Red Dawn Poledouris

Walked All Night Long marked the first recorded pairing of blues guitarists Louisiana Red and Lefty Dizz in 1976. Most of the tracks are originals, with the exception of the traditional "Ever Heard a Churchbell Sound" and Slim Harpo's "King Bee." The intensity here is not for the faint of heart, evident on tracks like "Bring Me My Machine Gun," "Stole From Me" (featuring blazing harmonica from Red), "Too Poor to Die," and "Cold White Sheet." The later features piano backup from Kyril Bromley who also appears on two other tracks. If you're a fan of hard-hitting gritty slide guitar with raw emotion, Walked All Night Long is a treasure you should search for from the Blues Alliance label.

At a time when Warp Records was known as "the premiere electronica label," along comes another album from this mostly acoustic quartet to drop some jaws with good old-fashioned musicianship. Richly accomplished for a sophomore full-length, Prince Blimey finds Red Snapper expanding rather than floundering for ideas. In a time where acid jazz was busy developing by artificial (sampled) means, Red Snapper's musical prowess became a force to be reckoned with, and many of the tracks here place heavy emphasis on the group's secret weapon: the rhythm section. On a drawing pad, many of these songs would look like pyramids, with the base (bass) end getting most of the emphasis and the top corner crammed with little harmonic afterthoughts. The double bass is essential to the success of these tracks, featuring Ali Friend growling, slinking, and sliding on the frets as confidently as Zeus with a thunderbolt in his hands. Similarly, Richard Thair keeps his drums in time with Friend – hopscotching, marching, and breakbeating from R&B club to jazz dub to acoustic jungle.

Blue is the sixth studio album by Simply Red, released on East West Records on 19 May 1998. The album includes five cover versions: "Mellow My Mind" from the 1975 Neil Young album Tonight's the Night; two versions of the frequently covered "The Air That I Breathe", written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood; the Gregory Isaacs hit "Night Nurse"; and "Ghetto Girl" by Dennis Brown, from whom the band would cover another song in 2003. New versions of previously recorded Simply Red songs also appear here: "Come Get Me Angel" is a rewritten version of the 1996 single "Angel", and "Broken Man" was first released as a B-side in 1987. Mick Hucknall and the production team of Andy Wright and Gota Yashiki are the only musicians featured in the Blue CD booklet's photography; this is a first for a Simply Red album, as all prior albums featured photos of the various band members credited. "The Air That I Breathe Reprise" samples "Jack and Diane" by John Mellencamp.

Red Noise were formed as a French anarchic outfit in late 1960s by Patrick Vian (guitar), a son of a French poet / writer / jazz musician Boris Vian. It's said they've played on stage defended in barricades in Université Sorbonne. They released one and only album "Sarcelles Lochères" in 1970 and soon were disbanded in the same year. Their indomitable spirit for rock music could be taken over by another French project named Komintern.

The Liverpool duo Red Flag (brothers Chris and Mark Reynolds) released their debut album, Naïve Art, in 1989. Red Flag, like other late-'80s/early-'90s bands such as Camouflage and Cause & Effect, offer a similar mix of gloomy, synthesizer-driven dance-pop made popular by synth rock kings Depeche Mode. Derivative yet melodic, Naïve Art is a decent debut, though it eventually runs out of steam. Red Flag's obvious debt to Depeche Mode is immediately apparent in the minor club hits "If I Ever" and "Russian Radio." Though the production is a bit rough around the edges, the combination of cold synth beats and the emotionless vocal approach (similar to Depeche's Martin Gore) makes perfect dancefloor fodder for the disaffected goth pop club crowd. Like Depeche Mode's best work, what makes Naïve Art bearable is Red Flag's obvious gift of songcraft. Both "If I Ever" and "Russian Radio" are comparable to some of Depeche's best work, and although much of Naïve Art sounds the same after a while, the album flows along quite nicely. Those who criticize Depeche Mode for being pretentious and "wimpy" certainly won't find any redeeming qualities in Red Flag, but Naïve Art should satisfy fans of the genre. Recommended.