Band : Radio Infinity

Album title : Derail To Innovate

Label : Manitoba

Distributor : Suburban

Release date : April 2008

Release : CD

Singer/ guitarist Ben Weyers was one of the key members of Belgian super band Millionaire, and therefore quite responsable for the band's sound on their debut album Outside The Simian Flock. An   extensive tour with Queens Of The Stoneage followed, but after that the original members split up, each goin' his own way. The protagonist of our little story here hooked up with EvilSuperstars bassist BartVandebroek and Vandal X drummer GunterLiket, and founded RadioInfinity. In 2006 that union already gave fruit to the band's self-titled debut, and although the album was praised in the media (both nationally and abroad), I have to admit it completely passed me by!

Released already in early April, the sophomore album was sent to us with a delay of two months, meaning April's album release shows (at Hasselt's Muziek-O-Droom, Gent's Democrazy and Vooruit, Aalst's Nijdrop, and ???'s De Zwerver) have long since past. So is the more than successful one-week contest on Belgian national radio Studio Brussel, and the debut of the album's first video (and single) "Secrets Secrets" on music tv-channels TMF (première in April) and Jim TV (May). But...beggars can't be choosers, and I am indeed véry happy about having received a promo copy of the album for review after all!

Because the music Radio Infinity makes is indeed a very exhilerating one. With song lengths varying from 1:47 to only 3:03, the 12-track album anly lasts a total of 29:16, but that makes for a véry interestingly filled half hour indeed!!! While the music sounds like Hasselt (the guys' home town) has suddenly befallen under the siege of desert formation...heheh, my subtle way of introducing the fact that the band playes Stoner Rock. What with a few well-chosen electronic additionas here and there, and the fact that each individual song is well-structured rather than the fruit of some jam (endless) session, the songs grab your attention from the get-go 'til the end of the album! I'm sure a lot of people will make a link to QOTSA, Fu Manchu, and others of their ilk, but RI dó differentiate themselves somewhat with an extra shot of '60 Psychedelica and the occasional (subtle) electronics (most prominently on tracks "I'm Not Buying", "Infected", "The Same Mistake", in fact you might say the second part of the album). It brings an even broader diversity, as if the changing pace between the songs wasn't already enough proof of the band's high quality. In short: Radio Infinity do their best in giving the whole Stoner Rock a boost out of the mists of marihuana the genre is supposed to be submerged in. Check out some of the band's stuff at myspace.com/radioinfinity: next to two songs off the debut album you'll also find mp3-files for the more straight-forward (no electronics) "Evil Tongue" and "Throwing Flames", as well as of the album's first single "Secrets Secrets" (which doés have some...electronics that is, beside balls of fire, hahah!). I haven't had tim to check the posted videos (one of which I'm sure is for the new single).

There's a luxury edition of the album, containing no less than 3 bonus songs (giving the disc a duration of just over 37 minutes) and therefore well worth the consideration of purchase. Funnily, all three of these songs have some electronics incorporated in 'em. Perhaps the band is trying to tell us something about a future direction they want to take their music in? Anyway, during Summer the band will be playing select festivals in both Belgium and Holland, and when their album is released outside the Benelux come next September (first areas will be Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and France...with Spain to follow after and negociations for a US release happening at this very moment) the guys will be out on an extensive club tour (which will surely also take the guys out to the rest of Europe).

End evaluation: top-grade album, a must-have for any Stoner Rock fan, a definite must-hear-and-maybe-buy for fans of good music in general, and a worthy addition to that "Best Albums Of 2008"-list of mine!

98/100

Tony.