Reviews

Weekly Reviews For September 24, 2006

Review Index

I am Managing Editor at Metal4Life

I also contribute reviews to getreadytorock

I am also featured reviewer at spacerock.co.uk

I was Editor & reviewer at MetalUK.

New Reviews

The Gerry Dryden Band - It Shone iIke Gold

If this were the mid-seventies there's a fair chance that the roots rock of the Gerry Dryden Band would have found some mainstream favour. Mind you, it didn't work for Eggs Over Easy?

With a few folk and blues influences thrown into the mix, alongside some good songs, it's a very pleasant ride. Although I'd like to hear the female vocals moved up in the mix further, as the ragged voice of Mr Dryden benefits from some sweetening.

The guitars and melodies often bring late period (i.e. good) Chris Rea to mind, which is no bad thing, and even though a couple of tracks could have been pruned, it's an enjoyable listen.

Jose - In Love With You


Hmm, a set of Latin influenced (torch) songs sung by an Australian who, frankly, can't sing. That'll be me making my excuses and leaving. But hold hard! (oo-err missus). This is actually a wonderful collection of affecting and intimate songs that transcend preconceptions and become part of your life.

Spend some time with songs like "Someone Beautiful" and "Dindi In The Night", and you'll see what I mean. The gruff voice of Jose wraps itself around the words and rhythms, and it all seems to make sense. Best of all is "Sweet Friend", a truly beautiful song. And, hey, where else will you hear a song called "Fat Nazi In The Kitchen"?

Darlette Gayle - Whyte Chocolate

It's a crowded world out there in female r'n'b land, so you've really got to have something that stands out. Unfortunately, in the overly misogynist world of black music that usually involves butts and breasts, rather than vocal pipes, in a world dominated by producers intent on making singers homogenous and largely redundant.

Now Darlette is a good singer and this set of new material does sparkle into life, especially on "So Good 2 U", "Love Me Not" and "Hold Me Love Me". But that's no guarantee of makin git.

Hopefully the breaks come the right way, as Darlette is more than a match for most of what's on offer today.

Kush - The Temptation Sessions

'Improvised music for the body and soul'. I smell hippy. But the weird thing is, these chilled out, largely electronic musical experiments are what passes for nu jazz these days. Even scarier (and even more unlikely), Kush were nominated as best band in the Canadian Smooth Jazz Awards. Kerrazy!

This is the kind of laid back vibe that used to get pumped out in the come down tent at many a fried up rave back in the day. I liked it then and I like it now.

I still don't know what the downtempo beats have to do with jazz. I'm just happy to bliss out to them.

Charlie Brown - Grown Folks' Party

Nice. Charlie Brown has a nice line in smooth seventies soul, and a great voice which can go from the proverbial whisper to a roar with ease. It's not a sound you hear much of these days, although R Kelly does a turn now and then, in between his other, ahem, interests.

It's all about the melody, chorus and harmony. Pillars of great music and this CD has them in abundance. There are some overly intrusive keyboards on a few of the tracks which threaten to ruin the vibe. But when it all clicks as it does on "Let's Go Steady", "Henpecked" and others, then this is a treat for those of who yearn for the days when the Memphis Horns ruled the world.

Tom Hipps - Then Went The Demons


It must be hard work trying to make it a singer / songwriter. The competition is huge, and it's just you against the world. there's no bandmates to shoulder some of the responsibility. It's you and your songs that are being judged, nothing else.

So, it's always nice to be able to point at someone and go 'see him / her. he / she's good'. Not that Tom Hipps is suffering from some kind of gender confusion, but he is a good singer / songwriter. He has an appealing voice, excellent songs and an uplifting feel to his music that draws you in and embraces you. The highlights for me were "Below The Surface" and "Home For Good", but you could stick a pin and and come away with a good tune.

BlackMotherEarth Presents - Authentic Avenue Listening

How is it that so called hip hop artistes can go from bitches and ho's to praising the Lord without skipping a beat? Now I'm no religious expert but I'm reasonable sure that God isn't really down with slapping ones bitch up. Of course it doesn't help when so many women become willingly complicit in their own demise. Take a look at any of the eveilemteevee channels and you'll see what I'm on about. If a rock band were to behave the way this shower of misogynist cretins did, it would be scandal ahoy.

Which means that this CD goes from the good to the reprehensible with ease. "Crazy World" and "Dirt Poor Mama" good. "Apple Bottoms" and "Wanna Do" bad. Hip hop used to be a positive force for change. Nowadays, it seems to be all about who has the biggest p----, um, possee, and how many hos you can bang up. Until someone takes a stand against the lack of dignity and morality, my one man boycott starts now

John Wort Hannam - Dynamite and Dozers

'I wasn't born blue blood, I was born blue collar / Like my Dad and Grandad I'm gonna follow / There's no money here, you gotta earn every dollar'… Make no mistake about it brother, this is purely the sort of country music that he preaches and is the sort that you've heard about in films. With song such as 'Above Ground where the banjo leads the way through a downtrodden and dying country, every single sliver of John is a piece of the Dark Country, with clouds gathering in his soul, accompanied by tightly woven harmonies and the sort of sorrow that comes from deep down.

('All in all 28 bodies were found / every day's a good day when it's above ground.')

'50 Miles' changes emotions completely. A travelling, hobo-ing jaunt of country swing, with typical BUM-BUMM bass lines and drum clicks that all point towards the highway. For someone who doesn't know too much, think 'Littlest Hobo'. For those who do not need crude T.V. associations, think Guy Clarke or Gordon Lightfoot.

This one is for the sombre, hard-thinking, hard-working country folk that gather at the bar, waiting for the next pint of whiskey. All is so heartfelt and telling that with the swooning violins, scuffling brushed drums and true lyrics that even the toughest of modern music lovers may have to acknowledge, this more traditional method of 20th Century story telling tells it as it is and true grandeur spirit of the huge country of his hometown. The advantage for John and others like him will be that such releases stand away from the times more than any other and are not tampered and twisted by the fashion of the day, for something about them is old and trusted. These deep and old roots go longer ands are more twisted than the pioneers of one-minute wonder genres. So when trends come back round, who knows? This talented song writer might hit gold… but until then, his music is more suited towards the open-expanse dirtroads of the U.S., Canada, Australia or anywhere else with a sense for space and vast isolation. For in these grandiose settings, there will be a lone trucker working their way to the lone motel in the middle of nowhere. With the open roads, lone engine humming and the strains to the small wage ever-looming, there is always going to be a place for this.

Or maybe these are the musings from a young white boy with clichés in mind... Regardless of whether this is glorifying an old country music fable, such imagery and a longing for a cheap shot of something in a dusty bar will be a hard vision to shake free.

Reviewed by Gary Munday

J. Edgar Hoova & The Body Removers - Take Yer Dead Ass Home

'You know I like to rock, but I also like to roll – OH YEAAAH!'

Sheeet. What are they awn? Can they spray it into the atmosphere so we're all on it and can eventually come to understand what screwd up filter they are looking through?!

This just doesn't make any sense anymore! Is there a colony out there in the desert that has been isolated from the rest of the world and has therefore lost touch with civilisation, fashion and what is generally accepted as music cock-wankery? Is there a group of outcasts in the barrens of dust and cacti and broken engines that are forced to eat on the carcasses of their old and look like the rejects from Mad Max III? Is there a group of people out there with perms, leather trousers, groins that thrust of their own volition and shrines for the likes of ZZ Top and Judas Priest?!

Where do these guys get off?

All the standard Hard Rock rules apply: they won't apologise, they won't shy from the duties at hand, they aren't afraid of stepping on the toes of their influences.

It sounds like a forty year old with premature dementia copping himself off to his own voice ('Come on! Urggh! Argh! Where are we tonight? Somebody tell me where we are tonight?!').

Take your 'dead ass home' and grow up.

Reviewed by Gary Munday