Top 10 full length releases of 2017

Thorbjorn Risager & The Black Tornado
Change My Game

Released in early 2017 Thorbjorn Risager & Co. are one of the best Blues/Rock bands going around at the moment & are finally starting to get the recognition they're due. This album is the perfect mix of Guitar driven Blues Rock, Soul and Country. If you do not know this band track them down and everything they have released to date you will not be disappointed. They even won a Best Band award in this year's European Blues Awards

Tuber - Out Of The Blue

The band that introduced me to the "Stoner" genre Tuber released their 3rd full length album this year Out Of The Blue and it's everything I could have hoped it would be and more. For this album they have added some electronic elements and also stepped up their songwriting. It's a step up and beyond from where they were at with their last release Desert Overcrowded. Quite possibly my favourite instrumental band ever.

Petros Klampanis - Chroma

Petros Klampanis has come a long way since his 1st solo outing in 2011 Contextual. Chroma (meaning colour in Greek) further expands on the cinematic style of composition that Petros has been developing. The music on this release could be the Soundtrack to a movie that includes chases, nature and romance elements. The players that Petros has surrounded himself with on this release also deserve high praise as they are fantastic composers in their own right.
If this is what we can expect from Petros in the future then I am very much looking forward to what he comes up with next.

The Ivory Elephant - Number 1 Pop Hit

The Ivory Elephant are the "other" band of band leader Trent Sterling who is also the brainchild and driving force behind one of Melbourne's favourite afrobeat bands The Seven Ups.
A 3 piece Psych/Blues/Rock outfit that should be getting a lot more attention than what they currently are in my oh so humble opinion. This is their 1st full length release and is being distributed worldwide by the Kozmik Artifactz label who have also released albums by another Melbourne Psych Blues outfit Child if you are a fan of heavy blues psychedelia and are not familiar with this band then you should remedy this immediately.

OOLLUU - Deep Six

OOLLOU's music is very hard to pigeonhole/label. It has elements of Rock, Electronic, Prog and Retro Dance. Whatever label you choose to hang onto their music the one thing that is certain is that it will make you sit up and take notice as soon as you hear it.
Do not miss the chance to catch these guys live, their performances are a sight to behold

Electric Moon - Stardust Rituals

More overly long, self indulgent, psychedelic choonage here by a band who does it extremely well. Electric Moon are a band I only discovered this year thanks to fellow PBS-ian Chris Pearson who hosts Pojama People and who has been pushing their music onto an unsuspecting radio audience since he 1st started.
I may be slightly late to catch on but I have now caught on and am loving this band. The music presented on their latest release Startdust Rituals (and in fact on every other release of theirs) is about as far removed from your usual FM radio friendly pop music as you can possibly get and is probably best listened to in an altered state of mind

Banda Magda - Tigre

I absolutely love everything about this album. Clocking in at only around 35 minutes Banda Magda have released an album full of lush orchestration with Latin rhythms and Classic 60's era movie soundtrack like qualities.
None of the songs are sung in English but far from making the listening experience difficult I would say this just endears the music to the listener even further. Tigre is quite possibly the best world music release of 2017. 


 

My Dynamite - Otherside

Melbourne's very own version of The Black Crowes My Dynamite released their 2nd full length release this year roughly 5 years after they released their debut and it is everything you can expect. Catchy melodies, strutting choruses and more.
Immediately after the release of the album and the big launch show at Melbourne's Rock N Roll institution The Cherry Bar the band went on hiatus! Here's hoping the hiatus does not last too much longer and that they start playing shows again in the not too distant future.

The Teskey Brothers - Half Mile Harvest

The Teskey Brothers debut release Half Mile Harvest has been earning the band kudos from all over the country and with good reason. This album is a perfectly crafted Soul, Country, Blues record that is an absolute delight to listen to. They have been playing sold out shows all over the country in venues that international artists who visit our shores have struggled to half fill and their popularity shows no signs of slowing down.
Now that they have conquered Australia it's time for them to take on the rest of the world. UP THE TESKEY'S!

Samantha Fish - Belle Of The West & Chills and Fever

OK so I'm cheating somewhat with this one. Samantha Fish released 2 albums this year and each one is brilliant and unique. While Chills & Fever is essentially a feel good soul record Belle Of The West sees Samantha collaborating with Luther Dickinson of North Mississippi Allstars fame and has a definite hill country blues feel to it and she sounds right at home in both styles. See what all the buzz is about and track down either one or both of these releases and you will see that the praise that everyone has been heaping on Samantha is extremely well deserved. 

Album Review: My Dynamite - Otherside

Australia’s very own version The Black Crowes are back and they mean business. With 9 tracks of country blues rock Otherside is an album that has been in the pipeline for a while now and boy oh boy am I glad it has finally been released. If you own any album by The Black Crowes then this album has to be added to your collection.
My Dynamite wear their Black Crowes influences clearly on their sleeves for all to see and make to apologies about it. While it may be easy to dismiss this band as simply being clones, I dare anyone to put this album on and not sing along to the infectious choruses of songs like the lead single Witch Hat, State We’re In etc. Even though the Black Crowes influences are clearly there for all to see, this is an album that will also sit comfortably next to releases by The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd and their ilk. If you already own music by the aforementioned bands then grab yourself a copy of this album and if you don’t and don’t intend on adding anything by these bands to your collection in the foreseeable future then quite obviously this album is not for you.
My Dynamite have found their winning formula and are sticking to it. You will find all the usual ingredients that a band playing this style of music throws into the mix. Slide Guitar, Lap Steel, Harmonica, warbling Organ lines filling in the gaps in the background and Gospel style backing Vocals provided by the awesomely talented Eliza and Talei Worgramm (check out the Wolfgram Sisters Album you won’t regret it!). 
Otherside is 45 minutes of pure unadulterated safe southern blues rock bliss that colours well within the lines and there nothing wrong with that. My Dynamite know their audience and deliver for them exactly what they want to hear. Now if only mainstream radio would pick up on this album and start playing it you’d no doubt see this band scoring opening slots for stadium acts and headlining much bigger shows on their own.

Album Review: Back In Blue - A Blues Tribute to AC/DC

A blues tribute to a classic Australian Rock album... an interesting idea? I certainly thought so.
With a list of players of this caliber this album was guaranteed to be good, but this is beyond just good it’s great. Of course, when listening to these reinterpretations of AC/DC’s classic Back In Black album you will almost certainly be comparing them to the original recordings released all those years ago and which have now surpassed the 20 Million mark in sales which begs the obvious question of "do these reinvented recordings live up to the originals?" Truth be told, I couldn’t tell you as I don’t think I have ever listened to Back In Black in full! (yes you read that right) What I do know, is that there are some absolute gems on this release.
Here’s is my track by track musings of the release, read on if you choose or base your to buy to not to buy verdict on my above paragraph.
Kicking off proceeding is local blues guitar hero Geoff Achison with Jane Michelle on Vocals playing a bluesy ballady version of the rocker Hells Bells. The song starts off with snippets of news stories regarding the death of Bon Scott which automatically gives you a feel for just how big a story this was back in the day. Geoff’s slide playing is of course great and Jane’s Voice is a hell of a powerful weapon but somehow this version seems to fall ever so slightly flat somehow. 
Things pick up from here with the Blues swagger of Shoot to Thrill, then it’s onto track 3 What You Do For Money Honey featuring the Vocal styling of Janis Joplin clone Gail Page with Jan Rynsaardt of The Arc Riders on Guitar. One of the highlights of the album the overdriven slide guitar together with Gail’s scratchy Vocals prove yet again that while "super producers" slave over layer upon layer of overdubs and trying to make everything sound as polished as possible sometimes all you need is one Guitar and a Singer and a stomping Blues tune to make people sit up and take notice.
Given The Dog a Bone gets a ZZ Top - La Grange style treatment with a somewhat strange Rap breakdown, Let Me Put My Love In You as performed by Shaun Kirk becomes a broody pine with a somewhat Love Ain’t No Stranger by Whitesnake feel to it.
Lachy Doley is up next once again using his croaky drawl to full effect on Back In Black on a stomping pedal to the metal version which is less blues and more rock minus the guitars but with some great Deep Purple-esque sounding fuzzed up Hammond Organ grooves and even an Organ solo. (Check out his live shows if you haven’t already people you won’t be disappointed).
If you have ever heard Sarah McLeod of The Superjesus perform her acoustic ballady version of You Shook Me All Night Long you might know roughly what to expect of 8 Ball Aitken’s interpretation of the song also. But while there are certain similarities between the 2 interpretations 8 Ball most definitely cranks the Blues factor up to 11 with another yearning type vocal delivery (with added ooh’s and ahh’s for effect) and some great reverb laden slide guitar playing. Lachy Doley once again makes an appearance on keys while Vika Bull’s backing vocals lift the tune into the stratosphere.
With only 3 songs to go you find yourself thinking this is too cool I can’t wait to hear what’s next.
Have A Drink On Me is performed brilliantly by Genevieve Chadwick on acoustic guitar, no real re-interpretation here but there’s no need when the riffs work just as well on Acoustic as they do on a Cherry Red Gibson SG.
The rhythm section is where it’s at with Shake A Leg. The only thing to say about this tune is hot damn has it got a groove to it! Complete with Harmonica & Sax solos and outros which I’m still trying to figure out if I like or not (not that they’re badly performed or don’t fit the song per se it’s just that I think I might have preferred to hear that groove run straight through uninterrupted).
Last but most certainly not least (and according to some, leaving the best until last) comes Australian blues royalty with Lloyd Spiegel… It’s Lloyd Spiegel doing AC/DC, that’s all that need be said about this one!  
Once again this is a great idea executed very well. Add to this that all profits from this release will be donated to the Beyond Blue charity who do some great work for helping people suffering from depression as well as providing a better understanding of what depression is for people who perhaps have a “just snap out of it” mentality towards depression and you can’t go wrong.
Find it on Itunes or JB Hi-Fi online

Some April gig highlights

Well as always it's been a great month of gig going in Melbourne town and there's been some doozys! (yes I did just use the word doozys) where to start, where to end, who to include and who to leave out? I am without a doubt going to forget something/someone but here's a short list of the stuff I can remember off the top of my head.

Z-Star Delta
Style: Psychedelic-Acoustic-Blues-Rock
 

Hailing from the UK this duo know how to paint a picture with and take to you on a journey with their storytelling style lyrics. Using loops and effects to build layers of interweaving sounds which help you visualize the images the songs convey this was their 2nd tour of OZ in as many years and I was stoked to finally catch them as I had only seen the flyers for their last tour after the fact. Think of what The Doors might sound like if Jim had a drum kit in front of him while Robby played his bottleneck style blues licks and you might get an idea of what they sound like. Hopefully they will be back sooner rather than later and they will get noticed by much larger audience. Miss them at your peril!

Lachy Doley
Style: Progressive Blues, Rock and Soul

I've lost count of how many times I've seen Lachy doing his thing at Bar 303 in Northcote. There was a bit of a question mark hanging over this show as although Lachy has been doing shows at 303 for around five years or so the last few
shows have been slightly down in attendance so he was pre-selling tickets this time around and had to sell at least 50 of them for the show to go ahead. Thankfully he did and the show did go ahead. He's played with the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Mahalia Barnes, Powderfinger, The Dead Daisies and even former Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes has specifically asked for his services. Playing the only whammy clavinet known to exist in Australia his croaky vocal drawl was used to full effect as always. As many times as I have seen him play he always gives his all and always wins over new fans at the night and this time around was no different. People were lining up at the end of the gig to buy his CD's and to say how much they enjoyed his show. Why he is not playing sold out shows to rooms of a much larger capacity stills boggles the mind.

Backwood Creatures
Style: Jamming Swamp Blues

Wahooooooo what a ride that was! You know a band is good when they are jamming on stage and it all sounds pre-planned. Although all 3 members of the band are smoking hot musicians the highlight for me was Grant Cummerford playing is Bass as if he was the lead guitarist. While it's not unheard of for the bass to be used as a lead instrument I've never seen it played in quite this way before. This may have been my 1st time seeing these guys play but it most certainly won't be the last.

Kumar Shome
Style: Stunt Guitar Instrumentals

Not the 1st time I've seen Kumar play but the 1st time I've caught him playing his own tunes. I'm guessing that Kumar has not heard the saying "the notes you don't play are just as important as the ones you do" because I think he played every note known to man in every combination possible during the 60 or so minutes he was on stage. Now this may sound horrible to some people but as a kid who grew up worshiping the playing of people like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Eddie Van Halen and their like this was like being transported back 20 years and watching the fingers of these guitar heroes in wide eyed wonder. All this being said make no mistake, even though the guitar wankery factor was turned up to 11 Kumar still knows how to play with feel and know which notes to play and which notes not to. This was by no means a free for all and composition was/is still king in his musical ethos. Special mention also to the 2nd guitarist in the band Mickey Chan who also got to show off his shredding skills.

Well there's just 4 of the many shows I did attend and while I have been on a bit of a blues rock kick as of late I still subscribe to the theory of there are only 2 types of music, good and bad, regardless of what genre label you choose to attach to them. With the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and the Stonnington Jazz Festival just around the corner I imagine the shows I will be talking about in the coming months will be of a different style.

Live Review: The Queenscliff Blues Train 16 May 2015

The Blues Train Engine

I've been meaning to get to the Queenscliff Blues Train for a little while now and yesterday I finally got around to taking the 2 hour drive from Melbourne to check it out.
I had seen/heard 2 out of the 4 Artists on the line up (Jimi Hocking and Andrea Marr) so I knew I was going to enjoy at least half of the acts that were playing, but I was hoping that I would learn some new names that I could also look out for around town.

Once again I needn't have worried as my (high) expectations were met in spades. I started off in carriage D which is known as the dancing carriage seeing as there is no seating. As the train took off for the journey Andrea Marr and her band kicked things off with their brand of funky soulful blues sou
nds which had the small Carriage D crowd shaking their booty's to the tunes. A pocket rocket who's sassy vocal stylings were are perfectly suited to what is expected of Carriage D riders. Special mention has to be made of the guitarist in the band (who's name I can't remember) who despite his amplifier playing up and cutting out halfway through a guitar solo managed to keep his cool get it sorted and then continue playing.

Andrea Marr

After the 1st stop and the opportunity to top up my drinks bucket it was onto carriage A where Brian Fraser and Wayne Jury were playing. After the boogie worthy performance that Andrea Marr delivered on Carriage D it was good to have the opportunity to just sit back and enjoy the music. Performing a mix of well known Blues classics as well as some slightly lesser known numbers intermingled with some originals it was an absolute treat to see these guys up close in such an intimate setting. Being a big fan of the slide and resonator guitar sounds I was on cloud 9 watching these guys do their thing. The interplay between them was just brilliant and Wayne's singing was perfectly suited to the what they were delivering. As the train came to it's 2nd stop for the night I heard someone comment that it would have been worth the price of the ticket for Brian and Wanyne's performance alone and I couldn't agree more.

John McNamara

Onto carriage B to catch John McNamara another name I had not heard of before. John was the 2nd of the 4 performers on the night that I had not heard of before and once again I was keen to find out what he was all about. Performing solo with one acoustic guitar and a couple of effects pedals I was completely blown away by John's playing and singing. As everyone was boarding and taking their seats I was watching John noodling away and thought to my
self "this is definitely going to be good."
Just before the train took off again we were advised that for this part of the journey it was recommended we all remain seated as it's mostly a downhill ride and the train picks up quite a bit speed as it's travelling. Unfortunately not everyone heeded this advice and one woman who decided to stand up in the tiny empty space in front of John ended up losing her balance and falling on him and almost knocking him off his feet also. After picking herself up with a little assistance from security John managed to carry on unfazed (how's that for professionalism?). Highlights of this performance would have to have been his version of the Etta James classic Damn Your Eyes. I couldn't help but grab a copy of his CD as the train once again came to it's final stop for the night before the end of the ride.

Onto carriage C to catch the inimitable Jimi Hocking and his Blues Machine...

Jimi Hocking

Well what can I possibly say about Jimi that has not been said before? A veteran of the Australian music scene sinc
e the 80's a Jimi Hocking performance is something that is guaranteed to be entertaining. With a sense of humour to match the best stand up comedian and nimble fingers that are enough to make any budding guitarist seriously think twice about pursuing their chosen profession, Jimi is the ultimate rock 'n' roll nice guy. Quite simply if you are a fan of rock music and a fan of the blues and you have never caught a Jimi Hocking show then you are doing yourself a disservice and should waste no time in catching one of his gigs around town.
Overall the night has got to go down as one the highlights of my 2015 gig going experiences and there have been many already!