Thought I'd lay out a couple of impressive albums highly worthy of buying.

At the top of my list so far this year is the new CD from the amazing French band, Morglbl. Brutal Romance is an astoundingly good album full of catchy yet tongue-in-cheek jazz-rock. The band is a trio driven by an indescribably great guitarist named Christophe Godin. Not only is he fast and clean, he plays with more feeling than just about any world class guitarist alive today. By comparison, because somehow these guys are the gold standard, Godin highlights how Satriani's rhythms have become boring and how Vai's compositions are cold. Plenty of earworms are to be found here. For around $15 you just can't go wrong. Stream the title track here: http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/streaming-morglbl-brutal-romance/



Pulling in second although not a 2012 release is the latest album from bass monster, Bryan Beller. (Dweezil, Mike Keneally, Dethklok) Thanks In Advance is not merely a bass player's record. No, what you have here is really the same band as Mike Keneally's band playing Beller's compositions. Typical for a Keneally outing, the musicianship is off the charts but what really shines here is the songwriting capped by the epic Love, Terror, Adrenaline/Breakthrough. Also typical of this group of musicians is the outstanding recording quality.




Also not a new recording but one which rises to the top is the latest from Sweden's Freak Kitchen, Land of The Freaks. I tend to like things on the heavier side but so much of it has been done so many times that finding something with it's own merits can be hard. The songs are so well crafted you almost don't notice how incredibly difficult they must be to play. If you don't know of guitar hero Mattias 'IA' Eklundh I suspect that's about to change. Freak Kitchen have been around since 1996 slaying their way across Europe and Asia. Until recently it's been hard to get FK's music in North America, and when you did find it you were forced to pay ridiculous import prices. Not anymore. Freak Kitchen's entire back catalog of 7 albums are to be released in phases at LaserCD.com out of New Jersey

Some very interesting material there. Now I'm off to check out their discography in a little more depth.

What happens if two leading musical minds come together when each is renowned for musical mastery and compositional excellence? For me that question has been answered in the form of Wing Beat Fantastic, the newly released Mike Keneally album mostly co-written with former XTC luminary Andy Partridge.

For Keneally, the multi-instrumentalist vocalist who came to world wide fame as Frank Zappa's Mr. Everything in his last touring band, Wing Beat Fantastic seems to be his most commercially accessible album to date. Much of that may be owed to Partridge's pop song sensibilities shining through, yet it's Keneally who was left to flesh out the musical canvas the two had outlined together some years earlier. Typical Keneally albums (there are 20 of them now!) are chock full of musical left turns and sonic adventure tossing so many ideas at the listener you'd think there's enough present for two full albums while this album maintains a more focused approach unfolding cohesively, splendidly, ever on target. Superlative reviews are flying across the net.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sug4hC3Ysb0



-- 05 Oct 2012 02:49 --

This is the final release from the cultish '80's new wave ska-pop band Oingo Boingo. Though they had legions of fans back in the day I was not among them. In fact, I missed the Boingo train altogether. But while at the NAMM show several years ago I happened to see bassist John Avila perform and I was stunned by what I saw and heard. He was a beast! Leaping around on stage, Avila came across like a thundering elephant charging across a savannah of sound. He exuded the sheer joy of bass ferocity. I learned he had been part of that band whose name I recognized but never got around to looking into. Recently I happened across the following CD still shrink wrapped for cheap, and I thought 'Why not?' I've since read this album was a vast departure from the typical Oingo Boing owing to the fact that band leader Danny Elfman (from just about every Tim Burton film and he of the Simpson's theme song) had begun to incorporate his film scoring skills into the Boingo meme. The result is an album that's rich, lush, at times ethereal and thought provoking containing a musical craftsmanship second to none.

I still may not venture back farther into the Oingo Boingo back catalog feeling I have found their crown jewel recording.

Copies of this one can still be found for a pittance. Pounce when you see it.