This is my second review for this awesome music blog, Hopefully you all enjoyed my first review about Metallica’s Beyond Magnetic EP! Well, in the wake of any larger releases coming our way within the rock world, until the new Van Halen album drops in I thought I’d take the time to spread the word about the all-conquering, world-enslaving, ‘any-woman-within-a-10-mile-radius-is-now-pregnant’ Black Spiders!

These guys have been on the go since 2008, landing a supporting slot with the mighty Airbourne for the latter half of that year, and proceeded to make one HELL of an impact, along with Taking Dawn as one of the best small-scale tours of that year. The mainstream media may be trying their utmost to announce that ‘rock is dead’, but anybody witnessing the birth of the Black Spiders knows very different. Building a fanbase with a slew of 3 EP’s, including songs that would later be reworked for the this full album, as well as a cover of Motorhead’s seminal ‘No Class’, these guys wear their influences proudly. Three years of touring culminated in finally putting out the new ‘Sons of the North’ album to a feverous fanbase eager to lap up any content. What we have is a stellar combination of rock n’ roll’s roots, married with a slightly punk attitude, and some brilliantly bombastic lyrics to put the icing on the already very tasty cake.

Standout tracks include opener ‘Stay Down’, which includes one of the best lyric-guitar solo breaks I’ve heard in a long time! The song takes a half second break before the end of the second chorus only for Pete ‘Spider’ Spiby to yell ‘FUCK YOU AND THIS ONE HORSE TOWN!’ at the top of his lungs, followed swiftly by a brilliantly paced guitar solo that tops this first song off nicely. Starting as they mean to go on the album never lets up, delivering arena-ready anthems one after the other. Some anthems are packed with some of the best lyrics for this sort of over-the-top rock and roll style that are just MADE for crowds. Try telling me that screaming ‘EAT THUNDER!! SHIT LIGHTNING!!’ along with thousands of other people just before ‘What Good’s a Rock Without a Roll?’ kicks in isn’t one of the most euphoric sensations known to man and I’ll show you a decent new Kings of Leon song.

Other standouts among this brilliant debut are ‘Si, El Diablo’ with its fantastic, infectiously stompy groove, and standout 3rd EP-returner ‘Just Like A Woman’. The latter should be one of the first tracks you hear by these guys if you’re gonna check ‘em out, it has everything they do brilliantly all wrapped up in a nice meaty package! A great hard rock song with a sleazy bluesy feel that compliments the lyrics nicely, coupled with a guitar line that swirls through the song bursting into brilliantly melodic passages every minute or so. If you’re cherry picking through youtube, then make this one of your first stops!The only negative I can think of is in terms of carryover from the previous EP’s, song’s like ‘Stay Down’, ‘Just Like a Woman’ and ‘St. Peter’ are from these previous EP’s, but they didn’t include what I thought was one of the best tracks on the original debut disc. ‘I’ll Be The Judge’ from the St. Peter EP is a brilliantly energetic track with a killer riff that sounds like as if Slash’s dirtiest lick had sex with Motorhead’s entire discography. This track is an awesome up-tempo stormer made for starting gigs at 100mph!

A great debut album built on the most solid of foundations with some brilliant EP’s beforehand. Rock never went away, it just went underground. With the likes of the Black Spiders, Airbourne, Taking Dawn, The Answer, Turbowolf and hundreds of others releasing out fantastic albums based on the best foundations of what went before, the world just isn’t ready for the resurrection of mainstream rock just yet…

8/10
Cheers,
S.T \m/

As usual for the guys our lovely editor sends my way, I knew absolutely nothing about East-Ra before I started this review, and perhaps this is for the best. Certainly, it frees any ideas of pretension or previous successes or failures give you a path to listen and concentrate on the music. I’m going to say right now, this album, Substitute 3, is incredible. I’m shocked, with my sort of tastes, that I haven’t heard of these guys. In fact, not very many people have, which is a shock.The fact this is true saddens me. The top indie reviewing sites like Pitchfork should be shouting their names from the rooftops. Anyway, it turns out they’re from Croatia. Who knew!

This album is low-fi noise rock at it’s absolute best. In no particular order, here’s a rundown of a few of the tracks. Your Highness sounds like Nina Simone invented psychedelia ten years earlier then it actually came up, by way of the roots blues music that I absolutely adore. Another one, St. George Went To India, feels like we’re in a weird Berlin-Era Bowie by way of the The Doors. This is as sinister as an early-Cave song, and twice as trippy. The bird calls and the Indian-flavoured guitar screech around you as the chants of the band create a claustrophobic, jungle-filled space. The music is trance-like, strange, and worrying. Shizmu & Hitis is a journey back in to the sonic jungle that the band inhabits, and very faint elements of electro subtly undertone this track. Suddenly the music switches to freaked-out jazz in Apocalypse Party, breaking free of the jungle for a minute or two. The whole album manages to walk the dangerous tightrope of musical similarity, making the sound recognizable enough to blend in to a full, working album, and making it different enough for the music to stay fresh and interesting throughout. However, the most effecting track, for me, was the last.

This track, incidentally the last, deserves a whole paragraph. A welcome and weird ‘relief’ from the rest of the albums relentless experimental journey, Spring In To Relief is eery and ethereal. It’s the Fleet Foxes first album, this Anglophilic folk-psychedelia, with Syd Barrett tacked on. It’s entrancing, it’s almost-indecipherable lyrics leave you floating in the music, with no anchor or haven. As a half-snatched lyric says, ‘Got some time to float in space’. This haziness, voices hitting crescendos and descending again, repeated chants of ‘hazy, hazy’, and ‘shivers’ sum up this song. It’s a space-odyssey, or, to quote David Bowie, a space-oddity, but it’s moving. It connects with something, guttural chants and noises create an almost spiritual feeling, discordance and harmony swell together in a captivating way. Beeps and blips come and go through a wall of reverb and echo. It flowed through me and left me feeling strange and a bit shaken, especially the descent in to overpowering noise at the end. Whatever it is, it’s without a doubt the centre-piece of the album, and perhaps a minor masterpiece too.

It’s clear East-Ra have a mastery over their sound. This album is like a throwback, to use a cliche, to when an album was an album, and crafted so that themes flowed through the music, songs connected and felt interrelated, an overall feeling was achieved through-out. A feeling is definitely achieved here. It’s an unsettling, enthralling and weirdly beautiful affair. It really does feel like a journey through a thick jungle, strange noises and glimpses of ancient ruins permeate the experience. The music infusions and inspirations I think I can feel here are The Doors’ strange psychedelic mysticism, deep-seated root blues music, not to mention jazz. I get Syd Barrett vibes, and a touch of Nick Drake as well. However, this is not to belittle the achievement of sculpting a strange and unique album, but recognizing that East-Ra have managed to incorporate a whole world of music and style and influence and bring them together in a brilliant album, tinged with the benefits of the Balkan and Slavic influences of Croatian folk music. Though I feel like I say this in most of my writing, as I usually take on the very obscure bands here at Muzika, these guys need to be bigger. Not to mention their music is free to download.

East-Ra Substitute 3 album, which was released in 2011. and their previous two albums Sutra (2009) and Cold Summer (2008) can all be downloaded for free from their website http://osa-media.blogspot.com/

 Author’s note: I am aware I have reached new levels of pretension.

Shootin’ Stars, a band formed in 2003 by Francesca Bottaro, Guilia Bottaro and Francesca Cricco just released their debut full length studio album ‘In the morning – In the dark’. Even though the band’s discography seems like a Tuscanian dry red wine, the band have a very strong repertoire of live gigs, both locally in Italy and abroad. Winning musical contests and gaining air time such as on radio station RadioRai1 (one of Italy’s most followed radio station) is the norm of the day. The album ‘In the Morning – In the dark’ is a well-blended recipe of avant-garde not so dark and relaxing music with hints of dark wave, blues, fokk and acid influences. Yes, acid, that’s not a spelling mistake. An eleven track voyage of poetry, culture, personal experiences and dry fruit music. Some of the lyrics are in English and some are in Italian, which sound much better. No wonder the Italian language fits better such music genre. The Italian langauge is more vast, thus people get to express themselves better when speaking this languange. So I would expect something better than the norm here, music above average from Francesca, Guilia and Francesca.

‘Teeny-weeny kit’, the album’s first track is a dreamy fairy tale like track with Tinker Bells flying around. Good intro, although not too graspy, will definitely leave you on the edge wanting more. Soon into the second track ‘Mirrors’; weeping saxophone and a multitude of soul haunted vocals, the track sounds dark and depressing, in a musical positive way. That kind of track a good producer would typically use in a bar scene for a fifties crime movie, where everyone was monochrome. ‘Before the battle of Moher’, is an epic instrumental track. It sounds folkish and in my opinion this track is the three lovely women’s showcase. It sets standards on how music should sound, how flutes should be played and what music should deliver to the heart and soul. An ecstasy trip of flutes, guitars, fretless bass and Aborigine like drums with cymbals.

‘L’Epifania di Vita’ is the first track that delivers a more sentimental feel, thanks to the introduction of the Italian lyrics. Reminding me of Canaan, although not such a dark song, this track’s chorus will definitely drag you away into some abyss, where you can’t stop thinking about your life’s low times. Indeed a Mellow and flowy track with very beguiling drum playing, thanks to Francesca Bottaro. The album’s fifth track is also an instrumental track; ‘In the morning – L’acquario’, and it features some simple yet amazing piano works. I wonder who came up with the title of this song. I mean what would a morning and an aquarium have to do with each other, or even better a good piano track? And that was Side A of the CD. Side A? Aren’t the cassette tape days over?

Side B puts you on alert mode immediately thanks to the sixth heavy electro acid track “Magpies – in the dark”. Forget about singing, it never went well with acid-like music. We just read lyrics. Then it’s time for “Quartetto d’archi”, another interesting instrumental track. The Saxophone prominence in this song makes it sound like a London underground homeless song, during a cold and wet winter night. For those of you wondering and snobbing people around, street performers do play some amazing good music as well. ‘The Second Coming’ without any offense is my least favourite although still a good’ish tracks. Allow me to say that it sounds a little bit, too common. On the other hand, the following track called ‘Creatures’ is again another haunting song with amazing vocals and background natural atmospheric noises. ‘Disharmonious’, the tenth track is a fairy catcher song. Aren’t you tired of chasing fairies? Both vocals and instruments remind me a lot of Dead can Dance, which means it delivers the right amounts of chemicals to your brain.

And it’s time for the last track, ‘Lullabye-bye’. What this trio did is what you typically do with your food. You always leave the best for the last, so you keep your taste buds excited for much longer. And Shootin’ Stars seem to want to leave a good impression on their listeners; not because they really need to, but yeah the eleventh track excels. A thirteen minute lullaby which starts with a bluesy sound, faultless singing and ends with a climax; all instruments playing together accompanied by background voices and water stream. Sounds like an orgasm, doesn’t it?

An excellent album, well produced, amazing artwork and contains a good variety of sounds, touching music, a balanced mix of music genres, and female vocals. What do you want more in life? Definitely you don’t need to analyse the band repertoire of live gigs and awards to know that this band is going places. Simply listen and watch the below music video, and if this track does not grasp your soul with a pair of cold hands, I don’t know what else can.

You can listen to Shootin’ Stars music on their SoundCloud page or else follow them on Facebook to keep yourself updated.

Its release was a follow up to his debut ‘Old Pine’, and came prior to ‘Keep Your Head Up’; the track that was recognized and praised by DJ’s and fans alike.

‘Keep Your Head Up‘ made Radio 1 DJ Greg James’ record of the week only just a few weeks back, and it was with its beautiful, positive vibes and soothing melody that captured attention of this new up-and-coming singer-songwriter. The calmness in Howard’s voice mixed with the soft acoustic tone of his guitar is the epitome of a perfect folk track, and resembles the likes of indie folk’s José González and an early Newton Faulkner. However it is with ‘The Wolves’ that I knew this young surfer from a seaside town from South Devon had just as much to offer as his predecessors.

It opens with soft vocals, an acoustic guitar and a slight drum beat that gives it its folky and up-tempo nature. As you get into the song, you find yourself tapping your foot to that beat that plays such a big part in this offering, compared with his more stripped back and intimate album tracks, ‘Old Pine’ and ‘Gracious, both of which feature on his debut album ‘Every Kingdom’. His husky notes are teamed with backing vocals throughout the latter of the track, giving it that epic feel that would lift anyone’s spirits. It certainly did with mine.

The religious references in the lyrics “We lost faith, in the arms of love” teams well with the chorus aspect of the vocals and the gospel-style of the lyrical echo of “love, love, love”, giving it such power and elevation, something many tracks regularly fail to convey.

‘The Wolves’, gives me the confidence to put it out there that Howard, could and will, easily, have the ability to become the UK’s equivalent to Bon Iver, an artist he is a big fan of, after such energetic yet subdued vocals and melodically gorgeous acoustics that give the folk genre a new lease of life in the music industry.

You can visit Ben Howard’s Official Facebook Page or MySpace Page for more information.

One would wonder why I am surprised, because isn’t it normal that these artists typically have side projects? Correct but what surprised me is that Gregor Mackintosh is a vocalist. I guess everyone is so used to see him playing a guitar; very strange to see him with a microphone in his hand. VallenFyre is formed by:

Gregor Makintosh (Paradise Lost) – Vocals
Hamish Glencross (My Dying Bride) – Lead and Rhythm guitars
Mully (From the pub down the road) – Rhythm guitars
Scoot (Guess from the same pub) – bass
Adrian Erlandsson (Paradise Lost & At the Gates) – Drums

With influences from Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and At the Gates, Vallenfyre should produce some of the finest metal music. Obviously their music is heavy and dark. They fit somewhere between the very heaviest Celtic Frost and old school Swedish death metal. I haven’t stopped listening to the album yet and won’t stop for some time. It is one of the best metal records that most probably you’ll hear this year.

Vallenfyre was originally formed by Gregor Mackintosh himself. As he says “Spawned out of the death of my father in the end of 2009, so in early 2010 I kind of start to write things down to cope with the grieving process. That eventually turned into a few songs that I did. It just turned into something to like doing.” Later Gregor asked his friends to join in and a proper band was formed. Most of the lads know each other for a long time. Adrian Erlandsson, Vallenfyre drummer says “Music wise it got the slower elements that the early Paradise Lost had. It’s a lot heaver and this year playing wise they can’t be really compared to Paradise Lost. I guess why that’s why he (Gregor Mackintosh) is doing both Paradise Lost and Vallenfyre.” Below is a video (electronic press kit) of Vallenfyre’s new debut album; A Fragile King.

Death and Rebirth are a 2 piece concept album released by Afterlife Parade. Death, a six track album was release in January 2011, and its cousin, Rebirth is an eight track album released in August 2011. Quinn Erwin, the main force behind Afterlife Parade states “Death, as a project, is deep, dark and atmospheric, Rebirth is the exact opposite – it’s upbeat, percussive and a bit electronic.”

Listening to Death, is a good experience. It does not sound sane, does it? Death, as Quinn Erwin, Afterlife Parade singer and song writer explains, Death is a compilation of songs which look at death from a different perspective, out of the box thinking kind of thing. Six magical tracks which comfort the mourning?!?! Let’s hope Quinn is right, and he is not somewhere playing with a 9mm gun. The album starts with a forty second chorus like track, nothing fancy per se. No offence there Quinn. Though Death, the second track quickly puts you in the right mood and prepares you for a heart touching musical journey. A good mixture of simple drums, classic guitars and basic sound affects give ample of space for the vocals to take over. As a matter of fact, where usually we say that the music speaks to you, this time it is clear that Quinn does all the emotional works with his voice; amazing chorus and heart breaking vocals, lyrics, none the less. Next track, Nothing but Love can Stay is an amazing “unplugged” piano and guitar track. I can’t emphasis enough the actual comforting affect Quinn’s vocals have. It’s like the affect the sun has on you after a one week long storm. You imagine such track being used as a closing track of a war documentary, showing a country being successfully rebuilt and people getting over it. Now I can picture more what Quinn was saying by “I couldn’t recall if I had ever heard any songs about death that were triumphant and celebratory. So I made it my mission to write one.” Arrows Fly and Simple are another two soul touching tracks, though you’ll easily forget about them when you listen to the last track, Afterlife Parade. Starting with 80′s like drum machine and keyboards style sounds, this song is a happy sing-along song which prepares your mind-set for the so much different second album, Rebirth.

When compared to Death, Rebirth is definitely a more catchy, summer type of album. From the first track, you can easily notice that the vocals are already more positive. The mixing of the album sounds completely of an unheard U2 album. Sounds great! It’s like the U2 I always wished for, good sound engineering (which they always had), and good music (which seems to be fading away with time for U2). The album is definitely on an upbeat, and it does have much more electronic influences than its predecessor. Amazing light hearted choruses accompanied by bright and open music. What’s more impressing in this album are the drums. There are no similar drum loops and beats in all of the songs. One would argue that music is not just about drums, but drums define the rhythm of a song. Therefore all tracks have different rhythms, but they still blend well with each other in a single album. There’s a taste of uniqueness in each and every track. Some of the tracks, like Black Woods, White Beach and Chinese Hand Drum have exquisite fast drumming. Maypole, the album’s fifth track will definitely catch your attention thanks to exotic random drum beats and background ambience sounds. Rebirth, the title track is a rough track with Africa like drum beats, heavy bass guitar riffs, and background object bashing and screamy choruses. The album closes with Sequoia, a really light hearted track. This track has some very catchy mandolin like riffs, and a continuous electronic background sound which lets you fly high in the clouds.

Quinn managed to create a very good contrast with these two albums, something which many artists don’t even dare to do. Even though they are different albums, released months from each other they definitely related to each other. Listen to them back to back and you’ll understand what I mean. It’s one long journey which speaks about death, memories and most importantly of all, hope. The musical journey that started as a comforting mean, ends in celebration. After all that is the whole scope of comforting someone, so he or she feels better and can start rejoicing again. Definitely Afterlife Parade is a band with passion and has a message to deliver. Whatever happens, it happens for a reason and enjoy your life as you know. Definitely a 10/10 music project. One album won’t be as good without the other and should be listened to in this order; Death and Rebirth.

There are, for me, three standout tracks in this album. The first is the fourth track on the album and a the sparse ballad of lost love, The Lake. His voice is showcased, and is surprisingly raw, husky and heartbreaking. His lyrics an extended metaphor to lost love and passion gone. The flow of his layered vocals understated and mature. His talent for powerful harmonic change is shown in this song. This is the most emotionally powerful tune, and shows his power as a standalone lyricist and songwriter. The second standout is the seventh song on the album, Gentle Encouragement. An understated but driving beat carries this whole song, and his emotive piano manages to bring across feeling even when synth fails. The vocal melody is strangely reminiscent of school-yard rhymes, and is powerfully effecting. The crowning moment on this track is the layering of chorus and verse vocal melodies, creating a rich tapestry of noise. The simplistic and repeated lyrics call to mind the old refrains of lost English folk songs, drifting through the air. Finally, the album closer, Out Like A Light. The heavy bass noise counterpointed by strange, ghostlike glittery keys. This song holds the most powerful drop on the album, which launches us in to a heavy bash rhythm and sinister, repeating synth. The drop before the chorus flows naturally back in to the beat, and a brilliantly overdriven vocal hammers home the lo-fi aspect of this track. It is very well produced, and the fading away of that harsh glittery synth into strange, ghostly echoes is probably the best moment on the album. It is certainly a fantastic way to end Movements, with the ghost of movement.

However, there are a few tracks that are slightly underwhelming. For instance, First Steps On Grass is a nice instrumental interlude for the middle of the album, but sonically is quite middle-of-the-road type ambient-electro, which doesn’t hold my interest for that long. Another track I found lacking was A Nervous Speech To God. Parsons vocals were too drowned out in the mix, which I found effected the song pretty badly. It misses the emotional punch that the album really depends upon. I also felt that in some occasions, like Floods, the beat had gotten quite samey. I think the album does flow and move, but it needs to have an emotional attack to it, or it’s not really moving anywhere – there needs to be a destination for us, as listeners.

The most strikingly unique thing on this album was the mix of high and lo-fi production. The swirling synths and deep, clear bass couch the crackling, pseudo-distorted vocals of Parsons. The tight drum hits mixing with the echoey, distorted snap of a far-off snare. Even direct contradictions in vocal parts: soaring, layered vocals contrasting with a harsh main vocal melody. Sounds echo in an out of existence. It’s a strange effect, but it permeates Movements and really creates a unique edge to the music.

Overall, I thought this was an enjoyable debut. At the moment, he’s very much coloured by (what I assume are) his influences: Aphex Twin, Burial, Bjork and maybe even Bon Iver and James Blake. But then again, influences are there to be used. There are some fantastic tracks on this album, from a heartfelt piano ballad like The Lake, to the electronic, strange weirdness of Gentle Encouragement, and these are enough to make up for some of the slightly uninteresting tunes. His ear for simple and emotive chordal changes, and his raw and moving vocal delivery really carries this album, as well as his simplistic lyrics, half cutting cynicism and half heart-wrenching pleas. These are his true strengths, and they are qualities that need to be played up more. Parsons’ voice is sometimes unfortunately too buried and reverb drenched. My only serious criticism is the lack of flow between songs. Usually endings just seem jolted and unnatural, this album’s general flow could certainly benefit from a few musical links. The soundscapes also sometimes become slightly similar, and certainly by Faint I was no longer interested by the beat or synth, not that I didn’t like it. In any case, this album may not be a groundbreakingly original piece of work, but it’s certainly a good, strong collection of songs. I imagine Joseph Parsons’ music will only get better with experience, and I’d watch out for this guy.

Visit the Poltergeists official website from where you can download a free copy of the album Movement. Alternatively, you can listen to Poltergeists Movement album on the Poltergeists Soundcloud page.

Lately I’ve received a digital copy (go green guys!) of Repeater‘s second full length studio album; We walk from Safety. Repeater, a band from Long Beach California play a little bit more than just bum bum bam. They are a five piece rock band who formed back in 2005, and in August 2011, they released We Walk from Safety. The title of the album is a song title which appeared on Repeater’s 2005 demo. We Walk from Safety was produced by Ross Robinson, who previously worked with Slipknot, Machine Head, Sepultura and The Cure. So let’s get our hands dirty and spin this record, metaphorically speaking. Expect the best and something totally different from what you hear and see on MTV these days. Repeater is no blonde big boobed singers band, only hairy men.

The first timpani like beats that greet you in the album, are already an indication that listening to the whole album is going to be an enjoyable experience. The introduction reminds me of The Cure’s song Bloodflowers. Yours and Mine, the album’s first track starts with Steve Krolikowski both strong and fragile at times vocals, accompanied by the timpani. One minute and ten seconds later, the song starts taking shape thanks to drum beats that sounds like something horrific is approaching, such as your mother in law. A song which started calm and melancholic, exactly on the third minute turns into a hell of a head banging and loud to be played song; bass guitar riffs which definitely hurt the player’s fingers, loud vocals and real fast guitar riffs. After the first track you’re already set on a high and ready to smash everything that’s within your arms reach. The second track, Finally a Place includes again some real scratchy bass guitar riffs and clean electric guitar melodies which are very easy to digest to the ear. To swallow lost Goodbyes, the album’s third track is again another catchy song with atmospheric yet heavy guitar playing, amazing bass riffs and urgent drum beats. And the list goes on…

After listening to the whole album over and over again, I assure that you won’t get fed up of listening to it. It will take you around a life time to get bored of this record. In Repeater’s music you’ll notice a lot of dark and good old influences. They are no copycats or posers; they have their own real sound. The well-coordinated singing and catchy bass playing from Steve Krolikowski; melodious and yet heavy guitar riffs firing out from Alex Forsythe’s guitars, the inspiring and atmospheric keyboard notes from Rob Wallace, and well-timed sometimes aggressive drumming from Matt Hanief make Repeater a hell of a band. In each and every track there are different sections and riffs that remind me of some of the best songs I’ve heard from great bands, such as The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and other 60′s and 70′s great garage bands. Is it true then that Repeater are walking away from safety, i.e. from their safety net? I think they are because they are doing exactly the opposite of what today’s Deejay’s do, which in today’s world are successful. In laymen’s terms, today’s Deejays remember of a very good song from the good old days, add someone else’s beat (samples) to it, and then screw it up. How can you ever release a better version of Highway to Hell, Stairway to Heaven, or Comfortably Numb from Pink Floyd? Let’s get on with it and stop all this remix this and remix that. If DJ’s feel like remixing things, they should help me with mixing my ingredients when cooking, since I never manage to get a well done dinner. Back to Repeater, so, what they are doing is great. They have listened to loads of good music in their when they were younger and had pimples, then they blended their own musical memories with their own life experiences, good and bad, added the spice of their own thinking, talent and brain works to such music, and came up with real music and unique sounds.

I really shouldn’t be blabbing non sense about every track’s note and instruments. What’s the use of having a long review which people do not read? If you listen to the track below, it speaks for its own. It should definitely convince you that you should buy this record because this album is amazingly good. Unfortunately today one doesn’t encounter a lot of bands producing such great music, as much as you don’t encounter sexy chicks on a Californian beach when compared to Baywatch tv series. If you’re a fan of the early Cure albums, Bauhaus, Christian Death, Cocteau Twins, then Repeater’s We walk from Safety album is definitely an album that make it in your collection.

Showing musical influences from equal parts Neil Young, Waylon Jennings and ZZ Top and Lyrical influences from Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams Sr. If anyone today is worthy of the title “Hillbilly Shakespeare” it is the Bottle Rockets Lead Singer/Songwriter/Guitarist Brian Henneman. His ability to express the feelings of the everyman is the most pervasive on this album and most notably on the tracks “Gas Girl” a lighthearted uptempo song about the stalking of a gas attendant (tell you I stopped by for cigarettes and I don’t even smoke) and “Got What I Wanted” a more traditional country song lamenting about leaving a good relationship for the hopes of one that is more carefree, realizing at songs end that the bird in the hand is always better than two in the bush.

From the opening banjo of “Early In The Morning” to the closing wishful reminiscing of “Lonely Cowboy” this album reflects the simple times of life in the Midwest. This self-titled album by the “Survivors of the great roots rock scare of the mid 90’s” still holds up against the alt-country classics by the likes of Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown, Son Volt and early Wilco almost 20 years after its release and deserves a place in anyone’s collection between Uncle Tupelos No Depressionand Neil Young’s Harvest.

At this stage we had two options. The first option was to hire some people who can sing, and play an electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, drums, congas, an infinite myriad of percussions, vibraphone, saxophone, trombone, trumpets, flute and moog. The other option was to switch on the bar’s sound system and start playing Janxta Funk!, the new album from The Pimps of Joytime. It was quite a risky move since I had just received this album in the morning and didn’t know what it was all about; I had only heard some samples. I convinced the barman to play it because The Pimps of Joytime use all of the above mentioned instruments in their album, and have an astonishing and beautiful female vocalist accompanying male vocalists. So we went for the second option. After all, it was the easiest one, more realistic, and I wanted to check if The Pimps of Joytime, really live up to their name. They should be pimping joy around the air baby!

A bit of a background check about The Pimps of Joytime. They are a band from Brooklyn, USA and the band members are mainly Brian J, Chauncey Yearwood and Mayteana Morales. During the recordings and live sessions they are assisted by a number of session musicians, due to the large number of instruments needed to play such joyful music.

Oh dear me! They do live up to their name, and how! A vast mix of instruments, mixed up perfectly with impromptu like solos, was a joyous experience to listen to. A great mix of afrobats, Caribbean sounds, reggae, dub and salsa music in a single album. Listening to Janxta Funk! without dancing is a mission impossible, because it’s like their music was made to be played in summer, on beaches and other summery places. Although it gets you moving and dancing, it puts you in such a relaxing mood, which strictly speaking that’s all you need in summer. In their music you can also notice James Brown influences. Now let’s face the facts. If you listen to music that reminds you of James Brown, it must be AWESOME GOOD MUSIC!

Within a couple of minutes, the barman was busy serving a huge crowd, while I was busy dancing around in the crowd that gathered under the big beach bar gazebo. Most of the topless women started dancing. Could it be because they are attention seekers? Well it could be, but definitely they couldn’t seek for attention without The Pimps of Joytime’s easy flowing, chilling, relaxing yet groovy moving music. Some of the lyrics also helped as good pickup lines, like “that’s nasty baby” and “spread a lot the love and forget the hate.”

An eleven track master piece which helps the process of changing dreams into reality. A good funky mix of funk, mellow afrobeats, seaside Caribbean sounds and upbeat “salsa / reggae” type of tracks assorted properly in one album. This album can easily get the crowd moving and enjoy the music everywhere; especially by the sea. It obviously makes things better, since you can get those topless bathing chicks moving’.

Janxta Funk! was released on 21st of June 2011, less than a month ago. Hurry up and run to the stores in the hot sun to buy this record because it is a must have record for any type of human and pets gathering! And for those who are still green with google, The Pimps of Joytime official website is http://www.thepimpsofjoytime.com/