Welcome to the first regularly updated CD review section I've done in ages, outside of the Scottish and selected English (& Australian) independent music scenes.
This section, however, is devoted to bands who are signed to labels, and outside of the Scottish music scene.
Basically, the thinking behind this bit, although inevitably it's my own humble opinion, is that if someone's produced a CD that is so stonkingly good in its field that no fan of that style of music should be able to live without it, then it's reviewed here - all styles, all artists - all thing considered - but only the best included. Now, read on......

BLACK FOX – S/T CD-EP
The guy claims he's doing something ground-breaking by mixing elements of searing heat metal and drum 'n' bass avalanche. In actual fact he is breaking ground, but only 'coz the darned thing's so heavy – there's no ground that could stand the weight!! The opener, “The Question”, roars into life on a wave of thick set metal guitar riffing and solid, strident lurching rhythms but it sounds like a band at work, is in no way “dancey” and rolls along with force before going into this quiet few seconds of vocal and instrumental delicacy before emerging in a blaze of lead guitar soloing above the driving industrial beats and thick riffing. It's pretty hot stuff, of that there's no doubt. “Death Is All Around” is similar only harder and faster, this time all instrumental and a flaming path of metal guitar riffs, strident rhythms, sizzling guitar leads and one top notch rifle-fire metal guitar instrumental. I t moves through passages which range from a whisper to a scream but nothing ever stands still, going for the hot and wild approach. The final “The World Against The War” is an awesome display of hammering rhythms and fuzz/solid electric guitar leads and riffs, all, as before, melodic yet strong as an ox. Overall, it's not ground-breaking” but it's metal guitar instrumental music that's leaping over other greats in the genre before he's even begun.

ELECTRIC BIRD NOISE – Fragile Hearts.....Fragile Minds CD
A neatly arranged album here that starts with five tracks lasting between one and four minutes, all of which are electronic and guitar based, but each one of which is completely different from the other, and yet they share the same feel that the musician has for what he has to say. They one minute track shimmers and glides on waves of juddering, echoing electronics, sounding more like some synthesized hurdy gurdy than anything, while the two minute track comes more to life and flies upwards on slowly cyclical layers of guitar chords and looped electronics which manage to create something quite extraordinarily beautiful in an almost spacey industrial electronic way. The three minute track adds drums and synth melodies to create a solid, slowly lurching beast of a track which lumbers along adding ever more layers of electronic undercurrents to its slowly flowing Can-like drums before suddenly erupting in an explosion of electronic drums and unnerving, intense electronics for just a few seconds before reverting to what it began life as being. The four minute track starts freeform with juddering bass synth undercurrents and discordant bell-like tones with absolutely no resonant qualities to them at all, on top of the distant throb – and that's it – very unnerving to say the least as it intensifies along the way.
Then, once these little glimpses into the world of the musician have passed by and left you in no doubt that you're dealing with something which may easily leave you gasping if it goes on at this rate, along comes a mighty 26 minute track where time and space stand still – or rather, unfold in the natural order of the cosmos – as a slice of electronic-induced first album-era Fripp and Eno begins to come to life, that soaring, diving, falling, high register guitar sustain, mixing with undertows and rivers of shimmering electronics, deep bass rumbles and soaring distance, space electronic expanse, all wrapped up in a wholly darker sheen. Gradually a melody line begins to appear, slowly taking shape with single chords that coalesce into something more textural, guitar shine shimmering in the gloom as the whole piece begins to uplift and take you from the darkness into a world of light and something altogether more inviting. Layers are plentiful, but use of them subtle, and throughout the piece you are taken on a journey that's as gorgeously splendid as it is emotive, rich, solid, purposeful, cohesive and a mesmerising joy to hear.

MONSTERWORKS – Singularity
Now this cooks!! Yeh -it's a chaotic holocaust of a sound with vocals that are shrieked, hollered, wailed and roared, guitars that cut through with the power of an A-bomb, rhythms that are positively industrial and an overall sound that's absolutely monstrous, but it's just incredible. The intensity is on overload, the strength consistently kicking you in the teeth and the depth goes on to infinity. But, in there, most importantly, the band has so much happening, so many ideas, so much a sense of dynamics within power, the roar so loud it masks that there are actually some seriously strong songs going on in here as far as arrangements are concerned. The metal is brutal, the muscle is magical and the intensity industrial, but the whole thing burns with a blissful blaze that shines like a thousand suns. This is simply stunning and you have to get hold of a copy, turn it way up loud and let the power engulf you, time after time after time.

NIFTY EAGU & THE GLO-PILOTS: Last/First CD
I have played this CD about four or five times now in the short space that I’ve had it, and it’s already going to be one of my most played CD’s of the moment – yet it’s hard to describe. In essence it’s a psychedelic album dominated by some blistering guitar work, but more in the context of classic jamming bands such as Pink Fairies, Djam Karet, Man, etc – you know the sort of thing. With tracks ranging from four to nearly eighteen minutes in length, this is an album with a four and a seventeen minute instrumentals, while the four original songs still leave a lot of room for the guitars to shine, and the album closes with a near ten minute cover of Pink Floyd’s ‘Astronomy Domine’. But don’t get me wrong – this isn’t just a vehicle for the guitars –those four original songs are just FANTASTIC.
The album opens with the first version of ‘Walking Down The Road’, a crunchy little track with a steaming lead vocal and some seriously solid work from the rhythm section, almost Krautrock in its flavour, while over the top the lead guitar just soars and dives and shines - melodic, powerful and red hot. Two tracks later, it reappears in a completely different disguise, this time nearly all instrumental and with the lead electric guitar set on kill as the thing solos over the undulating, crisp and cohesive rhythm section, practically taking the roof of your head off with its fiery intensity, just becoming more and more powerful as the track wears on, and an absolutely awesome example of classic jamming-style psychedelic, electric guitar-led nirvana, while the bass and drums really deliver amid a raging torrent of fuzz guitar and rhythm guitars inferno and some fantastic sampled female voice that is almost buried in the mix – simply stunning. Between these, a four minute instrumental and a six minute song, the latter with a female vocalist who’s just perfect in the context of the indie/Kraut/psych elements of the song, ‘Moonshot’, both reveal a band blowing on all cylinders and some more searing guitar work along the way, the mid-section of the latter with its synth backdrop and scorching guitar work, making the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.
The four minute ‘Web Of Days’ is a jaunty number that still manages to feature a more restrained guitar rage out the back of the mix, this time focusing more on the song. Then the near eighteen minute instrumental ‘There’s A Mosquito In My Guitar Part 2’ which starts slow, as the best ones always do, then proceeds to build and layer, build and climb as the rhythm section moves it all along with some outstanding bass work, while, this time, two lead guitarists, gradually become more and more intense, losing none of the dynamics of the structure and purpose of the track, as the epic moves ever onwards and upwards, ending as a sizzling sea of high-flying melodic guitars-dominated jamming-style glory.
Finally there’s a nine minute ‘Astronomy Domine’ where the lead vocal is deliberately played down, while the mid-section is a cauldron of heady delights, starting with flute and rhythm section as the guitar suddenly erupts and launches the track into an altogether higher dimension in an extended sea of soloing above the rhythm muscle before, with all guns blazing, it’s a return to the song and the raw indie feel that ends the performance with your nerves on fire.
Overall, a stunning album – why I love it so much, I’m not sure – but that’s often why the best albums are exactly that – highly recommended.

OCEAN BOTTOM NIGHTMARE – We Are Serious CD-EP
The opening track is a bit like Rage Against The Machine in parts but pretty well swings like a hangman's noose – with someone at the other end of it!! There's as savagery to this but within the context of the hook that scythes its way into view, that's a good thing. The vocals are bitingly intense and the guitars ravage a path through the smoke while the rhythm section just deliver the hammer blow which propels it all to infinity. It's short, sharp and to the point, hardcore metal songwriting with a commercial sheen. Track 2 is a tad more varied – make that all over the place – as the piece charts various courses and veers off at tangents, the contemporary metal equivalent of Hampton Court Maze!! “Navigator” is a rather fine, spread-out rock ballad -as-raucous-anthem with mighty bass leading the way on a lumbering beast of a track which has got as much heart and soul in its harmonies as sizzling heat in its distant guitars – then it accelerates and explodes into this huge roaring mass of hardcore hammering before reverting back to what went before, the guitar joining the mighty bass for one final, brief, onslaught. “Itchy Tasty” finishes things off with a fast-paced lurching demon of a piece that has echoes of Linkin Park attached to it, but with a bass so heavy it threatens to fall through the floor. The song itself is sung with conviction and strength, the trademark Linkin Park dual vocal style well to the fore as the piece erupts and the band drives through it all with conviction. Overall, then, apart from the second track, a thing of immense pleasure – in fact, an immense thing!!

STEVE ROACH: Empetus DBL CD (Remaster + Bonus CD)
Ah yes, what I described before as “the sequencer album”. So, time to revisit the original review and find out if what I said all those years ago, still aplies – and guess what? Yep,. Surely does...
Eight of the 9 tracks are propelled by layers of cyclical synth rhythms, with a mix of clipped melodies and flowing, stretched string-like synths flying away on top,. In a sense, it's almost a '90's answer to the organ/loop works of Terry Riley from the '70's, with a similarly cyclical yet spellbinding nature, only here, obviously, all on synths and more full-sounding than you would imagine. But anyone who gets off on this whole spellbinding looping stuff will really enjoy this album, largely because it's got that depth that you so badly need on an album such as this, one that manages to soften the effect of the sequencers to a degree that makes the whole thing as listenable as it is hypnotic. In addition, it also has a sound rooted in '70's TD sequencer sounds to give extra depth to the rhythms that take the centre stage throughout, except the last track which ends on a slowly drifting sea of synths and not a rhythm in sight.
After this you now get a bonus CD. The first track, “Harmonia Mundi”, is 46 minutes long. Now here, there's a difference. Once more, it's a sequencer piece – only here, there's no softener. This time, you're on your own in sequencer freefall, as this immense sounding sea of cyclical sequencers builds, travels, flies, unfolds and changes, yet all the time the Terry Riley way of doing things is accelerated to a pace that would make the legendary organist gasp for breath. On first hearing, it's almost overwhelming, but come back to it a second time, and you begin to see what lies behind, under and all around the rhythmic intensity that comes at you like a charging rhino, seeing the beauty that lies beneath the stark exterior – and once you get to that point, this is absolutely mesmerising and more than repays its duration. The 26 minute “Release” is more seadte, you'll be thankful to hear, but in its sedate state, it now becomes a spacey sequencer piece, if that isn't a contradiction in terms, and as it develops, a thing of glory slowly unfolds and shines before you, still cyclical, still repetitive, but the slow pace at which change happens, just enough to keep you hooked. Add to that a flow of melody that you didn't get on the first disc in such an obvious way, and you have something that is the closest you'll have hears Roach get to classic mid-seventies “Berlin School” and that's to be recommended, in this case. Overall, as sequencer albums go, this is right upfront and takes no prisoners yet behind the rhythmic firepower lies an electronic heart and a comforting soul.

STEVE ROACH/ERIK WOLLO – Stream Of Thought CD
I suppose right now that, even though Steve continues to put out great albums on his own, his best works are coming when he collaborates with other musicians, especially ones he's not worked with before or even who you never thought he would work with, on a stylistic basis. Yet this single 70 minute track, with guitarist Erik Wollo, is a thing of multi-faceted joy. It's a single track that plays continuously yet is split into about 18 segments, which means that nothing outstays its welcome as you move seamlessly from one idea to the next. That the pair manage to maintain the flow and feel of the music throughout the album, is a testament to just how good this is. The starting block erupts with rhythm. Not just traditional sequencer and electro-percussive rhythm but subtly hypnotic and cyclical rhythm, at first feeling almost too hypnotic, but as you play it more and more, you spot the charms that lie beneath. That this then moves forward to introduce elements of depth and texture as the tone and sound of the rhythms begin to change, is a kind of organic flow that you so love about Roach's music – there's never anything that sounds “forced” or “disjointed”. So, as you take your journey through the splendours of this wondrously full-sounding track which combines a vast array of electronic, electro-percussive and percussive rhythmic strength and subtlety, allied to rivers of synthesized, guitar-textured and treated undercurrents, you'll find a journey that's way more varied and yet solidly cohesive than any Roach collaborative musical travelogue for quiet some time, and this is an album that improves and becomes more spellbinding with every play.

SEVERENTH – The Age Of Paranoia CD
North Wales hits hard in the form of a molten metal quintet who have clearly been overdosing on a diet of Slipknot and Linkin Park all washed down with a liberal swallow of Avenged Sevenfold. The opener, “It Shatters” is a pure UK answer to Slipknot, even possibly more appropriately Stone Sour, with all the storm force metal intensity that such a comparison would lead you to expect. That this searing heat becomes even hotter in the nuclear holocaust of “Twisted” is not just a testament to the production and arrangement values the band's injected into the final result, but also the band's desire to produce real songs with huge sounding guitars and ferocious rhythms, but a world where everything is heard individually while the sum of the parts remains greater than the component elements, massive as they are. The vocals are sung, hollered, screamed, roared and wrung out, but the astounding thing is just how much freshness and vitality this band brings to what you'd have thought was an outdated formula. That they are producing real songs in a solidly hardcore environment and making them all absolutely addictive as far as listening pleasure is concerned is a sign that this band not only sounds massive but is destined to be massive. As modern ferocious metal with a burning passion, a blazing heart and a quality inferno of towering songs goes, this is at the top of its tree before the others even get a look-in. Essential listening and then some!

SPACE NELSON: Don’t Panic CD
They call themselves a “progressive rock band from Detroit” – but there are eight songs in 32 minutes, what you’d call economical but effective guitar solos, keyboards used more as textural backdrops and a strong rhythm section. When you think about it, that’s not a bad description of a band such as Rush, who wouldn’t call themselves a prog band, play short tracks in the main and yet are loved by the prog-rock fraternity. This band don’t sound anything like that, but they are in a similar position, if you get my drift. They write great songs, feature some sterling guitar work on well arranged songs, have a full sound thanks to the extra guitars and keys and possess a strong rhythm section that propels it all forwards. The vocals are more mid-range than anything with harmonies and choruses that really add spice, although you’ll be hard pressed to find what you’d call a “hook” on any of them, so that while you’re loving what you’re hearing, it takes a few plays to get them inside your head. The arrangements are excellent, allowing the tracks to breathe and fly without any long-winded soloing or without going too near an overtly rock-based setting. Yet every song has an anthemic quality to it thanks to the huge-sounding production and those solid arrangements, some faster than others and all of them raising your adrenaline levels to some degree or other. Thanks to its length, the album is simply one sizzling song after another, all of them enjoyable and every one a song you’ll want to hear again. It’s not rock, it’s not prog, it’s not even psych – in many ways, it’s none and yet it’s all three. Solid, strong and sheer quality.

Continued........ soon!!

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