Ginger Wildheart - G.A.S.S. Month 5 EP (2014)

Genre - Hard Rock / Punk / Pop / Experimental

Label - Self Released

Track listing:

01 - The Pendine Incident

02 - Carriageway Roses

03 - Brand New Original Sin

Bonus Demos

04 - Shine

05 - Superpowered Superfly

So here we have the fifth instalment (of twelve) of Ginger Wildheart's G.A.S.S. project and once again we get a truly eclectic mix of tracks that showcase ginger's renowned songwriting ability.
First up comes The Pendine Incident, a great little up tempo acoustic based track that has already been described as sounding like  The Wonder Stuff but with a Geordie accent and  Modern Romance and   feature's the talents of Kelii Compulsive on vocals and  Laura Wilcockson on fiddle (courtesy of Steel Thread) and mixed by Jason Sanderson.. This a great song which I am sure is destined to become a fan favourite.
Carriageway Roses follows, this time featuring the talents of  Yolanda Quartey on vocals, Steve Conte on  guitars and  Tim G on keys and is mixed by Kevin Vanbergen. this song really does showcase the quirky side of Ginger's songwriting at its best, opening off with a great bass riff and some almost spoken lead vocal from Ginger, before building into a real monster. this is a really great song a worth the price of the G.A.S.S. subscription alone!
Closing out this month's new songs is Brand New Original Sin. This song features the talents of  Micko Larkin on guitars and backing vocals together with Neil McMinn on drums. Once again this track is mixed by  Kevin Vanbergen. The song is a real rocker, with an almost Wildhearts / Mutation feel in places. Another great song.
Next up we have this month's bonus / demo tracks,

which come to us in the form of Shine and an original demo of a song written for Michael Monroe's album a couple of years back, Superpowered Superfly. I'll allow Ginger to explain,

SHINE – Here’s my ‘big rock voice’ tryout (shudder) for a band of name US musicians looking for a singer to complete a project that never got off the ground. They had designs on Corey Taylor, and let’s be honest everyone else falls short of that guys voice. Still, he couldn’t commit to the gig so the project fell apart.
Featuring Duff McKagan and Steve Stevens, my friend Billy Morrison offered me a crack at the front person job, and let me write the melody and lyrics, but my talents lie in other areas than bellowing out huge arena rock, as this demo will testify.
Still, they shoulda just got Seb Bach or someone, right?

SUPERPOWERED SUPERFLY – When I joined Michael’s band my secret mission was to get rid of the generic songs they were playing. Harsh but true, I love Michael and honestly thought that peddling Stooges/MC5 facsimiles wouldn’t relaunch his solo career with the glory befitting a rock n roll icon.
I’d written a few songs in band rehearsal, guaranteeing a bad ass backbone (those guys can fucking play), but this was the first time I’d presented a ‘pop’ song to Michael. Knowing his love for Cheap Trick and Sparks, I was still surprised by how much he loved this track, and even wanted to call the album by its title, which I talked him out of. A killer song to play live, this demo was knocked up in 15 minutes with an acoustic guitar and a Garageband drum loop.

To be honest I think that Ginger hits the nail on the head with his comments regarding Shine. Its a great song even if it has been compared to WWE Video Package! The song itself is great only Gingers vocal lets it down, purely because his voice just isn't suited to the "Big Rock Voice" kind of song. Would love to see it recorded by someone with such a voice though as it really does deserve to be heard by the wider public.

The demo of Suiperpowered Superfly once again allows us a little insight into the development of a song, and has a great curiosity value.

So there we go, almost half way through the awesome and ambitious project, fifteen brand new songs, ten unreleased / demo tracks and there's been no signs of any dips in quality yet.

G.A.S.S. is not only proving to be a great success, but has given us some of the best songs Ginger has ever written, and we are not even half way through!

Rating - 10/10

 

Ginger Wildheart - G.A.S.S. Month 2 EP (2014)

Genre - Hard Rock / Alternative

Label - Self Released

Track listing:

01- El Mundo (Slow Fatigue)

02 - Hellbound

03 - King Rat

Bonus Demos

04 - You Are The Light

05 - How I Survived The Punk Wars (Original Demo)

So here we are with the second instalment of Gingers G.A.S.S. project, god has it been a month already?
Once again we are treated to three brand new tracks (specifically recorded for this project) and two unreleased demos, again, one of a completely unheard song and one an original demo of a familiar track.
So what do we have, well first up is El Mundo (Slow Fatigue), recorded and mixed by Jase Edwards and
featuring the talents of  Ash Sheehan on horns & vocals and  Tammy King on vocals. A quirky track that kind of reminds me the Singles club era Ginger, a slow plodding track with the horns giving it a curious twist. Another song that showcases just how eclectic Gingers song writing can be. A good start.
Next up we have Hellbound, once again recorded by Jase Edwards and this time mixed by Jason Sanderson. This track features the talents of Tammy King on vocals and Jase Edwards on guitar. Hellbound is a great melodic rock track that would have fitted nicely amongst the famous 555% set of tracks. A great song with a truly great sentiment! Hellbound is quickly becoming one of my current favourite tracks!
Closing out this months new tracks is King Rat.this time recorded by Jase Edwards and mixed by Kevin Vanbergen. This song also features the awesome talents of a certain Chris Catalyst (Eureka Machines / Sisters Of Mercy / Catalyst) on keyboards, guitar & vocals. This song is destined to become one of my all time Ginger favourites, a great homage to some of his heroes (a little like 29 x the Pain only a completely different feel and sound)) From its opening keyboard pad and haunting vocal to its great melodic rock drive. A really great song.

Next up we have the two bonus demo tracks for June, the first, You Are The Light, is a unreleased song that, well I'll let Ginger explain,
"This song was written for a Finnish band who had considered taking a more melodic and mainstream approach to their next album. Turns out that they changed their mind anyway and stuck with metal, which this song most definitely is not.
I wrote three songs for them, one of which I redesigned as Lover, It’ll All Work Out on the 555% album, and recorded them with Jason Sanderson, who is mixing some of the G·A·S·S· songs you are hopefully enjoying."
No matter what Ginger says, You Are The Light is a great song, almost a big ballad type of track, it has a great feel to it, and once again deserves to see the light of day!
Finally we have the original demo of How I Survived The Punk Wars, a popular track that was written for Hey! Hello!, again I'll let Ginger explain.
"The original demo for How I Survived The Punk Wars, recorded with Jase Edwards and featuring Givvi Flynn on backing vocals. You can hear that the arrangement didn’t stray too much from the original formula but the absence of Victoria is glaringly apparent. Truth is getting Lady Vic involved was a move made when my voice packed up in the studio and I made a panic decision to record the new songs as duets. People had been saying how much they liked her voice on 555% so it made sense to get her involved and give me a break in the vocal dept. As soon as she took the job my confidence in the project grew and my voice came back."
It great to see this song in such an early embryonic stage.

Another great installment of G.A.S.S.

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. For more details please look here