contributions this month came from
abigail davidson, james haves and fiona dycus
0 Comments
contributions this month came from
james haves, dan myatt, chris cook, caitlin johnson and chris + jeff cupples WORDS: Chris Cupples // PHOTOS: Jeff Cupples We had not quite recovered from the Christmas flu when we set off on 2 January for the first gig of the year. A three-hour journey in the pouring rain was not the best but we soldiered on with a great sense of anticipation of a great concert; we were not disappointed. Seeing as there were no support acts, BCC immediately slammed into 2 hours of almost non-stop action. It was clearly the Glenn Hughes show as Wolverhampton is his home town and clearly very dear to his heart. The venue was absolutely jammed packed with his followers, some of whom have known him since his first public appearance which was apparently in that self-same hall. The band were on fire and Glenn was blazing. His voice is the best it has ever been and what energy! Joe Bonamassa has really proved himself as an excellent rock guitarist having already conquered the blues world. Jason Bonham knocked shit out of those drums and although from where we were sitting we could not see Derek Sherinian we could certainly hear his dominance of the keyboards. After the gig we found a very acceptable Indian Restaurant by the name of Jivans where we met an interesting bunch of chaps from Swansea who had also been to the gig and we shared some gig memories with them. Our last port of call was the hotel – Premier Inn – with a very nice clean room for a good sleep and up for the three-hour journey home the next day. BCCIV is out now on Mascot + J&R Adventures
Chris and Jeff Cupples are retired rockers with more time than sense; what better a way to spend it than gigging around the UK? When I first played ‘Dig Down’, I had one thought that came straight to my head: It may sound like an odd comparison, but I’m reminded of Katy Perry’s single from February ‘Chained to the Rhythm’, which also tried to be political from an artist who possessed neither the songwriting talent nor the subtlety to actually make decent political music. While ‘Chained to the Rhythm’ tackled similar themes as ‘Dig Down’ and had a similar message of not being complacent in light of turmoil, it came across as far more preachy and superior than it should have. It may as well have been called ‘Wake Up Sheeple’ for all the good it might have done. ‘Dig Down’ avoids that by placing itself less as ‘Eve of Destruction’ and more as ‘We Are The Champions’, making facing oppression sound rewarding and genuine, rather than something that you’ll be sneered at by Katy Perry if you don’t do. The biggest issue I have with ‘Dig Down’ is how long it takes to really get going. The first two and a half minutes of the song are good, but like a lot of Muse’s more electronic production, fairly conventional and ho-hum. A sweeping pad in the background of the second verse to keep the song grounded would’ve held it together more than the chopped up and fragmented backing currently does. This is made even worse by the awful sounding synth strings they decided to use, which is a production decision that just baffles me. They sound like they came from a really bad free VST plugin, and why a major band decided to use something so cheap sounding is bizarre to me. However, once it hits the bridge and Bellamy starts a rip-roaring fuzz guitar solo and we start getting some really hard-hitting percussion, it starts to sound as huge and exciting as it should’ve done from at least the halfway point. Dominic Howard starts going at it on the drums and it sounds glorious as it transitions into the chorus. It’s really a shame this doesn’t last any longer or build to anything more. The song sounds more like a radio edit of a longer piece, like there should be another verse that brought things back before slamming into a huge final chorus. It does make the song worth listening to and definitely made me interested in Muse’s new album (which I previously wasn’t), but it feels like a song cut short. There’s definitely potential here, but Muse really need to properly let loose and go as over the top as it seems they want to. There’s a great The Darkness-esque modern electronic-glam-rock album in here somewhere, I just hope they found it for the album. James Haves is an Experimental Film student at Staffordshire University and has been a member of the team since 2017
|
Authorssometimes the people who make #ctsh audio content feel the need to spew words in longform and they do it here. Archives
February 2018
Categories
All
|