HiroshAmour: Live Well, 19th November at the Purple Turtle was a serious event. This proved to be not just a CD launch but the emergence of a major force in rock music. All other bands on the bill paled into insignificance after the HiroshAmour had played. And boy did they play, it was an excellent set worthy of comparison with any major acknowledged rock band. Where the likes of U2 are falling foul of repetition with there offerings these days HiroshAmour offered a fresh and vibrant approach and some cool improv too during the set. A sublime live version of Suicide Bomber would be a great anthemic close out number for any arena, large, huge or even the modest Purple Turtle. All that these boys need now to elevate themselves to world status is a European Tour, a tour of the USA and somebody prepared to promote (or that dreaded word market) them in the manner that a major record label after "signed" status would have done for them in the past. The power house drumming was equally matched by the charismatic bass playing and the full on and inventive sonic soundscape from guitar and vocals belying the trio status. Bigger venues beckon, soon I hope for them and me. So "One" for the future then.....”
HiroshAmour : One Some time ago I ventured to Sarff London to a gig by HiroshAmour. It was pretty mellow and chilled out with a collection of engaging grooves and harmonies that proved to enhance a relaxing evening. Consequently, I was pretty sure what to expect when I started to listen to their new release, oh how naive you can be......... The opening track I thought “that is a poorly recorded vocal”, then it slowly dawned upon me, that the track is called Fever and those vocals are exactly how you hear people when you have a Fever and the music only emphasised that very experience.With the excellent intricately grooved drum and ostinato bass line it certainly gives all the sense and feeling of being in a Fever and the soundscapes overlaid by guitars and in some regard the vocals a very dark grooving fever indeed. On my first listen through of these releases I instantly knew what my favourite track was, Critical Mass. You can instantly recognise the influences but still acknowledge the originality and full bodied fun of this composition. The dark brooding bass and the full tilt drumming with thick, dense swathes of guitar. Just the track to be listening to as I sit here with the added aural excitement of bonfire night exploding outside, perfect. I put it on repeat to ensure that I didn’t miss anything. I didn’t, it was great fun. To ensure that all my senses were exposed and turned on we had Suicide Bomber with the highly charged and inventive rhythm section going at it hell for leather with a suitably manic vocal and screaming guitar and the most insidiously captivating thing about this song was just how bloody embedded it gets into your brain almost immediately. For those now believing that this is some post apocalyptic industrial rock, nothing could be further from the truth, as these guys have retained the chilled out songs too with The Puppeteer having both piano and possibly a gamelan (?) to complement the subtle harmonies. They also leave the drummer to his own devices on the excellent and rhythmically inventive Manji which is sadly too short but thankfully owes no favours to any other percussive solo outings found elsewhere in rock. The delights of Sweet Tooth, Orpheus and the sublime Sacrifice I leave to you to draw your own conclusions. For me this is an excellent first release with enough variation and invention to keep me amused, engaged and entertained on every play. If you are seeking X Factor music leave this one well alone as it is performed and honed by skilled musicians who dearly love their craft and who are engaged in openly acknowledging their influences whilst not being limited to their predecessors conduct or that of some overblown ego intent on extracting as much cash as he can from a very limited format. Hirosh definitely Amour and “One” for my collection and should be yours too. I am now sure to be at their CD launch at the Purple Turtle in Camden on the 19th November, if you get the chance you should too. Norton Balcheevers.”
New York, New York...... Los Angeles is the centre of music for studio production in my view as it accesses the film and TV world too. However, the centre for excellence and Jazz in particular I have always felt is on the East Coast and centred around New York City and New York State. It was, therefore, immensely gratifying to receive such positive feedback from WAER 88.3fm of New York. I have already said that it is amazing that we have received radio play for some of our tracks that I always considered too long for radio stations to consider airing them. Yet here we have another radio station playing songs which are all five minutes or longer !! So much for my theory that you had to hit a 3 or 3.5 minute song length to get air play. Clearly, i was mistaken and have lived under a misapprehension for some time. I always considered our lack of 3 minute material to be a barrier to this access but here we have a Radio Station DJ highlighting 4 tracks of 22 minutes of music !! Incredible, it is equally incredible and immensely satisfying that not only has 33% of the album been named as played on this radio station, but that the clear indication is that these tracks are played MORE THAN other tracks thus giving us a huge vote of confidence in the overall content of the album. It is also very pleasing that our versions of Marvin Gaye and Chick Corea songs are given such prominence. Not until now have I realised just how important positive endorsement of your efforts are. We have thru' Joocy News posted reviews on other artists material and seen it then posted on their websites and felt that it must have been a suitably balanced perspective, but now with such understated and yet powerful validation I feel that all of the hard work is in some measure re paid by the review from a radio station in an area where they know their subject and are not afraid to call it for what it is, this time its good and consequently i shall be basking in this glow for a little while and I suspect so will the rest of the guys. This is, of course, not to denigrate the other really neat reviews that have also been posted from Australia, Macedonia, Netherlands et al but for decades now New York has always been my acknowledged Jazz Central and as such it hits the spot. I'm off now to see if I can pick up WAER on internet radio to check out other bands.... see ya.”
What a neat thing to say.... We had a real neat comment today from Vasya Ivanovski regarding our music and the "Jazz Spaces" radio programme which broadcasts out of Skopje in Macedonia on Bluebell Maritime. Vasja included "Joocypeach's excellent material" on this show. It was only requested mid February and on the 17th it was playing as part of the playlist. You normally expect radio stations to only select tracks that are in the proximity of 3 minutes and yet our version of Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin' On" is 5 minutes and our title track "Jeweltown" is 6 and a half minutes but Vasja played both. What a huge compliment. How neat is that !! it is so refreshing to know that there are still Radio stations and DJ's that do not just stick with the 3 minute format song, most excellent !!”
Radio plays and more .... Well, what a cool month so far with a major burst of activity. We have now had requests for Jeweltown from loads of radio stations worldwide since the 4th February. It is quite awe inspiring to see requests coming from places such as Belarus, Macedonia & Colombia and then it is that you realise the power of the net. Truly mind boggling. Where do these people look and how do they search to seek us out, I don't know but it is great to see. I can see how Radio Seagull (formerly Radio Caroline) would connect with us as we are, globally, "just down the road" and it was great to get their request but I am still in shock with some of the others. You don't realise what an appetite for Independent music there is until this happens, just great !! To add awe to awe we then got a load of hits and downloads for our first album "Midnight Over Erith" notified to us today. if you are those responsible persons, gracias. And welcome. Hits, downloads and requests we love 'em. There's an album title there somewhere !!”
Joocypeach does iTunes The latest Joocypeach CD is now also available as Mp3 dowloads on iTunes. it is great to see it up there, yet another collection of joocypeach tunes to add to our burgeoning library. Try one or try 'em all. We even now have a track with Guest vocalist Anthony Michael ex "Kule T" of MN8 fame ! Check it out !!!! ”
CDBaby hits It is once again CDbaby leading the way for joocypeach. A record number of hits for the first two weeks of release of "Jeweltown". There has been substantial response and all very positive. However, we await the first elusive sighting of any "Scotchbrook " review....”