Aor 1000

AOR is a band name I have heard bantered about in social media circles but not one that I had the opportunity to check out. Little did I know that the album I decided to review would be their 23rd (!) release. They’ve only been around since the turn of the century. One album per year is quite prolific. A quick read of the promo material shows me what I had been missing all this time. Founding guitarist/keyboardist Frédéric Slama has played with some impressive musicians ranging from Steve Lukather, Steve Overland, Jeff Scott Soto, and many others. A real “who’s who” of the melodic rock world. I could not wait to check out what this record had in store for me.

Elliot Lurie (born August 19, 1948) is an American musician who was the lead guitarist, songwriter, and co-lead vocalist for the band Looking Glass from 1969 to 1974. He wrote and sang lead on their 1972 #1 hit single "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" and their 1973 Top 40 single "Jimmy Loves Mary-Anne". After leaving the band in the mid-1970s, Lurie released a self-titled album and a single, "Disco (Where You Gonna Go)", both on Epic Records. Neither reached the Billboard Top 100. He later signed with Arista Records, and also worked writing songs for Chappell Music and Screen Gems Music. In the 1980s, Lurie wrote and produced music for private business use. He moved to Los Angeles in 1984, and in 1985, became head of the music department at 20th Century Fox. That year, he produced the soundtrack album for the John Travolta and Jamie Lee Curtis film Perfect. Since then he has worked as music supervisor on numerous mainstream films, including Alien 3 (1992), A Night at the Roxbury (1998), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), I Spy (2002) and Spanglish (2004).

Frontiers Records is proud to present “20 Years”, a best of collection assembling the works of Mecca, the classic AOR band started by vocalist Joe Vana. When he was only 13 years old, Joe Vana’s life was forever changed through a chance meeting with Survivor’s Jim Peterik. Jim taught him everything he knew about music and the music business. But, it wasn’t until he was 28 years old that he discovered his voice, which is when he became Peterik’s in-house demo singer for many years. Joe and Jim eventually created a band called Project Voyager, which ultimately morphed into Mecca. In 2002, Mecca released their debut self-titled album, which featured David Hungate (ex-Toto) on bass, Shannon Forrest on drums, Fergie Frederiksen (ex-Toto) and Joe on vocals, Mike Aquino on guitars and Jimmy Nichols on keyboards. “Mecca” created a sonic treasure that was more than well-received by the Melodic Rock/AOR community.

DREAMS was founded by keyboarder Todd Loizzo and some of his like-minded high school friend’s hallway the 80s. Having a father who was first lead vocalist of American Breed and then owner of a recording studio, it was written in the stars that Todd would start a band of his own. Within a year, DREAMS not only played in and around Chicago, but at many college-s throughout the state of Illinois. This way they built a sizeable following, which was enough for local label Broker Records to sign them. Strangely enough though, Broker only released the stuff the guys had written/recorded on cassette, at the time a popular format in the States, because a lot of Americans used to listen to music on the road. Several thousand cassette tapes were sold and the band went out to play at some of L.A.’s clubs located in the infamous Sunset Strip. Sadly enough: when they started showcasing for various records labels, Nirvana and the likes began to take over the market and not a single record company was interested in DREAMS anymore. But because they still had that local following, the band went on until halfway the 90s before they really knew that there was no future for them.

Digitally remastered by the band and with the addition of 9 bonus tracks as a 2 CD set incl. liner notes by Dave Reynolds this gem is finally available again as a strictly limited run of 500 copies! "Sudden Impact" is the debut album by Philadelphia quintet HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN'. The band and the album holds the title as being the most sought after indie CD at eBay with a copy scoring $1950.52 and the status of the „Holy Grail“ of all indie AOR- and melodic rock releases. HIT THE GROUND RUNNIN' made an arrangement with a small Canadian recording label, and "Sudden Impact" was released in 1989 in very limited quantities.

Escape Music is delighted to announce the release for the second unreleased Life By Night album “Glass Walls”! It will be a limited edition of 1000 copies only individually numbered from 1-1000. After Life by Night had originally disbanded in the late 80’s Tom Croucier and Gene Black partnered up and began writing new songs. Pat Regan joined and with the addition of Mark Nelson on drums the second Life by Night album “Glass Walls” started to take shape. This is a yet another beautiful example of song-writing and musicianship and worthy of your attention.

The name Mark Baker may not be immediately recognizable to many, but for liner note/album credits junkies, it signifies top shelf AOR songwriting. Whether it be anthems or ballads, a Mark Baker song means memorable hooks and a big chorus. Mark Baker is the man behind the iconic Signal "Loud & Clear" album as well as many other songs, including tracks for .38 Special, Paris Black, Triumph and Boulevard. He was also the main co-writer on House Of Lords' acclaimed "Demons Down" record, rejoining as co-writer on some of the band's more recent albums too.

Swedish hard rock band H.E.A.T made their album debut in 2008 yet didn't break into the mainstream until the following year, after a strong showing at the 2009 Melodifestivalen with the smash hit "1000 Miles." Founded in 2007 in Upplands Väsby, the band initially consisted of Kenny Leckremo (vocals), Dave Dalone (guitar), Eric Rivers (guitar), Jona Tee (keyboards), Jimmy Jay (bass), and Crash (drums). After signing a recording deal with the label StormVox, the band made its full-length debut in 2008 with the eponymous album H.E.A.T. The band's strong showing in Melodifestivalen drove H.E.A.T up the albums chart, all the way to the Top Ten with "1000 Miles" in the Top Five.

Escape Music is delighted to announce the release date for the much-loved British Melodic Rock band Bite The Bullet, titled ‘Rocky Road'! Limited edition to 1000 CD copies only all will be numbered 1-1000 - Rocky Road is the new album from Bite The Bullet whose previous offerings include ‘Bite The Bullet’ 1989 and 2019 (Jet Records/CBS and Rock Candy Records), ’Black and White’ 2021 (Escape Music) and ’End of the Line’ 2022 (Escape Music). Originally formed in 1986 by Mick Benton, who had previously released a solo EP on Atlantic Records, and Graham Cowling along with Malcolm Jones the band’s first album was widely acclaimed at the time on both sides of the Atlantic and received air play on major radio stations. However, with demise of Jet Records and lack of publicity from CBS, coupled with the loss of worldwide support tour with the supergroup ELO, the band went into a 30-year hiatus.