David Sereny Talk to me Review

“Talk to me” by David Sereny is a tasty treat indeed; delicious octaves and smooth late night guitar leads. Combine that with a 80s sounding bass guitar gives the song a sensual feel. David seems to believe in the rule to play only what is needed; its good noodles, wandering all over the neck on the guitar would ruin the mood. “Talk to me” is a good song. It reminds me of Santana’s supernatural album, David seems to be heavily influenced Carlos; I do hear a hint of Ronny Jordan. If you’re curious but unsure of Jazz music, try this. A good introduction that could open you to a larger more colourful musical world that you never knew existed.

Stuart Ritchie 

https://twitter.com/daveserenymusic

Searching for Sugar Man Review

Searching for Sugar Man was a shot in the dark find in my local charity shop. The documentary begins with a shot of the South African coast to a song called “Sugar Man” a lavish seventies sounding song I never heard before. This was the work of songwriter Sixto Rodriguez. After recording only two albums he dropped off the radar altogether. Many people through urban legends summarised he killed himself during a concert in the seventies, they are different accounts of this from setting himself on fire to using a gun, this gave him a Robert Johnson level of mystery around him. In America he was virtually unknown. In Cape Town, South Africa is where the story really begins. Rodriguez’s first two albums ended up there by unknown means and was widely bootlegged due to its popularity with South Africa’s youth. Rodriguez became a rebel and icon to South African youth who saw him as a light in the highly conservative country during internationally condemned apartheid, his music was inspiring countless South African protest singers. When some hard-core Rodriguez fans followed the money to find answers, they hit a dead wall of hostility during an interview. It is subtlety touched upon in the documentary, that a prominent person in the record company might have cheated Rodriguez and other artists out of their royalties; the matter to this day is still under investigation. It wasn’t until the nineties, people found out what happened to him.  He stepped away from music and did construction work in Detroit and lived a very humble simple life. He eventually got a chance to perform in South Africa on March 6^th 1998 for thousands of fans. You can see in the video footage that the audience is in awe of him. They were just so glad to see Rodriguez, the man in the flesh and that he wasn’t a myth; he was real. Rodriguez was the picture of serenity in this screaming chaos, he just felt so comfortable on stage like it was an old friend he hadn’t seen in a while. Searching for Sugar Man is an excellent portrait of Rodriguez as a humble, talented socially conscious man who did want to improve things; he actually ran for public office in 1989, mayor of Detroit in 1981 and 1993. They did leave out the fact he was popular in other countries like Australia, Botswana and New Zealand. But I think this was due to the fact apartheid South Africa had very little access to information on the outside world. Sixto Rodriguez, an artist without the shackles of wealth, vanity, and fame. Searching for Sugar Man is a great introduction to his music and Rodriguez.

Stuart Ritchie

The Apollo Glasgow: A Retrospect

Out of all the gig venues, I have read about. No venue has interested me more than the Apollo in Glasgow. The Apollo was the venue that will make you, either through a baptism of fire or hurled coinage. The amount of live albums recorded there is crazy. On AC/DC’s “If You Want Blood, You Got It” live album, many of the tracks are from the Apollo. An interesting fact, on the song “The Jack,” you can hear Bon ask, “Are there any virgins in Glasgow?” Rush recorded a lot of the “Exit Stage Left “album; in the liner notes there is a thank you to the Glaswegian chorus on “Closer to the Heart.” Another great feature was the bouncy balcony; currently you would have the building condemned, as it would be “unsafe” by the standards of some beige harpy. To me this just added to the experience. When I learned it was pulled down, I felt I had missed a vital piece of history not only in Glasgow but as a rock fan. It had so much history; it was crazy to pull it down to replace it with a soulless 80s construct, demolished in the length of time to put it up. Johnny Cash, the man in black himself was the first person to play the Apollo when they changed it from the Green’s Playhouse. Status Quo recorded their first live album there. Abba’s final performance was in the Apollo. The Rezillo’s performed their final gig there too, and released a live album. Ozzy Osborne’s first solo tour said he was shaking with stage freight before we went on but ended up being one of the best gigs he had ever done and meant so much to him when it was being torn down he did an interview in the empty disused site of the building for Scottish TV. Today the ground is used for a Cineworld and trendy bar Walkabout. What a waste. In recent years, many smaller venues are disappearing leaving conglomerate owned ones in their place. Music venues should be unique, not Wetherspoons, Gastro pub abominations. While the Apollo is a memory, some venues are not. Support them don’t let them be swept by the way side by rules and legislation.

Stuart Ritchie

http://www.glasgowapollo.com/index.asp?s_id=1&m_id=1

Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5 Peace, Love, and Mustard Single Review

This summer won’t be short of anthems; it might be short on the sun, but it is Scotland. “Peace, Love, and Mustard” the new single from Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5 is one of those anthems. With its upbeat horns and jangly guitar groove. The sound quality is excellent, it's timeless. Electric Honey played a masterstroke signing this band; they don’t sound like any act in the Scottish music scene. Colonel Mustard and the Dijon 5 exude so much positivity and good times it’s like listening to an alternate universe’s version of Prince’s Lovesexy album. “Peace, Love, and Mustard “are a small taste of that good time feeling. I think the world needs a lot more of that sweet delirious sensation they have as a group.

Stuart Ritchie

St. Anger Revisited

I’ve been putting this off for a while as this album changed things for me. This is the only album I have ever taken back to the store. Metallica’s St. Anger was the album that single put me off metal for years. Why am I revisiting such an album that divided fans? Fifteen years has passed since hearing the album, let’s see if I can find a new perspective.

The song Frantic plays as I write this and it’s not good. The sound has aged terribly after only fifteen years. Bob Rock really let the sound quality dip as his sonically superior albums like Dr Feelgood and Keep the Faith still hold up. I like your work Bob, but you really dropped the ball on this. I know you wanted to make Metallica sound like a band with renewed fire and panache, but it sounds like Nu-Metal light.

The title track St. Anger is so muddy and distorted; there is no clarity. It sounds like four track demo done in a stone wall garage, if that is what they were going for congratulations.

Some Kind of Monster has promise but it’s uncooked. The stripped production kills the song. Even Kirk Hammett who I know can rip on guitar, is reduced to an unsatisfying octave pedal lead in the intro.

The other songs up until Sweet Amber and The Unnamed feeling do not grab me at all; it’s just a wall of raw noise. Sweet Amber is one of the few songs that have a hint of promise but the production again kills it dead. The album so far is as unbearable to listen to as it was in 2003. The Unnamed Feeling is the one song that would have benefited from a good polish; it is a shame it wasn’t around during the Load sessions, it would have sounded a miles better in my eyes.

When it was released all the music magazines, guitar magazines were raving about it. I was like are we hearing the same record? I was the only one who thought the record sucked. Every metal fan I knew liked it, they said I didn’t understand it and I wasn’t metal enough to judge it. I was a small minority then, now however, I feel time has told on the album. I’m not alone in my frustration with it.

To revisit it even further I viewed Some Kind of Monster, the documentary filmed around the time of Metallica’s internal strife. It opened my eyes. The world’s biggest metal band needs “group therapy”; I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. They were petty arguments over nothing at all, for example, one person wasn’t around when two other people were listening to a mix of a song so the other person had a hissy fit. Is this what happens when you make it that big and prominent? That you become nothing but childish, conceited, immature twats. On top of that the “Performance Enhancing “coach; I know, it sounds like an ad for a sexual dysfunction therapist. He starts trying to milk the band for all the money he can like a shyster; he sounds like a Hollywood agent. The documentary did help me see the pressure they were under behind the scenes. It still doesn’t excuse St. Anger as an album. To me it seems they were just hopping on the Nu-Metal cash train at the time with the vast change in sound and approach. St. Anger is still the album that caused me to throw in the towel with the band and metal music. The band has forgotten what got them to the top in the first place. Guttural fire, I don’t hear that in Metallica now. Complacency kills all art.

Stuart Ritchie