As blusterous as Jon Spencer’s Blues Explosion yet accessible in their slide guitar fixated approach, The Dead Exs were just one of many blues duos to take the stage in the wake of The White Stripes’ popularity. Their debut release ‘Ressurection’ was raw yet focused…possessing power and groove, in short, everything garage blues should be. If The Dead Exs channelled the power and charm of the Blues Explosion’s classic work, then King Pizza signings ¡Vamanos! are almost the ugly Pussy Galore by default – their brand of garage blues making all but the very rawest noisemakers sound like major label puppets.
Category Archives: Album & EP Reviews
VARIOUS ARTISTS: Vauxhall & Us: A French Tribute To Morrissey
The world has seen release of many tribute albums, many tossed off with casual indifference that miss the mark completely. Occasionally, one comes along that’s just so misguided you end up wondering how it came to be in the first place. The idea of thirteen different low-key French artists recreating Morrissey’s 1994 album ‘Vauxhall & I’ could easily sound like a bad one from the off, but somehow, through an array of reasonable talent – not to mention excellent source material and sheer balls – ‘Vauxhall & Us’ works. Without Morrissey’s distinctive croon adding to a many a black humour within his lyrics, these songs sound markedly different. Their charm is still often apparent, but in a wholly different way. The acoustic setting on some of the recordings allows Moz’s gift of words to remain the biggest draw of all, but the European slant evident from time to time also lends a certain charm.
HED(p.e.) – Evolution
The mid 90s was a time when rap-metal reigned. No matter how genre-crossing acts sprang up (usually from the US), the alternative record buying public clamoured for more. For the huge amount of (sometimes deserved) column inches afforded to Rage Against The Machine or Limp Bizkit, so many other bands worked just as hard on the fringes – Snot would have been bigger than everyone if not victims of tragic circumstance, while bands like Shuvel and Reveille now seem all but forgotten, but were as good as any.
OF ALLIES – Tempers EP
Together for only a year at the time of its release, ‘Tempers’ by UK alt-rockers Of Allies shows a strong sense of focus and of self-belief. The material doesn’t always show a great range of styles, but essentially this is a good thing – a sign of a band that know exactly what works for them, resulting in five numbers that include no unnecessary padding. Bringing much heaviness, their crunch oft balanced with an accessibility , the EPs opening track ‘Ghosts’ really makes a play for catching the ear as quickly as possible– and very much succeeds. From a clean intro comprising a couple of clean guitar chords and a soft, heart-rending vocal, the band quickly branch out into a somewhat rhythmic piece, led which drummer Danny Barrick, rattling off his snares with speed. This is intercut with a heavier chorus riff, the guitars adopting a dirty approach. While clearly comprised of three distinct parts, the bands strong feeling for melody gives everything a natural feeling of togetherness. It’s a tune that should appeal to fans of bands in the Chevelle mould – heaviness with a very tuneful undercurrent.
YES – Heaven & Earth
The first Yes studio album in a decade – 2011’s ‘Fly From Here’ – came under fire from various quarters. Since the core of the material first took shape in the early 80s, some (unfairly) lambasted the release for scraping the barrel for ideas, while others were less specific, wheeling out their beliefs that “no Jon Anderson = No Yes”. Neither short-sighted opinion held much water, since the album featured some of the best material the band had committed to record since the mid 90s, possibly even before. Benoit David did a great job vocalising both the new material and those ideas laid down by Trevor Horn and band some decades previously; Steve Howe sounded very comfortable in his role as guitarist – happy not to overplay his role (as he perhaps had done on some other Yes work) – while bandleader Chris Squire’s bass work appeared impeccable throughout. As with the often maligned ‘Drama’ of 1980 and the pop-oriented ‘90125’ from 1983, this more than showed that whatever the incarnation, there can be enjoyable results.