Into the Distance Music 81

Pink Fairies - Resident Reptiles, album review

Pounding and Whipping and Wolfing it Loud

There are originals, and these are – well, those who are left/in the band, now led by founder Paul Rudolph with Hawkwind bassist Alan Davey and original Motörhead drummer Lucas Fox who co-wrote the songs. In addition, another Pink Fairies/Motörhead member, Larry Wallis, wrote the track Old Enuff To Know Better that I’m listening to as I write, all chug and drive and volume.

Are they old enough to know better? They certainly don’t know any different and presumably that’s what we want if we want this. I’ve actually been listening a little earlier to a Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam compilation and whilst this is from a definite tangent I have played it loud and it is at this point the Pink Fairies deserve their recognition for playing it loud – very loud – and starting the trajectories that went on or from Blue Cheer to Black Sabbath to Hawkwind to Motorhead and so on.

Fucking Loud.

As I’ve written elsewhere, I saw the Pink Fairies at the Weeley Festival because they were there and so was I and I bought their vinyl album of the live capture of their set many years later which is totally unlistenable because it is such a crap recording. But I have it. And I was there. And I saw them. Apparently.

To be honest all the tracks are pretty much the same: pounding and pounding louder. The echo of a Steppenwolf Born to be Wild riff permeates the fine onslaught of Whipping Boy, but I think my favourite so far is Lone Wolf that pounds the pounding out of all the others. Strap yourself to the speakers, stop thinking and enjoy.

No Face Music 10

Prince - Anthology 1995-2010, album review

Fs

The finest funk to falsetto, and jazz and scorching rock guitar – the fourteen minutes of West has all of this, apart from the vocal, being, as it is, an instrumental, and there is an orchestral touch too.

Spanning sixteen years of rare and fan-based releases – so it says – I’m guessing the aficionados know so much if not all. But collected here and for the more occasional listener – though I did see him once live in London which was outstanding – this is a stunning reminder of his musical depths as writer and performer.

On that falsetto plain, songs like Eye Hate U, The Greatest Romance Ever Sold [so sublimely soulful] and Eye Love U, But I Don’t Trust You Anymore register at the highest register, the latter teetering on the precipice of saccharine and genius.

So if you don’t like that high-wire, get back to the jazz funk and effects sax [Candy Dilfer] and violin [Vanessa Mae] of Xpedition [King Crimson/VDGG meets Glenn Miller meets Prince].

Thirty seven tracks!

Respect

Lip Music 22

Bourbon House - Wild Abandon, album review

Drink it Straight

Bourbon, wild and abandon [house is merely the accommodation] – these fit neatly into the retro blues-rock structure of this fine album, the lead vocal a clear distinction in the mix of the band who are Lacey Crowe (vocals), Jason Clark (guitars), James Mijal (drums) and Jennings Buri (bass).

Mainly heavy in the way it should be, Yet We Run is an interesting acoustic [core guitar] with deeper vocal from LC and her overdub that showcases the band stepping outside the generic too, and I particularly like this one.

Opener Burn them Bones makes no bones about featuring the singing above its riffs, and that is where the album consistently sips its bourbon muse.

Lips Music 21

Oh Sees - Smote Reverser, album review

Far-out on the Far-out Spectrum

Not the black-doom-hardcore-thrash-metal of the cover’s insinuation, but a psyche-folk ‘n’ space rock arc that is as fresh as it is retro. Drifting vocals and sustained instrumental reveries make this as far-out in the far-out lineage as one might hope for when liking such, as I do. You’ll hear just about everything valuable of valuable influences informing the ingenuity of this current sound. Oh yes, [see what I did there, twice?] there’s guitar rock too, even if snippets*, then Pink Floyd – Moon Bog – and I apologise for naming but I couldn’t resist.

Though for extended scorchings, listen to Anthemic Aggressor. No need - the music will take you there.

Superb.

Classical Nude Music 2

Boz Scaggs - Out Of The Blues, album review

Blues Roots

This is a fine revisiting of roots, opening track Rock and Stick its absolute finest with Scaggs is sublime vocal, that honeyed tone rising to just-falsetto – perfectly – and the harmonica of long-time musical collaborator Jack “Applejack” Walroth [who co-wrote] adding more sweet juice: all this over and above the punching bass line of Willie Weeks and the funky guitar of Ray Parker Jr. I could play this all day, though that would be silly, so I’ve played it once most days over the last week.

There are horns on the mournful blues ballad I’ve Just Got to Forget You, Scaggs soaring here and there in empathetic vocal. Radiator 110 leads off with a guitar and harmonica riff to set the chugging blues pace, another following funky walking through the whole. Neil Young’s On the Beach is blessed with a slowed and brooding pace and tone, Scaggs again singing in the honey and its mellowed glow, I need a crowd of people/but I can’t face them day to day/though my problems are meaningless/that don’t make them/go away.

Down in Virginia is a striding straight blues of straight class; Those Lies pumps its brisk rhythms, horns attending and with puffs of baritone sax, and closer The Feeling is Gone is as humid as hot love gone will feel, more horns in maudlin moans.

A wonderful album.