LESLIE WEST – Soundcheck (CD)

Leslie is one of my all-time favourite guitarists. Ever since I heard Mountain back in the 70s I was hooked! His solo albums, quite a few by now, has however never really been any 10/10s, but on the other hand he’s never released any bad albums either. It’s mostly been half killer stuff and the other half swaying between good and ok. On his last couple of albums it’s like he’s been rejuvenated in some way, because he’s actually better than ever! The guitar playing, vocals and overall attitude is rock hard and the songs are for the most part really good! Souncheck starts out with a hard hitting nut kicker in the form of Left By The Roadside To Die, one of the album’s few originals. I’m not an extreme fan of covers (says the person who has released three cover albums…), but when you record a cover don’t really like it when you do a carbon copy of the original. Leslie West has, ever since the old days of Mountain, Leslie West Band and West Bruce & Laing recorded covers, and made them his own. From Stones’ Satisfaction, Jack Bruce’s Theme For An Imaginary Western to the entire Dylan cover album Masters Of War. This album features several covers, and I really love it when he gives them the full frontal West treatment, such as You Are My Sunshine (featuring Peter Frampton) as a cool soft blues ballad in a minor key. Just as genius as when Ghost did The Beatles Here Comes The Sun in minor. You will also find Leslie’s (or actually bass player Rev Jones’) renditions of The Beatles' Eleanor Rigby, Curtis Mayfield’s People Get Ready (with Leslie’s lead guitar tone soaring like a bit proud eagle) and a really groovy, strutty cover of Don Nix Goin’ Down (featuring Brian May). The only one I don’t really like is Stand By Me (mainly because I don’t like the song from the beginning and also because the way it’s done didn’t really speak to me) and the quite badly recorded live-version of Spoonful, which I can fully understand he included because of nostalgia reasons after the loss of Jack Bruce, but it doesn’t really live up to the quality of the rest of the album soundwise. As for his original tunes, Here For The Party is an outstanding chunky, gritty and heavy blues rocker that hits you like a steamroller while A Stern Warning (dedicated to his friend Howard Stern) is an outstanding showcasing of Leslie’s acoustic guitar skills. All in all, this is a damn fine album, one of the best Leslie has released since the Mountain days!

Janne Stark

Country: USA

Year: 2015

Label: Mascot Records

TWENTY TWO HUNDRED - Carnaval De Vénus (CD)

Twenty Two Hundred
Carnaval De Vénus
Tonequake Records

It's not often these days that an album hits me so hard it gets stuck in my CD player. It does happen now and then, but not like in the "old days". When the debut album by Australian band Twenty Two Hundred started spinning in the player, my listening experience was initiated by the track 7X Down, with its killer heavy riff, raw-edge bass and Tony Cardenas-Montana's rough bluesy voice. Just like fellow-Australians, Tracer, they also produced an outstanding groove making it impossible to sit still. Next track, Got It Bad, started with a gnarly, distorted, wah-wah tinged walking bass, soon accompanied by some swing drums, resting on Tony's almost jazzy added vocals, to just break loose in a crushingly heavy chorus with the whole band. Another track, with a riff that smashes everything in its way, the riff I wish I'd written, and probably Leslie West, too if he hears it, is Hitman. Here, Mark Wells delivers a guitar solo with the wah-wah at large, which fills its perfect role in the song. Stone Cold starts with a treacherous calm with some funky bass, slick drums and Tony's awesome cool voice. This song also delivers a sledgehammer chorus and a killer guitar solo. Also subsequent track, The Sun, rests on a cool funky groove in the verse, while the chorus again crushes! This is one of the things I love with this band, their feeling for nuances, to keep one part down while crushing in the next. Create some tension, like waiting for the Christmas presents. Guitarist/bassist Mark Wells has also produced the album, and I must say he has done an awesome job. He has created the same type of feel Kevin Shirley has done, especially with Tracer. Very dynamic, analogue and at the same time fat but atmospheric. That he lights up the guitars, like in the aforementioned tracks and Shot Down, lets the drums, bass and vocals handle the verse, and then let the brutal guitar loose in the chorus. I love that! I also love the band's cool mix of seventies hard rock, funky heavy rock and a big dose of groovy southern rocking blues. Outstanding groove and the band sound incredibly tight, like if they had been doing pre-production for months to feel each other off as musicians, alternatively played a hundred gigs together. Whatever, Twenty Two Hundred's album has been spinning frantically ever since I received it, and so has their first EP, and they will keep on. One of the best surprises of the year so far, and definitely a favourite! 
Janne Stark
Label: Tonequake Records
Country: Australia
Year: 2013