GET LOOSE – GET LOOSE (Self released)
What does it mean to play within accepted stylistic
boundaries, and is there a difference between working in a tradition and
embracing a genre? For everyone who
respects improvisations on established carnatic ragas but thinks trad jazz
bands are dead-eyed rehashers, there’s another who bigs up old skool hip hop
revivals whilst sniggering at morris dancers.
The truth is, some musicians get inspired by playing to a previous
generation’s rules, and some get inspired by breaking them, and that’s fine;
what’s weird is those who do one thing whilst being sure they’re doing the
other. Take Get Loose’s press release,
which claims their album ranges “from R&B you can dance to through to
darker pychedelia”, when what it ranges from is mid-tempo blues rocking to the
end of the record.
On the plus side, it’s pretty decent mid-tempo blues
rocking. The opening pair of tracks
offer chunky-knit “Immigrant Song” style cantering in “Forgive Me” and Chuck
Berry flavoured...err...cantering in “Ride It Out”. The riffs and rhythms kick along nicely, the
vocals are understated and pleasingly free of pantomime mid-west growls, and
the solos are fluent yet concise. The
lyrics won’t win any awards, but they’re far from the most egregious examples
of priapic platitude in rock’s canon, and may have a little sly inversion of
sexual boasting in “King Bee” (if not it means the claim they are “able to buzz
all night long” is meant seriously, and that the boys need to learn a little
more about apian sexual hierarchies).
Best to ignore that stuff and just nod your head to the incessant
cowbell crunch of “Bullet”, our favourite track. Get
Loose is a very solid, reliable heavy blues album. That is both its victory and its curse, depending
on where you’re standing.
