Old school fans may delight in hearing Hughes throwing up something as retro as this!
Glenn Hughes is not a man to rest on his laurels lately – he instinctively wants to create music and ever since rediscovering his love of Rock music, he's turned out quite a body of work; most notably the three Black Country Communion albums with partners in crime Jason Bonham, Derek Sherinian and Blues guitarist Joe Bonamassa. After a disagreement of sorts between Hughes and Bonamassa about touring plans and commitments, Bonamassa went off to do his solo stuff and Hughes effectively disbanded BCC in 2012 which upset fans worldwide. But after touring with Kings Of Chaos as vocalist and acoustic guitarist, Hughes formed California Breed late last year with Bonham and guitarist Andy Watt.
Produced by Dave Cobb, the album has a tremendous earthy and retro feel, so much so it's literally dripping with 1970s sweat and Marshall feed-back. Hughes has nailed his colours firmly to the wall with obvious BCC and hints of Deep Purple fed into a heady mix of Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Marc Bolan.
With retro bombastic Rock blasts from the likes of 'The Way' and 'The Grey', the power trio play with a fairly loose abandon whilst always managing to keep on track which is as you'd expect, particularly from seasoned veterans like Hughes and Bonham, who nail the rhythms without sticking to the tried and trusted formula. Even the likes of 'Days They Come' is bombastic Rock with a furious Hughes vocal on the chorus yet on the first single 'Sweet Tea' has all the hallmarks of T-Rex with funky riffs and a 1970s rhythmic feel – no doubt appealing to all the fans of all his styles from across the generations.
'Chemical Rain' has hints of Beatles Psychedelia over a Hendrix style riff with Stones overtones thrown in for good measure – its obvious Watt is old school, in fact make that very old school. The clean licks and smooth Blues of Bonamassa from the likes of 'One Last Soul' and 'Man In The Middle' for example and the melodic sheen that encompassed a lot of BCC's songs are nowhere to be seen as Watt prefers to keep it earthy, no fancy effects – just straight through the overdrive.
Listen to Bonham, very reminiscent of his father on 'Midnight Oil' that features a definite urgent Zepplin like riff, or listen to the Rusty Allen influence on 'Spit You Out' as Hughes maintains a bass-led nagging rhythm building to a honky-tonk chorus. 'Strong' is a juicy Stones flavoured Rocker with a mellowed out mid-section, 'Invisible' re-visits Zeppelin territory, and 'Scars' has the groove with Purple leanings.
It's not BCC, but old school fans may delight in hearing Hughes throwing up something as retro as this.
Carl Buxton
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