Monthly Archives november 2012

Posted in Press Releases

Post-Punk Roots Rockers Rip It Up And Start Again

‘‘Mama Rosin are a rare band that combine familiar influences in subtle and striking ways to achieve a wholly unique and very personal form of music’’ – Jon Spencer

Long celebrated as a seminal live band, Mama Rosin’s unique vision – Louisiana swamp grooves meet New York’s CBGB white heat/white noise! – found legendary American rocker Jon Spencer embracing the band. Matching Mama Rosin with Jon Spencer proved a marriage made in rock’n’roll heaven: rich in texture and flavour, Bye Bye Bayou stands tall as 2012’s most uncompromising album.

Jon Spencer started out as guitarist in NY punk Pussy Galore and is leader of leftfield Americana bands Blues Explosion, Boss Hog, Heavy Trash...

Posted in Press Releases

Portland’s indie-rock duo Menomena have seen their show at Cargo sell out, but will be playing two other shows in Glasgow and Leeds before moving on to further dates in Europe.

Despite losing third member Brent Knopf prior to the recording sessions, 2012 has gone on to be a landmark year for Danny Seim and Justin Harris. Menomena’s recent new album “Moms” signalled further critical success for the group, with the likes of Pitchfork giving the album an 8.0 and The Sunday Times deeming it worthy of their “CD of the week”. The band called sessions for the record their “most collaborative and peaceful yet” and launched the album with a “Dark Side Of The Moms” laser show. They have since completed a successful US tour.

“Moms” is available now through Barsuk.

Menomena wil...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Rainbow are one of the legendary names of Rock and featured some amazing members including Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell, Roger Glover, Don Airey, Graham Bonnet, Joe Lynn Turner and more.

”On stage” was the bands third album and was recorded live over several dates and then spliced together to form the album. When I say it was spliced together, I don’t mean they took different tracks from different shows – they even took parts of a song from several shows and spliced them together seamlessly to get the best bits from each show. The album was released as a double album with the running order being very different to the live shows as they needed to change it to fit the limited vinyl capacity as best they could...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Rainbow are releasing a Deluxe edition of ”Long Live Rock ’n’ Roll”. It was the band’s third studio album and was released in 1978. It was Rainbow’s last album to feature Ronnie James Dio on vocals. Rainbow are one of the legendary names of Rock and featured some amazing members including Ritchie Blackmore, Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell, Roger Glover, Don Airey, Graham Bonnet, Joe Lynn Turner and more.

The original album is so well known that I won’t dwell on it, but this deluxe edition has far more to offer than just the basic album. While the original album had a running time of just over 41 minutes, the deluxe edition has that plus an hour and ten minutes of bonus tracks.
So what are the bonus tracks? Well we get rough mixes of seven of the songs from the album, a song recorded at a...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Cyclone Empire/Sound Pollution

Back in 1990 Gerrit P. Mutz, vocals, and Oliver Schramm, drums, started DAWN OF WINTER. The first demo, Path of the Worm” appeared in 1991, and in 1992 they added Joachim Schmalzried, bass, and Jörg M Knittel, guitars. A five track was recorded, as Oliver suddenly left the band, only to be replaced by Dennis Schediwy. Gigs with the likes of MIRROR OF DECEPTION and PSYCHTIC WALTZ followed, as well as an LP, “Doomcult Performance”. Their first real long-player appeared in 1998, In the Valley of Tears”, and, in 2001, the MLP “Slow Is the Suffering”. Massacre Records singed the band and the result, The Peaceful Dead” soon appeared...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Escape Music/Sound Pollution

IMPERA rings no bells, but the name has a lot to it. The musicians in the band/project are J.K. Impera, drums (BRUCE KULIC, GRAHAM BONNET), Tommy Denander, guitars (TOTO, PAUL STANLEY, ALICE COOPER, etc), Matti Alfonzetti, vocals (JAGGED EDGE, ROAD TO RUIN etc), and Mats Vassfjord, bass (VINNIE VINCENT, JOHN CORABI etc). Loads of routine and musicianship, and also loads of classic hard rock with bits of AOR according to the info.

Opener “Turn My Heart to Stone” is effective without being the very best song on offer. Melody and routine makes things go along smoothly. I personally prefer the more forceful “Kiss of Death”, which would have been an even better opening – but so far so good...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Frontiers/BAM

KIX were in your face Rock´n´Roll with more attitude than most back in their heyday. Founded back in 1978 they released their self-titled first album in 1981, but better things were still to come. More albums followed; “Cool Kids” in 1983, “Midnight Dynamite” in 1985 and in 1988, things really moved. “Blow My Fuse” went platinum and the ballad “Don´t Close Your Eyes” paved the way for the band. The follow-up “Hot Wire” came in 1991, and they cut a live album “KIX live, on tour in Holland. The rise of grunge was a hard blow for the band, and they threw in the towel in 1995 after their final effort “Show Business”. Or so we thought...

Posted in Cd Reviews

M&O Music

UNCHAINED has been in existence since 2010, and feature guitarist Jonathan Ranache as well as drummer Olivier Gavelle from KRAGENS. Together with Thibaud Vuille, guitars, Pierre Jourdan Gassin, vocals (ex KRAGENS) and GORGON bassist Joel Forneris they aim at delivering classic and melodic metal paired with growls.

The chosen song style is both a blessing and a curse, as they lose some edge, but still they remain really heavy. Opener “Infernal Death Machine” is quite atmospheric, as well as melodic and forceful. The rest of the record is actually quite bland. They have all the groves they need, as well as two classy guitarists with riffs spraying from their ears. But the growling is almost ripping them apart...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Cyclone Empire/Sound Pollution

Swedish underground heroes PUTERAEON returns with their second offering. Andy LaRoque has mixed and mastered and expectations are generally high, not least due to a few prestigious gigs. The band has only been around since 2008, the debut “The Esoteric Order” soon followed, and old school death metal is the aim here. PAGANIZER´s Rogga Johansson is a guest and general darkness and evil is promised.

I must confess to having great expectations on this one. Opener “The Great Epidemic of 1846” is not quite the smack in the face I was hoping for. And the hairs on my forearms don´t rise to “Children of Dagon” either. But the grooves are there and get more in place as “The Azathoth Cycle” unfolds. The names are mostly culled from H.P...

Posted in Cd Reviews

„I thought I fell into someone else’s dream” -plays Aerosmith in their brand new studio album. And anyway, they had more than right with it..

Nowadays, the real rock n’roll lives again. It’s like, time-travelling, or dreaming in real. At least for me. A kind of lovely- naturally in a rock ’roll meaning-, to see rise again up the old legends, our rock icons. KISS takes a tour again, nobody cares their age.. Mike Tramp is better than ever, and Ozzy still gives us the unsophisticated Ozzy feeling, although he is in a grandfather time.. I could just write the list endlessly.. So, thanks God!

And now, Steven Taylor comes out with this awesome track collection? What else is it, if not one of the best dream of all, who live life in music? Must tell, I was always wondering, and pretty...