Browsing Tag

Blues Rock

Joe Hellmore brings the funk in his self-titled debut alt-rock LP

Posted on 24 February 2022

If it has been a while since you discovered your last guitar hero, delve into the singer-songwriter Joe Hellmore’s self-titled debut album, which delivers everything from hard rock to funk to alt-rock to blues-rock in practically virtuosic fashion.

The eclectic release may not be short on dynamism but one thing that you can always count on is Joe Hellmore’s edgy and technical solos that take up plenty of space while never hindering the fact that his debut LP is a deeply experimental one. Another constant through the eight playfully orchestrated tracks that are never short of visceral energy is the lack of the lyrical cliches that many artists depend on as the bedrock to their sound.

Joe Hellmore’s debut album is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Malo Daniels gave indie Americana pop-rock a soul injection with ‘Waiting for Roses’

Posted on 15 February 2022

After the successful launch of his debut single, Down, Out and Up, in 2022, the singer-songwriter, Malo Daniels, proved that he was worthy of a place on listeners’ radars with the launch of his debut album, Waiting for Roses, which fuses pop, soul, rock and Americana – to swoon-worthy effect.

With a team of Nashville musicians behind him and acclaimed producer, Dallas Dudley, polishing the album, Waiting for Roses is a triumph of romanticism, sun-soaked talent and powerfully mature songwriting. The title single is as hooky as Faith by George Michael, as indulgently indie as Kurt Vile and as soulfully compelling as Prince’s sweetest serenades. With the warm over-driven guitars greeting the horn stabs and Daniels’ honeyed vocal timbre, you’d be hard-pressed finding a track that takes you higher than this unadulterated feat of romanticism and longingly panoramic expression.

Waiting for Roses is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

DeadFire have released their outlier uniting Drunk n Roll track, Anxiety Society

Posted on 11 February 2022
DeadFire

For any outliers grappling with the stranglehold of outcast anxiety, the latest Drunk n Roll track, Anxiety Society, from North East Scotland’s finest, DeadFire, has exactly what it takes to make the cortisol spikes and cold sweat worth it.

Around the down and dirty blues-rock riffs that are filthy enough to leave you feeling a little sticky, the jagged basslines feed the scuzzy and caustic energy that will take you right back to the time when Alice in Chains ruled supreme. Yet, as sonically enticing as Anxiety Society is, DeadFire set themselves leagues apart lyrically.

Tracks such as Anxiety Society force you to reflect on the candour of former rock icons. Anxiety was a thing long before the invention of rock, yet, why long did it take for artists to be as bold and vulnerable as this? If this doesn’t define the new golden era of rock, I don’t know what will.

Anxiety Society will officially release on February 11th, 2022. You can checkout DeadFire via Spotify, Facebook and Instagram. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Volta Nova – Out Where the West Begins: Meet the Fresh Face of Blues Rock

Posted on 5 February 2022

To follow on from their debut Return to Tomorrow EP, the fresh face of blues-rock, Volta Nova, unleashed their college-rock-reminiscent stormer of an extended single, Out Where the West Begins.

With hints of the 90s Seattle sound, prog-rock proclivities, blues rock attitude, swaggering crunchy guitars and nuances of the Offspring in the early days in their vocals, you couldn’t ask for a more dynamically indulgent alt-rock single to add to your playlists. For five unadulterated minutes, Volta Nova pulls from the puppet strings of a myriad of genres to deliver a sound as distinctive as it is familiar. Words alone could never express the innovation encased in Out Where the West Begins that draws you in with its impassioned gravitas.

Out Where the West Begins is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rock fuses with hexed soul in Chris Holly’s latest single, 7 Curses

Posted on 2 February 2022

“7 Curses” is the latest lighters-in-the-air worthy whiskey-soaked blues-rock single from Chris Holly. With nuances of Pixies-style production mixed in with the college radio rock vibes and the raw emotion dialled up to 11, few tracks hook you in so deeply from the first hit. 7 Curses definitively proves that there is nothing sweeter than experiencing a fusion of rock and roll and pure tortured soul.

The wanderlust guitarist, Chris Holly, has toured worldwide, rubbing shoulders with Hootie and the Blowfish, Better Than Ezra, and even Slayer and Pantera in his metal days. Now, he’s teamed up with the sensational 19-year-old songstress, Alexis Perry, who has already enamoured the indie music scene. She’s the Taylor acoustic to Chris Holly’s trusty Gibson LPs. If there was ever time to start paying attention to Chris Holly’s career, it is now. New artists as sweet as Soul Asylum don’t come along every day.

7 Curses was officially released on February 2nd; it is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bourbon House give 70s blues-rock a demure riff-driven kick in ‘I Got Trouble’

Posted on 27 October 2021

70s rock became even more demure under the coercion of Bourbon House’s deeply rhythmic licks and Lacey Crowe’s vixenish vocals in their 2021 album, Into the Red.

I Got Trouble is just one of the standout singles that prove Lacey Crowe is a blues-rock siren. With the vintage-to-the-bone instrumentals behind her soulful vocal timbre, you fall right into the stormy core of I Got Trouble hook, line and sinker.

Jason Clarke’s guitar crooning is enough to take your breath away alone, but with Ryan Sargent’s snappy visceral percussion and Jon Peck’s grooving, almost jazzy, basslines, I Got Trouble becomes a delicious pool of 70s blues-rock nostalgia.

It hardly comes as a surprise that the album garnered hype from Classic Rock Magazine, reached number 1 on Australia’s independent music charts and number 2 in the UK.

I Got Trouble is now available to stream on Spotify with the rest of their third album which was released on October 22nd.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Get your blues rock n roll fix with Article 19’s stellar scuzzy hit, Stone Crazy.

Posted on 23 October 2021

Article 19 has been on the rock scene since 2007; with their strongest lineup yet, the Coventry-based outfit is serving up their most raucously robust singles to date.

Their standout single, Stone Crazy, is the perfect introduction to the 70s rock n roll inspired outfit. For the same reasons you fell for the Rolling Stones, Stone Crazy won’t fail to pull you in with the angular bluesy riffs that get plenty of room to breathe in the vintage production that boasts plenty of earworm potential that comes through the clever vocal hooks.

Stone Crazy is the final single to be released from their upcoming album, Without Interference. The official video for Stone Crazy is now available to stream on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Chris Sunfield has the femme fatale fear in his latest single, Don’t Kill Me.

Posted on 31 August 2021

Don’t Kill Me is the latest single from Chris Sunfield, an artist quickly becoming renowned for his conceptual explorations of classic pop idioms to the tune of snaking, swampy blues-rock that isn’t afraid to go Baroque through symphonic styling.

His radio-ready psychobilly single is probably the most accurate femme fatale depiction I’ve ever heard; what Single White Female is to cinema, Don’t Kill Me is to the airwaves. Any fans of the Cramps, the Brains, Amigo the Devil, Nick Cave, or Mad Sin will find plenty to love about Sunfield.

Don’t Kill Me is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Fortune Tellers show us the future of funk-rock with ‘Addicted to You’.

Posted on 19 August 2021

Funk, blues, indie and rock n roll all feed into the forcefully infectious single, Addicted to You, from the up and coming artist, The Fortune Tellers. The shimmering Gretschy guitar tones progress in slick grooves through the anthemic production that will be a hit with any fans of Blue Oyster Cult.

Monika’s rock vocals confront you with pure soul as they harmonise around the blues-rock instrumentals and choral backing vocals that allow Addicted to You to share reminiscence with a religious experience. Addicted to You is the title track from The Fortune Tellers’ debut album, released in July 2021.

The official music video for Addicted to You premiered on July 8th; you can check it out via YouTube.

Check out the album on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hot Juice remind us how to have ‘Good Times’ with their swaggering party rock anthem.

Posted on 1 August 2021
Good Times by Hot Juice

UK-based rock powerhouse Hot Juice reminded fans how hedonism works with the release of their swaggering party rock anthem, Good Times.

With their vintage blues-rock style paired with their scuzzy reminiscence to Eagles of Death Metal and BRMC, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the sleazy desert rock atmosphere. It comes as little surprise that in the short time that Hot Juice has been running rampant on the live scene, they’ve already decorated themselves in accolades from the likes of BBC Introducing and Made in Jersey festival. If you get the chance to see them rip up a stage, take it.

You can check out Good Times for yourselves by heading over to Bandcamp. For more info, head over to the band’s website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast