Reviews roundup – Mississippi Stomp vs. Gwyn Ashton vs. Steelmade vs. Torgeir Waldemar vs. Dangerous Curves

Reviews roundup – Mississippi Stomp vs. Gwyn Ashton vs. Steelmade vs. Torgeir Waldemar vs. Dangerous Curves

 

MISSISSIPPI STOMP
Shine
Purple Rooster

I enjoyed “Chickasaw Lodge”, the last offering from Mississippi Stomp. I reckoned it was old style country meets blues meets gospel meets rock and I was right. And it’s similar fare they’re offering up this time out.

Led by husband and wife Gid and Sunny Stuckey (vocals/guitar and vocals/ keyboards), the band extends to eight members which gives them plenty of room to stretch out with their arrangements. This mini album (just over half an hour) was recorded in a grand total of five hours so there is plenty of spontaneity and an understandable live feel to proceedings,

To be honest I didn’t waem to this one as much as I did last time out. When the harmony vocals click into place it sounds really good and I reckon it would work best if they went for dual vocals the whole way through rather than mainly restricting Mrs Stuckey to harmony lines. It’s a bit rockier this time out, moving slightly away from the more country based predecessor and they’ve got a couple of real humdingers in the shape of ‘Train Song’, ‘One Song’ and ‘Break That Chain’ fine examples at the band at the top of their game. A few more like that and they could well be on their way up the ladder.

 

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GWYN ASHTON
Solo Elektro
Fabtone

Gwyn Ashton has been around the block. He’s opened for BB King, Status Quo, Mick Taylor, Buddy Guy, Rory Gallagher and Junior Wells and Deep Purple’s Don Airey has played on two of his albums. This one, however, sees him turning into a one man band.

Or rather a stoner / blues / psychedelic one man band. Because this one goes round the houses several times as he sets his guitar to stun and heads into the stratosphere. Also, according to Mr Ashton, “It was recorded by one guy with a guitar, vocal mic, bass drum and octave divider – 100% live.” Which I reckon makes him a witch and in line for burning at the stake.

In places he heads off into full on psych as you would expect with a tune called ‘Metaphysical Journey’ while in other places he goes for a dirty blues rock the Pretty Things would have been proud of in 1966. The best of the psych tunes is probably ‘Dawn of Tomorrow’ while blues rockers will probably hold ‘Please Allow Me’ close to their hearts. This one is less for the blues fans and more for the guitar freaks who like to wig out to some monster riffs. A good one.

 

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STEELMADE
The Stories We Tell
Fastball

To Switzerland for some mainstream hard rock.

Because that’s what Steelmade are offering up. It’s not all old school though as they do have a modern / alt rock touch to some of their songs, especially the vocal lines and melodies.

They’ve got a few good tunes with ‘Fairytales of Childhood Days’, ‘Trial and Tribulation’ and ‘Deal With The Devil’ having an instant appeal. It’s their second album since getting together back in 2016 and they certainly seem to be on the way to becoming a very good band. Some of the songs don’t really stand out and that’s the only thing that will hinder them.

If they bring a bit more personality to their music then it could go some way towards making them stand out from the crowd in what is a packed world of modern rock music. But it’s a good record from a young band, so fingers crossed for them.

 

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TORGEIR WALDEMAR
Jamais Vu
Jansen Records

If fans of Torgeir Waldemar have a sense of deja vu on this release, that’s because they have literally heard it all before.

Because the Norwegian singer songwriter has re-recorded songs of his first two albums on this one. Which seems like cheating. But, apparently, the more acoustic songs have been plugged in and the electric ones unplugged. So that’s alright then. Mind you, I bought the Monster Magnet remix albums so can’t really go about throwing stones.

His basic sound is that of the early seventies troubadours, albeit it with an indie edge. Which sadly makes him more Neil Young, less James Taylor. A sad indictment of the world we live in. Like Mr Young his vocals take some getting used to but he can write a good song. ‘Sylvia (Southern People)’, and ‘Summer In Toulouse’, are just great songs, and if this were the good old days, a great singer would come along and cover them. However, this is the kind of indie folk the inky press lap up, so readers of Uncut and Mojo will be getting very moist indeed when they slip this inside. Their CD player.

It’s certainly interesting.

 

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DANGEROUS CURVES
Dangerous Curves
independent

Hey, rock bands! The nerds have invented this thing called Google. Or DuckDuckGo if you’re anti Google and Bing. So when you’re looking for a name for your band, type it in. That way you won’t name yourself after a chart album from eighties rocker, Lita Ford. Or indeed another eighties throwback band from Australia.

But that’s what Maryland (home of the cookies) band Dangerous Curves have done. To be fair they might just be fans of shitty Tate Donovan comedies but either way, this is the modern world and you need to be found. And they deserve to be found because there is a lot to enjoy here. Especially as, like Lita Ford, it’s eighties hard rock that they specialise in. John Jamison, Chris Gamble, Linwood Turner and Randy Snowman are the men in question, with Jamieson a fine singer who hits all the right old school notes. ‘Ripe’ was probably my favourite, chock full of early Motley Crue attitude. And that’s a good thing, in case you were wondering.

If this were thirty years ago they’d certainly have the chops to get on a Great White / Britny Fox tour. Their original songs are good and they throw in a quality cover of the Skid Row tune ‘Monkey Business’ just for fun, which shows what a good covers band they are. It certainly took me back. In a good way.

 

 

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