Psychedelic blues rock at its finest
Guy Incognito | Florida | 03/03/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is an oustanding debut album. Parker Griggs is one of the best rock and roll guitarists I've heard in quite some time. It's mind boggling that this guy is in his early twenties. He sounds like he has decades of experience. Even more impressive is that he lays down some killer drum work on all of the tracks on this album. This guy is a real prodigy, and I would love to see this group make it big.
The ten tracks on the album offer a lot of variety within the blues-rock genre. The actual songwriting is strong, but it's the raw energy in the instrumentation that will really knock you off your feet. The production and engineering on this album are perfect. The sound is raw and rough, but not too muddy. The guitar, drums, and bass are way up on the mix and the vocals are perfectly understated. Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys produced the album and he couldn't have done a better job.
You can hear the influences of Hendrix, Cream, Peter Green, plus a dash of MC5. However, this album is not at all a classic rock ripoff. If this group is given a chance, I think they will be very successful. They have a unique and exciting sound.
If I had one complaint about the album, it would be that "Frustrating Sound" and "Mistreating Queen" sound just a bit too similar. Both are great songs, though, and nothing should stop you from buying this album.
There's no need to hem and haw over whether or not you want to buy Radio Moscow's first album. Get it now!"
Impressive new sound for traditional 70's music lovers
Craig Allen | Pella, IA United States | 03/09/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is an offering from a new group with something you don't hear very often any more--a traditional rock music sound. Any traditional rock music lovers can be grateful that there are new groups that not only recognize the power and grace of the 60s and 70s, but decades later are taking the sound to new heights. That's the great thing about Radio Moscow--anybody who likes the psychedelic sound of the 60's and 70's will appreciate it--I can especially hear the relationship to the music of Cream. Yet this is distinctively an orignal group, no cover songs, no copies, just music that was strongly influenced by an earlier era. Whether you like true 60's and 70's rock or you are looking for something current with a different sound, you won't be disappointed by this offering from Radio Moscow!"
Heavy blues-psych guitar rock
hyperbolium | Earth, USA | 03/04/2007
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The age of two-man rock is upon us, with duos like the Black Keys, White Stripes, and Black Diamond Heavies complemented by this new pair from Ames, Iowa. Radio Moscow is produced by the Black Keys' Dan Auerbach and takes as their point of departure the early'70s turn from psychedelia to blues-rock. Think Nazareth and Thin Lizzy crossed with the chops of Cream and The Yardbirds, the bottom-end of Led Zeppelin, the jams of the Allman Brothers, and the progressive sounds of Focus.
Guitarist/drummer (a hybrid you don't see every day!) Parker Griggs knows his way around the strings and isn't shy about taking a solo or two, and together with bassist Luke Duff he lays down a solid, pounding beat. These aren't the exploratory workouts of Phish or Dave Matthews -- they're lightshow illuminated Fillmore-style jams that shred like The Who live at Leeds. The band's blues is spiced with '60s garage (like something you might have heard from the Shadows of Knight if they'd recorded something longer than 3 minutes), and the Eastern-tinged "Ordovician Fauna" sounds like something the Electric Prunes might have turned out.
There's enough tempo and textural variety (including downbeat instrumental experiments and steel-string acoustic guitars mixed against howling electric slide) to keep things moving, but it's the insistent rhythms and Griggs' meaty, high-flying guitar solos that provide the transportation. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]"
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1