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Reviews
Weekly Reviews For June 19, 2005 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
That was prior to the recruitment of Camlet and D'Amato to the lineup and they subsequently released this follow-up, "Will I Be Free". Their sound is that very American rock sound, which sounds fabulous on a car stereo, and which is ever so slightly alien to those of us brought up in a world bereft of highways and sunshine. Which is why bands like Three Doors Down shift platinum albums in the US and we shrug slightly, here in the UK. But the Blue Muse sound is well worth paying attention to, especially the strong, confident voice of Cathey Baier. The band have a good grasp of strong, melodic song writing and the performing ability to pull them off, with an excellent harmonic vocal sound. They edge closer to the indie rock sounds than the hard rock sounds that my personal preferences steer me towards, but I know a good band when I hear one, and Blue Muse are certainly that
Robin Cahill is the latest female singer to shake my particular tree, with individuality, style and a remarkable ability to write a memorable tune. There may only be 10 songs here, but I’d rather the 10 gems here, than 80 minutes of filler. Note to performers – just because you can fill a CD up, doesn’t mean you should. This album runs the gamut of style and emotion, and Robin doesn’t
put a foot wrong. A peach of an album, and one lovers of updated
trad country should take to their hearts.
Eugenia – A Woman’s Place Nowadays, this falls into that catch all journalists dream – Americana. In the olden days it would have been singer/songwriter folk tinged pop, which is much more descriptive but takes much longer to type, so I’ll stick with Americana! Ably assisted by backing band "The Boys", Eugenia has worked through the usual route of rock bands and solo performances in coffee houses, honing her craft and developing some strong songwriting muscles and placing songs on compilation albums before arriving at this accomplished release. She’s influenced by the likes of Nancy Griffith, Alanis Morissette
and Michelle Shocked, amongst others, and you won’t be surprised
to find that her songs fit nicely into that idiom, although more
Nancy than Alanis. Always melodic and always interesting, well worth
a listen.
Somascetic – The Violence Of
Distance The Violence of Distance is a double CD set, with an hour and 45 minutes of music, that flashes by in an instant, begging you to hit the replay button! You could lose days of your life listening to this, it is so compelling. It’s been described elsewhere as Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" meets Tool's "Lateralus" but to these ears they’re working in the same sculpted semi ambient soundscapes as modern day Anathema, and you don’t get much higher praise from me than that. If they resemble any era of Pink Floyd it’s Meddle / Echoes more than anything else. Guitarist/vocalist Shawn Burnette and percussionist Andy Reamer are the mainmen behind Somascetic and range across thirty tracks (although only thirteen have names on the sleeve?), combining introspective acoustic mood pieces alongside soaring progressive rock and ethereal moments of beauty. To be fair, things start to drag a bit midway through CD2, and some judicious editing could have turned a great album into a classic. But it’s a minor quibble and this comes unreservedly recommended. According to the Somascetic bio, “Burnette is currently maintaining
a meditative state while exploring his love of horticulture as the
next Somascetic project is being revealed.” Which sounds nice.
Terry Bozzio – Prime Cuts Just in case you don’t know, Terry Bozzio is one of the finest percussionists and drummers of all time. Fact. He’s played with a huge variety of performers, including a long stint with Frank Zappa, a period as a pop star with Missing Persons and countless sessions with the likes of Jeff Beck, Billy Sheehan, Robbie Robertson, Herbie Hancock and innumerable others. This CD, one of a series of artist retrospectives from Magna Carta, rounds up over 10 years worth of assorted albums and sessions, featuring solo recordings alongside tracks with Tony Levin, Steve Stevens, Jordan Rudess, the Explorers Club, Billy Sheehan, Wayne Gardner, Matt Guillory, James LeBrie (Dream Theater), James Murphy, and John Petrucci (Dream Theater). Now, I like a jam as much as the next man, but drummers often stray down the road marked self-indulgent. Fortunately, for all, Terry Bozzio knows better, and he tracks featured always manage to stay adjacent to the all important tune. There’s an unreleased track, “Walking Dream”, to bring in the completists, alongside a cracking new number, “Sick Jazz Surgery.” The music stretches across a range of genres, highlighting how adept Terry is at whatever he turns his hand to, and there’s a bonus video of the song “Gigantipithicus” (excerpt) as ell as a 15 minute interview with Bozzio, where he talks about his diverse career. It’s practically impossible to shoehorn his work into one
CD, but this is a good go. If you just listen to one number, make
it “A Glimpse Into A Deeply Disturbed Mind”. Everything
you need to know about how talented this man is, is there in one
number.
Gunnar Madsen – The Power Of
A Hat Gunnar is a Grammy-nominated songwriter who decided to head off to a log cabin in outermost Washington State, with the intention of creating a folk/pop opus full of haunting, funny, warm and surprising songs. And he’s had a good crack at it. The musicians he managed to persuade to go along with him lived and cooked and played together for a whole week, from 9am to 4am every day and night, laying down their sounds in a collaborative manner. And if that smacks of hippiedom, then so what! Amongst some interesting, and sometimes very special originals, there is a remarkable reimagining of Talking Heads' "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)", which manages the remarkable feat of not being hurled through the window, unlike every other Talking Heads song I’ve ever heard. The music always sounds fresh and sparkling, no doubt helped by the production skills of Kent Sparling (who mixed the films "Adaptation" and "Lost in Translation"). Gunnar Madsen has been a working musician for nearly 20 years,
including 10 years of road dogging it with vocal harmony outfit,
The Bobs. His first solo album, “Spinning World, 13 Ways of
Looking at a Waltz” was exactly that, a collection of waltzes,
which ended up being licensed for use in the TV series, "Sex
and the City". But this album is more an amalgamation of folk,
pop and art rock, sometimes a bit too clever, but fundamentally
an invigorating collection
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