BOOTSY COLLINS
BBC Review
Bootsy sets about waking up a new generation to funk’s heritage.
A quick glance at the staggering guestlist on this umpteenth solo album from the one-time Parliament/James Brown bass wizard is enough to get any fan of Bootsy Collins’ most funky work excited. Snoop Dogg, Chuck D, Bobby Womack, George Clinton (Bootsy’s old boss), and even spoken-word contributions from Samuel L. Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton combine to give this conceptual epic something of a revolving sideshow quality. To his credit, Bootsy manages to utilise them well without losing cohesion across the album, but it’s undeniably an incredible novelty factor rather than a guarantee of fine work.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/apr/21/bootsy-collins-tha-funk-capital-review
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JOE BONAMASSA
Joe Bonamassa is set to release his 12th full-length solo album, DUST BOWL in the UK on March 21st and in the USA on March 22nd. The album will be promoted on Bonamassa’s forthcoming 2011 Dust Bowl World Tour that will take in America, Canada, Europe, Asia and Australia |
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ROTFRONT
„The immigrant choir singing in their different languages, several genres are proudly displayed equally. In sharing celebrations- as banal as this may sound- all antagonism dissolves and music ascends to the international language.“ Le Monde |
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BABA ZULA
The Turkish beat group features traditional stringed instruments and percussion to form a kind of Turk-beat music that is not like techno or dance.
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ORIGIN
One of the most intense and technical forces of the contemporary death metal world, ORIGIN has returned to stake its claim as the leader of metal's new wave of extremity with its fifth studio effort. |
GIRLSCHOOL
Veteran British female hard rockers GIRLSCHOOL recently re-recorded their classic 1981 album “Hit And Run” to celebrate the LP’s 30th anniversary. |
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VOODOO CIRCLE
VOODOO CIRCLE is the product of several German Heavy Metal journeymen, led by guitarist Alex Beyrodt, best known for his work in SINNER and SILENT FORCE. Joining him on bass is Mat Sinner, along with David Readman on vocals. |
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HACKNEYED
For those a little sick of uber-technical, ultra-fast, blast-beat-and-sweep-filled death metal like Origin, Decrepit Birth, Obscura and such (not that there’s anything wrong with that) or the currrent saturation of Incantation worship, Hackneyed will be a welcome relief. Because as far as good old fashioned death metal goes, Carnival Cadavre is actually rather good and left much more of a positive impression on me than the debut.
Fronted by Phillip Mazal’s dominating vocals and a huge production, Carnival Cadavre is a super chunky and bludgeoning affair that relies on thick, burly mid-paced riffs and massive grooves injected with a few blast beats here and there.
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DEVIL
So, what is offered in “Time to Repent”? Lots of things, but mainly, an easy, thrilling and frankly amazing ride. It’s comfortable, both because the band feels good in their skin and because they make you feel right at home. |
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TASTERS
Bringing out the big guns and igniting the moshpit, Reckless Till the End is a fantastic conglomeration of electronic effects, fierce breakdowns, tormenting riffs and flawless alternation between melodic and growling vocals.
After hearing Reckless Till the End, I have a feeling you might be mentioning Tasters in the same breath as bands like We Came As Romans and Bring Me The Horizon. Give it a few months.
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TEXAS IN JULY
On their second album (and Equal Vision debut), these baby-faced Pennsylvanian post-hardcore warriors—two members only recently graduated high school—offer a muscular blend of precision drumming, brutal riffing and vocals that bridge the gap between laryngitis and throat cancer. |
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ERIC SARDINAS AND BIG MOTOR
Rating: B
Eric Sardinas is a true master of the slide guitar. He is one of the best blues slide players currently recording. His new album, Sticks & Stones stays within bounds from what his fans want from him. This is a collection of mostly upbeat, blues-rock guitar wailing tunes that are best played at 11.
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C.BAILEY & H.BURNS
Rating: B
Eric Sardinas is a true master of the slide guitar. He is one of the best blues slide players currently recording. His new album, Sticks & Stones stays within bounds from what his fans want from him. This is a collection of mostly upbeat, blues-rock guitar wailing tunes that are best played at 11.
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PROCOL HARUM
Procol Harum is arguably the most successful "accidental" group creation -- that is, a band originally assembled to take advantage of the success of a record created in the studio -- in the history of progressive rock. With "A Whiter Shade of Pale" a monster hit right out of the box, the band evolved from a studio ensemble into a successful live act, their music built around an eclectic mix of blues-based rock riffs and grand classical themes. |
JETHRO TULL
Jethro Tull was a unique phenomenon in popular music history. Their mix of hard rock; folk melodies; blues licks; surreal, impossibly dense lyrics; and overall profundity defied easy analysis, but that didn't dissuade fans from giving them 11 gold and five platinum albums.
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Mécanosphère
Mécanosphère is a diasporic unit wich intricates hand made breaks with free sonic music blast and spoken-word sound poetry.
Transgenicly, musicaly and geographicaly, Mécanosphère transplants and recycles languages from odd hip-hop bass heavy dub to violent free-rock, noise-jazz, melting them into one retro futuristic sensibility.
Mécanosphère blurs the borders beetween formal genres & methods, though keeping in accordance to pratical laws of the nerve: bass, live looping dubbed over percussive instrument circuits, analog dirt, multiple drumsets and a frenzied constellation of jazzed down noises and words.
In its present incarnation, Mécanosphère is an extensive French-Portuguese-North American group with physical headquarters in Portugal and a double identity due to simultaneously belonging to a local scene (the use of portuguese language in most of its lyrics sets Mécanosphère naturaly in the sphere of portuguese musical culture and territory) and to a wider global noise/rock/experimental circuit, consequent of its diasporic essence.
A segment of the Euro-American Radon collective, Mécanosphère is not only a band, but also the collision point of the work and worlds of its members: solo projects or side bands, permanent collaborations and porosity beetween its individuals members and with other Radon artists. Just like Mécanosphère's sonic identity proceeds out of this porosity, these projects carry on, each one in their own way, the general Mécanosphère/Radon Ensemble specific sound and perspective on music and art.
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There’s no-one in pop quite like Kelli Ali. A straight-talking Brummie with exotic good looks, a rock chick who first found fame with a dance act (Sneaker Pimps) and a singer/songwriter who has recently recorded with both Bootsy Collins and Linkin Park. Ask Kelli about the time she spent working on her new album and she’ll mention sitting on a beach in Malaysia with an acoustic guitar, playing keyboards and computers in bedrooms in London and meeting psychic cats in California. It’s no wonder Kelli’s sound isn't easy to pin down. But then, that's just how she likes it.
Since leaving Sneaker Pimps in the late '90s, after a hit debut album, a clutch of classic singles and a successful tour of the States that found fans in the likes of Madonna, Kelli has launched a solo career that harks back to her rock roots - she grew up playing in guitar bands in Birmingham - but also boasts a growing interest in electronica. Two years ago, ‘Tigermouth’, her solo debut, recorded largely in L.A. with Marius De Vries and Rick Knowles, was the first step to finding her own sound. With her forthcoming follow-up, Kelli has come into her own with a batch of tracks that shimmer and swagger in equal measure. |
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