JOHN MACALUSO & UNION RADIO - The Radio Waves Goodbye
July 16, 2007, 16 years ago
(Lion Music)
Drummer extraordinaire (TNT/Yngwie/Ark/Powermad, and plenty of others) John Macaluso has recently been sitting behind the kit for touring incarnations of Spread Eagle and Chris Caffery’s band, while not in the studio. This is Johnny MacDrum’s initial solo effort and the proggy tornado called in lots of musical guest favours (keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij, bassist Randy Coven, assorted vocalists: John West, Mike Dimeo, James Labrie, plus guitar bits courtesy of Alex Masi and Jack Frost, amongst others) for a dozen progressive rock-tinged tunes (plus ‘Pretzel’ drum solo) that touch on Power Windows-era Rush (‘Soul In Your Mind’) to jazz (the soothing, piano-accompanied ‘Prayer Pill’). There are plenty of modern, electronic effects infused into the music too, as on the steel drumming ‘Dissolved’. The start of ‘Shimmering Gray’ recalls ‘Cynus X-1’ (Rush circa ’77). The 7:32 ‘T-34’ is a full-on instrumental, with synthesized strings, venturing between classical and melodramatic soap opera themes. ‘Yesterday I’ll Understand’ is a modern rocker, with a retro-Jeff Buckley/Mayfield Four vibe. Female trio-backed, ‘40s swinger ‘6 Foot Under Happy Man’ is Macaluso displaying his sense of humour (and scat vocals!) on a thankfully short piss-take. One needs to be into a different, non-metallic headspace to enjoy this, so perhaps it’s not for every BW&BK; listener.
