If we talk about twanging guitars we have to take a look to Duane Eddy. He generated tthe ypical Duane Eddy-Twang, while he played the leading melody on the bass strings of his E guitar and worked with a combination of the sound effects tremolo, echo and sound which lent a deep earthy sound to his guitar play. Also the guitar sound on Eddys admissions was influenced by the choice of his instrument. Most of you will know his version of the Peter Gunn Theme but I'm more into the song I would like to present you today.
A few weeks ago I bought a CD-Compilation called The Tropical Club Night. Compiled by a German DJ called Ralph von Richthoven (what a name) there are a lot of fantastic tracks on this record. All the stuff is latin-influenced Dance-groove between House, Electro and Dub.
And again the best from a lot of bands which offered me their new music. During the last weeks many bands appeared playing typical R 'n' B, Indie Pop or Rap. Stuff I've heard often enough and not really new in their interpretation. But sometimes you'll find some nuggets but sometimes the music touches you from the first measures.
The first artist is from Saxonia, Germany and now living in Dubai and calls himself DJ Rob de Blank. He's a world wide traveler during his last 20 years and working worldwide as a DJ since the middle 90s. Influenced by Deep House, Chillout and EDM he released a few weeks ago his new single. It starts with a little piano and then a voice appears that reminds me a bit to Kate Bush than the main theme takes over and was added with some guitar licks. For sure a track I will listen often to.
The Danbury Lie from New Haven released a new record. I featured them a few month ago. And listening to these songs I just can repeat the words I said before: Based on the tradition of folk they added elements of classic (prog)rock. Most of them are quiet at the start and turn into a heavier sound later.All in all well arranged songs with a somber and dark tone in it. Seems like they are able to play on a high level. Give them a listen - I think it's worth.
Another band I featured months ago are The DOVES from Macon, Georgia. Since the first time I noticed the couple their output was in my focus. Now they released a new six-track record with all the ingredients they stand for: powerful songs with an emphatic guitar and catchy rhythms. That's what I would like to hear on radio. That they are able to play a blues song is shown on the second track.
The Red Moons are an alternative rock band formed in Chicago in 2014 and are working on their debut album release in 2015. They name The Doors as one of their influence but I think they are more in the tradition of Nirvana or the Foo Fighters. They play an emphatic alternative rock with heavy guitars and grungy vocals. I am curious as to how they will develop.
Birds Over Arkansas from West Chester, Pennsylvania describe their music with these words Indie band infusing technical prog rock, infectious melodies and harmonies, and singer/songwriter sensibilities.And indeed - you can hear these influences in their songs. It's probably a band that found their own sound and it's good this way. They're songs are too complex arranged and played in order to be overlooked. Birds over Arkansas - Catapult If you think of Georgia and the Southern States of the USA you might think of swamp music or Southern Fried rock music. But Ghostrain shows us that other sounds could be played. Formed in late 80s it's obviously that the members obviously listened to early 70s bands like Bob Seger or Led Zeppelin. The song I feature reminds me with it's rhythm on a faster played version of Riders on the storm by The Doors. With it's organ sound the song is a bit hypnotic and far ahead of the average in classic rock music. Ghostrain - City of the Sun Back to Germany and to Electro/EBM/Indie. Lily Wiese is HONEY TOWER a new German-based female electro artist somewher between French touch, rock 'n' roll glamour, fashion vibes, avantgarde trash and subtle poetic vision, creating a sound that is found to be 'unique' (Fault magazine). HONEY TOWER dropped her third releas 'Dandy', an 8-track concept album, referencing destinct manifestations of dandyism in literature, history an philosophy. I would call her music as a minimal Deep House with steady grooves. Worth to listen.
Another German musician is Gunnar Spardel who released his Ambient, Chill-Out and Trance based record as Tigerforest. He names himself as an electronic musician, producer and film composer inspired by teutonic sound-pioneers. An it's true - his sound is like the soundtrack to a movie about landscapes and remembers sometimes to Pink Floyd without guitars.
When I have brought his series to life, I would not have thought that so many results become from it. And so I will continue until number 50 in this series. Todays band takes us back to the days of Krautrock. Formed in 1975 by Klaus Dinger (who played with Kraftwerk and Neu! before), his brother Thomas and Hans Lampe. Typically for the music of La Dusseldorf are long, about wide distances the instrumental pieces which contains with sound collages and scanty song, often only German, English or now and again also French linguistic scraps are complemented. Lots of folks back then blamed this kind of music as too arty and not earthy enough. I remember many discussions I had with a couple of friends about the pros and cons of this music. Most of them I couldn't convince to open their ears for something new. The same thing happened again when another new music showed up the following years. Nevertheless, there were enough musicians in other countries which appreciated these music. Thus the music from Neu! and La Dusseldorf has big influence on the music of Brian Eno and David Bowie exercised. Bowie called La Dusseldorf "the soundtrack of the eighties". So take 13 minutes and listen to this little masterpiece that was recorded 40 years ago.
Cockney Rebel was a successful British Glam rock band in the early 1970s around the charismatic singer Steve Harley. He was very egocentrically but one of the first who put a clarinet into his pop songs. I was liked him and his songs. Especially he teched me trying to understand his dialect (another one was Steve Marriot with The Small Faces). Anyway a song who reached number one in the British top ten who is still worth to listen to. Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel - Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)
Another look over the border to Austria gives us a new band called Wanda. Stamped by the best from the last 3o years of Austropop Wanda tries to try a little bit completely new in German-speaking pop music. Their songs are a crude combination of Indie guitars and some strings. In this song ("Bologna") Marco Michael sings to themselves his sexual desire for a Half-Italian cousin about the soul. Not too bad for a band from the continent and worth to give a listen.
Jimmy Patton was born in 1931 on a farm in Oklahoma, moved with his family in 1943, however, to Springfield, Oregon. In this time Patton began to be interested in music and took every opportunity was, to sing and to play. He had first a job as a rodeo rider, had to give up this, however, in 1953, after he had broken the arm. Although he was, actually, a Country singer, he joined in this time to the trend Elvis Presley and the Rockabilly. He wasn't very successful and turned away from Rockabilly to play his country tunes again. His legacy is a song which could be a standard if he had the airplay. This song has all the ingredients of these times: a Rockabilly guitar, a piano that could be played by Jerry Lee Lewis and vocals that are similar to Little Richard.
