THE GROOVEMAN'S COLLECTION

REVIEWS FROM MY VINYL COLLECTION

Tag: vinyl (Page 47 of 50)

MONUMENTS – Phronesis

December 3, 2020 /

Monuments! I have been following the history of these guys since the early days of the Djent movement when Browne and Misha from Periphery shared their ideas and grooves on the web. In fact, Browne played in Periphery for a while when Alex Bois left. The Periphery connection gets even more incestuous with Chris Barretto, who sings here, was the original Periphery vocalist before Spence. It seems as though Misha was right about him being awkward to work with as he is no longer the Monuments vocalist either.

Anyhoo, things kick off nicely with A.W.O.L with some heavy drop D and beyond grooves from Browne and Olly Steele. Barretto’s vocal style flips from really melodic cleans to outright screamo. Stygian Blue opens up Side 2 – brilliant – and carries on with more low end grooves interspersed with melody and screams from Barretto. Album closer The Watch is the stand out cut from the album, and sees the band going out with all guns blazing.

Even though Monuments were one of the early purveyors of the djent movement, they seemed to get left behind as they were late to release product. Whereas other bands in this genre have been changing and varying their sounds, Monuments have been true to their sound and progressed over the 3 albums. Phronesis being their best effort to date. Hopefully they carry on as they have had quite a bit of turmoil with band members leaving or getting injured. I think they are a real good band.

7/10 from The Grooveman.

THE ROLLING STONES – Sticky Fingers

December 3, 2020 /

It took me a long time to appreciate the Stones. I always found they were not as immediate as the Beatles say, who were a lot more melody orientated.

This is the 2015 Abbey Road remix and remaster, which contains a bonus disc with alternate takes of 5 songs and 4 live tracks from the Roundhouse in ’71.

Kicking off with the classic Brown Sugar this is the Stones at their very best. I think the addition of Mick Taylor made them the complete article. Followed by the excellent Sway and Wild Horses, which then leads into the Stones finest hour with Can You Hear Me Knocking. This has Muscle Shoals written all over it with the extended middle section which is as groovy has it gets. The track is made by Taylor’s guitar and the sax playing of Bobby Keys and Billy Preston’s organ. I never tire of this track. Side 2 doesn’t quite live up to the sheer brilliance of Side 1 but Bitch, Sister Morphine, and Moonlight Mile come close.

Sure the Stones had their moments after this, especially with Exile, but this was it for me. This has to be the ultimate version of this as the half speed mastering, the remix, and original production by Jimmy Miller make this a joy to listen to.

9/10 from The Grooveman.

GREG MATHIESON PROJECT – Baked Potato Super Live

November 23, 2020 /

So the Discogs randomizer pops up this rarely played gem. Recorded over 3 nights at the Baked Potato in December 1981.

So who is Greg Mathieson I hear you ask?! Well, he is an LA producer and jazz keyboardist. The thing of interest here is the participation of Steve Lukather and Jeff Porcaro of Toto. If you like your music loose, and with titles that don’t mean a whole bunch accept to just name the song while some awesome soloing takes place, then you may have just found your Nirvana.

Luke is on fire on tracks like Bomp Me, with the fantastic groove machine Porcaro laying down an amazing groove on Time Around, where again Luke just slays with some killer guitar. Side 2 starts off with a funky keyboard heavy track I Don’t Know, then Luke kicks in some very tasty clean jazz grooves. The rhythm section of Porcaro and Pops Popwell are top notch and lay the foundation for some great music. This is one of those shows where you wish you were there. You can hear the joy that the band are having inter playing with each other. Anyhoo, the album closes out with the excellent The Spud Shuffle and finishes – what is a great record.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

GENESIS – Foxtrot

November 19, 2020 /

It’s amazing to look at the release date of 1972 and think where did all the time go? I can vividly remember listening to this way back when through the mists of time and thinking “wow what an amazing album”, and it still is. When you consider all the great albums that have come since, it still holds up well. I guess good songs will always be good songs.

Kicking things off with what is one of my favourite Genesis songs, Watcher of the Skies and followed by Time Table, Get Em Out By Friday, and closing the side with Cam-Utility and the Coastliners – you think no way can Side 2 be any better?! Then you turn over and the complete side is the classic Suppers Ready.

Any other band would call this the peak of creativity but Genesis went on to record The Lamb. Man they were great around this period – a completely different beast that came along much later. Gabriel’s lyrics and imagery are on a different level to all around him at the time. It’s hard to believe but Phil Collins never sang a note as a vocalist at this point sticking to being the drummer. This is a wonderful record, and is still held in high regard in Prog circles to this day. Many bands have tried to emulate and copy their style (Marillion- Script for a Jesters Tear) but none have surpassed what early Genesis created. In fact, it can be argued that a whole movement sprung up because of this period of Genesis. This and Nursery Crime are still go to records for me.

8/10 from The Grooveman.

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