Reviews roundup – Hawkwind vs. U.D.O vs Ben Poole vs. Cowboy Junkies vs. Athmossmusic vs. Dine ‘n’ Dasher

Reviews roundup – Hawkwind vs. U.D.O vs Ben Poole vs. Cowboy Junkies vs. Athmossmusic vs. Dine ‘n’ Dasher

 
HAWKWIND
Road To Utopia
Cherry Red

Well, a lot of people have been humming and hawing about this. Not me. Because it’s mental. Proper mental. Yes, it’s re-recordings of tunes from years gone by but it is utterly batshit. With added Womble (hurrah!) and Eric Clapton (boo!)

Which is what I hoped for when I heard that the mighty Hawkwind were working with Head Womble, Mike Batt, on an orchestral recording. Thing is, it’s not orchestral as such. It’s more Roy Harper Old Cricketer meets the Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band with added mariachi which, in my world, is a very good place indeed.

Hawkwind have had a lot of good press for their recent releases but not round my way. I suspect it’s one of those things where a veteran band start getting good reviews once people realise how old they are. Wishful thinking more than anything else. But dig out some HW chestnuts like ‘Quark, Strangeness and Charm’, ‘The Watcher’ and ‘We Took The Wrong Step Years Ago’ and you can’t really go wrong. Well, you can, but I’ll be skipping over ‘Hymn To The Sun’.

Thankfully, the brass enhanced ‘Flying Doctor’ is much better as is ‘Psi Power’. It’s a fun album, straight out of left field and all the better for it. Now all it needed was a klezmer version of ‘Spirit of the Age’ and I could have rested my head on the pillow for the final time.

 

 

U.D.O.
Steelfactory
AFM

Udo Dirkscheider has spent the last wee while revisiting his past with Accept under the mantle of Dirkschneider but has not returned to matter new with a return to U.D.O.

Of course it’s hard to see the join what with the roaring rasp of Herr Udo howling over some eighties banshee guitars. Because what you’re getting here is another U.D.O. album. By my reckoning this is the 16th studio album as U.D.O. and the songs here would have sat happily on any one of them. Oh, by the way, that’s a good thing. I’m not sure what a ‘Tongue Reaper’ is but the opening track certainly sets you up nicely for what follows over the next hour. Which is eighties styled Accept like metal full of meaty riffs and sing a long choruses.

It’s pure fist in the air metal with the exception of the closing ballad (yes, really) ‘The Way’. That doesn’t really work mainly because because you can hear Udo singing. See, he can still do the roar and the howl but the upper register has long gone. That’s fair enough, he’s of pensionable age now so the fact that most of his voice is still intact is a blessing. Unlike some. Naming no priestly names.

Will this suddenly men that Udo and U.D.O. are going to suddenly become mainstream. Don’t be stupid. But if you’re looking for a new soundtrack to your Saturday night retro headbanging then “Steelfactory” more than delivers.

 

BEN POOLE
Anytime You Need Me
Manhaton

I enjoyed the last album from Mr Poole. “Time Has Come” was chock full of good songs although I did point out that he’s “really a soul boy. albeit with tattoos and a seemit”.

And despite him being punted to the blues populace that carries on here. Granted, he has veered away from the poppier guitar runs of the last record as there is a lot more meat on the bones here, but he’s still largely working in a soul idiom. And there’s nothing wrong with that, especially when the songs and the performance are as good as this. He’s obviously still hoping to garner some pop success as ‘You Could Say’ has daytime radio written all over it but this time around he’s let himself go where he wants to on a lot of the material.

The funk guitar of the title track and the Jeff Healey like ‘Take It No More’ set things up nicely but it’s the middle of the album where you will the shiniest pearls with ‘Further On Down the Line’ one of his best songs to date. The same could be say for the bluesiest track on offer – ‘Holding On’ – which is another showcase for his talent.

The only clunker is the cover of ‘Dirty Laundry’, a lesser Don Henley track (albeit huge US hit) that should have been left in the eighties where it belonged. That aside, this is his best album to date. He’s off on a lengthy UK tour soon so do yourself a favour and get some in.

 

 

COWBOY JUNKIES
All That Reckoning
Proper

There’s nothing wrong with making the same album over and over again. See U.D.O. above and every AC/DC album. But it really needs to be a good album to get away with it.

Thirty odd years ago “The Trinity Session”, the second album from the Cowboy Junkies ended up an unlikely platinum seller. It did stick out like a sore thumb at the time, so far removed was it from the over produced eighties mainstream. But it’s been the law of diminishing returns ever since and it may be telling that it’s been six years since their last record.

According to songwriter Michael Timmins this record focuses on “empty hearts, empty nests, lost paths, lost lives, and all the reckoning that brings about the end of things, and the beginnings of something else. [The] songs are about reckoning on a personal level and reckoning on a social level”. So more hippy tosh then. To their credit the band sound exactly like they did all those decades ago and in singer Margo Timmins they’ve got one of those voices that keeps you listening even when there is nothing going on.

Even after a few listens all the songs just blend into one with only a hint of fiddle on a couple of the tracks perking things up a bit. People who like this sort of thing will love it though. Me? I like a tune.

 

 

DINE ‘N’ DASHER
Moonshiner
independent

We’re off to Germany now for some self proclaimed party metal.

Of course it’s nothing of the sort. Not if you were around during the late eighties when we knew how to par-tay! What it is is vaguely retro hard rock with a few pop punk and modern rock influences.

And they’re pretty good at it. They’ve only been around since 2016 as a unit so the time spent in rehearsals was well spent. Oddly, they claim that their shared influences are Iron Maiden, Dio and Poison but they’ve managed to end up sounding like none of them. Vocalist Heike Bauer has a good range and there are some decent riffs lurking in the grooves of ‘Away From My Demons’ and, especially, the title track, probably their most metal number.

It’s early days but there is promise here.

 

 

ATHMOSSMUSIC
Music Box
independent

Well that’s a real bastard of a band name for anyone born with a lisp. Gits.

Subtitled “(The tragic story of Arabella Jones)” this is a metal tinged progressive rock concept album about “a young woman who has lost her beloved man on their wedding day, then caused a fatal car crash that killed a whole family. She thinks that she sees the ghost of the little girl killed in that car crash, every time she hears the music of her old music box. This album is about her journey through remorse and grief, on the edge of insanity”. So cheery then. Just what I need to soundtrack my ongoing mental collapse.

A German based Hungarian / Swedish outfit they’re led by Imre Meszaros (vocals / keyboards) along with his brother Sandor on drums and Antal Bosynak on guitar and bass. Thanks to the power of the internet the only time the brothers have met their guitarist was when they filmed a video back in 2017. So much for jamming in the garage!

Musicwise this is all over the place. But in a good way. For sure, they’ve got the requisite Dream Theater influences. But who hasn’t in the modern world of prog metal. But they spread themselves across a wide spectrum of rock and metal with some crunchy guitar riffs and some very strong melodies. But the adventure comes in the arrangements and the lyrics where they show that they’re a force to be reckoned with. They’ve put out a few singles over the last couple of years but this really is a statement of intent and one that should make the prog world sit up and pay attention.

They can do complicated, they can do spacerock and they can even dole out a powerful ballad. But wherever you go on this record you’ll find wonder. It’s pointless picking out highlights when it’s an album that needs to be played in its entirety but ‘The Little Music Box’ has been stuck in my head for days now. One of the best prog releases of 2018, this is required listening for fans of the genre.

 

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