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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Since their 2013 debut album Furiosity, the Canadian Hard-Rock band Monster Truck has been building a steadily high reputation in the rock circuit.
By supporting artists like Alice In Chains, ZZ Top, Slash and Rival Sons, amongst others, in the last few years, Monster Truck have learned very well how to refine and improve their already thunderous sound on this second offering, Sittin' Heavy, with surprising results.
Many rock bands have the tendency to indulge themselves on long guitar solos, where often lyrics might not be strong enough on their songs but this is not certainly the case of Sittin' Heavy.
The sound of Monster Truck is more organic than many more other bands around. The songs have got all the elements that a true rock band should have. The interplay between all the band members, sonically and vocally never fails in any moment of the album, giving to the whole record an extra added value.
Sittin' Heavy packs a memorable punch in the career of the Canadian quartet. The album shows all the different rock roots of the band and showcases big choruses, a solid lyrics' structure running through the whole record and an extraordinary sonic versatility.
The opening is powerful, in your face, with the fist-punching rhytm of tracks like Why Are You Not Rocking? and Don't Tell Me How To Live. Both songs constitute a true statement of the band's message about living life one day per time, always at the very best.
One of the great skills of Monster Truck is to be able to surprise the listeners when it is less expected. The song For The People takes you to a rock ride from Ontario to the US West Coast, with a foot-stomping, Lynyrd Skynyrd sound-a-like irresistible tempo. This track represents one of the best surprises of an album that shows constant signs of great musical maturity by Monster Truck.
The seductive sound of the ballad Black Forest slows temporarily the pace of Sittin' Heavy, but not for very long. Things Get Better is a swaggering tune, coloured with some beautiful bluesy tints provided by the excellent work of Brandon Bliss' organ.
The Enforcer is another highly entertaining moment of the album. The tune travels at the speed of light, with big choruses and an infectious, almost Marilyn Manson-esque drumming style that Steve Kiely provides beautifully on this track.
Enjoy The Time, the album's closer, sums up completely what the message of Sittin' Heavy and the band is all about. It's a ballad about cameraderie, good times and living for the moment, because tomorrow is a total uncertainty.
Sittin' Heavy is an album that gives real justice to a band that has been working hard and intensely to achieve the outstanding result they reached in this album. Monster Truck are back and they are here to stay for many years to come.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Sittin' Heavy is out now and can be purchased via Mascot Label Group
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Eric Corne is one of the most talented producers and engineers in the music business. He had never done a solo album, despite working with the cream of the music scene. Finally, October 2015 saw the release of his debut album, Kid Dynamite & The Common Man under his label Forty Below Records.
The record certainly has many fascinating elements and what may escape some, is the fact that this is not just a beautifully conceived and executed album but is also an autobiographical one too, in our opinion. Kid Dynamite & The Common Man is the tale of two sides of the same personality, in a record almost split in half. The first part of the album concentrates on the flamboyant character of Kid Dynamite, the second one on The Common Man, the perfect portrait of a standard citizen.
Corne plays cleverly his cards, both sonically and lyrically. While Kid Dynamite sees the world in an ambiguous way through Corne's lyrics, at the same time the music marches perfectly with the internal conflicts of the character. The Canadian born artist alternates change of music tempos within the same track with great creativity and Kid Dynamite reflects ad hoc the exhuberant and versatile approach to music of Eric Corne.
Kid Dynamite & The Common Man sees a great array of guest musicians contributing on the album. Thanks also to their great craftmanship, Corne manages brilliantly to exploit his Kid Dynamite's side by stretching his sonic artillery. From the almost pop-esque Dead End, with some extraordinary overlapping layers of harmonica and keys supporting the harmonic carpet created by Corne to the hypnotic alt-rock of Not Familiar, in which Corne/Dynamite sees technology and things like Big Brother as "..eye in the sky, designed to take control of you".
The transition from Kid Dynamite to The Common Man, on the album is very smooth. The sounds become more intimate, almost West Coast style, especially in tracks like Evil Men or Blackguard. The character of The Common Man allows Corne to talk about love (I Know A Girl), disillusion and hope (Nobody Plays) and socio-political issues, such as in the closing Common Man, where "A once great nation's fallen ill, a schoolyard bully hooked on pills, with one hand on the Bible and a hand inside the till".
It's a record full of pleasant surprises, where Corne fully succeeds in using the characters of Dynamite Kid & The Common Man to describe the many layers of his talent. Where the lyrics cease to tell about state of minds or personal feelings, Corne lets the music flow, as a catarthic vehicle to allow the listeners to try and explore, on their own, corners of the soul that sometimes words are unable to express.
A record of remarkable artistry for an artist of great intelligence and talent.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Kid Dynamite & The Common man is out now on Forty Below Records
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
The album title describes perfectly the tale of Runrig, one of the most loved Scottish bands, their friendship, their passion for music and the love for their musical tradition.
In almost half a century, Runrig have grown so much and gone very far, both artistically and musically. Nothing better than their fourteenth and last (according to the band) studio album just published, called The Story could close the history of this eclectic Folk/Rock band.
The Story is majorly a celebration, as it should be. This time round, to seal their splendid career, Runrig has chosen to have in the control room, working as their producer on The Story, the band's youngest member, Brian Hurren. That was a clever choice for Runrig. The album is vibrant, joyous and sometimes nostalgic. What really impresses is how well the Scottish band manage to fuse the sounds and tradition of their mother land with a more contemporary rock and foot-stomping music style.
The title track The Story, that opens the album, synthesizes all that Runrig is about. Written and sang both in Gaelic and English, the track has an infectious beat, despite the slight sadness that emerges from the beautiful lyrics from Rory McDonald, vocalist and bassist of the band.
Onar travels at the same pace of the opening track of the album, with Malcolm Jones' guitar producing some of the best riffs present on the album. The band shows impressive form not just on the more fast paced tunes like the one just mentioned. 18th July spills moments of great eclecticism, starting almost as an R&B kind of tune, then switching to a more robust rock tempo until reaching an almost folk-ish finale, through Malcolm Jones' and Brian Hurren's fabulous job on accordion.
The record is a real journey through the artistic life and musical development of a band that, despite not selling exactly millions of albums, has always managed to have a packed house wherever in the world they played, through the great love and devotion of their many fans.
The closing track Somewhere is the perfect epitaph to end a special record like The Story. Supported splendidly by the 32-piece Prague Philarmonic Orchestra, Somewhere seals The Story with such uplifting elegance that it becomes almost impossible not to get a little emotional, throughout the song.
The Story is an artistic jewel that encases the past, the present and the future of one of the most skilled Scottish bands ever. A jewel that will shine in people's memories for years to come.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
The Story can be purchased at the band's label Ridge Records
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There is always an element of fun in being unable to label a record within a genre. And with the debut album of Coolhand, there is fun from beginning to end on this very palatable record.
Luke Bradshaw (Guitars) and Daz Edwards (vocals), a.k.a. Coolhand are excellent musicians and they do not misplace a note on this highly eclectic and well executed album. The Welsh band from Cardiff manage to assemble 12 tracks that travel across the sound of America's West Coast, through tracks like Give Love A Chance, with that irresistible Calypso atmosphere running in the background, Can't Carry On and Pretender Love.
Thanks to the supported of some really talented guest musicians playing on the record, Bradshaw's sometimes robust and dreamy guitar sound and Edwards splendid vocals have the opportunity to stretch their phenomenal music background even further and every track is a sonic surprise every time.
Lyrically, the band show also some very clever ideas, like on the opener Virtual Life, a foot-stomping blues about the concept of how the virtual world of the Internet almost takes over our lives, making truth become fake.
Dead Man's Hand is a wonderful folk/rock tune about the last night of the Wild West legend "Wild" Bill Hickok's life, penned by an excellent solo of Bradshaw's guitar and a splendid contribute on Piano and Hammond by Gareth Kedward.
J&J is the perfect closure to Coolhand's debut album. The instrumental, played solely by Bradshaw on guitar, carries echoes of Ry Cooder and for few minutes, the green land of Wales becomes a slice of Texan desert, through the beautiful harmonies created by Luke Bradshaw's guitar.
A solid debut for a band that has certainly got a lot of creativity, skills and a deep understanding of music of many different genres. A promise of even more beautiful records to come. Cool on so many levels.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Coolhand can be purchased on the band's website Coolhand
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Danny Bryant is an artist that loves to challenge himself and his audience. Blood Money, Bryant's new album, is yet another eclectic and impressive work from the Norfolk's bluesman.
The album is a clear statement of love and respect from the British guitarist to blues and to some of Bryant's biggest music influences. One of the main goals successfully achieved by Danny Bryant on Blood Money is the ability to recreate the sound of his all-time music heroes, from the likes of Albert Collins (on the instrumental On The Rocks) or Albert King (on Unchained), whilst still maintaining his characteristic trademark sound.
The title-track is one of the highlights of the album and the first song to be cut for Blood Money. The duet with Walter Trout is contagiously gripping and incendiary and the two bluesmen combine a formidable interplay, both on guitars and vocals.
Slow Suicide is another excellent moment of the album, lyrically and musically. Inspired by the loss of one of the guitarist's school friends at a very premature age, the sound of Bryant's guitar is highly intense and evocative. Without a doubt, one of the most beautiful and emotional peaks of Blood Money.
Sugar Sweet is powerful and exudes rock and roll from all angles and it is Bryant's personal homage to ZZ Top's guitarist Billy Gibbons and his inimitable guitar style. Just Won't Burn, which features Bernie Marsden on guitar, is sweet and sexy at the same time, with Bryant's and Marsden's guitars gliding together in perfect harmony.
Whereas, to some, the album may not sometimes sound cohesive in its entirety, Blood Money is an album packed with some real musical delights and great ideas. Danny Bryant is an artist in constant evolution and his will to explore and broaden the sound of blues in many different ways is refreshing and highly entertaining.
Blood Money is certainly a step forward to worldwide stardom for this brilliant artist and a record to love and treasure.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Blood Money is out now on Jazzhaus Records
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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There are few bands that are able to perfectly incorporate several musical decades in the manner in which Simo, a band from Nashville, are able to do.
Let Love Show The Way is the rite of passage of a band that in the past five years has developed a wonderful pastiche of psychedelic sound, supported superbly by the timeless guitar sound that JD Simo, the frontman and guitarist of the band manages to infuse. In 2011, after several years of hard work spent as a session man for other musicians and recording as a solo artist, JD Simo joined forces with Adam Abrashoff on drums and later with Elad Shapiro on bass, releasing their first record simply called Simo.
Simo's new album brilliantly describes the robust and pure sound of a band that does not use at all or at least minimizes effects like overdubs. Becky's Last Occupation has the sound and the powerful cadence of the best Led Zep musical moments. I'll Always Be Around has the stylistic caress of the Allman Brothers Band best period while Stranger Blues, an Elmore James cover, has the sound vehemence of Cream's early days.
Let Love Show The Way is an album that relies heavily on the immediacy and the intuition of three musicians who know each other, musically, by heart and they all know how to deftly move through the eclectic sound of their musical DNA.
Please is a true moment of R&B high stature. Long May You Sail has that infectious rock tempo that gets into the skin on first listen, while the long instrumental phrasings created between the three musicians on I'd Rather Die In Vain explores a dark and morbidly fascinating musical territory.
When you think you have found out everything about this amazing musical project called Simo, the acoustic instrumental Today I'm Here, the band tribute to one of their friends, takes you totally and pleasantly by surprise, through the soft sound of JD Simo's slide guitar.
To buy the extended version of this record with the bonus tracks is an absolute must. The three bonus tracks included in the special edition of the album are tunes of great impact and artistic depth. Let Love Show The Way is a rock song about love inspired by the impact that love can give to the lives of us all, if left free to express itself without fear. Sonically, the song is embroidered by a sound that resembles partly the psychedelia that defined the sound of bands like The Black Crowes and partly the grunge-y sound of early Pearl Jam. Ain't Doin 'Nothin' is a beautiful suite recorded, along with the whole of the album, at the Big House in Macon, the historical recording home of the Allman Brothers Band. The band leaves their improvisational skills as musicians to gallop freely, creating sonic alchemies of the highest quality.
Please Be With Me is a sweet, acoustic cover of a band called Cowboy, which recorded this tune together with Duane Allman not long before he died. The song was the last to be recorded at the Big House, before JD Simo & Co. went there to record Let Love Show The Way.
If on one hand it's true that Simo learned and applied on this record the lessons of some of the greatest rock and roll pioneers of different decades of music, on the other hand it is also true that they did so by modelling a sound of their own, by creating visceral and immediate musical montages, played with great talent. A beautiful record of timeless rock and roll.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Let Love Show The Way is due to be released on 29th January 2016 by Mascot Label Group/Provogue
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There are cities around the globe that have got very strong legacies with music history and New Orleans in USA is, without any doubts, one of those cities.
Born and bred in the Louisiana state's largest city, the guitarist and songwriter Keith Stone has been breathing and living the strong music message of his hometown all his life at 360 degrees. The Prodigal Returns, Stone's solo debut album, it's more than an album. It is a love letter to his roots.
Stone travels, throughout the album, with the grace of an experienced raconteur on playing Louisiana's most recognisable music trademarks. Better Things To Do is a robust R&B track, enriched by a superb Horn Session, whose contribution will play a vital part through the whole album. First Love is a slow and sexy killer blues, in which Stone's artistry emerges in full not just through the beautiful sound of his guitar but also through his deep and meaningful singing voice.
The opening Prelude is the most delicate intro to a record one can think of and, at the same time, to the closing track of the album Just A Closer Walk With Thee. Stone couldn't prepare the listeners any better to the musical journey that he has planned for them. Dr. John's is the special guest on this spine-tingling piano solo opener, which evokes beautifully the atmospheres of the old New Orleans of the '60s and '70s.
Atmospheres that get amplified even further through the album closing gem, the above mentioned Just A Closer Walk With Thee. The tune encapsules splendidly the whole meaning of The Prodigal Returns album, through a sonic feast of jazz, blues and dixieland.
The album has still got so much to offer. Take Me Home is a ballad that has got the soul style typical of the Stax Records period and Stone's voice is such a perfect fit that would have easily made Jim Stewart (Stax's Founder) a very happy man. Time To Move On is a smooth funky tune, in which, together with Stone's great guitar sound, David Hyde on bass (which has also written all the horn parts as well on the album) gifts the song with a nice, slick tempo, creating the perfect sonic ground for Stone's improvisations.
The Prodigal Returns is a very accomplished record and a revered homage to the sounds and history of one of the most important musical cities in the whole world. And full credit to Keith Stone for delivering such a classy record.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
The Prodigal Returns can be purchased on Louisiana Music Factory
