The Other side: Catch the sun…
Rock bands eh? would can you do with them? Well, you could encourage them I suppose, at least that’s what I’d do in a perfect world.
Catch the sun, get it, try it, love it!
All to often these days, good musicians whom are well rehearsed and genuinely talented are marginalized by the majority, which seems to be a generation that is not yet diss-affected by the trials and tribulations that go hand in hand with the search for the super-stardom that will most likely evade them forever….The Other Side are not one of these bands. Having met the guys, you just get the impression that these guys would cancel the holiday they’d already bought and paid for, just to get the buzz of playing a gig, you just feel the love when you hear them live.
I ain’t gonna dwell too much on the band, as you can check out the the Q&A we did with the guys earlier in the year by clicking HERE as it has the full lowdown, only to say that I’ve caught them live since then and they totally blew me away.
Anyway, “Catch the Sun” is not groundbreaking by any means, but it’s very well put together in a style that many will recognize as a hundred influences from perhaps Frank Zappa, Frank Marino, Rory Gallagher and some of the heavier guitar based Progressive Rock bands too. I mean, to have put this together at home is quite a feat to be honest, cos’ it sounds really thick, like a wall of guitars in every song, from the the late 70′s rock into/outro style of “paranoid” where the wailing Zappa-esque guitar solo intro comes screaming over the big hooks in the first 30 seconds, to dominate your lasting impression of this album, right along to the dirty, sleazy tempo of stand out blues track “Drop in” which I’m sure deserves a place in the sex-face pulling world of the air guitar championships.
There is a heavy, heavy reliance on the lead guitar on this album. It’s a relentless riff-fest with the milky sounds of Toms playing punctuating just about every second of the 50 minute album. The guitar can take over at times, making the distinction between tracks quite difficult over the first few plays, but after a few spins, you can easily identify the character of the individual tracks, this is no big deal, but it took a little longer than some new albums I’ve listened to lately. I couldn’t help thinking that if it was missing just a few fills and flurries here and there it wouldn’t have mattered and perhaps broken some songs up into more identifiable pieces.
Photo: Stuart Westwood.
On recording the album, well, here’s what Kirby had to say about it:
“We actually recorded the album there on an old 8 track, using all kinds of tricks to get the final mixes right. We don’t use click tracks as we want to get as much of a live feel as possible (or Budgie just hates them). Most of the recordings were done in 2 or 3 takes for each instrument. Track 11 Drop In was all done in one take. It was actually me and Budgie just messing around and I recorded the Drums. I then put the Guitars and Bass on in the house and added some Keyboard swells”
I mean, how much more old school do you want and quite an astounding production value from such a traditional approach to making your first album. I wish my own band found it that easy!
I’d love to say that everyone will like The Other Side, but they won’t, not because this is any way a bad album, but because not everyone appreciates how hard it is to make music (especially people who think they do) and folk can too readily dismiss music they don’t like (i mean I’m not a big Coldplay fan, but I’m not gonna stand here and diss their hard work) and their sound is a well trodden formula to everyone that’s ever owned a vinyl rock record first time round.
So to these vinyl buying rock fans who perhaps bought Zappa, Hendrix, Zepp, Purple, Mahogany Rush, Robin Trower, Floyd, Sabbath, Motorhead, Skynyrd or even early Kiss or Aerosmith with the wage from their first job, do yourself a favour and give this album a spin. Think Zappa’s “I’m the slime” or Sabbaths “Sabra Cadabra” or even a variation of the Trower classics “Day of the eagle” of Bridge of sighs” if you like that stuff, you’re gonna love THIS stuff!
I’m one of the guys in the last paragraph and I hear a lot of my early music listening days in all of the tracks on Catch the sun, I found it heavily nostalgic. I’ve been to see the band and I’ll be going again, as their live antics are NOT to be missed. Good F*cking effort!
Email: kirby1962@hotmail.com
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