Cheeto's Magazine - A.W.K.W.A.R.D.

Cheeto’s Magazine – Amazingous: Meet Todd Rundgren in a Spanish bordello channelling the cheesiest aspects of pop Genesis, while Cheap Trick hurl custard pies from the wings, and watch as these Spanish loons (aye, they’re still loons, five years after that bonkers debut Boiling Fouls) make a joyful pop-prog racket and dance around inside your cranium with all the decorum of a riot in the nursing home.
Full of rambunctious affairs like the irrepressibly daft Ready To Rumble, this album will probably work better in the summer, when the sun is out and we’ll all be too drunk to care anymore. Close Your Eyes thankfully pulls up just short of becoming a power ballad, and there’s an instrumental with the most unthreatening riff you ever heard, called, quite inappropriately, Scum … and what’s this? Ah, very clever… Boiling Fowls, the first album, commenced with a 25-minute epic, so naturally this one closes with one. It’s called Big Boy – you can’t fault the lads’ sense of humour, eh?
Some far too earnest prog albums meander or drear to such an extent that it’s tempting to go and mow the lawn while they stretch an already half-assed idea to beyond the point of reasonableness, as you know they’ll still be droning on when you get back. Not Cheeto’s Magazine, oh no. Listening to one of their huge amorphous beasties is akin to nailing down a box of frogs with a blancmange. One moment Big Boy is a synth-symphony, the next an FM rock folly blasting out across the barrio, then near the end it hints at cowboy movie soundtrack, all at a mostly breakneck pace. There is some classy arranging going on in here, you’ll never nod off, I promise. If playing rock music still paid the bills, by rights this lot should all have holiday homes in Acapulco, with more gold than you could shake a bong at.
It was five years ago Cheeto’s Magazine enticed my world with Boiling Fowls, and reading that review again reminds me what a comparatively worry-free place the U.K. was back then, but having listened to this a few times it somehow manages to let me leave that bag o’shite behind for a while. Not long enough, mind, but every little helps as they say. I would go see this lot live in a flash, should they ever visit these dark lands, and so should you if you know what your soul needs right now.  From: https://theprogressiveaspect.net/blog/2019/03/22/cheetos-magazine-amazingous/

Otyken - Genesis

Enter the immersive, storied world of Siberian indigenous music with Otyken, a collective that brings a rich musical legacy into a modern format. Otyken's performances introduce their listeners to their traditional vocal stylings and instruments, many of which fans may have never even seen before.
In this episode of Global Spin, Otyken performs "Genesis," a song they released in 2021. "Genesis" has some modern elements, but central to this song — and the rest of the group's work — is an evocative introduction to the music that has been coming out of the mountains of Siberia for generations.
Dressed in traditional outfits, Otyken perform in a log cabin-like setting, standing in front of a backdrop of large masks. Though many listeners won't be able to understand the words of the song (the group performs in Khakass and Chulyms, and sometimes Russian), the tone of "Genesis" feels celebratory, with a pulsing beat and joyful, emphatic lead vocals.
Otyken's performance puts a special spotlight on every element of their traditional offerings, including throat singing, a musical line that works as a counterpart to the breathy lead melody. The group also incorporates multiple instruments specific to their Siberian traditions, including a vargan (or jaw harp) and a morinhur (which they refer to as a "music skill") and leather drums.  From: https://www.grammy.com/news/otyken-genesis-performance-video-siberian-indigenous-traditions-instruments-global-spin

Antiprisma - Fogo Mais Fogo

At first glance, “Coisas de Verdade” can be seen as an album that celebrates Antiprisma’s return to the path of releases, but above all, it is a mature and very well-constructed synthesis of everything that this project led by Elisa Moos and Victor José has been doing since 2014, when they released their debut EP. Initially considered a duo that moved between folk and rock, carrying nuances of MPB, Antiprisma has always made a point of experimenting with the limits of the song format. They took their first steps in this field of acoustic sounds, definitively embraced the universe of viola caipira on their first album Planos “Para Esta Encarnação” (2016), flirted with psychedelia and electric instruments on their second album, “Hemisférios” (2019), and now arrives with an organic album with their feet firmly on the ground. In times of rising artificial intelligence, Coisas de Verdade was designed to be as human as possible and to highlight this aspect in every detail, subverting the current context slightly. According to Elisa, who shares production and artistic direction with Victor, “the songs are exactly as they should be, there are no aesthetic concessions of any kind and yet they sound open, somehow inviting to anyone who enjoys songs, which is something difficult to achieve, and this makes us very happy as independent artists”. This can be seen in the themes, the structures of the tracks and the style of the entire album. From the initial composition phase to the final recording, the search for authenticity and a truly emotional connection was a constant guide, shaping each chord, each note and each arrangement. To achieve this, they relied on the solid team of Ana Zumpano and Beau Gomez – drums and bass, respectively – to record much of the new work live and delve deeply into this process. In moments like “Que Seja” and “Um Rosto Desconhecido na Esquina”, everyone is in the same room, celebrating the moment of creating something together and in total harmony. Part of this search for something “handmade” is also in the choice of what to play. In Coisas De Verdade there are no emulators, synthesizers or any instrument that was not played by a real person. The title track itself, for example, has a rhythmic base made with sounds of household objects, emphasizing this search for the organic in every detail. As always in their work, Antiprisma took as much care with poetry as with sound. Unlike other releases, in Coisas De Verdade the lyrics of subjective themes full of landscapes and contemplative images are left out a little. With that, much more personal subjects come into play, almost like small chronicles from the point of view of a more urban experience, as in “Saturnino”, “São Duas Horas e Está Tudo Bem” and “Euforia”, which emphasizes this search for a more tangible work.  From: https://revistaogrito.com/antiprisma-retorna-com-coisas-de-verdade-album-feito-a-mao/

Nephila - Belladonna

Imagine progressive rock and psychedelic dreams combined with heavy blues and theatrical expressionism. The seven-headed rock orchestra Nephila brings out the best of ‘60s and '70s experimental movement, while adding a touch of mysticism and visual storytelling. The band travels freely through history and strange, otherworldly dimensions, bringing back plenty of intriguing tales that open up new realities of understanding in the form of dynamic songs with folkish melodies, proggy stylings, and a pair of fantastic female vocalists. Nephila has been described as a kind of a musical spider, with its sprawling legs represented by the different shades, hues, tones, and techniques prominent in the space rock pioneered by visionaries of the 1970s, such as Jefferson Airplane and Sweden’s Abramis Brama. Members of Nephila come to us from retro band Children of the Sün, where melodies and rhythm spiral like a pulsing red thread stitching together a most marvelous tapestry.  From: https://doomedandstoned.com/post/644741209841188864/nephila

Kansas - Don Kirshner's Rock Concert 1975

Kansas members Rich Williams and Phil Ehart admitted they still can’t understand what pop impresario Don Kirshner saw in them. In a recent interview with Billboard, the two remaining founders said Kirshner, who signed them in 1974, was the only person who showed an interest in their prog-edged music, even though he was better known for his work with the Monkees, the Archies and others. In allowing them time to establish themselves with their fourth album, Leftoverture, he gave Kansas a career that’s lasted more than five decades.
“When we were forming, it was right at the time the band Emerson, Lake & Palmer was coming out, Yes was coming out, Genesis,” Ehart said. “That stuff was just starting to hit the United States... and it showed us you could play different time signatures and things like that. We could do a song like ‘Carry On Wayward Son’ – all the different changes in that song might not have been performed before, especially on a single.”
Williams added that the band was “tired of playing the required music you’d play in a bar. We were very inspired by what became called progressive music. That taught us you can sing about anything you want to, you can use any time signature, any approach you can think of, any instrumentation that appealed to us. We didn’t want to emulate anything or copy the trends on radio. We wanted to do things our way, and we were very stubborn in that.”
They agreed that Kirshner seemed an “unlikely champion” for a band like Kansas. "We never had another offer," Ehart noted. "Nobody showed any interest except him. We could never figure out what he saw in us, a bunch of long-haired guys in jeans, cowboy boots and overalls… To this day, we still scratch our heads and go, ‘Wow. Whatever he saw in us, he definitely delivered.’ He made it happen. He put his money where his mouth was and let us make very good albums, and they weren’t cheap. He gave us tour support. And of course, he recouped, but the point is he believed in us and was willing to invest in these young guys. Man, we owe that guy a lot."
Williams praised Kirshner’s patience, noting that in the 21st century, a band wouldn’t be given the time and support to release three LPs before finding success with the fourth. “By the third album there was a little more pressure,” he explained. “The feeling was it was time to deliver. But that would never happen today, being given all that money … in hopes of something coming out of us. Donnie was patient with us, and [in 1976] Leftoverture exploded.”  From: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/kansas-don-kirshner/

There Is No Mountain - Listening to Sadness

There Is No Mountain - Luna: There Is No Mountain has released an experimental/folk/Americana/psych-pop-rock record that takes inspiration from all kinds of genres. This Portland-based duo is made up of vocalist/percussionist/guitarist Matt Harmon and vocalist/drummer/keyboardist Kali Giaritta, who happen to be married. There’s a ton going on with the guitars, whether they’re big and fuzzy or faint and picked, but it’s like life going on below the surface of a body of water. When the guitar is at its most intricate, it’s also at its softest volume. There are big, fuzzy chords on “Listening to Sadness” and “Waterbound,” but there are also soft, plucked parts hiding in there. “Hiking” is one of the few songs where the guitar gets all the solos it needs to really stand out. Because inspiration was taken from so many sources, at times the guitars sound like ‘90s alternative, or Latin (think of a world music CD being played at a Ten Thousand Villages store,) or a little Renaissance Faire-esque when it gets classical, or kind of folky Americana. I’m pretty sure I even caught a touch of zydeco in “Black Hole (Part 2).” Now keep in mind that all of those different styles may exist within the same song. There are tempo changes all over the place to accommodate for all of the style changes. Add in the vocals and you have even more styles for which to account.
The vocals are shared by Harmon and Giaritta, though their voices sound absolutely nothing like each other’s. They harmonize, but Harmon basically speaks all of his lead vocals while Giaritta has a clear voice I last heard from a church’s choir director. They harmonize well when singing together, but it’s a strange mix when they take turns singing because they styles are so different (even within the same song.) While the music has dark moments, it’s punctuated by things like really audible maracas and tambourine – who can be sad with maracas and tambourines? The lyrics, however, are pretty dark. They’re full of anxiety and depression, like not feeling worthy of the sun’s rays on “Listening to Sadness” because she’ll be dead soon, worrying that she’s not a good wife on “Good Life,” or Harmon wondering what happens if he dies while laughing after announcing that he doesn’t take care of himself on “What If?” Despite the anxieties expressed, “Good Life” has a pretty upbeat sound, and along with “Cat’s Away,” kind of sounds like it was inspired by a sea shanty. “Benjamin” is full of warnings to the title character about how life is sucky and lonely, but it has these cute little plinky keyboard notes that sound so happy. Many of the songs reminded me of being dragged to church as a child, mainly because of Giaritta’s voice and some of the vocal arrangements being really reminiscent of some of the more modern hymns, but also because some of the lyrics start to sound a little preachy. “C’mon Friends” implores us all to give ourselves a break and forgive each other; “Listening to Sadness” wonders why no one listens anymore and guilts us into it; “Black Holes (Part 2)” tells us that we have a choice when we’re afraid. Then there’s “Song of Seikilos,” which sounds like it came from church because the oft-repeated lyrics were taken from an ancient tombstone in modern-day Turkey and translated to English. They basically tell us to live life for the moment because life is short, which is quite a different message than asking a body of water to let you drown (“Listening to Sadness.”) Again, “Hiking” stands out as being different because its lyrics seem to recount a good hike at dusk – though there’s still the worry that it will be too dark to safely find their way back down from the summit of the hill they just climbed. There is no such thing as happiness, you guys. Everything sucks, even successful hikes.
This album is unique, which is a difficult word to use in a review. It blends the many styles and genres it uses well, though the vocals can be a strange mix with each other. The juxtaposition between the sound and the words is a little odd, too. Those lyrics are depressing. It’s all sonically blended together, but somehow all of the parts still stick out as not-quite fitting together. These two are clearly very talented musicians who have crafted a well-produced album with plenty of layers. But as a listener, you have to be in the mood for a little bit of nearly every genre and a lot of anxious lyrics. Maybe this album is a statement about depression, trying to keep a positive sound despite the invasive thoughts and fears. More power to them for confessing so many anxieties.  From: https://survivingthegoldenage.com/there-is-no-mountain-luna/

The Who - Disguises

"Disguises" is a song by the English rock band the Who, written by guitarist Pete Townshend. It, along with "I'm a Boy" are of the earliest compositions in which Townshend questions gender identity and identity crisis', a prevalent aspect found later in his songwriting. Both "Disguises" and "I'm A Boy" were written to be parts of a concept album titled Quads, in which parents would be able to choose the gender of their children. However, this idea was later discarded and the pair of songs are the only ones that survived. They were first attempted on 14 June 1966 as demos, And were worked on for some months, before being recorded on 31 July to 1 August of the same year. It is one of the earliest songs recorded by them that features claves, played by drummer Keith Moon, who would also later use them on "Magic Bus" in 1968. French horn is featured in a distinct solo played by bass guitarist John Entwistle. "Disguises" was never performed live by the band. The only live recording of the song originates from a session the Who recorded on 13 September, which was later broadcast on 17 September for an episode of Saturday Club. This version, apparently recorded as a joke, ends with Moon smashing his drums, interrupting presenter Brian Matthew, much to the bands' approval, with Matthew exclaiming "I see". This version can be found on their 2000 compilation album BBC Sessions.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disguises_(The_Who_song)

The Nields - King of the Hill

The Nields are a five-piece band who you might call folk-rock if you were a marketer under the cowardly impression that everything must have a recognizable label or people will gather in the square at night and put it to the torch. Three of the five are Nields in person, as well. Katryna sings, Nerissa sings and plays guitar and writes most of the songs, and David plays guitar and writes the rest of them. David also provides a first-name link to drummer Dave Hower and bassist Dave Chalfant. Their back-catalog includes the 1994 album Bob on the Ceiling, which includes, among other things, a striking cover of Sinéad O'Connor's "Black Boys on Mopeds", and an EP and a live disc that I haven't heard yet because when I ordered them from the band's Web page I got a note back from their manager saying that they were out on tour and it might be a while.
Calling them folk-rock isn't accurate or evocative, but it's still probably the best place to begin. They use acoustic guitars frequently, and both Nields sisters (at least, I assume they're sisters) sing with fragile voices that sound like they'd be most at home in a small-college-town coffeehouse. And though there's plenty of overdriven electric guitar and loud drumming on this album, none of the Nields seem to have mastered the machismatic bluster with which rock drama is customarily executed. So if folk-rock is what you get when people raised on folk try to play rock, that's sort of what this is.
There's more to it, though, because the Nields' upbringing appears to have been a bit more complicated. Or perhaps everybody's upbringing is complicated, and the Nields just reflect more of theirs in their music than most people do. They remind me of Suddenly Tammy, not because the two bands play similar styles of music, but because the family is evident in the music. There's something fundamentally different about the music you get from four random individuals who gather in a basement to become a rock band, and the music you get from siblings and their assorted friends who play music as an extension of their lives together, and while I don't know anything about the real history here, if the Nields the band didn't evolve out of the Nields the people in this latter manner then this is a cunning imitation all the same.
The result is that the Nields have a large number of interesting elements that you would probably not have thought to include in a rock band constituted from scratch. Neither of the sisters' voices are that impressive on their own, but they play off each other instinctively, one soaring into wailing harmony while the other drops into a quiet, elfin confidence. One of them (or both perhaps, it's hard to tell) is fond of letting notes trail off into wild pitch modulation, and at other times they produce passing hints of a Polly Harvey-like whisper, Jean Smith's flat intonation, Sinéad O'Connor's tense circling and even the Beatles' psychedelic flourishes. David's electric guitars produce a range of sounds from a digeridu-like throaty drone to squeaky rhythm chords to a ragged-sounding lead that could easily be coming out of a cheap amp in the family rec room, and they combine this with the folkier acoustic guitars as if having both in a band at once is the most natural thing in the world.  From: https://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=twas&id=twas0060

The Move - Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited

Very few Americans have ever heard of The Move unless they found themselves bored enough to dig deep into the liner notes for one of the Electric Light Orchestra’s commercial successes and learned that Jeff Lynne and drummer Bev Bevan were ex-members. Lynne was a johnny-come-lately, however, and did not appear on Shazam, a forgotten masterwork originally designed to properly introduce this long-popular-in-the-mother-country British band to the colonies, courtesy of A&M Records.
Things didn’t work out as planned. A&M was out of its league when it came to promoting rock bands (the “A” stands for Herb Alpert, for chrissake), and arranged a comically disastrous tour that required the band the lug their stuff around the USA in a U-Haul trailer. Creative and personal tensions between band members didn’t make things any easier. When the rubble had cleared, however, what survived was Shazam, one of the most fascinating rock recordings ever made.
The album has been buried for years, and I only vaguely remember hearing parts of it while growing up. I rediscovered it accidentally while browsing through iTunes and tracked down an extraordinarily expensive import CD version for my collection. I fell in love with it on the first listen, knocked out by Bevan’s drumming, the sheer diversity captured in a mere six songs, the intense riffs, the gorgeous harmonies and the great good fun captured in random street interviews and band chatter.
The album explodes with the no-bullshit guitar and pounding drums of “Hello, Suzie,” the story of a ditzy British teenybopper featuring an introduction that almost forces you out of your seat. Roy Wood growls out the lead vocal with good humor and strong support in the form of a thrilling backdrop of harmonies that come together with a huge exclamation point at the end of the bridge. I keep praying that somewhere out there a band will cover this sucker and use it as an opening number for a gig, as I’d love to see this done live with the same great energy as the original.
After a short interview with some native Brits, Carl Wayne steps to the microphone for the lovely and bouncy string piece, “Beautiful Daughter,” delivered in a perfect combination of romantic sincerity tempered by a touch of tongue-in-cheek and supported by the energetic strings that would later characterize early ELO recordings.
Then a door creaks . . . footsteps . . . the door closes and we hear a diffident voice narrating the story of how he would end up going off his HEAD!!! The band explodes with heavy bass, drums, the works! This is “Cherry Blossom Clinic Revisited,” a high-power remake of one of their earlier songs, and a delightfully wacky remake it is. The heaviness fades into acoustic guitar playing Bach, no less, and ends with an over-the-edge falsetto picking up the tune and eventually blending into layers of perfectly executed harmonies.  From: https://altrockchick.com/2012/05/02/classic-music-reviews-shazam-by-the-move/

Mr. Gnome - Barb's Revenge

For nearly two decades, Cleveland-based couple Nicole Barille and Sam Meister have been producing otherworldly rock epics under the moniker Mr. Gnome. From the very beginning, the duo’s swelling psychedelia has resonated with a grandeur typically associated with larger bands, while Barille's ethereal vocals add a layer of intimacy that sets their sound apart. They’ve grown more ambitious and expansive with each album, culminating with the dazzling double album The Day You Flew Away in 2020. After a period of relative silence, mr. Gnome is back with a new record, A Sliver of Space, set to drop on Sept. 27. The duo will also be embarking on its first tour in years — accompanied by Jonah Meister on bass/guitar, who also contributed to A Sliver of Space — stopping in Asheville on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at Sly Grog Lounge. Early singles “Nothing and Everything,” “Fader,” and “Mind’s Gone” showcase their continued evolution, featuring an increased use of synthesizers alongside Barille’s soaring guitars and Meister’s powerhouse percussion, which remain as hypnotizing as ever.

Jonny Leather: I couldn’t find any record of previous shows here. Will this be your first time performing in Asheville?

Nicole Barille: We played in Asheville earlier in our career, but it was so long ago I couldn’t even tell you what year or where we played! We’re super excited to come back. We’ve gotten a bunch of requests over the last year or so from Asheville fans, so we wanted to make it happen on this tour.

JL: New singles “Nothing and Everything” and “Mind’s Gone” indicate a slight shift in your sonic palette, placing greater emphasis on synths and piano, while “Fader” is a ripping rocker. Are fans in store for a more synth-heavy edition of mr. Gnome?

NB: When we were writing this album, we really had no rules regarding where we could go. So it covers a lot of ground — a lot of genre shifting going on. It wasn’t intentional, rather just a complete self-discovery process without any limits. The entire album is not necessarily synth heavy, but we did dabble with synths more than ever on this one. I think we were always searching for sounds and melodies that excited us, and we weren’t too concerned about what style we were leaning into during the writing process. “Fader” was an exciting moment because we were really leaning into our roots, into the influences that made us excited about music in the first place. But throughout the album, there’s also dance rock, punky rock, electronic pop, doo-woppy ballads…lots of other styles.

JL: Can you talk a little about how your approach to making A Sliver of Space differed from your earlier work?

NB: It’s hard to talk about A Sliver of Space and not talk about what we were going through mentally at the time. We started writing this album during the COVID-19 pandemic — we had just lost two of our closest family members, and we were dealing with a mountain of grief, all in complete isolation. It was a very difficult moment to work through, and there was a lot of pain and confusion that we began pouring into the songs we were creating. On the flip side, our son was only 2 years old when we started writing, and so this time was also one of the most beautiful, happiest moments we had ever experienced. It was a real study in contrasting emotions. Writing this album was 100% our therapy sessions during this time, and we were forced to write in a different way because of our son being in the house with us.
There were more lone sessions — us creating sonic beds by ourselves and then presenting them to one another. We gravitated towards the songs that we felt had the most potential; the songs that were evoking the best melodies and overall feel. I think this might explain the longer songs we ended up choosing as the main singles. When we would latch onto a song or an idea, we would really throw ourselves into the journey of that song, allowing it to go every which way we could push it, and really losing ourselves in the sonic experience. As long as it evoked the emotion we were after, we felt like it was the right way to go. I’m not sure we’ll ever write in this way again now that our son is in school. We’ve been rediscovering our rock ’n’ roll side over the last year, and it’s been so wonderful.

JL: From your music to your album covers to your videos, you’ve always had a distinct artistic vision. How important has it been for you both to maintain control over the entire process?

NB: We’ve both always been obsessed with all things art, and really bonded over our love for art and music from the first day we met. So when we started Mr. Gnome, it was so exciting to not only create music together, but then get to create album covers, press shots, and music videos as well. We’ve always felt like our album covers are just as important as our music, and it would be hard to have someone else create the visual representation of that for us. We are control freaks in that way, wanting to pick the colors and mood and feel when creating art for our music. We have such an intimate relationship with our music — we want the visual side to perfectly capture everything we’re feeling when writing it as well.

JL: Cleveland has always been a bit of an underrated rock city, producing such incomparable artists as DEVO, Pere Ubu, and NIN. How has the city influenced your own journey as artists?

NB: Cleveland has completely shaped who we are as people. I’m Cleveland born and raised; Sam was born in Canton, and then moved around a bunch as a kid, but came back to the Cleveland area for high school, which is where we met. The midwest vibe is so wonderful and the hardworking ethos that emanates from this city has definitely shaped who we are as musicians as well. When we first started playing out a lot, we played our hometown way too much, and quickly understood that we needed to leave in order to grow. So we started touring non-stop, building up our stage presence and a following around the country, and when we would come back home, our audience would grow and grow every year. Our Cleveland fans have been very loyal to us and so supportive and it’s meant so much to us.

From: https://ashevillestages.com/music/interview-nicole-barille-mr-gnome

Shearwater - Breaking the Yearlings

Shearwater are often considered "underappreciated," but they're just properly appreciated by an understandably modest, devoted fanbase. Though their handsomely recorded albums and Jonathan Meiburg's former membership in Okkervil River put them in the context of NPR darlings and amphitheater headliners, they're still a tough sell: Often compared to Talk Talk at their most commercially forbidding, they're not populist like Okkervil or the National, their theatricality doesn't appeal to a specific brand of geekdom like the Decemberists or Andrew Bird, and their artiness is too pretty and studied to be edgy. Even when trying to describe what makes something like Rook's "The Snow Leopard" a staggering listen, you're left with chin-stroking explanations, like how a trumpet's fanfare finally breaks the tension of John Congleton's immaculate production, but it lasts three seconds and takes four minutes to get there.
On Animal Joy too many changes are afoot to think Meiburg isn't chafed by the situation: They've peripherally moved from one indie titan (Matador) to another (Sub Pop) and from one revered indie producer (John Congleton) to another (Danny Reisch). But more notably, take a look at the unusually plainspoken title: Animal Joy proves they are still a naturalistically minded band, but in dropping the more arcane conceptual gambits of their self-described "trilogy" of Palo Santo, Rook, and The Golden Archipelago and speaking in layman's terms both emotionally and sonically, they're taking their best shot at meeting new listeners halfway.
They come racing out of the gate to do so on "Animal Life"-- Meiburg's amped-up choirboy vocals have always been suited for grand, sweeping gestures and yet he's never delivered something so overtly pop. To put it in his preferred orinthological terms, it's a peacock moment for sure, pure 1980s corporate rock because it somehow sounds expensive, striving to honor ambition itself as intrinsically good-- it could be a Florence and the Machine song, NBC could use it to soundtrack their commercials for the Summer Olympics, but they throw in enough fussy chord changes and dissonant fringe to keep things from getting too cozy.  There's a similar release-the-hounds rush to "You As You Were", a sonic and poetic ramble culminating in Meiburg's desire to "Go back to the East/ Where it's all so civilized/ Where I was born to the life/ But I am leaving the life." Whether it's meant as a candid admission from a touring musician or a nod to the desk jockey that longs to mount a wild steed, it feels like a mission statement; Animal Joy doesn't so much stand for carnality but for the thrill in upsetting the equilibrium between domesticated repression and desire for primitive abandon.
While Animal Joy doesn't totally do away with Shearwater's exploratory tendencies, Ek's production is radio-friendly in the sense that there's a constant presence to this music-- even the comparatively quieter moments make themselves heard fairly easily. In the past, Shearwater songs occasionally got loud, but lead single "Breaking the Yearlings" is loud throughout, big churning guitars and busy, inventive percussion from the truly underappreciated Thor Harris. That said, it's still a Shearwater song in that you'll get more out of it if you happen to know that yearlings are essentially pubescent horses, energetic and unpredictable. Indeed, though considerably dialed-back, Meiburg hasn't lost his preference for poetic devices-- whether equine or otherwise-- to keep any attempts to present Shearwater as a red-blooded, blue-collar rock band short lived. Amidst the trudging orchestral strains of "Insolence", he announces rapture as a time "when my thoughts become undisciplined... it is effortless," a wish-fulfillment fantasy for a band whose power is often the result of fairly obvious effort. And though Shearwater typically allow themselves one song per album to rock out of character, "Century Eyes" or "Corridors" wouldn't prepare you for how "Immaculate" gets all Eddie & the Cruisers with it, complete with tweaked 12-bar blues riffs, and a reckless loner named Johnny as a narrative device.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16277-animal-joy/

Eve's Plum - Wishing The Day Away

 

I had the opportunity to speak with Colleen Fitzpatrick, Eve’s Plum’s vocalist. Eve’s Plum recently released their second CD titled Cherry Alive and they are visiting town as part of Ray Gun magazine’s first ever concert tour. Cherry Alive was produced by Fred Maher, a drummer who has worked with everyone from Lou Reed and Material to Bill Laswell, that would also be Material wouldn’t it? He has also produced CDs by Matthew Sweet as well as a Belly single.
Fitzpatrick called me from a tour bus parked in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Maher tour was on its second date and she reported that things are going well so far. Her press materials have her working as a dancer and actress before she joined the band. She studied ballet at NYU. I asked her what kind of dancing she did. She said that she’d done stage dancing, jazz dancing, and some dancing in videos back when that was popular. She couldn’t remember what videos she’d done, but she did remember one she didn’t do. She was called to dance in a Pat Benatar video, but was unable to make the photo shoot due to a prior commitment. It’s too bad because we could have had a new pop singer as the dancer in an old pop singer’s videos.
Next I asked about the songs. Who writes the songs? The press release gives the impression that Fitzpatrick does all the writing and it isn’t true. She does write most of the lyrics, but the songs are either co-written by guitarist Michael Kotch and Fitzpatrick or they are written as band songs. The songs are good, risking some criticism from all the strange little subcultures that read this rag, I’ll say that Eve’s Plum has some excellent pop songs. Nothing alternative about it, nothing cutting edge, nothing hard or industrial, it’s simply pop music. I guess I should slam it, but I fall for a pop band fronted by a girl every now and again.
The next question I asked was about their song on the Spirit of ‘73: Rock for Choice compilation—a benefit album for Rock for Choice. The project was in the works for about three years according to Fitzpatrick. For reasons I don’t understand and she didn’t know, the album was politically controversial. Record labels didn’t want to touch it. I asked about the man factor, but Fitzpatrick didn’t have information. She did say that a woman was responsible for finally completing the album. Eve’s Plum was excited about recording a song from the seventies. Remember Fitzpatrick is a dancer and they cover a disco song on Spirit of ‘73. She and the rest of the band were supporters of the cause.
The next question was about any weird encounters with audience members she’s experienced. She does write some songs dealing with sex in a blatant fashion and she is quite lovely. The basis for this question was the recent Heather Nova concert. If you were one of the psychos staring at Nova, get over it and find yourself a girlfriend. Fitzpatrick reports that she’s had none of the weirdoes chasing her. She said her band is a boy/girl band and that Heather Nova “must be a sex symbol.”  From: https://www.slugmag.com/archived/eves-plum-november-1995/   

Fuchsia - Another Nail

Taking their name from Lady Fuchsia Groan of the 1940's novel `Titus Groan', Fuchsia were a British progressive-folk group made up of students who delivered a single cherished little album that has since picked up quite a legendary underground status over the last few decades. Comprised of charming and sprightly folk tunes with lush orchestrated instrumentation and keen pop melodies, it almost sounds like a cross between early Pink Floyd and the Syd Barrett solo albums, Electric Light Orchestra and a pinch of Gentle Giant, Caravan and Fruupp, making for a whimsical, energetic and sweet psych-lite folk gem.
The group is directed by lead singer and guitarist Tony Durant, who fleshes out Fuchsia's acoustic/electric sound with a predominantly female band on violin, cello, viola, harmonium and piano. Opener `Gone With The Mouse' is softly energetic and lively, propelled by forcefully jangling plugged-in guitar strums, sighing plaintive backing vocal longings from the girls and lightly proggy orchestral-like violin interludes that soar gently with confidence.
‘A Tiny Book', one of the more ambitious pieces at eight minutes, is a mini-suite of subtle reprising passages that seamlessly move in and out of each-other, darting through everything from frantic electric bursts, wearily wistful ballad ruminations and regal-flecked pomp in the finale that would make Gentle Giant green with envy! Pay close attention to this track - Tony's likable voice here often sounds like the results of a lovechild between the Floyd's Syd Barrett and the nasally Steven Wilson of the early Porcupine Tree works! But moving on, ‘Another Nail' is bookended with violin-fuelled whimsy that wouldn't have sounded out of place on Caravan albums like `For Girls Who Grow Plump in the Night' before crashing into a politely wilder vocal psychedelic runaway rocker with a touch of Pink Floyd's The Piper at the Gates of Dawn's 'Astronomy Domine' to it!
The B-side's ‘Shoes And Ships' is one of the strongest tunes on the album, a fragile yet elegant folk-popper with frequent orchestral reprises in place of a vocal chorus and a longer instrumental acoustic guitar outro, and it almost sounds like a template for a million indie-pop/folk bands ever since. The playful and loopy ‘The Nothing Song' practically screams Syd Barrett and his `Madcap Laughs' and 'Barrett' albums, and along with some darker little traces locked in, there's a deliciously bent and slightly `off' quality to it all! It's a psychedelic romp that throws in everything from big percussion crashes, rumbling drums, dramatic orchestration, with shambling acoustic guitars alongside manic and mischievous electric guitar soloing. 'Me And My Kite', a favourite amongst fans of the album and group, is a gorgeously twee pop-charmer with a sweet and achingly simple chorus, and the dreamy bluesy guitar bends of closer `Just Anyone' again reminds of the earliest Floyd works.
Sadly, sparse advertising and failed touring opportunities lead to the premature demise of the group soon after, until a compilation of unreleased and related pieces entitled 'Fuchsia, Mahogany and Other Gems' emerged in 2005, and more excitingly a revamped modern line-up assembled by Mr Durant, now based in Australia, delivering a well-received proper follow-up `Fuchsia II: From Psychedelia...To a Distant Place' in 2013. But for over forty years now, this charming self-titled work has been Fuchsia's defining musical statement, one that holds an effortlessly melodic crossover quality that would also likely appeal to non-folk fans, and it has retained its infectious and precious charm ever since.  From: https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=2585

22 Brides - Another Distant Light

It never fails... every time I'm ready to declare alternative rock dead, some group comes along to prove to me there are signs of life in the stagnating genre. This time around, it was the duo of Carrie and Libby Johnson, better known as 22 Brides, who gave me reason to see new blood in the alternative rock world. Their third album, Demolition Day, reminds me a lot of the Indigo Girls, only with more of an edge musically and lyrically. For such a short album, a lot of enjoyment is packed into it - and that makes all the difference.
Often, the lyrics sing about relationships and the pain that can be caused as a result of them. The title track is one moving example of the heroine in the song trying to break out of a relationship that is headed towards (if it's not already in) trouble ("Getting out of here is the hard part now / You haven't learned a thing"). What provides the added punch needed to the song is the musicianship of Libby and Carrie (who often trade leads throughout the album); they know that a good lyric means nothing without a good song to make the message hit home.
Similar to the title track, "Another Distant Light" looks in at a woman who dreams of leaving a dead-end relationship, but doesn't seem to have the resolve to do so just yet. Lyrics: "He moves into the distance / Each time I start to turn / He moves and so I listen / To learn what I might learn". The aspect of feeling trapped is summed up in the line, "I don't know how to be free / So silently I shrug". Ka-pow.
But for the messages of hopelessness conveyed in Demolition Day, there are moments where the rays of daylight shine brightly. Tracks like "So It Goes" offer the hopes of passing on life's lessons learned from a parent to a child, even as they look towards a new chapter in their lives ("Old words beyond us / Water under the bridge").
The surprising thing about 22 Brides is that despite the often dark tone to the lyrics, the sisters Johnson, through their vocal delivery and often upbeat tone they set in their music, are able to help the listener feel better after going through the album. How they are able to do this I am not certain, but whatever magic they're creating, it works well.
The eleven songs on this disc are surprisingly short; four tracks clock in at under three minutes each. However, 22 Brides seem to know how long it takes to get their message across, and they don't want to pad it out with any extraneous material. That being said, I would have preferred the disc to be longer; something this good shouldn't end so quickly. It's too rock-oriented to call folk, yet it's too folky to classify as rock. Instead, Demolition Day creates its own unique musical category for 22 Brides: just good music.  From: https://dailyvault.com/toc.php5?review=471

Curse The Son - Suicide By Drummer

Already half-way through the year and we’ve encountered a number of game changing records already. ‘Excruciation’ (2020) by Curse The Son must surely be counted among them. It’s the New Haven doomers’ fourth album since their inception in 2007, chock full of fire and brimstone.
“Suicide by Drummer” was the first single to greet us some months ago, a dawn-to-dusk kind of experience delivering a spirited Ozzyesque opening followed by a stark change of tone and a dead serious close. Whether vibrant or grim, Ron Vanacore’s wicked vocal approach gives each song on Excruciation a distinct identifying mark, along with the devastating low-end his guitar delivers – reinforced by the punishing rhythm section of Brendan Keefe (bass) and Rob Ives (drums).
Vanacore comments: “In this bizarro world we currently find ourselves in, a band’s life’s blood has been taken away. Who could ever have thought that live performances would be such an outlandish concept? Pre-Covid19, Curse the Son had already made the decision to unleash videos for every song on Excruciation! That decision appears even more relevant and necessary now! Fast forward a year and here we all are…isolated, lonely, nervous and frustrated. Fear not friends, music is alive and well.”  From: https://doomedandstoned.com/post/620552765519904768/cursetheson

Venus Hum - Mechanics & Mathematics Live

 Venus Hum - Mechanics & Mathematics Live - Part 1

 Venus Hum - Mechanics & Mathematics Live - Part 2

 

It’s hard to review a concert DVD. I mean, it’s a concert. A DVD is just going to remove one of the most important elements of a live music show; the shared experience of partaking in a musical event. Even the best concert DVD’s (for the best, watch Blur’s “No Distance Left To Run”) lack that certain something. You can see the crowd, you can hear them, but where’s the delinquent tosser swinging his pint around, arms flailing? Where’s the obscured view? Where’s the aching back, nurtured through hours of standing up and not moving very much? Hmmmmm… maybe the DVD is a better option after all?
Venus Hum have been around for 10 years or so. Comprising of Annette Strean, Kip Kubin and Tony Miracle this little trio might not be that well known to you, especially outside of the US. You might have seen them if you ever saw the Blue Man Group live, as they supported and played with them on their Complex tour. But they pretty much sit under the radar. But that has never stopped them consistently producing some of the finest, melodic and interesting electronica to have ever come out of the US. Which is surprising for an act hailing from Nashville, TN, the home of country & western.
So, the DVD. Well, this is no ordinary concert DVD. As in, it’s not an amalgam of a few shows from a long running sell out tour. This is a film of a one off gig, played at a small, intimate venue in Cincinnati, OH called The Monastery, an old church converted into a recording studio and performance space. A small crowd and a close, intimate experience for those attending. The first 20 minutes or so are dedicated to a short interview with the band, interspersed with snippets of footage from rehearsals.
The rest of the DVD is the show and a lovely event it is. Most of the “Mechanics & Mathematics” album is covered along with tracks from their previous long players. From a synth geeks perspective, there’s not as much synth geekery to take in, save for an ARP 2600, Roland System 100m, a Space Echo and some other random bits and bobs. This is a heavily laptop based show with some rear projections going on. Tony Miracle seems more than happy with his very old Evolution MK149. Mine now languishes in the loft. But this is all a blessing. Why? Well, for once you can concentrate on the music. There’s no flashy technology going on here. It’s two guys, Ableton Live (and Logic, I think), and the amazing vocals of Annette, seen here sporting a rather school mistress-y look which is quite a contrast to her previous guises. She’s still hot though!
This is a lovely DVD of a great little gig, the intimacy of which is superbly conveyed by the camera work. The music “does the talking”, the projections mere frilly, but effective edging. For once, a live DVD that’s more about the music than anything else. The band’s desire was to get their live act noticed by many more people. This DVD does that job perfectly. Stay tuned after the credits for an excellent impromptu and completely unrehearsed version of “Alice”. No sequencing, just guitar, keys and a soaring vocal. Quite exquisite.  From: https://www.failedmuso.com/venus-hum-mechanics-mathematics-a-concert-film-by-neil-smith/

 

 

Meat Puppets - Backwater

There’s an axiom when it comes to writing, which is to tell the truth. Even if you’re writing fiction, even if a character or narrator is lying, it’s important for the “voice” to come from a truthful place. That’s what people connect to, as opposed to the artifice and posturing and marketing and bullshit that we all put up with much of the time. The same is true of all art, of course: truthfulness is essential for connection.
These thoughts play around in my mind while listening to Too High To Die. There’s a core truthfulness and integrity to this band’s sound and songwriting that shines through.  Which is to say that I’d be absolutely astonished if the Meat Puppets started writing songs like “Backwater” or “Evil Love” with the intent of, “Hey guys, I think these are the ones that really gonna pop on rock radio and MTV’s Buzz Bin!”
Which is also to say that truthfulness is a core reason why those songs and Too High To Die is great. It helps of course that the album is wildly rangy and eclectic, consistently interesting and surprising. It flitters between melodic grunge and country, roots, and blues-inspired rock in a way that gets better and better every time I throw it on.
“Backwater” is arguably the band’s biggest hit, though Meat Puppets never achieved the massive commercial success of some of their contemporaries. “Melodic grunge” is the best way to describe it, though you can also feel a little country influence. It’s also a well-constructed and tight song with a really nice grungy hook. Like many, I probably heard of Meat Puppets for the first time by way of Nirvana’s Unplugged performance on MTV. Kurt Cobain brought a few members of the band on stage and the entire crew performed the Meat Puppets’ songs “Lake of Fire” and “Plateau.”
While “Lake of Fire” was originally released on Meat Puppets II, back in 1984, it also appears on Too High To Die. If you’re like me, and you’ve listened to Nirvana’s Unplugged… uh, many times, it’s really interesting to think about the versions of “Lake of Fire” and “Plateau” in comparison to one another.  In any event, Meat Puppets’ “Lake of Fire” is a wildly original song, another spin on country-ish grunge, this time with a quieter bent (and a mix of acoustic and electric guitars).
The more I listen to Too High To Die, the more I’m taken with “Evil Love.” There’s much about it that could have been a hit 1980s pop song, but it’s processed through the unique sensibilities of the Meat Puppets, making for an incredible original creation.  From: https://popthruster.com/2023/04/08/meat-puppets-too-high-to-die/

Ebb - Confess

Erin Bennett is the front women of the music group Ebb an “Art Rock”group of five women and one guy who spend their time writing their own music and telling their own stories. We appreciate her taking some time to share her words with us.

Q How did Ebb get started? What was the common thread that brought the band members together?

Well, its a bit of a long story, to be honest. I suppose the shortened version would be: In 2005 Dog, Kitty, Suna and Nikki were touring the US in their band MT-TV. I met them all in Alabama where I was living at the time, (I am originally from Texas.) We became instant friends and I joined their crew as a tech and soundy. In 2008, MT-TV returned to the UK and their bassist, Amanda, drummer, Jo and I formed an alternative/rock trio called Syren. I had been in a relationship with Jo pretty much since meeting the group. Syren toured the UK and Europe from 2008 until 2010 and then went into the studio to record our 2nd album. In the meantime, Dog, Kitty, Suna, Nikki, and the rest of MT-TV were living communally in Scotland working on various other projects, like filming, having given up music….or so they thought.
In 2012, Jo, to whom I’d been married, died unexpectedly of a rare type of Breast Cancer and Syren instantly ceased to be. Amanda was too distraught by the loss of Jo to carry on in music and I was intrinsically left with no band and nothing to focus on in my time of immense grief. But only a few months after Jo’s death, friends of mine in a band called Hawkwind, reached out asking if I’d be interested in opening for them at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh. But I had no band, right? So I appealed to Dog to come and play bass with me, thinking we could do an acoustic set. In Dog’s words, he saw it as an opportunity to give me something to concentrate on and help me out of the pit of my grief which was truly killing me. So he built a band around me recruiting Suna and Nikki on backing vocals and keys respectively and getting a local drummer to sit in for that specific gig.
In doing that one show, Dog, Suna and Nikki found the potential to heal from the sudden end to their musical past and knew also that it would be a great form of rehab for me. So we started writing and rehearsing and found a permanent drummer in Anna who Dog found at Napier University in Edinburgh studying for her BA in popular music. In 2015 Kitty joined the band, having previously been our mixer. Since 2016 we’ve worked and toured endlessly to find our place in music as a band. We’ve gone from performing simply under my name with all the others effectively being a backing band, and playing power-pop and heavy rock. We released two albums under the ‘Erin Bennett’ banner, but when the worldwide lockdown happened in 2020 we put our heads down and really focused on what type of music we wanted to make. What type of music made us feel, ya know?
We were lucky with the lockdown, in as much as, we all live communally in Scotland in an old hotel we’ve done up. Eventually, and quite organically, we settled on what we do now, which is being described as art/prog/rock; and rebranded, essentially, to form ‘Ebb’ which was initially short for ‘Erin Bennett Band’…but now stands as a metaphor for our movement away from our past and into our future as new people and new musicians. Our debut album ‘Mad & Killing Time’ which we released on November 1st, 2022, is the result of being locked down together in Scotland for 18 months and I believe, in this album which has received some stellar reviews, we have found ourselves as artists, musicians and as a band.

Q How does the band writes its music, there seems to a lot of elements are they usually the product of one person or a collaborative effort?

It really depends. A lot of the time, I will write a song on an acoustic guitar and bring it to the band. We will all get together and add our own ideas to the piece with Dog, who produces all of our stuff, having the overview to add or take away anything that doesn’t ultimately serve the song and the emotions behind it. Sometimes, though, Dog, Nikki, and Anna will be jamming and a musical piece is written that I then write a tune and lyrics for. And then there are also times when we are just messing around in rehearsal and something grows. So I guess it truly is a collaborative effort. Because even if I go and write a whole song from start to finish on my own and bring it to the band, everyone is affected by the song differently. And Dog’s job is to take everyone’s individual emotional reaction to a song and polish it into something that can be universally absorbed and understood and that happens to always come out as art/prog. So without everyone in the band, the music we put out wouldn’t be what it is.

From: https://paperphoenixink.com/2024/11/14/interview-with-erin-bennett-of-musical-group-ebb/

The Byrds - Eight Miles High

On December 22, 1965, the Byrds recorded a new, self-penned composition titled “Eight Miles High” at RCA Studios in Hollywood. However, Columbia Records refused to release this version because it had been recorded at another record company‘s facility. As a result, the band were forced to re-record the song at Columbia Studios in Los Angeles on January 24 and 25, 1966, and it was this re-recorded version that would be released as a single and included on the group’s third album.
The song represented a creative leap forward for the band and is often considered the first full-blown psychedelic rock recording by critics, although other contemporaneous acts, such as Donovan and the Yardbirds, were also exploring similar musical territory.  It was also pivotal in transmuting folk rock into the new musical forms of psychedelia and raga rock.
During his time with the Byrds, McGuinn developed two innovative, experimental, and very influential styles of electric guitar playing. The first was “jingle-jangle” – generating ringing arpeggios based on banjo finger picking styles he learned while at the Old Town School of Folk – which was influential in the folk rock genre. The second style was a merging of saxophonist John Coltrane‘s free-jazz atonalities, which hinted at the droning of the sitar – a style of playing, first heard on the song “Eight Miles High.”
“Eight Miles High” is often cited as the first psychedelic rock song, as well as a classic of the counterculture era. “Of course Eight Miles High was a drug song. It does refer to the altitude of that flight, but it was a deliberate double entendre.” —David Crosby. McGuinn’s groundbreaking lead guitar playing on “Eight Miles High” saw the guitarist emulating free form jazz saxophone as influenced by John Coltrane, and in particular, Coltrane’s playing on the song “India” from his Impressions album. It also exhibits the influence of the Indian classical music of Ravi Shankar in the droning quality of the song’s vocal melody and in McGuinn’s guitar playing.  The song’s subtle use of Indian influences resulted in it being labeled as “raga rock” by the music press.
According to Roger McGuinn: “Eight Miles High has been called the first psychedelic record. It’s true we’d been experimenting with LSD, and the title does contain the word “high”, so if people want to say that, that’s great. But Eight Miles High actually came about as a tribute to John Coltrane. It was our attempt to play jazz.”
“We were on a tour of America, and someone played us the Coltrane albums Africa/Brass and Impressions. It was the only music we had, for the whole time on the bus. By the end of the tour, Coltrane and Shankar were ingrained.”
“There was one Coltrane track called India, where he was trying to emulate sitar music with his saxophone. It had a recurring phrase, dee da da da, which I picked up on my Rickenbacker guitar and played some jazzy stuff around it. I was in love with his saxophone playing: all those funny little notes and fast stuff at the bottom of the range.”
“The previous year, 1965, we’d been on a trip to England. It was our first time on a plane, and I had the idea of writing a song about it. Gene asked: “How high do you think that plane was flying?” I thought about seven miles, but the Beatles had a song called Eight Days a Week, so we changed it to Eight Miles High because we thought that would be cooler. Some DJs did the sums and realized that, since commercial airliners only flew at six miles, we must have been talking about a different kind of high. And all the stations stopped playing it.”  From: https://m100group.com/2021/06/09/innovation-with-the-byrds-eight-miles-high-ideo-and-david-kelley-neo-demarcoian-banter/

The Neptune Power Federation - Emmaline

The Neptune Power Federation – Le Demon D’Amour: The Australian hard rockers return with this, their fifth album. I reviewed their last album, “Memoirs of a Rat Queen”, and found it to be an enjoyable, if not entirely addictive slab of rock n’ roll. I have to admire the rather ridiculous names, (band members have names like, “Jaytanic Ritual” and “Search and DesTroy”), costumes and larger than life persona. You know what? The accompanying blurb says that love songs have been commandeered by “soft rockers, bed wetters and the introvert crowd”. This is an album that seeks to reclaim love songs with a little more…ahem…balls, if you will. Very much in the spirit of the late 70’s and early 80’s, can The Neptune Power Federation accomplish this mission?
It is pretty fair to say that on average, my preferences are for music of the heavier variety, but I do have an abiding affection for hard rock as my entry into the more subterranean tunes. As such, my youth was spent listening to my dad’s AC/DC, Queen, Rainbow and old Judas Priest records, and that is very much the blueprint for the music contained within. These are big, bold anthems, with hook-laden chorus’ and sizzling guitar solos. The clean female vocals from lead lung-abuser, “Screaming Loz Sutch” add a whole element to proceedings, with her voice having a really impressive range and some real power. Whether on the power-balladry of “My Precious One”, or the funk-rock odyssey of “Baby You’re Mine”, her delivery is at a career high.
In between the hard rock skeleton, there’s still plenty of pleasing approaches here that mark the out as their own thing. Some lovely keyboard flourishes here and there, but essentially the star of the show for me is the inventive guitar work, which manages to produce riffs in abundance, along with some solo work that weaves its way into the memory. There’s plenty of grit to be found here too – “Emmaline” could easily have been a Danko Jones number, with a stack of swagger and some particularly fuzzy axe work. Closer, “We Beasts of the Night” has all the overblown strut of a prime Meatloaf number, is none the worse for it.
So, what to make of this album as a package then? Well, in many ways it’s an album that can feel a little out of time, but there really aren’t any bands producing material like this anymore, certainly with the confidence and arrogance that The Neptune Power Federation do. It’s pretty infectious, that’s for sure – whether that be due to the simple but effective song writing, or just the delivery I’m not sure, but then again pure rock n’ roll transcends in depth serious analysis: the essence is surely, if it feels good, it is good.  From: https://avenoctum.com/2022/03/01/the-neptune-power-federation-le-demon-damour-cruz-del-sur/