Genre - Hard Rock / Pop / Punk
Label - Self released
Track listing:
01 - Everything
02 - That's A Nasty Habit You've Got There
03 - Bloody Knees
Bonus Demos
04 - Ice (Demo)
05 - The Jackson Whites (Original Demo)
OK so Ginger Wildheart has had tremendous success as of late with his various Pledge Music projects, most notably the awesome 555% triple CD release and the Mutation / Hey!Hello! releases, but this time he has opted to go down a far riskier path with his G.A.S.S. project, So what is G.A.S.S? and just why is it so damned risky?
G.A.S.S. (Ginger Appreciation Secret Society) is a totally fan interactive project, the ultimate fan club so to speak, with membership spread overt three different levels, with the most basic offering full access to the exclusive website, and access to 36 brand new tracks, (yes I said 36!) spread over a twelve month period, as well as access to various demos etc, podcasts, competitions etc, and the ultimate top tier offering a membership card that allows the holder to gain access to meet and greets throughout the year. Pretty awesome hey?
So this is a review of the first batch of the 36 songs, (the plan is to release 3 a month over a twelve month period, a little like the aborted Singles club that Ginger tried a few years ago, which got aborted due to an inept record label!)
So what do we have here then?
Track one, Everything, featuring Givvi Flynn on backing vocals and recorded (and mixed) by Jase Edwards, is a mid paced melodic rocker that would have fit comfortably along side any of the tracks on the now legendary 555% project or for that matter even on the aforementioned aborted singles club! A great song!
Track two, That's A Nasty Habit You've Got There, recorded by Jase Edwards, mixed by Jason Sanderson and also features Jason Sanderson on backing vocals, is a slightly darker track with a quicker tempo. Again this song would have fitted well on the 555% project or even Market Harbour, another great song!
Track three, Bloody Knees, again recorded by Jase Edwards, mixed by Kevin Vanbergen and featuring Givvi Flynn on vocals and Jon Poole on keyboards, is a real monster of a song. Givvi and Ginger sharing lead vocal duties in much the same way as Ginger did with Victoria in Hey! Hello!, but this time around the song feels much darker, more Market Harbour than anything else, with a real Wildhearts feel in places (check out its awesome mid section!), just less heavy. Bloody Knees is one of the best songs Ginger has produced ever, and this guy has created some corking tracks over the years. A definite classic!
Its important to note that Ginger plays all instruments, unless otherwise stated, on all three tracks in much the same way as he did with the Hey! Hell! project, and again does a grand job!
So that's three great new tracks, membership also allows you access to various rare demos / outtakes that again will be uploaded and made available over the twelve month period. This month we have two, Ice and an original demo of the Wildhearts classic The Jackson Whites.
"ICE - I'd been given a brief to write some pop/rock songs for a Japanese artist, something that sounds like Ginger. I penned a few songs (I'm sure we'll be sending you the others in due course) and the artist didn't like them because they were too melodic and sounded too much like The Wildhearts. This has happened a few times, once for a proposed movie soundtrack where the director insisted I write something as he was a huge fan (No Way Out But Through), then complained that it sounded too much like me writing a song for a film. This is why I don't write for people very often. This song was recorded with Jase Edwards."
"THE JACKSON WHITES - This is a home demo that I made of The Jackson Whites, the first track written for Chutzpah!, in New York City, 2008. This was before bringing it to the band, where we made a further demo of it in Finland, recorded by our manager at the time, Virpi, which also featured standard tuning. The decision to drop the tuning was made in Denmark as we were actually recording the album. So much for demos, eh?"
Ice is a great little poppy rock track, that if I am honest, I am surprised has been made available as a bonus demo, when the quality of its recording and hell the quality of the song could have easily made it possible to put it out as one of the new 36 tracks! Ice = a great three minute pop rock experience!
The Jackson Whites demo is a surprisingly good quality demo of an early version of the song, You can hear what it sounded like before they tweaked a couple of the riffs and down tuned the guitars!
If this first instalment of G.A.S.S. experience is anything to go by then we are in for a real treat with Ginger pushing himself to deliver the quality product that he has become symnominous with!
Rating 10/10
NB - G.A.S.S. membership is available at any point over the next twelve months, with all releases being made available in due course, so there is plenty of time to save those penny's if you cant subscribe straight away.
No comments:
Post a Comment