THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: vinyl (Page 43 of 50)

TEXTURES – Dualism

January 8, 2021 /

Killer 2012 release from these Dutch Prog groove metallers. The super sad news is that they are no longer together. They split up after the release of the follow up album to this due to apathy and knocking on the door for far too long and getting nowhere.

I managed to catch them live once in support of this album with Periphery and The Contortionist. I know killer line up or what? If I were to describe Textures to anyone I would say listen to the first track Arms of The Sea as this has everything that you would associate with the band. Namely awesome clean and growl vocal, off time drum rhythm grooves, drop D and beyond guitars, and a crushing ending.

Things carry on nicely through Black Horse Stampede and beautiful Reaching Home until we reach the epic Sanguine Draws the Oath. Another great off time groove and riff from Jochem Jacobs and Bart Hennephofs dual guitars, some killer drumming courtesy of Stef Brooks and epic vocal from Daniel De Jong. Absolute killer stuff. The riffs go really low in full djentorama!! Buy this album for this track alone!! Side 1 closes out with the epic Consonant Hemispheres.

Over to Side 2 and the instrumental Burning the Midnight Oil gets things going nicely, and then into the mighty Singularity again with weird off time groves and killer drums. Minor Earth Major Skies, Stoic Resignation, and Foreclosure fly by and we get all too quickly to the close out track Sketches From A Motionless Statue, almost Dream Theateresque in its beginning.

It’s sad to say that the music business is littered with bands like Textures who burn brightly for a short period and then they are gone. I know it wasn’t for a lack of trying as they funded almost everything themselves. If I were to recommend one Textures album to purchase for your collection then it would be this monster.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

LARKIN POE – Peach

January 7, 2021 /

I think the first review I did for this blog was Larkin Poe, well the randomizer throws them your way again.

This album from 2018 is basically just the two Lovell sisters playing everything themselves. A mixture of originals and covers, the sisters are taking us deep into Mississippi blues territory on this one. Rebecca’s vocals have such depth and feel for one so young, and on the original Cast Em Out she seriously delivers. Pink & Red has a very modern delivery with that delta backdrop not too far away.

The sister’s versions of blues and gospel classics, John The Revelator and Robert Johnson’s Come On In My Kitchen, may have some blues purists crying in there fried chicken but I love these versions as they breath new life into them.

Tracks like Wanted Woman – AC/DC have again that very modern feel with programming and loops that should appeal to younger ones among us with some great lap steel and slide from Megan.

Please do yourselves a favour and check Larkin Poe out. They are incredible and deserve your support. If we ever get back to going to gigs again I will be first in line when they call by.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

PORCUPINE TREE – Anesthetize

January 7, 2021 /

If you look back through previous reviews you will see my review for Fear of a Blank Planet. This recording is the culmination of that tour whereby on the last leg they played the album in it’s entirety plus the tracks from the Nil Recurring EP – except funnily enough not the track Ni Recurring, although it does appear on the Blu-ray as a projection film.

This version is the lavish 4LP box set that came out on Dutch label Tonefloat. Quite apt really as this was recorded at the 013 in Tilburg. This is the second live album by PT, the first of which was Coma Divine recorded in the band’s more tripping psychedelic era.

The live set up of Porcupine Tree see the band complimented with an extra band member, which is John Wesley who plays guitar and backing vocals, which is great as he fills the sound out nicely. I caught this tour in Toronto when they passed through and I loved every second of it. The songs come across a lot heavier live as to what they are on album, which is no bad thing as it adds to the atmos. If I remember rightly the show was split into two as the band went off and came back after they had played Blank Planet.

As per my original review, Blank Planet was the pinnacle of their recorded output and this tour, a high point even though the Incident tour after this saw bigger attendances. The band at this point were super tight and special mention goes to drummer Gavin Harrison whose performance is outstanding – some of his fills are jaw dropping. You get the sense that the band knew this was a special occasion as they give their all.

PT use a lot of visuals when they play to enhance the songs to the max, and when you are used to seeing them that way it does leave an empty feeling when listening to the vinyl. Nevertheless, the songs are strong enough to stand alone and the performances of each song are nothing short of amazing. The second half of the set consists of songs in their back catalogue going back as far as the Sygnify album – highlight for me being Halo.

Unfortunately the band doesn’t exist anymore as Steven Wilson now has a very successful solo career, and the prospect of PT getting back together is very slim. This live album is a great testimony to what was one of modern progs greatest bands. Definitely one of the best live albums around.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

JOE WALSH – But Seriously Folks

January 6, 2021 /

At one time, Joe was probably best known for being world’s biggest hell raiser and a member of The Eagles. But before that, he was a member of The James Gang and he released three solo albums before he joined the big birds.

This album was recorded after he joined The Eagles, and the vibe has The Eagles written all over it. I really like Joe’s style of guitar playing, but there’s not a lot of it on show here as this is all about the songs and painting pictures with the words as in the beautiful Indian Summer.

I have a huge soft spot for Joe’s vocal style when he really stretches his voice and gets that whiny tone and on At The Station this is emphasized best with its swinging groove. Onto Side 2 and it’s more of the same really culminating in the album’s stand out track Life’s Been Good. Some good players assembled as a back up namely Jay Ferguson on keys and Joe Vitale on drums as well all The Eagles appearing on backing vocals’s part and Don Felder on lap steel. A great record, no, but a fun record nonetheless.

6/10 from the Grooveman.

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