Posted in Cd Reviews

Malian singer Salif Keita is often referred to as the ”Golden Voice of Africa”. As an albino he was ostracised by his family and community, and left his village to move to the capital city of Mali – Bamako, in the late 1960s where he joined the Super Rail Band and then Les Ambassadeurs before leaving the country in the mid 1970s during the country’s political unrest. Now he is based in Paris and Bamako and is a major star of African music.

I have to be honest and admit that while I’ve listened to a lot of music genres over the years, I’ve never really paid any attention to African music – like many people the closest I’ve got to African music is Paul Simon’s graceland, or some Ladysmith black mambazo.
Despite this I was familiar with the name of Salif Keita – I just hadn’t heard anything...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Lion Music/Border

Project mastermind Tony Vinci has been here before, with a similar band of the same name. But after the self-titled debut he saw the need for a new formation, better suited to the more progressive stand that was taking form. This time around it is Tony on guitars, Andy Engberg of SECTION A on vocals, keyboard player Anthony Brown (GRAPHITE SYMPHONY), Greg Putnam (JAM PAIN SOCIETY on bass, and last but definitely not least prog drummer hero Mark Zonder of FATES WARNING fame. The album centers on the elements, “Fire”, “Wind”, “Water”, “Earth”, and a fifth, “Quinta Essentia” to keep the themes together.

Opener “Fire” is of cause intense, straightforward on the border of leaving the genre, but also boosts a great refrain...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Chantal Claret is best known as the singer from US rock band Morningwood, and also as the wife of Mindless Self Indulgence singer Jimmy Urine. Her latest album is a somewhat different sound to her normal rock music. The album was released in the US last year and is now getting a UK release. The album, ”The one, the only…” takes 60s girl pop and soul and adds some modern rock and hip hop to give a sound that is both modern and vintage at the same time.

This is one of those rare albums these days – one that stands out as totally different to most other album releases. There are lots of great albums, but most fall into a genre such as rock or folk and while most bands have their own sound, they do usually have a strong resemblance to other bands in the genre...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Heidi Talbot is a singer from County Kildare in Ireland, who spent several years in New York as part of the group Cherish the ladies. Her first solo album after leaving ”Cherish the ladies” in 2008, ”In love and light” got great reviews, but it wasn’t till her 2010 album ”The last star” that she started writing her own songs. Now she is back with her latest album, ”Angels without wings” (her fifth solo album). As well as her usual team of musicians, she has two guests on the album, both of who are acclaimed guitarists – Jerry Douglas and Mark Knopfler...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”Another step” is the debut album from Manchester band City Reign. The band comprises the songwriting duo of Chris Bull and Mike Grice along with Duncan Bolton and Ryan Ashton. After moving to Manchester to study, Chris and Mike met at a Ryan Adams gig – the band’s name comes from his song ”City Rain, City Streets”.
The band have released three singles – ”Making plans”, ”Out in the cold” and ”Daybreak” as well as an EP (Numbers for street names). Now they are releasing their debut album on their own record label.

The album was recorded in Salford’s Sacred Trinity Church, so instead of a recording studio where everything is designed to control echoes and the sound bouncing, the the stone walls and high ceiling give a very different recording environment...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Finnish power metal band Stratovarius are due to release their new studio album, Nemesis, in late February. Fans though can get a taste of the new album with the new EP, Unbreakable, which is being released on 25th January.
The EP consists of five tracks – one new song (Unbreakable) taken from the forthcoming album, Nemesis, plus four songs from earlier albums that have been remastered for this release. Effectively then it’s the first single from the new album, but the presence of four remastered tracks makes it far more appealing than a typical single.

Starting with the new song – Unbreakable, it opens with some nice keyboards, the guitars and drums quickly kick in, followed soon after by the vocals...

Posted in Cd Reviews

American female fronted band Upon Wings are due to release their Afterlife EP in March. The EP features some guest vocals from Brett Hestla (ex-Creed, Dark New Day) and was mastered by Kid Rock recording engineer Glenn Brown.

Opening track ”Afterlife” is absolutely superb. Vocally the best comparisons are probably Epica and Delain, and musically Delain are definitely a good comparison too. A very impressive start to the EP.

”Take away” is a heavier track with the guitars and drums being harder and making it more of a metal track.

”The dream” has an operatic vocal style for the main vocals with some beautiful haunting vocals alongside them and the music is kept fairly soft and in the background. It’s a beautiful track.

The final track, ”You are my weapon” is another metal track...

Posted in Press Releases

Late March sees the release of Transvision Vamp’s first two highly successful album releases from the late 1980s, Pop Art and Velveteen. The albums are being released as 2-CD sets, each featuring a bonus disc of B-sides and rarities.

Signing to MCA in 1986, British rock-pop act Transvision Vamp enjoyed massive chart success in the UK and abroad before disbanding in early 1992. In late 1987 they released a cover version of the Holly and the Italians song, Tell That Girl To Shut Up and a few months later their follow-up single, I Want Your Love, which made number 5 in the UK charts. Their debut album, Pop Art was released in October of that year, reaching the British Top 5.

Pop Art was Transvision Vamp’s debut album and is celebrating its 25th anniversary with this 2CD re-issue.

Led b...

Posted in Cd Reviews

HELLO CATHOUSE!- extremely new single from Babylon Bombs

Hard rock and sleaze in the air- as we love to feel it in bones everywhere. Swedish band from Stockholm seems actually unstoppable.. So, are you ready?

New single from Babylon Bombs is available in 7 days! „It’s a song written as a homage to a good friend of ours and his great rock ’n roll club, which we have played in so many times, since 2005. Cathouse is a kinda catchy-feel good song, perfect in that party-playlist before a wild night out!”- tells the band before secret will turn out to the rock world’s sunshine. Spirit of sleaze is totally owns the tune, and also the audience will be rocked by listening that kind of cool and wild memories of great rock n’ roll times...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

UDR/EMI

When both Steve Dawson (1986) and Graham Oliver (1994) had been erased from the band pictures I sort of left the fold too. From late 1982 onwards SAXON were my heroes, but I thought I´d bought my last album after the uneven “Metalhead” in 1999. When former members started SON OF A BITCH, Later OLIVER/DAWSON SAXON around 1994 I followed closely as they were faithful to the old songs.

Fast forward to 2013, and the release of yet another SAXON album, their 20th studio outing I believe. The cover is just about the same as the previous three or so, but the music. At long last Biff has lead his cohorts back in time, 25 years or so, and created an album almost filled with modern sounding NWOBHM...