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Weekly Reviews For December 26, 2005

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Crash The Machine – 4am

Crash The Machine from Sacramento, California specialise in that strain of American rock that is peculiar to the United States, purveyed by the likes Matchbox 20. It doesn't rock hard enough to be hard rock, it isn't mellow enough to be soft rock and it isn't spiky enough to be alt rock.

It's music based on sweeping melodies and big choruses. The band themselves say it is about re-embracing our humanity and thinking for our self.

It veers on the edge of being indie but manages to pull back from that dreaded brink with good tunes, best demonstrated on "Two Worlds" "Better (If You're Still)" They've also taken the time to try and come up with trite free lyrics, which is refreshing in the moon, June, spoon world we currently occupy.

They're not quite the finished article and there is a tendency to wander from one sound to another without an identifiable Crash The Machine patter, but it is definitely promising and well worth a listen.

Mark Gandy - Honky Tonk Hero


Mark Gandy specialises in a style of country which has rarely been fashionable, except in the glory days of George Strait, and the title “Honky Tonk Hero” is all the clue you need. Along with his band, Whiskey River he inhabits a world of working class men and women struggling to keep their blue collars above water.

The Delaware based singer / songwriter is a road dog who has earned his stripes playing shows with acts like Faith Hill, John Michael Montgomery, Brooks & Dunn and Trisha Yearwood, and his performance shows the mark of someone who has worked hard at his craft.

Some of the songs are a bit generic but when he hits the spot, they're an absolute delight. The title track and “It Ain't A Crime To Love Me” are good, but it's on “Honky Tonkin' & Lovin' You” that he hits the mother lode! It's the wrong time and place for his style of country to make it really big, but there will always be a market for songs this good.

Lady Forte – You And Me

This has been a year for jazz standards getting dusted down and performed anew, especially from female vocalists, and here's another one. Fortunately, it's one of the good ones.

Style wise, Lady Forte is following in the footsteps of Billie Holliday and Sarah Vaughan, and has taken a chance by starting the album with a go at “God Bless The Child”. A shame she doesn't pull it off, as the rest of the album shows she does have the chops to compete with the best.

Because once you get past the false start there's four tracks of pure gold in a row. The best of the lot is the remake of Anita Baker's “Fairytales” which is absolutely sublime. I'm not normally a fan of sopranos but some of the notes Lady Forte reaches, with apparent ease, are absolutely beautiful.

Dominic Ashworth – Portraits

Dominic Ashworth is a well known guitarist on the UK jazz scene and this new album blends some of his original material with an array of classic material from the likes of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Jaco Pastorius.

The best of the originals opens the album. "Cuban Cafe", written after a trip to Cuba is a superb, rhythmic start to the album with some fabulous percussion courtesy of Nic France and / or Josefina Cupido. Of the covers, there's my second version of "God Bless The Child" this week and Ashworth dares to rework and reinvent that most classic of songs and come out a winner. Best of all is the version of "Three Views Of A Secret" by the late, great Jaco Pastorius. Again, the melody is reworked, but without loss.

An excellent release which you really should investigate.

Giles, Giles and Fripp – The Cheerful Insanity Of

People of a certain age may claim that the sixties were a golden period for the exploration of musical ideas, but for every boundary broken, a pile of utter tosh like this would be thrown up. And I mean that almost literally. As the band that became King Crimson, this will result in a lot of disappointed fans.

It's closer to the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band than it is anything remotely musical, and you would never guess that Robert Fripp would end up one of the greatest guitarists of all time, based on this fey piece of nonsense.

I assume they thought they were being daring and radical linking the songs with prose, but the 'concept' of Rodney Toady, a poor ugly kid who all the other kids pick on is truly dreadful, riddled with the class consciousness that a public school education gives to you. I'm trying hard to think of something good to say, and I suppose "Suite No. 1", the sole instrumental is worth a listen. Unfortunately, it's the last track on the album and I doubt anyone with a modicum of taste will get that far.

Valles Brothers - Valles Brothers II

There must be something in the desert air that causes Texans to come up with such trippy, otherworldy music, and the Valles Brothers are no exception.

The three brothers have been playing music together since the mid-eighties and have a natural affinity with each other which only comes through time and blood. They've also spent time developing a sound that isn't quite like any other, with the added bonus of English and Spanish vocals.

There is some fabulous psychedelic guitar playing allied to some memorable melodies and impassioned performances with the highlights being Aeroplane and the stoner sound of Finding Melody. Predating the faux desert rock of Queens of the Stone Age and their ilk, this is the real sound of the setting sun.