Rock

David Gilmour
Luck And Strange
Sony 19802804602; LP: 19802804611

The former Pink Floyd guitarist’s first solo album for nine years is also one of his best. Producer Charlie Andrew, young enough to not be overawed by Gilmour’s famous past, has helped give the music a freshness and sense of space. His partner Polly Samson’s lyrics address time passing, poignantly looking back on ‘The Piper’s Call’, while a 2007 recording of Floyd’s late keyboardist Richard Wright decorates the title track’s loping groove. The epic string-swathed closer ‘Scattered’ features thrilling playing from Gilmour, whose singing is animated throughout. He sought a blend of family voices and daughter Romany plays harp on ‘Between Two Points’, but her lead vocals, largely nailed in one take, steal the show. MB

Sound Quality: 90%

Gaudi Kosmisches Trio
Torpedo Forward
Curious Music 40CD; LP: 40LP

Daniele Gaudi is best known as a producer and electronica artist, but here with former Porcupine Tree bassist Colin Edwin and Pippo De Palma on guitar, he shows his love for the ‘kosmische’ approach of ’70s German groups, using beats redolent of both techno and ’70s drum machines for propulsion. It’s a colourful, kaleidoscopic sound, full of synths and sequencers and indebted to bands such as Neu!, Harmonia, La Dusseldorf, and Kraftwerk in the vocodered vocals and catchy pop tune, ‘Modern World’. Typical of the album, the song is part paean, part pastiche, but seeing this genre from a 2024 perspective, they’ve also created something original. MB

Sound Quality: 85%

Von Hertzen Brothers
In Murmuration
ADA 502173235376; LP: 502173235377

Finnish sibling triumvirate Mikko, Kie and Jonne von Hertzen play guitar, bass and keyboards and are influenced by bands from Queen to Queens Of The Stone Age. ‘The Relapse’ has high drama, with big guitars and prog rock synths, its structural twists and turns punctuated by Sami Kuoppamäki’s high speed, punchy drumming. This is all buoyed up by the brothers’ distinctive blend of vocal harmonies and highly developed song craft. ‘Ascension Day’ is exultant pop, but there’s also a spiritual, pantheistic aspect to the album, derived from their rural upbringing, that manifests in a search for the ‘sacred ground’ on ‘Beneath The Silver Stars’. MB

Sound Quality: 85%

HOO
III
Big Potato BPR042CD; LP: BPR042LP

‘Shoegazing’ used to describe floppy-haired kids in the early ’90s staring down at their effects pedals and making a dreamy, immersive guitar racket. Fringes have given way to beards, but from the opener, ‘How Much Of This Constant Pain?’, Nick Holton’s swooning vocals nod back to that era, and he’s joined here by former members of shoegazing royalty, Slowdive and Chapterhouse. It all feels like a timeless extension of ’60s psychedelia, from the fuzz guitar storm clouds of ‘Ov Violence/Evil Weeks’, to the moody pop melodies of ‘Change Your Heart’, while Holton combines with folk singer Jackie Oates on the synth-scapes of ‘England Theme’. MB

Sound Quality: 80%