WOLF PEOPLE - Night Witch (3:48)
Album: Ruins (2016)
Label/Distribution: Secretly Group/Cargo
www.wolfpeople.co.uk
Here the pop, proto-prog and canterbury folk rock of the late sixties shake hands with modern times. This happens on the new album "Ruins" so similarly several times, also "Night Witch" gets stuck very pleasantly in the ear canals with its ingratiating vocal melody. Album of the month. (RELEASE: 11.11.)
New compositions and ambitious band projects, as he has announced them to eclipsed in recent years, have so far proved to be castles in the air. But 2016 is also such an eventful year for Jimmy Page. His 26-year-old girlfriend is making headlines in the British gossip press and polishing up his rock star image, his lawsuit with neighbor Robbie Williams, whose remodeling work threatened to damage Pages' Victorian villa in Kensington, has been stopped in court, and the spectacular "Taurus vs. Stairway To Heaven" trial, which took place in Los Angeles in mid-June and was to convict Led Zeppelin of plagiarism, is miserably clever. On the one hand, because no adequate consistency with the Spirit song was determined, but also because star attorney Francis Malofiy relied on an argument so absurd that Page on the witness stand played air guitar, drumming drum parts by John Bonham and firing one disarming verbal after another.
The disappointment among the fans was great when the Beatles announced after their concert on August 29, 1966 in the Candlestick Park of San Francisco that they would never again perform in public. But after four years spent mainly on stage and in recording studios, they had had enough - of the screaming fans who often drowned out vocals and instruments; of the struggle with the problems of not being able to perform their increasingly complex music adequately in stadiums or large halls due to limited technical possibilities; but above all of the death threats John Lennon was confronted with in the USA after his statement that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.
John Coltrane, called Trane, was already a legend in his lifetime. He changed jazz like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington and Charlie Parker before him. He also seemed to share fate with the latter. Born on September 23, 1926, he was anything but a whiz kid. He grew up in the age of the great tenor saxophonists. Coleman Hawkins and Lester Young had shown the way, and the big labels of jazz like Prestige and Blue Note tried to get the instrumentalists from each other. Coltrane has released records on both labels, but on many of these recordings, which today run under his name, he was only led posthumously as a bandleader, because actually he was only involved in it as a sideman.
One can accuse Joe Bonamassa of a lot, but certainly not that he walks through the area without any awareness of music history. "Muddy Wolf At Red Rocks" (2015) was the name of the live recording released on CD, DVD and Blu-ray, which actually originated from the "Thee Kings" predecessor tour in 2014 and which reworks the blues with songs by and in the spirit of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf. One year later, the eleven-strong band - including drummer Anton Fig and three female choir singers - were working on creating a rock palace for the blues kings. But even though Joe likes to remember the success of the tour, the guitarist and singer still sets a crazy release and tour pace. So it pays off that the 39-year-old US-American, unlike many other successful musicians, is always at least ten months a year in the studio or on stage. With this workload you can work through a lot, but you can also position yourself broadly musically.
Interviews with Mikael Åkerfeldt are hard to come by this September. Even for labels and management, the Opeth boss has not been within reach for a long time. But God and the world would like to talk to the singer/guitarist about the new album "Sorceress". "Write it quietly, it's a cool story," says nature fan Åkerfeldt laughing at the question of whether he has once again hidden from the public in the forest. A quite significant statement. And once you have the 42-year-old father of two children wrapped, you can be happy about an extremely eloquent, witty, friendly and above all very talkative interview partner. He then likes to ignore agreed talk times once in a while and overdraws them. In addition, Åkerfeldt once again shows himself to eclipsed as an enthusiastic progfan and fanatical vinyl collector. The own album moves thereby fast times into the background.
The backstage area on the grounds of Wertheim Castle captivates with a very special flair. The band has settled on the second floor of a narrow tower in two small rooms when eclipsed meets them for an interview. A visibly well-placed Steve Hogarth is already sitting at the table, raising bassist Pete Trewavas, who doesn't know exactly if he's assigned for the interview. But in fact we are waiting for guitarist Steve Rothery, who will answer questions together with the singer.
eclipsed: Before we talk about the new album, I would like to know how you rate the predecessor "Sounds That Can't Be Made" today.
Steve Hogarth: We are still very satisfied with it, in large parts at least. "Gaza" and the title track are great songs of which I am very proud. Well, I'm critical of Lucky Man today. And I wouldn't record "The Sky Above The Rain" again in this form.
Contrary to his gloomy image and his often melancholic compositions, Peter Hammill is a good-humoured and always joking interlocutor. His joy to record further records with his innovative, always experimental fellow musicians - keyboardist Hugh Banton (67) and drummer Guy Evans (69) - even at the advanced age of 67 is clearly noticeable in the interview. And even though he has increasingly complained about the pitfalls of old age in recent years, his creativity remains unbroken.
eclipsed: Like its predecessors, the new album explores new possibilities for your trio playing. It sounds completely different than the rather compact predecessor "A Grounding In Numbers"..
