Shuffle Reviews

Artist: Captain Beyond Album: Captain Beyond Genre: Progressive Rock, Hard Rock          Captain Beyond is somewhat of an odd historical relic. They had the potential to develop into a much more influential act, but instead, they have ended up as a hidden gem of sorts. Fusing hard rock, progressive rock, and even the beginnings of what would later develop into psychedelic rock, Captain Beyond occupies a niche that no-one really knew existed at the time.        Captain Beyond was a supergroup, formed by  Bobby Caldwell, an ex drummer for Johnny Winter, former Deep Purple singer  Rod Evans, Larry Reinhardt, and Lee Dorman, both of whom played in Iron Butterfly. As all three of their former bands will eventually come up in rotation, I'll refrain from speaking too heavily about them for the moment. For now, it suffices to say that the proto-metal style of both Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly combined...

Artist: The Dodos Album: Time To Die Genre: Indie Rock/Folk       The Dodos are a fabulous example of two people with seemingly incongruous styles coming together to form an end product that is greater than either of its individual parts. The Dodos is composed of two men- drummer and progressive metal inspired Logan Kroeber and instrumentalist Meric Long. Combined, their sound became something really unique.       It should come as no surprise that the Dodos sound something like Dax Riggs solo work, but with more musical complexity. It occupies a grey space between simple singer songwriter with an acoustic guitar folk and the smooth yet busy sound of This Town Needs Guns or a similar "math rock" group, especially on Visiter, No Color, and Individ. On their other albums, Time to Die and Carrier, the tracks take on a fuller feel, with Long recording additional instrumentation along with the original duo of his guitar and singing, and Kroeber's drumm...

Artist:   Falco Album: Falco Symphonic Genre: Neue Deutsche Welle              To paraphrase the Bloodhound Gang, this first review goes out to a money making playa' that ain't with us no mo'- Falco. Falco's is not something that is often considered by most here in the U.S.A., and when it is, it's usually a punchline. Falco is most often viewed as a one hit wonder, known only for a somewhat kitschy and definitely 80s pop hit. Still, a closer look at his work can unveil a surprising amount of depth, as well as a lot of enjoyment on its own merit.        Johann Hötzel, more commonly known by his stage name Falco, was not a man with little musical talent. He even attended the prestigious Vienna Conservatoire for a short while when he was sixteen. Comparisons to a certain other Austrian musician followed him through out his life, though he continously chafed under authority and structure. As such, it was no surprise that ...

Hello, and welcome to the beginning of Shuffle Reviews!            Now, most of what this blog will be about has been covered in the 'About' section, but I just wanted to take a brief moment before this project starts to write about a couple of things- namely, how this blog is going to work.           First of all, the basis of all of this is that three times a week, I will hit shuffle on my music collection, and talk about the song/album/artist, and what makes them good, at least in my opinion. The goal is not to rate or organize, or even really criticize beyond what is needed to make a point about why something doesn't work. Instead, this is to be a celebration of what makes music, and what threads run through seemingly very different artists that might inspire to someone enjoy both. Now, one of the impetuses of this project is the fact that the collection I will be shuffling through has grown quite large over the years, inco...