http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48emaMVhnBU
2:02-2:30 - A very brittle but pleasing solo from guitarist Jimmy Ryan, momentarily lifting the song out of its pop groove and giving it a little bit of shine.
Ryan cut his teeth with '60s American pop group "The Critters" before recording and touring with Carly Simon. Finally worked as a studio session musician with such names as Cat Stevens, John Entwistle and Dean Friedman, although can still be found on Carly Simon albums in the mid-80s.
Tuesday, 27 December 2011
Monday, 26 December 2011
Forgotten Guitar Solos No. 231. The Isley Brothers - "Summer Breeze" (Album Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T88fbHOmvRk
If you thought this was just a soft-rock seventies summer anthem, then think again.
Ernie Isley's lead guitar has been simmering away from the start of the song, but at 4:04 he suddenly lets rip with a blistering solo that doesn't stop until the fade-out at 6:17.
Awesome!
If you thought this was just a soft-rock seventies summer anthem, then think again.
Ernie Isley's lead guitar has been simmering away from the start of the song, but at 4:04 he suddenly lets rip with a blistering solo that doesn't stop until the fade-out at 6:17.
Awesome!
Thursday, 22 December 2011
Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 24 - Pet Shop Boys "Actually" (1987)
Pet Shop Boys' 3rd album (entitled "Pet Shop Boys, Actually" to be accurate) still sounds fresh after nearly 25 years and contains three of the 20th Century's best pop songs - "Rent", "Heart", and "What Have I Done to Deserve This" (featuring the sublime vocals of Dusty Springfield). Perfect electronic music, with Neil Tennant's voice functioning as another instrument.
Long walks home through darkened rain-washed streets, squealing car tyres in underground car parks; it's the perfect soundtrack to the lost world of mid-80's London. I mean, audacious lines like "I love you, you pay my rent." just say it all. This is penthouse apartment land, the sodium and neon-lit habitat of the metrosexual (years before the term was coined). What else can I say? I love this album.
Long walks home through darkened rain-washed streets, squealing car tyres in underground car parks; it's the perfect soundtrack to the lost world of mid-80's London. I mean, audacious lines like "I love you, you pay my rent." just say it all. This is penthouse apartment land, the sodium and neon-lit habitat of the metrosexual (years before the term was coined). What else can I say? I love this album.
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 23 - Black Sabbath "Seventh Star" (1986)
Well after listening to Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes on "The DEP Sessions", I thought I'd better go back and see what all the fuss was about. "Seventh Star" wasn't what I was expecting. For a start it doesn't sound much like Black Sabbath. A quick look into the album's history tells me why. It actually started life as a Tony Iommi solo project, and contains none of the original Sabbath lineup bar Iommi himself. Apparently the record label insisted it be released as "Black Sabbath featuring Tony Iommi" which probably lead everyone to expect something quite different. Like me.
I found it a bit of a bland album, having a lot in common with the formulaic American hard rock of the mid-80s, you know, Whitesnake, Guns n Roses, etc. You can kind of still hear Sabbath riffs buried somewhere deep down inside, but it's far too FM-friendly and faceless for me. Iommi's just going through the motions, Hughes doesn't really sound like he even wants to be there, and the rest of the band might as well be session musicians. IMO "The DEP Sessions" is much better than this.
No, not a Sabbath album at all.
I found it a bit of a bland album, having a lot in common with the formulaic American hard rock of the mid-80s, you know, Whitesnake, Guns n Roses, etc. You can kind of still hear Sabbath riffs buried somewhere deep down inside, but it's far too FM-friendly and faceless for me. Iommi's just going through the motions, Hughes doesn't really sound like he even wants to be there, and the rest of the band might as well be session musicians. IMO "The DEP Sessions" is much better than this.
No, not a Sabbath album at all.
Tuesday, 20 December 2011
Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 22 - Glenn Hughes & Tony Iommi "The DEP Sessions" (2004)
What a find! Back in 1996 Hughes and Iommi dropped into Birmingham's DEP studios to rekindle their working relationship from the Sabbath album "Seventh Star" (I really must listen to that). These tracks were recorded, but the sessions cut short when Iommi returned to a re-formed Black Sabbath. Fast forward to 2004 and the tracks are finally cleaned up and released on CD.
Now I've always found Tony Iommi's guitarwork to be a bit soulless. Not in a bad way, but if you're listening to Black Sabbath, you're not listening for the sweetness and the flowers. Iommi's music is cruel and cutting, riffs that slice into you like indifferent demons from the deepest bowels of hell. We're not talking warm comforting blues here.
But Glenn Hughes has exactly that kind of a blues voice, a bit like Paul Rodgers and a bit like David Coverdale. Consequently this album sounds like a weird crossover between Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, like and yet unlike Gillan's one-album stint with Sabbath. In fact it's kind of like the opposite side of the coin to that collaboration. Whereas "Born Again" submerged Gillan's vocals in the relentless Sabbath guitar machine, Hughes here holds his own and complements Iommi's guitar beautifully, adding the soul and the heart that Iommi lacks.
If "Born Again" was chalk and cheese, "The DEP Sessions" is ice cream and soda. I'll leave you to guess who's who.
Now I've always found Tony Iommi's guitarwork to be a bit soulless. Not in a bad way, but if you're listening to Black Sabbath, you're not listening for the sweetness and the flowers. Iommi's music is cruel and cutting, riffs that slice into you like indifferent demons from the deepest bowels of hell. We're not talking warm comforting blues here.
But Glenn Hughes has exactly that kind of a blues voice, a bit like Paul Rodgers and a bit like David Coverdale. Consequently this album sounds like a weird crossover between Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, like and yet unlike Gillan's one-album stint with Sabbath. In fact it's kind of like the opposite side of the coin to that collaboration. Whereas "Born Again" submerged Gillan's vocals in the relentless Sabbath guitar machine, Hughes here holds his own and complements Iommi's guitar beautifully, adding the soul and the heart that Iommi lacks.
If "Born Again" was chalk and cheese, "The DEP Sessions" is ice cream and soda. I'll leave you to guess who's who.
Monday, 19 December 2011
Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 21 - F/i "Blanga" (2005)
"Blanga" is a little known term for the kind of extended slow heavy rock jamming typical of long-haired Space Rock bands. And by Space Rock I don't mean Muse or Spiritualized. I mean Space Rock in its original sense - Hawkwind circa 1972, Pink Floyd very occasionally circa 1967 (see "Intersteller Overdrive"), and more recently bands like Farflung and Litmus.
F/i are an American Space Rock band who've been around since about 1984. This album is their celebration of the genre they are most associated with. Every song on the album has the word "blanga" in the title (from "An Extremely Lovely Girl Dreams of Blanga" to "Grandfather Blanga and his Band Light it Up").
This music is crushing, doom-laden and extremely heavy. Drums pound relentlessly, guitars pick a riff and stick with it until the song fades out (most blanga fades out, giving the impression that the jam is continuing and we're the ones who have to leave). There are no verses, no chorus, no vocals, no bridge, no middle-eight. There is also no guitar solo, or if there is, it lasts the whole song. You can't dance to it, but you can head-bang...in slow motion. There may be keyboards, but there are definitely synths swirling and bleeping all the way through. All combining to give the impression that You're on a monstrous behemoth of a space ship tearing through the universe, engines at max, stars shooting by in a cascade of relativistic Doppler shifts. This is Space Rock.
F/i are an American Space Rock band who've been around since about 1984. This album is their celebration of the genre they are most associated with. Every song on the album has the word "blanga" in the title (from "An Extremely Lovely Girl Dreams of Blanga" to "Grandfather Blanga and his Band Light it Up").
This music is crushing, doom-laden and extremely heavy. Drums pound relentlessly, guitars pick a riff and stick with it until the song fades out (most blanga fades out, giving the impression that the jam is continuing and we're the ones who have to leave). There are no verses, no chorus, no vocals, no bridge, no middle-eight. There is also no guitar solo, or if there is, it lasts the whole song. You can't dance to it, but you can head-bang...in slow motion. There may be keyboards, but there are definitely synths swirling and bleeping all the way through. All combining to give the impression that You're on a monstrous behemoth of a space ship tearing through the universe, engines at max, stars shooting by in a cascade of relativistic Doppler shifts. This is Space Rock.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Dave's 500 Bus Albums No 20 - Bubbledubble "Live at Glastonbury Assembly Rooms" (2004 )
Electronic, Ambient, Psychedelic, Reggae, Space-Rock, Dub. Kind of sums up Bubbledubble. There's three of them in the band, and you get lots of echo, spacey synth and guitar, heavy heavy Dub riddims, and harmonica...and somehow it all works.
Bubbledubble seem to originate from the Portsmouth area, and have a fairly limited set at present so if you've heard this album you've heard about 90% of their output. The Bubbledubble sound is somewhat overwhelming at first, as if they've turned everything up to 11, but you find yourself quickly starting to groove to it. Hippies, punks, rastas, clubbers, there's probably something for everyone in Bubbledubble. But don't take my word for it, look them up on Youtube.
If you want something slow and pulsating, try "Moonbase Dub" or "Melodicant". For something faster that you might just be able to dance to, try "Spooky" or "Dub Slider". Bubbledubble are probably a bit of an acquired taste, but whether you like or dislike them, you won't find them boring.
Probably good with a couple of spliffs too!
Bubbledubble seem to originate from the Portsmouth area, and have a fairly limited set at present so if you've heard this album you've heard about 90% of their output. The Bubbledubble sound is somewhat overwhelming at first, as if they've turned everything up to 11, but you find yourself quickly starting to groove to it. Hippies, punks, rastas, clubbers, there's probably something for everyone in Bubbledubble. But don't take my word for it, look them up on Youtube.
If you want something slow and pulsating, try "Moonbase Dub" or "Melodicant". For something faster that you might just be able to dance to, try "Spooky" or "Dub Slider". Bubbledubble are probably a bit of an acquired taste, but whether you like or dislike them, you won't find them boring.
Probably good with a couple of spliffs too!
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