Various Artists - Raising Steam Volume I - 3 (Cd Review)

Various Artists – Raising Steam

Volume I

01. Miss Von Trapp - Have A Pie: Modern Mrs Lovett

02. Helicopter Quartet - Where Have All The Aliens Gone?

03. Thy Last Drop – Gravedigger

04. Birthrite - Loving You (Ain't So Easy)

05. The Mysterious Freakshow - Hedge Witch

06. Crimson Clocks – Red Violin

07. Montague Jacques Fromage - Merde! Mon Dieu! (Absinthe! Sacre Bleu!)

08. Gladstone – Night Creatures

09. Tom Slatter - Mother's Been Talking To Ghosts Again

10. Metropolis – Sirens

11. The Mechanisms - Riddle of the Sphinx

Volume II

01. The Dark Design - Haggard Rider

02. Gurdybird - Raggle Taggle Gypsy (video edit)

03. Venus de Vilo - It's My Party - I'll Die If I Want To!

04. Ague - Fifteen Leagues to Providence

05. Violent Sky - Frances (In the Gallery of Stars)

06. The Wattingers - Evil Driving Rain

07. Under A Banner – Steam

08. Ghostfire - Griminsky's Soul

09. BB BlackDog - Steam Punk Junkie

10. New Jacobin Club - Angel MMXVI

Volume III

01. Kiss Like Ether – End Game

02. Gordon Midgley - The Tell Tale Heart

03. Victor & the Bully - Every Fight Is A Food Fight For A Cannibal

04. Nathan Jon Tillett – Eternaeon

05. Heathen StrangeFellow & the VaudeVille Vagabonds – Masquerade

06. LM Cooke – Poor Jenny

07. The Filthy Spectacula - Flying Dutchman

08. Dark Sinfonia - A Murderous Breath 

09. Jessica Law - The Mermaid's Revenge

10. The Hare And The Moon - Come Unto The Corn

11. Napier's Bones - Hand of Glory

12. Feline & Strange - The City

13. Valentine Wolfe – Corvidae

14. Krankschaft - Come Fly With Us

15. Nathaniel Johnstone - Seven Veils

What we have here are three limited edition CD-R samplers of the Raising Steam download albums.

Each of these comes in a DVD box with a limited edition pin badge, only available through one of these purchases.

For your money you also get the code to get the entire downloadable versions through Bandcamp, giving you access to another ten or so songs per volume.

ALL monies raised go to the New Futures Nepal charity.

Now you may of course be wondering what the hell is Steampunk music?

The short answer is there is no such thing as steampunk music, not as a specific genre anyway.

What these samplers show is that anything is possible from classic rock to pop, dark and twisted gothic horror, folk music and even traditional British music hall.

So why is it called Steampunk? I hear you shout; my own opinion is that the “Alternative” approach allows for such freedom that many talented artists are simply drawn to something which is not locked down in a specific genre.

I would urge you to investigate if like me you have a wide variety of interests when it comes to music, perhaps the very name of Steampunk has made you avoid the music, something which to its shame the wider music press has been guilty of, thus failing to introduce their readers to some amazing classic rock music!

A few examples:

From Volume I, we have some horror tinged music hall comedy from Miss Von Trapp.  The Helicopter Quartet are clearly emulating one of Karlheinz Stockhausen many experimental compositions.

The track by Tom Slatter is quite stunning, a mix of light modern progressive rock with a vocal delivery that seems to mix David Byrne and Syd Barrett.

Finally Metropolis have a modern Hawkwind vibe with some Tubeway Army thrown in for good measure.

Up next a few from Volume II, how about Gurdybird who has mixed tribal drum rhythms with playing an actual hurdy gurdy!

Venus de Vilo brings a smile with her incredible dark and twisted mix of Nina Hagan and Alannis Morrisette.

A superb mix of seventies hard rock and proto doom Violent Sky are one of the stand outs here.

Ghostfire perform some fantastic female fronted acid folk, followed by some bass driven stoner rock from BB Blackdog.

Last one is New Jacobin Club, providing some folk tinged acoustic music with a very powerful vocal.

What does Volume III kick off with? Kiss Like Ether with some darkwave meets early industrial and perfectly mixed and delivered.

Up next is some weird space synth and then Gordon Midgley treats us to seven minutes of mesmerizing narration of Poe’s classic tale.

Dishing up some folk horror in the style of Marc Wilkinson (Blood On Satan’s Claw) and Magnet (The Wicker Man) comes The Hare & The Moon.

Valentine Wolfe are pure Symphonic Metal and keeping it heavy are Krankschaft (Hawkwind’s Robert Calvert former backing band) blending Amon Duul II with Hawklords.

Last up is Nathaniel Johnson whose take on folk rock is reminiscent of The Trees meeting All About Eve.

Well I have picked out a few, there really is much more on offer, almost every genre is represented here.

For more information, order details and a chance to preview the music go to the Raising Steam Bandcamp page.

Official Bandcamp Page

Violent Sky - Critical Mass (CD Review)

01.Take Your Time
02.Nobody
03.Shadow Man
04.Frances (In The Gallery Of Stars)
05.Cargo Cult
06.Cold Blue Fire Part 1
07.Cold Blue Fire Part 2
08.Vertigo Feeling
09.December Dew
10.Nadsat Boys
11.Freedom
12.Gulf (Between You And me)
13.Under The violent Sky
14.Thanks Tom

Win Smith (Vocals/Bass/Guitar/Keyboards)
Steve Good (Guitar)
Al Mogg (Drums)

Violent Sky from London feature members of "Seventh Seance", "Black Poets" and "Ghostfire".
In june 2014 they announced that after a recent session with "Ghostfire" (A steampunk styled band in case you dont know) they were going to go into the studios to record "a selection of the most righteous dark prog metal possible".

I first heard them on the GASP Radio show, where on the facebook page i made a comment that the track playing sounded like David Bowie fronting a Hendrix tribute band, they then sent me a copy to review, i wonder what to expect?

'Take Your Time' is a fairly straight forward indie tinged rock song with a vocal that reminds me of Robert Palmer, i wonder if every song is going to remind me of a different vocalist?
Guitar solo at the end is quite stunning!

The next track is 37 seconds of pointless filler, again an example of a band making a seperate track out of something that should be tacked on at the beginning of the next song.

However that little mistake is soon laid to rest as 'Shadow Man' kicks in with a dirty/grungy blues styled rocker with more inspired guitar work, great solid bass work and drum beats to match.The vocals seem to be all Mr.Smith and very good they are too.

In terms of song structure, 'Frances In The Gallery Of Stars' is not a million miles away from Black Sabbath's Heaven & Hell, this one is slow, brooding and very anthemic, great vocal delivery again almost folk rock tinged and more of that excellent guitar work.

Up next is another bloody filler, so onwards to 'Cold Blue Fire Part 1/Part 2' , slow moody start with some early Bauhaus sounds lurking, in fact quite a lot of Bela Lugosi's Dead and Hollow Hills detected by my braincell.No vocals on Part 1, Part 2 changes the pace with some modern gothic rock music and with rhythms not unlike The Mission God's Own Medicine era.Gets frantic towards the end with the drums and guitar!

'Vertigo Feeling', now this was the track i originally heard, still has that Bowie style circa Scary Monsters and have realised that the music is not so much hendrix but the legendary Jeff Healey Band.Still a brilliant track, full of rhythm and power.

That 'Heaven & Hell' vibe returns for 'December Dew', this however is more haunting complete with some nice synth and an emotive vocal performance, nicely mixed to create an intresting mix of melody and agression.

The album is now becoming increasing more intresting following on from the last few tracks 'Nadsat Boys' retains a dark ambience to start with, then turns into a hard rock/goth song, this one is driven by the vocals, dark and dangerous yet the level remains the same over both quiet and heavy musical backing.Really nice f/x on the guitar sound.

Third strike for another filler, oh dear, but hey ho after 47 seconds comes 'Gulf Between You And Me' with some more of that screaming hendrix/healey guitar work.
This one really is a guitar workout, backed with some pounding bass lines.

'Under The Violent Sky' is more of that modern blues rock, more of that guitar sound which i love and another solid track.

You know the last track, well its another filler, this one seemingly more pointless that all the others!

Quite an album all in all, apart from the fillers, one thing this is not though is dark progressive metal, in fact the only word to take from that is "Dark", if anything this is a fine example of a modern take on classic rock blended with gothic rock, except the ones that are blues.
I like stuff like this, it doesn't fit into any obvious genre, its a mixed bag and highly listenable again and again.

Rating 8/10
For Fans Of: Jeff Healey Band, The Cult, The Mission, Ghostfire, Godzilla Black, Joy Division