Old Drift

These two albums are part of a clutch of albums Michael made when he was between record companies and which he recorded for his own production company Rural Retreat Records. Rural Retreat West Virginia, on the old Virgin Creeper Line, was the subject of one of O.Winston Link's famous "train" pics of whom MC is a huge fan. We made the pilgrimage on one of our US road trips hence the name. 2xCD + Booklet in 6 panel Digipack with sleeve notes by Andru Chapman.

The time for conflict has arrived! But can Drift possibly hope to survive the coming onslaught? Old fears are put aside and new bonds are forged as Drift and the Knights prepare to make their final stand! --

Drift opens with a tune called "Me" which is a bit of a choppy hard rocker with a few melodic tremolo mute patterns that collide into the rock configuration of the chorus, but despite the questionable use of 'what I take I take on the chin' as a vocal line, it's peppy enough to have a little fun with. Once "Empty Air" arrives with that electronic intro that bursts into the big bass lines and guitar grooves, though, you can tell that Flotsam were still pretty settled into the idea of becoming a more commercially viable heavy rock band with only traces of their former selves present in the songwriting; that they were still trying to rise to the shifting landscape of the 90s and unearth some fresh new sound that was going to rejuvenate their following. Not bloody likely when half the album consists of rock songs like "Pick a Window" or the almost Western feeling power ballad "Destructive Signs" (which feels a little like Death Angel's "A Room with a View"), but at least they prove that, in a kinder world, they may have had the chops for the passive, mainstream radio rock audience.

Leonard Bernstein's 1945 recording of the Fifth Symphony bears testament, if any were needed, to the prowess of the then 27-year-old wunderkind. The quality of the recording is low by modern standards, in particular the high strings and flutes, which take on a sibilant, peevish quality, but one can hear the authority of the performance all the same.