Reviews roundup – Danny Bryant vs. The Everdays vs. Landmarq vs. Icosa vs. The Outlaws

Reviews roundup – Danny Bryant vs. The Everdays vs. Landmarq vs. Icosa vs. The Outlaws

DANNY BRYANT
Temperature Rising
Jazzhaus

You know where you are with a Danny Bryant album.  Sturdy, blues rock.  And there’s nothing wrong with that.  We also can’t call him a prodigy anymore, as it’s about a decade since I first saw him live, and he’s been at it longer than that.

This is a good album, and certainly one of his best.  “Hurricane” wasn’t one I returned to much, but there are a handful of songs here, which will be around for a while to come, starting off with the superb ‘Best Of Me’, which is exactly that.  A riproaring tune, with some fantastic supporting keyboard work from Richard Hammerton.  The big ballad is next, and even though it’s a bit early for a slow blues, ‘Take Me Higher’ is a cracker.

‘Razor Sharp’ and the title track are also from the top of the tree, as is the closing, second slow blues, ‘Guntown’.  It’s an odd time for Danny Bryant, as he puts out this new album while he’s touring America fronting the Walter Trout band, while Mr Trout recuperates.  Something that could see him lose some ground under his own name.  Here’s hoping I’m wrong.

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THE EVERYDAYS
The Everdays
indie

That’s really not a good name for a band.  Or rather duo.  Because The Everydays are singer / songwriters Tim Marsh and David Zoll from Black Mountain, North Carolina who started live in an electric rock band before deciding that the future lay in acoustic roots / country / folk.  Which is fine by me.

They also do their own thing as solo performers, but on the evidence of this they should stick it out and see what happens.  For there are some very good songs here.  Granted, they get a bit indie in places, but when they stick to the rootsy side of things, it’s well worth a listen.

There are some excellent harmony vocals, ans when the songs match the singing, as they do on the likes of ‘You Can Leave’ and ‘Sound or The Truth’, then it’s bit of a gem.  They’re on Facebook, and if rootsy Americana floats your boat, then give them a try.

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LANDMARQ
Origins – A Landmarq Anthology: 1991-2014
Synergy

I’d forgotten how good the early Landmarq stuff was when Damian Wilson was in the band.  But Disc 2 of this career spanning compilation takes care of that.  I was swooning all over ‘Forever Young’ like I was a young ‘un.  Now I follwoed him on his solo / Threshold / Rick Wakeman”s English Rock Ensemble / Headspace / Star One / Maiden uniteD journey, but sort of lost track of Landmarq when Tracy Hitchings came on board.

So Disc 1 was a very pleasant surprise.  For sure, I could have done without four live tracks shoved in the middle, but there was more than enough progtastic pleasure to have me reconsidering my options.  There’s also a new track to make sure that Landmarq fanatics buy it, and ‘Origins’ the song is certainly good enough to make the future seem bright for the band.

If you’ve never checked out their eighties styled neo-prog, then this is a very good place to start.  And if you left the party when Damian did, then give them another chance.

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ICOSA
The Skies Are Ours
indie

Time for some easy listening now.  Oh, no, it isn’t.  Instead it’s an EP of hard hitting prog metal meets math rock.  Just what the doctor ordered.

This is their debut EP, and it’s certainly musically proficient.  There are more time changes and paradiddles than the European Commission Regulation 37 on Prog Metal allows, but I think they’ll get away with it for now.  Sometimes Jack Ashley, Tom Tattersall and Stacey Douglas do some musically ridiculous things that will make fans of “this sort of thing” more than moist.

The best of the tracks are ‘the skies are ours: 2’, which ups the metal ante, but throws in some prog melodicism and the closing ‘trepidation’ which is as close to traditional prog as they get, highlighting a gentler side to the band.  If you’ve been weeping in your basement since the first Tool album came out, well fire up your dial up connection, and get yourself a load of this.

BANDCAMP

THE OUTLAWS
Playin’ To Win / Ghost Riders
Floating World

I thought it best to leave this one to last, as my drooling might have offended those of a delicate dispostion.  See, I loved The Outlaws.  Probably my favourite Southern rock band, they never really troubled this side of the Atlantic, but I did manage to see them touring “Los Hombres Malo”.  Sighs.

Now many will tell you that by the time this came out, they were past their best.  And certainly “Playin’ To Win” is their pop album.  But that doesn’t stop it being fantastic, as a young and upcoming producer called Mutt Lange tried out some tricks he went on to perfect in the eighties.  It is light, but that doesn’t stop barnstormers like ‘Take It Anyway You Want It’ from being shoulda been number 1 hits, and on ‘You Are The Show”, they nailed the big ballad.

I don’t why they’ve skipped “In the Eye of the Storm” and jumped forward to “Ghost Riders”, but this one is more of a throwback to their roots.  And it worked with the title track going Top 20, and the album putting them back in the Top 30.  Despite that, it wasn’t one of my favourites, as it sounded a bit flat, even on rockers like ‘Devil’s Road’.  But it’s still the Outlaws and their cover of the Leo Sayer hit / Billy Nicholls song ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ remains a gem.  However, a word of warning.  I might be wrong, but I think this CD has been taken from vinyl, rather than the master tapes, as there are a few glitches that point that way. But the music is, well, the Outlaws.

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