Jimmy Ryan - Astral Café (CD)

 

Guitarist extraordinaire, Jimmy Ryan, is finally following up his excellent “21st Century Riffology” CD of 2017. Jimmy is an outstanding player, mixing his blues oriented with classic rock in the vein of Wishbone Ash, which was the first thing I came to think of when listening to opening track “Starlord”. Killer melodic, instrumental, melodic guitar rock. “Shatterbrain” goes into a melodic, almost slightly fusion-oriented mode, with some brutal fuzz+UniVibe soloing. The cover of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads” is a groovy heavy riff rocker, quite different from any other version I’ve heard. Jimmy’s rough-edged vocals fit this track like a glove. “Earthrise” is a smooth instrumental melodic number that takes us on to “Skydance”, which continues the melodic instrumental path, but with some cool almost progressive passages which gives the song a nice touch. “Black Ice” is a quirky riff piece, still melodic, but adding another new flavor to the album. Jimmy rips it open with a nice wah solo. “I’m Ready” brings in the heavy artillery and this one also has some fierce vocals from Jimmy. A kick ass heavy rocker, indeed! “Dulcinea” again brings us back into melodic guitar territory, while “Beserker” sure does what it says. That track has a raw, almost King’s X:ish vibe, but Jimmy’s smooth lead guitar lays in top like a smooth blanket. “Plectrumelectrum” kicks it into riff gear again and it does have a certain Zeppelin vibe to it. A cool track, indeed, with some pretty wild guitar harmonies. The short, but effective “Dreadhulk” takes us back into the detuned regions again, but soon picks up the pace and delivers some really cool harmony guitars. Drummer Dan Van Schindel makes good use of his toms in this one, as well as in the energetic vocal “Celestial Voice”, which made me think of Asia meets Wishbone Ash, with a pretty intense proggy mid-section and more kick ass soling from Jimmy. The album closes with “Quiet Flight”, which again is a quite descriptive title for a song. A smooth melodic guitar solo opens this more than 8 minute long number, which also takes a short walk into fusion-land. In all a brilliant guitar album for fans of bands like vintage Wishbone Ash. 

Year: 2021

Label: Ryanetics

Country: USA

Link: www.ryanetics.com

Universal Hippies – Evolution of Karma (CD)

Imagine if you throw a portion of well cooked vintage Wishbone Ash into a blender and then sprinkle a bit of Joe Satriani and Steve Vai on top. You then sift the brew to get rid of all unnecessary shredding. Throw the shredding away and keep all that good tasty stuff. Pour it into a mold and make a nice CD of it. Voila! You’ve got the "Evolution of Karma"! This is the second CD by Greek instrumental rockers Universal Hippies and even though I really enjoyed their debut, “Mother Nature Blues”, this one takes it a step further in terms of tasteful melodies and great song material. There’s not a weak moment on this album and it has a great flow. This is definitely an album album, an album you listen to from beginning to end. The flow from one song to another is just sublime and Stavros Papadopoulos’ guitar playing is nothing short of phenomenal. His feel and tone are just awesome. Not forgetting the highly tasteful rhythm section featuring bass player Jim Petridis and drummer Chris Lagios, who really lay down the perfect grooves for the brew. The mix, also by Stavros, is crisp and clear with a lot of nice ambience. Very analogue and very live sounding. This is an outstanding album, indeed and I’d recommend it to anyone who’s into the melodic instrumental side of Wishbone Ash or Satch, when he slows it down and get his melodic mojo working.

Janne Stark

Country: Greece

Year: 2018

Label: Grooveyard Records

Link: www.grooveyardrecords.com

Universal Hippies - Mother Nature Blues (CD)

Busy boy Stavros (Super Vintage, Freerock Saints, Hard Driver) is at it again. This time delivering a bunch of instrumental tracks under the Universal Hippies moniker. I'm not a huge fan of instrumental albums, I shall admit, but this is some pretty cool shit. Opener Redemption Day is a cool, melodic thing with highly tasteful guitar harmonies and great melodies. Enjoyable indeed! Homo Sapiens continues in the same vein and I get a feel of Wishbone Ash meets 70s Epitaph, with some bad ass riffing thrown in. Stavros plays outstandingly tasteful. No overplaying, no meaningless shredding, but melodic soloing, great feel, great arrangements and really great songs. There's not a bad track on the album and I must say I really love every part of it from the songs to the performances to the songs. Awesome!
Janne Stark

-->

Label: Grooveyard
Year: 2017
Country: Greece

Future Elephants? - Future Elephants? (2LP)

You may wonder whatever happened to Neon Rose singer Roger Holegård. Yes, he did record some stuff with Truck and Wasa Express, but that was ages ago. So, finally, he's teamed up with guitarist Dante Holmberg (Uppåt Väggarna, Strix Q), bassist Anders Lundquist and drummer Rolle Lindgren and formed a zoo, we'll at least the elephant section, the future elephants section… probably, hence the question mark, I guess... No idea about the name, but somehow it does stick out. Damaged Child opens the album and man; this was a nice surprise. Even though I love the heavy rocking style of Neon Rose, Future Elephants? well-arranged prog rock really strikes a positive nerve. The sound is raw, naked and dynamic, very analogue sounding. I just love the minimalist production with nothing to hide behind. The songs are intricate, well-arranged yet very easy accessible. In The Tide Is Rollin In You can almost hear Danne standing on the side just waiting to throw in a riff. Then suddenly we're off in guitar land, reminding me of Automatic Fine Tuning (or Wishbone Ash on steroids). Damn, I love this! Ivory Dance reminds me a bit about Crack The Sky, with lyrics handling the extinction of beautiful animals just for our money and pleasure. Roger's still got it, both vocally and lyrically. In This Tone opens up with some guitar licks that sound so genuinely guitar through amp that any digital device would crumble and die. Add a bit of mellotron, some drunken pub chanting and you feel like you've been transported back to 1974. Love it! Sundown In Matobo takes us to Africa, I guess, I'm not really sure about the dialect, though. November Pain initially takes us into a dark, heavy and gloomy territory, but moves on to softer grounds and suddenly we land in a Pink Floyd:ish landscape with Dante going all Gilmour on our asses. Really beautiful stuff with killer guitar playing indeed! And The Mountain Kissed The Sky mixes Swedish folky vibes with Native American drums and a feel of Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride. Don't Raise That Gun with some vintage AC/DC sounding riffing and makes me think of Baby, Please Don't Go, except for the heavy and doomy chorus. Album finale The Pilot ends the album in a great proggy manner featuring both sunshine and rain (literally). An outstanding album that should attract all fans of 70s progressive music with biting guitar-work and intricate but accessible songs. Quite the masterpiece!

Janne Stark

Country: Sweden

Year: 2016

Label: Rock Music Productions