Witchwood - Litanies From The Woods, album review

Witchery?

Are Witchwood spoilers? No, not for a fight – though there is a battle for attention going on here – but rather in terms of getting in the way of one needing to search for originals: rock/prog bands actually from the 60s/70s rather than contemporary Italy.

Not Scandinavian and not Nordic and not from the past but in the past musically, Witchwood have on this debut album joined the retro-wagon with a loadful of heavyrock and progrock rockrolex replica items that recraft from Deep Purple to Blood, Sweat and Tears, A Place for the Sun for the former and Liar [it's the flute/Satie] for the latter. There is a sound effect in the folkrock Shade of Grey that comes, I am convinced, from Clear Light's Mr Blue, 1967.

Even the album cover draws on an image redolent of prior posings, and none of this is criticism as those who have read my previous celebrations of such musical echoings will readily recall. As a negative, however, in reviewing an album like this one gets attached to referring to precursor sounds, inevitably; as a positive, it seems to me that the actual joy will be in hearing these bands live when the ‘originals’ are long gone – though of course many have reconvened and hit the lucrative middle-aged, middle-income targeted nostalgia tours.

The ultimate test for those who think an ultimate line needs to be drawn under past or present incarnations of such sounds is - will Witchwood be remembered and/or around in 40/50 years’ time? Probably not, so enjoy them now.

Sign Music 9

Jay Jesse Johnson - Set The Blues On Fire, album review

Guitar Flow

This is pro chew-em-up and spit-em-out bluesrock and boogie from Indiana axeman Johnson where he sets the blues on fire just like it says on the title track. And he has a great seasoned voice. You know what you're getting with this kind of allround excellence, and you get it. In addition to the fine guitar riffs and rips there are smooth blues ballads like Since My Baby's Gone and Midnight Train with sweet solos. That's only the first six tracks.

Afterwards, Voodoo Woman begins with some virtuoso acoustic playing and then turns to more electric electricity; Don't Mess With Baby pumps some bass and bluster within the riffs; If I Knew Then is a slice of West Coast Rock; Ace in the Hole invokes the legacy of Hendrix, and closer Rio De Los Suenos is a genuine river of guitar dreams in its fluid instrumental meandering.

Car Music 21

Black Casino And The Ghost - Until The Water Runs Clear, album review

Alternative Approaches

An ‘alternative’ band based in London, there is a current of psychedelia that pulses through its core, most notably and Jefferson Airplane-esque on fifth song Sherry where the vocal of Elisa Zoot plays a large part in that echo. Otherwise, that pulse beats in other ways as in Soul Mall where the psyche-pop with organ and vocal swirls provide the musical reminiscence.

A slower acoustic number is eighth Tarjetores, a brooding and building song about modern slavery, and opener The Pool also begins with acoustic guitar, Zoot with her this time Nico vocal foregrounded, and a vocal chorus with drum and tambourine beats that in a sense mislead/tease with the apparent musical direction, but actually demonstrates the full array of approach on the album, second track Age of Contagion following with pounding bass and Zoot’s shouting vocals at the other end of her engaging range.

Bitter Beast is a pretty pop-vocal about betrayal, so irony informs other aspects of this band’s clear maturity; Hoochie Choochie Lover wears its rock ‘n’ roll on a another popish sleeve, playfully; Cassiopea is another acoustic guitar, Zoot-led tune, angelic choir enveloping the singing with more Hawaiian-ish guitar [there was some in an earlier track], and closer Solar System is a brief but electronic-backwashed fragment of more Zoot foregrounding.

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Jess and the Ancient Ones - 2nd Psychedelic Coming: the Aquarius Tapes, album review

Dark Driscollishness

More Nordic retro-psychedelia [I was going to write Scandinavian, falling into familiarity, but read something online where a Finn said Finland was not Scandinavian, so I may have made this error before....], and now it should be clear that Jess and the Ancient Ones is a Finnish band playing heavy rock psychedelia with plenty of wah-wah and similar - occasional garage rhythms - and as one would reasonably expect Jess is the leading contributor reminding at many times of Julie Driscoll. In Levitating Secret Dreams is a good example of her soaring Driscoll-esque vocals, and following fourth track The Equinox Death Trip exemplifies both in its title and sound the occult-ish proclivities of this psychedelic avenue, opening track Samhain - a pagan calendar date for the Feast of the Dead - and closer Goodbye To Virgin Grounds Forever pretty much hammering home the nail in that genre-coffin. The fact Wolves Inside My Head begins with the following Charles Manson quote
  
it seems a shame to have to sneak to get to the truth.To make the truth such a dirty old nasty thing.You gotta sneak to get to the truth, the truth is condemned.The truth is in the gas chamber.The truth has been in your stockyards.Your slaughterhouses.The truth has been in your reservations, building your railroads, emtying your garbage.The truth is in your ghettos.In your jails.In your young love,not in your courts or congress where the old set judgement on the young.What the hell do the old know about the young?They put a picture of old George on the dollar and tell you that he's your father, worship him

 may signal a disturbing route into the darkness, but overall it is good [if I can use that term] stuff.

Into the Distance Music 23