TOM PERLONGO ‘BLUES TO THE MAXX’

Yeah, damn right I got the blues; I have fond memories of Buddy Guy’s excellent album with that title, and now Tom Perlongo comes along thanks to ReverbNation to reassure me that the blues is still a vibrant and current music genre. This album contains a mix of original compositions and cover tracks, but the covers aren’t simple attempts to recreate – they offer a refreshingly different interpretation on such classics as ‘Peter Gunn’, ‘Green River’, and ‘Johnny B. Goode’. Full credit to Tom who appears to have invested his heart and soul into his music. I interviewed him recently and was mesmerised by his passion when telling me about the technical specifications of his ‘Violator’, a customised Stratocaster that was created for him by South Carolina’s Haywire Guitars.

Whilst immersed in developing his own distinctive style of the genre he is quick to cite influences by the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Joe Bonamassa and Eric Clapton, but is just as quick to appreciate the contributions made by rising young stars such as 12 year old Tallan Noble Latz! With dedicated virtuosos such as Tom and Tallan, it is clear that many more people will continue to be able to immerse themselves in the wonder of ‘the blues’.

Tom is currently in the process of recording his next release, an album to be titled ‘All Tied Up’ – while I wait eagerly for this new release (due out in the summer of 2013) I would urge you to experience the skills displayed in the varied selection of tracks available on ‘Blues To The Maxx’, and whilst listening to his solid delivery you might also take time to appreciate the wonderful artwork of Jan Carroll Gregory’ depiction of a guitar playing, whisky drinking, smoking bulldog!

1/ Where’s Jimi?

2/ Bad Erie Feeling

3/ Peter Gunn

4/ Hey Bartender

5/ Salsa Blues

6/ Max Dog

7/ Hoochie Coochie Man

8/ The Milwaukee Swing

9/ Green River

10/ In The Midnight Hour

11/ Johnny B. Goode

THE STAGGER RATS ‘SCORPIO LEISURE’

Take a group of young men with a clear commitment to producing their own idiosyncratic quality music without worrying about transient trends and fashions, give them a few years to develop their skills and gain experience touring the UK and Europe, then enable them to record a full selection from their repertoire – the result is ‘Scorpio Leisure’ by The Stagger Rats. They have clearly listened to and learned from a wide range of artists from previous decades as there are echoes of many greats to be heard within the multi-layered production here.

I recently met them ahead of a gig in Camden when they asked me what I thought of the album; although I was familiar with a couple of tracks, I had to admit that some others were much less familiar – I always like to reserve judgement until I have heard an album a number of times before trying to offer opinions. I have now been able to listen carefully on a number of occasions and feel ready to summarise my impressions.

Although memories of early Pink Floyd, The Doors, The Small Faces and The Sensational Alex Harvey band were triggered whilst listening, these simply served to add depth to the resulting tracks. There is no hint of any attempts to simply re-cycle previous decades, the band have simply been open to consider whatever might be best for their songs and work towards producing something very special. The Stagger Rats have a very distinctive and current sound and benefit from two main vocalists, Daniel Paylor has a clear and wide range to complement Callum Easter’s wonderfully unique style.

The tight instrumentals provided by Daniel and Craig Mcmullen’s guitars, Callum’s keyboards, Terry McDermott’s bass and Kai Wallace’s drums span jaunty, trebly and upbeat to complex, intertwined and thoughtful. The vocals are at times light-hearted and fun, and at others rather emotive. Their lyrics are well-crafted and interesting, in ‘Small Town Tale’ they give away their Edinburgh roots, how many others will bemoan not being able to “get chip sauce on a chip roll”?

The single ‘Sleeping Off Ecstasy’, one of the slower paced inclusions, is delivered with much feeling. ‘Fuzzy Fuzzy’ is such a joy and always makes me feel good when it treats my ears. ‘Paper And Glass’ begins with some tribal drumming and ‘Red Hands’ kicks off with wonderful jangly guitar, whilst the Hammond organ features strongly at the start of ‘Comprehension Suspension’. All told this collection of thirteen varied tracks is a wonderful introduction to The Stagger Rats for anybody who is keen to diversify their music collection. The cover artwork features the band presented in a Jack Vettriano style and would be so good to see as a twelve inch vinyl sleeve.

1/ Maybe When I Get A Bit Older

2/ I’m In Love

3/ Fuzzy Fuzzy

4/ Comprehension Suspension

5/ Shasta Cascade

6/ Red Hands

7/ Sleeping Off Ecstasy

8/ Whippet Snack

9/ Small Town Tale

10/ Paper And Glass

11/ Shine A light

12/ Man Of Morals

13/ Drinking Song

SMASH FASHION ‘BLAME IT ON THE BRANDY’ / ‘MARIONETTE’

Although I already had digital copies of both tracks, it was so special to get my hands on a copy of the vinyl – a ‘real single’! Not only was it good to be able to hold and play a new physical vinyl verison, it was great to hear it too. Both tracks present good upbeat retro 1970s sounding pop/rock. The ‘B side’ is perhaps a bit more edgy with a slightly more contemporary feel.

Both tracks sound great, with evidence of good production. The vocals are enthusiastic and the lyrics interesting. All in all, I find them to be fun and unpretentious. It’s also refreshing that both tracks don’t sound the same, this suggests further potential and I will be looking out for more from Smash Fashion in the future.

Although I would probably have chosen ‘Marionette’ for the ‘A side’, I’m at a stage regarding music releases where I am beginning to wonder about distinctions between ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides, as distinct from album tracks. I believe that the boundaries are getting blurred with so many options for people to purchase single tracks or compile their own cloud-based playlists. I’m sure that the big record labels will seek to persuade me of the intrinsic value of the various release formats – personally I’ll just continue to take the music in whatever format I can and continue to try to judge it on its merits rather than its promotion.

GLORIA GARCIA ‘PUPPET SHOW’

As an introduction to an exciting artist, Gloria Garcia’s EP ‘Puppet Show’ offers a master-class. Building on her lifelong passion for singing and other aspects of music, she delivers four distinct tracks that demonstrate her versatility (five including ‘Sin Amour’, a delightful Spanish version of ‘On And On’). She appears to have avoided the throwaway, instant hooks that might mimic passing fads and comes across as an extremely mature and promising artist. My personal preference at the time of writing this is the wonderfully soulful and driving ‘On And On’ but, as ever, I am always slightly uncomfortable to state absolute preferences as much depends on other factors such as mood and environment. ‘Runaway’ is a highly charged rocker that gives Gloria a chance to incorporate elements of her Spanish heritage as the flamenco styled guitar rhythms take prominence.

The title track ‘Puppet Show’ brings a dose of electro-pop in to the equation; in some ways I am reminded of Mary Kiani, but there is certainly enough about this song and its delivery to keep well clear of any direct comparisons. As with all the songs, the lyrics are intelligent and a pleasing alternative from some of the banal ones that manage to captivate the public imagination from time to time.

Finally, there is the slower-paced, piano-led ballad ‘Breaking Up’ which enables Gloria to inject the lyrics with heart-felt emotion. Its anthemic delivery just screams for it to be performed in an arena. I very much look forward to seeing Gloria continue to develop her musical career and hope to see her reap the rewards of her skills and determination.

1/ On And On

2/ Runaway

3/ Puppet Show

4/ Breaking Up

5/ Sin Amour (Spanish version of On And On)

TELEVISION 60s ‘CELEBR-HATE’

This CD comes with a disc label graphic in the form of a speedometer reading from 0 (Pointless Pussy) up to 280 (True Mother****er), in a way this is probably very good pointer towards what to expect. Don’t expect the needle to spend much time below 200. Further clues about what to expect are contained in the cover artwork, which features a montage of muscle cars, skulls, cannon and a line-up of rather severe looking ladies fronted by one looking very much like a dominatrix. The music lives up to expectations, being good basic driving punk rock stuff. On a personal level I did find it to be a wee bit repetitive and a bit too heavy on expletives, but I wouldn’t let that put me off listening again at times. It’s just going to be one of those albums that I will have to be in the right mood for. I’ve no major objection to occasional strategically placed expletives but do tire of too frequent use; – my main desire these days is to identify music that I can play on radio, sadly ‘F’ words and similar are an automatic bar. This is fine if the band aren’t interested in maximising airplay but it does men that I’m unlikely to be including anything from this album in future radio playlists.

1/ Bad Behaviours

2/ Generation (Again & Again)

3/ Don’t Call Me Back

4/ Sex Circus

5/ Seek Salvation, Find Damnation

6/ Get Wasted

7/ Messaline

8/ Celebr-Hate

YERBADIABLO ‘JESTER IN BRICK LANE’

To start with, a word of warning – anybody who finds themselves straight-jacketed by any particular genre should approach this with extreme caution. I prefer to try to approach new albums without letting myself be influenced by other people’s opinions (makes me wonder why I bother writing reviews, it’s a good job we’re all different)! Consequently I didn’t read the accompanying Press Release until after I had listened a few times. I’ll quote the second couple of sentences from it now. “It’s not easy to describe ‘Jester In Brick Lane’ ……. its chameleon-like qualities place it among those albums that are hard to classify but are often styled as ‘eclectic’. The thread spun by the 13 tracks weaves its way through a myriad of musical genres often within the same song.” I had obviously been sent the correct attachment as I couldn’t agree more with that statement!

While listening, I had noted many styles and genres as they appeared in the intricately woven fabric of the many layers contained. It might be easier to list the genres that aren’t incorporated – well maybe that is a bit of an exaggeration given the ridiculous number of minutely described genres that seems to be growing daily! I certainly didn’t notice any ‘ambient progressive gypsy funk fusion’, but maybe I just made that one up? What I did find was a very pleasing and interesting combination of styles that was quite refreshing. Anybody listening to this in its entirety is very unlikely to be bored. The title of the opening track indicates what might be expected, ‘Punk In-Fusion’ is a clear fusion of punk and reggae. The progression of tracks then certainly does offer a progression through a rather inspired variety of tracks – there is no way that this band could be accused of churning out lots of similar sounding items. There are sections hinting at blaxploitation, latin, psychedelia, jazz …………….. I felt very comfortable as I recognised echoes of many of the ground-breaking bands that I had enjoyed listening to in the 1970s, this doesn’t mean that this album is simply a re-hash of what has previously been tried, I simply believe that it demonstrates a band that genuinely seeks to explore options in order to produce a fresh take. Over the last half century so many musicians have tried so many different things it is becoming increasingly difficult for anybody to come up with anything completely novel.

I would highly recommend this album to anybody who is looking for something different and challenging. As far as trying to fully describe it – anything I wrote would simply be my impressions of a very complex piece of work, in fact I fully believe that I would be able to write a different interpretation on a weekly basis. The best solution is to listen for your self and form your own opinions.

1/ Punk In-Fusion

2/ Winston Smith & the Street Dogs

3/ Brick Lane

4/ Back To The Monkey

5/ z e’toile

6/ Panamerika

7/ Magic Jester’s Box

8/ Sulphurea

9/ Guilty Blues

10/ Bad Days Good Waves

11/ Towards Winay Marka

12/ Niebla

13/ Yerbadiablo

THE MOVE ‘THE LOST BROADCASTS’

When I look ahead to what the future might hold, I really don’t envy young people and am glad that I grew up in a different age. Looking back, however, can sometimes make me cringe, something that happened when I watched this DVD. It is one of a series featuring rarely seen archive performances, in this instance it comprises eleven by The Move. The insert notes begin with reference to ‘Flowers In The Rain’, claiming its special place in history as the first record played by Tony Blackburn at 7am on September 30th 1967, marking the start of Radio 1, but this track is not included here.

Watching the video effects employed reminded me of my first steps experimenting with photo-editing software. Despite the results looking very amateurish now, I believe I can understand the excitement that the studio engineers must have experienced when first discovering the possibilities of their equipment. Look back, it is important to put things in context, back in the late 1960s this was all fairly cutting edge stuff that was seeking to push boundaries. Similarly, the music may now sound rather plodding but it must be remembered that the band were also breaking out from more established formats; they certainly didn’t have our current vast range of genres to listen to for comparison purposes. Whilst the band might have looked very serious and deep in concentration during some of the more experimental tracks such as ‘The Words Of Aaron’ and ‘Ella James’, they appeared much more relaxed and flowing during ‘Down On The Bay’, which gave them an opportunity to play in a more familiar blues rock style.

The eleven tracks include two takes of ‘Ella James’ and ‘Down On The Bay’ along with chart hits ‘Blackberry Way’, ‘Brontosaurus’, ‘Curly’ (with the great Roy Wood playing two recorders at once), and ‘Fire Brigade’.

I think that archive footage such as this is of great historic value, and offers a great insight into a different, more naïve world. Roy Wood’s distinctive appearance may well be familiar to many, particularly as a result of ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’; it was also good to see remembered familiar faces such as Bev Bevan and Carl Wayne. As somebody who was alive to see this band perform these songs for the first time as fresh new music back then I also find such offerings as this ‘Lost Broadcasts’ series to be great at generating feelings of nostalgia. They also help to underscore my happiness at having been privileged to be around when the pop/rock music scene was exploding with adventurous creativity and enthusiasm; I also feel so privileged to be able to now experience a similar burgeoning of fresh talent, making the most of the vast array of technologies now available in the 21st century. I wonder what today’s teenagers will think when they reach the year 2052 and look back on some of our current TV output – will it also look dated and unsophisticated then? Then again, with the world scheduled to end of 21st December, perhaps that question will never be answered.

1/ Blackberry Way

2/ Brontosaurus

3/ Curly

4/ The Words Of Aaron

5/ Ella James 1

6/ Ella James 2 –

7/ Down On The Bay 1

8/ Down On The Bay 2

9/ Fire Brigade

10/ When Alice Comes Back To The Farm

11/ Wild Tiger Woman

KENELIS ‘MOVE’

Arriving in today’s post, it took less than 3 minutes from opening the jiffy bag to pressing play – and then I was re-living a wonderful evening in North Greenwich, when I had first witnessed Mel Sanson and the newly reformed Kenelis play some of the tracks from this new EP.

Mel’s writing merged with the band’s music continues to move from strength to strength, this is a band that deserves to be heard. The lyrics are very much heart-felt and reflect a strong-minded and determined personality. This collection of songs is edgy and challenging with an undercurrent of justifiable anger at the maltreatment of those who dare to stand out by refusing to let themselves be bullied into following the latest trends. ‘GFY’, the acronymically titled opening track pretty much sums up the EP’s attitude, Kenelis are a band determined to forge their own path – and if anybody doesn’t like it, well that’s just tough! Kenelis play excellent, passionate and exciting ROCK music – never mind any more specific genre classification – no ‘bells and whistles’ just vocals, two guitars, bass and drums.

‘Moving To Brighton’ opens with a slight respite from the audio onslaught and offers some autobiographical insights into Mel’s views regarding her current home base. Kai Smith’s wonderfully skilled and atmospheric guitar work is a joy and adds an extra dimension, whilst Ryan Holt’s drumming is a masterclass in tribal/rock fusion, all underpinned by Tristen Hall’s powerful bass playing.

Next to follow is the anthemic ‘Don’t Kill My Rock’ which highlights the massive importance that music can have in keeping people focussed on life’s important things. Much as I have a prefernce for smaller more intimate venues, I really can picture this being played to a massive arena crowd and would be very happy to be part of the audience.

Finally, ‘Open Your Eyes’ revisits a clear dissatisfaction with inequality, abuse of power and unfair treatment.

Jesse Thomas’ cover artwork is stunning and quite rightly gets credit for being ‘absolutely ass-kicking’, getting music digitally is fine but a well-packaged piece of art like this EP will always be far superior (imho).

Mel has always been quick to recognise the importance of fans and the liner credits also include a mention of the on-line community support that has been so loyal to Kenelis over the years.

My one slight disappointment is the lack of ‘Boots’, at one point I believe this had been considered for inclusion but sadly not there. Nevermind it gives me an opportunity to plug the live version recorded at that gig in IndigO2 earlier this year – it’s an absolutely inspired cover version of Nancy Sinatra’s ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’ – check it out, you won’t regret it.

Some ‘useless trivia’ now: few months back I included a ‘fantasy festival’ feature in my show, there was no particular order of priority but I did include one option where the audience were located on boats in front of the Thames Barrier where the stage had been constructed – the band that I had imagined as headlining that particular gig was Kenelis and they would have opened with one of their earlier songs ‘We Could Die Any Minute. Hurry up and get a hold of a copy and play it often – release date is 7th December, which gives you a fortnight to enjoy it before the end of the world on 21st!

1/ GFY

2/ Moving To Brighton

3/ Don’t Kill My Rock

4/ Open Your Eyes

5/ GFY (Radio Edit)

kenelis.com

youtube.com/kenelis

twitter.com/kenelis

facebook.com/kenelis

CHAKRA BLEU ‘YOU’RE THE ONE’

Chakra Bleu is a musician who appears to be perfectly happy in her own skin and follows her own path, not aiming to attach herself to any fleeting fads and fashions. She produces her own distinct fusion of rock/Americana/pop to offer a range of upbeat and insightful songs that have more than a hint of inspiration about them.

This album contains a pleasing range of songs to lift hearts and minds. I was pleased to note a timeless quality about most of it. Whilst the songs all retain a freshness and vitality, there are many of them that I could just as easily imagine listening to back in the 1970s and on. I imagine she achieves this perfect blend by having the knack of matching instrumentation and arrangements to moods and emotions without feeling in any way constrained to comply with any restrictive genre classification.

In addition to the music I was also impressed by the insert, particularly the feature on the sunflower as it reminded me of the symbol of the Peruvian homes for abandoned ‘street boys’ that operate under the banner of ‘Casa Girasoles’. In fact the publicity for the album claims that it resonates with the “Essence and Totem of the Sunflower” (happiness; hope; prosperity; vitality; serenity; freedom; devotion; fulfillment), and that it will act like a ‘lucky charm’!

I always hesitate to pick out ‘favourite’ tracks as selection often depends very much on my own mood; having said that, however, ‘More Even More’ and ‘Imaginary Lines’ do stand out after my first few listens. But that might say more about my current life than it does about the artistic merits of the songs. At the end of the day I believe that it is more important for music to embrace and enhance emotions, than it is for it to tick all the technical proficiency boxes; sometimes pure technical perfection can be particularly uninspiring!

Her press release list a range of adjectives to describe her ability to captivate audiences – ‘playful, intriquing, soul-searching, enriching, embracing and mystical’ being some of them – in my opinion she certainly ticks these boxes.

1/ More Than Fine

2/ You’re The One

3/ What It Is

4/ Sunflower Of My Dreams

5/ Someday

6/ When I Hold Your Hand

7/ Every Bit Of Me

8/ Lucky Charm

9/ All Day Long

10/ More Even More

11/ Your Loving Eyes

12/ Imaginary Lines

13/ Don’t Go There Again

14/ Rockin’ The Bistro

15/ Pinch Me

16/ I Feel The Same

JESSE ADAMS ‘ALL THINGS CONSIDERED’

If anybody ever wanted to hear a ‘sampler’ to illustrate the broad range of music that can be contained under the umbrella term ‘rock music’, then ‘All Things Considered’ by Jesse Adams would be well worth seeking out. From almost pure blues through ‘Metallica’ style ballads, to ‘wall of sound’ thrash – this album contains a lot.

Starting fairly gently with a ‘train’ journey ‘Down The Line’, and ending with a very ambient track ‘All Things Considered’, the other seven tracks in between are a joy to experience. There is a brilliant angry rant with language that would prevent me playing it on air (‘One Shot’), an instrumental that highlights virtuoso guitar playing, and a strong ballad with echoes of previous classics. The inclusion of some of the classic speech from ‘The Great Dictator’ at the end of ‘Pig’ is a particularly inspired addition to the overall mix.

Jesse is a musician/producer from Nebraska, and has been honing his variety of skills since age 13. Also featured on the album is the skillful guitar playing of Grega Habic, from Slovenia. All things considered, this is a remarkably professional offering for a debut album.

1/ Down The Line – train keeps rolling down the line

2/ Stale

3/ One Shot

4/ The Circus Left Town

5/ DNA

6/ Slave

7/ Something To Hold On To

8/ Pig

9/ All Things Considered