C.F.A. - 'Managed By The Devil, Brought To You By The Grace Of God' (Ripple) 4/5

CFA (aka The Cody Foster Army) hail from Tacoma, Washington State in the US, and have been around for four or five years now. They are a three piece whose greatly experienced members cut their teeth in such luminary underground cult punk outfits such as Inbreed, Daisy Love, Toxic Shock, Miserable Bastards, Stump, Crash Landing, Buckwildz, and Mico De Noche. This is the bands debut album.

Now this is a very interesting one, CFA play a very curious and nearly unique sounding blend of stoner rock old school hardcore punk and sludge fired primordial thrashy doom metal. Tracks like The hard and driving Shake Your Ass, Never free and Sons Of The Soil and pretty much the rest of this sixteen tracker fly past in a glorious mix of old school metal riffage, hardcore screamed vocals and buckets of raw punk attitude. Other highlights include the Sabbath with a glue bag doomy pound of Kick Rocks and the Venom influenced Holy Colonoscopy.

There also a couple of very interesting cover versions on show, there's the old Bob Marley classic Iron Lion Zion, stripped of its Reggae back beats and given a full metal work over, and the result is pretty impressive, sounding a bit like The Subhumans over all. However the best track on the whole album is a version of the old Creedance Clearwater classic Fortunate Son, played fairly straight, but a LOT heavier, here CFA have taken a track inspired by the pointless conflicts of the 1960s and made it relevant to the pointless conflicts of the modern age.

Over I like this album lots, but I do fear a little for CFA in this age of excessive sub genres and musical pigeon holes. I can see many of the metal heads and stoner freaks finding it a bit too hardcore, and the core scene kiddies finding it a bit too old school metal. But I also live in hope that anyone who likes real musical experimentation will find this a refreshing and interesting mix of styles with a lot to offer the broadminded listener.

Well worth checking out

For fans of... P.O.T., Mighty High, Cannabis Corpse, Venom.....

Various Artists - 'The Ripple Effect Presents Volume 1 - Head Music' (Ripple Music) 5/5

Five years ago a couple of Californian music lovers set up The Ripple Effect, an online magazine where they could share their love of old school stoner and modern underground rock. To say the idea was a success is a vast understatement. Since the site was launched Ripple has grown into one of the most respected music sites in the world, has its own radio station and of course Ripple Music, a label that has rapidly become one of the most vibrant and cutting edge in the whole realm of underground music with such acts as Grifter, Stone Axe, Mighty High, Mos Generator and Iron Claw on their books. Now to celebrate the first five years of The Ripple Effect they have issued this twenty three track compilation album, representing the very best of the kind of stuff Ripple have been championing over that time.


Now this compilation is a real delight to listen to, most of the 23 cuts here are previously unreleased, and every track is of the very best of whats happening on the current stoner, retro and underground classic scenes.


I'm not gonna give you a track by track breakdown, this is a free download album, go get a copy for yourself and have an explore. However I will point out a few highlights. There's the glorious stonehead groove of Torso with One, the fantastically sleazy Swear It To The Sun from Voodoo Johnson, Dark Earths highly headbangable eponymous post Sabbath work out and Concrete Sun with the underground classic of Silver Tear... infact every track on this one falls somewhere in between the 'yeah thats pretty damn good' and 'fuck me sideways that was great' camps.


There is still a huge market out there for this kind of new wave old school rock, and with retro rocking bands like Gypsyhawk and Dear Superstar on the edge of the mainstream, the market for this kind of classic rock is only gonna grow, and I have no doubt that Ripple will be there to bring you the very best of it for many years to come. Whats more this is a FREE record, so download it NOW and expand your head with the effect of ripples of superb music


Get this album NOW


For fans of... Stone Axe, Mos Generator, Fen, Black Sabbath, the classic and the underground....

Get your copy here for FREE - http://therippleeffect.bandcamp.com/album/the-ripple-effect-presents-volume-1-head-music

Mighty High - 'Legalize Tre Bags' (Ripple) 4/5

You don't need to do much lateral thinking to work out where New York stoner punks Mighty High are coming from with their second full length release. If the title and the album  cover art isn't a big enough give away (tre bags is New York street slang for a small cheap weed deal), then a quick look at the song titles confirms that this lot like all thing herbal and combustible - add in the fact that that this albums out on Ripple Music, home of all things cool and groovy in the stoner and retro rock scene and you have a record that really does exactly what it says on the tin.

Kicking off with a glorious MC5-U-like sub two minute thrash out entitled I Don't Wanna Listen Yes ('They sound even worse when I'm high') this record is a glorious rough as fuck cake walk through stoner culture. You get cuts like Moochie ('I'm gonna get high off your supply'), the riff heavy The Ram - a cut that sounds a little like UK alt rockers The Treat, the slick and groovy Tokin' and Strokin' and the doomy post Sabbath work out of Chemical Warpigs; 11 tracks in all every one dripping old school garage punk sensibilities and packed to the coda with drug references. And a very enjoyable listen it is to.

Musically there is a very strong MC5, Stoogies, New York Dolls vibe going on with this one, with hints of the likes of Black Sabbath, Hawkwind and The Deviants thrown in for good measure. As I hinted at earlier, the production here is minimalist and a bit rough round the edges, but that only helps re-enforce the whole garage rock feel to the music and serves to compliment the lyrical themes and ideas the band present.

Over all this is a pretty damn fine record, and there aint that many acts doing this kind of thing now days, and providing the feds don't cramp these guys high, long may they continue.

Worth Checking Out


For fans of... MC5, Inner City Unit, The Deviants, The Pink Fairies, Hawkwind, New York Dolls.....