Brian Olive : Two of Everything

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Brian Olive - Back Sliding Soul by alivenaturalsound

PAUL COLLINS King Of Power Pop! reviews

Collins doesn’t fornicate around here – he just whips out nugget after nugget of catchy, melodic, chiming guitar pop with two guitars, bass and drums. The assertion in the album title may seem over the top, but after spinning King of Power Pop! a few times, you’ll find it difficult to disagree. – The Big Takeover

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Leave it to the commoners of the blogosphere to endlessly debate Paul Collins’ status in the power pop firmament; as for this humble rockcrit, given the uniquely high quality of tuneage on King of Power Pop!, with nary a duff track among the thirteen, I say give him the crown. He’s earned it with better than three decades of uncompromising loyalty to the power pop aesthetic. – Rev Keit A. Gordon / Blurt

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Collins has cut a handful of fine records since the breakup of the Beat, but King of Power Pop! is the first one in ages that captures the tough, upbeat sound of his most memorable work, and it proves the man hasn’t lost his touch for writing tight, hooky tunes with killer hooks and energetic guitar figures. Collins’ voice is a little rougher than it was in his salad days, but he makes that work to his favor, giving the songs a touch of defiant swagger even when he’s sounding sweet and heartbroken, and when he and his lead guitarist Eric Blakely lock in, this sounds like the perfect follow-up to the Beat’s classic albums for Columbia, bursting with tuneful vigor and rock & roll passion (and arriving a mere quarter-century after the fact). – Mark Deming / AMG

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(Paul Collins) new album is called King of Power Pop! and it takes guts to go with that

title, but Collins has the chops to back it up. – The Washington Post

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In his liner notes for his newest album, Paul Collins describes King of Power Pop! as “the record that connects the dots, from The Nerves to The Breakaways to The Beat to today”. This may be one of the most accurate assessments I’ve ever read an artist make of his own work. The record has a distinctly nostalgic feel in the best possible way, sounding both fresh and familiar at the same time. On the first listen, you almost feel as if you’ve heard these songs before. This isn’t a criticism of Collins’ originality. It’s a tribute to his ability to craft solid, punchy, thoroughly enjoyable rock and roll. – Music Tap

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Recording in Detroit with Jim Diamond producing, Collins sounds as if he’s fresh off the end of a tour with the Beat – his voice a tad ragged but still thrilled by the glories of power pop. He charges hard into the bluesy “Do You Wanna Love Me?” and cuts the difference between the Beatles and Everly Brothers on the opening “C’mon Let’s Go!” His lyrics haven’t yearned so dearly and his voice hasn’t sounded this unbridled since he sang “Rock ‘n’ Roll Girl” and “Walking Out on Love” thirty years ago. Collins and Eric Blakely’s guitars rumble and sting, Jim Diamond’s bass and Dave Shettler’s drums propel, and the vocal harmonies and backings capture the joy of a summer’s night cruise with the windows down and the radio up.

Shettler adds tympani to “Many Roads to Follow,” and with the duet harmony sung at the top of Collins’ and Blakely’s ranges, they conjure the deep teen emotions of the Brill Building. Given his track record, it’s not really surprising that Collins still has great albums in him, but that he so effortlessly reaches back to the sounds he helped coin in the mid-70s (and whose invention he details in “Kings of Power Pop”), and it’s inspiring that he finds such satisfying ways to use the wear in his voice. Particularly noteworthy is how easily he matches Alex Chilton’s gravelly tone on a cover of the Box Tops’ 1967 hit “The Letter,” and how beautifully he covers the Flamin’ Groovies’ “You Tore Me Down.” The heartbreak of his original “Hurting’s on My Side” is rendered in the sort of ragged-voiced emotion John Lennon shouted out in 1964. Anyone who loves the Nerves EP and the Beat’s albums (particularly the debut) should grab a copy of this one ASAP. – Hyperbolium

The BREAKAWAYS - Uncut

LEFT LANE CRUISER "All You Can Eat!!" recent reviews

Following 2008’s Bring Yo’ Ass to the Table, All You Can Eat assimilates the Mississippi Delta blues laid down by guys like Big Joe Williams and Son House and cultivates it into a country punk ‘n’ blues speedball. “Hillgrass Bluebilly” is a frenetic juke-joint stomper that finds Freddy J IV hollerin’ out a reference to the Who’s “Squeeze Box”. “Ol’ Fashioned” is a country-picking blues flashback with washboard, while the primal trio of “Black Lung”, “Broke Ass Blues”, and “Putain!” finds the boys strutting through stoner-blues country with bravado. It doesn’t get a lot better than this. – Alan Brown / PopMatters

All You Can Eat!! is old fashioned music without the slick production that I, for one, have grown so used to — and quite bored with. It reminds me of live Cramps, RL Burnside, and even old Henry Rollins. If CBGBs was still open that would be the venue I could see Left Lane Cruiser playing. Amid the dirt, the history, and the gritty smoky fog. – Lynda Lippin / Blogcritics

First cut "Crackalacka" comes scootin’ out of the gate with some cool guitar noodle while "Ol’ Fashioned" adds some wiry slide guitar and gravelly vocals, and "Black Lung" is its younger, tougher, more tweaked kid brother. Later, on "Poopdeflex" (song title of the year?) the vocals get more guttural and desperate and at that point you realize one thing about Left Lane Cruiser: they mean it, man. – Tim Hinely / Blurt

Some boxers are like Roy Jones Jr. in his prime and are damned near impossible to hit, some are like Pacquiao and just overwhelm opponents with power & handspeed, while others are like a young Tyson and eschew all style points for pure power. Left Lane Cruiser are like Tyson, and with All You Can Eat, their second album with Alive Records, they’re throwing haymakers from the opening track “Crackalacka” and their power is showing no signs of waning some 9 tracks later as they close with “Waynedale”. - Nine Bullets

This is good, this is very good, certainly not the putting in of a twenty and the taking out of a forty here, the good is there in these Broke Ass Blues. There’s just two of ‘em, broken down old scratchy electric guitar, gravel throats and drum kit. There’s some great You Tube footage if you have the time to go look. They got bags of soul in there, they got it all nailed, real deal stripped back raw broken bottle stripped to the bone blues goodness. – Organ Magazine

This would be a great soundtrack for a cage fighting medley and is definitely not something for the faint hearted.
Left Lane Cruiser tick all the boxes from the relentlessly hard hitting sound to their cool names. This is not something for the faint hearted. Rest assured this is more than you can eat! – Will Bray / Blues In London

This is a CD that any Guitarist or Drummer can appreciate with such RAW emotion behind every track grabs your attention and holds you too it till the next…and that doesn’t happen to often. AWESOME isn’t a big enough word to describe this band. – Neus Subjex

Five New Songs We Love: September 23, 2009 – Blender

But for the most part this is big, bold, in your face, industrial blues with a country punk attitude. "Waynedale" pounds along at such a torrid pace, it seems like the perfect music for the next Grand Theft Auto.
Producer Jim Diamond, who worked on the first two White Stripes CDs, should be credited for the full, fuzzy sound. He provided lots of old amps and a bunch of microphones in front of each one to record each muffle and crackle. The result is Megadeth if they had grown up in Louisiana listening to Delta country and blues. - Al Kaufman / Atlanta Music Guide

It’s a rumbling tinnitus-inducing musical vertigo of swampy Mississippi-style ghetto electric blues that’s greasy, grimy, gritty, and basically un-fucking-real. It’s the kind of music that should be played in dark, sweaty, dive bars while yer pounding shots of Wild Turkey. What you really need to know is that All You Can Eat has been in steady rotation since it came across my desk about a month ago and ain’t goin’ nowhere anytime soon. – Can You See The Sunset?

If this Indiana duo’s debut album, Bring Yo’ Ass To The Table, was merely an invitation to sample their bill of fare, then this follow-up certainly lives up to its title. All You Can Eat is another taut 35-minute blast of raw garage blues built upon the gigantic riffs of guitarist/shouter Freddy J IV, and the equally towering swagger of drummer Brenn "Sausage Paw" Beck. There’s a bit more of a streamlined quality this time through producer, and early White Stripes mentor, Jim Diamond, who obviously was enamoured with Freddy’s guitar playing. Its dominant place in the mix leaves everything else cowering in its shadow. That’s hardly a bad thing, as tracks like "Black Lung" and "Hard Luck" rock harder than any band with three times as many members could ever hope to. This is exactly the album LLC fans hoped for: another solid collection of material with just enough refinement of their sound to ensure that they have a vision for the future. – Jason Schneider / Exclaim

Left Lane Cruiser is the real deal. They are blues at its best, filth at its finest, with just two men who are evoking enough inner demons to populate an entire circle of hell. Raising a ruckus, punching throats, and blackening eyes all the way from Ft. Wayne Indiana, Left Lane Cruiser makes a bigger and louder racket than most five-man operations, never once sacrificing songwriting or musicianship for the sake of bombasity. – Andrew Bryant / Disc Exchange

Freddy J IV is actually quite the demon on the six-string – he plays like he’s visited a crossroads or two, with Kenny Brown by his side and a Lucifer bearing a strong resemblance to RL Burnside. He can do the grunged-out Zeppelin thing, too, when he’s of a mind (cf. Black Lung and Hard Luck), but he really comes alive getting his hands dirty. Frankly, Freddy’s not much of a singer, but when he digs into the frets it doesn’t matter. The songs are perfectly adequate for LLC’s purpose, which is to rock every room like it’s a deep South juke joint (despite the duo being from Fort Wayne, Indiana). – Michael Toland / Sleazegrinder

The band blends styles that wouldn’t normally be compatible, but when the two musicians come together — Evans with his slide guitar and vocals that sound as if his diet consists of swallowing sandpaper and chewing gravel, and Beck with his collection of hubcaps, trash cans, ladders and whatever garage accessory you can drum a beat on — the result is hard, rusty blues that Beck guarantees will get you moving. – Katie Saltz / Kentucky Kernel

LEFT LANE CRUISER - PopMatters

From the greasy slide-guitar-and-drum-pummeling intro to opener “Crackalacka”, you either jump in and let Left Lane Cruiser take you on a hell-raising hayride or plain get out of the way because Freddy J. Evans IV (guitar/vocals) and Brenn “Sausage Paw” Beck (drummer/“trash”/vocals), a powerhouse duo out of Fort Wayne, Indiana, are roots-music revolutionaries who take no prisoners on their second outing for Alive Records. Following 2008’s Bring Yo’ Ass to the Table, All You Can Eat assimilates the Mississippi Delta blues laid down by guys like Big Joe Williams and Son House and cultivates it into a country punk ‘n’ blues speedball. “Hillgrass Bluebilly” is a frenetic juke-joint stomper that finds Freddy J IV hollerin’ out a reference to the Who’s “Squeeze Box”. “Ol’ Fashioned” is a country-picking blues flashback with washboard, while the primal trio of “Black Lung”, “Broke Ass Blues”, and “Putain!” finds the boys strutting through stoner-blues country with bravado. It doesn’t get a lot better than this. – Alan Brown / PopMatters

NATHANIEL MAYER - Shindig

HENRY'S FUNERAL SHOE - Blues In London

Cardiff isn’t necessarily the place that you would associate Alive Records’ usual source of ass-kicking punk blues but in this case, it is. The Welsh brothers, Aled and Brennig Clifford make up the duo that on this rare occasion has led Alive out of the United States.

There is absolutely no treading on egg shells with this record. Gritty, overdriven guitar riffs, gravely deep vocals and saw-off, pump action drumming in abundance. Simple, straight forward punk blues which draws on early Black Keys and a slight grunge undertone. The tracks are built on catchy guitar intros such as self-titled Henry’s Funeral Shoe, Down The Line and Coming On Through which are nailed home by Brennig’s terrifyingly punishing drumming style. A gentle hint of dynamics does lend itself to the album but it doesn’t stray far. Leading out, Second Hand Prayer takes on a dirty bite of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the final surprise of Mary’s Tune, a pretty acoustic ditty. After all the thunder that is Henry’s Funeral Shoe, they leave the record with a tuneful harmonica and something a little bit country.

Just because this record was recorded in just a few days doesn’t mean anything has been missed, infact the raw power of a punk blues duo, driven by passion has been captured in its entirety. Everything’s For Sale certainly carries the heavy punch that you would expect from any Alive release and of course Henry’s Funeral Shoe wear their influences on their sleeve. This is a band that proves the nu-blues movement in the U.K is very much awake and raising the bar. - Will Bray / Blues In London

LEFT LANE CRUISER - Jazz & Blues magazine

LEFT LANE CRUISER - Exclaim

If this Indiana duo's debut album, Bring Yo' Ass To The Table, was merely an invitation to sample their bill of fare, then this follow-up certainly lives up to its title. All You Can Eat is another taut 35-minute blast of raw garage blues built upon the gigantic riffs of guitarist/shouter Freddy J IV, and the equally towering swagger of drummer Brenn "Sausage Paw" Beck. There's a bit more of a streamlined quality this time through producer, and early White Stripes mentor, Jim Diamond, who obviously was enamoured with Freddy's guitar playing. Its dominant place in the mix leaves everything else cowering in its shadow. That's hardly a bad thing, as tracks like "Black Lung" and "Hard Luck" rock harder than any band with three times as many members could ever hope to. This is exactly the album LLC fans hoped for: another solid collection of material with just enough refinement of their sound to ensure that they have a vision for the future. - Jason Schneider / Exclaim

TRAINWRECK RIDERS - Performer magazine

LEFT LANE CRUISER - Nine Bullets

Some boxers are like Roy Jones Jr. in his prime and are damned near impossible to hit, some are like Pacquiao and just overwhelm opponents with power & handspeed, while others are like a young Tyson and eschew all style points for pure power. Left Lane Cruiser are like Tyson, and with All You Can Eat, their second album with Alive Records, they’re throwing haymakers from the opening track “Crackalacka” and their power is showing no signs of waning some 9 tracks later as they close with “Waynedale”.

Those familiar with Left Lane Cruiser know exactly what I am talking about. Those that aren’t familiar with this duo from Fort Wayne, Indiana, I gotta ask…why not? Left Lane Cruiser is Freddy J. Evans IV on vocals and guitar assault, while Brenn Beck is responsible for drum abuse and an array of other sounds including washboards and mouth harps. Folks that come around ninebullets with any regularity know that I’ve been singing the praises of these guys since before they were signed to Alive Records, and I can assure you that I will not be stopping with All You Can Eat. Matter of fact, one could say that the band has actually gotten better thanks to the production talents of Jim Diamond. The recording quality of All You Can Eat is night and day better than the previous albums, leaving every instrument clear and audible at high volumes (and believe me, I’ve put it to the test).

So, next time you find yourself in the need of blues-fueled, rock-driven cd in the midst of a whiskey rage, then this, the newest entry to the 9b.net Essential Listening list, is exactly what the doctor requires. You like this site? You’ll love this disc…trust me. - NINE BULLETS

BRIAN OLIVE - PopMatters

Drawing inspiration from ‘60s psych-pop, after-hours jazz, and ‘70s glam stomp, Brian Olive, the onetime Greenhornes guitarist and Soledad Brothers multi-instrumentalist, steps out of the shadows cast by the Midwest garage-blues scene and into the light on his self-titled debut. Although it meant moving to Cincinnati and helping to build a recording studio in the vault of a pawn shop, the artist formerly known as Oliver Henry definitely proves being your own man can pay dividends. Helped out by ex-bandmates Jared McKinney and Craig Fox from the Greenhornes and with spectral backing supplied by Donna Jay Rubin and sisters Holly and Tori Kadish on the majority of songs, Olive drifts through an array of styles and imaginative arrangements during the album’s 33 minutes with “King of the Road” aplomb. There’s a gentle nod to both the Kinks and the Beatles in the marshmallow melody of “The Day is Coming (Sainte-Marie’s Dream)”; a gritty, down-in-the gutter piece of Detroit R&B called “Stealin’”; and a feral sax punch plus a cellar full of Beat-cool jazz on “High Low”. Meanwhile, the girls are most noticeable oozing through on the muddied country-blues raunch of opener “Ida Red” and the ghostly, fluttering psych swirl of “See Me Mariona”, a song reminiscent of contemporaries Pink Mountaintops. The highlight, however, has to be the tambourine-shakin’, sax-laden slice of glam-ourized R&B, “Jubilee Line”, which yields Olive’s most confident vocal outing and a kick-ass trip on the Tube through London to boot. - Alan Brown / PopMatters

LEFT LANE CRUISER - Organ Magazine

LEFT LANE CRUISER – All You Can Eat!! (Alive Natural Sound) – Some right there in the zone, raw, blistered, no messing, slide-guitar freight-train riding blues. Oh yes, Hillgrass bluebilly hard working good honest black-lunged blues music delivered with a nail on the head righteous punk-fried attitude. They’re from Fort Wayne, Indiana, they sound like Seasick Steve for Rose Tattoo heads in need of an Ol’ fashion lo-fi five dollar shoe-shine... This is good, this is very good, certainly not the putting in of a twenty and the taking out of a forty here, the good is there in these Broke Ass Blues. There’s just two of ‘em, broken down old scratchy electric guitar, gravel throats and drum kit. There’s some great You Tube footage if you have the time to go look. They got bags of soul in there, they got it all nailed, real deal stripped back raw broken bottle stripped to the bone blues goodness - www.alivenergy.com or www.myspace.com/leftlanecruiser Some YouTube: Left Lane Cruiser perform at Wooden Nickel Music in Fort Wayne, Indiana back in 2006. - Organ Magazine

Bar brawling blues.

Scampering out of Fort Wayne, Indiana comes a seriously hard punching, punk blues duo. Freddie J Evans IV and Brenn 'Sausage Paw' Beck make up the engine and driver of Left Lane Cruiser with their third release.

The record hits the ground running opening with Crackalacka. Jumping straight into a crisp, fast electric slide guitar and firecracker drumming makes up a perfect intro to this album. Heavily overdriven boot stamping riffs, growling hoarse vocals and leaving nothing to the imagination is exactly how LLC lead on. Each track brings its own edginess to the table. Hillgrass Bluebilly, a bottom lip biting stomp, Ol’ Fashioned, a classic, gritty, finger picking guitar which has inherited a fantastically authentic buzz and Hard Workin Man is a big kick of dirty, power blues which makes you drive your car fast. The whole record is just as it should be. High velocity, vicious, thumping, ass-kicking punk blues delivered with passion and depth. This is an out of control locomotive which is about to run off its rails.

Freddie J's vocals are frighteningly raw, mixed with his rampant guitar playing style puts him at the top of the pile of charismatic front men and with Beck’s machine gun drumming makes this an awesome pairing. An image of a smoky, whiskey stained basement and a bunch of stolen equipment is undoubtedly the setting for the recording of this album. A good full on record, no messing, in your face head splitting punk blues. This would be a great soundtrack for a cage fighting medley and is definitely not something for the faint hearted.

Left Lane Cruiser tick all the boxes from the relentlessly hard hitting sound to their cool names. This is not something for the faint hearted. Rest assured this is more than you can eat! - Will Bray / Blues In London

TRAINWRECK RIDERS - Prefix Mag

The members of Trainwreck Riders have been spreading their punk-tinged country rock like barbecue fire through the back yards, train stations, parks and warehouses of San Francisco since they became a band in the early aughts. In The Perch, the follow-up to their 2006 debut, Lonely Road Revival, these city boys may avoid the straightforward twang and honky-tonk of traditional country, but that doesn’t make them shy about raiding its barn.
The rootsy spirit of the album derives from its bluegrass influences: the banjo-like guitar picking in “Chug Along,” the saw’s Vaudevillian warble in “Livin Daylight.” Steel lap guitar, dobro, accordion and cowbell nudge the sound deeper into backwoods, as does the fiddle — played by the father of drummer Steve Kerwin and guitarist Andrew Kerwin.
They adopted another country-music trick, as well: the use of truism to create themes and choruses. The emotional arcs of these songs come when Peter Frauenfelder sings words like “memories don’t live like people do” and “nothing’s more pleasant with the past.” – Jenna Humphrey / Prefix Mag

TRAINWRECK RIDERS - Shindig

TRAINWRECK RIDERS - AMG review

While Uncle Tupelo created the template for much of what would follow in the alt country sweepstakes, too many bands latched onto the wistful high-lonesome sound of March 16-20, 1992 and Anodyne while overlooking the coffee-and-beer-fueled overdrive that dominated No Depression and Still Feel Gone. San Francisco’s Trainwreck Riders don’t appear to have been spending much time listening to the Uncle Tupelo back catalog, but they’ve unwittingly learned a lesson best gleaned from examining their full body of work — the twangy and resonant stuff works best when it’s faced off against something that rocks with a solid head of energy. Trainwreck Riders’ third album, The Perch, sways back and forth between introverted midtempo numbers and more abandoned and energetic rockers that suggest a three-way jam session between Neil Young, Dinosaur Jr., and the Meat Puppets. Vocalist Pete Frauenfelder’s reedy but expressive voice communicates a powerful sincerity on the more measured stuff, but he makes himself heard with unexpected force when the band cranks it up, and he and Andrew Kerwin’s guitars weave together well. Drummer Steve Kerwin knows how to make this band cruise at any speed, and Forrest Lawrence’s bass work is subtle and in the pocket. These tales of city boys with the 21st century country blues don’t tell us much that’s likely to seem new to anyone, but the tone is always sincere and effective, like journal entries from a life whose ups and downs are clearly recognizable, and the rough, sweet tone of the music rhymes with their messages. If anything, The Perch is so straightforward it wouldn’t have hurt if the Trainwreck Riders had gussied up their music a bit more in the studio, but there’s a lot to be said for a band that errs on the side of modesty in an era of ProTools overload, and their virtues are on clear display on this album. – Mark Deming / All Music Guide

NATHANIEL MAYER - Steady Bloggin'

Nathaniel Mayer - Why Won't You Let Me Be Black?

This is a sadly posthumous follow up to Mayer's excellent Why Don't You Give It To Me (I posted that one a little while ago here). It collects more tracks from the same sessions, juxtaposing Mayer's gruff warbling baritone with a psychedelic soul-rock backing. Its in fact a bit more consistent in sound than the predecessor, there are no detours into funk or reggae. The album is nothing but dark bluesy echoey distorted laments on love, money (mostly lack of it), and drugs. And that's pretty much all I want from it, because it does those things so damn well. So far I think I'm ranking this as the second best soul album of the year, right behind Lee Fields.

There is a nice bit about the title that came with the press description: "It has to do with the food he kept being served while on tour in Europe. When Nate finally became frustrated with the countless plates of cheese and French bread that awaited him backstage at every gig, he shouted "Why Won't You Let Me Be Black?". He agreed that it sounded like a good title for his next album. "

TRAINWRECK RIDERS - Captain Obvious

New Wax

On their new album The Perch, San Francisco's Trainwreck Riders, who have been labeled "cowpunk", meld a wide variety of genres and sounds. A track like "Three To The Clouds" seems like it could easily serve as a backtrack to Jay Farrar's vocals, which is understandable considering the band is often compared to Uncle Tupelo. There is certainly a familiarity about Trainwreck Riders' sound, who have cited the Meat Puppets and Dinosaur Jr. as influences, but it's a good familiarity comparable to the smell of your childhood home or the feel of your favorite t-shirt. Rather than being blatantly derivative, the band draws from the past to create their own brand of country-tinged indie-rock. The guitars and airy vocals on "Don't You Know" are reminiscent of Band Of Horses. "Chug Along" could easily be a Modest Mouse b-side. While the band may navigate familiar soundscapes, they infuse their own sense of originality on The Perch. This is an impressive sophomore release from an evolving young band. -- Capt. Obvious

BRIAN OLIVE - Goldmine

Brian Olive
Brian Olive
Alive Records (0095-2)
Grade:

Brian Olive’s a name unfamiliar to most everyone. Oliver Henry, though, will be instantly identifiable to garage fans, as he was a member of both the Soledad Brothers and the Greenhornes. Now working under the pseudonym Brian Olive, Henry’s put together a new project and delved into other sides of the ’60s entirely. Foregoing garage’s frenzy, his band instead frolic in strawberry fields of psychedelia, albeit fields planted across the deltas and studios of the deep south.

Sure, “Ida Red” and “Calling All Around,” the tracks that bookend Brian Olive, rock and roll in best R&B style, but the Stax-y brass and wisps of psychedelia give the tracks an unusual twist. Retro in style, but thoroughly original in sound, Brian Olive doesn’t so much resurrect Sixties R&B as totally reinvent it. His influences are numerous and diverse – The Beatles, The Stones (Rolling and Roses), Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker, Stax soul, glamrock, and dreampop. “There Is Love,” for example, is blues filtered through the latter genre, “Jubilee Line” wafts psychedelia through the Stax studio, while “High Low” floods the delta with jazzy brass and big band beats.

Of course, Brian Olive isn’t the first to stitch genres together, they are, however, one of the few to sew them together seamlessly. Their music sounds so totally natural you can walk away from Brian Olive believing that psychedelia, blues, R&B and soul were always intertwined and natural bed-fellows. Reshaping the past, the album presents an alternate musical history where linear evolution is replaced by spontaneous genesis, and what a wonderful creation it is. - Jo-Ann Greene / Goldmine