Parisian pop trio Alexandr release debut album – Aloners to the world
The trouble with reinventing the wheel is it usually means a bumpy ride for someone. Sometimes it’s better to just hit cruise control and concentrate on a smooth well-executed ride. French trio Alexandr forge modern pop/rock with a nod to well-crafted songs of the past. Singer Stephen Fozard’s voice resides in that comforting register inhabited …
Album Review: Kavus Torabi and Richard Wileman release collaborative album – Heaven’s Sun.
This new release on Believers Roast is a collaboration between label creator Kavus Torabi (Gong, Knifeworld, Cardiacs) and Richard Wileman (Karda Estra), consisting of two lengthy pieces that float and weave through myriad cosmic landscapes. Described as “a kaleidoscopic journey into the astral magnetic mind”, part one – ‘Particles of Light’ floats in on a …
Album Review: Ottus – Ghost Travellers
Homerecords is a Belgian label with an emphasis towards acoustic music, and they describe this recent release as “adventurous yet gentle indie pop folk, halfway between electric and acoustic”. Ottus hail from the city of Liège, which certainly accounts for the adventurous side, it being an underground melting pot of a place, constantly spewing forth …
The Dowling Poole – Refuse
The Dowling Poole have released a brace of albums over the past few years, and this one is a compilation of tracks that have only previously existed in a digital format but now are available as a physical CD. Formed in 2013, they consist of Willie Dowling (formerly of Jackdaw4, Honeycrack and The Grip) and Jon …
Album Review: Arthur Brown – Long Long Road
I’d like to think that everybody knows the song 1967 hit ‘Fire’ (but then again we now live in a world where Paul McCartney is bafflingly seen by some as an unknown chancer hanging onto Kanye West’s coat-tails). The long haired proto-Alice Cooper with a flaming chalice on his head roaring the words: “I am …
Album Review: Frank Zappa – Zappa/Erie
From the extensive archive, Zappa vault-meister Joe Travers (Dweezil’s drummer) investigated some shows performed in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania, and quickly deemed them too good not to release. The 1974 concerts feature some of Zappa’s top-flight musicians of the day playing a selection of equally top tunes ranging from early Mothers to ‘Over-Nite Sensation’ …
LIVE REVIEW: Sparks – Ancienne Belgique, Brussels 22/04/2022
After over twenty albums and fifty years in the business, the Mael brothers have weathered everything from adulation to ridicule and indifference, yet resolutely ploughed their own idiosyncratic furrow. Long ago realising that trying to play to the fickle tastes of the public was a risky and ultimately futile endeavour, they simply did their uniquely …
Not Forgotten: Gong – Camembert Electrique
Released in 1971 on French label BYG Actuel, Gong’s second album resurfaced on Virgin Records in 1974 at the special price of 59p, by which time the teapot was in full flight with the Radio Gnome trilogy. Even back then, Daevid Allen’s mythology was close to fully formed. The photo on the back sleeve shows …
Obituary: Meat Loaf aka Marvin Lee Adey September 27th, 1947- January 20th, 2022
One of Rock’s larger than life characters has passed away at the age of 74. Born Marvin Lee Adey in Dallas, the former high-school football player relocated to New York in the late 60s, and began landing roles in musical theatre, most notably ‘Hair’ and ‘The Rocky Horror Show’. It was in this world that …
Album Review: Matt Baber & Richard Wileman – Baber Wileman
Richard Wileman’s 2020 album, ‘Arcana’ was a melodic yet unnerving gothic treat, with a Hammer Horror, Wicker Man vibe. This new offering continues in a similar vein, a collaboration with Matt Baber of Sanguine Hum. They had previously worked together in 2011, on a track (Mondo Profondo 1) for Wileman’s earlier incarnation, Karda Estra. This …