Wednesday 28 October 2015

OZONE MAMA ~ SONIC GLORY..........review

One of the few pluses of being born in the late 50's is that my musical awakening came to fruition in the era of long hair, bad fashion and red hot rock music.....the late 60's and early 70's. Much of my teenage years was spent, along with other more carnal interests, listening to music and going to gigs in and around London. Venues like the famous London Marquee and the Dagenham Roundhouse were two of my regular haunts where I got to see so many of the bands that we now call legends strutting their stuff at the start of their careers. You might be wondering where i'm going with this..well when I spun the new album, "Sonic Glory", by Hungary's Ozone Mama today all those memories came flooding back

"Sonic Glory" captures a time when rock music ruled the world and does it with an authenticity of sound that could easily fool the casual listener into believing that this was an overlooked gem from 1973 or thereabouts.
The band's line up of Márton Székely: vocals, András Gabor:guitars, combo organ, background vocals, Gergely Dobos:bass, and Máté Gulyás: drums employ, with the help of a few friends, all the usual clichés that you would expect to find on a "classic rock" album but celebrate those said clichés with an enthusiasm and a joy de vive that is refreshing, familiar and comforting. From the Mountain-esque blues rock groove of "Good Times Roll" to the Bad Company-ish swagger of "'Aint No Place Of Mine" Ozone Mama cover all  bases on "Sonic Glory". Out and out rockers " Backdoor Man" and "Hard Times" recall the hard blues rock grooves  of Cream and Mountain while "Man On The Run" does a very good early Doobie Brothers impersonation by adding a little bluesy funk to the mix. If you want a little Uriah Heep storytelling then "Siren's Call"  fits the bill perfectly with its tale of myth and magic. Ballads, always the staple of any classic rock album, are also represented here by "Lovelight"  a soulful power ballad and "Hope" a gentle semi- acoustic number. In fact every aspect and sound of 1970's classic rock is explored on "Sonic Glory" and are executed by a band who have a real understanding of what makes classic rock "classic!"
If you have a hankering for the days of yesteryear, when down tuning was the territory of only the most adventurous folk musicians and doom was a word not a genre, then you cannot go wrong by giving Ozone Mama's " Sonic Glory" a spin. it's all your favourite 70's bands and albums in one place!

No comments:

Post a Comment