Review: Radio Moscow

Radio Moscow - The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz (Alive Records)
The Los Angeles-based Alive Records have crept up on us over the last few years with compelling releases by the Black Diamond Heavies, Two Gallants, Peter Case and more, steadily establishing themselves as the cutting-edge label for experimental blues. We were mightily impressed with Ron Franklin’s eponymous debut in 2008, and gave an unequivocal thumbs-up to the Welsh duo Henry’s Funeral Shoes’ recent ‘Donkey Jacket’.

‘The Great Escape of Leslie Magnafuzz’, Radio Moscow’s third release on the imprint does nothing to tarnish this growing reputation. Their Black Keys association (Dan Auberbach produced their first album) will do nothing to hold them back, but a better clue to their angle of trajectory is in their US support slot to up-and-coming retro-metallers Graveyard.

The crunching opening chords of ‘Little Eyes’ herald a storming romp through an electric compendium of heavy psychedelia to rival any power combo of the early seventies, all served up with empathy and enthusiasm, and the same high level of inventiveness, which characterises many of their stablemates. If you remember Grand Funk and Blue Cheer with any degree of affection (and you should) this is what they sound like crash-landing in the twenty-first century.
www.alive-totalenergy.com/x/
Neil B.