OR   Search for Artist/Title    Advanced Search
 
you are not logged in...  [login] 
All Reviews    Edit This Review     
Review: 'SINCLAIR, JOHN'
'Beatnik Youth'   

-  Label: 'Iron Man'
-  Genre: 'Rock' -  Release Date: '8th September 2017'

Our Rating:
This album is being released by Iron Man Records in Birmingham, England (go figure?) and there is also a vinyl release of four tracks (30 mins) from the album available which looks tasty.

It's like the good old days! And by that I mean the good old days of ambient techno, of a kind that might also provide the listener with information and education.

I am of the opinion that John Sinclair is nigh on essential listening in any format and he seems to have found the perfect vehicle with Youth behind the boards. Matter of fact it's a little bit more than ambient techno, there are some great rock n' roll tracks here as well. Take "Everybody Needs Somebody" and "Change My Life" for example. Driven along on gospel bedrocks and peppered with names and anecdotes from the sixties counter-culture.

"Testify" comes on like "The End" by The Doors and "Ain't Nobody's Business" is Stones blues boogie. "My Buddy" and "That Old Man" continue that theme. "Brilliant Corners" is a history lesson of the beat poets/authors and jazz musicians who have influenced John Sinclair. "Culture Cide" is actually a funk work out with Howard Marks chipping in as well. It doesn't warrant being eleven minutes long in the same way as "Brilliant Corners". "Red Dress" is a more straightforward poem set to blues music. "Sitarrtha" reflects on the work of John Coltrane. It is possibly the most immersive track on the album, along with "Do It". "War On Drugs" is Howard Marks doing...well...Howard Marks and seems to be a repeat of his vocals on "Culture-Cide" and so this track seems a tad unnecessary?

Play this one to your teenage children and then double and triple dose 'em with Guitar Army (book by John Sinclair inc. CD) and Prison (Sub Pop CD by Steven "Jesse" Bernstein). Job done.
  author: Leo Newbiggin

[Show all reviews for this Artist]

READERS COMMENTS    10 comments still available (max 10)    [Click here to add your own comments]

There are currently no comments...
----------



SINCLAIR, JOHN - Beatnik Youth