Sunday, February 21, 2016

SIMO: "Let Love Show The Way"

Rating: RRRR
Label: Provogue/Music Theories 2015
Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

Two words. Old school. All of the songs here were written in the mode of Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Allman Brothers, Swamp music, Roadhouse, R&B. It's raw and viral stuff recorded at the Big House in Macon, Georgia, US of A, where the Allman Brothers lived during the swinging 60's and the groovy 70's. In fact. JD Simo are playing the same old Gibson Les Paul (gold top 1957 model) which Duane Allman used on the first two albums as well as on Derek and the Dominoes massive hit, Layla (it's Clapton, dude).

It's basically one song, one take, and nothing extra in the studio afterwards. Like I mentioned earlier, old school or rather ancient school. 13 tracks recorded during two days and the result is pleasing to these ears. It's an instruction manual for copyrighted blues in the new century, but the fuzzy warm tone of JD's guitar and the slamming rhythm section (Elad Shapiro -bass. Adam Abrashoff - drums) could just as easily have been recorded in 1969.

Hardly groundbreaking stuff or the next new thing out of the states. However, it's genuinely fun stuff, written and tailor-made for the ones tired of plastic sounding music aka top twenty stuff. Forget everything you know about multi-layered recording techniques in general and simply embrace the music. Or like JD would put it, Let Love Show The Way. Recommended.

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