On Friday I was treated to a great gig at a small venue by an upcoming band. Uncouth Koala have been lurking around for a while, working on their material, yet Friday was my first chance to see them in person. The performance was excellent, with none of the sound problems that usually plague such small performances. Each member of the band seemed firmly familiar with their roles, the whole merging into raw indie rock with strong punk overtones. Although still unfamiliar with much of their repertoire, the band shows great promise, especially if their bassist allows his natural flair for performance to bleed over into his bass playing, potentially allowing for the kind of imaginative bass riffs which have made so many bands famous.

One of my more frequent complaints about modern bands is that they're too afraid to do anything different. The majority tend to look towards what their contemporaries are having success with.

So it is that Wolfmother have surprised me with a music style that adds a classic rock twist to a modern play style.

This is music with volume, with presence. Music that demands to be listened to as loudly as possible.

The album, the second by the band, makes great use of rhythm to get your foot tapping to the music, followed by your head banging. in fact, if you're not entirely careful a full on mosh could break out as the rhythm builds, chugging guitar chords and creative riffs carrying you away.

10,000 Feet is a prime example of this, beginning simply and building up to a barrage of sound better suited to a stage and a large venue than the speakers I'm forced to hear it through. The vocals fit the theme of the song, complementing the music perfectly rather than simply riding on top.

The album is, however, kick started by California Queen, which rapidly launches into the kind of hardrock which characterises the record as a whole. With his higher pitched vocals, it's hard not to think of artists like Matt Bellamy and Robert Plant when listening to Andrew Stockdale sing. The song starts hard and fast, snagging your attention before switching to a slower more powerful rhythm, shaking you awake before switching yet again to keep you on your toes. The changes are flawless displaying an ingenuity most modern bands are unable to emulate.

The distinctive style is carried through the whole album, yet each song is varied and unique. As previously mention by Grayzie, this is what so often makes or breaks an album, determining whether you actually listen to the music or allow it to slide past in a blur.

I recommend this album whole heartedly to both those who love rock for what it used to be and to those who prefer a more modern flavour.

Despite making great efforts to fuse different styles as their career develops, Cypress Hill do tend to live in the past a little.  Ever since the succesful fusion of rap and rock on Skull and Bones, they seem to be displeased with albums they have put out.  Casting my eye over setlists from their last couple of album tours, I can see that they reverted to playing mostly Black Sunday tunes, wheras I'd expect a band to be flogging their new album within an inch of its life.

It therefore comes as little surprise to see what happens on the first couple of tracks.  Track 1 opens with the following spoken-word part; "In 1991, an artist in Compton picked up Cypress Hill's debut album.  What he heard blew him away."  Well that was 20 years ago, and they seem stuck there.

Just before turning the cd off I noticed that track 3 featured Tom Morello (Rage Against The Machine) so i made the excellent decision to give it a listen.  30 seconds into a fat Morello riff backed by B-Real and Sen-Dog's angry vocal delivery and i'm in love with the Hill again, for they've manged to create some fantastic tracks on this album.

This is an album full of collaborations, including among others two tracks with Morello and one with Mike Shinoda (Linkin Park).  They sound a great deal like the artists they are working with on these tracks but that's the whole idea - it fuses their style with the trademark funky Latino-tinged Cypress style.

There are one or two classic Cypress tracks on here, where they rap explicitly about weed (KUSH, Pass The Dutch) or borrow heavily from their Latin roots and influences (Armada Latina).  They've been making these tracks for 20 years but they know how it's done and they sound great in between the collaborations.

So there you have it, some ace collaborations mixed with some Cypress Hill classics.  This album will make you want to get your mates over, pour some jars and spark one up.  Cheers!

This Northern Irish band apparently quit uni in their first year to pursue their musical careers.  This debut album goes some way towards showing that they made the correct decision.  It's got certain hallmarks of a debut; samey style (upbeat with trebly guitars), obvious influences (Editors) and one or two dud tunes (Do you Want It All).  However, there are some proper little rock-pop bangers on here and it's well worth a look.

This band is a happy band and that is their greatest strength.  The youthful verve and vigour is palpable and is all over this record. This is achieved in a similar manner throughout, with fast, high guitar playing, punctuated by sharp compressed drumming and bass guitar that plays around with the octaves. The vocals are decent if a little unambitious and certainly don't detract from the tunes.  The chord structures are well thought through, using major progressions to promote foot-tapping joyful summer listening.

Normally i would go on to mention particular songs that are worth listening to but that is the main problem with this album.  There aren't many bad songs but they do blur into one which means that they lack those killer singles which will sustain success.  However, there is the potential for greatness here for one specific reason - the opening track.

That's right, track 1, Cigarettes In The Theatre is absolutely brilliant.  It feels like all of their potential is poured into this song.  It is absolutely dripping with energy and is that kind of rock single that colours your life, gets into your head and forces you to hunt down further information about the band.  It builds and builds into a spectacular key change in the middle 8 followed by a perfectly pitched build up section into a final crescendo.  You just have to hear it.  Again and again.

So should they have thrown in that uni career?  Possibly.  If they can pull out more variety in album two they could be massive.  But in another way, of course they damn well should have done.  Their sound suggests they are head over heels in love with their music and what they're doing.  Good luck to them I say, it's nice to hear some passion and joy in music, that's what it's there for!

With all the artists that have drawn inspiration from the blues over the years, it's hard to imagine that this genre of music would have anything exciting left to give.

Listening to Joe Bonamassa therefore comes as quite a pleasant surprise.

This is a man who doesn't simply play the blues, but causes the music to reach into your chest, grip your heart and shake it awake. This is music with passion. Music that you don't just want to listen to again, but need to listen to repeatedly.

This is very much in evidence in The Ballad of John Henry, an album which combines outstanding song writing with some highly creative cover material.

The albums title track kicks off the show with a heavy bass beat to draw you in before treating you to an outstanding display of how blues rock should be played. The captivating rhythm carries you through the song whilst Joe takes the opportunity to indulge in the talented flourishes that make him one of the best guitarists I've heard.

The album also contains an expressive rendition of Feeling Good, a song last performed with style by Muse. Eschewing the epic grandeur of the Muse performance, Bonamassa has added his own twist to this oft covered song, with a workmanship vocal style which accompanies the heavy rhythmic bass and signature blues riffs.

This is music as it should be played. As a means to evoke something, a response an emotion...anything. It's music which steps up, slaps you in the face and says "Listen!"

Not only is this blues rock at it's finest, Joe Bonamassa writes music for the whole group to play, rather than setting up an accompaniment to his own skill on the guitar. This lends a feeling of completeness sadly lacking in much of todays' music, which is often just the backing track for someone's ego.

I recommend buying this album and playing it until it wears out.

This debut will divide listeners.  It's ethereal musicality and whisper-quiet vocals will turn some listeners off straightaway.  They will think it is dull and that nothing happens.  Other people will listen to it in a darkened room with their headphones on (as I was instructed to) and find a band baring their soul to you on record.  They want yours in return and i strongly suggest you relent.

This album is absolutely beautiful.  The songs are stripped down to their constituent parts, with guitar and bass notes allowed to linger, permeated by soft yet crystal-clear drumming.  The production is incredibly polished and gives each instrument a soft, electronic feel whilst somehow keeping the rawness of the instruments intact.  I can't think of any other album i own that manages this so well.  The result is a collection of delicate yet impactful music that is of a distinct style without being samey.

"Intro" kicks off the album, setting a tone of beauty with a hint of urgency that makes you stop what you are doing and listen.  "Crystallised" is another highlight, with a duel vocal giving way to a guitar riff that will stick with you for days.  For me, the standout track is "Shelter" with its haunting vocals supported by just the right amount of bass and a guitar part that yearns to be heard.  No drums on this one, just an absolutely transcendental atmosphere.

Some music is designed to communicate an ideology, some is designed to express a particular emotion and some exists purely on the basis of being technically excellent.  This music is the rarest kind; it expresses the inexpressable, it opens up parts of your brain you didn't know you had or haven't vsisited for some time.  Too often now we listen to music as a background to other activities or on low quality headphones that hide half the artistic craft.  This is an album you must listen to late at night doing absolutely nothing except involving yourself as fully as possible in what is happenning.  It feels like being transported into a different headspace.

Many people will disagree with me and think that I have totally overdone my praise of such a stripped-back record.  That's up to them but i think it is an absolute masterpiece.

Good evening,

It's been far too long, but Halcyon and I have finally decided to get alwaysrockmusic going again.  This epiphany was reached on a recent evening where we discovered the joys of Spotify.  i strongly suggest you get Spotify - it will enable you to listen to our recommendations for basically nothing!

I can tell it's been a while because my top 5 albums from before which can be seen in the side panel contain 3 ones to avoid; Damien Rice (boring and whiny), Snow Patrol (dull and terrible vocalist) and Scissor Sisters (what on earth was I thinking???).

Anyway, I have only recently thrown myself back into new music.  I think i reached that mid-20s laziness where you assume that most new bands are dreadful.  In some ways I was right; the music coming through onto radio these days is very average and in some cases reminds me of listening to a rabid hamster fellate a piano (Scouting for Girls).

However, I was way off.  i simply wasn't looking hard enough.  New music is still in rude health, it just often doesn't get recognised in the mainstream as it once did.  So join me in casting aside apathy and investigating the hidden delights of new music.

Coming next:  A review of the stunningly beautiful album by London band The XX.

Thanks, from a very happy Fatboy looking forward to bringing you the best music around.

So, in the beginning, there were four men, Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Rick Wright and, of course, Syd Barrett.
The band was called Pink Floyd and the music they made belonged to the genre later labelled as pschedelic rock. The music of the band at this point, under the influence of Syd, was quite heavily experimental, poetic and possessed of an almost childlike quality heavily at odds with some of the images portrayed and the complexity of the pieces. Syd, along with the rest of the band, is often portrayed at this stage as attempting to do with music what many modern artists attempt with paints and sculpture.
During much of this time, Pink Floyd were an underground movement, with their popularity increasing until the release of Arnold Layne and See Emily Play, both of which made the top 20 of the singles chart. Following the success of thses single, the band released their debut album, Piper at the Gates of Dawn, widely recognized as a prime example of British pyschedelic rock. and considered by many to be an outstanding debut album.
The bands rise to popularity had a tragic effect on Syd, whose view of teh music had been more an experiment in a new medium art than a peice meant to be shared by thousands. The stress, combined with steadily increasing drug use, took a heavy toll on his mind, causing a gradual decline in his sanity. As his dependency on LSD increased and his behaviour became more erratic, Syd began to take more of a back seat role, with Dave Gilmour being drafted into the band to cover his guitar and vocal duties. Finally, in 1968, Syd left the band, signifying the end of an era for pink Floyd.
There followed a highly experimental period for Pink Floyd, in which the band attempted to find their feet following the departure of Syd, finding a sound of their own, rather than trying to recreate the sound inspired by Syd. A number of recording were released over this period, eventually culminating in the album Meddle, which features the epic compostion Echoes. This was the new sound Pink Floyd had been striving for, an epic, experimental, but truly haunting melody, a theme carried over into their most highly acclaimed album and what many consider the peak of their career, Dark Side of The Moon. The album is best thought of as one long composition separeted into pieces, each covering a number of topics, with one theme connecting them all, that of insanity, something the band had become quite familiar with. For those who doubt that rock music can be considered haunting, I can only direct their ears towards Time, where the separate notes of the guitar solo linger upon the air, seeming pent with emotion, flowing smoothly from one to the next. Of course the song which best describes the underlying theme of the album is Brain Damage, a succinct summation of the intellectual perils of modern life. An interesting feature of the album is the conversational snippets and sound effects interspersed throughout, occasionally causing a listener to wonder, did I just hear that or...?
Following this, the band released Wish You Were Here, an album which though almost universally hated upon it's release, is now considered amongst one of the greatest pieces ever released by Pink Floyd. It represents a somewhat bleak outlook on the music industry and life in general. It also of course features the multi-part composition, Shine On You Crazy Diamond, a powerful yet somewhat melancholy tribute to Syd Barrett.
After wish you were here, the band released Animals, a collection of metaphors for contemporary society. This comes across as more of a hard rock effort, and came under heavy criticism for being pretentious at the time of its release.
Following this was the album which effectively broke the band and resulted in the departure of Roger Waters. Essentially, Roger Waters had a vision. That vision was an album depicting the growth of a child to a man, and the emotional repression that is so much a part of this process. It covers a variety of topics, from the death of Rogers father in world war 2, through the oppressive English school system, to more adult topics such as infidelity and once again insanity. The most famous tracks are of course the three parts of Another Brick in the Wall, and the haunting depiction of a nervous breakdown, Comfortably Numb. Another truly powerful piece is Young Lust, which features at it's culmination a snippet of a phone conversation many a man would rather avoid. The final song, Outside the Wall, allows teh album to fade delicately to a close. Provided, of course, that a choir boy singing the word bugger can ever be described as delicate.
During this era, a number of the bands gigs featured a large wall being built along the front of the stage. This signified David Gilmours growing discomfort with the isolation of the band from it's audince, a result of teh bands massive popularity which caused them to play in venues where the crowd would number in the thousands. It is somewhat ironic that this isolated the band more completely from the crowd than anything else could have managed.
Unfortunately, Roger Waters vision was not without cost. Many consider that in the pursuit of his vision, the other band member became less than people to him, and more tools with which to accomplish the task. Whatever the case, some time after the albums release, the band became dissatisfied with his leadership and parted ways to pursue a variety of solo projects.
In 1985, Pink Floyd received a resurrection as David Gilmour and Nick Mason recorded A Momentary Lapse of Reason. The album has been labelled by many as a safety album. The music carries the same hauntingly poetic quality as previous albums, but lacks the air of experimentation and challenge so prevalent in earlier works. This may indicate that, although the disagreements between Dave and Roger effectively caused the bands destruction, they also provided much of the fire behind the music.
In 1994, the band released their final collective album to date, titled, The Division Bell. Considered by many to be a concept album for David Gilmour in much teh same way as The Wall was for Roger Waters, the sound is far more reminiscent of Dark Side of the Moon, with a number of tracks seemingly drawing influence from songs such as Time.

As an aside, a number of people believe that Dark Side of the Moon synchronises with the opening scenes of The Wizard of Oz. Personally, I remain unconvinced, but there are some startling coincidences between music and the on screen images.

A short entry, just by way of easing things back in, and to inform you that I am going to make use of this space to tell you what I feel you should listen to. Fatboy might rejoin me in this endeavour, who knows?

The stranglers formed in 1974 and were initially classes as one of Englands early punk bands, supporting groups such as The Ramones.

Listening to their music, it's pretty easy to see where a lot of modern punk bands get their influences from. They possess far more polish than many of the more revolutionary bands of the era, such as the sex pistols. They manage to make the statement they wish, but they make it couched in well polished verse, with the sophisticated touches that only proper post-production can provide.
Many of their songs have a somewhat jaunty feeling to the rhythm, which provides a distinct contrast with the somewhat raw vocals that accompany many of the tracks.
I recommend you start your exploration of their back catalogue with songs like "No More Heroes", "Peaches" and the old favourite of many "Golden Brown", songs which typify teh jaunty style and make excellent usage of a somewhat graphic imagery in their lyrics.

"My lips may be smiling, but I'm lost in the middle of god-knows-where"

From the Land of Volcanos is the album of solo artist Lucia, a woman who is a prime example of why music needs more female vocal talent. Although not exactly rock music, it is a style removed from that pursued by the majority of female solo vocalists in the arena of todays music. It is Lucias powerful voice which spellbinds the listener and draws them in. Much of the album is fast with easily flowing tunes backed up by a heavy bass beat, with a combination of numerous instruments complimenting each other well to provide the perfect backing for Lucias amazing voice.
The album starts with the song "so Clever", a combination of repetetive bass and drum beat, overlaid by smooth yet powerful vocals and a relatively simple yet well written tune. The song draws you in and lays the foundation for the music to follow.
"I will" is the song which first drew me to the album, a smooth, slow peice which lets loose on the chorus, an essence of power oozing from your speakers. It is a song which reaches out and grabs you, demanding to be listened to. The heavy bass is once again evidenced in the song "Little Rose" Plumbing a depth which causes vibrations to shake through anything within range.
The album is finished by "Ordinary Girl" an interesting, different peice. A fairly rapid beat contrasting with slow vocals, it is consistent with the thme of the album. The style varying throughout yet with a consistent theme. Each song unique yet a definable part of the whole.
For those looking for something different, and wishing to revel in the sound of a smooth superior female vocalist, From the Land of Volcanos is definetly an album to own.