About the Songs
Long Felt Need. Grab a seat and buckle up. Ask yourself if the neighbors are at home. By the end of this trip you just won’t care. The weather en route, is going to rock this craft. As for the crying and howling you are in the able hands of your crew for this flight: Till, Tom, Dieter and Friedrich. Also for your aural delectation we have Hanna and Maja who are backing the crew and who break through, like rays of sunshine in the rain, as if by magic.
These boys must have kept something bottled up for a long time now. You can just feel - I mean hear it. We move onto the runway as Hard to Handle slips into full power and we gain speed. The keyboard solos glisten with the busy bulbous bass. The vocals reminiscent of a younger, smoother Joe Cocker. A liberal smattering of a gut wrenching uhhh! This explosive start brings a fresh feel-good shine to a classic number. The keyboard riff betrays a touch of Wonder: Stevie’s “Superstition”. Some might say that the bass is too good to be so far down the mix and deserves a more prominent place. These musicians clearly call on their vast experience of music. But what about the need which is long felt?
Ain’t no Sunshine gives us a clue. Maybe this is where the long felt need is coming from. A bass melancholically snakes its way together with his gritty vocal accomplice: this house just ain’t no home, anytime she goes away. The organ solo is bright and dripping in 70’s glitter. Anytime she goes away, I know, I know, I know. As the song closes, the easing of Till’s long felt need finds expression in a soaring guitar solo showing formative imprinting from phenomena such as Santana, Metheny and Blackmore. The long-held notes command our attention. Listen to me. Here I am. Loud and proud. Just how many guitarists are in this band anyway? Do you hear them all? Memories of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Decide for yourself. Till is in heaven and so is anyone that’s following. The balanced performance between the guitars and the organ is rocked by some terrific drumming, the volume of the drums competing almost over-favourably with the other instruments. But a splash is as good as a crash when there ain’t no sunshine.
Easy begins with lashings of layered keyboards. Their pal the bass bubbles away nicely. Trickling, tickling sticks, like falling water, tap out the rhythm. Did the boys do the high heart-melting vocal chorus in this track? No. Say hello to Hanna and Maja. Wow. What a great combination: so where are the photos? When everything in the music is right, and in this soulful song it is, the poetry of the lyrics hits you right smack bang in the middle of your being. Why would anyone want to put chains on me?….not happy when I try to fake it. This is a difficult song to cover, and the timing requires a delicate touch. The fine guitar solo and the backing singers complete the roundness of the song and you can feel the sensitivity of this rock band.
But hey, things are looking up. Hallelujah. Darling, everything’s all right, Hallelujah, I just love her so. Are we headed away from being blue now? This is a party song which shows the fun side of the band. This guitarist is a solo waiting to happen.
Thrill is Gone: words which give us a different clue. You’ve done me wrong, ….so lonely, I’m free now. The VG-8 guitar conjures up images of an orchestra of panpipes. This is a strange mixture of funk and blues; the bass misleads us with a sugarhill funk line before we are pulled back into the blues. The words echo this message. “You got me wrong” precedes the descent, again, into the blues. There is a question and answer session going on between the keyboards and the guitar. The singer’s voice with range and character is at home in different genres as is the band in general, witnessed here by the use of guitar feedback and electronic drum effects.
Talk to your daughter: lets us hear Tom wailing on the harmonica - another musical talent appearing on this toe-tapping blues number. The harmonica here is a blunt bread knife which hacks at your body and soul before leaving them in tatters. The guitar attempts to mimic Tom’s wailing. Compared to the harmonica the guitar is an instrument of clinical precision. You should talk to your daughter, for me. OK, but not if you play harmonica like that. This is clearly a rock band which should tour!
The boys have got it real bad as they cover a Jimi Hendrix number. Till takes over lead vocal as his throat pipes displace Tom’s on this track: The Wind cries Mary. Till’s heart is bleeding as he whispers, “…and the wind cries Mary”. The guitar together with well-produced backing vocals also credit this convincing rendition. You really believe there is need here.
Need all the love you can spare….Help the Poor,….say you will. Tom is back on vocals but are we anywhere nearer to knowing what this long felt need is? Or where it is coming from? The pleading voice and sparkly rainfall-piano comforts and lulls you into believing: help poor me. This boy means it. Till’s fretboard-begging is convincing. Crying through his guitar. The guitarist lies patiently in wait, but then,…
Angel, another tune written by Jimi H., is probably the rescuing force for these boys. The keyboard extends the outspreading wings of this beautiful creature, yielding to a guitar before a voice enters. She stayed just long enough to rescue me, she said she’s going to come back tomorrow. Is this a false hope for these boys? Is this a beginning or an end? Tomorrow I will be by your side, Angel. The boys cry out with their music; these boys in need, in long felt need. A delicious Jeff Healey sound - Till pays another visit to heaven ... Angel …
Shotgun Blues: the band has a need to moan, and boy can they moan. Falls down on me like rain, ease the pain, take a shotgun, disconnect my brain. Another song about pain. I try to stand up, keep falling down. There is a lot of frustration. Maybe this is part of the origins of their long felt need.
A more hopeful note signals a possible change in temperature with Fire. And the girls are back. I swear you can hear a woman smile in a song. I like to think so. It’s different for guys, they smile when you least expect, like when singing blues. But I digress. When we kiss, ooh, Fire. It is not obvious that a male singer will sing a song made a classic by a female rendition. This is a song with a boy-girl twist, and a distant recall of Twisted Sister’s “Leader of the pack”.
Working for a living, is hardly the image of the American way. However the scream of the harmonica sums up the utter frustration and drudgery of this everyday situation. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, from one bad feeling to another. I’m taking what they’re giving ‘cos I’m working for a living. This well-constructed entertainment is a party song with a chill of 9 Below Zero.
Wow, Wow says a fusion guitar as the Sign Suite opens with Deep Sign which signals a John McLaughlin salute. The basking-shark bass guitar slides through dark clouds of synthesized seascapes and seamlessly swims into Born under a bad sign. Been down since I began to crawl. Till is on vocals once more and growls from deep inside. If it weren’t for bad luck I’d have no luck at all. This bear’s been bleeding baby: born under a real bad sign. This is a rock band showing its talents in another style but their rock roots continually show through...... Seamlessly again we cross the frontier to Rhythm Sign. With drums and bass jostling for center stage like brothers fighting for their own space they find an unexpected balance. Not a compromise but rather a familial alchemy. Always strange and sometimes unsettling. A tasteful drum solo is ably supported by the bass.
Hell, I would love to be playing with this band ...
...these guys must be really ugly not to be famous…
Alan Davis & Alex Anderson, The Hague, April 2004