Reviews roundup – American Young vs. Guru Guru Groove Band vs. Lee Delray vs. Redline Messiah vs. Losers
AMERICAN YOUNG
AY
Curb
I rather enjoyed the debut EP from American Young. I reckoned that it was radio friendly country pop with catchy songs you could tap your foot to, with sing along choruses. Which is what I want in my modern country. Not atonal Americana bleating about how hard life is.
And when you’ve got pedigree like Jon Stone and Kristy Osmunson then you’re guaranteed a certain quality. If you don’t know then Stone is a successful producer and songwriter while Osmunson was in the duo Bomshel.
For this full length album they’ve carried on in the same style with three of the tracks from the EP reappearing here. There’s a handful of tracks that would sit comfortably on US country radio with “”God Sends a Train” and “Hometown Girl” the real standouts for me. None of the songs are duffers which is what you would expect with their background and with a decent push this record should do well. American Young have done their job. Now it’s over to the pushers and pluggers to do theirs.
GURU GURU GROOVE BAND
The Birth of Krautrock 1969
Cleopatra Records
Well now. This is billed as being a “historically important release
Turns out that this was recorded in a small studio in Heidelberg, Germany in 1969 with Guru Guru founding member Mani Neumeier and future Guru Guru member Uli Trepte alongside some other hippies who then proceeded to take a load of acid and ‘perform’ a never ending set of free jazz.
And it sounds exactly as you would expect it to. Now they’re claiming it’s a collective free style modal improvisation that would form the foundation of many Krautrock bands. I say it’s unlistenable tosh from a bunch of stoned eejits.
I’m sure that even Julian Cope would struggle to praise this, but for that strange sect who place a value on obscurity over talent, this will give them something else to feel superior about.
LEE DELRAY
Brand New Man
Jac Records
Florida born, New York raised bluesman Lee Delray got some big props for his 2013 debut album ‘570-BLUES’. Of course it was fifteen years in the making so he’d had plenty of time to hone his sound. And three years on he’s put out another excellent offering.
Some of the material flirts with almost southern rock stylings with “Mine All Mine” a real winner. Elsewhere he runs the risk of alienating a lot of blues fans by having a guest rapper (!) appear on “First String Man”. That would be Young Chizz and it also has a turntable solo (!!) from Deejay Nogood. Yes, really.
But for the main he concentrates on satisfying fans of the Kings (BB, Freddie and Albert) on some excellent self penned numbers such as ““Blues Came Calling”, “Gotcha” and “Cookin’ In My Kitchen”. It’s nice to see a modern blues performer taking some chances and, best of all, pulling it off.
REDLINE MESSIAH
Redline Messiah
Buzzbomb Records
Well you can’t really resist an album that claims to be eleven blistering songs about fast cars, and faster women!
But that’s what Redline Messiah have offered me and it would be churlish to refuse. Apparenty they’re all veterans of the Chicago and Southern California punk and metal scenes but when vocalist Hollund Shaf and guitarist Kai Rosenkrantz got together they decided to make a ‘sound forged from the hair metal and Reagan punk of the ‘80s’.
Well that’s not true as they’re basically following a template laid down by the likes of Supersuckers and Hellacopters. Which is to say a slightly grubby punk influenced rock and roll. And they do it well on delightful ditties such as “Topless Nazi”, “Pleasure Seeker” and “War Machine”.
It’s not big, it’s not clever, but it is fun.
LOSERS
How To Ruin Other People’s Futures
Republic of Music
If I were a youngster, then the fact that Losers features Tom Bellamy ex-Cooper Temple Clause and Paul Mullen ex-YourCodeNameIs:Milo would probably be a ‘thing’. But I’m not. Which means I can only judge this on the noise they make. And the noise they make is a good one.
I must admit that based on their pedigree, the name of the band and the album title I had pegged this for some more indie shite. So how happy was I to wander into some crushing electro-industrial noise. Well, if you could see how far my arms are stretched out, then you would know that I was that happy.
For sure, despite the blurb, there isn’t actually anything new about what they’re doing but as they bludgeon their way through the usual NIN influeces on tracks like “Chainsaw” and the single “This Is A War” you can’t help but be caught up in their fervour. They’re one of those bands who seem instantly familiar, which is doubtless due to them placing music in TV shows like Game Of Thrones, Hercules, CSI and others. But out on their own they’re doing just fine.
The Rocker - The Artist Formerly Known As Zeitgeist. TAFKAZ 
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