Sam Gopal - Escalator (Esoteric)

Sam Peckinpah more like. These guys look like the first chosen for his ugly epic The Wild Bunch - even the misnomered Pretty Things looked less threatening. Briefly counter-culture darlings of the late 60's underground scene, this four-piece - named after their Malaysian percussionist - laid 'Escalator' down in a blur of excess in 1968 and while it commands eyebrow-arching sums in original vinyl format these days, probably scared most of the horses back then.

Ian - later 'Lemmy' -Willis's squalling lead guitar depth-bombs Gopal's pattering Indian hand-drums in an original conjugation of ethnic instrumentation and psych blues. It's a hit-and-miss affair: opener "Cold Embrace" is commandingly mordant, Lemmy's low vocal has drama even if it is a tad shaky and the blitz is counterpointed by slow-burners like "Grass" and the acoustic "Evergreen". But the novelty of stoner tabla wears to reveal a pervading, stupified primitivity in these stripped-to-bare performances that makes for a downer. "I wrote every song on that album in one night on Methedrine," explains Lemmy before jumping into the sun of future infamy by way of Hawkwind and Motorhead, fans of which will doubtless dig context here.

**
Peter Muir

TERRY BROCK- DIAMOND BLUE- FRONTIERS RECORDS 2010

Terry Brock must win the prize for melodic rock’s busiest man in 2010: he began the year as new singer in Giant on their controversial but excellent Promise Land album, delivered one of the weekend’s best sets at Melodic Rock Fest in Chicago in may; and has been recording with the reunited Strangeways, with whom he will be appearing at Firefest. In between times the respected singer from Georgia has found time to make his first solo album since 2001’s Back to Eden, in partnership with ex- City Boy and Streets guitarist and prolific songwriter Mike Slamer who supplies most of the instruments.

This is a return favour after Terry sang on the Slamer album a few years back. That release stretched the boundaries of the genre, but this one is as mainstream as melodic rock and AOR gets - right from the lush opening title track, reminiscent of Raised on Radio era Journey, Terry gives a vocal masterclass, while Jessie’s Gone has a massive chorus that would have garnered airplay back in the day. A couple of times the mood varies - No More Mr Nice Guy has some surprisingly heavy, clinical riffing that reminded me of the last Winger album, while A Soldier Falls is a beautifully judged, haunting piece that would cause the tears to fall if set alongside footage of homecoming parades for those killed in action in Afghanistan. However, in places the album is a little too clinical and by the numbers - with the choruses for songs like Its You, Broken and the very Foreigner-esque Why not only being quite similar, but telegraphed from a mile off.

Full marks for class, less so for originality, yet on balance a success record of two out of two so far in 2010. Can Strangeways make it three for Terry?

****
Andy Nathan