Get ready for a seventeen song time-capsule.
Texan Rockers Randee Lee, Razar King and Gary Priest have unearthed some old recordings from 40 years ago that are finally seeing the light of day on ‘Transmission.’ The songs, that have been languishing undiscovered as 4 decades have washed by, have finally been “Digitized from the original source tapes, (given) a fresh face lift, new mixes and mastering” and here they are…
Well as you might imagine back in 1979 the musical climate was a little different, the US languished in a soft rock haze with Aerosmith and Van Halen hinting at what might be on the way and the UK was still the home of Classic Rock with Zeppelin and Purple still a going concern as well as newly arrived upstarts AC/DC. The UK also was seeing an underground rock resurgence after the short-lived Punk explosion. Some called it the NWOBHM though in reality it as far from a cohesive scene or sound. Out of it would emerge heavyweights as diverse as Def Leppard and Iron Maiden but there were also thousands of less well-known bands.
Interestingly one of those less-well known bands had a certain Bruce Dickinson as frontman – they were called Samson and it seems they were quite an influence on Mr King. What you get here though isn’t just straight NWOBHM, there are elements of other 70’s sounds too – some arrangements for example have Prog elements to them, whilst others have you reaching for names like Uriah Heep like ‘Comin’ Your Way’, one of my favourites here. Then there’s the ‘Hammond’ organ sound that so many bands of the 70’s incorporated, that is used really well here.
Listening to the quality of the 17 tracks here its hard to understand how they were never released back in the day. This is great music that really takes you back and a real treat for those that might think that they don’t make ’em like they used to.
Tracklist:
01. Hammer | 02. Flyer | 03. Caught In The Game | 04. For One And For All | 05. Transmission | 06. Run For Your Life | 07. Promised Land | 08. Lost And Found | 09. See The Show | 10. Take The Fall | 11. Get Ready | 12. Comin’ Your Way | 13. Sing Your Song| 14. Lightnin’ N Thunder | 15. Heart On Fire | 16. Writing’s On The Wall \ 17. Lost Empire
