Search - Wishbone Ash :: Nouveau Calls

Their Best Post-1980 Offering

El Kabong | 10/28/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Of all the Great Dinosaur Bands logging 25-30 years in the music biz, Wishbone Ash is the one I can't figure. Always known as a guitar band (but with taste & restraint), they don't seem to have a real signature - no smash radio hit, no string of gold/platinum lps, no particular counter-cultural cachet ...they played neither Woodstock nor Castle Donington. Maybe people are just comfortable with them after seeing them open for 30 years' worth of bigger names. Me, I found them to be peculiarly unexciting. All their expert axe-craft couldn't save material manacled to lyrics and song structures that seemed part Canterbury, part Uriah Heep and part CSNY. For me, tunes like "Warrior" and "Sometime World" listed in dead calm every time the guitars stopped and the singing started. (1979's FRONT PAGE NEWS took a bluesier approach with very good results, but this was quickly jettisoned for more of their tired-blood hard rock.) So this all-instrumental album for the now-kaput No Speak imprint of IRS caught me by surprise. Shedding both vocals and pseudo-heaviness, the original quartet - here reunited - finally find their metier, in well thought-out, sometimes-exotic compositions which finally place the full emphasis where it should always have been, on the twin lead guitars of Ted Turner & Andy Powell. Bassplayer Martin Turner contributes some (quasi - cheesy) digital keyboards, Steve Upton mans the kit as always, and off they go on eleven short pieces that build on mood rather than riffs, giving Turner & Powell clear sailing for impressive and incisive flights of six-string wizardry that locks into midtempo grooves, embroidering them with tasty fills and solos. Not too surprisingly, this turned out to be a one-shot. WA quickly returned to sleepy form after this; they're probably playing "Blowin' Free" in a high-school auditorium as you're reading this. Still, if you can find NOUVEAU CALLS, nab it: the only thing it's missing is Laurie Wisefield."

This album is a GEM hidden in the rough !

Jiminy Cricket | downstate NY USA | 07/07/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Noveau Calls = "No Vocals". The story is that when guitarist Laurie Wisefield left in 1986, original manager Mile Copeland created IRS record and in 1987 re-united the original 4 band members (1970-74), but asked them to do an INSTRUMENTAL album. This is an EXCELLENT album that very few people know about. Martin Turner's return after ~7 years (bass, production, songwriting) adds the spark which re-ignites the famous Wishbone Ash sound, but with all kinds of cool stylings and creative electronic stuff added. Andy Powell might call it Martin Turner's solo album, but that would be untrue and unfair. Andy Powell (guitar & song-writing) is very strong here. Long-lost "Ted" Turner also plays here, adding nice touches, including banjo and slide guitar, but supposedly did not get much time to collaberate on the song-writing due to immigration problems. Highly recommended, even for non-fans. Unfortunately, out-of-print. Feel lucky if you can get a used copy."

They let the instruments do the talking.

oldtimerocker | 06/22/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When Miles Copeland first formed IRS records, he put together the No Speak series...artists who made instrumental albus. This was one of the first ones released. It definately shows that Wishbone Ash moved into the 80's and away from the progressive 70's. These guys are talented musicians and this album definately shows that. The only hang-up is that Wishbone Ash also had some decent vocals and they are not on this album. That was what really made this band stand out. The dual guitar attack is also limited. It has a very 80's, high-tech sound. This is not the first album to buy, but it makes a nice addition once you get "Argus' "Wishbone Four" and "Live Dates.""