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Reviews
Weekly Reviews For December 12, 2004 I am also Assistant Editor & reviewer
at MetalUK. I also contribute reviews to getreadytorock You will also find some reviews at spacerock.co.uk
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New Reviews The above should have had you clicking on the link a bit sharpish, for this is an absolutely delightful mini album, chock full of Caravan type melodies, fluid guitars and adventurous songwriting, all without straying too far from a mid seventies vibe. Thet rattle through six tracks in 20 minutes, each one a pealr, worth repeated plays. Opener, "Lonely Fool" is probably the shiniest of them all, all Blind Dog At St Dunstans mixed with the Electric Light Orchestra, absolutely fabulous. A close runner up is "Crazy Man", both a song of hope and despair all entwined together. There is no excuse for not buying this as they're virtually giving it away. Which is a clever way of saying you can download the entire thing for free (and cover art) or pay them a nominal 4 bucks for a CD version. Go, now
It's another run through some standards with a new and self penned numbers taking their place, ending up with an inspired number called "Paganini Blues", a remarkable arrangement of a Paganini piece. Elsewhere, "I Got Rhythm" by george Gershwin and "The Nearness Of You" by Hoagy Carmichael are the aces in the pack. Lenny displays an extraordinary dexterity to produce sounds from his violin that defy expectations and ably assisted by Pat Collins on bass, Geoff Young on guitar, Phil Dwyer on piano, Barry Romberg on bass, and Wendy Solomon on cello, produces a piece of work that stands out from the crowd.
Lotus - People On TV
Nothing To Declare - Stuck On Repeat Straight into it, no messing!! It's a very bassy mix with some interesting vocals. Echoes in the air was a good choice of first track it sounds a little bit like Span. The whole thing just kind of rolls along nicely and gathers momentum as you move onto the next song. They show their softer underbelly with a Smashing Pumpkins easy listening little number. Some tracks were smoother flowing than others; the guitar was a bit jumpy and erratic like the player of said instrument was having a sneezing fit, despite that it's still easy on the ear. As the songs moved on the style became grungier and had a filthier edge to it, there were some Eddie Vedder elements happening vocally also in places the songs just seemed to drag on longer than necessary and lost it a bit. The last track swings towards heavier old school rock, then half way through it flips back over to grunge which was a rather interesting concept. An average CD, it doesn't stand out but it's ok.
Halfahalo - The Thrashing Floor Now don't get me wrong. This isn't bad, just not overly captivating. The vocals are a love / hate element, the wigger rap sections are OK, and the guitars are truly excellent. When it all comes together, as on "The King & I", it's utterly fabulous. When it falls apart ("Losing Sound"), then it's time to hit the fast forward button. Oddly enough, chief bottle washer, singer and songwriter, Dave Thompson has spent a fair amount of time remixing the likes of Janet Jackson, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, so the lack of a pop hook is intriguing. Maybe it's a delibarate step away, but commercial rock radio likes a hook. The one exception is "Outstretch" which has 'radio play' stamped all over it. Elsewhere, there are plenty of moments to get the post grunge fans grooving, but maybe I was expecting too much. Lyrically, it's a good place with plenty of depth, and with 3 of the 6 tracks bearing repeated play, it's worth a listen. Unfortunately, the band seem to be having some kind of trouble, as they are on hiatus. A bit of a shame, as there was promise.
Lassie Casserole - The Vale 21/10/04 What a wicked name, but did they live up to it????? Erm well yeah they did actually! Their style was noting like expected, very Audioslave, they look like they are going to be much heavier, their style has twangs of early Soundgarden and also some elements of Alterbridge flowing through it. Really high quality sounds with good vocals, it was a well-paced steady set. Mainstream grunge was definitely the order of the night, there were a few appreciative facial expressions going on, they weren't exceptional but they were great all the same. The highlight of the night had to be their take on ghostbusters, yup grunge ghostbusters - fanbloodytastic, there were a few bouncing crowd members for that one "its brilliant". They also did a brand new song, very Nirvana in the intro, which then progressed into something heavier than previous tracks, it was good although the vocals were too low in places. Another new song had a very old punk feel to it compared the preceding songs. To sum up - they were strong lyrically, "Audioslave with less pompousness", they were up for a laugh and didn't take themselves too seriously, a good band to have as a headliner. If this style floats your boat then Lassie Casserole are a must see.
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