Following a hugely well-received debut album in 2019, Scottish folk four-piece Gnoss are back with a follow-up. The Light Of The Moon reveals Gnoss to be in fine form once again and they will not be short of plaudits for this release. Featuring seven instrumentals and four songs, whether it’s the infectiously upbeat pieces or the more poignant ones The Light Of The Moon simply oozes with life and joy.
Built around the same quartet of Aidan Moodie (vocals, acoustic guitar), Graham Rorie (fiddle, mandolin, electric tenor guitar), Connor Sinclair (flute, whistles) and Craig Baxter (Bodhran, percussion) as on the previous Drawn From Deep Water album, this one also boasts Braebach’s James Lindsey on double bass.
Moodie: “The creative process spanned the strangest period in our lives. Most of the writing was done in isolation, with us finally coming together to arrange and carve the album’s sound in the autumn. We set out to create a record that was distinctly Gnoss not only by writing all-original material but looking more closely at blending the sonic textures of our instruments.”
“The album was recorded at the end of a year that should have been filled with career highlights and instead became quite the opposite – and I think all the emotion connected with that was channelled into the creative process of the release and we pushed ourselves into new spaces musically.”
Vibrant, inventive and joyful The Light Of The Moon promises to be one of the real stand-out contemporary folk albums of the year. A most excellent and not-at-all-difficult second album.
This week I celebrated my 55th birthday which means it’s exactly forty years since a rather significant album first arrived in my record collection. For my fifteenth birthday I had asked for a couple of albums: Status Quo’s latest release ‘Never Too Late’ from my mum and stepdad and Slade’s We’ll Bring The House Down from my dad and stepmum. I was actually away on a school geography trip to Wales for the day of my actual birthday and didn’t arrive back home until the following day but by the time I got home both gifts were waiting for me.
I vaguely remember Slade from my early childhood the previous decade but they had certainly not been on my radar for a long time. Not until I saw Noddy, Holder, Dave Hill, Jim Lea and Don Powell appearing on Top Of The Pops a couple of months earlier. After years of flops the ‘We’ll Bring The House Down’ single had taken Slade back into the Top Ten.
The song immediately grabbed my attention and I was now a firm fan. Asking for this album for my birthday was the obvious choice. Quo’s Never Too Late was very much the poor relation as far as birthday gifts went that day. The Slade album, though, I positively devoured, lapping up the likes of ‘Wheels Ain’t Coming Down’ and ‘When I’m Dancing I Ain’t Fighting’ and the rest.
Before long I was making numerous trips to our local second-hand record store in Preston to seek out Slade’s 70s back catalogue. This was 1981. Everyone else was into heavy metal, punk and new wave or the about-to-be-massive new romantic scene. But I was developing this obsession with 1970s glam rock. And it wasn’t just Slade. During the course of year I’d bought up much of Sweet’s back catalogue, too, not to mention albums by T. Rex and Mott The Hoople.
But the best was yet to happen. In August of that year, I tagged along with my dad and stepmum to see AC/DC headline at Donington. AC/DC were superb, of course, but even more of a revelation were Slade. This was my first attendance at a live rock gig ever but is undoubtedly the finest live concert I’ve ever attended. The Slade component in particular remains the most entertaining sixty minutes of my life.
And so, 1981 was the year that kicked off my Slade obsession and my love for all things glam. Glam was never really my era but musically it will always be my first love.
German heavy metal guitarist, Herman Frank, who played with Accept on their classic Balls To The Wall album in 1983 and commenced a second stint with the band in the late 00s is releasing his fifth solo- album, Two For A Lie, which will be out on May 21st.
A key player on the German metal scene, first with Accept, and then Victory and now with his solo work, his latest solo album follows Loyal To None, Right In The Guts, The Devils Ride Out and Fight The Fear which were released between 2009 and 2019.
The first single and video from the album ‘Eye Of The Storm’ was released back in March:
A follow-up single ‘Venom’ was released in April:
Ahead of the formal album launch a third song and the album’s opening track ‘Teutonic Order’ has now also been unveiled:
Reassembling key members of the team that worked with him on his previous solo release, the album again features Masterplan frontman Rick Altzi and Jaded Heart bass-player Michael “Mülli” Müller, along with newly hired guitarist Mike Pesin and drummer Kevin Kott.
The album was produced by Herman Frank and co-producer Arne Neurand, and was recorded and mixed at the Horus Sound Studios in Hannover
Album track-listing:
01. Teutonic Order 02. Venom 03. Hate 04. Eye Of The Storm 05. Liar 06. Hail The New Kings 07. Just A Second To Lose 08. Danger 09. Stand Up And Fight 10. Open Your Mind
Two For A Lie will be out on 21st May 2021 via AFM Records
I obviously talk a great deal about my love of music in Darren’s Music Blog but I thought it might be an idea to give readers a quick tour of my actual CD collection.
Although I was a keen purchaser of vinyl in my mid to late teens during the first part of the 1980s, frequent house moves in my late teens and early 20s meant that the format was becoming a bit cumbersome. By the time the 1990s came along I was glad to embrace the CD and gradually began building up a collection. From just a handful of CDs thirty years ago it’s now grown to what it is today. They are not all new. Many have come from charity shops and second-hand record shops and record fairs. I’ve had a couple of bulk acquisitions, including when my father, a passionate life-long rock fan, unexpectedly died back in 2007.
The filing system
For many years I just used to keep my CDs in alphabetical order. When I had merely a couple of hundred it was the easiest way of finding what I wanted. But as my collection grew I found I spent more and more time browsing to decide what I fancied putting on. I rearranged everything into a rough and ready series of genres. Given my varied musical tastes this is particularly handy as it means I can browse through the shelves according to my mood, depending on whether I’m in a folk mood or a heavy metal mood or whatever.
A walk through the sections
From left to right the subdivisions for each genre (and there’s no particular reason for them being in this order) are as follows:
Folk and acoustic – lots of Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span plus numerous others artists spanning the late 50s folk revival and skiffle boom to the present day. The more mellow acoustic end of the singer-songwriter/Americana genre is also included here. It’s mainly all about me being able to browse according to mood so I certainly don’t get hung up on what constitutes ‘folk’.
Heavy metal – pretty self-explanatory and includes everything from AC/DC to Black Sabbath to Motorhead, plus a growing collection of ‘New Wave Of Classic Rock’ releases. Again, I don’t get hung up on precise definitions: if it’s loud with plenty of guitar solos I know I’ll find it in here.
50s rock and roll and traditional blues – from Chuck Berry to Little Richard and from B.B. King to Muddy Waters they are all kept together here. A nicely growing part of my collection and some great charity shop finds.
General rock and miscellaneous – this is basically my ‘everything else’ section for stuff that hasn’t been put into a special category of its own. It includes the likes of the Beach Boys, Santana and Status Quo along with anything from a genre that hasn’t got its own section. I’ve not got a reggae collection but do have a handful of CDs by the great Bob Marley. They go in here, along with Sandy Shaw and Dusty Springfield.
Prog – from the Moody Blues and Pink Floyd to Barclay James Harvest and Yes, it’s all in here.
Punk and New Wave – back in the day I never really bought much in the way of punk or new wave artists but over time and through lots of great charity shop purchases I’ve built up a nice little collection including Blondie, the Clash, the Stranglers et al.
We now head down the hallway and into the spare room where I’ve recently set up another set of matching second-hand Ikea shelving units. They are far from full at the moment so some of them are just used for DVD’s, notepads, and bits of pieces of home-office life until my collection grows. The first two units are full though and contains the following:
Brit-pop and Indie – Blur, James, the Las, Supergrass et al are all in here. I bought a handful of these CDs when they originally came out. I was an enthusiastic Supergrass fan from the get-go – but many I’ve been able to buy for next to nothing from charity shops as all the 40-somethings dispense with their CD collections and switch to digital or vinyl or whatever else the cool people buy these days.
Glam rock – anyone who has had more than a glance at this blog will be aware of my passion for all things glam. It’s not really my era. I was only six when the Sweet’s ‘Blockbuster’ and Slade’s ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ came out but by my early teens I was absolutely hooked, courtesy of Slade’s early 80s revival and many second-hand discoveries at Preston’s Action Records. As well as Slade and Sweet there’s the Glitter Band, Hello, Mud, T. Rex et al all filed here.
Frequently asked questions
Where do you get your shelves from? The first few I bought brand new from Ikea. All the subsequent ones have been picked up second-hand to match. It’s as easy to buy second-hand Ikea CD shelves for next to nothing these days as it is to buy CDs.
How do you file your CDs within each genre? Alphabetically by artist surname or band name and in original release date order for each artist with any compilations at the end. However, I do also make use of a bit of pragmatic grouping if an artist who is mainly involved with a band also releases a solo album. Mick Jagger’s She’s The Boss is under ‘R’ for the Rolling Stones, for example, not ‘J’ for Jagger.
Folk singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, Christina Alden and Alex Patterson are a duo from Norwich who have been performing together about seven years now. Hunter is their debut album as a duo.
Once they got over the initial shock of an enforced hiatus from live performance, like many other artists the duo have been able to use their enforced downtime creatively, and this album Hunter is the result.
“Before the pandemic hit we had a full year of concerts booked throughout the UK and Europe. And like many other artists we saw those all fall away in a matter of weeks. This came as a big shock and was initially very hard to come to turns with; losing our work and our sense of identity. We wanted to channel our energy into something positive and so decided to record our debut duo album. We used our new found time and space to be creative; to write compose and develop music.”
“This album was made during the lockdowns of 2020/21 at home in The Folk Cellar on King Street, Norwich. Our house is in the middle of the city centre but the normally busy streets were quiet and so we were able to record everything at home. We have really enjoyed creating this album together; working on composition, returning to old instruments that had not been played for a while and revisiting fragments of song ideas written in old notebooks.”
Hunter is an impressive debut. With nine original songs and one arrangement of a traditional song (‘My Flower, My Companion and Me’) the duo demonstrate an instinctive ear for melody that’s both memorable and heart-warming, providing the perfect setting for Alden’s beautifully clear yet equally heart-warming vocals.
When I first began to play the opening song and title track ‘Hunter’ I did initially have a nagging feeling that it would be from that canon of traditional songs that are oh so beautifully written and sung but dwell on man’s strange obsession for chasing small furry animals for fun – but no! ‘Hunter’ is actually a lovely story of two normally solitary animals – the grey wolf and the brown bear – forming a magical and unlikely friendship. Many of the songs on this album celebrate the couple’s love of the natural world and their concern for its future – using that age old-gift of folk story-telling to convey a narrative that’s both charming and thought-provoking in equal measure.
Joining Alden (guitar, vocals, banjo) and Patterson (fiddle, vocals, viola, cello, tenor guitar and shruti box) is Calum McKennie on double bass. Patterson himself produces and Alden provides all the artwork.
Beautifully packaged with a hand-printed sleeve and illustrated booklet where the duo share information about the background and inspiration for the songs, Hunter really is a delightful album and well worth a punt.
After performing a one-off gig together in November 2019 it was announced last year that three former member of Judas Priest, guitarist KK Downing, vocalist Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens and drummer Les Binks, would be working together more permanently as part of KK’s Priest.
Downing, of course, had severed his long-standing ties with Judas Priest back in 2011, citing a breakdown in band relations. Owens’ own eight-year tenure in the band, came to a conclusion in 2003 when lead singer, Rob Halford, returned. Binks, meanwhile, left Judas Priest in 1979 after recording three classic albums (Stained Glass, Killing Machine and Unleased In The East) following a row over money with the band’s management.
Binks, who had already been touring with his own outfit Les Binks’ Priesthood – performing songs from his time in the band, has unfortunately had to put activities on hold due to a wrist injury. Downing and Owens, however, are now raring to go with a new single ‘Hellfire Thunderbolt’ released this week, an album Sermons Of The Sinner set for release on 20th August this year, with live dates to be announced as coronavirus restrictions are lifted.
Downing:“We are delighted to finally be able to release our first track to the world. It gives a real flavour of the sound and showcases the amazing players I’ve got in this band.We can’t wait for the fans to hear the record.”
Joining Downing on guitar and Owens on vocals, are Tony Newton (Voodoo Six) on bass, A.J. Mills (Hostile) on guitar and Sean Elg (DeathRiders/Cage) on drums. It is hoped Binks will make special guest live appearances when the band tours.
Downing notes that Sermons Of The Sinner is an album that celebrates his classic metal roots and encourages us to cherish those iconic pioneers whom we still have with us. He jokes that KK’s Priest is “like a new old band. Or an old new band.”
“The whole concept is the fact that I continue proudly to be who I am and what I am and do what I do,” declares Downing. “It’s been nearly 10 years. I’m back making music.”
Downing continues:“The ultimate message is we’ve moved away from this music that we loved for so long and we’re so dedicated to, and now we’re in a situation where lots of people are actually passing away. We’ve lost a lot of great people – Dio, Lemmy, I could go on – and that’s gonna be accelerated over the coming years. Basically, enjoy everything that’s left of this brand of metal including from me. It’s not going to last forever.”
The new single certainly captures a lot of the energy, attitude and sound of classic Judas Priest and there’s more than enough room in the classic rock and metal scene for bands to thrive. This has got to be good news for Priest fans. I’ll certainly be keeping a close eye on this band as well as Judas Priest itself. Let’s make the most of them while we’ve still got them.
KK’s Priest is set to tour worldwide as soon as current restrictions are lifted. Details of touring to be announced.
‘Underworld’ is the new single from Kent-based folk-rock band Green Diesel. It’s released on 14th May ahead of a long-awaited new album scheduled for release this summer.
Written by new drummer, Paul Dadswell, ‘Underworld’ builds on the band’s signature trad folk sound. Showcasing the band’s vocal harmonies, the new single gives a flavour of what fans can expect from Green Diesel’s forthcoming album: all changing time signatures and lots of twelve-string guitars – inspired by spending far too long listening to early 1970s Genesis records, the band confess!
The song itself is inspired by Philip Glass’s celebrated soundtrack to the 1982 experimental film Koyaanisqatsi.
Reflecting on ‘Underworld’ the song’s writer Paul Dadswell comments:“When you have to choose between fantasy and reality, being born, or growing up, or moving past addiction. The moment of choice between living in the past and embracing the future. Endlessly suspended between the familiar and the unknown.”
Hailing from Faversham in Kent, Green Diesel first emerged back in 2009, taking their inspiration from the depths of English folk lore and legend, and the classic folk-rock sound of their predecessors: Fairport Convention and The Albion Band. Blending violin, mandolin, dulcimer and accordion with electric guitars and drums, Green Diesel’s sound is born from a love of traditional English music and a desire to bring it to a modern audience.
Green Diesel’s three albums to date: Now Is The Time (2012), Wayfarers All (2014) and The Hangman’s Fee (2016) have all won praise from critics and fans alike for the quality of song-writing and musicianship and the band have been a popular draw at festivals, from Broadstairs Folk Week to Beverley Folk Festival.
Born in Salford and initially embarking on a career as a professional footballer until injury forced a change of career plan, Danny McGaw’s first forays into the world of music began in the pubs of Greater Manchester before eventually leaving the UK for the US.
Swapping Salford to Santa Monica, McGaw relocated to California – busking at the Santa Monica Pier and building up a reputation as both a writer and performer. Back in 2013 McGaw formed a band Wells the Traveller, who recorded two albums before McGaw relocated back to the West Coast.
His latest single ‘On The Outside’ was released on 19th April. A brooding, smouldering intro builds up in a striking guitar anthem that acts as a showcase for McGaw’s powerful lyrics. He tells Darren’s Music Blog:
“On the outside is about knowing when to move on. To have the courage to break it apart so that it can be rebuilt.”
“There are a lot of stories in my songs,” he adds.
A prolific journal his entries provide inspiration for his lyrics:
“It’s somewhat the diary of a soul. I’ve written every day for a long time. I’ve always been able to attach the emotion to the sound of the melody; I learned that pretty young. It was always about learning enough guitar to be able to support a song…that’s somewhat the rhythm of my life now.”
“My music—if I may—is timeless. It spans all genres, really, and It spans all feelings. And it’s always rooted in the story of my soul, our soul.”
McGaw previously released ‘Eccles Road’ in 2012 and ‘Lion Street’ in 2015. After forging a friendship through Danny Hutton, Three Dog Night’s vocalist, McGaw frequently tours with Three Dog Night.
Dave Good is a Kent-based blues rock guitarist who played his first gig aged just 13, growing up on the likes of Jimi Hendrix, the Stones, Peter Green, The Rev Billy Gibbons, Jeff Beck and Rory Gallagher.
Blues guitarist Norman Beaker, who has played with the likes of Chris Farlowe, Larry Garner and Van Morrison, says of him:
“Dave Good manages to cross seamlessly from the down home acoustic blues through Chicago and on to Rock Blues. All played with taste and conviction.’’
Dave has been working with Charlie Creese (pictured) at Magpie Studios in Kent over the past four years. Charlie is a gifted engineer and a talented musician in his own right. Dave and Charlie have spent this last few months prepping a number of Dave’s songs at Dave’s studio, ready to record a new album in June.
Charlie Creese
Between them they have agreed a nine-track album.
Dave says: “This project has taken far too long to pull together due to lockdown etc…!!”
“I’m really wanting to get it down and finished and out there.”
Dave Good
Charlie will be playing bass, Tim Robins will be on drums and Dave will be doing guitars and vocals. Dave will also be joined on vocals by Pip Bowers, an incredible vocalist and arranger.
A number of guest players will also be featured including Nick Bold and guest guitarist, Robin Burrows.
Matt Steady is a singer-songwriter from Leicester. His music is most closely identified with blues and folk but he pulls in a wide range of influences. Even within the confines of those two genres, however, he traverses a refreshingly broad spectrum: on the blues front going from the blistering electric variety to the mournful acoustic type and on the folk side there’s everything from contemporary singer-songwriter to Celtic soundscapes to traditional balladry. Classically-trained, Matt Steady is a highly talented and naturally expressive player, whether that’s guitar or violin, and he’s an evocative lyricist, too.
Steady has a brand new album out New Buryin’ Ground on 27th April. Prior to that though, he released a compilation album featuring highlights from his previous six albums which he launched with a very generous and fairly unique offer. If you fancy the album, you can order it online and he’ll send out the CD to you direct to your door absolutely free of charge.
The Echoes Remain is a very fine compendium of Matt Steady’s work – eleven tracks in all – and something I’m very pleased to now have in my CD collection.
What on earth possessed him to make it completely free of charge, though, I asked him:
MS:“I’m all about the win/win. This compilation album is a win for listeners and a win for me too! Firstly, as an independent artist, the main challenge I have is getting people to listen to my music. Our attention spans on social media are so short that posting up songs, no matter how good they are, is not a strategy that works particularly well. People are unlikely to stop scrolling to listen to a whole song from someone they’ve never heard of for sure! However the people who enjoy my eclectic style of music often still have CDs player, and often love listening to music in their cars or while working. It costs me very little to have CDs made these days, and with the postage paid for I’m not generally out of pocket on them. And actually any shortfall is made up by some generous folks who either leave a tip or buy an extra CD with it. So the win for the listener is obvious – a free CD delivered to their door; a menu of tracks from my other albums to introduce them to my music. And the win for me is that more people are listening to my music, more people are messaging me and having conversations with me, more people are discovering my other albums and enjoying those too. It’s a win/win for everyone!”
“And for those evolved people who don’t have CDs … it’s available as a free download as well. I don’t want to stop anyone from listening from lack of a piece of equipment. And for streamers, this compilation isn’t up on Spotify etc., but all my albums that the tracks come from are, so that’s a way of listening too.”
I also asked Matt to tell us a little more about the new album that’s due to be released next week:
MS: “My new album is called New Buryin’ Ground, and this time rather than releasing it under my own name, it’s being released under the band name “The Grace Machine”. Alongside my vocals and guitar work, I am frankly astounded to have playing with me two very sought-after musicians – Terl Bryant on percussion and Matt Weeks on bass. I’ve been listening to their work since I was a teen (ahem that’s quite a long time ago now), and I’m still in shock that they wanted to form this band! The music itself is rocky gospel blues. Many of the tracks are interpreting old spirituals and slave songs, bringing them up to date for a modern audience. We owe so much of our musical lives and heritage to black music, crafted under such dire circumstances, and this album is a homage to those often unknown musicians. The album is full of joy and angst in equal measure, and I can only hope that we’ve done the songs justice.”
New Buryin’ Ground available from Matt Steady’s website here
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