A nice treat for fans of soul Music from the ‘70’s. But also a prove that when an artist leaves his home, it comes with a price.

This promo CD comes free when you buy a Michael Stanley album. It’s a fine gift that let you hear Michael from his finest solo side.

Jack Bon Slim Combo is a keeper. The band is a well-oiled machine which pervade their sound with heavy guitar riffs, engaging bass lines and tightly drumming.

Normally I’m not in for cover albums, but with these ‘Colors Of Blues’… hmm.. I like to push my ‘replay‘ button again…

'Come And Get Me' by the Belgian Boogie Beasts contains raw, searing, all burning punk boogie. Play loud but please beware that you don’t burn yourself!

​Reading the album title of Zornik’s new album in a dream-like state, I thought it said ‘Blinded By The Light’. As a major Bruce Springsteen-fan, my heart leapt for joy. But: the album is called ‘Blinded By The Diamonds’. Original songs, original work, not a cover to be found. Even better. Zornik has quite a few hits, and those are all I know of the band. I still own the ‘Scared of Yourself’ 2-track cd single, bought in a time when singles were becoming rather scarce. Still one mighty masterpiece, that song. I have never bought any Zornik albums. No ill will is involved. So much to hear, so little time. And yet, I keep returning to albums I already know by heart – time that could be spent discovering new gems. Old habits die hard. ‘Blinded By The Diamonds’, then.
Singer Koen Buyse has pipes. He’s a real frontman from ‘ye olde days’: composer of 5 songs, co-composer of 6 more songs, lyricist of all tracks, producer, co-mixer, guitar player and singer. Wow. I half expected him to have created the artwork as well. Ashkan Harati’s results are quite pretty, and I’m particularly fond of the cover’s glossy finish, which amplifies the logo’s floating debris.
‘Holding Back’ is a fantastic song. A little Kinks-esque, a sniff of protopunk. Very nice. ‘Here and Now’ is steeped in the same tiresome (in a positive way) punk style, and the results are stunning. Best song on the album! ‘Friends @ 03:46 am’ (good title!) reminds me of Sonic Youth – don’t lynch me, die hard fans of said band. ‘My Friend My Stranger’ offers a drifting guitar sound that would please Muse or U2. The base track of ‘Home’ is more vintage U2 goodness (around the time of their weird but superb ‘Numb’).
‘Blinded By The Diamonds’ could be considered ‘a diamond in the rough’, if bad puns are your thing. It’s also a grower, and a possible keeper. One to watch. Or listen.

The album 'Sweet Soul' is an absolute must for every soul and blues fanatic...

Most of the songs are very exciting West Coast blues, without any lapped jaggies…

The album contains thirteen exciting West Coast tracks. It has really no point to mention a few highlights. Because all the songs are great.

‘And The Golden Choir” is the one-man project of the German Tobias Siebert. For five years he worked at 'Another Half Life'. He wrote all the songs, made the arrangements and played all the instruments. The indie pop songs include feelings of euphoria, melancholy and drama and follow each other in the same peaceful atmosphere. With the help of other musicians this album undoubtedly have had more impact.

With guys like Andy Poxon is the future of the blues no longer hopeless...

In a completely unique way Schatte mixes blues, rock, rockabilly, sixties folk and even Celtic music. As a guitarist he mastered all these styles. This and his clear and powerful voice make ‘Turn Back The Vikings' an excellent album!

This debut shows that Vahagn is really talented, and can easily be compared to other artists in this genre. An interesting discovery!

James Leg is a keyboard wizard with a voice compared to Tom Waits, Tom's voice is the voice of a choir boy. 'Below The Belt' is filled with heavy punk blues-rock. The way James turns 'Up Above My Head' by Sister Rosetta Tharpe into a heavy wild gospel song is miraculous. ‘Below The Belt’ is a catchy album, but... not for romantics!

'Paper Gods’, "the new album of Duran Duran is not so different from their previous work, although it is a little bit more funky and therefore sounds more danceable. This is definitely thanks to the cooperation with Nile Rodgers,  who makes "Pressure Off’ the strongest song on the album.

The Zombies are best known by their sixties hits "She's Not There 'and' Time Of The Season". After the recording of the album "Odessey and Oracle" the band  from singer Colin Blunstone and keyboard player  Rod Argent, split. They reunite in 2001 and ‘Still Got That Hunger’ is their third album since then. And it has become a very special one. The songs are rhythmic and contain beautiful chord changes. Along with the still powerful voice of Blunstone, the sublime keyboard of Rod Argent and support of Toomey on lead guitar, and Jim and Steve Rodford on bass and drums, ‘Still Got That Hunger’ is one of the most beautiful albums at the moment!

Walhalla Records/Starman Records collaborations always yield interesting, and sometimes far-out results. ‘The Underground Wave 7”s’ is no different, offering a variety of gimmicky, weird, fascinating, offbeat, strange, eclectic and wildly talented Belgian bands from the decade that taste forgot. Most are completely unknown to me, in fact, only Kloot Per W rings an actual bell. For lack of a better musical and cultural frame, most of the influences will fly right past by yours truly, but I’ve attempted to at least uncover some similarities. Keep in mind: most will have been inspired by these unknown cats, instead of vice versa. The refrain of Tipical Me’s ‘Claustrofobian’ resembles that of David McWilliams’ ‘Days of Pearly Spencer’. Bene Gesserit’s ‘Kidnapping’ more than likely inspired a few girl groups (Salt-N-Pepa, TLC). Van Lukas’ ‘The Riot’ is Telex ‘Moscow Disco’ redone, mainly thanks to the vocoder voices (see also: Punk, Daft). And Riva Gauche’s ‘Friends Are Friends’ sounds an awful lot like ‘Echo Beach’ by Martha and The Muffins, but not in a ‘bring on the lawyers’-way. ‘The Underground Wave 7”s’ is quite pleasing to the ears. A fine testament to the 80’s, back when record companies were still rolling in the dough and every man and his donkey could release a single. Let’s all stop this illegal downloading, and return to these carefree days.

On this album singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Tom Freund knows how to build a bridge between folk and rock. With a voice that balances between those of Randy Newman and the young Bob Dylan, he knows how to convey his thoughts in a clever way.

It's only a matter of time before Tim Austin Mitchell will make his appearance in this blues and soul world.

Until now the singles from the Canadian rock band Steppenwolf were unavailable on cd. The reason was that Dunhill label chief Jay Lasker discarded all the label’s multi-track tapes and mono masters after having deemed them too expensive to store. Engineer Aaron Kannowski has, after a worldwide search, rounded up the best sources available and put together a two-cd set with the A and B-side of every Steppenwolf single on the ABC/Dunhill label. Completed with eight songs from John Kay’s solo project, this double CD is undeniably the ultimate Steppenwolf collection!

With the release ‘Needle In A Haystack’ we find our taste in a gigantic masterpiece ...