SPLAT! Deep Purple (earMUSIC) ****
Deep Purple has arrived at their 24th album with fresh wind in their sails. Splat!, their 2nd record with guitarist Simon McBride and 6th with producer Bob Ezrin, captures the verve of the early 70’s Mark II lineup. The songs are more to the point than the old days with only 3 of these 13 cuts exceeding 4 minutes, but there’s no mistaking the fire in their bellies.
In an article for The I Paper by Shaun Curran Ian Gillan, now 80, credits Irish guitarist McBride for helping Purple find their way back. “I think Simon has helped us get our mojo back” Ian says. “It’s like a unit again. It’s a fantastic feeling.” It’s not an uncommon effect; Judas Priest experienced exactly that when Richie Faulkner replaced longtime JP guitarist KK Downing in 2011 and they’ve been on a creative tear since. The music sounds both familiar and fresh, which is quite a balancing act. In that same article Gillan notes that Splat is a semi-concept about what happens after the apocalypse. “It’s about hope and light and the future” he says. “Well, the world has changed. I’ve changed. You’ve climbed the hill of life. You see further, you interpret things in different ways, but that doesn’t mean you can’t write about it… or laugh at it.”
Shorter songs aside, Splat has a classic Purple vibe. Gillan at the mic, Roger Glover on bass, Don Airey doing Jon Lord proud on keys, Simon McBride’s bluesy, fire-breathing guitar, plus the sole original member and my favorite rock drummer Ian Paice keeps the whole thing swinging and thundering down the tracks. Nobody in their right mind who expect a hard rock band 6 decades into their career to come out swinging like this, but with great musicians and producer Ezrin behind the glass that’s exactly what has happened.
Within the concise song structures the guys play with precise abandon and it’s thrilling. The band has been growing and improving since they hooked up with Bob Ezrin in 2013 and it’s hard to imagine them doing better than Splat, but they’re already talking about heading back into the studio next year. “Well, it’s a job for life” Gillan says, and long may they run.
HOT WAX: Diablo, Scribln’ Gib’rish, My New Movie
FOLK FATALE Divka (independent) *** ½
In the 36-plus years I’ve been reviewing albums, this is a first; Ukrainian folk music. Folk Fatale, Divka’s debut, is described as “sounding ancient as dirt”. I may not understand mostly what they’re singing as pathetic high school French is my feeble second language, but there is no mistaking the fire and passion in each of these dramatic songs.
This duo includes Alina Kytasty Kuzma, a bandura player (the Ukrainian nation harp/ zither) and vocal forest nymph and Zoe Santo, a viola player and “gremlin of chaos and sometimes vocals.” On Folk Fatale they take ‘bygone folk songs from Ukrainian and global women’s music making traditions. The music on this record is described as “haunting as fear itself, hypnotic as a trance. (Their) music is charged with mythology, traditional village singing, and generations of femme power, mystic whimsy, and a dash of vengeance.” Their mission is to find and perform songs where women are allowed joy, and not punished for desire, curiosity, pleasure or power. This disc is rightly called a sonic archive of women’s inner lives across time filled with flirtation, rage, grief, eroticism, humor, longing, longing, survival and magic.
Other than the tracks sung in English it’s difficult for me to comment on the specifics of Folk Fatale, but sonically the album is basic yet rich and Alina is as passionate a singer as you’re ever likely to hear. Admittedly not singing more of these songs in English will limit FF’s appeal in the world at large, but you don’t have to understand the lyrics to feel the fire that drives them. The press info says “they revive and re-invent songs lived through wartime, empire and censorship, returning them louder, wilder and very much alive.” I may not fully grasp everything that’s going on here, but Folk Fatale is musically superb.
HOT TRACKS: IDK, The Garden, Rusalka
SHUT YOUR EYES AND SEE All Night Boogie Band (independent) *****+
To quote Paul Stanley on Kiss Alive!; “if you’re down in the dumps and you need something to bring you up…” I suggest taking the new All Night Boogie Band album for a spin. Shut Your Eyes And See is a dazzling mix of well executed rock and blues numbers that just makes everything better. I haven’t had a record affect me quite like this since Katrina & The Waves.
ANBB’s sound touches on the Stax/ Muscle Shoals/ Motown side of classic rock with NOLA overtones. The word on these guys is “they don’t so much blend genres together as they put them on a demolition derby figure-8 track where a head-on collision is as likely as a calm pass along the back wall.” There’s a wild energy to the songs on Shut Your Eyes yet they’re tightly constructed for maximum impact. “I would consider myself a voracious listener as much as I’m a songwriter” says guitarist Brendan Casey. “I lean toward writing songs that don’t necessarily fit a sound but are songs that I’d want to listen to as well.” The band doesn’t just wander into the studio with each new batch of songs to see what happens either. “I’ve always been of a mind to work songs out in front of a crowd first” Casey says, “let them grow and come into their own. As much as we’re taking (the crowd) on a ride, they’re helping us choose the route.”
The playing on Shut Your Eyes is instinctual and Jesse Leone is one of the most exciting singers I’ve heard in a very long time as she reaches somewhere deep and just brings it with those impressive pipes, especially on I Think They Call It Peace. This disc is a masterclass in dynamics with unmistakable groove driving each of the songs. With a record this vital, this damn good, I only have one complaint; I wish there were more than 7 songs. This thing is EPIC.
HOT TRACKS: Keep On Rolling, I Think They Call It Peace, Stuck In The City
