| CD REVIEW Remedy |
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Band: Remedy Brought together by their disappointment at today’s “disposable” attitude towards music and their love for the great ‘70s bands, female singer Jenn Cherene, guitarist Graham Haswell, bassist Lee Tuck, and drummer Mark Dodds (at 27, the senior of the band by 5 years over the others) were first known as The Alcatraz House Band, honing their skills by performing covers of their favourite bands (among which evidently Janis Joplin, but also Led Zeppelin, Rolling Sones, Doors, and Aerosmith) at local clubs and biker festivals throughout the North West of England. After having done that for some 3 ½ years, the band started feeling the itch to create their own original material…and following a bandname change, Remedy recorded and released their first promotional demo, combining the Rock influences from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s with the band’s musical favourites of today’s generation (Alanis Morrissette, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Incubus, Metallica) to create a balanced and fresh sound. Eventually that first promo was cast aside (it’s no longer available today) as the band felt their songwriting abilities had progressed. Realizing a band needs a real strong calling card to get noticed by any record label in these days of global economical crisis, the quartet set about writing 6 tracks which were strong enough individually to warrant being released as singles! Songs which they then travelled to the Blast Studios in Newcastle for to get recorded professionally with the help of Adam Sinclair, whom also co-produced the mini-album with Haswell. The people at Komodo.com have been raving over the band for some while now, having already gotten acquainted with the band in live conditions…giving them quotes like “…Remedy look and sound amazing, these guys’ musicianship is simply FIRST CLASS – these guys most definitely have the potential to be huge!…,” or, “…One of the best Classic Rock albums I have EVER heard…in my personal top 5 releases of this year. Unfortunately, even that outstanding album can’t hope to capture the power and majesty of this band live… With a presence that is impossible to ignore, Jenn owns any stage she walks on. Combining the powerof Ann Wilson and the wail of Robert Plant with as much soul as Chris Robinson.” Hardrockhouse.com said, “Remedy are a band with all of the right ingredients and if you are looking for a new band witth the ability to produce something that can be called the Genuine Rock Article, look no further than these guys – and one girl!” At their MySpace page, Remedy introduce themselves with the words: “’70s based Hard Rock band witth modern-day influences; imagine Led Zeppelin playing with Incubus, Janis Joplin singing with Audioslave, The Black Crowes drinking with Guns ‘n’ Roses. Energetic, attitude-fueled, passion-driven music with an old school sound,” and somewhere in between that, you will indeed find Remedy’s music! Although consistent in overall “Rock” content, there’s variety enough within the songs (calmer passages balanced against more Rocking ones, but always with Jenn’s charismatic and strong voice (I don’t really hear much of the typical Janis Joplin ranting and freakiness in her singing, which doesn’t mean that she might have brought some very nice cover version in the “old” days) supported by nicely intriguing guitar work and a Rock-steady rhythm section) to have the lover of ’60s-‘70s Rock take notice throughout the near 28 minutes’ length of the album…only to have him give a sigh of enjoyment before hitting the “play” button again (for the umptiest time). Yes, it’s music which either strikes a string within one by the first introduction, or not…but when it does it’ll grow on you with each session you give it! To get you acquainted with Remedy’s music and get charmed by the band’s outstanding qualities, you should go listen to the two infectuously catchy tracks (only a sample of the equally nut-grabbing tunes on the mini-album) posted at myspace.com/remedyrocks. Considering what was said above (about the album not even catching the power of the band in live conditions), the words placed at Rockandindie/013.htm (“…if you want to catch a bloody good Rock ‘n’ Roll band, go see Remedy. You will ENJOY it…”) sound like a dead-certainty! I’m not ready to put the band in any year-lists yet though, in spite of the fact that the many sessions I gave the 6 tracks wére most enjoyable! Still, I’m sure a good portion of the people with more time on their hands to give the album even more spins in their cd-players, will eventually come to the conclusion that here’s a stand-out kinda band…which is an assessment I totally agree with, you know! 90/100 Tony. |