Monday 13 February 2017

Pink Fairies UK review

http://www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk/MagSitePages/Review/10637/R/Pink-Fairies-CD-Naked-Radio

Band:Pink Fairies
Title:Naked Radio
Reviewed By:Anthony Strutt
Date Published:08/02/2017

Label:Gonzo Multimedia
Format:CD
Release Year:2016
Lookup:    

The Pink Fairies have throughout their 45-year career remained a cult band. They came originally out of the early 70’s underground movement, playing a stoner type of psychedelic rock. The current line-up of the band was formed out of a line-up of the Deviants, the band of the late Mick Farren who wrote three numbers on this album. At one stage ‘Naked Radio’ was going to be recorded by the Deviants, before becoming the Pink Fairies’ first album since '87, who, now fronted by Andy Colquhoun, today remain as much as a cult band as they did back in the early 70’s. ‘Naked Radio’ is a solid piece of work lasting just under an hour and consists of mostly blues-based riff-heavy music that still retains the original magic of London's psychedelic underground.

It opens up with ‘Golden Bud’, which has a tribal rhythm that hypnotises instantly and which is raw, brutal, beautiful and solid, at times hinting of the similar live jams of the Velvet Underground. The Hills are Burnin' has more of a commercial feel, and a coolness to it making it very likeable.

‘Runnin' Outa Road’, is a heads-down blues-styled rocker that would make ZZ Top proud. ‘When the Movie's All Thru' is the first Mick Farren track and has a deeper feel but remains dark, while its guitar solos really does carry it to somewhere else.

‘I Walk Away’ is more punky and played in a faster fashion. ‘You Lied to Me’ is a foot-tapper but underneath it's a very sad blues tale. ‘Midnight Crisis’ is full of anger and frustration, and worthy of being a single in another life.

‘Stopped at the Border’ is doom-laden, while ‘Spellbound’ builds slowly to an intense climax. ‘Down to the Wire’ is another number that ZZ Top would be proud of. ‘Skeleton Army’ is another song written by Farren and is very much a guitar heavy number, and is followed by ‘Mick’, a tribute to their friend.

The title track ‘Naked Radio’ is again written by Farren and is a song which haunts in traditional Pink Fairies fashion and rocks hard. It all ends with the ‘Roll Over Beethoven’-styled ‘Deal Deal’, which smashes the notes home.

A decent return for the Fairies.



No comments:

Post a Comment

...BECAUSE SOME OF US THINK THAT THIS STUFF IS IMPORTANT
What happens when you mix what is - arguably - the world's most interesting record company, with an anarchist manic-depressive rock music historian polymath, and a method of dissemination which means that a daily rock-music magazine can be almost instantaneous?

Most of this blog is related in some way to the music, books and films produced by Gonzo Multimedia, but the editor has a grasshopper mind and so also writes about all sorts of cultural issues which interest him, and which he hopes will interest you as well.