Reviews

WEEKLY REVIEWS FOR MAY 4th 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

Jason Chesworth - Presenting Jason Chesworth with The Pocket Co

Jason Chesworth has been busy making his way in the acting world for the past few years, but has now turned his attention to music, alongside the Pocket Co.

This 6 track mini album boogies along its own merry way blurring the lines between rock, pop, soul, blues and jazz, never conforming to any one idiom, rather forming its own lines and its own sounds. Jason has a fine voice which blends seamlessly with the band, adding to the general feeling of bonhomie, come on in, sit down and lets rap mood.

It's easy to tell that the rhythm section are veterans of the jazz world, as they underpin the sound, moving it along and keeping it interesting. Not that it's likely to become dull when there are songs as effervescent and memorable as "Fine Looking Woman" and "We Fit Right" to keep our ears sated.

Hopefully, his acting career won't get in the way, for this is refreshing, enjoyable and invigorating.

Kip Winger - Down Incognito

This album was very badly treated, emerging originally as "Down Incognito" in the U.S., "Made By Hand" in Europe and as "Another Way" in Japan before being re-released a couple of years ago in Europe by Italian label Frontiers. Which would help explain why it took me so long to become aware of it.

Time which I am now regretting, for this is an absolute, stonewall classic. Those of you who know me, know my predilection for those late night, under the headphones moments, alone with an acoustic guitar. And this is one of the albums that will accompany me whenever I make that journey.

A bit of history for the youngsters out there.

After leaving Alice Cooper's band, bassist Kip Winger formed his own group in 1986; in addition to vocalist/bassist Winger, the group featured guitarist Reb Beach (most recently spotted in Whitesnake), bassist Paul Taylor, and drummer Rod Morgenstein, formerly of the Dixie Dregs. Winger specialised in pop-metal and their eponymous debut sold over a million copies on the strength of the rocker "Seventeen" and the ballad "Headed for a Heartbreak." Winger's second album, 1990's "In the Heart of the Young", was equally successful, selling over a million copies and featuring the hit power-ballad "Miles Away", a song that even managed to penetrate the UK charts at the end of the hair metal phenomena. Like many other acts, grunge took its toll and the group faded away after the release of its 1993 album "Pull".

Kip always had the voice, and amidst the overly glossy production, there were some good songs fighting to get out. And now is your chance as the songs are removed from their gilded cages and allowed to fly free. The unplugged experience has been marketed into the dust, but some of the orchestrations and arrangements here are just perfect.

Without going into too much detail, this album acted as a musical healing experience for Kip, and the depth of emotion involved can be quite suffocating. Listen to the reimagined "Heading For A Heartbreak", for a painful awakening, one of many Winger tracks rescued from a place of half remembered moments.

This CD takes melancholy to new extremes, but listen way, way down, and there is an undercurrent of hope tucked away there. You have to be ready to accept it, in an almost spiritual manner, but it's well worth it. It's been a long time since I became this emotionally involved in a piece of music, with the likes of "How Far Will We Go?" leaving a set of scars. If there's one reason for you not to buy this CD, it's because I want to keep it to myself, a private moment. But I owe it to Mr Winger to tell you how much of an impact this has made on me.

Liquid Visions - From the Cube

‘What It Is’ is a good start full of ‘eastern promise’ with an ingenuous sequence of notes on the guitar giving way to a ‘psychedelic shock’ 2½ minutes in. Looking at the line-up you just have a feeling that you're for a very special sonic experience and sure enough there are shimmering guitars, sitars, tablas and organ gracing this album. An expeditiously used theremin is thrown in for good measure.

From the promising opener, ‘From the Cube’ just gets better and better, an authentic evocation of a glorious past with an invigorating touch for the modern era. ‘Out of this Room’ is next, heavily suggestive of classic moments in acid/ Kraut rock punctuated by heavy riffing two minutes in that could just as easily be Black Sabbath. Again, a deceptively simple but oh so effective guitar line takes up the theme with some brief creepy organ that could be straight out of the Vanilla Fudge catalogue.

‘To Be Real’ is a clever composition, a psychedelic gem no less with some memorable vocal lines. This could have been a ‘hit’ in the halcyon days when music knew no barriers. The mid section reminds briefly of early Crimson in its unfulfilled jazzy progression.
The longest track’ Pink Cloud’ is a 14 minute Floydian invention in its first movement anyway- there’s even a lyric about a diamond shining bright! The second movement is a Camel like sequence whose melody reminded me of the ‘weep no more’ part of Syntelman’s March of the Roaring Seventies on Amon Duul 11’s epic’ Dance of the Lemmings’. The final movement has some raucous wah-wah soloed over in a Rory Gallagher jazzy style. Another well constructed guitar solo embellishes the ‘rocky Quintessence meets archetypal hard rock seventies band’ vibe of ‘Moonspell’.

The final track ‘Ebola Monster’ starts like an apocalyptic Doors number (‘The End’ perhaps) then the heaviest riff of the album explodes onto your speakers (I did mention Sabbath earlier didn’t I?) Add a driving rhythm section no better heard than in the middle section around 5 minutes in when the band notch up a gear and a guitar progression bearing a passing resemblance to ‘I’m A Man’ CTA style and you’ve got a pretty potent concoction on your hands! Never content to rest on their laurels, Liquid Vision then come up with a bit of ‘On The Boards’ style guitar picking, a surprisingly laid back moment that doesn’t last long as they break quickly back into a coruscating maelstrom more reminiscent of a Zeppelin than a glider!

Liquid Visions pull of a rare trick on ‘From the Cube’ of making an authentic late sixties/ early seventies psychedelic/ Kraut rock album with a fresh and original touch that, in the fullness of time, will stand shoulders to shoulders with the best releases of the genre. Highly recommended.

The only thing I can’t recommend is the web site www.liquidvisions.de (Too slow and many error message coming up!) However, there is another site mentioned on the sleeve www.fuenfundvierzig.com that might be worth checking out.
(Indigo CD 3073-2)

(Reviewed by Phil Jackson for Zeitgeist)

Mark Owen - Makin' Out

Really, he's on a hiding to nothing, a former Take That member who couldn't survive despite winning Celebrity Big Brother has now been dropped twice by record companies, reduced to forming his own record company to release this single. But then you have to admire the boy for sticking out his neck, when it would be so much easier to hide.

Now strange to relate, but "Makin' Out" is an infuriatingly catchy summer single that may well see the boy back in the Top 10 for a fourth time as a solo performer. He wasn't blessed with a singers voice, but here he avoids hitting the high notes, and goes for a low key vibe instead, which suits him much better. Despite working with Tony Hoffer, whose CV includes Beck, Supergrass and Turin Brakes, Mark hasn't made the mistake of going all indie Kylie on us, playing to his strengths, going for a repetitive and memorable refrain.

This was supposed to be coming out on May 24th but according to the luverly people at HMV it's been put back till June. However, it'll be coming to a music video channel near you soon, and you may find yourself damned by the people you love as you hum away without realising it. There's nothing new here, it's pop music. You like, you buy, but not for the Deicide fans amongst us.

The Red Stripes - Megamix / One Nation Army EP

"Drummer Reggae Zellweger and guitarist/vocalist Black White first heard the music of The White Stripes while sitting on the banks of the rivers of Babylon, listening to far away radio stations via the internet. They recognised how the power and intensity of Jack & Meg’s music could be translated to spread the rastafari message of peace and love. Soon rehearsals began, and little apples began to blossom. Now The Red Stripes have embarked upon their mission to spread the Detroit Town sound and the word of the rasta."

Which is just funny. And Simon LeBon is a fan. The strange thing is The White Stripes tunes don't actually sound out of place in a punky reggae stylee, which should scare me more than it does. And they even chuck in a medley of UB40s "Rat In The Kitchen" and The Stooges "No Fun" which shouldn't work.

I know they're having a larf, but it's a highly amusing tribute, probably the best since Tortelvis last wiggled his way across the stage fronting Dread Zeppelin. I don't how much of it I could take in a live environment, but hopefully they'll do the sensible thing and hit you round the head for 40 minutes before tipping you goodbye. Typically enough they're playing Leamington Jah a week after I was there. so I'll have to wait a little while longer to see just how you play reggae without a bass player!

In the meantime download yourself a treat.