Artist: - Grant Lyle

Title: - Retronym

This is the second CD I have from Canada from Grant. This is different to the first one I had which was a bit more rockier. The tone of the tracks on this album are very much more bluesier. The tracks have been stripped back to just acoustic guitar, harmonica & percussion. They are none the poorer for this as Grant’s vocals favour this sort of music very well. The album is very laid back and is ever so easy on the ear, track 5 "Mellow down easy," aptly describes the mood of the album. My standouts are "Fare you well," "Survive," "Don’t go no further," and the love song on the end "Come rain or come shine." Grant has a great voice which sounds as though it has matured by playing in clubs full of smoke, a bit like Joe Cockers. He plays the guitar well and is well supported by the other two members, Roly Platt on harmonica and the Percussionist Michael Sloski.

I highly recommend this album and hope that they get the success that they deserve.

To check out the website www.grantlyle.com

Duncan May07

 

 

 

 SHE CRAVES  Come Around EP
 Already Gone, Need Me, Don't Say and Broken

Picture the scene I had got home from work after another hard day to
be met by my children excitedly telling me that Harry HILL, had sent
me another CD to reveiw and it was brilliant. My heart sank my
daughter listens to someone who sounds like Pinky and Perky, and my
boys are still into the Simpsons and Dr Who. Never the less I sat
down to take my punishment.

I first read the blurb they sent out to find SHE CRAVES are a band
from Austin Texas who ethics in life are to produce music people can
sing along to and a high energy live show.

Well I have got to say that I was pleasently surprised, in fact more
then that I really enjoyed it. The music is guitar based with a
strong beat pounding from drum and bass, it is all held together by
the strong vocals of Christine Ely. My favourite track is number 4
Broken, to me it has a number of influences, the introduction reminds
of the opening bars to Pretty Vacant, with the vocals of the great
fergal Sharkey, and towards the end a guitar rift that wouldn't be
out of place played by the Edge. Still if you have to have influences
aim high

If I have a criticism the first 2 tracks Already Gone and Need Me are
a bit samey but still good. Do yourself a favour and check themout on
their Myspace website, certainly worth a listen.

They have met their first goal of wanting to create music to enjoy
and sing along to, and I have no doubt they would have reached their
second goal of producing an exciting live act. My only problem is my
children now want to go to Texas to see them live, unfortunately
Chelmsfordrocks budget won't stretch that far and they will have to
wait till they play London.

Colin May 2007

 

 

 

Dead Rock West – Honey and Salt

Well, this is described as ‘a gritty passage through the plush valleys and desert landscapes of human emotion, constantly urging listeners to take the journey.’ Pretty impressive, huh? Bit too wordy for me, but I think I know and agree with what the writer means.

Dead Rock West was founded by the two vocalists, one male the other not. The guy, Frank Lee (pun or mischievous parents?) Drennen co/wrote eleven of the twelve tracks and takes guitar duties. I like the dual vocals and it works well on this album. The first track really impresses me – it’s a really catchy song and could easily be mistaken for a Beautiful South composition; and I note it has recently been aired by Bob Harris on Radio 2, well done DRW!

The remaining tracks offer a variety of styles, some motor along, some are country ballads, some are country rockers and the rest are ‘just’ good hooky pop songs , and they are really well produced. The album was mixed in Nashville by some guy I’ve never heard of but he has worked with Tom Petty, Steve Earle, and George Harrison among others….. So I guess he is pretty famous (got a Grammy as well!) and I know diddly.

As an aside, the packaging for this album is first class; gatefold sleeve, nice booklet. A lot of care has been taken over this product and I hope it gets the recognition it deserves.

I think the Band are trying to break into the UK market so I hope we will see and hear more of them very soon. Check out Dates etc on their website http://www.deadrockwest.com and meanwhile get the album and have a good time y’all.

Ash April 2007

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hedrons – One More Won’t Kill Us

 

Our friends at Gorgeous PR have sent me 4 albums to have a listen to, so I should be adding more reviews over the coming weeks. To start with, I want to share The Hedrons with you.

What intrigues me about them is that they are from Glasgow but the album has been sent to us from LA because they have been touring over there with The Scanners – International (super) stars already!

The band is a standard four piece – but they perhaps stand out from the crowd because they are all female (and yes, young and pretty!); more significantly, they make a damn good racket. Their reviews have already put them in the same bracket as Joan Jett, Patti Smith, Penetration, in fact any of the premier female rockers over the last thirty years and I must admit, I could easily imagine Pauline (Penetration) singing some of these songs.

The album contains the bands first three singles; all have achieved top five placings in the UK indie singles charts so you can appreciate there are some strong songs here. The pace of the songs is unrelenting, you charge from one rocker to another, singer Tippi has a strong set of lungs and is supported by some good sing-along backing vocals. The guitar work is good and the drums are powerful – it is reminiscent of the early punk days.

It looks like the band is constantly touring, in the UK, USA and now Japan is lined up. If you get a chance, see them – I will certainly look out for them because I reckon these songs will be great live. In the meantime, grab the album and have a good time because this is the loudest, brashest album I have heard this year.

 www.myspace.com/thehedrons

Ash April 2007

 

 

 

Artist: Random Allies

Title: Thunder Run

A great slice of rock music with mainly up-tempo foot tappers which you naturally nod your head too. All the songs seem to be about girls and good times so I think we should all be thinking about booking our holidays to Toronto this year. The music is well written and crafted by Walter Lasky and Ted Bonis. Unusually for the CD’s we get, all the lyrics were in the CD case, I wish more bands would do this.

They have a very tight band and the top tracks for me are "Fireball," the lewd "Have some fun," "Lucky lady." Another good one is "Break the fall," a story of how a good woman can get you back on the straight and narrow. The CD finishes with the slower and atmospheric "Wild Horses." I enjoyed this one a lot and always think it’s a shame that many of these bands will never get the rewards they deserve.

To get this CD go to www.cdbaby.com/randomallies & for more info email randomallies@aol.com

Duncan

March 07

 

 

 

 

 

Artist: Billy Skinner

Title: "Tomorrows Sun"

Billy is an American who has travelled quite a bit, even to Germany who started musically quite late. He produces very good rock music which is very enjoyable. On this album there are rockers, ballads and thought provoking songs. There is a heavy influence of good old southern rock in the music which is complimented by Billy’s voice.

Stand out tracks to me are "What really matters," "You done me wrong," "Shadows in the night," "Raindrops in a river," and the anti war song "Mama’s sons." This all finishes with a great slow track "The flame within," but to be truthful I don’t think there is one duff track on here. As I have said there is a great mixture in here and the best compliment I can pay this album is that I am still playing it.

To find out more about Billy go to www.tomorrowssun.com

 

Duncan

March 07

 

 

Album Name: Prophecies

Artist: Tarsha

Website: http://www.tarsharock.com/

I hadn’t heard of Tarsha before, and if you haven’t I will briefly summarise to say that prior to this album the most public highlight of his career had been to front ex Guns N Roses member Steven Adler’s Band. However the publicity supplied with this album also shows that Tarsha has previously picked up a number of U.S. song writing awards for his work and also won a Male Vocalist of The Year award in 2003.

So, onto Prophecies. This looks to have been a labour of love as Tarsha wrote all the songs, played all the instruments and even produced the album. You can’t knock the guy; he is undoubtedly talented and has written some really good songs. Most notable for me is the opening track ‘Dirty’. Tarsha says the song has picked up a lot of airplay and it is obvious to hear why, it is a simple rocker that has a very catchy chorus that you can’t shift from your head; I love it and it deserves the attention it has been getting around the world.

The rest of the album isn’t quite so immediate for me but is no less enjoyable after a few plays. The album has a fair share of rockers and a few ballads, like Ten Stars Away. However as the Album progresses Tarsha moves away from standard Rock fare and questions the meaning of Faith / Religion / Spirituality on songs like ‘Why Fight’, Cynical Christ’ and ‘Apostle’. These songs are packed with lyrics, so much so that it is difficult to read the lyric page on the album because the font had to be reduced to such a degree to fit them all in (shame really because I wanted to read them but lost patience when I was laughed at for squinting)!

 

Ash’s rating 8/10.

 

 

 

 

 

VDELLI 'Live at the Ocean Indian Hotel'

CDs can be ordered direct from www.vdelli.com

This is the first CD Maurice has sent me since my critical reveiw of ZHAIN single CD, I was starting to think that he no longer trusted me. So when he gave me the envelope I was quite excited, I looked inside my heart sank, it was a live album and double at that. I'm not a great lover of Live albums, you watch your favourite band they are never has polished has you expect, and you don't have the alcohol inside you to balance it out, thats my normal experience with live albums. The odvious exception to that is Live at the Marquee 9 below 0, an absolute classic and must buy for any music fan. When I got home things got worse as my wife said, 'An Australian band they will be s

So driving upto Manchester on Monday, I put the second CD into Duncan's player in the car and sat back ready to throw it out of the window. I have got to say that I was more then plesently surprised in fact I really enjoyed it, except for the crowd noise between tracks you would struggle to know it was a live album, it fairly fizzed along. It is a good mixture of their own tracks and cover versions. It started with one of their own, 'Man in the mirror' this was a really good blusey number which showed off the odvious talents of Michael VDELLI. This was quickly followed by the first cover, the Dylan track 'All along the Watchtower', although better known by Jimi HENDRIX. What I liked about the cover versions were they were not just a straight lift of the originals, as in this case it was a more up tempo version, and VDELLI put their mark on it.

This CD flew by and my favourite tracks being 'Skitzoid', one of their own and the ZZ Top song 'La Grange', again played slightly faster.
When I got home I played both CD's all through and took a bit more time listening to them. the first CD had more cover versions but again all with VDELLI's stamp on them. My favourites on this Cd were the James Taylor song, 'Fire and Rain', Stevie Ray VAUGHAN track 'Couldn't stand the weather' and their own, 'Hot Muffins'.
All n all a great double CD set although has a word of caution there were two tracks I didn't particularly like, James BROWN's 'I feel good', again done in their own style, the problem is for me, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and you can't improve on perfection. And another HENDRIX's track, 'Voodoo Chile' it went on to long and I got bored, I would imagine it is the bands finale at a live show, so prehaps can be forgiven.

The English band I would compare them to are the Hamsters, but I prefer VDELLI for playing their own songs and putting a twist on classic songs.

I know Maurice is going to put the album on Chelmsford Rocks, listen out for them. I see on their website they describe themselves as
BLUES/ROCK/FUNK a good discription as they cover all styles well. They have residencies in Perth Australia, if your there well worth a look, I don't suppose they will be playing anywhere in Essex soon.

 

 

 

_______________________________________________________

Foster Pilkington

"She Wants To Be A Wag"

A bit more topical humour from Steve, perhaps what it shows is what is wrong with our youngsters of today. Makes me sound like an old git but how many girls think that they can have a living by marrying a footballer or a becoming a star of reality TV?

The track has a reggae feel to it and as all of the other stuff I have heard from Steve it’s always acoustic and original. I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it.

Duncan March 2007

 

Artist: Foster-Pilkington

Duncan Feb 2006