Ngg Friends

Dr. Wu' a.k.a. Jim Ashworth and Bryan Freeze have up until now, been deeply rooted in Texas Blues with the help of such players as the great Buddy Whittington, Mouse Mayes, Red Young, and other top musicians. Band mates Jim Ashworth and Bryan Freeze formed Dr. Wu’ in 2002 after growing up and playing in various bands starting in the late 60’s. The name was taken from a favorite Steely Dan song that encourages us to live life to the fullest and strive to be the very best that we can be.

Prior to the release of his second full-length, U.K. producer Ross from Friends wrote a unique piece of software for Ableton's Max for Live platform called Thresho that records, saves, and catalogs audio as it's being generated, beginning once the audio reaches a user-defined threshold and ending as soon as it goes below the threshold. This made it easy for the artist to improvise for hours and not worry if he got everything on tape or not. He ended up with a massive archive of samples and ideas just from experimenting for several months on end, and he was easily able to compose an album out of it. Written during pandemic lockdown, the record is a set of reflections about the producer's family and memories of the neighborhoods he grew up in, parties he'd attended, and music he'd listened to…

Peter Thorup, a well-known Danish blues-rock musician, gained an international reputation because of his cooperation with blues icon Alexis Korner in New Church, CCS and Snape in the early '70s. After he dispended his first band The Beefeaters in 1969, Thorup was helped by some old friends from famous Danish groups Young Flowers, Burning Red Ivanhoe, The Beefeaters, and Rainbow Band to record Wake Up Your Mind in February and March 1970. Thirteen titles were recorded of which 7 found its way in 1970 on the Philips-released album Wake Up Your Mind. The music was not restricted to just blues-rock and consequently this release had a much wider appeal, as the rest of Peter Thorup's efforts. The album reflects the musicians' good reputation and it is rather a band project than a solo effort. Fantastic guitar playing by Peter Thorup and Peer Frost (Young Flowers), gorgeous vocals by P.T. and Ole Fick (Burning Red Ivanhoe), excellent organ work by Morten Kjaerumgard and impressive flute and sax playing by Bent Hesselmann (Maxwells, Rainbow Band/Midnight Sun) define this real killer. A must-have.