Season Of Mist bring us the second full-length album by Arkan, “Salam”, following their promising debut from 2008, titled “Hilal”. Last year I discovered a couple of exciting bands from the Middle East such as Orphaned Land, Melechesh and Absolace, Arkan comes to completing the picture, their music is labeled “oriental death metal”, an inspired mixture of the sounds of East and West, the melodies of North and South, amalgamate melodic Death Metal with Oriental traditions with roots reach deep down into the ethnic sounds of Algeria and Morocco. Arkan put together the whirlwind of Arabic percussion and the magical sound of ancient oriental string instruments with crushing riffs and intense rhythms, clean singing of Sarah Layssac with the screams and growls of Florent Jannier. Mystic and intense, “Salam” (Peace) is a colourful and powerful album with all the best spices of the East and West compounding together. Read more Arkan – Salam (2011)
Reviews
Steve Miller Band – Let Your Hair Down (2011)
Well, I’m really not expecting that the emo-generation remember “Abracadabra”, one quite famous hit of ’82, but my generation at least know this one. Actually, Mr. Miller had kicked off back in ’67…
Formed the Steve Miller Blues Band at Chicago, they shortened their name to the Steve Miller Band and they backed Chuck Berry at a gig at the Fillmore West which was released as a live album. In May 1968, in England, they recorded their debut album titled “Children Of The Future”. Their second album called “Sailor” appeared same year in October, and climbed the Billboard chart to #24, successes included the singles “Livin’ In The USA”, “Lucky Man”, “Overdrive” and “Dime-A-Dance Romance”.
The Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits 1974-1978 has sold over 13 million copies and Miller continues to perform successful sold-out concert performances. “Abracadabra” was the twelfth album by the band released in 1982 and it has been certified Platinum in the United States and gave the band a #1 hit with the title track. While “Abracadabra” was quite a more dance orientated song, in fact Steve Miller Band remains a classic blues rock band. The song holds the record for the biggest drop out of the Top 10/Top 40 on the Hot 100. In the fall of 1982, as the song was moving down the chart, “Abracadabra” fell 38 spots from #10 to #48 in one week, on the other hand is listed at #70 on Billboard’s Greatest Songs of all time. Read more Steve Miller Band – Let Your Hair Down (2011)
Duff McKagan’s Loaded – The Taking (2011)
At the previous spinning of the record, talking bout Nazareth I mentioned Axl Rose and right after that I stumbled into Duff’s new album… In this life nothing is accidental. Duff is quite a figure. (Michael Andrew) McKagan was born in Seattle, Washington, his brother Bruce taught him his first bass lines and while growing up, McKagan was a fan of such acts as James Gang, Sly Stone, Led Zeppelin, Vanilla Fudge, Jimi Hendrix, and New York Dolls. His idol at the time was Johnny Thunders. Later he being a huge fan of Sex Pistols, Ramones, and The Clash. He cites Paul Simonon of The Clash as his favorite bassist, and is also particularly fond of Sid Vicious. At the age of 15 in 1979 he joined the pop-punk band Fastbacks as drummer and between 1979 and 1982 he led and played guitar in punk band The Living. Answering an ad for a bass player in a local magazine, McKagan headed to California, at age nineteen. In California, he met guitar player Slash and drummer Steven Adler of the band Road Crew and in 1985 he joined Guns N’ Roses replacing Ole Beich. Read more Duff McKagan’s Loaded – The Taking (2011)
Nazareth – Big Dogz (2011)
It’s hard to believe, Dan McCafferty rocking since 1968 while Axl Rose and his Guns N’ Roses get tired after only a decade of being in the great Rock ‘N’ Roll circus and somehow Dan McCafferty at the age of 64 seems fresher than Axl at 49. Dopes are bad, dude… “Big Dogz” is Nazareth’s 22nd album and it rocks in the best possible good-old ways. We’ve got 11 brand new heavy, classic, convincing rock songs, a record that shows a strong, alive and kicking band. The other caterpillar is bass player Pete Agnew. Guitarist Jimmy Murrison joined Nazareth in 1994, replacing Billy Rankin, and Lee Agnew – the son of Pete Agnew – worked as a drum technician for Nazareth, and when Darrell Sweet died in 1999, he became the permanent drummer of the band. A nice generation gathering, isn’t it?
Their previous album “The Newz” was released in 2008, so, once again, they moving faster than Axl. Read more Nazareth – Big Dogz (2011)
U2 – Duals (2011)
From a while it’s almost mandatory to hate U2. There’s plenty of so-called reasons from the most common “they sold-out” or because they are Irish to thoughtful things like the face of Bono. Well, I loved U2 from the first moment I heard them and I still love them. “Pop” from 1997 was a huge disappointment, but hey! this is life, this is love, the disappointments are included in any and each relation. And well, yes, on the following three albums U2 sometimes gave magic moments, sometimes they are not so bright, but I still believe, they done everything as they please, they still sing from their hearts. And I can’t hate them because they become “the best band in the world”. And if you see them live, you have to admit it, they are kind of magic, hypnotizing. This is not an accident, this month, the U2 360° Tour became the highest-grossing tour in history, surpassing earnings of $558 million and breaking The Rolling Stones’ previous record. But I guess only this 558 million $ are 558 million reasons to hate them, isn’t it? Read more U2 – Duals (2011)
Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (2011)
This is the fifth album by Gang Gang Dance and their continue the trip into the experimental electronic and worldbeat area of the music. They gained a kind of cult status in the New York underground and which finally push them into the mainstream attention. They blending electronic and post rock, psychedelic music into something strange and mysterious music with exotic perfume. Last year the band received publishing royalties from British group Florence and the Machine. Members of Gang Gang Dance noticed that part of “Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)” was lifted from their song “House Jam” from they 2008 album “Saint Dymphna” and approached Florence and the Machine’s label who acknowledged that “infringement had occurred”.
After releasing all their earlier records with Brooklyn label The Social Registry, in 2010 Gang Gang Dance signed with UK label 4AD and “Eye Contact” is the group’s second album after stepping out from the underground. Read more Gang Gang Dance – Eye Contact (2011)
The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (2011)
Something stinks in Denmark. Actually Shakespeare said: “Something Is Rotten in the State of Denmark.” – Hamlet, Act I, Scene 4, at line 90. Well, when British music press staple NME declare the Danish duo to be responsible for sparking “America’s pop renaissanceâ€, something clearly stinks. On one hand, Brits has been already saved by the Americans by White Stripes, so, it’s pure wickedness to say America need to be “saved” by anybody, on the other hand when a band or an artist are highly praised by the media, there’s no bloody doubt: something stinks. Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo, the duo behind The Raveonettes delivered another nice album, but really, there’s nothing outstanding, nothing sparking, nothing special. In short words, it’s like Robert Smith (The Cure) teamed up with Angelo Badalamenti for a film score for David Lynch. Gloomy, airy, minimalist, kind of clear-obscure and with a particular, distant, but still warm retro taste, with a few nice tunes and a couple of better moments, but really, there’s nothing really impressive about “Raven in the Grave”. Read more The Raveonettes – Raven in the Grave (2011)
Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso UFO – Pink Lady Lemonade – You’re From Inner Space (2011)
It’s almost kinky to write and record a 32 minutes long song these days. And actually it’s a nice track, the mix is what bothering me. The slide guitar is much too loud and covers almost completely the solo guitars and the bass. And it’s pity, they done beautiful things if you listen careful enough. But if you have to focus hard, all the pleasure of the listening goes out on the window. Still, “Part 1” from “Pink Lady Lemonade – Youre From Inner Space” it’s kind of chill, joyful, warm and embracing. A nice trip with beautiful images made of sounds running before our eyes. “Part 2” break in like a noisy explosion, it’s a crazy mixture of improvisations on psychedelic, noise rock and jazz like samples. It last only five minutes, but it’s heavy. “Part 3” comes back with the spacy theme of “Part 1”, the mix is much convincing, the pulse is a little bit faster and the song got a pleasant groove. 10 minutes of shades and bubbling sounds which brings me the image of a blooming flower. Well, kind of hippy. 🙂 Read more Acid Mothers Temple and The Melting Paraiso UFO – Pink Lady Lemonade – You’re From Inner Space (2011)
Soft Kill – An Open Door (2011)
Waving between Joy Division (and New Order) and The Sisters of Mercy, Soft Kill try to (re) open a door back to the eighteens goth rock and dark wave. While their earliest experiments took place in September 2010, Tobias and Shiloe, the two members of the group maybe are too in a hurry for a debut album. Still, “An Open Door” is kind of intimate and warm, which is kind of strange for a dark area of music, but the nine songs of this material are not quite bad. They mentioned influences by Howard Devoto, The Cure, Wire/Colin Newman and Killing Joke. The Cure earliest works atmosphere is present and Soft Kill managed to recreate that feeling. “Be Alone” for example sounds quite Robert Smith. And they have a few more good songs. Read more Soft Kill – An Open Door (2011)
The Kills – Blood Pressures (2011)
Rawness and kind of retro polish with that garage indie touch, the forth album by The Kills have the same noise blues flavor which was cooked and licensed by Jack White with The White Stripes and re-invented with The Dead Weather. And while Alison Nicole Mosshart spend most of her time lately touring with The Dead Weather, it’s kind of natural the infusion of the style and sound from Mr. White. “Blood Pressures” is noisy, dirty, sounds like vinyl and I almost miss the sound of some nice scratches, but on the other hand it doesn’t have the tension of the late “Sea of Cowards”. This “hippies goes punk” approach it’s a winning recipe, but if there will be a million plus one similar products, every single record label will try to invent their “own White Stripes”, the whole shit will goes down just like any other good thing before. Read more The Kills – Blood Pressures (2011)
