WHITEFORD independent debut album released 16 October 2020

In 1997 I managed a band called FADE through a demo, a couple of gigs and, eventually, a break-up which actually saw the lead singer and main songwriter sacked! That’s OK, because the band didn’t last much longer without him anyway! That singer/songwriter worked in tribute acts like Pearl Jammed through the late 1990s and into the next millennium to keep his name active in the biz and to hone his craft.

His wife, Jo, tells the story of travelling to Tea Gardens at Bondi Junction of a Tuesday night during 2010 to watch this singer strum his heart out acoustic style to these great songs that he’d written.

“He worked hard to build a band,” Jo says, “and over the years various ‘band brothers’ came and went and all contributed something unique to the journey”. This journey included the project known as 30three that seems to have come and gone without too much ado, let alone any output I can find online.

“4 years ago the band became known as WHITEFORD,” Jo continues, “with Zarz (Nathan Zahorodnyj) on vocals and rhythm guitar, Brad (Kypo) Kypriotis  on lead guitars, Nate Meryment on drums, and Steve (Shorty) Short on bass. Over the last four years the band has become next-level greatness and I’m so excited for what the future holds”.

I, for one, can’t wait to hear how much Zarz has grown as a musician, singer, songwriter, and performer over that time.

Listed on the TripleJ Unearthed site as influenced by Pearl Jam, U2, Powerfinger, LIVE, and Foo Fighters, we have been treated to musical and visual snippets on their Reverb Nation page. I’ve seen them live a couple of times since we reconnected through his own online sleuthing and some mutual personal and business connections, so I sort of had an idea of what to expect. I was even treated to an unexpected preview when Words Like Bullets was played on breakfast radio on the day of the album release! With support like this, the only way is up for this band, despite the pandemic that shan’t be named!

Let’s take a step back, ourselves, to those Reverb Nation days – there are five tracks and three videos, so from the top we have Move Me, co-written with Ben “The Captain” Irvine from the FADE days, with as much of Zarz’s influence on his sleeve straight from the top! Now I am a little biased but this rocks socks and anything else you want to remove! This is what got me involved with this guy from the outset! Day’s End pares it back a bit, as the title suggests, and reminds me again of those FADE days but eventually emotes with the best of them and brings the Rock right back!

Dirty Baby returns to the vibe established by Move and, like any good rock track, needs to be turned all the way up. Your stereo only goes up to 10? Get another stereo! Carousel continues in the same vein and is accompanied by Zarz’s first effort at making a video clip. Tell Me rounds things out with another Zarz/Captain collab but, although it still needs some work in post, is both gentle and powerful as anything published on this page.

It turns out that four of the five RN tracks are on the band’s Bandcamp page, along with the August 2018 single “She Joins Love”. I actually recorded and posted one of the songs from the launch of that single which earned the comment, “I like his voice”. Lisa, we all do!

Zarz tells me the story of being inspired by a visit to the old Festival studios at Pyrmont while I was managing the band back in those early days (I have an idea guitarist Marcüs Beaumont might also have been with us that day). Zarz learned about the now-famous Neve recording console and has had the dream of recording on that desk (or one of the other handful in existence world-wide) since that day. Well that day has come with the release of his debut album, and if the Reverb Nation work is anything to go by, we’re in for a real treat!

So without any further ado, let’s turn to the album, which is a whole new collection of ten tracks we have only heard live or in pre-production mixes. The single, Words Like Bullets, opens the set with Kypo, Shorty, and Zarz playing The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Bono, while Nate powers on! But this soon changes to the rock and roll we’ve already been treated to, and Zarz’s vocals cutting through like a stronger Dave “Fini Scad” Thomas from back in the 90s. She’s Amazing is beautifully segged- a song that could only be dedicated to / about Mrs.Z! It’s still U2 but with some Pearl Jam, and/or Powerfinger and a more mature version of the old sound. Consequence continues with some great picking and wailing from Kypo through the middle-8 and, I’m pretty sure I’ve heard this at gigs.

For mine, this drives toward the ballad which should be- oh look! She Joins Love! Like he’s been doing it all his life! Some backing vocals in the fade add depth to a song which should have been a bigger hit than it was. Still, there’s time! Fall Short brings the rock back with a new sound for the guys and some excellent production values which bring Zarz’s voice to the fore. A stand out so far.

Shorty gets an intro for Lies and a radio-mic effect for the vocals plays over some guitar noodling before the more-established sounds return, albeit gently. Keep Moving On does the same again but has more of an up-tempo and combines both the established and new sounds with some guest vocals and some old-school U2 slide-guitar work on the middle-8!

Always You breaks out the acoustic guitars for the wedding vows with a country feel! Stop The World is as straight-ahead as we have heard so far, but it’s both first-generation Pearl Jam and Fini Scad’s Just A Show (the opener for “Wider Screen”). I’m Alright closes the set with a gig favourite and killer hook. A great earworm that won’t go away anytime soon and, hopefully, the next single! It’ll definitely drive sales!!

Zarz works his arse off around suburban Sydney gardens to fund his music and support his little family, so you might well have a rock legend-in-the-making mowing your lawns! Help him make a real difference in the world and get behind WHITEFORD, the band and the album! You won’t be sorry!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson
17 October 2020

gilli moon – a retrospective: 1998-2019

gilli moon and I go back to the mid-to-late 1990s, just before she headed Stateside, her involvement with songsalive, and my retirement from community radio. We had a great chat during one of her Christmas visits, and I was part of the promotion of her “Temperamental Angel“ (2001) and “Woman” (2003) records. While I might have moved on, gilli has been working harder than ever in polymedia, on five more solo albums and other collaborations, and as label CEO (chief empowerment officer), manager, mentor, publisher, podcaster, and mum.

“Girl on the Moon” set gilli up as an enigma: the music industry didn’t quite know what to make of her “ahead of its time” debut studio album. Sultry, soothing, rockin’, and movin’ with a display of an incredible vocal range, this fourteen-song record launched a career that continues to earn accolades from critics everywhere and create and redefine music genres. Through “Angel” and “Woman” she swung maniacally between moods and muses while fiercely maintaining her artistic ingenuity, indie street-cred, and intensely serious music making ideas.

“extraOrdinary Life” is as close to Tori Amos as you can get without being Tori with my standout Coming Undone combining  Tori, diana Ah naid, and Shirley Manson/Garbage in gilli’s inimitable style. Spaceship also leaps out as, initially, a stripped-back and emotional recollection of a passed relationship that built strongly in the hope that, once good could be again. Rachel Gaudry comes to mind when listening to this one. Followed by Bye Is Such A Lonely Word; sultry, summery, calypso/latin styled like Tina Arena’s Sorrento Moon. Listening to gilli’s work is an amazing adventure!

gilli took a hiatus (an hiatus?) over the next few years, releasing “The Stillness” in June 2010 and “Refresh” at the end of 2018. “Stillness“ was quite different to what she had done to that point, with a change in vocal style and a much more laid-back approach across the board. November was, for mine, the stand-out from this collection, which also featured as an early track on “Refresh”. I found myself going back to the statistician on this one, wondering if I had heard it before, or if I wasn’t paying as much attention as I should. Turns out “Refresh” was sold as a best-of / retrospective, with gilli’s version of the InXS hit Need You Tonight featuring highly.

Through that break, gilli appeared on J.Walker’s single “Groovy Love” in September 2015 and put out another couple of singles: “Chemistry” in September 2019, and “Merry Christmas My Love“ two months later. In return, Mr.Walker appeared on a number of tracks on gilli’s last couple of records as well. After all, what is a life-partnership if you can’t collaborate on each other’s work?

And with the world on hold for the foreseeable future gilli, like many in creative arts, and the world as a whole, has had enough! “The Wait“ is her response to the whole pandemic thing but, thankfully, also a prelude to her first full-length album in eighteen months. We’ll look at “The Wait“ as a new-music review over at my OriginalRock.net page because new work deserves to be brought to more people’s attention! Not that a retrospective isn’t important: I feel this more effectively sets the tone for what we can expect, and builds anticipation for the pending product. 

Can’t wait!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson
15 August 2020

Peter Hamer Productions 2015-2020

Since I spoke with Piero, Luca , and Paolo about the first three Victim Of Illusion releases Italy was, for a time, the COVID19 hotspot with the harshest of lockdown laws contrasted by neighbourhood karaoke from the windows. But this didn’t stop Signor Hamer collaborating on “The Place I Left My Heart” with Katie J on vocals, Luca Imerito on bass, and Giampiero Ulacco at Hologram Studios on the desk.

On 24 April 2020, Peter announced, through the VOI  Facepage, the forthcoming release of his side-project “The Place I Left My Heart”. Now, whenever an artist works outside their usual field or project, the outcome is usually somewhat similar to that for which they are better-known in the original collective (RAMMSTEIN side-projects Emigrate from Richard Z Kruspe, and Till Lindemann and Swedish producer Peter Tägtgren on Lindemann are good examples). May 8 saw the release of this dark, moody, chunky, bass-laden industrial grind-core in the style touted by RAMMSTEIN, Emigrate , and Lindemann but with the touches Peter adds through the influence he has created through Victim. This is a really good song which I could hear Carmilla, Unveil, or even RAMMSTEIN covering it quite comfortably.

But the surprise when researching this piece was first discovering Peter’s Bandcamp page and his other work, comprising a video-game sound track, two EPs, and another collaboration dating back to 2015. Let’s look back at these chronologically:

“Wholes” EP : December 2015 

• Dark Images – Starting as a TV-show theme under the opening credits would, it moves through what would be described as an overture of what we can expect, perhaps, from the rest of the record, including an electric-didgeridoo effect during the closing minute.
• Caldera – More thematic constructions; perhaps for a video game or dramatic mood-music for the aforementioned TV-show. Great driving music as well.
• Prophecy – The title alone hinted at the prog-themes demonstrated by Victim Of Illusion’s work and the vocalisations that merge from Gregorian-styled chants lead female-vocalist soloist and choruses carry this forward. My son found a video game on Xbox which had a soundtrack similar to this, and I could imagine playing something adventurous or quest-based with this in loop during different parts of the journey.
• Planet Smash – An uplifting tinkling intro morphs into nightmarish dischords, only to shatter the mood with a hard-rocking riff as Peter has demonstrated through his VOI work and revisited later in Left My Heart. A slight mood restoration with introduces more bass-laden keyboard accompaniment to finish a fine debut collection.

 “Two Drops in the Same Ocean” with Anthya : August 2017

Written in collaboration with Italian vocalist Anthya, this is an ethereal mix of gentle guitars and Kate Bush / Natalie Bassingsthwaite-styled drifting vocals with tags including ambient, cinematic, and epic. Described as video-game soundtrack music, this one stands alone quite nicely. The more I listen to Peter’s work the more I want to find! Thank the deities for these music streaming sites!

“Ancestral Disorder” EP : June 2018

• Star’s Teardrop – Opening with a title such as this, one expects more of the Anthya / Two Drops-styled musings. Instead we’re treated to a synth-pop/rock piece along the lines of some of Queen’s “Flash Gordon” soundtrack-work as well as releases that celebrated the Ultima Thule footage from the New Horizons space-probe. But the whole way-exceeds the sum of these parts.   
• My Unknown Battle – This is what we’ve come to expect from Mr. Hamer through his VOI work: rockier, more metallic with time-signature and stylistic changes in the prog tradition with the same tinkly music-box from Planet Smash in the middle-eight. A truly rhapsodic battle piece.
• A Tale Called Life – Life, as we know it, brings ups and downs; now, more than ever. Here, after the title which demonstrates an internal battle, we have what Peter wants us to see from the outside. Calm, soothing, but with a steady beat under more choral / vocal effects ion another operatic / rhapsodic movement.
• This Unbelievable Horizon – Opening like a wavering lo-fi Eastern-European film soundtrack, we are soon treated to a Mike Oldfield / Ultima Thule opus to close out this remarkable work. To choose a stand-out from these pieces would be difficult, as they all have their individual qualities, but I do quite like this one and Life. So, what can we expect from his next venture? 

“Water Ride Express” video-game sound track album : March 2019

• Monster Ride – Straight-ahead electric/acoustic-guitar incorporating slide/blues rock that could stand alone very well. Opening credits soundtrack?
• Downhill – A reprise of Monster but with a country/western up-beat.
• Surfing Wave – Acoustic guitar with The Edge/U2 echo effects .. Streets Have No Name but quicker. It’s hard to pick the basis of the game from these three tracks. This one could even be the closing-credits track.
• Two Drops in the Same Ocean (instrumental) – Drama-building ethereal mood-music as per that had me waiting for the beat to drop .. cue 84th second. Love that drop-tuned bass from c.2:45! Rapidly becoming my favourite from Peter’s work to date.
• Boundary Exception - Hope (Instrumental) – Prog Rock in ⁶₈ to start, morphing into other signatures I couldn’t identify, then back again. Action-sequence backing track.
• Victim of Illusion - Dewdrop (instrumental) – Space / jungle-mood dischords with the space-mood being overridden by jungle drums into an epic rock beat and Simple Minds-keys and more of that drop bass.

Marketed as a video-game soundtrack with tags including cinematic, epic, and soundscape, any musician would be pleased to include this in their discography without the distraction of a video game. It could even work on its own in conjunction with (the space tunes on previous release).

Now, in my experience, when an artist has a BandCamp page, there is usually also a Soundcloud page! And Peter Hamer is no exception. Not only is The Place I Left My Heart here, but you’ll find both vocal and instrumental versions of Two Drops, and selections from “Wholes”, “Ancestral”, and “Water Ride”, including the collaboration with Judy Kang on My Unknown Battle. Peter Hamer is an amazing musician and these collections are simply sensational! But which is the side project, this work, or VOI?

Having reviewed all of his audio-only work it was time to see if there was a YouTube channel. And whilst I was disappointed that most of them are shorts and trailers, there are still full-length videos for some of those songs including, like a good artist, work there not available elsewhere, including Escape from New York, Profondo Rosso, The Exorcist, Anesthetise, and a showreel of his work to that point. We also learn why some of the releases on the other platform/s are “no covers”, with the cover-versions appearing here instead.

“Both albums ‘Wholes’ and ‘Ancestral disorder’ are made of 6 tracks with 2 cover songs on each”, Peter explains. ”Since I cannot post cover songs in Band Camp, I did a ‘no covers’ version, but if you go on Spotify, Amazon or any other streaming platform you can find the full version of the album”. And as an added extra bonus, there is also a collaboration with Jes Hudak on an Imogen Heap song Hide and Seek, as well as more output from side projects, including the female-fronted Boundary Exception from whom I would love to hear more, based solely on the teaser on his website, and Mohai Experiment. There seems to be no end to Peter’s creativity!

Those cover songs include:

• Escape (metal-styled cover version of the John Carpenter movie theme labeled as, perhaps, a recoding from the “Wholes” project): Had me envisaging the scene where Roland Deschaine and his troupe were walking through New York, crossing the long-rusted pedestrian bridges, to meet Blaine the Super Train that would take then to Topeka. I know this isn’t Carpenter but it has the same desolate, apocalyptic, doom-laden epic journey that was EFNY (I imagine- I haven’t watched it but I’m familiar with Carpenter’s work as a filmmaker).
• Profondo: Another cover from the “Wholes” project, this one has Mike Oldfield meeting Sky in a sometimes ¹⁵₈ time signature with a huge church-organ a la Toccata and Fugue / Thus Spake Zarathustra / Rick Wakeman thrown in amongst the drop-bass and multi-kick drumming. Wow!!
• Exorcist: And speaking of Mike Oldfield, here is Peter’s take on Oldfield’s contribution to the Exorcist soundtrack from the “Ancestral Disorder” project. The video is the aural spectrum under the album art showing the track-position within the album with a rhapsodic piece whose time signatures alternate between ⁷₈ and ⁸₈.

I have to thank Amanda Easton, who valued my opinion and supported my writing since we first back in the 1990s, for getting me back into this for her Christmas 2019 release and our subsequent interview (and you're not going to hear the end of this, Amanda!). The availability of music today is much more ubiquitous than it was back then when you physically had to go to a bricks-and-mortar store to part with your hard-earned for a silver disc in a plastic box. This is as good as it is bad for 21^st century musicians because, while it gets their work into more ears than ever before, it doesn’t necessarily pay them any better. But that discussion is for another day. As I trawl the Interwebz with thanks to my Twitter feed, I will keep bringing you the treasures I find with the hope that, one day, these people will bring their show to our shores and you can physically go out there and support them!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson
30 July 2020

Meresha : Artist. Singer. Songwriter. DJ. Producer. Multi instrumentalist

Meresha : Artist. Singer. Songwriter. DJ. Producer. Multi instrumentalist from Poland via Florida. Since 2014 she has been recording and posting to social media.

Meresha reached out to me in October 2016 but I didn't see that DM until I started researching this piece in July 2020 due to the bot that manages my Twitter follower requests. Hemy did the same two years earlier and I didn't see his message until late last year. This hasn't gotten in Meresha's way, as she has grown prolifically in that 3 1⁄2 year space with more than 50 tracks available across BandCamp, SoundCloud, YouTube, Deezer, Spotify, and anywhere else you can imagine. Some of her work is only on one platform while some is accessible almost everywhere. It all reflects an amazing and exponential growth in popularity, creativity, depth, and breadth over that very short time. 

So it is only natural that we start at the very beginning to follow her work through the years. You can track her musical, artistic, and technological development through the different platforms that culminate on a YouTube channel that includes a fan video of one of her crowd favourites. 

Her very first track, Fool Don’t Be, uploaded to her BandCamp in June 2014, shows a remarkable maturity and incredible funkiness! Over the next five years, until April 2020 at least, the acid-house drum/bass Acid Bass mix of New Revolution, the heart-felt realisation that My Love Has Come, the trancy Enter the Dreamland, the dance floor-anthemic Violet Night, and the electro-pop Game of Video were put here in various iterations with other tracks that don't appear anywhere else. This is all Meresha: all the music, all the words, all the instrumentation. The only variation is the producers or engineers for the remixes of songs. 

Turning to her SoundCloud page, and her earliest post check check, a demo/jam featuring self- harmonies over a honky-tonk piano-effect, is followed by Infinitenergy1111. These tracks give the impression that perhaps this was the more experimental channel for her musings. But we then reach Fool Don't Be and August which are anything but experimental; the latter being very similar to where Amanda Easton has been recently. We see more appearances by Violet Night, My Love Has Come, Enter The Dreamland, initial appearances from Lemonade City, Jungle Potion, and Thinkin’ About You, and SoundCloud-only tracks that include hya, beach day vibez, and mor than. 

It's here, also, that we learn of her first two EP releases: 2015's "new revolution" and 2017's "Enter The Dreamland". Artfully illustrated with the lady bedazzled by disco glitter between the back and front panels of her keyboard, lemonade city opens her debut EP with a slow, saltry salute to summer in the city which is all forgotten at the night-club under the doov-doov of new revolution. One of the boys in lemonade city meets the girl from new revolution and their meeting is celebrated in you, while the Summer is celebrated once again in the closer august. “Enter The Dreamland” is another summer soundtrack with august recreated both by the seaside cabins on the cover and the mood of Stardust as the opening track. Jungle Potion dials it right back, as steamily as one would expect conditions in a jungle, but with added brass and, of course, those jungle drums. My stand-out so far. Violet Night makes a reprise, while the set is wrapped aptly by Lights Out, swapping tempos midstream to emulate what happens when the lights are turned off after all this steam! 

But it's on her YouTube channel that Meresha really shines. Not only do we see different versions of earlier releases on the other platforms, we are introduced to Meresha in full flight with the various bands around the world, including Lights Out live in Berlin. There's a mixtape in there as well as Led Zeppelin, Alicia Keys, Queen, Sam Smith, and Paramore covers accompanying audio-only and lyric videos of now-favourites Enter the Dreamland, My Love Has Come, Stardust, and Game of Video among many, many others. 

How, in such a relatively short time, such an artist has blossomed, astounds me. I am only sorry I missed that message 3-1⁄2 years ago to be able to witness all of this as it unfolded. Meresha is my pandemic surprise-package discovery and I only hope to be there when she reaches out again, hopefully to be a part of her next release in one form or another.

Unveil - 2004-2020

What is it about the northern climes that inspires this style of music? Since May, I have been listening to, and loving, Carmilla, but next on my list is Unveil, a few blocks closer to town but on the same side as The Beast.

Unveil describe themselves as "Somewhere between Evanescence, Halestorm and Birthday Massacre". They comprise Alain on guitars and vocals, Mr. Lee on bass and vocals, Pom on drums, and, since 2011, folk-rock singer and front-person, Jow. Their debut EP, "Codex Noctem", was released in 2013 to critical acclaim, followed five years later by the full-length "The Deep Sleep", all independently created and distributed.

So, with Evanescence already well and truly scrubbed from my mind by Carmilla, let's have a look at Unveil and their "Oblik Sessions" on YouTube. This is the band in full flight as they prefer it to be: live, no overdubs; you can compare the result here to the BandCamp version of the same songs, and even buy them through BandCamp or at the low-low prices as determined by the band on their website.

There is a certain, je ne sais quoi, about this four-piece. Their standard rock'n'blues set ups (a Telecaster, a drop-tuned J-bass, five-piece drum kit, and some added keyboard for depth as part of the effects suite, three capable vocalists, and well-established look and feel) belies the metal tag. They are similar in musical presentation to but somewhat cleaner than Carmilla in their influence by the darker side of the afterlife: as their bio suggests; probably a little more accessible, more rock-oriented than metal but retaining a heavy edge, and definitely "seasoned", having been around the traps since 2004!

The band's YouTube channel goes on to offer more versions of what appear to be favourite songs from the repertoire, including Camera, Winter, and Empty, all of which show that whatever has been created in the studio is masterfully recreated in any setting. And the band doesn't appear to have a set stage profile either, with many configurations being shown on each of these videos.

Unfortunately the only music we have from Unveil is the three releases. I say unfortunately, because a band that has been performing since 2004 would be expected to have a litany of releases. But quantity doesn't equate to quality, as their 2013 debut "Codex Noctem" can attest. I am in awe from the Eastern-influenced opening track Hide, through Camera, Why featuring another vocal for the first time (Alain and Mr. Lee are credited as other-vocalists in the bio), Empty (with the Evanescence-styled intro), The Fall, to the closer Winter, with all the feel of its namesake season; something with which these Quebecois would be more than familiar.

The word "accomplished" in no way does justice to what this group has achieved on this record. A depth and colour is achieved with a limit of instruments and effects as opposed to other bands in the genre that use banks and banks of guitars, effects, and technicians to create a pallet that emulates the sounds of their compatriots. That Jow comes from a folk background is the biggest surprise and we look forward to exploring the rest of the back catalogue to see where the band goes from here.

When a band is between releases, or even during the promotion of a new release, their tours include invitations to local radio stations, and to bring a guitar with them to demonstrate how versatile they can be by converting their full-production to a voice or two with acoustic accompaniment. The term versatile doesn’t do justice for Jow and Alain’s performances during three appearances and performances on Sherbrooke community radio station CFLX and Sherbrooke University radio station CFAK. Brings back memories of my own of hosting both acoustic and full-band appearances and performances on community radio in the 1990s!

One of the tracks on their SoundCloud page is Sarah’s Theme which links to the trailer on their YouTube channel for The Story of Sarah. Both productions hint at more mystery and darkness, but is it a darkness we want to know about? They have certainly tapped a gothic horror vein with their work and have extended that to their other creations! And now that they have announced the commencement of work on their next album, can we expect more of the same, or can we expect growth and change after the isolation and lockdown that has stopped the world? Time will tell, but hopefully there won’t be too much time to wait!

But in the meantime "The Deep Sleep" is as big a misnomer as any in popular music. Sleep won't come to anyone putting this record on- I could even hear myself turning it up beyond 11 and entertaining the whole suburb as I go about my business, regardless of the time of day. Burn opens the account with more Evanescence than anything thus far with an industrial intro and outro, followed by straight-ahead rock in Deceiver and more of that drop-tuned bass in Dare To Live.

The title of Captain's Flesh immediately suggested to me an Ahabesque tribute, which was confirmed by the sounds of the sea under the intro. The pace slows for a heart-felt lament from the sole survivor of a ocean-bourne tragedy; conversely, Calling To The Night follows with as pop as these guys get but still with the steady beat that we've come to know and love.

A chunky riff with some tempo-play keeps you guessing through Listen To Yourself, complete with screaming solo, and Infinity brings out the Lesley/Hammond organ, more chunk, and double-kick work from Pom to suggest that someone in the band had been listening to Deep Purple during the lead-up to this record!

Leaving starts winding the album down but instead presents an opus as varied as any metal/prog outfit. Changes in pace, mood, and signature not only taps a vein already traced through Deceiver and Dare, but a subtle hint of the Jon Lord keys from Infinity maintains that classic metal feel. The stereo won't go up high enough! Addicted To Lies rounds the album out with this punter wanting more with an all-too-familiar hook the brings us full-circle to the "Oblik Sessions" that lured us here initially!

Lock-down has hit these guys' creativity hard but they swear in a recent website update that the juices are well and truly flowing and we won't have to wait too long for another album.

Good! Bring It! And soon!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson
3 July 2020

666

The Number of the Beast goes back to Revelations :

[16]Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, [17] so that no one can buy or sell who does not have the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name. [18] This calls for wisdom: let anyone with understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a person. Its number is six hundred sixty-six.

and has been brought to the fore by such pop-culture creations as Richard Donner's screen adaptation of David Seltzer's The Omen, Monkey Gone to Heaven from The Pixies and, in the Metal World, Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast.

Now there is one aspect of this myth to which I can't find a link, and that's the association with this number that arose at about the same time as Salmon Hater's 6.66 that featured in the Hottest 100 for 2002. That association includes: 

The Neighbour of the Beast - 

- 664, 668 (next door to the beast); 

- 665, 667 (across the road from The Beast);

The Beast at Retail - 

- $665.98 at KMart

- $663.94 at ALDI, etc.......and so on. 

Hence Unveil 616 are closer to town than The Beast, especially if the road on which The Beast lives starts its numbering from the centre of town. 

Peter G Gleeson: Author at OriginalRock.net

Early in June I got chatting to a writer for OriginalRock.net and, after I found my own back-catalogue from the late 90s/early 00s, I wrote to Original Rock myself to see if he would be able to use my work.

He sent me a couple of records, I wrote them up, and now I can claim to be an author on that site!

My first review was posted yesterday for the fantastic new album by Remo Drive and I'm just listening on BandCamp to the back-catalogue for the second review, Ten Foot Wizard's forthcoming album "Get Out Of Your Mind".

Back in the 1990s I was writing about music I was sent and gigs I was either invited to or just turned up at, and the only outlet was my Geocities platform. When whomever discontinued that platform pulled that plug I was willing to let that all go by the by as a closed chapter of my life.

Well Amanda Easton, All But Gentlemen, and Glen Colley's various projects all helped me to keep my eye and ear in during the ensuing period, but the guys at Original Rock obviously saw something in both my old stuff and my new stuff and, well, you can see the results for yourself.

I'll maintain my presence here, of course. My next project is already in the making. But my main outlet, under my actual name, will be over at Original Rock! Stay tuned for more Variosities!

PG (Jacky) Gleeson
27/06/2020