CD Reviews
by Charmin' Dee

 .75

Greetings all and welcome back to the world of CD reviews...only the good stuff makes it! It is a rare treat for me to get an album like this next one, a difficult job for sure since I have known the artists closely for several years now and worked with them often along with the Swinging Air-Force dance troupe! Reading the liner notes "thanks" from the band is like a who's who of the history of the Montreal scene and rightly so since this band, Kamikaze Mustang is composed of several talented young performers from right here in my hometown! Heck, they were already performing together when yours truly learned his first rockstep! And what a show, the synchro horn moves, the fake fights, the zoot suits, the dancers...

The highest mark for this album would definitely come as far as danceability is concerned. Indeed, having played for dancers for years, Kamikaze is definitely NOT your average "swing" band whose songs are too long due to extensive jazz concert backgrounds and whose tempos are difficult to deal with, i.e. too slow, too fast or just always the same. Their tempos will go from "Hot Tamale" fast (JIVE/ECS/Balboa) to low medium "Walk in the Park" (relaxed LINDY). There are no slow blues on the album but if you make abstraction of the beat itself, "Fever" obviously presents this opportunity! I like the fact that most of the songs are original compositions by Mike Collins, Evan Brydon and Paul l'Espérance-- they obviously were able to take a lot out of the Colin James jump blues influence they started with but didn't stop there. There really are no skip tracks on the album at all. As far as hits, I definitely believe that "Hot Tamale" wins hands down...I thought it was a good track on this album, and I even had to remind myself, "Hey, this is Mike Collins singing!". But the confirmation came last Tuesday on my Jello Bar gig: I played it and a spontaneous jam circle started! Now if that doesn't mean you have a hit on your hands, I don't know what does! On the down side though, this is a "pilot" CD as the title aptly states and there needs to be a little more attention to detail on the spit and polish of the album. For instance the album cover artwork and the actual graphics on the CD itself are on total different planes as far as style, even though they represent the same plane and flames. This goes for the recording as well -- the levels are not off per se however there are some tracks I would have re-recorded in order to have it as "perfect as it could be".

Subjectively now, I really loved the intro with Big Swing Daddy's voice "very loud and very scary", seemingly recorded at the Royal Crown Revue concert last year when KM opened for the boys from California...a great throwback to those crazy days! As always I find it strange that a swing album's first track would be Latin as it is the case here with "Maria", a good crossover track though. "Hot Tamale" is really an excellent track and the Inspector Gadget riff just clinches it! The recording of "Hell" is just as good as the SNZ one so definitely speaks volumes of KM's quality at interpreting other people's material. Caroline Couture holds her own in "Fever", a highly vocal-oriented track where her predecessors include the notorious Peggy Lee. I have however heard the KM boys play "Spy Medley" several fold better than this version!

The best part of the album's music is without question the super solid percussion work of Josh Trager -- listen for it, it's top class! Also noteworthy is Mike's vocals who have greatly progressed not only can you really HEAR him but he's now holding notes down for 10 seconds at a time... what's going on!?! I also picked out some good slide work on track 4 "Fancy Cars and Fat Cigars" by Nicolas Therrien, Evan's work on "Until I Have You" and Mike's guitar on "Walk in the Park". Overall every baritone presence by Eugene Negrii is strong, not Hamiet Bluiett just yet but the kid's got potential! Kudos to Jonah on playing "Fever"! As mentioned earlier, my biggest problem with the record is that the band has 6 horns and getting all 6 to be on at the same time for the record is surely not easy especially in those nighttime red-eye coffee drinking recording sessions. I find it unfortunate to hear little mishaps make it to the final product but I am confident these can be eliminated in future enterprises. As far as an overall evaluation of the record, it is on par with the good neo-swing albums out there and actually blows out of the water many similar 1st recording adventures that will remain nameless. They make me proud to be a Montrealer!

Recommendation, come to their next show and pick it up! Or stop by the upcoming CD release party at a record store near you!

All the Best!

Dee

If you have questions, comments, would like to join the next review panel or have your album reviewed, e-mail Dee!

THE 5-MARTINI RATING SYSTEM Each song on the album is evaluated for each criteria and the total number of martinis is then divided by the number of songs to arrive at an average for the album. Up to five martinis are awarded to each song based on the following criteria:
Recording Quality	Can you actually hear the music on the album? Is it well mastered, etc.
Skip/Snooze Potential	Is this song a definite skip on the CD or are you prone to fall asleep during this song? Obviously the martini is given if this IS NOT THE CASE!!!
Danceability	Since we swingers are dancers this is an important one. Whether it be Jive, ECS, Lindy who cares, as long as you can shake a limb!!!
Musicality	It's a cover of a well known song that brings something new to the table; the band/vocalists are great; the material is original, be it with regards to composition, style, sound etc.
Hit Potential	Is this song one that would at best find it's way to a home compilation CD or is it a definite HIT waiting to happen.