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Weekly Reviews For January 1, 2006

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I am Managing Editor at Metal4Life

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Day Shift – Imaginary Menagerie

Here's one for the Porcupine Tree fans out there. For Day Shift operate in the same twilight world as PT, with a trippy psychedelic guitar sound combining with a darkwave sensibility, offset by the downright odd lyrics courtesy of the self-described 'musical prostitute with the morals of a tapeworm', Henry Crud. The PT influences also permeate the fabulous sounds.

The highlights are many with “The Abstracted Sloth” a favourite round our way, especially when the guitar solo arrives! But the best is also the longest – “The Unwashed Platypus”. A song that lives up to its title complete with lots of space rock touches and not one, but two great Dave Gilmour like solos. Twelve minutes you won't regret spending on one song. To be fair, the lyrics do sometimes irritate but it's all about the music, man, and that is uniformly excellent.

This is a remarkably assured debut album, and with PT and Anathema continuing to pick up fans, this could lift Day Shift on to the first rungs of the prog ladder.

No Hope Astronaut - Bipolar


Does the world need a throwback to the early days of grunge? Probably not. But when the raging guitars blast in on opening track "BiPolar" it all seems worthwhile.

A self proclaimed alternacore (what the?) band from Surrey, they've had the names Biffy Clyro, Kyuss and Tool aimed at them. Fortunately for all, it's Tool rather than Biffy Awful Clyro that is closest to the mark.

'Satellite' is a bit too indie for my liking coming on all latter day Britpop, which is a very, very bad thing. Although the vocals of Lauren are considerably better than those of Joe, which I'm sure will lead to all sorts of bitchy infighting, and is all part of my plan to rid the world of music once and for all, so I can get peace and quiet. But back in the world of the song, "Satellite" does pick itself up around the 3 minute mark and gets all prog metal on your ass.

They've certainly got a few interesting ideas floating around, and should be placed in the file marked 'keep an eye' on.

Glenn Miller Orchestra @ the Edinburgh Usher Hall

Well this show certainly warmed the cockles of my wintry heart. A near capacity audience turned out to see the Glenn Miller Orchestra (UK) led by Ray McVay on a cold day in December. But we all left in warmer spirits than when we arrived.

As one of the younger members of the audience I've always wanted to see a top quality big band in action, and I was not disappointed. 16 supremely talented musicians playing timeless music in the same format that Glenn Miller used - five saxophones, four trumpets, four trombones, three piece rhythm section.

The first half of the show saw the band in red jackets and black bow ties before emerging after the interval wearing the uniforms of the Glenn Miller Army Air Force Band. We were also treated to some spotlight performances from dance troupe the Jiving Lindy Hoppers, vocal turns from the harmony singing Moonlight Serenaders and solo vocals from the featured singers, Colin Anthony (with a Sammy Davis Jr tribute) and Jan Messeder (with a tribute to Judy Garland). It was Anthony who stole the show, however, with a warm, velvet performance that would have done Tony Bennet proud twenty years ago.

The show featured all the greatest hits you would expect - "American Patrol", "Over There", "Moonlight Serenade", and, of course "In The Mood" with the Jiving Lindy Hoppers getting audience members up on stage to dance along. The band didn;t limit themselves to the music of Glenn Miller, with some delightful excursions into the music of Tommy Dorsey, Harry James and others, with only an extended and unwelcome "Riverdance" section spoiling the mood, and as it was almost New Year, "Auld Lang Syne".

But when they stuck to the music of the Miller era, it was a wondrous spectacle.

Mike Di Lorenzo - Urbanized

Another helping of smooth jazz, this time from New York based keyboard player Mike Di Lorenzo. However, bar a cover of the Stevie Wonder classic, “Too High”, this is all original material.

Also, unlike a lot of smooth jazz, this is sprightly and up front, bordering on the funky as befits a man who has worked with the likes of Whitney Houston, Cissy Houston, and Gerald Alston. Of course it helps when you have some outstanding brass on your record, and the work of Bob Malach on tenor sax and Vinnie Cutro on trumpet has to be complimented with a tip of a metaphorical hat.

When they hit a groove as they do on "Severance" and "Groovemaster", it's really quite sublime. A couple of the numbers don't quite hit the mark ("Loosey Goose" and "After Midnight" being the main offenders) but overall, it's a delight.

Franklin Penny - The Very Thought Of You

There seems to be a bit of a resurgence in smooth jazz and trumpet/flugelhorn player Franklin Penny is tha latest to cross my path.

A quick glance through the tracklisting shows up “Someone To Watch Over Me”, “Misty”, “Stardust” and “I'm In The Mood For Love” among the eleven classic contenders.

It is extremely sentimental but manages to avoid tipping over into the ravine marked kitsch, largely through the delicate arrangements but also with the verve displayed by the musicians. Franklin has worked as a soloist with the Prime Time Big Band and his love of the music shines through. In fact you may have seen him without realising it if you've watched the movie "How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days" where he is playing trumpet, standing directly between Kate Hudson and Mathew McConaughey!

It's not the most challenging of listening, but sometimes you just need to relax in front of the fire, and this is the perfect accompaniment.