Saturday, April 3, 2021

radioblue - warehouse mLP (1989, mercybeat)

I've been a sucker for U2's tell-tale guitar technique upon hearing "Pride (In the Name of Love)" in '85.  The Edge's serrated but jangly, echoing chords are impossible to tire of, even in the hands of scores of other guitarists, albeit many less capable. radioblue were no doubt tuned into said innovation, but the Bono & Co. comparisons largely end there on the band's warehouse, mini-LP.  Poignant but anything but pompous, this Bethesda, MD foursome didn't merely posses a plethora of raw, tingly licks, rather the songs they're ensconced within were ultimately the main attraction. Sure, by twenty-first century standards this record doesn't strike me as nearly advanced as when these seven tunes were laid down in separate sessions circa the late '80 (side one was committed to 8 track recording apparatus, while the flip went the even more basic 4 track route), but the intervening decades haven't diminished a smidgen of power and appeal from "instead," "love tornados," and "empty sky."  Love what I'm hearing, even if I am three decades late to the party.  Two more radioblue offerings would surface in the coming years, neither of which unfortunately are readily available anymore.  

01. instead
02. siamese
03. everything for you
04. blues
05. untitled interlude
06. lvoe tornados
07. instrumental in d minor, a basic history of art
08. empty sky

hear

3 comments:

EricC said...

Wow this is a great record.

Now I have to find the rest of them. I have a line on Just Like Jane, but Sonic is proving to be trickier.

Bruce Brodeen said...

Footnote: co-leader of this band was Mark Helm, who released one fabulous record on Not Lame in 2001, "Everything's Okay", which wasn't as it was, like Big Star's "Third", the soundtrack of a soul breaking down, holding on for dear life. A very UN-Not Lame-y release but one worthy of appraisal. (so says, the Not Lame label guy...)

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