Reviews

Weekly Reviews For August 14 2004

Review Index

I am also Assistant Editor & reviewer at MetalUK.

I also contribute reviews to getreadytorock

Recent reviews include
Rush - Chronicles (The Video Collection)
Deep Purple - The Early Years
Damageplan - New Found Power
Whitesnake - The Early Years

You will also find some reviews at spacerock.co.uk

The Rocker
New releases from;
Superczar - Pop Art
Various - Further Adventures of the Telepathic Explorers
When's The Future - Then
And many more....

 

New Reviews

Logan Medland - Something in Blue

Logan says; "There's a lot of jazz artists who play lots of notes. With this album I'm more interested in creating a mood. The artists that influenced me the most: Chet Baker, Miles Davis, Bill Evans always seemed to me to have a touch of the romantic to them, and I hope I found that romanticism, that wistfulness on this album. To me it's really about a sense of intimacy with the listener, accesibility to the moment, and making the music mean something about life, about how sweet and short our time is."

And I'm delighted to say that Me Medland has more than matched his ambitions on this delightful and elegant release. This CD is actually a soundtrack of sorts to the stage show, "Fingers & Toes", a jazz musical written by and starring Mr Medland, which has been touring around Canada for the last couple of years.

After a brief Thelonious Monk intro, it's straight into one of the highlights of the CD, of duet of a kind with Ms Robin Hutton, wherein they work their way through a fabulous counter melody arrangement of "If I Only Had a Brain/ Over the Rainbow". You've never heard them sung this way before, and it's and absolute delight.

Logan is an accomplished pianist and his trio are perfectly in synch with each other, so a large tip of the hat to Duncan Hopkins on bass and Kevin Dempsey on drums. An absolute joy of a CD, warmly recommended.

Vapourspace - Sonic Residue From Vapourspace

How much you take from this release depends on your opinion of remixes. New art form or philistine assault. I’m sure there are a few Dream Theater fans out there that’ll be rounding up the villagers, collecting some fire wood and heading off to the Vapourspace studio chanting ‘heresy’ as Mike Portnoys percussion gets tweaked, but for the open minded, there’s a lot to appreciate here.

Mark Gage (who works under the name Vapourspace) went through numerous Magna Carta releases looking for the tracks that he wanted to remix for this project and 12 months later, this project was ready. Unlike some projects with a plethora of remixers, this project allows the listener to benefit from a holistic overview. Amongst the highlights are;

Steve Morse - Led On. Originally a tribute to Led Zeppelin from the current Deep Purple guitarist, this is given more of an Eastern inflection. Liquid Tension Experiment – Osmosis. This is given an ever spacier feel than the original. Steve Walsh – Kansas. My favourite and a track from which all the guitars have been removed! Drum and bass for those who hate drum and bass.
Tempest - Jenny Nettles. Slowly builds up to an ethereal climax (if that makes any sense), with the waves lowly washing your sins away.

Overall, an excellent project, and worth repeated spins.

Original contributing artists;
Attention Deficit – Alex Skolnick (Testament), Tim Alexander (Primus), Michael Manring
Niacin - Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big, Talas, David Lee Roth), John Novello, Dennis Chambers (Parliament/Funkadelic)
Steve Morse (Dregs, Deep Purple)
Explorers Club - Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa, Jeff Beck), Billy Sheehan, DC Cooper (Royal Hunt), Steve Howe (Yes), Trent Gardner
Liquid Tension Experiment - John Petrucci (Dream Theater), Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater), Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson)
Bozzio Levin Stevens - Terry Bozzio, Tony Levin, Steve Stevens (Billy Idol)
Steve Walsh (Kansas)
Tempest.

Beverley Knight - Come As You Are

Strange, soul singer goes rock for no apparent reason, helped along by Robbie Williams Axis Of Evil member, Guy Chambers. And it's actually quite good.

Beverley has always had an amazing voice, and nothing has changed there, I'm just not sure whether the new 'rock' Beverley us quite the right direction. Props for trying something different, which could easily alienate her existing fans.

However, it doesn;t really convince, and there are plenty of people out there rocking, who do it better. Nearly, but not quite.

Switchfoot - Meant To Live / Ana Johnnson - We Are

In an evil marketing ploy, 'they' have released two singles on the same day from Spiderman 2, with a cross single free poster thingy, to try and get people to part with two lots of shekels in order to get their Spidey fix. Bad, bad people.

Switchfoot are that most maligned of creatures, a Christian rock band. SOmething I have no trouble with, especially when the lyrics are spiritual rather than confrontational;

"Dreaming about Providence
And whether mice or men have second tries
Maybe we've been livin with our eyes half open
Maybe we're bent and broken, broken"

There's is an epic guitar rock sound, straight out of the Nickelback / Creed school of rock, and it'ss quite arresting. An excellent song, lifted from their 2003 CD 'The Beautiful Letdown', and well worthy of your attention.

Unlike Ana Johnnson, star of the Swedish rock scene and purveyor of an appaling tune straight from the Andreas Carlsson pap factory (Britney / LeAnn Rimes / Backstreet Boys). Everything that is wrong with corporate rock is encapsulated within this song, and all aspiring songwriters should listen carefully, and avoid making the same mistakes.

Switchfoot

Ana Johnnson

Merika 'Thoughts And Sounds' EP Launch
Barfly, Glasgow

What a talented band! With Jon’s distinctive smokey voice fantastically complimented by the rest of the guys, MERIKA have the chance to do well. Sadly there was something missing, long pauses between songs didn’t help to get the night flowing – they grabbed attention with great songs and then lost it by fiddling with equipment and seemingly discussing what to play next. By track 4 it all clicked into place, the songs were creative and inspiring they gained pace and intensity and were of an excellent quality.

An enchanting mix of sounds with hints of JJ72 U2 and the Super Furries, MERIKA have a great variety of styles – no fears about pigeonholing them! The crowd were kept on their toes with beauties such as lift me up and fallen angel (so amazing it makes your toes curl). New track Drinkin Thinkin was the highlight of the night as Jon’s voice had the chance to shine. Get yourself elected was bloody fantastic it got a superb response and the crowd were gagging for more. They need to smooth the edges but overall it was a good performance, Last track keep alright was a cool finish to a short but sweet set.

Review by Katey Jarvis

MERIKA are:
Jon - lead vocals and guitar
Derek - Guitar
Drums - Neal
Bass - Leslie
Keyboards - Mark

Modern Drummer Magazine Presents: Drum Nation Volume 1

"Drum Nation Volume 1 features the World’s Greatest Drummers performing with ensembles or solo. Terry Bozzio; Bill Bruford; Steve Smith and Zakir Hussain; Chad Wackerman; Stanton Moore; Simon Phillips; Josh Freese; Rod Morgenstein; Tim Alexander and Brain; Marco Minnemann; Stephen Perkins and Brooks Wackerman."

Speaking as someone who used to head for the bar during the drum solo, the idea of an album featuring nothing but drummers filled me with almost as much dread as a new Mickey Hart project.

Fortunately for my sanity, the drummers concerned have largely eschewed the 'solo' concept, concentrating instead on percussion led instrumental pieces instead. Which took it down a notch from dread to wary.

But there's a great deal to enjoy here with styles ranging from prog to jazz fusion to mainstream rock and beyond. Highlights for me included;

'Beelzebub' from Bill Bruford's Earthworks, a reworked version of the track from his 1977 "Feels Good to Me" album.
'Mad Tea Time (Parts 1 and 2)', a fabulous piece of fusion with double the drummers (Journey man Steve Smith and Zakir Hussain). Amazing to think this was a live in the studio piece when you hear the intricacies of the piece. As a sidebar, fans of fusion really need to hear the first Journey album, an outstanding fusion piece.
'Manganese' by Simon Phillips, more rock than jazz with great guitars from Andy Timmons.
'Faceless Pastiche' by Rod Morgenstein, an interesting melange of ideas helped along by Dream Theaters Jordan Rudess, in which Rod hits back at the critics.

Elsewhere, there are experimental moments and Zappaesque modal tones, which makes for an always interseting, sometimes inspirational release.