The Fat Angel Sings

He never received the due he deserved, but blues guitarist Rory Gallagher was Ireland’s answer to Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Emerging in 1969 as the leader of a blues/rock power trio Taste (they were signed by Ahmet Ertegun to Atco Records in 1968, but were overshadowed at the label by acts like Cream, Blind Faith and Led Zeppelin), the group made three albums before disbanding in 1970, in order for Gallagher to go solo.

His 8th album “Calling Card“, released in 1976, was created with Deep Purple/Rainbow’s Roger Glover as producer, introducing hard rock elements to break new ground and gain new fans. It was recorded for the popular American radio program King Biscuit Flower Hour , The set list on the day is 17 songs including encores, but nine songs are selected due to the program’s airtime. The show consists of songs from the new “Calling Card” and the previous album “Against the Grain”. The audience responded well to the new song, which incorporates the essence of hard rock, and has a great performance

By the time he embarked on the ’76 tour Gallagher had expanded his power trio to a four-piece band with the addition of Lou Martin on piano, organ and synths. They blast off with “Moonchild,” which borrows heavily from the riff The Moody Blues used in their hit, “The Story In Your Eyes.” Next up is “Secret Agent” (a different song than the one made famous by Johnny Rivers with the same name). The show moves forward with “Calling Card,” which was Gallagher’s new LP at the time. The rest of the show is a mix of tracks from “Calling Card” and staples that had long been part of his set list, including “Souped-Up Ford,” “Western Plain,”(featuring Gallagher on acoustic guitar), and the balls-out rocker, “I Take What I Want,” (which nicks The Beatles’ riff from “I Feel Fine” during Gallagher’s solo).

By the late 1970s, Gallagher’s brand of blues rock fell out of favour and like artists such as Robin Trower and Steve Marriott, he had to focus on a smaller, but fiercely loyal, following. Although he never quite received the worldwide recognition of Eric Clapton, Duane Allman, and Jimmy Page, he certainly deserves to be remembered for the many excellent albums and tours he had during his career. Sadly, he died after receiving a liver transplant in 1995 at the age of 47.

Rory Gallagher – vocals, guitars, harmonica; Gerry McAvoy – bass; Rod De’ath – drums, percussion; Lou Martin – keyboards

Setlist: 1. Introduction 2. Moonchild 3. Secret Agent 4. Calling Card 5. I Take What I Want/Watch Your Step 6. Bought & Sold 7. Out On The Western Plain 8. Do You Read Me 9. Souped Up Ford/Want-Ad Blues

The mighty Loop are back with their first studio album in 31 years and we’re mega excited to be doing an exclusive Fuzz Club Edition Announced today, this new album ‘Sonancy’ is due out March 11th 2022 and our version comes on 180g transparent orange vinyl with black galaxy effect.

The eagerly anticipated fourth LP ‘Sonancy’ (Latin for “to create noise”) from inspirational sonic architects Loop is the perfect document for these strange times. Dynamic, dystopian, righteously angry and unashamedly Loop-ian, it’s an album that marks a vital re-emergence for Robert Hampson and co. “My motto has always been ‘Forward’ and I always try to do something new with each record. I always try to push different influences in there. Specifically for this record, I wanted to counter the idea of the Array EP (2015), on which all the tracks were long and drawn out. They still had the motorik element of bands like Neu! and CAN, but Loop’s always had that.

With ‘Sonancy’ I also wanted to take a post-punk sound, spin it on its head and mix it with a psych influence. A total gumbo. Which has always been Loop, this mash-up of spicy rhythms. Formed in South London in the mid-1980s, Loop blazed a trail with their potent mix of motorik beats and heavy guitar riffs, recording a trio of brilliant albums that set the indie charts alight before imploding in 1990 after the release of album number three, ‘A Gilded Eternity“. They were post-psychedelic, pre-shoegaze figureheads in a world of anodyne pop jangle and baggy rhythms, and even their closest contemporaries like Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine didn’t plough such a distinctive furrow as theirs. Now back with their first LP since ‘A Gilded Eternity’, you can check out the video for new single ‘Halo’

“Style-wise, it’s incredibly different, going back to thinking about guitars and guitar sounds. Obviously you have to take into consideration things like percussive elements such as drums, which I haven’t been using in my other projects; but this is  the mindset that makes up Loop.” So says Robert Hampson, the indefatigable visionary behind inspirational sonic architects Loop, whose eagerly anticipated fourth LP Sonancy is the perfect document for these strange times.

Indeed, with its rich mixture of styles and cadences, Sonancy is the sound of Loop in the 21st century, Hampson’s intense guitar work anchored by propulsive backing in service of songs with clinically dissociative titles such as ‘Eolian’, ‘Supra’, ‘Penumbra’  and ‘Fermion’. 

“People who know my music well know that from the last Loop album onwards, my  interest in chemistry, science and astronomy have come to the fore,” Hampson  elaborates. “I use those titles but I use them in an abstract context. With the cutback,  minimalist sound I wanted for this record, I wanted to do that with the lyrics and the  titles as well. It’s very immediate. The songs are shorter in length, the lyrics more minimal than ever.”  

Pre-order your copy here: fuzzclub.lnk.to/loop

Big Thief revealed in an interview in October that they’re releasing a 20-song double album in 2022, and today they’ve officially announced it. It’s called “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You” and due February 11th via 4AD Records (pre-order).

“Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” is a sprawling double-LP exploring the deepest elements and possibilities of Big Thief. To truly dig into all that the music of Adrianne Lenker, Max Oleartchik, Buck Meek, and James Krivchenia desired in 2020, the band decided to write and record a rambling account of growth as individuals, musicians, and chosen family over 4 distinct recording sessions. In Upstate New York, Topanga Canyon, The Rocky Mountains, and Tucson, Arizona, Big Thief spent 5 months in creation and came out with 45 completed songs. The most resonant of this material was edited down into the 20 tracks that make up “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” a fluid and adventurous listen. The album was produced by drummer James Krivchenia who initially pitched the recording concept for “Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe in You” back in late 2019 with the goal of encapsulating the many different aspects of Adrianne’s songwriting and the band onto a single record.

As mentioned in that interview, the album was written while the band quarantined for two weeks in a house in the Vermont woods in July 2020, and it was recorded at Sam Evian’s Flying Cloud studio in upstate New York, Jonathan Dixon’s Five Star Studio in California with engineer Shawn Everett (The War On Drugs, The Killers, etc), Colorado’s Studio in The Clouds with engineer Dom Monks (Nick Cave, Laura Marling), and Tucson, Arizona’s Press On with engineer Scott McMicken (of Dr. Dog) and frequent Big Thief collaborator Mat Davidson (of Twain) on pedal steel and fiddle. Big Thief drummer James Krivchenia produced.

Big Thief’s highly anticipated 20-song double album comes out in February via 4AD, and you can now hear fifth single ”Time Escaping”

The album includes the band’s four recently-released singles (“Change,” “Little Things,” “Sparrow,” and “Certainty”), as well as the just-released “Time Escaping.” The song was made with prepared acoustic guitars and a heavily percussive backdrop, and it doesn’t sound like anything Big Thief have ever released.

It’s very cool stuff, and you can hear it for yourself below.