The Resonars "The Greatest Songs of The Resonars" Review

In some ways it's a little distressing that we live in a world where this sort of collection is necessary. In an ideal world an "introduction" to the Resonars would be as redundant as a hits collections by the Beatles or the Byrds - a fantastic distillation of awesomeness certainly, but not nearly enough of a good thing that deserves to be sampled in a much larger context (i.e the entire, filler-free back catalogue).
We don't live in that world yet though, so this collection, chronicling all of the very best bits of the Resonars back catalogue (barring their most recent release "Crummy Desert Sound", reviewed here) has it's role to play and it's hard to imagine anyone hearing this and not wanting to investigate further.
If the Resonars are new to you, you have great things to discover, and this collection contains more than it's fair share of them.
For the last sixteen years or so, the Resonars have been the outlet for Matt Rendon's songs, which distill the glory-days of mid to late sixties rock n roll into concise melodic nuggets which the terms psychedelic, garage, pop and punk all apply equally to. If you want a ballpark, think the Who circa 1967, backing 1966 Hollies, often at breakneck speed - even more impressive when you realize that the comradely, live-in-studio sounding band interplay you're listening to is actually all the work of Rendon playing everything himself. Tricky bugger.
In some ways this collection also represents the end of chapter one for the Resonars, with a live version of the band naturally falling together earlier this year for a bunch of shows which have been quite exceptional by all accounts. It'll be exciting to hear what happens when they're crammed in a studio together, but in the meantime let's appreciate the legacy Matt has built up by himself - glorious, ornate harmonies, flawless choruses, chiming, vintage guitar sounds with feet equally in the folk-rock and vintage garage camps - there's little to fault here, and anyone who owns a copy of "A Quick One" or "Nuggets" owes it to themselves to investigate this immediately. You will not be disappointed.

Vinyl released soon by Trouble in Mind - check here to order.

Dean Allen Foyd - The Sounds Can Be So Cruel

Reviewed By The Active Listener

Swedish trio Dean Allen Foyd have made an excellent debut here which is heavily indebted to the U.K hard psych rock / white blues scene of the late sixties and could quite easily have been released then.
Even back then a number of the better European bands had a way of taking what was happening in the English scene and making it sound European, which is exactly what Dean Allen Foyd have done with this release. It's very hard to find a contemporary comparison for a band like this - really they've got more in common with early seventies Golden Earring and Mecki Mark than they do with anyone doing the rounds at the moment.
"Please Pleaze Me" is a fantastic opening statement - waves of floating Hendrix guitars, wailing female backing vocals that sound like the end of the world is drawing near, a fantastic burbling synth break that is equal parts early seventies Vertigo and Canterbury scene, and a thunderous rhythm section in the tradition of Mitchell and Redding or Moon and Entwhistle.
There's plenty of variety to be had too from short fuzz guitar laden rockers ( Into the Pearly Gates ) to large, orchestrated numbers like Witches which somehow manages to evoke the guitar work of Suede's Bernard Butler as readily as it does some of George Martin's Beatle's string arrangements.
It was all too common in the late sixties to include a couple of routine blues numbers to pad out the album length, and Dean Allen Foyd follow in this tradition, but deliver "Steady Rollin' Man " with so much conviction that they don't fall into the "pasty white men out of their depth" trap that so many others couldn't avoid at the time.
The spidery guitar work on "Queen Machine" suggests some sort of sublime synthesis of "Marquee Moon" and Jorma Kaukonen, although the thumping tambourine accompaniment is as much Motown as anything else. It's this diversity which makes "The Sounds Can Be So Cruel" such a treat.
On the evidence of this we may have found a power trio that could one day match the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream. They certainly give the likes of May Blitz a run for their money.
Classic in every sense of the word.

BUY IT ON CD HERE OR ON VINYL HERE.