Great Minimalist / Retro / Funk / Psychedelia!
Timothy J. Retzl | South Dakota, USA | 07/08/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I really enjoyed Radio Moscow's debut album when it was first released. The laidback songwriting style had me anxious to hear more from these Iowa rockers.
I bought Brain Cycles immediately when it was released, and was blown away by this superior sophomore effort. The brain melting guitar on the first track, "I Just Don't Know", calls to mind Jimi Hendrix, and it just keeps getting better until the funky tones of the final track, "No Jane". "No Good Woman" is a smoking 8-minute plus jam that WILL have you bobbing your head and stomping your foot.
If you like Black Keys and the harder edged stuff by White Stripes, you will enjoy Radio Moscow. I expect these guys to be a pretty popular band before long.
And lastly, if you like this, check out "Where the Water Rises" by Dead Coyote, available now as a download from Amazon. This is another excellent two man band, and their self-produced album WILL demand your attention. Check it out!
You just gotta love the internet and online shopping, bringing great bands like these to places that would otherwise never hear from them, even if there was still a genuine ROCK RADIO!"
A Record For Electric Guitar Lovers
The Recordchanger | Kettering, Oh, USA | 05/12/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Radio Moscow are another of the excellent guitar bands on the Alive label with one foot planted firmly in the 1970's, and the other foot in the future. I had my mp3 player on shuffle the other day, and a track from this latest album came on just after an old Captain Beefheart tune, and it struck me that the Captain might've sounded something like this if he'd never messed with weird time signatures, and dadaist lyrical excursions. The previous reviewer was absolutely correct about all the other bands whose influence seems to permeate the music of Radio Moscow. And yet they never sound deliberately retro, and the music isn't dated. Which proves that there are still bands out there making great rock records in the classic mold who would appeal not only to those of us who grew up with the first generation of great guitar records, but also this current generation that might be looking for something a lot more interesting, and engaging than the latest media flavor of the week. Don't care for conventional radio? Listen to Radio Moscow."
Brain melting heavy blues-psych guitar rock
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 04/14/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Iowan Parker Griggs returns with Radio Moscow's second album of power-trio electric blues. The trio here is one of instruments rather than players, since Griggs accompanies his bluesy psychedelic guitar leads by pounding out flamboyant, full-kit drumming. He's surprisingly accomplished at both, and with bassist Zach Anderson (replacing the debut album's Luke Duff) and the magic of overdubbing, the duo brings to mind the heavy sounds of Hendrix, Cream, Blue Cheer, Jeff Beck, Montrose and other pre-metal hard rockers. If anything, Radio Moscow's gotten heavier, riffier in its tuneage and flashier with its rhythms. Though he was no slouch on the group's previous album, Griggs' sounds like he's been practicing his drumming.
Radio Moscow is a heavy-jam powerhouse, with many of the tracks clocking in at 4- and 5-minutes, and the studio-effect heavy "No Good Woman" stretching to over eight, including a (flashback alert!) minute-thirty drum solo. Griggs serves as the band's vocalist, singing through processing that sounds like a Mellotron, but the lyrics mostly serve to keep the guitar solos from running over one another. It's best to approach the band as an instrumental combo, with the scattered vocals as texture. The singer who could actually front this torrent of sound (rather than stand by and occasionally lob lyrics into the quieter parts) would just end up distracting from the group's interplay of guitar, bass and drums.
The tight, heavy riffs brings to mind early UK prog-rock and metal bands like King Crimson, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come and Black Sabbath, but generally without the lengthy excursions into jazz-styled jamming. Available on both CD and vinyl (but sadly not reel-to-reel tape), this should really be heard at maximum volume through classic 1970s speakers such as Altec Voice of the Theater A7s and a suitable cloud of smoke. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]"
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1