songs and the changes here are only subtle tweaks. The strings however bring a new perspective and combine with the BBT Brass Section for a lush, rich sound, especially on the closing » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Coming straight out of a tradition of prickly new waveish female-led guitar bands, Dream Wife are on their third album now and their sound is well defined: hooky Wire-like guitar lines interwoven with a thrusting, muscular rhythm section overlaid with front lady Rakel Mjöll’s own now-speaking, now-singing, now-shrieking style of delivery. The songs want to grab you straight away and, having made their point, don’t overstay their welcome. You get ten songs in 39 minutes and it’s nine in 35 if you skip Honestly, the weakest track here. The new album leans a bit more into riffage and momentum than previous releases. There’s nothing here like the lovely women’s health rights ballad After The Rain that closed their last album. When the pace of the music does slow a little, the lyrics maintain the aggression. Recent hit-in-our-house Leech is an attack on those who prey on and drag out of the (especially female) talent, which feels like progress from forebears Elastica’s girl group picks on girl groupies hit Line Up. That’s not to say Dream Wife are all snarl; album highlight Mascara is a big wet sentimental kiss of a thing.

What does it all » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Two of the three essential Alice Cooper albums (the other being Billion Dollar Babies of course) are given 50th anniversary reissues, remastered and sporting a good helping of unreleased bonus content. When I was but a boy, School’s Out was number one in the singles chart and I subsequently bought the album, one of my earliest purchases, and then added Killer to my collection later, probably for a birthday or Christmas. Produced by Bob Ezrin, Killer was the band’s fourth album, appearing in 1971.It’s maybe best known for the perennial Under My Wheels nowadays, but it’s a fine record also containing the eerie Dead Babies and one of the band’s best pieces in the epic Halo of Flies As well as a handful of alternate versions, this release comes with an unreleased live recording of a show at the Mar Y Sol festival in 1972, which as well as featuring a good chunk of Killers also has great versions of Is It My Body and I’m Eighteen and an early version of Public Animal No 9 from the yet to be released School’s Out album. Which brings us nicely to said record, another Ezrin » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

The album comprises stripped down reworkings of four classic Pink Floyd songs and one taken from Waters’ own back catalogue, all recorded remotely during the Covid lockdown, plus the 2022 rerecording of Comfortably Numb which Waters has been using to open the show on his This Is Not A Drill tour. I was delighted with his inclusion of two of my favourite and often sadly overlooked Floyd songs from The Final Cut, Two Suns in the Sunset and The Gunner’s Dream – indeed I would rank the latter as one of the best things he’s ever written. However, the highlight here is a slowed down bombast free take on one of his solo efforts, The Bravery of Being Out of Range, with an extra newly composed verse incorporated – a really successful treatment. It was a brave decision to begin his current run of shows with such a radical reworking of one of Floyd’s most instantly recognisable and loved songs, Comfortably Numb. The jury is still out on this new version as far as I’m concerned, but fair play to him for trying to do something different. Such is the familiarity of the original » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

A new chapter begins for the band after the sudden death of drummer Taylor Hawkins early last year, with Dave Grohl taking over the vacant seat as well as handling vocals and contributing guitars too, a busy man whose presence, as always, dominates the music here. Understandably in the circumstances, a theme of grief looms large over the entire record as Grohl contemplates his own mortality, the death of his close friend being quickly followed by the passing of his mother. The sound very much harks back to that of the band’s early days, crunching riffs matched by catchy choruses that worm their way into your brain after a few plays, but overall it’s certainly a more sombre listen that its predecessor Medicine at Midnight. The epic ten minute The Teacher is the album’s centrepiece, dealing with the composer’s relationship with his late mother as it shapeshifts through a number of styles while encapsulating his feelings towards her. However, the real tearjerker is the closing stately ballad Rest, which bids a final farewell to Hawkins. As a whole, the album represents something of a cathartic listen, the lyrics being a real strong point, but » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It’s 50th anniversary time for the old Tubular Bells. I have a particular affinity with this album, as I’m almost exactly the same age as it. It’s maybe a bit old hat these days, but it continues to transfix me after all these years, and I make no apologies for defending it as one of the greatest albums of all time.

I’ve tried before and failed to sum up what makes it so special, so I won’t really try again. But it has a unique sound and feel all of its own, and nothing else quite comes near it. It really is one in a million.

So is there any reason for a 50th anniversary edition? Weeellll, not really no. On the CD and online release there’s a new 8 minute piece by Oldfield himself (“Tubular Bells 4 Demo”) which purports to be his last ever recording before his retirement, but that has curio value only.

However, the Super Deluxe Edition BluRay is the real prize here. (It’s sold out though, making my review a bit redundant…..) As well as being competitively priced (under £30: no Beatles or Floyd level milking of the fans » Continue Reading.